A warm feeling is felt expanding as the now clean Viran slept. An unpleasant smell begins to assault Viran’s nostrils as he is finally jostled awake from his comatose state. His eyes are met with the sight of decaying wood over his head, an uncomfortable bed, and scratchy bedsheets. He blinks his eyes multiple times as his hands begin to rub his face all over. A deep sigh of relief escapes him.

‘No blood… No scars…’ Viran thought as relief continues to wash over him.

Viran looks to the left of him and is met with the scary gaze of Sir Leonard, his once calming demeanor now overcome with disgust and anger. His aged voice fills the room the second their eyes meet.

“Hrmm. You pissed yourself just now.” He murmurs. “In my bed too…”

“Eh!” Viran looks down at the bed sheets covering his body and sees a large dark spot steadily increasing.

Viran quickly began yelling while in bed looking back and forth from Sir Leonard and his blanket. Viran’s nose began to brighten and his eyes began to tingle with tears forming.

“Hrmm. Now I know you’re a kid n’ all, but you’re still a Noble and a magic user at that.” Sir Leonard’s eyes tighten in exasperation as his eyes reveal a deep seated indecision. “Hrmm. Well for now, let’s get you cleaned up. Then… We need to talk.”

Viran quickly nods his head along to the suggestion. His mind was fuzzy from just waking up, and the deathly embarrassment.

After the… Incident was cleaned up and Viran had washed himself thoroughly, the young boy sat across from the aged man. Sir Leonard's mouth opened with much effort only to close easily the next moment later, seeing the difficulty he was having Viran opted to start the conversation himself.

"Erm… What exactly happened after I lost consciousness?"

"Hrmm. I healed you the best I could and used levitation magic in order to bring you to the local healer here. Luckily I brought you to him fast enough, if I were any later he said there would have been lasting damage and an even better healer would be needed." The aged voice spoke in a rushed tone.

Shocked by the relentless speech that had come all too fast out of the old man, Viran quickly switched the topic in order to keep the conversation going.

"D-did my Father say anything? Anything at all?" Viran asked tepidly.

Silence ensued between the two before a firm shake of the old man's head answered Viran's question.

The old man breathes a hard sigh and asks with a low and deep voice.

"Did you try to kill Gregory?" Sir Leonard's voice trembled as he spoke.

The question shocks Viran as he quickly responds, "What? No! Gregory came up to me and hit me a spell before I could even do anything. Why would I even want to kill him? He's insane! Did you not see him continue to hit me with a huge grin on his face? He knew you all were watching too!" Viran begins to yell, and his voice darkens. "Though I guess you and the rest of them don't quite care if I die. You all stood there and watched me bleed half to death."

Sir Leonard's eyes dim as he shakes his head, a helpless apology exits a second later.

"I'm… I'm sorry. Gregory right then was basically impossible to control. Only Spion and Lord Idicium had the authority at the time to reprimand him, and the rest of us were afraid." Sir Leonard looks up and continues. "Gregory says that you've been aggressive towards him for a long time… And you were the one to start the fight… With a real sword too…"

Viran's hands tightened as he hung his head down. His hands slowly reach up to cling to his hair. Shaking his head Viran begins to recount the sequence of events to Sir Leonard.

"Hrmm. Yes, yes. Everyone had seen what happened after you screamed… But no one witnessed who started it and now…" An aggrieved sigh exits Sir Leonard."You're both being punished for fighting."

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"No! No! No! That's not fair! Wha- Why?" Viran yells as his eyes flare with anger.

"Hrmm. It's only been a day since the fight and rumors had already reached Arx… Lord Idicium needed to make a fast decision in order to control the damage somewhat.” Sir Leonard says. “When you first wake up I’m supposed to report immediately to Lord Idicium, and you’ll be put under house arrest all the way until your birthday during the Week of Unity. Gregory on the other hand will be forbidden from playing with any of the servant children and he will be given twice the amount of literature and etiquette work.”

"Yes but why me? Why would he believe Gregory with no proof? Why would I even try to kill him?" Viran despondently spoke.

"Hrmm. It's an open secret that Gregory would be the next Lord… So you'll be used as the scapegoat instead of all of the pressure being put onto Gregory. No one believes what Gregory says. I saw what his eyes looked like and they were… Dangerous. Not a single servant in the estate believes what Gregory is saying, don't worry." Sir Leonard reassured.

“That… Doesn’t make me feel much better. Even if they know the truth, the Lord’s decree will be louder than anything they can say.” Spat Viran.

“Hrmm. Well yes but I’m sure the rest of the servants will have a nicer opinion of you-” Sir Leonard spoke before being abruptly cut off.

“Yeah? Well why should I care if they pity me! It’s not like they’re going to do anything to help my situation!” Viran slammed his fists against his thighs. “They’re nothing like Sir Renault! You’re nothing like him! You ignore my plight and then you want me to feel happy just because you all pity me? Do you all really look down on me that much! Don’t think I will feel better just because you pity me.”

Viran had felt… Mystified by Sir Leonard’s logic. Even if everyone believed Gregory Viran wouldn’t feel any worse or any better. In truth, Viran hated those servants that just stood by and watched him suffer. Viran knew, logically, he shouldn’t blame them since his Father was not to be trifled with. But his emotions wouldn’t surrender to the logic, no matter how he tried he only felt anger towards them all. Even Sir Leonard, though he had helped save Viran he couldn’t help but still feel angry towards him. He only came to save Viran after Gregory was taken away.

Being pitied by these people… Stung Viran the more he thought about it.

Standing up Viran began to walk in an angry manner towards the door. Sir Leonard was still bemused from the sudden rant Viran suddenly had and stood up in an eccentric manner not befitting of his old age.

“Wait Viran where are you going? Hrmm. You should still rest don’t you think?” Sir Leonard asked.

“No, I don’t need your pity.” Viran said. “And I don’t wish for help. Not anymore.”

Seeing the small hand finally grasp the door handle Sir Leonard pulls his hand off of it. His gaze was directed down at the small boy, his height completely towering over him many times over. The gaze directed at Viran was one of helplessness, and a feeling of guilt. His gaze completely shifts immediately after and he pulls Viran back to his seat.

“Hrmm. I’ll be in trouble if I let you leave now. First I have to tell my Lord of your situation… But before I do that I need to… Write a note.” Sir Leonard says with a stiff expression.

Grabbing a long piece of paper from a desk in the corner of the room, Sir Leonard neatly lays it out onto the desk in front of him. Hovering his hand over the paper a blue light appears and covers the entire surface of the paper. Appearing out of nowhere was a neat blue writing on the paper. Seeing this Viran goes wide-eyed and quickly asks a question.

“What kind of spell was that?” Asked Viran.

“Hrmm. Whenever I’m in a hurry the spell can put whatever I’m thinking directly onto the page. The spell still isn’t perfect, but it does its job. I know most people believe magic users are only good for killing. But first and foremost, I am a scholar at heart. But the Empire was not as stable as it is now 40 years ago, practically every magic user was forcefully conscripted to fight in the Empire’s battles. So I naturally developed some spells that were used to defend myself.” Sir Leonard explained.

Folding the piece of paper, Sir Leonard grabbed a book from the pile he had laying around. Flipping through the pages Sir Leonard was content and nodded his head while slipping the piece of paper between the pages. As Viran looked closer at the book he saw that it looked relatively new and had a clean exterior that was particularly pleasing to the eye.

“Hrmm. But of course, after this incident they will likely search through your entire residence before putting you fully into house arrest. I had always liked books, and it’s good you like books as well.” Sir Leonard said before throwing the book into Viran’s hands.

“Sir…?” Viran said while dumbfounded.

“I bet you didn’t hide the journal Renault had given you before he left, so that will be taken away.” Sir Leonard said while shrugging.”Hrmm. But besides, that book is outdated anyways and magic has made great strides in the Empire since then.”

“How do you know about that journal? I thought you both hated each other… Why are you even helping me?” Viran could not help but force down the heavy stone that had implanted itself within his throat. He felt the things he had said just before were too harsh, now that Sir Leonard showed himself to be a man of action.

“Hrmm. People treat different people differently, Renault and I never hated each other if that was what you were asking.” Sir Leonard paused. “And the reason I’m helping you is… Out of respect for Renault. Helping people truly was his greatest quality.”

“I’m sorry, for saying those things Sir Leonard… But besides that, how will I sneak this book past the guards?” Viran asked.

Hearing this Sir Leonard walks next to Viran and silently raises his hand onto the book in Viran’s hand. His aged voice echoes throughout the entirety of the room as he spoke the name of the spell.

“Incorporeal Enlightenment.”

In this instant Viran felt a flood of mana surge out from Sir Leonard which disappeared only a second after. A moment later Viran’s hands lose their sense of touch and looking down at his hands he is bewildered. The book had already evaporated in large flakes of blue mana that then stuck itself onto his skin before disappearing only a second later.

“What! Wha- Sir Leonard!” Viran yelped as he directed his bewildered gaze at the old man in front of him.

“Don’t do it, but I need you to find a good hiding spot in your house to hide that book. If you chant Incorporeal ‘Enlightenment again’ the book will retransfigure itself once more. It’s not the spell I’m best at because it is indeed very complicated, and it only works with items imbued with my mana.” Answered Sir Leonard. “Now no more questions, and don’t get caught with that book. If you are, I will suffer even worse than Renault had.”

After a few moments more of talking Sir Leonard simply smiled and walked out of his residence. Seeing that old man walk away from him, Viran had already forgotten how the very same old man had pretended to sleep in order to get out of his duties. The feelings Viran experienced in that moment were ones of gratitude, and guilt for the things he said earlier.

Looking at the pile of books in the room, Viran’s interest was piqued and he hopped off of his seat to direct his attention towards another copy of the book he had been given. The title he sees written on the book shook him deeply.

“I guess he really is a scholar at heart, huh.” Viran whispered to no one in the room.

Written on the front cover of the book was the title, ‘An introduction to the theorycraft of magic.’ And in a smaller font underneath read the name, ‘Sir Pisano Leonard.’

“So his name was Pisano, huh.” Viran whispered even quieter to himself as a smile bloomed upon his adolescent face.