A knock Lucan had been expecting sounded out against his room’s door. “May I come in, young lord?”

  “Yes,” Lucan called out.

  Mira stepped inside the room, an unconcealable pep to her step as she closed the door behind her.

  Once the door was shut, she declared, “It’s time.”

  Lucan, who was just around or outside the first seventy two hours of withdrawal, softly nodded. A little colour had returned to his face and the fever that had tormented him a day before was gone, he didn’t feel as queasy anymore, maybe the fact that he was a mage was playing a part there.

  The anxiety and existential dread was still very much there and that, Lucan hazarded a guess, was there to stay for the long haul. He couldn’t very well stake the blame on withdrawal alone either.

  Oh and his lips were parched, dry and a little cracked too and he felt like trading the Traceless Assassin’s Phantom Steps for a glass of fire spirit wine wouldn’t be too terrible of a trade in the short term.

  But besides all that, Lucan supposed that he was kind of okay for now.

  “Finally,” Lucan sighed, as he threw the last few clothes he had stacked into a pile into his suitcase, having grabbed at them with both his hands.

  Of the five suitcases that had been delivered to his door, the belongings Lucan had decided to take only took up two. His wand and his longblade would be carried within the carriage and all five suitcases would go with him anyway, if the duchess had any hand in it anyway. Couldn’t have him looking deprived before the other prominent Noble Families of the Kingdom, even though she had spent the last decade orchestrating Lucan’s own destitution when it came to Mana Stones.

  Lucan carried his notebook with him and his longblade and shitty wand couldn’t be tampered with, so he wasn’t worried about the duchess messing with his belongings. There were clearly lines that even the duchess could not cross, or at least, was afraid of crossing, for this was definitely not the limits of cruelty that a woman who sat upon the highest echelons of power was capable of. And Lucan knew whose grace it was by that he still had all four limbs attached and hadn’t mysteriously vanished one fine day, but he refused to be thankful to that man.

  Either way, he’d packed what he could.

  “Eileen is expecting you in the western parlor,” Mira stated, her tone one of silent contemplation.

  “Is the Duchess with her?”

  “No, the Duchess’ head-maidservant informed me that she had taken ill to a stomach bug. She offers her blessings to you and expects you to excel in the imperial academy.”

  Lucan let an amused snort escape him, “Of course she does.”

  “It’s better this way,” Mira offered, though she couldn’t keep resentment from bleeding into her voice. In the world of nobility, offering such a flimsy excuse was a very direct yet technically indirect insult and of course, word would spread that the Duchess of Velmoria refused even to see the heir apparent of Velmoria out as he departed for the prestigious Imperial Academy.

  “Now, now, Mira,” Lucan chided. “There’s no reason to be mad at a mana beast for hunting in its territory. That’s what it does. The only thing that matters is what we do in turn.”

  “You’re talking funny,” Mira replied, her gaze studying Lucan as if he’d grown two heads.

  Lucan stuck his tongue out.

  A small smile crept up on Mira’s face, as if to say “that’s the immature boy I know,” before she replied, “And? What are we to do in turn?” She asked pointedly, wanting to puncture the air of mystique Lucan was feigning.

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  “What she doesn’t want, of course,” Lucan stated with a shrug. “Win.”

  Mira nearly choked on her own breath. Only after taking a few seconds to recover, she replied in an unimpressed yet somehow relieved tone, “And here I thought you were going to reveal some grand plan. You’re changing a bit too fast for my liking and… I’m not going to ask you why until we’re out of here, but it’s good to know that you’re still an idiot.”

  “Yours truly,” Lucan lowered his head in a mock bow. “Now, Mira, here’s an honest question for you. What do you think about Eileen?”

  Mira paused, her eyes sharpening as she assessed the question with the gravity it deserved. A minute later, she replied, her words coming out slow and measured, “She is smart. Talented. But she lacks her mother’s cunning and guile. Or she’s very good at feigning it. She is not your enemy, but only because the tradition of House Velmoria dictated it so. Most other Noble Houses are not rigid about the heir being a male child, so I suppose you are lucky in that sense. In the end though, if she has to make a choice between her mother’s wishes and you, I don’t think the pity or the guilt she feels towards you is going to be enough of a reason to pick you.”

  Lucan stared blankly at his best friend, studying her in an entirely new light before blurting out, “Well damn. Were you always that sharp?

  Mira gave him a smug look, before proudly replying, “When everyone around you hates you for reasons you don’t understand, you quickly realize that politics isn’t optional.”

  “That isn’t something to be proud of, you dolt,” Lucan chided. “Well, anyway, you think she’s an enemy then?” He asked, his tone falling to one barely above a whisper.

  Mira’s expression turned hesitant, but she got the words out, “Not until she has to choose a side. I think she genuinely cares about you and did earnestly want to help you get out of this, whether that’s because she couldn’t do the same for her brothers when it mattered or because she just feels terribly bad about the whole situation. But eventually… yes. We need to be prepared for that possibility and plan around it.”

  Lucan nodded along with her assessment, then reached out with his index finger and flicked her head.

  “Hey!” Mira protested. “What was that for?”

  “For being incorrect with your assessment, of course,” Lucan replied in a matter of fact tone. “Though you came close, wrong answers still get head flicks.”

  “Since when? And when did you become an expert in relationships, professor Lucan?” Mira asked sarcastically.

  “You said we need to plan around Eileen as an enemy,” Lucan said matter-of-factly. “We don’t. You’re right, pity or guilt isn’t enough, but I don’t want my half-sister feeling those emotions for me anyway. So I’ll just give her more reasons to care,” He explained with an earnest smile.

  “You’re being naive!” Mira hissed, as the color in her cheeks turned a touch darker pink and her heartbeat quickened just enough that she noticed the change. “She’s the Duchess’ daughter, her lifeblood flows through her veins. But I don’t need to tell you that because you knew it up until a few days ago. Just what happened, Lucan?” She asked, as she turned away as if in disappointment.

  That was why Lucan didn’t notice that the color in her cheeks wasn’t from annoyance or rage, but due to a young maiden being caught off guard and becoming flustered.

  “She fought for me when we were children, Mira,” Lucan softly revealed, his gaze angling downwards. “She went and appealed to the Duke as a child, a man who’s mere title sends chills down my spine, Mira. He could turn this estate into an ice sculpture with a wave of his hand and nothing but frost flows in his veins, you know that well enough because of what happened with mother. That’s how much she wanted to help me.”

  Genuine surprise was visible on Mira’s expression as she turned her gaze back to Lucan, the moment of fluster all but forgotten.

  “And yes, we’re not kids anymore. She’ll be an adult soon enough and people change, Mira. I know that. But if I treat Eileen as an enemy, the only person of Velmoria blood that extended a helping hand to me, then I’ll go back to the same place I’m trying to crawl out of. I wont, no, I can’t hate her anymore, Mira. Yes, her mother is wrong. This estate is wrong, deeply wrong. But if I want things to change, I’ll have to let it go, Mira. I’ll embrace Eileen as a sister, truly a sister and if things go wrong, well then, I have you, right?” Lucan asked, with a twinking glow in his eyes as he offered an outstretched hand to Mira.

  She hugged him instead, an action done reflexively.

  “Always,” She gently replied, her tone full of warmth. The moment lasted a good thirty or so seconds, filling Lucan with a feeling he hadn’t felt in so long he’d almost forgotten what it felt like.

  Then the realization of what she’d done hit her and a heavily flustered Mira hurriedly pulled away.

  “So…Soryh…Sorry!” Mira stumbled over her words in a rush to apologize. Then, she turned around and rushed out of his room.

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