Chapter 2 - Sisters

Seeing Lance showing a serious look, Viscount Lane could not help but sigh.

He looked at his second son with some disappointment and finally said slowly and sternly, "I'm going to send you to the church. What do you think of it?"

Although the content of his speech seemed to be asking for his son's opinion, everyone who knows Viscount's style knew that once he said so, it meant that he had made a decision in his heart.

No one could defy his will ー at least not in Viscount's domain.

Moreover, the target was Viscount's second young master. Lance, who was famous for his timid and seclusion from childhood, was the synonym of cowardice in the eyes of all people. Naturally, the Viscount knew how much his son was. In his expectation, Lance should have agreed with nodding his head.

'𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏,' thought Viscount.

Who knows that this time, Lance showed a look of contemplation.

This had surprised Viscount. What's more, he actually heard Lance said,

"No, father, I don't want to go to church."

Viscount Lane looked at his son strangely, and for a moment he forgot his anger. He asked thoughtfully, "Oh? Why?"

Lance calmly replied, "I hate the praying stick."

Viscount Lane didn't know what to say. Today, his son's performance surprised him. After thinking for a long time, he snorted, "I also hate the praying stick."

Father and son looked at each other silently, and a wonderful feeling spread in their hearts.

"But you have to go to church." After a while, Viscount's tone became a little more severe as he said, "You know, other professions are not suitable for you."

"No, I will continue to learn magic with Teacher Amman," said Lance in objection.

Viscount frowned and said, "Lance, although people in the whole territory know that you are my most beloved son, my investment in you is also limited. You know what? The cost of studying with Amman in the past six months is almost equal to one-third of the territory's tax revenue! Your elder brother, the heir of viscount, did not enjoy this treatment. If you have the talent for learning magic, that's all. After all, I promised your mother to take good care of you ... However, you have no magic talent, so I don't think it's a wise choice for you to continue learning magic."

Viscount Lane's eyes were fixed on Lance, and if he could not give a reason that satisfies enough to Viscount, there would be no room for discussion tonight.

Lance pondered for a moment, then said, "Father, what if I could write that magic rune?"

Lane said decisively, "Then I will consider making Amman continue to be your teacher."

Lance nodded and said, "Ok. Tomorrow night, I'll write that rune."

Lane looked at Lance strangely. To him, his son seemed to be another person. He then replied, "Are you sure? Tonight, you lose consciousness that you can't even write it out."

"I'm sure. I only need another chance," said Lance as he continued to explain, "I was a little nervous tonight. Believe me, Father."

Viscount Lane was silent for a moment, and then said, "After dinner tomorrow night, at the presence of everyone, I will give you one last chance."

"Thank you, Father!" said Lance gratefully.

Viscount waved his hand, a trace of warmth flashed in his eyes and said, "Go back to your room and sleep early, have a good rest, and save your energy."

Lance nodded respectfully.

≕⫷⟩⟡⟨⫸≔

The Viscount shouted, and then a maid led Lance back to his room to have a rest.

Lance stiffly bid farewell to Viscount as he remembered the etiquette of this world, and followed the slender maid in the dark castle.

The maid held a candle in her hand. The darkness and depth of the castle far exceeded Lance's expectation. They walked for five minutes before they arrived at the second floor of the castle where Lance's room was located.

This was the second floor of the castle. Only people with a certain status in the castle could live here. At present, besides Lance, there were his three sisters living nearby. As for his brother, in order to show his father his ability, he moved to the Red River sentry post, to guard the northern part of the territory early and rarely return to the castle.

With the help of [Fox], although it was only in five minutes of mind surfing, Lance had almost mastered some important memories of the original owner. The function of the main chip [Fox] was mainly divided into three parts: First, it could use Lance's body system and many sub chips to do the collecting and storing data; Second, it had fixed computing power; Third, it could do the analysis based on calculation and data. The data stored in the chip could be called at any time, which was very convenient.

'𝑨𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒅, 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆. 𝑻𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚, 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍. 𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓,' thought Lance as he could spot that while looking at the maid's cold face.

In fact, it was not far from what Lance thought. As early as half a year ago, everyone in the castle knew that Lance's study of magic with Mage Amman was Viscount's last investment in him. No one truly hated this second young master. He was just a little unsocial and timid. According to the news spread by his former maid, the second young master read some strange and absurd books in his study all day long, and his body is relatively thin. In this world where the weak were meat, and the strong did eat, he easily looked down upon.

In the past, it was Viscount who had been covering Lance. No one dared to despise this second young master. At least, no one dared to do so in front of Viscount.

But now it's different. Lance's performance disappointed Viscount. He's basically abandoned by the whole castle. In these circumstances, It's granted that even the maid in the castle would think her attitude was not cold. After all, she heard it clearly outside Viscount's study. Young Master Lance was going to be exiled to clergy camp.

'𝑨𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑰 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒅𝒔.' In the maid's heart, she thought quietly, '𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑳𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆'𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒅.'

At the thought of it, she didn't seem to have the interest of pretending to be respectful anymore. Both of them went to a corner that the front was dark. The maid stopped suddenly.

"Young Master Lance, I'll only send you here,"

said the maid in an indifferent way, regardless of the darkness ahead. There was still a long way to go from Lance's room.

Lance frowned. He didn't know where his room was.

He stood in the dark without speaking.

The maid snorted and walked away with a candle in her hand.

Lance suppressed his anger. He took a deep breath and turned to the dark.

'𝑯𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝑳𝒖𝒏𝒂, 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕? 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒅, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒅, 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒓𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓?!' thought Lance. Although Lance was angry, he knew that this was not a good time to attack.

But her name, he had remembered it.

≕⫷⟩⟡⟨⫸≔

'𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎?' asked Lance to himself as he stood in the middle of the corridor, scratching his head. [Fox] searched the memory of the original owner and found that the information in that area was actually blank.

It seems that only some part of the original master's memories were left behind that could Lance search to know. Most of those memories were more profound and relatively important. And the more specify memories were hard to find.

On the corridor, there were two candles on the lampstand, which seemed to be newly installed. There were five rooms on both sides, but Lance didn't know which one his room was.

'𝑫𝒐 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆?'

Lance was a little distressed. He unconsciously approached the nearest door and heard the girl's laughter coming from inside.

He concluded in his mind that the girl in the room should be his sister. At least he could make sure that the room was not his own.

So he was ready to turn around and leave, and at that moment, the door was suddenly opened.

"I'll go and see if that foolish Lance is back...," said the crisp female voice, pulling the door open.

Awkwardly, Lance just so happened to be standing in front of her.

Being scolded as a fool behind his back, Lance's mood was naturally very bad. But he didn't immediately flare-up. Instead, he squinted up and down to look at the girl in front of him and the people in the room.

Standing at the door of the room was a girl who wore a loose green emerald nightdress. The cloth on her chest was so few that she could barely cover the beautiful scenery. She was tall, as tall as a sixteen years old Lance.

'𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒃 𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒚'𝒔 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒂, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒚'𝒔 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕.' Lance quickly recognized the people in the room. Except for Irene, all the girls were the daughters of the Viscount, his half-sisters.

Lance's mother was the third lady of Viscount. She had only one child in her life. She died when Lance was still five years old. If it wasn't for the strength of Viscount these years, it was feared that little Lance would have died long ago under some people's calculations.

When Becky saw Lance standing at the door, to one's surprise she didn't blush at all. She greeted him with a smile while said, "Hey Lance. I heard you're going to the clergy camp. Do you come to see us to say goodbye tonight?"

Becky was the same age as Lance and was the very mature sixteen-year-old girl. Her body exuded a light fragrance of flowers, she looked very beautiful. But deep down in his heart, Lance knew that Becky and her mother were equally scheming ones and always regarded him as the eyesore.