”Lord Victureo…”

…he couldn’t stop his initial reaction at the sight of the person who did burn his face.

It did not matter that he was already healed up.

It did not matter that Grazio was – supposedly – sorry.

”…”

”…”

Zoemi nodded his head back and answered with an ice-cold voice bringing down the temperature in the hallway.

Not literally of course, as the black-haired boy was properly controlling himself from using any mana whatsoever – but still, the atmosphere definitely changed for a much more serious one…

”…thank you for agreeing to represent our family – my sister is going to become the next head of the family and the least we can do is to assure that she would choose someone she actually likes as her partner…”

”…?”

Grazio ended up bowing his head a little lower and spoke in a tense voice, breaking the awkward silence and causing Zoemi to raise his brow in confusion.

”…I could swear that you always acted as if you were the heir…”

Zoemi’s frown changed into a simple furrow and he tilted his head looking between the red-haired siblings.

”Well… as you hopefully noticed, Grazio isn’t the best at expressing his feelings and it hasn’t been that long since we weed out the pests that filled his head with really awful stuff… He just tries to meet the expectation that others have towards him…”

Ehmi took a deep breath and bit her lips trying to back up her younger brother, but she sure felt extremely awkward trying to convince the literal victim about the innocence of the offender, so she was struggling with her choice of words.

”…I do not expect you to forgive me, sir Zoemi… but… could you be so kind as to let me clear a few misunderstandings…? Not the horrible way I acted when I visited the Espine castle with my father back then, but the more recent things at least?”

Grazio bowed and asked without raising his head, and honestly, Zoemi really wanted to just straight up refuse.

He didn’t have any obligation to care about the red-haired capture target – in the first place he did not come to the Victureo territory to meet or even talk to him, it was all about the tournament after all, but in the end, unless it was some elaborate plan on Grazio’s part, some of his past acts have shown that he was sorry…

…and Burushi did vouch for him too…

”…”

The black-haired boy glared down at the back of the red-haired boy’s head in silence for a few more seconds before turning to the red-haired girl.

”…do I need to go and register as a representative…?”

He ended up asking, ignoring Grazio.

”…eh…? Ah… umm… yes, actually… Not like a full one, because we handled most of the normal process, but you do have to show up there and confirm that everything was done properly to make it official.”

”…”

The red-haired girl twitched and nodded, making a worried expression as she looked over at her dispirited younger brother.

”Alright. Explain.”

Zoemi sighed and shook his head before motioning at Grazio with his chin.

”Not in a hallway! Let’s go to my room!”

Before the red-haired boy realized what was being said, Ehmi perked up and grabbed both his and Zoemi’s hands and pulled them inside the room, and the relieved servants ended up closing the door after them.

”…”

When inside Zoemi’s demeanor changed a bit – he moved past the bed and grabbed the comfortable armchair by the bookshelf and turned it around before sitting on it and glaring up straight at the shocked Grazio.

”Go on. What am I misunderstanding? I will definitely NOT look past you disfiguring me, but please, tell me how you challenging me to a duel and then trying to get me expelled from the Academy because of a false accusation of **** was supposed to show any good faith? I’m listening.”

The black-haired boy asked, leaning back and crossing his legs in a dismissive position of indifference and power.

”…”

Ehmi went wide-eyed and simply inched toward her bed and plopped on it in silence.

”The duel was so that you would get harmed which would allow miss Buru**to to have an excuse to heal you, which she would then heal up your scars too…”

Grazio lowered his head, looking away intimidated by the cold glare of the lifeless black eyes.

|This matches what Burushi said before…|

Zoemi thought to himself without changing his outward expression and did not say a thing.

”As for the accusations under your name… I… well… I went with those girls because I wanted to prove that you are innocent, none of their arguments sounded plausible – as teacher Persrios proved anyway… and… you know…”

”No, I do not know. Tsk…! This is why tsundere personality doesn’t work in real life!”

Zoemi interrupted Grazio, clicking his tongue and rolling his eyes in annoyance.

”Tsun… tsundere…?”

The red-haired boy asked in confusion, looking over at his sister for an explanation, but she was just as confused as he was about the unknown word.

”…don’t make that face – I’ll have you know that you were the person I hated the most in the world – at least until I’ve learned about around twenty more individuals that are far worse.”

”…!”

Zoemi ignored him and instead just shook his head in annoyance and pointed out, making Grazio flinch and cover, looking down to hide his expression.

|I can tease him before I will forgive him, right?|

The black-haired boy asked internally, waiting for the opinion of the unique shadow.

…huh…? Wait, hold on, kid. You ARE going to forgive him?! But everything that you said is directly contradicting that!

Lurdier’s shadow gasped in utter confusion.

|Call it a genetic-level weakness to the imaginary personality type.|

…what…?

But Zoemi shrugged him off, still going to do what he originally planned.

”…and you never even said the line! How am I going to forgive you if you will not even cover the very basic requirement?”

He called out loud, making both Grazio and Ehmi flinch.

”…the line…? Wh-what line…?”

The red-haired capture target asked anxiously, not understanding what exactly he was missing.

”Seriously… I know this is not a game but still… alright the line goes – it’s not like I like you or anything, stupid.”

”!!!!”

”!!!!”

The black-haired boy sighed in disbelief and declared, leaning forward and looking at Grazio expectantly while both siblings were looking at him in shock.

But as the seconds passed and Zoemi wasn’t backing off from his demand, the red-haired boy started blushing more and more until his face became almost the same color as his hair and…

”I… it’s… it’s not like I li… like I like you or a-anything… STUPID!”

Grazio ended up saying the line but by the end of it his embarrassment took over and he bolted out of the room.

”Ah~ This is what I call bliss. He did sound like a real deal after all. Alright – I’ll go complete the registration now!”

Zoemi breathed out fully satisfied, finally able to put his hatred aside and move on, and stood up ready to go.

”…Zoe? How did you know…?”

Ehmi remained seated on the bed and looked up at him curiously.

”How did I know what?”

The black-haired boy raised his brow and asked back.