When Zoemi opened his eyes, he was already in the master bedroom of the Banemor mansion – not just the bedroom, but the king-sized bed too.

He didn’t realize it, but at some point, he must have lost consciousness, because the last thing he remembered was his corpse puppet sentinels grabbing his arms and pulling him into the darkness.

They certainly didn’t knock him out on purpose or anything – but that was actually more problematic than if they attacked him.

“…mana is poison…”

The black-haired boy spoke to himself, raising his hand over his face and looking at it.

…he couldn’t stop it from shaking…

He was feeling extremely tired, but at least his stomach wasn’t hurting.

When Metavicero froze his mana he actually felt unstoppable, but he also almost got severe frostbite from that, but this was different.

Actually, even taking the feeling of exhaustion into consideration, this was the best he felt in a while.

*knock* *knock*

“…?”

The sound of someone announcing their presence before opening the door to his room made Zoemi flinch with surprise.

As the black-haired boy lowered his hand and turned his attention to the turning door handle, the door opened and a brown-haired woman walked in, awkwardly carrying a tray with food.

“Yes, yes – hello, my almost cousin, and boss – just checking whether you are awake and hungry as I already did every half an hour for the past five hours~”

Arreta, the daughter of Zoemi’s adoptive father’s brother – as confusing as it may have sounded – hummed in a tired voice, before even looking up at the bed where the black-haired boy had propped himself up.

“Ugh, this room feels so weird each time I enter… aren’t they trying to make Zoemi feel worse with that? My head hurts just by stepping in…”

She continued complaining, furrowing her brows while clumsily trying to massage her forehead without dropping the tray.

“…eh…?”

Then, she finally looked up and met Zoemi’s politely curious eyes and let out a short gasp.

“Good evening. I actually would appreciate some food, please.”

Zoemi glanced at one of the windows to access the time of day, before smiling encouragingly at his older cousin.

“I… Ah…! Of course! Right away!”

It took Arreta a moment to adjust to the situation, but when she managed to close her mouth and take a few deep breaths, she nodded and approached the black-haired boy without further ado.

Seeing the untrained movements of the brown-haired woman, Zoemi helped her out by putting the tray down on the bed and grabbing the plates himself just to be safe.

“Say, I thought that you were more interested in gardening than the duties of a housemaid?”

He asked more so to make some small talk than form actually being interested in the subject while grabbing the most appetizing dish and feeling his stomach rumbling in anticipation.

“Because I am – but the two that brought you here said that the people with a certain amount of mana cannot enter this room because that would destroy the whole point of creating the mana void. Apparently, they and sir Benevirau are amongst the people who will mess things up, and only I have a sufficiently low amount of mana to not make a difference…”

Arreta nodded while making a very grumpy expression.

“I am a transcended earth magician, you know? I have as much mana as an average fire magician!”

She grumbled, lowering her head and looking to the side, sulking.

“Don’t take it to heart. I am sure that they didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

“That’s part of the problem, though!”

Zoemi chewed on the food and gulped it down before pointing out, but that just made Arreta roll her eyes and shake her head.

“Honestly… Rokiana beat me to becoming a bride, so I wanted to show her off and marry someone more powerful than her husband… I thought that sir Benevirau might be a perfect candidate because of how nice he is, but now I see that he doesn’t treat me seriously at all…”

The brown-haired woman’s shoulders slumped and she sighed in defeat…

“GH-UGH…!”

“Young master…?!”

Still, the thing she said made Zoemi choke on the food and if Arretta didn’t timely hand him a cup of juice to wash the bite down, this might have been a rather pitiful end for the black-haired boy.

“Huaa… thank you very much… still, you were aiming for grandpa…?! Even though you were so cautious about the age gap with Ikarve

th?!”

Zoemi breathed out in relief and put the cup aside, without looking away from his cousin’s face.

“…? Pardon? What do you mean? Sir Benevirau looks young but if my research is correct he is in his thirties – that makes him barely older than me, a perfect match!”

Arreta furrowed her brows and tilted her head cluelessly staring at the black-haired boy’s face.

“Arreta… grandpa Benevirau is a sage – sages are over a hundred and thousand times stronger than average light magicians, and do not age as a standard human does! Grandpa is at least a thousand years old! Didn’t you see his portrait with the first head of the Banemor family hanging in the hallway?!”

Zoemi put the half-empty plate to the side for a moment and massaged his forehead before asking in disbelief.

“Pffft…! Now, don’t be silly! There’s no way that it’s true! The portrait in the hallway must be just his ancestor or something! Anyway, I am giving up on him anyway, so you don’t have to make up such stories to talk me out of it.”

The brown-haired woman snickered and her shoulders shook from laughter before she waved her hand dismissively and patted Zoemi’s forearm with understanding.

“…”

Zoemi looked at her, blinked twice, and then rolled her eyes and grabbed back the unfinished dish while making the **-it-I-tired expression plastered all over his face.

“Auequas family tried to bother you in any way since you took shelter here?”

The black-haired boy changed the subject just to put his mind at ease.

“No… not really…”

“…?”

Arreta looked down and shook her head with a somewhat melancholic expression, to which Zoemi raised his brow as his hand with a spoon froze mid-way to his mouth.

“Isn’t that a good thing though? They wanted to marry you off to some old guy.”

The black-haired boy put the spoon back on the plate and asked with a concerned expression.

He didn’t have many heartfelt talks with his cousin since she arrived at the Banemor mansion – which shouldn’t be surprising considering that half the time he was unconscious and for the rest, he was barely even there.

“…well… yes, but I thought that maybe they would change their minds and would be willing to talk, or something – I don’t know. Grandmother and father were always on my side so I thought that they will maybe miss me or… never mind…”

Arreta fidgetted on her spot and explained, before turning bright red and waving her hands in an attempt to hide her face.

“Say – I was under the impression that you were a part of the military, just like your grandmother and so on. How come you act even more like the sheltered princess than my Miriette?”

Zoemi finally caught on to what was it all about and asked while continuing his meal.

“Why are you saying it like that – I am not spoiled or anything…”

The brown-haired woman puffed out her cheeks grumpily and sulked as she glared at the black-haired boy.

“And I don’t know why you make it sound as if in the military you weren’t put together with your relatives. The training is hard but in the time of peace, no one is going through the draconian exercises that grandma had to go through. You know, like the one where she kept her enchantments active even when she lost consciousness. Although that might soon change…”

Arreta added, shrugging her shoulders and pointing out the differences between Zoemi’s assumptions and reality.

“…huh… you know, considering that it was assumed that neither Miriette nor Horeo will ever enter the military as anything other than commanders – or rather at all – our curriculum never encompassed that subject… So this military is completely different than the one I think of… makes sense actually, considering the firepower at the disposal of even the average magician…”

Zoemi swallowed another mouthful of food and nodded with realization as Arreta was tilting her head, looking at him as if she was worried about his sanity.

“Alright – let’s put that all aside. Tell me – did any news from the royal castle reached our territory already?”

The black-haired boy finished everything that was brought to him and asked, moving the fork and the spoon and placing them on the side so they would not slide off the plate – and consequently the tray – as Arreta would be carrying it away later.

“Eh?! How did you know?! Even sir Benevirau was shocked when the royal wind magicians sent messages to all nobles that the spies from the enemy nation managed to hex the royal couple, and upon discovering it, they fled and took them with them! It’s a huge deal – the first prince Horeo had to step in and step in charge of the nation

. Then it turned out that the second prince went missing from the monastery he had been placed in, and it is believed that the enemy nation might have abducted him first and gotten the information that allowed their spies to infiltrate the royal castle, out of him by torture. It is a whole giant mess and everyone is worried about what will happen next! Think about it! The royal couple getting hexed and abducted?! Only a miracle would prevent a large-scale conflict from happening! After all, even if they will return, nothing guarantees that they would not be working for our enemies!”

The brown-haired woman gasped and her tone changed completely when she found a subject that interested her more than her own love life.