Nothing much happened besides Zoemi training with Benevirau from time to time which was a nice distraction for the black-haired boy from cursing himself and his short temper.

Still, it wasn’t like only he was having a worse than acceptable time.

Benevirau was stunned by the information about Aspakeony and began using his mist to search for the Ghosts responsible for keeping her imprisoned, but for the time being, he made the same amount of progress that Zoemi did with his sentinels.

Nothing.

Ririe wasn’t showing herself at all and Reo both looked and sounded down, barely even talking to Zoemi – and Zoemi could connect that only with the magicless girl’s absence, which added to the list of things he was angry at himself.

Horeo sounded to be exhausted and annoyed about his mother’s ceaseless attempts to throw Zoemi under the bus each time they talked, the only good side being that with the discovery of the plan to get Espine and Victureo’s families at each other throats was snuffed before anything could happen and two lords stood ever so firmly on the prince’s side.

Mizoe started to cut their talks short, excusing himself for being tired but something in his voice was making Zoemi worry that his father was pushing himself too hard.

He even started expecting that it might have something to do with him…

After all, suddenly learning that the orphaned child that he picked up from the streets and brought up as his own ended up being the actual heir to a high noble family must have been quite a shock.

…and not exactly a pleasant one…

One could say that Mizoe was a simple man who took a lot of pride in doing what he thought was right.

He didn’t hesitate from adopting Zoemi even though his family literally banished and disinherited him.

And now, to further support his son and make the inheritance process go smooth, Mizoe ended up refusing the status that otherwise should most definitely be his own – that was the thing that Zoemi had to learn through Horeo as Mizoe himself was refusing to talk about it.

It really looked like the pale-blue-haired knight was distancing himself from his black-haired son to stop him from trying to grant him a status that he didn’t deserve – in his own opinion.

After the initial shock and the need to rebel against such an unnecessarily humble and selfless stance, Zoemi decided to momentarily go along with his father’s wishes but witnessing Mizoe sounding more and more depressed and bothered made him have second thoughts about that.

—-

It was the day when the meeting between the bandits and Vanterl was supposed to happen.

This time the bandit’s leader decided to arrive at the crystal lake a little bit earlier and they had their camp set up before the sun even touched the line of the horizon.

There were only fourteen of them at the spot oo as one bandit had been mixed amongst the servants of the Espine family.

Of course, it was one of Zoemi’s puppets – not to mention that the modern artifact that was supposed to be placed in Espine’s castle had been safely kept in Zoemi’s improved storage that did not corrode its content the moment that the protective layer of darkness mana was gone.

Zoemi who was observing the situation through his puppets eyes staying behind in the Banemor mansion this time, nervously rubbed the palms of his hands against his pants, making sure that he didn’t forget about any detail that would tip off the crimson-haired man about the interferences in his plan to turn two high noble families against each other.

The black-haired boy even made sure to personally cast enchantment-like spells on each and every puppet so that their body temperature would make them appear alive in case the so-called lord Vanterl would want to check the perimeter with the heat vision swallow spell like he did the last time.

*knock* *knock*

”Zoemi? Can I come in…?”

Suddenly, the black-haired boy’s concentration was broken as someone – who turned out to be Reo – knocked on his door and called out to him.

”Yes, sure, the door’s unlocked.”

Zoemi furrowed his brows and invited him in while moving from his bed onto the chair by the desk.

The green-haired boy entered the room with a worried expression and clenching a letter in his left hand.

”Did something happen…?”

Zoemi glanced at the paper crumpled paper sticking out of Reo’s fist and looked up at his friend’s face.

”My father is calling me back home. He wrote that he is concerned with me taking a leave from lectures in the academy, but he definitely wants to make tell me off for bringing you to this territory… Well… If you look at the situation from his perspective, my original plan backfired completely.”

The green-haired boy sighed and lowered his head, too ashamed to look the black-haired boy in the eyes.

”How so? The objective of having the Banemor territory properly return to the Bellcephora Kingdom would be completed with me inheriting the family name, doesn’t it?”

Seeing Reo down like that and hearing the reason for it caused Zoemi to raise his brow and ask in confusion.

Well… maybe not confusion.

There must have been a specific reason why lord Moyena was one of the nobles doing their best to hinder the inheritance procedures for the territory.

”No… not exactly…”

Reo made a pitiful expression and shook his head.

”In father’s words – he did want the return of the territory itself, but without the return of the Banemors… Apparently, he had already lined up some nobles who would split the territory amongst themselves and their children for when you were supposed to renounce the territory on the kingdom’s behalf…”

”…”

The green-haired boy revealed, causing Zoemi to scowl.

”A-at the same time, it seems that he is at least willing to talk with me about a certain other subject that I was begging him to consider for years – so it’s not like it’s all bad – I have a chance to… to get what I always wanted… I will be leaving immediately – sir Benevirau prepared a carriage for me already – I just came to say goodbye.”

Reo suddenly straightened his back finally sounding back to his cheerful self, but he stuttered and start blushing the moment he encountered Zoemi’s confused face.

|Something that he always wanted – wouldn’t that be recognition and love of his father…? Well, it looks like his route is finally getting messed up like it was with the other capture targets because something like this had never happened in the game.|

The black-haired boy thought to himself.

”If that’s the case then I can only say that I wish that you will accomplish everything that you want. But, just in case, know that the Banemor mansion has a lot of spare rooms so there will always be a place for you here.”

He ended up saying out loud with a smile, standing up and reaching out his hand for a farewell handshake.

”Thank you – if everything goes well, I will have something to tell you… I hope you will not stay mad at me for too long after you will learn about it…”

Reo grabbed Zoemi’s hand and smiled shyly.

”Nah, I am convinced that unless it’s something really bad I will not be able to get really angry at you anyway.”

”…!”

Zoemi just shrugged his shoulders and declared with a cheeky smirk that honestly made Reo turn completely red, giving the black-haired boy a big hint about the secret.

”W-well then… goodbye, Zoemi…”

Reo gulped down his saliva and moved away, letting go of Zoemi’s hand.

”See you soon~!”

”…y-yeah… it would be nice…”

Zoemi waved his hand and watch the green-haired boy leave his room – and ended up overhearing worried words that Reo ended up whispering under his breath, that honestly sounded a bit like a flag…

With Reo gone, Zoemi returned to keeping an eye on the bandits’ camp and only glanced towards the window for a moment when he heard the sound of the leaving carriage.

The sun set and the crimson-haired aristocrat was still nowhere to be seen making Zoemi worried about whether he would actually show up.

The plan should have been leaked…

…was wishful thinking that Zoemi dropped after encountering Elsby who found him without the slightest bit of trouble…

”I honestly expected you to fail and get caught…”

”!!!!”

Just as Zoemi was letting the dark thoughts get the better of him, the crimson-haired man simply walked out from behind the trees right beside the spot where the bandits set their camp and called out in a satisfied voice that was the direct opposite of the meaning of his words.