Below the floor wherein Ceisia and Wren's practices lie in the dungeon. The prisoners they caught, today they were seen to be in an unrecognizable state as one of them was burned to death, the smell of burnt flesh with flies feasted on its body and the other two are missing. It was only a night where they left the prisoners in their cell and yet this happened for a short time.
Ashes were piled up in one corner when the wind blew it slightly. It is nauseating enough for them to reflexively cover their noses either by hand or a piece of cloth.
"How did this happen?" a young knight asks under the handkerchief.
The Duke looks quietly around the dungeon. There is no sign of intrusion that it raises questions as to how they killed the prisoners. As always the Knight who was guarding their cells said that no one entered ever since the Duke and the Count left, nor did they hear any screams from the prisoners.
"..."
"Check the place. Leave no stone unturned" furthermore, both of the guards said nothing abnormal happened for a whole night.
"Understood, your grace. You four Check Cell A and B. Dallas and the other clean up cell C..." one knight distributes the workload and they quickly remove the body.
He conclude that the other two has been killed and their bodies were reduced to ashes. It was the explanation they could get for the ashes and missing bodies and the burned flesh.
"Your Grace, I think we have a professional intruder here."
Alef who showed himself looking like a ragged person after he came home, he now looks like a decent and intelligent aide of the Duke. His bags under his eyes vanished and the maids wondered what he did to himself. Of course, the answer for that is that he had a good rest in his parents estate after a sleepless task given by his superior.
Duke Aurea removed his eyeglasses, tucking it inside his waistcoat pocket, loosened his tie and looks at Alef, "Send men to South. Find if there were any suspicious activities going on"
Alef did not question the Duke instead he nodded and remembered something from his mother.
"Should we also check the West?" The Duke only stares at him. There are similar reports about it. The report Alef gave was pretty much more suspicious than the South's movement. Lately, there were more merchants coming in and out in Duke Rochette's territory.
Alef also stated that the people in the West don't seem to be that affected by drought. The noble continued their parties and their lavished social gatherings on a daily basis during drought. The commoners livelihood isn't deeply affected and there are only a few cases reported deaths in South.
"Yes. Investigate those merchants and Duke Rochette,"
"Understood, Your Grace," Alef Reid, Duke Aurea's personal aide.
He came from a family of knights in the west. They met at the academy and they instantly became rivals. Young Alef was skeptical about the Young Duke's abilities just because he carries the surname Aurea and he wasn't showing anything throughout their school years.
Everything changed when Alef saw the Duke defeated 50 wizards who intrude in the academy in their 4th year. The duke is a 12 year old boy by then, He stood in the middle, surrounded by corpses and blood all over the ground, and on his body— the blood wasn't his though, It was the blood of the wizards.
Not a single wound can be seen at the young duke's body and when he saw young Alef behind him, he casually asked him if he was alright. Because of it, Alef, the eldest son of Knight Reid decided to dedicate his life following the Young Duke and he became the loyal aide. A common form of loyalty. He found him cool.
But, sometimes he wondered if he made the right choice. Because the Duke often passes his duties to Alef.
Although he does this, he has more respect for Duke Aurea than the Rochette even though his ancestor always pledged their loyalty to the Rochette. It was before his grandparents became wary of the Rochette. They are a handful of schemers and no one knows what they really are thinking.
"Examine the corpse and find out what's the cause of death." The duke motioned him to carry on and left the dungeon. Many things need to be done and once again, he will report this to the emperor.
"I thought so, Being a duke is a hassle." he said loudly and the servants stared at him wide-eyes in surprise.
He was, nonetheless, unaware of his surroundings and the fact that he said it out loud, "Are you going to the palace again today, Duke?"
The Duke's face twitched and slowly glanced at Alef with grin slowly appearing at his face. He did not notice it and so he heaved a sigh, knowing that his liege not only tends to forget important things, he also dislikes doing his duties.
Well, he expected this the day he first served the duke. He also hates to do things such as this. As to why his heart suddenly thumps loud when the Duke patted his shoulders repeatedly.
"Right," It sent shivers in his body. He must be thinking of passing his duties to him again.
His mind is already in the state of rethinking to pass his resignation letter and be far away from the duke. But he should have changed a little after he's gone for a long time.
"Yes?"
The duke's hands gripped tightly shoulders, with his grin becoming sinister as he gave his task, "You go to His Imperial Majesty and report in my stead."
A shadow fell across Alef's face and he instantly objected to the idea. After all he just gave him a new task and now he will pass another task? Surely, it is another terror for the returned knight.
"Your grace, do you want our heads rolling off on the floor? Besides I have to finish the tasks you gave me"
The duke laughed and brushed it off easily as he pats Alef on the shoulder, "What are you talking about? You can do it swiftly."
"Your grace..."
"hahaha! You can do it Alef! Tell him that I am training my niece. I'm a busy man after all."
another excuse or is this a truth? Alef often sees Wren alone with Ceisia, practicing magic in various areas. One of them has destroyed the Library. He didn't see him training the kids especially Wren who had recent mana berserk.
But the duke seems like he's having fun seeing the face Alef makes.
"I'm counting on you!" he walks away with his laughter filling the hallway.
Alef was left there, the servants sympathizing with him for serving the same... unique duke. "I hate my work" he mumbles as his face becomes more dark as he thinks about what he would say to the emperor.
At that very same time, Wren and Ceisia are both practicing using magic in the garden. They destroyed another room earlier and it made the duchess furious. She wasn't aware that her daughter also practices magic with Wren without a grown up guiding them.
Because of this she supervises the training in the garden. Why in the garden you ask? It's because Ceisia destroyed another room.
The type of training they were tasked with was using defense and offense spells. Ceisia produces water slices and throws it to Wren. The duchess watches them, analyzing both of their capacities. Ceisia keeps on attacking while Wren is on defense, not moving and doing anything inside the barrier she made.
"Cannon blast!" at that time the barrier breaks; before it could reach her, she ran towards Ceisia and chanted, "Gust wind"
Ceisia did not avoid the attack in time as she was thrown off into the tree behind her. Before Wren could make another move, she was also thrown off into another direction.
Wren groaned and glared at the man in front, "Uncle, I'm a kid. That was a strong throw.. tss" She hissed while trying to stand up.
"You did not feel my presence."
"They haven't mastered the mana flow yet," The duchess steps up forward and looks at the kids, "After mastering the mana flow, you can use magic sense"
magic sense is a skill you will feel the people near you by their Mana Aura. Mages who mastered Mana Flow and Mana Sense can easily learn to hide their Aura. In this case, the Duke purposely did not hide his Mana Aura to see if the kids mastered the two.
The Duke now grins as he folds the sleeves up to his elbow. "You can't be serious."
The Duchess looks at him in disbelief as she watches the scene unfold.
"A mock battle?" Ceisia whispers the question to herself and looks at her father and cousin. Suddenly, a copy of his father's figure appeared, it multiplied and multiplied. Both of the kids scrutinize the clones.
"I do not think Uncle has any intention of going easy on us," Wren said and evaded the attack from the right.
"Icicles shower!"
their efforts are in vain as they only manage to attack the clones not the real body clones. Those clones keep coming back and help the Duke to attack the kids with ease. Although he finds the practice boring. He thought suddenly the problems earlier that made him frown.
Wren saw this and it irritates her.
"Uh... Im tired," Ceisia said but keeps attacking his father, "Come on you should find where I am." Every clone speaks at the same time it made Wren even angrier as she clenched her hands.
"Feel the mana." The duchess repeated what she said earlier. They forget it to the point they can't even differentiate the clones with the real one.
Wren who has a serious look on her face, suddenly releases an attack. The Duke's eyes widened as he hastily evaded the attack and gathered all the clones back to him and it made Wren to attack.
Despite the fast attacks and shifting to defense she can say that the kid is slowly grasping mana flow and magic sense making her unconsciously adapting to Mana Aura. Although seeing Wren attacking non-stop, it may take a toll on her health.
She was aware of how weak her constitutions were as she always had accidents everywhere she went.
"Dear let them..." The duchess was stunned in her place as she widely looked in front.
She felt a strong mana concentration at the two people having a practiced match— more precisely, it was coming from Wren. His husband must have feel it too, seeing he was looking intently at Wren.
"Boaife!" her eyes glow and a loud screech can be heard, Her relatives were too stunned to see a phoenix in front of them and blow a huge fire at the duke.
The Duke immediately cast a barrier as the flames covered entirely the dome like barrier the smoke and soil combined in the air. Everyone in the garden felt the heat from Wren and watched the flames go out.
She then transformed into a human and looked at the kid, pinching her cheeks as punishment and said, "Hey, hey! I have the best time of my life and you..."
Boaife's protest was cut by a laugh. The Duke was laughing inside a barrier as he walked forward.
"Unbelievable," he said as he looked amazed by the phoenix, "I never thought they were real," he added
The duchess then came close and smiled, "You are a summoner"
the duchess has known many things since ever since she was a child she read most of the books she could touch but Wren's questions she didn't know how to answer. She finally understood now why Wren asked her about Spirits and Summoners.
"I never thought you already had your Unique Magic," The Duke commented as he scanned the two in front.
"how pretty," Duchess Aurea complimented. This ignited her core to train Wren to fully use her unique magic efficiently.
"That makes her one of the youngest to develop their unique magic," she grimaced when she felt his uncle's big hands rest on her head.
"this is rare indeed." both of them chuckled and urged the kids to rest.
Boaife on the other hand vanished as soon as she noticed the Duke's gaze.
*****
at the palace you can hear the sound of laughter along with the heavy sighs of everyone in the room.
"I see, Galan hasn't changed a bit!"
"I told you he will not come," the empress calmly stated as she picked a cup and drank from it.
"Unfortunately, Your Majesty." Alef bowed and his mind wandered off for a bit, thinking how to dump the Duke somewhere.
He's been here for almost two hours since the emperor accepted his request of audience. He knew that it would end up like this, the emperor would chat with him for this long.
this is another reason why he was reluctant to accept the task. During his self-reflection the emperor seems to remember something as he snaps his finger, eyes twinkling.
The empress beside her is looking at him wide-eyes, maybe still not used to this act of the Emperor.
"I heard that the oldest daughter of Duke Vacarella is in his home? Wren that kid who boldly confessed to my son! Hahaha!"
that confession will be forever in their hearts. If Wren hears this, she will silently cry in her mind.
The emperor also heard about Wren's involvement in the Central Plaza and it piqued his interest. He speculated that Wren awakened her unique magic and no one still confirms it but knowing that she stayed in the Aurea Estate. He was sure of it.
"Your Imperial Majesty, is there anything you want to ask Alef?" the empress took his wandering mind and looked at Alef, he could tell that this man was annoyed at the Duke. Well, it was showing off how gloom he was and the emperor was too kind to keep him off any longer.
"You are dismissed. Tell Duke Aurea he did a job well done"
His face instantly looked fresh as he bowed and left the hall. It is indeed that he easily change mood. However, the emperor's face fell into a blank face as he leaned on the chair.
The empress looks at the emperor, "Sebastian, Is there anything in your mind?"
the emperor lit up, not only because the empress is worried about him, but also felt the genuine care from the empress, "it is nothing empress. I'm just wondering how the young lady is"
he was pertaining to Wren. Ever since he met that kid he knows that she is a good kid.
He even wondered why his son doesn't like her, it is a shame for him. Only him since Wren already feels lucky that the prince remained uninterested to her.
"then there's Asterion. He's planning something." the emperor said which made the empress laugh
"that's how it is with our children." she said and finished her cup.
Meanwhile, behind a pillar, there is someone eavesdropping the whole scene as he walks away, his golden eyes gleam in mischief as he thought of other things. He hummed all the way out and looked up, with a sly grin.
"well then, shall we pay a visit? my dear sister-in-law."