The crowd of spectators gave out a cheer and a round of applause, as Felix waved his hand and shattered the eight hexes, and severed the Soul Siphon. Richard didn't really perk up, though - it would probably be at least a couple of hours before his mind was back to normal, and who knows how severe his internal injuries were. Leo waved over a couple of slaves, who looked down into the pit in horror as they saw Richard, a noble who was an existence so high above them he was basically a deity, reduced to a gibbering wreck. They shot Felix a look of fear, and carefully got Richard out of the hole and dragged him off somewhere for rest and healing. The spectating nobles gasped as they finally got a good look at Richard, blood dribbled all over his clothes and body, and crying and muttering like a madman. Some of them looked at Felix with trepidation.

Earl Belrose, as the host, stepped forward at this time.

"All you young ones of the new generation, I thank you all for attending my beloved grand-daughter's coming of age ceremony. The time is getting quite late, however, and the entertainment is concluded. I think you all can see that my family has some internal matters which need discussing in private. I will be sure that Scarlet receives the many gifts you left, but for tonight, I ask that you please retire to your quarters or enjoy the nightlife out in the city of Belfast, I'm sure you all can find some merchant more than happy to stay up late to serve a couple dozen young nobles with deep pockets, if you don't quite feel like laying down for the night." Earl Belrose said to them with a smile.

The many young Lords and Ladies bowed and curtseyed, thanking the Earl for his hospitality, and most of them opted to exit the gates out in to the city, no doubt wanting to stay up late and gossip about the day's events. Notably, the Tinnit siblings returned to the manor instead.

Earl Belrose turned to Leo and Felix. "Shall we return indoors?" he asked them. Neither they nor Scarlet, who was staying by the Earl this whole time, objected. They entered the manor, and after Felix was quickly healed back up by Prudence's light magic, they went to the Earl's study. Leo and Scarlet sat on a couch, while Felix and Earl Belrose opted for some chairs on the side.

"Your dark magic quite surprised me." Earl Belrose began. "I know we don't have anything like that in the library. I won't ask you where you got such sinister cursing magic, but will that brat from the Duke's household be all right?" he asked Felix.

"He should be fine in a few hours. So long as I break the spell, it's effects will recede over time." Felix said.

Earl Belrose nodded in response. "That's good. I don't want to give the Duke some kind of excuse to start some nonsense with me." he said.

"Even if he was injured, you could have just thrown his own words he said back at him. "A spar is a spar, and injuries are only to be expected.". He himself said so in front of a couple dozen witnesses, I doubt he could do anything even if he wanted to." Felix said.

"You have a lot to learn about the viciousness of nobles. Often they won't need a reason to act, just a flimsy excuse can be more than enough." Earl Belrose responded with a mysterious smile.

"I don't doubt it, Uncle." Felix said.

"You still dare to call him Uncle?" Leo spoke up suddenly, glaring at Felix. He wasn't looking at him as harshly as before, but he still looked unresolved.

"Calm down Leo. I told you I knew his lineage wasn't what you expected even before I invited him here, and that means I knew that when I told him to address me that way as well." Earl Belrose said.

"Well if he isn't actually a member of the Belrose family bloodline, why did you invite him over to be with us, then?" Leo asked, befuddled.

"I suppose it's about time I tell you all the truth. Firstly, Felix really is the grandson of my second younger brother, Luke. It's just... Luke himself wasn't actually the son of my father, the late Earl." Earl Belrose said, while he grabbed a glass of wine that slaves had brought in earlier.

"What?" Scarlet, Leo, and Felix asked in unison.

"It's like this..." Earl Belrose began. "My father, rest his soul, happened to not be born with the affinity of darkness. Instead, he was a wood and metal mage. So, in order to ensure that house Belrose had a mage with the darkness affinity in the current generation, he had to do what many nobles do, and marry someone in another house who had the appropriate affinity." he recounted.

"That makes sense... so who did he end up picking?" Leo asked.

"Well... he found a match in a nice young Lady who had the darkness affinity from house Duvain. Her name, my mother's name, was Joy. I'm sure you two have seen her on the family gravestones, but Felix wouldn't have." Earl Belrose said with a swig of his glass.

All three of them were stunned. "Wait, you mean we have a bloodline connection to house Duvain from three generations prior?" Leo asked.

"Correct. And house Duvain recognizes anyone who is within three generations of the main line as a legitimate member of their household. So all three of you could claim to be members of house Duvain, if you so wished." Earl Belrose explained.

"Then... what about the bloodline issues with Felix?" Leo asked tentatively.

Earl Belrose looked quite sad. "Well... my mother didn't appear out of thin air and fall into my father's lap, of course. She had a full life of nineteen years before they were matched together by my grandfather and the Duke of that generation. So, naturally, she had her own family matters, quarrels, friendships, and everything else, just like any person would. And one of those lingering matters was her childhood friend. A man named Zacharias." Earl Belrose said the name with obvious disdain. "Zacharias was my mother's second cousin, eighth in the line of succession to the Dukedom, and they had grown up together. He loved her quite dearly. However, neither the Duke, nor my grandfather, particularly cared much about his opinion, and to be honest, from what I heard, although my mother liked him as a friend, she wasn't particularly attached to him romantically anyway. So, they paired my father and mother together out of mutual interest of both households, and Zacharias was crushed by the matter." Earl Belrose recounted.

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"What does this Zacharias fellow have to do with anything?" Leo asked.

"I'm getting there. So, my mother and my father had me, and my first younger brother, Tyras. They got along quite well, and seemed to be a good pairing, and a happy couple, and my mother took on the Belrose family's dark magics and combined them with the magics she knew from house Duvain to great effect. She was quite powerful. But... she had spent a lot of time focused on being with my brother and I, helping to rear us and spend time with us, and being personally involved in our lives. Meanwhile, while she was having warm family moments with us... Zacharias was training. Whenever she was enjoying a quiet night with my father... Zacharias was training. When she flustered the maids by trying to help cook food for us in the kitchen... Zacharias was training." Earl Belrose said ominously.

Felix got a bad feeling.

"Finally, about ten years later, after my mother was twenty-nine, she was called back to house Duvain for her younger cousin's coming of age ceremony. My mother's second element was the wind, just like my own, and so she was able to return to house Duvain swiftly on her own. The coming of age ceremony went just fine, it was certainly a more ordinary affair than the one we just wrapped up. But, naturally, my mother was not going to return to house Belrose in the middle of the night, and so she opted to just sleep at house Duvain for the night. And when she fell asleep... that is when Zacharias, along with a few of his other close relatives, struck, capturing my mother and kidnapping her in the dead of night." he said sadly.

Felix, Leo, and Scarlet all sat in silence. None of them wanted to ask what happened next. But Earl Belrose kept talking anyway.

"And so, Zacharias captured my mother, and he... he... he raped her. And he hid her away in a hidden portion of the house that he had sealed away long in advance. My father wasn't too worried after she didn't return for a day or two - he figured my mother had just decided to catch up with her family, or had some errand to attend to in the capital, and besides, she was nearly as powerful as he was! But then, a week passed with no word of her, so he got worried. Being a metal mage, his speed was nothing to scoff at, and so he rushed to the capital, and to house Duvain, where he was received warmly. But, they were confused when my father said my mother had not returned. The majority of the household thought she had simply left the day after the coming of age ceremony. Although, no one questioned could recall actually seeing her leave. And so, an investigation began." Earl Belrose paused here to refill his wine and take another drink. "Unfortunately, most of the most powerful members of both households were away at the moment, as the demons had sent yet another army to attack Fort Basil, and so were summoned to help defend immediately after the coming of age ceremony had concluded. And that left the most senior member of house Duvain actually at the household in the capital at the time... as Zacharias. And so, he was put in charge of the investigation, at my father's request." Earl Belrose said.

Scarlet had tears in her eyes at this point. Leo and Felix both had downcast expressions.

"My father did not suspect him of any wrong-doing. He simply had no reason to, and besides, Zacharias and my mother were friends in the past and cousins. So even if he consciously had wondered at any point if Zacharias had anything to do with the matter, he would have dismissed the thought on the grounds of their friendship and family relationship. And so, Zacharias appointed all of his co-conspirators to put on a grand show of putting in ten thousand percent effort of doing everything in their power to investigate the matter. Grand water runes, scryings, a thousand interviews, they even made an illusion that looked as if they had tried to turn back time to find out what happened. And yet, nothing worked. All the while... they were stalling for time. It was an entire year before the more senior members of both houses returned from fighting back the demons, as was their noble obligation, and when they did return... the matter was unraveled in an instant. My mother was found, chained in a room, her magic sealed... and with my baby brother, Luke, three months old at the time." Earl Belrose said sadly.

Scarlet was openly crying, and Felix and Leo were both obviously depressed. "What happened next?" Leo asked quietly.

"Naturally, my grandfather, the Earl at that time, was beyond furious, and he directly appealed to His Majesty, the King, to resolve the matter. He asked openly how they could be expected to fight the demons on behalf of the kingdom if the Duke's households were running around kidnapping and sexually assaulting members of the lower houses behind their backs. It was a huge affair. However.... Joy was also still a member of house Duvain. And it's not like they could strip house Duvain of their peerage when it was some lower members of the household in effect assaulting each other. It was halfway an internal affair for house Duvain, and halfway one which involved the Belrose family. Still, the lower houses would be loathe to fight for the royal family if they had to worry about the upper houses kidnapping their women behind their backs when they went to do so. So the King had to punish them somehow. And so, firstly, Zacharias and his co-conspirators were executed. And secondly, the King granted house Belrose the exclusive legal monopoly over the slave trade, which had before this time been freely available to any dark noble house, as compensation, as they had both fought fiercely in the battles at Fort Basil, and had this matter happen behind their back while they did so." Earl Belrose said.

"Weren't the other dark noble houses upset by this?" Leo asked.

"To be honest, there's only four dark noble houses in the entire kingdom the first place, so, not very many people were impacted. House Duvain could be ignored since this was their punishment, house Belrose wasn't opposed since this was their compensation, and the other two dark households were a viscounty and a barony, respectively. They were given other compensations by the King." Earl Belrose explained.

"...So what happened next?" Felix asked.

"Well... my mother was freed and returned to house Belrose, of course. But that left the question of what to do with Luke, my baby brother. My mother was emotionally attached to him, as any mother is with their child, and so she begged my father to treat him as one of his own. My father had complicated feelings on the matter of course, but he was mostly happy to have my mother back safe and sound, and she had just gone through a horrible affair. He did not wish to upset her further. Adding on to that, house Duvain and the King himself both also requested Luke be formally adopted into house Belrose, to stay with his mother. And so, Luke was formally adopted as a member of the Belrose family and raised as any other Young Master would have been." Earl Belrose said wistfully.

"So... Felix and I are like, third half-cousins, instead of normal second cousins?" Leo asked.

"Correct." Earl Belrose said.