Zoemi furrowed his brows while leaning back on a chair in Benevirau’s office.

”Unfortunately, young master, that’s how it looks like. I am searching for any trace of her with my fog, but there is no sign of either her or her corpse puppets.”

The dark-blue-haired butler lowered his head apologetically and confirmed.

”She seems to care about the Academy very much, but it really does seem like she just left.”

The black-haired boy made a bitter expression and flicked his wrist in annoyance.

”No. Aspaekony didn’t care about only her Academy, the entire Bellcephora kingdom was her livelihood. Her personal apology to the world for the ancient wars. She would never abandon it without a good reason, and even if there was one, she would end up warning someone. Even when Ghosts of Bellcephora were hunting her down three hundred years ago, she managed to contact and warn me and most of the sages she knew.”

Benevirau shook his head and rejected the notion on the spot, but that only reset the conversation and did not push it forward.

”Well, you were the one who said that she was too careful to get herself killed or captured, so what do you expect happened to her?”

Zoemi sighed, rubbing his eyes, tired because of the lack of progress of any kind.

”…”

With the silence from the dark-blue-haired butler, the black-haired boy looked at the time and frowned.

”Alright – let’s leave this subject for another time. The next two days will be busy for me so I leave things in your hands.

Zoemi declared standing up and walking to the door, waving his hand at the concerned butler.

”…young master – I know that you are young, but… keep in mind the limits of your body… please.”

”…?”

Still, Zoemi couldn’t help but stop and turn around at Benevirau’s words.

Seeing the bothered expression the misty-gray-eyed butler was making, it was hard to decipher what exactly was that supposed to mean.

|Is he worried about my health because I began taking over the duties of the territory ruler and he thinks I’m overworking myself, or does he know about tomorrow’s ambush…?|

Could be both, could be neither.

The black-haired boy thought to himself, but the vague answer he got from the Ludier’s shadow was more of a vague opinion than anything else.

”I sure will. Goodnight.”

”Goodnight, young master.”

With nothing better in mind, Zoemi simply nodded and smiled at Benevirau before leaving the office.

After he got back to his room, he could breathe out.

He made sure to complete everything that required his immediate attention and could focus on the proper preparations.

Well – there was a little thing he had to do still.

”|Hello, father~!|”

”(…huh…? Ah! Son! Is it already this late? How have you been?)”

Zoemi used the adjusted version of the message spell and connected to his father back in the Espine territory.

”|I’m good. The inheritance procedure is going slower than expected, but considering what is going on it’s not surprising. Even so, Beneviraus began introducing me to the duties of the ruler and I must say that I underestimated the amount of paperwork and things that require the permission of the territory ruler.|”

The black-haired boy relaxed and jokingly complained.

”(It really is! Make sure to not overwork yourself, alright? Recently lord Espine has been really concerned about the safety of the castle so that added a fair share of responsibility on my shoulders so unfortunately, I will not be able to visit you until the situation changes.)”

Mizoe even in his thoughts sounded extremely apologetic – even though he only mentioned visiting Banemor territory and taking a few days off without promising a thing.

”|Dad, it’s okay! Remember to watch your health too – if you will not eat and rest properly, teacher Rokiana will scold me after I return to the Academy~!|”

”(…)”

Zoemi laughed, dismissing the silly worries that his father had – but because of that, he ended up missing the tense silence caused by him mentioning the young blue-haired teacher.

”|Speaking of her – since you want to visit anyway, why don’t you call her and you both visit together? Banemor territory is a common tourist destination – the crystal lake at night is really romantic… you know… many people like that stuff|”

The boy asked, perking up at his own idea of bringing the pair even closer in an excuse of a joint trip, but ended up hesitating, because if he would get too pushy then his dense father might think that he was pushing Rokiana at him without consulting her, and reject the proposition on the spot.

”(No, I… I’ve heard that the things in the academy had been really busy for the teachers without lord Vereq, so she is probably very busy – I don’t want to bother her…!)”

Luckily Mizoe didn’t get the wrong idea but still, his answer wasn’t very enthusiastic either.

|He heard…? Probably…? Sounds like they didn’t have too many chances to talk recently… better avoid the subject.|

Zoemi thought to himself making sure that those thoughts would not get transferred to his father.

”|And besides that, how have you been?|”

”(Hmm? Pffft…! Hahaha! What a question, the same I was yesterday – you have been messaging me every day since you learned that spell. I’m good, like always.)”

He asked instead and made Mizoe laugh.

”|I mean, since I can, then why not? I can hold back a little if I’m being a bother…|”

The black-haired boy lowered his head and thought apologetically, feeling slightly bad because Mizoe did sound tired.

”(I am not complaining, son! Contact me as many times as you want – but, I need to go make sure that the guards set for night duty aren’t slacking off, so maybe lets end here for the night.)”

The pale-blue-haired man thought, and Zoemi certainly wasn’t going to hold him back from his job.

”|Sure, talk to you again soon, dad!|”

”(Goodnight~)”

Zoemi deactivated the spell and instead focused on another person to connect to them.