Outside, in a garden filled with maroon-colored flowers, the Dahya, Lavrine Anastasya, the Queen of Izenmei, sat quietly. In her hand is a paper detailing what happened inside the Darkhound Mansion.
On the first lines, the count asked forgiveness for being not able to report as quickly as what protocol dictates. But he explained it thoroughly on why he chose to delay the reports.
"Am I really going to meet this dragonie?" Anastasya questioned to her friend and right-hand man, Nox. Her gentle fingers turned the pages more and when she looked at Nox, the latter is keeping his mouth shut to forcefully seal his laugh.
"Are you having fun looking at me?"
Nox, unable to contain his laughter, held his stomach and guffawed at the annoyed Anastasya.
"Seriously, why can't you act normal even for several hours?"
Getting the hint that Anastasya is becoming more and more annoyed at him, Nox straightened his back once more and looked straight directly to the sky in a stiff manner.
"In my opinion, to be called as a 'dragonie' or labeling him as such will give us nothing but trouble."
"I asked a different thing, Nox," Anastasya reminded Nox flatly. "I said if it is really necessary for me to meet with this unknown person."
Nox, who is aware of Anastasya's tendency to be perfectionist in everything, sighed from helplessness.
Before Anastasya could even ask that question, he already studied the background of the person in the report.
But other than his first name, he could not get any relevant details about "that" Lance anymore.
Age is around fifteen, blonde, green eyed, and there's a possibility that he came from a noble birth, based on the transactions that he made inside Count Amorez' territory where he used a pure gold to pay for a simple meal.
He doesn't have any sense of value.
That's what he concluded about that fact that was shared to him by his spies.
And he has a dragon artifact.
But if this man Lance, came from a rich family, then that dragon artifact may be bought.
But there is no way for him to not know about a certain Lance from the noble families since he's been keeping an eye for every family of noble in their territory and also from other lands.
That's when the second mystery comes in.
The gold that Lance used during his outing is a different currency. He will understand it if the gold is similar to the currency in circulation from the neighboring kingdoms but then, there's no kingdom who uses the same gold that Lance is using.
It is as if the thin air gave birth to Lance.
Like Lance suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Like a phantom.
Nox grinned at the thought.
"If Lance is a phantom, then, that's groundbreaking," Nox whispered to himself, feeling a little bit more exhilarated now. "Dragonie, at this moment, will be more acceptable."
Phantoms.
In their world, only a few people know about the existence of Phantoms. Only those who research them and those people who make a living out of them, like scavengers. But in the end, even though someone might suddenly decide to go phantom hunting, the person still needs to be in tune on the phantom's space. This makes entry on the job very hard for anyone trying it.
And there are a lot of phantoms. There are phantoms who guard, phantoms who make a contract and phantom that are created by humans -- the last one being the least in number since someone needs to be faithful to the image of the phantom that they created inside their head for it to manifest and no public records are written down about this type of phantoms.
So, did someone managed to manifest Lance, the phantom or dragonie?
Nox shrugged his shoulder and licked the lower part of his lips...haaa... he's getting more and more excited to meet this Lance person that everyone is making a fuss about.
"Nox! Nox! Are you listening to me?"
Nox glanced at Anastasya, his eyes almost looked like a toothpick as he slowly changed his face into an accommodating one to pacify the tantrums of the child queen before it turned to worse.
"What do you think should I wear when I meet him? Do I need to be imposing like how I act in front of the nobles or not?"
"How about the dress we recently bought from Madame Saludie? I think the color of deep crimson color will suit best for you...just like these Dahyas"
And then Nox smiled at Anastasya...one that hold more meanings that what it really looks like.
"Are you enjoying this situation?" Anastasya asked Nox, trying to gauze what's behind that smile.
"No. How can I? I only need to look after the welfare of our dear Queen Anastasya. There is not much more important to me but our dear Queen of Izenmei, Beloved daughter of Yuli--"
"Enough!"
Anastasya took off the tiara she's wearing and threw it at Nox.
"I won't be your puppet forever! You, trash of a human!"
The tiara, hitting the side of Nox's face, bounced and stumbled on the mowed soil of the garden.
Nox, who did not lose his smile, grinned more wider than before and pulled Anastasya close to him. Then he started tracing the necklace that lays elegantly on Anastasya's neck.
"Of course you do, Anastasya," Nox said in whisper. Then he leaned more closely to warn her. "You'll be my puppet forever, dear," he declared almost casually, that sound even more ominous to Anastasya. "Cause I'm the one who clothed you, the one who named you, and the one who created you. You can say, I am your father, dear phantom."
Anastasya bit her lip, unable to express his sadness and anger.
Nox, who noticed this, brushed the tip of his thumb on Anastasya lips with no change on his expression.
"Don't ruin the body that I imagined carefully, Anastasya. Remember, you're my most beautiful creation. Just behave dear and do what I say. For now, meet the dragonie."