“Did you talk back to me… Who do you think you are, woman?! You better watch your tongue around me, the future head of the Keswick household.”

“Oh, quiet Eden, I watched you grow up alongside me, as my own little brother! And now you're talking to me like this, you truly have no heart. What do you even want to tell me, that’s so important that you’re forcing Jeldard to leave?”

“Well, I was going to say that you should ditch that disgusting parasite you call a friend. Because the mercenaries my men saved your asses from were clearly hired by someone that dislikes your disgusting friendship. But no, don’t listen to your brother, why would he try to help you.” Ahh, that’s his plan, too bad he screwed up.

“Yeah, “someone”, nice try Eden, but I’m not stupid, I know it was you. Why did you do it, why did you try to abduct your own sister?!”

“Are you accusing me, your brother, of planning your kidnapping? Have you no shame, woman?”

“Oh, don’t act like you’ve done nothing, how did you know both of us got kidnapped?”

“Well, my men heard it from the commoners, that two nobles got abducted somewhere around noon.”

“Well, that’s funny because only I got kidnapped! Unless you hired those men to abduct the two of us, but you didn’t know that Jeldard got away, or that your little guards didn’t do anything.”

“What are you talking about, are you perhaps delirious? Well, I can’t blame you, you were always more on the crazy side.”

“Just tell me why you did it!”

“All right, I hired the mercenaries, and do you want to know why? It’s because you’re muddying up the family name.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Family name!? Does that really matter more to you than your own sister's happiness!?”

“Of course, it does! I am the future head of the Keswick household, it is my responsibility to keep our great name clean and without blemishes!”

“You’re just like Father, always thinking about the family name, never about the actual family, that’s why Mother couldn't take it anymore.”

“Don’t talk about Mother, she left on her own terms, it’s her fault she couldn’t take it, not Father's.”

“Listen to yourself, look what that future head role made you into, a heartless monster!”

“Get out of my study.”

“B-”

“Get out!”, he yelled while pointing at the door.

We both head out of the mansion and head back to the academy. Keswick was quiet the whole way, not uttering a single word.

We make it to the dorms, and before we split up, she tells me “Sorry about my brother.”

“No, I should be sorry to you, our friendship is causing a lot of trouble for you.”

“Don’t say that, I promised you that I would be more dedicated to our friendship, that means no one can stand in my way.” Why can’t this damned woman give up and mind her own damned business?

We split up, and I make it to my dorm. I head inside and greet Ustos with my daily threat.

I pick up the mana-sensing magic ring from the counter I placed it on yesterday.

I lie down on my bed and get ready for my daily magic session.

I put on the ring and start sensing my mana. I can sense the faith of my body, the imprinted mana moving through it, I can also sense a portion of the outer layer around my soul, made of condensed imprinted mana, defending me from atmospheric mana.

I start trying to grapple onto imprinted mana, it is far easier than the first time I tried but still really hard. But in the end, my greatness shall prove victorious and I shall improve.

After the mana training, I go to the library to do my research and spend the rest of my day there studying ahead.

Time moves on, it’s been two months since the Keswick drama and I can sense 60% of my great and dutiful soul.

Keswick has been less energetic over the two months. Probably a bit scarred by the kidnapping and fighting with her brother, don’t really care. Actually, that’s good for me, she talks less so I can actually pay attention to the lessons and not spend precious time talking to her about useless and inane stupid topics.

The soul theory teacher told us to let her know when one of us could fully sense our soul's head region. That would mean that we could perform the second step of the process that lets us sense our soul. The second step is the most dangerous part of gaining the ability to sense the soul and also the longest, so when you start the second step, you can't give up or your soul will likely be damaged or something even worse.