*crack* *splash*

“GU-HUAAAAGH…!”

The whole thing didn’t go without a mishap -as the silver mist merged back to the black-haired boy’s boy he ended up putting too much force into the arm holding Grazio down which resulted in the porcelain bowl breaking apart spilling whatever was left of its original content and saving the red-haired boy who instantly gasped for the precious air.

“I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what you want, but leave my brother out of this! He had enough!”

Ehmi called out with a furious expression, only the tiniest bit calmer now that her younger brother’s life was still in danger but at least wasn’t ending that very moment.

“He killed my puppy and he orchestrated an actual assassination attempt on my life. I was a fool for thinking that he was a nice person, but he left me a nice reminder to never do that again~”

The black-haired boy shrugged his shoulders and tapped the exposed jawbone and teeth on the right side of his face.

“…Z-Zoemi…?!”

Hearing that Ehmi flinched and looked between the black-haired attacker and Miriette as if only now putting the dots together.

“Thanks for making me recall that little scum’s help. Now I don’t want to kill him anymore~!”

“Gh-ghet… away fhom mhe…!

Zoemi cheered out, raising his hand while still holding onto Grazio’s head in a firm grip as his victim cried out.

“Come on, young lord Victureo. Why don’t you remind me that all those years ago in the Perserios family, it wasn’t you who did anything wrong? It was a monster after all~! A scary, scary monster~”

Zoemi hummed happily pinching Grazio’s right cheek and tugging on it lightly – although with his strength it looked like he was testing out how much force would be needed to rip that piece off of the red-haired boy.

“Zoemi!”𝑶𝗏𝗅xt.𝗰𝑶𝓶

Miriette cheered out and basically jumped and latched onto him like a sugar glider completely dropping any pretense and pride which at least doubled how unreal the situation felt for everyone else.

“Help me…!”

“What happened? You are here! Alive and… and you remember everything!”

Miriette nuzzled her head between his collarbone and neck and asked. She could not care less about Grazio grabbing onto Zoemi’s wrist in an attempt to save his face from becoming a mutilated mess.

“Yah… nah… I don’t know the plan. If you need me, I will be healing those guys you’ve messed up so your punishment would be lighter.”

One of the two calmest people in the canteen was Burushi. The healing magician pushed back her chair and got up while waving her hand rather dismissively towards Zoemi and Miriette, also ignoring Grazio’s pleas.

“Miss Yuusha~ leave them for now, they will not die just from a few severe wounds, they are the tough King’s Guards. But when I look at them they all look like the subpar Light Order members… odd… The standards must have really dropped this time around.”

Zoemi turned his head her way and called out before sneering at the growling men who were suffering but indeed weren’t close to death. Yet.

“…! How did you know what my name was back then….?!”

Burushi stopped mid-step and turned back around staring at Zoemi in disbelief.

“HA! I knew it! Long story, it might be embarrassing as hell to hear so prepare yourself. But not now…”

Zoemi laughed after confirming the amusing detail before smiling triumphantly at the visibly worried blond-haired girl.

“Do you have anything to say about anything?”

Zoemi’s face became a bit more serious and he looked at the only other person in the room who didn’t look flabbergasted, scared, or furious.

A brown-haired young man who appeared calm and collected on the outside.

Xeonith Zarble Derizno.

The heir of the Derizno family was looking straight at Zoemi with straight-up amusement not even a grain of concern for his actions.

“Welcome back, boss. I guess? I sure as hell don’t want to call you dad like all the little ones back then did.”

Xeonith declared and his face bloomed into a wide grin confirming that it was the rehabilitated Noex inside rather than the fiend that he was before death and resurrection as a shadow.

“What is the meaning of this madness?! All three of you are working on this…! This bandit?! This disrespect to the family of my fiancee will not be forgiven! Not to mention that you are indirectly threatening me the first prince of the…!”

The gold-haired prince started pointing his finger between the Zoemi, Miriette, Burushi, and Xeonith while his face was getting increasingly flushed as his anger level raised.

“Shut the ** up, you cheap imitation of my rival.”

“!!!”

There must have some kind of history with each other because Xeonith’s face twisted with pure disgust as he cut off the first prince’s furious speech, making the gold-haired boy so angry that he could not find proper words to express himself.

“Xeoni…! You can’t speak like that to his highness…! Apologize…!”

The bronw-hiared green-eyed girl on Xeonith’s left side flnched just like everybody else but then she immediately clung to his hand and said in a pitiful voice full of worry.

“I would consider that if he was worthy of my time. Don’t worry, I will be alright. Especially with boss right here.”

Xeonith’s expression turned gently and he assured the worried girl before turning to Zoemi and winking at him.

“ARGH! WHO THE HELL EVEN ARE YOU?!”

Horeo couldn’t take it anymore and roared, barely stopping himself from throwing a half-empty cup at the black-haired boy.

“Oh, that’s right. Since you aren’t amongst the people who remember…”

“He’s Zoemi! The attendant of Kierul Berra Helterose!”

Zoemi raised his brows in realization and smirked kindly amused but then Ehmi didn’t let him finish the sentence.

“If you know what’s good for your master’s sale, LET MY BROTHER G…!”

Ehmi gritted her teeth and since she couldn’t use her overpowered magic she reached for the next best thing, the social status and consequences that could be imposed on those around Zoemi.

“Here he is.”

*FWOOSH*

“ARGH…!” *WHAM* *THUMP*

Her actions worked like a charm, but not exactly in the way she wanted to.

To shut her up Zoemi simply threw the girl’s younger brother at her – and without magic to help aid herself she ended up being knocked away and to the opposite wall together with Grazio.

“Now then, prince. My name is Zoemi Benevi Banemor. Until I will not discover any proof refuting my words, I would title myself the last member of the Banemor family that the royal family allowed to be destroyed by the Espine family.”

Zoemi nodded with satisfaction as Ehmi despite being a bit ruffled was too busy making sure that her younger brother was okay, so he could introduce himself while finally being able to properly hug back Miriette wrapped around him.

He did not kneel down and didn’t bow his head even a single inch, merely looking the gold-haired boy in the eyes.

“…holly **, did he have to mess them up so much? This guy over here has a magic device embedded in his chest! Stupid Zoemi… they don’t need medical attention right away… yah, sure.”

The staring contest between the two would last much longer if not for the mumbling of Burushi who despite Zoemi’s words ended up sneaking up to check on the defeated instructors.

“…none of my copies hit anyone on the chest…”

The complaint that the blond-haired girl muttered to herself gave Zoemi a bad feeling so he located her – hiding behind Leveo, the other twin from the Tallaran family – and explained in a concerned voice.

“Wha…?! How did you hear…?! Gah, never mind. If it wasn’t the hit directly then it was the force of impact! That proves that I need to make sure to heal them.”

Burushi flinched and slowly leaned to the side to meet Zoemi’s gaze and declared before hurriedly moving back to the patient.

She moved her index finger forward and a thin stream of water burst forth before concentrating and forming a water jet.

“Whatever this ** is, it got hammered in deep, I need to cut.”

Burushi announced and started the extraction process without waiting for any permission.

“Wait! Don’t touch that!”

The bearded instructor suddenly regained his voice and stood up, reaching out his hand as if he wanted to grab the girl despite the distance.

“Too late. Done… What the ** is it anyway? A defensive artifact?”

But he failed as the fast-handed healer with surgeon experience cut out the foreign object with minimal damage to her patient and raised it up to her face all bloody and still faintly glowing.

“Hey, Miss Reo. You should work on designs for those things – it’s dangerous as hell as you can see.”

Burushi called out to the brown-haired girl by Xeonith’s side and tossed the artifact so it rolled her way.

“LIGHT HAMMER!” *haaaa*

The bearded instructor roared and definitely wanted to use the spell, but just like before the effect was the sound of a person breathing out in relief as the mana dissipated into nothingness.

“…what in the world are you doing, lord Lutroan…?”

The shocked first prince asked.

The bearded instructor wasn’t using the situation as a distraction trying to take down the dangerous black-haired intruder – instead, the last spell he tried to use was directed towards the artifact that Burushi cut out of the fallen man’s chest and tossed it to the feet of Reo – the prodigy in creating magical devices.

“My prince, we need to get rid of all those insurgents this instant! We must get away from he-ARGH!”

*WHAM*

The bearded instructor called Lutroan got extremely flustered and attempted to grab the first prince’s arm and flee with him, but Xeonith easily stopped him, twisting his hand and slamming the man against the table.