In that small party, Yoro was staying in the corner of the hall with Cecilia for almost the whole time. And as his parents, of course Arnold and Diana realized about this thing. But they just smiled between themselves and enjoyed the feast and used it as a relaxation after the long time they were away from home.
The night slowly deepened as time passed, and the people excused themselves one by one to get some rest in their respective room.
And finally Arnold, the main star of this party, also excused himself by saying there was something he needed to for a moment and left the hall. Arnold nodded at Diana before he completely left and said they could continue the party as he left.
Seeing those, Yoro got up from his seat and turned his head to Cecilia.
Yoro: "I guess I also need to go now, you should also get some rest, Cecilia."
Cecilia: "....don't sleep too late, young master."
Yoro's mouth twitched as he heard those from her.
Yoro: 'When did I say I won't immediately go to sleep?'
But decided he shouldn't think much about it, he waved his hand to her and went to the same door where Arnold left.
???: "Hey, Yoro"
Yoro turned his head to the woman's voice who called him, which turned out to be Diana.
Diana: "have a nice chat"
Yoro really lost for words now, that his mother also knew what he was going to do.
Yoro: 'are all people here have some kind of sixth sense or something?' he thought while nodding his head at her weakly.
Going out from the room, the feast and music voice then rapidly went down in his ear as he slowly walked away from there.
=================
Walking in the corridor, Yoro was searching for his father. From Arnold's habit, he already knew where Arnold would usually go after partying, or after having a journey, or either both of them. So when he walked inside one of the rooms there, he stripped himself naked and used the available towel in his hips.
Entering in, he instantly felt the warm temperature of the room while he was looking around. In front of him is a pool-like tub that could easily filled with up to 20 people in there. But this time, there was just one person sitting comfortably inside the hot water while wearing a relaxed expression.
Arnold: "Enter in, a hot bath is a good choice to end the exhausting day" he said while exhaling a comfortable moan.
Seeing him looked so relaxed, Yoro also placed his towel to the ground beside him before entering. Instantly, he felt the fatigue get off from his body and knew why his father looked like that.
Yoro: "You right... This is... Just great..."
Arnold laughed when he heard that, clearly enjoying the fact that his son went on his own to do some talk with him privately. In his head, this was not meant to be anything but his son missed him and wanted to cover the time when he was away for a fairly long time. So he naturally accepted it.
Yoro: "So father, how were your days in western territory?" Yoro turned his face at him and started some little talk.
Arnold: "it's...It's basically a headache." He answered with a dry laugh.
Arnold: "It's just a gossip before, but now, the Cain Dukedom was surely regressing throughout the years. And as far as the rumour goes, the only son he has was sadly a brat who grows loving to play around with women while he actually has a fiance himself." He said with a tired sigh.
Arnold: "But on the contrary, Baron Liam's land is prospering. Even though his land was not other than barren land before, it seems their corps were doing pretty well."
Yoro: "Baron Liam?" His father was suddenly talking about the outside place. It's not that often Yoro learned about things outside his own territory, as he basically never went out, so he naturally listened attentively.
Arnold: "Yes. And the irony here is, this very Baron's daughter was actually betrothed to Cain's successor once, but the Duke broke the ties for some reason or another."
Yoro: "and then?"
Arnold: "Here is where the funny part comes. When the Duke heard their accomplishment in the lord's meeting, he insisted to mend the ties he broke himself and force them to accept with his power."
Yoro: "Let me guess, he failed aren't he?" He asked with a glint of interest in his eyes
Arnold: "hahaha, yes he was. Baron Liam reasoned that his daughter was already engaged back with someone, and that forcing the Duke to back off as it was someone he can't afford to offend."
Yoro: "ohhh, that's good then"
After hearing there was nothing wrong happened, a smile then made in Yoro's mouth as he rested his head on the while he relaxed his body. But that very smile of him froze at what Arnold said next.
Arnold: "And you know what? The one who was engaged to her was in fact the person from our Marquesses. And more precisely, it is you, Yoro." He said with a grin.
Yoro widened his eyes open at that while his mouth slightly opened in surprise.
Yoro: "....hahaha...that is so funny, father."
Arnold: "yes, right!? But the good news is, that actually wasn't a joke."
'and in fact, you are really engaged with her right now!' was what he exclaimed happily.
The curve on the corner of Yoro's mouth slowly fell down. His relaxed expression from before was turning serious at his father's revelation, so he turned his body to face him directly.
Yoro: "sigh….why do you think I would agree, father? I haven't even met her before, let alone know how she actually is."
Arnold: "Ah if that's the problem, then you shouldn't have worried. She is a fine lady even from my eyes, and I think her personality is not so bad either."
Yoro couldn't hold his second sigh at his father's reasons. He knew how forced engagement truly was, and many stories in his past life have said it wouldn't have ended well if the party concerned just agreed half-heartedly.
While that was his hidden reason, there was a bigger one that topled all of them on top.
Yoro: "...may I ask what her current age is?"
Arnold: "well good news, her age was the same as you with some months of difference."
'aren't that great?' was what he said with glee.
Yoro: 'great my ass.'
He agreed that being engaged with a mysterious and so-called beautiful girl sounds great. However, he wasn't less than an adult in his past life, an adult who had grown up with an appropriate environment on top of that.
He was normal, straight, and more importantly, not a loli freaking con.
So there was no way he could bring himself to like a nine years old brat regardless how pretty and beautiful she was. Moreover, he had already fed up with some superficial relationship. The trauma of betrayal in his past life was just that great for him to start with another one right away.
Yoro: "....Let's postpone this talk until I meet her directly. And that being said, I want to talk about the other things with you."
Arnold's relaxed face then turned into a serious one when he heard this.
Arnold: "ah yes, I coincidentally want to talk with you about something as well."
Yoro faced his body to Arnold so he could talk to him in a better position.
Yoro: "It's about my body."
It's very subtle that Yoro almost didn't realize it, but Arnold's eyes definitely widened for a split second right there.
Arnold stayed silent, but his calm gaze was clearly telling Yoro that he should proceed and tell him more.
Yoro: "...my mana, my rampaging mana, which usually went rampart, was oddly calmed down when I woke up this morning."
Now this information really made Arnold surprised.
Yoro, his son, was in fact a kid who had gone through tormentation since he was ninth. He knew Yoro's torture wasn't only from the others pitying gaze that indirectly saying he was a burden, but also from the inside.
Yoro's body was feeling a constant pain from the rampaging mana inside him. It was both painful and annoying at the same time that it made Yoro, the nine years old kid who should be going to the academy and study his magic at that time, couldn't do even as much as some hundreds of meters of waking.
But at the same time as the pain attacked him, his body also developed some resistance towards it. The normal pain, which should make a normal adult scream like a girl, was now nothing but an annoying breeze to Yoro.
That was just showing how much he had resisted, and how long he had endured.
Arnold tried to suppress the happiness that was rising in his heart, but didn't want to set his hope too high either.
So he only nodded calmly and said: "come to me at night tomorrow, I will do another check onto the mana inside your body."
Yoro: "I understand, then, please excuse me."
When there was nothing more to be said, Yoro then raised his lean, white porcelain body from the water and left the bath.
Arnold was staying a little bit longer in there, while his mind was currently occupied with all kinds of thought. One of them was what the Baron Liam said in their private meeting.
With these words stuck inside his mind, he then got up from the water and left the room as well.