"So who are they?"
I asked.
"Is it the Eldest princess?"
Father sneered.
"Or maybe it's the Kinster's daughter?"
Said mother, hopeful.
"Maybe she's a part of his knight squad."
We turned to see who made that comment.
Really Aura?
Throwing me under the bus here.
I endured a few stares from mother and father, before continuing.
"Or maybe you already have one and you aren't sure yet of your decision?"
"Or maybe you've basically married her in everything but name?"
He recoiled if even barely.
But it was enough.
"So how far did you go with her?"
Now I was blatantly provoking him.
"Enough."
He slammed his fist and knife into the table.
I don't think this about how he feels, more like how she feels.
Therefore...
"Which of the maids or knights in the adjacent room is it?"
"Huh?"
"Who in this room is it?"
No reaction.
"So she's a member of your knight corps is she?"
I stood up to provoke him further.
He stood up and launched his butter knife towards me.
Naturally I deflected it.
"Lucas, sit down, that's enough."
"That's not fair mom."
"I wanted to know too, that's why I even sent him to provoke Ezechs."
"It's odd times like these where you resemble Ezechs the most Aura."
"What do you mean?"
Theo and Aura didn't understand, but Ezechs sure did.
"What are your intentions, Knight Captain?"
He vanished and reappeared with yet another butter knife in hand, up against my throat.
"To uphold my oath."
"And that is?"
I whispered to him.
"To keep Aura, happy, safe, and alive."
He turned around.
"That's a fine code, much like our fathers'."
"I know you to call my parents Mother and Father, I have no right to interfere with their relationships."
"But, I truly wanted to know if you were fit to be my brother in law."
Huh.
How did we get here?
Mother and Father looked at me surprised.
"Similar to mine?"
The duke spoke up.
So I decided to throw some smoke in another direction.
"So yours should be similar too huh?"
I said looking at Ezechs.
"Precisely."
"Aren't you all sweet, protecting those who you care about."
"But I swear, if the two of you don't sit down right now, it may be your lives in danger instead."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Yes, ma'am."
We looked at each other.
No laughs, but genuine understanding.
"So who is it?"
"Well, what if I told you that, more than one person was correct?"
We looked at him intrigued.
He whispered to the maids, who brought a pair of knights out.
Ezech's knight corps.
A knight corps completely different from the rest of the empire.
It consisted of talents, from every territory.
A moving knight's corp with no one definite leader.
It had multiple in case of emergency, and to relieve leaders of command to give them a break.
There were 5 heads.
Two belonged to the duchies, two to the marches, and 1 to the border count, who we shared a territory boundary with.
With two heads, from the duchies, and only one from our own, I could very well guess who the other head was.
Evelina. The eldest daughter of the Kinsters, and next to her, Evan.
No doubt these were the siblings standing in front of me, but their hair was a different color.
It wasn't magic, I couldn't sense any from the air.
The hair on the two knights' heads were completely real, or fake, but made without magic.
"It's Ev-"
Ezechs cut me off with a hand to the mouth.
"Go ahead."
The knight General took her wig off, and dark, yet reflective purple hair came out.
Barton, Bolton, Theo, and Aura began to greet her.
"We greet the Moon of the Kinster Duchy."
She began to blush.
"Please no more."
Huh. So her icy attitude had already melted.
This was not a development I foresaw.
Naturally I knew in game she was a part of the corps, but most of the time, she would split up from the corps, and form the second division.
She also was very involved with Ezechs in the game, but not romantically.
Theoretically the only difference in communication, between the game and now, was me.
So information passed between Father and Ezechs had changed the story somehow.
Thankfully not in a destructive way.
The plot of the story seemed to stay together too, so I guess I don't have to worry about the plot derailing?
Anyways, the letters to Ezechs shouldn't have changed him this much.
Or maybe he wasn't the one to read them.
Occasionally when the two were together she would receive the mail in his place and he would tell her to open it and read it.
I guess one of those times, Father sent something particularly suggestive about me and Aura.
I narrowed my eyes at Father.
I think he knew his actions had some part but not exactly what part.
"Please take a seat."
Evelina took to sitting down.
I stood up and my chair was removed, and a new one placed down in place for Evelina.
Evan stood as her guard as I stood at Aura's side.
I was the first to break the ice.
"Did you read a letter for Ezechs, and become closer?"
She squirmed in her seat, and Evan shot me a look.
Ezechs reached down from the head of the table and held her hand.
"Relax, Lady Kinster, this is not a formal occasion, nor did my daughters knight mean to seem questioning. I assume he tried to find the fault in my husband, for the secrecy of your relationship."
"Yes, well it happened gradually, at first I was just normally reading out his letters, but as time went by they were more familial by the day."
"I guess I felt happy because of that, and now we are here."
"You didn't have to answer, Eve."
"Oho."
Aura looked like a cat, who had found a mouse.
Around everyone else, Eve and Ezechs were stone cold leaders.
Only in front of their other, would they warm up.
However, the positioning right now caused an uneven feeling between the two.
So I leaned over and told Theo to say something.
"I'm okay with you as my big sister."
This adorable forever 8 years young 16 year old boy managed to settle the mood in one sentence.
The duke and duchess were smiling in approval, and Matthew showed no disapproval.
Naturally Aura was gunning for this, so I as her knight made it happen.
Mother turned to me.
"So Lucas, how much of this did you plan?"
"Well, Aura told me to find out about Ezechs so I brought him here."
"She was also interested in his love life, so she told me to instigate. Aside from that, my plans and agitation were all my own."
"Well, I understand."
"Mother if I may."
Evelina began.
"Oho. Calling me Mother already? We haven't even-, no we have a marriage proposal ready,"
She looked over as Barton had a full draft proposal ready.
"But your family needs to sign it."
Ezechs spoke up.
"Actually mother I've already gained their blessing."
He presented Evan who held the ring of the Moon.
Another of the weird marriage items the Kinster's required.
"Well then, now, openly you can declare that Ezechs is your fiance."
We still need a wedding date.
"How about in 4 months, after the 1st semester is finished?"
Matthew provided an excellent option.
"We'll iron out the details with the Kinster's, but your idea is certainly going to be brought up."
"So?"
"Yes Aura?"
Mother looked at her with the eyes of 'What are you going to do this time?'.
Aura left her chair and went to hug Evelina.
"Oh my gosh I always wanted a sister. I couldn't rely on Matthew, and Theo is too young, and mother isn't pregnant, and-"
"Stop."
Ezechs separated the two.
"Aura I get it, but leaev her alone for a little while she gets accustomed here."
"Well, Evelina, we're all as close as family here, so don't mind the skinship so much."
Mother also went for a hug that Evelina, clearly felt odd in.
With that out the way, Father spoke up.
"Alright Ezechs, if you want to leave with her, now's your chance."
He nodded his head.
I looked at the two of them and nodded my head too.
Evan began to head for the exit, preparing the new couples escape from the family.
"Wow honey, I can't believe you try to let the girl away, without the girls talk."
The dreaded girls talk. In the Svarmet duchy we had our quirks too.
The 'talks'. the person marrying in would speak with the same gender family.
So eventually I would get this talk too.
"Yeah, dad. This is important."
I began to lift my arms and place them on Aura, as if to say, 'calm down', when in reality, it was to keep her from rushing Evelina.
Father grabbed her hands.
"No, way honey I'm just joking, obviously I'd want her to be here."
He was doing his best to distract her eyes away from Evelina.
I needed to stop this.
Evelina would die underneath the scrutiny of the Svarmet women.
At least when she was with Ezechs.
"Oh my god, Aura!"
I yelled and moved my arms to wrap around her, and pull her out of the chair.
With that, Ezechs took Evelina, while Evan opened the door.
Father held Mother down, while she was distracted with my yell.
With that Ezechs and Evelina had escaped the room, but not the duchy.
Ezechs had a few talented mages, capable of teleporting him out to the corps camp in the north.
"Stephen, have you been siphoning my mana the entire time?"
"I started the mana battery the moment Lucas found out she was in the next room over."
"Besides, as long as hold you here, the teleportation from this room to the next will cause a significant enough amount of your mana to be lost, that Ezechs and Eve together might win."
"Let's test that theory."
With that, Mom teleported away.
"Oh no, we gotta go."
The men in the family ran to the room next to ours.
While it was 'next' to ours, it wasn't adjacent.
The next room was at least a full 50 feet away.
Father would have reached the room first, followed by Matthew.
I looked at Uncle to keep Aura restrained while I used
I didn't need to dematerialize, and rematerialize, it would have taken too long.
But a presence hiding tool, equivalent to a stealth skill, especially with the target focused solely on another thing, was too easy to do.
With that, I rushed into the room, where the couple was being barely restrained as Father was sucking out the mana in her body.
I sneaked up on mother.
I managed to get closer than even dad did.
I put my hands up.
And began to tickle my mother.
"Lucas, haha, stop it Lucas!, ha, haha, I'm going to-"
I tickled her further, with father joining in.
With that, Ezechs escaped, and the other corps members were watching as a great mage master was receiving torture via tickling.
After that, we stopped.
We both received a whack on our heads.
"If either of you do that again, you'll see what true anger is like."
I wasn't about to test her words.
We looked at each other.
"Thankfully, she didn't get questioned."
"So did mom get questioned when she got here?"
"Well she did, but it was shorter than most of our ancestors."
"I know why the men do our questions."
"They are straightforward, and if the person to marry in and the family but heads, we can go to battle."
"I mean there are records of women doing that too, but it's far more common in our male ancestors."
"I should ask mom."
"Hell no, you'll get me in trouble."
"Not now you idiot."
"Don't call me idiot. What was that ace detective stunt you pulled in there?"
"Hey, I didn't pull any stunt, I was following orders."
"Uh-huh, following orders? Ace detective, more like ace defective."
I feel like I've heard that somewhere.
"Anyways is Aura okay?"
"Yeah, she should be I left her with Barton."
"Good. Now take her and get your asses back to school."
"Yes, sir."