The halls of the Mansion was vast and lavish, with tapestries and paintings depicting different mythologies and mighty warriors of old, as well as the previous generations of the Exousia Famiglia. Not to mention the current one.
In front of the main doors of the Mansion, atop the double staircase, in the middle where the steps parted, a gigantic painting about thirty feet tall and twenty feet wide was displayed for all the world to see, with the utmost grandness as expected of the great Famiglia with the most splendiferous residence.
It was grand, astounding, and breathtaking. It was the perfect representation of the brave fearsome, and mighty existence that was the Exousia Famiglia.
Painted intricately and carefully was a simple family adorned with simple clothing… well, as far as simple were in this Mansion.
A beautiful woman sat on a fine seat alike the throne Lieren had witnessed King was sitting on multiple times, albeit less impressive. Nevertheless, it did not fail to enhance the beauty of the person sitting on it.
Whoever made this impressive painting clearly held immense talent and astounding skill.
The beautiful woman was sitting with poise and grace, almost like a fragile doll that could break at any second. Her face was smooth and somewhat angular, sharp and elegant, with a hint of merciless fury that burned in her scarlet eyes like two seething flames of wrathful destruction. Her skin was ashen white with flowing black hair. The beautiful woman's expression was the epitome of indifference, except for her seething gaze, which seemed to burn the material it was painted onto.
Standing beside her, with his right hand on the beautiful woman's right shoulder, was a stout man that towered above the throne, which was almost half his tall stature. He wore a white suit with black diagonal stripes and an extravagant fur coat draped behind his broad back like a cape. He was wearing a white fedora, undecorated. Like the beautiful woman, he also had scarlet eyes, which was mostly the same, except for how the man held his gaze. They were calm and collected, attentively taking in the world with silent calculation. His expression was neither indifferent nor obvious, sitting at an ambiguous middle… except for the sincere happiness evident in the way his lips curved up.
Moving his gaze, Lieren saw a familiar, but not unexpected sight. A small crept up his face.
'There she is.'
By his side, and the woman's side, standing between the two was a comparatively small girl wearing a simple white dress that reached past her knees. She seemed to be a blend of the two, with selective features from each. She had flowing white hair falling to her shoulders. Her skin was unhealthily pale, ashen to the point where it was easy to mistake her for a doll with a smile that, alike the tall man's, held a smile so imperceptible that he almost didn't notice it. Her eyes, however, were of a completely different color than the couple's.
They were a vibrant blue, beautiful and everlasting.
Lieren knitted his brows, confused, but most of all intrigued.
'Interesting. I wonder why it's different. An affair, maybe?'
It wasn't unimaginable, considering how much influence the Famiglia held. Some of the books he had read, which may or may not have been a bit too mature for his age, often involved those kinds of stories. The most common reason was either one person has fallen out of love, and found it in another. Another was simply due to foolish mistakes on the spur of the moment.
…Well, that wasn't for certain anyway. While Lieren pursued this line of thought, he never felt the enticing bite of intuition gnawing at the back of his head and hurrying him on. To reach the definite conclusion. It seems that his speculations were just that, speculations. False.
Noticing a steady set of footsteps a few feet away, he hid his hands in his pockets and pretended to not have noticed his visitor.
"It's a pretty good painting, isn't it?" A figure beside him asked, cold and monotone.
She had not been there the second before. Lieren was certain of it.
Lingering for a while, Lieren inspected the woman beside him answered, feeling the atmosphere grow tense and heavy:
"Yes, it is. The greatest I have ever seen, actually!"
…Which didn't really mean much, considering the fact that he did not have many chances to see paintings while he was in the orphanage, especially while he was travelling with Harita. Other than book descriptions and a few hand-drawn pieces from his fellow orphans, Lieren had not seen many works of art in his entire life.
The Exousia Famiglia's personal attendant, Mysta, sighed deeply. It seemed like she had completely given up appearances. Glancing over to him, Lieren felt a cold shiver run down his spine as her eyes landed upon him. His body began to feel slightly heavy. It was a pathetic amount of force, but still enough to make his muscles tense up and force his spine upright, straightening his back.
"Why are you here?" Her voice was neither seething nor melancholy… just curious.
Lieren tilted his head and commanded his Resistance. Without skipping a beat, the translucent aura became even denser in a heartbeat until the overbearing force disappeared entirely.
"Huh? Oh, Selen was busy reading and kicked me out as soon as I came in. The book she was reading was pretty interesting, so I just listened to her. Wouldn't want to interrupt her reading session. I know very well how important those are."
He glanced back to the intricate painting and marveled at the craftsmanship of the beautiful piece.
It really was, without a doubt, a masterpiece.
Mysta's hazel eyes narrowed into slits.
"So, you just left, without even trying to convince her to teach you anything?"
Lieren shifted slightly. He lingered for a moment before responding and asked a challenging question of his own.
"Yeah, pretty much. What about it?"
She let out a low growl. For a brief second, the uptight almost sounded cute. Almost. Then, she took a deep breath and turned on her heel. Her nails were digging into her palms.
He grinned.
"What, you're not even going to answer? That'd pretty rude, don't you think?"
Mysta stopped dead in her track. Her figure was so still that it almost looked frozen. Turning around with a deep scowl on her graceful face, she glared at her provoker and said in a menacingly cold tone:
"Oh, nothing much. Just a little disappointed in you, is all. I always respected the young miss's decisions, but I guess it's true that there's a first time for everything."
She was a couple of steps the grand staircase, and thus towered above him like some kind of tyrannical mastermind.
Lieren's teasing smile did not falter for even a moment, instead growing more provoking by the second. The image of Vesba, the lying giant, manifested in his mind. The man knew exactly how to get under people's skin.
"That's good to know," He said simply and fully turned towards the painting.
Not allowing him the pleasure of showing her irritated expression, Mysta spun on her heel once more and made her way up the grand staircase. This time, Lieren did not stop him and allowed her to continue up.
When he was certain the attendant was gone, as well as the crushing pressure, Lieren sighed and pulled out a small black cube roughly the same size of his palm — the training implement Selen had given him to practice his mana control, from his pocket.
"I wonder, what should I do with this…"
With nobody else around, his words were left unanswered.