Alfonse walks down the hallway, dark walls whispering in a language he doesn't understand. In the library he often visits, he read that the witches who wrote texts in the witch language here died and their souls likely remained trapped in this estate. Perhaps the entire house is just a big cluster of their souls.

Alfonse hears voices, but these don't belong to the house. He quickens his pace and catches sight of his Uncle and Allney. Alfonse stops and watches the whole situation from behind the corner.

"Allney, we've told you several times that if you don't show up for the meeting, I'll strip you of all rights to this estate."

Allney grabs his hand, his sleeve looks... bloody. "I..." Before Allney has any time to respond uncle notices and grabs his hand, lifting it up. Allney's sleeve slides down, revealing a scarred hand, the scars fresh and blood smeared.

"Disgusting, are you so weak that you do this?!"

"Uncle, I..."

Alfonse steps out from behind the corner, both of them turning their gaze towards him. "It's my fault."

Alfonse immediately averts his eyes; it's not polite to look Uncle in the face. Both of them stare at him intently, Allney's eyes pleading for help. Uncle is their father's brother, as their father rarely leaves his study, he takes care of the household. He's very decisive and strict, having fought in many wars and led many military actions... he detests weakness. Alfonse slowly approaches them.

Alfonse quickly comes up with a lie. "I invented a new device and wanted Allney to try it out, but it got a little out of hand and... he got cut during the explosion."

"What kind of invention was it?" He asks suspiciously.

"It was a device that was supposed to automatically slice vegetables, I wanted to help the kitchen with cooking." Uncle stares at him for a while, then releases Allney's hand, who quickly hides it behind his back. Allney stares at the ground.

"Oh, like that! You could have told me, I would have sent a servant to try it out." Uncle responds and laughs loudly. "You're a clever boy, Alfonse, so I'll trust you. Many of your inventions are interesting and surely would benefit us. Lately, the pieces of vegetables in the food have been huge and hard to eat."

Alfonse fakely smiles as he continues with his lie. "Yes, Uncle, I noticed that you have a problem with vegetables, so I wanted them to be small and easy to eat, it would also make it easier for the kitchen to have more time for other things, after all, chopping and peeling vegetables takes a lot of time."

"Take Allney to the bathroom and help him wash up, next time you come up with something, tell me so we don't have to postpone the whole meeting because of an injury." Uncle commands and smile, he always had a soft side for Alfonse as he reminds him of his grand-grandfather Krystoph.

"Of course, Uncle." Alfonse response.

Uncle pats Alfonse on the back before leaving, leaving Allney and Alfonse alone. Alfonse lets out a loud sigh. Allney looks at him with a sad expression and thanks him.

"I don't know what's happening with you, but you should stop," Alfonse says.

Allney remains silent, simply lowering his gaze.

"Come on, let's go wash you up," Alfonse suggests, taking Allney's hand and leading him to the bathroom. There, Alfonse rolls up Allney's sleeve and cleans his hand with a clean cloth. He then retrieves a wooden box and pre-prepared bandages from the cabinet above the sink. Applying ointment made from crushed medicinal herbs to Allney's wounds, he carefully wraps them up.

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"I thought you said you wouldn't do this anymore," Alfonse remarks.

"I... it helps me. I haven't done it for a long time, just..." Allney trails off.

"I won't interrogate you. Just if you need anything, you can come to me," Alfonse assures him.

Allney had often helped him when they were children, so Alfonse feels he owes him at least a listening ear and possibly some assistance. However, he doesn't want to force Allney into anything.

"Matyash wanted me to call Frezya, he said he wanted to talk to her," Allney reveals.

"Why would he want to talk to her of all people?" Alfonse wonders.

"I don't know, but when I said I wouldn't call her, he got angry," Allney explains.

"Did he shout at you or something?" Alfonse asks.

"No, he just told me I would regret it. And when I came back from dinner... my whole room was totally wrecked. He even stole the plans I had for the meetings and hung my cat on the chandelier... When I returned, there was blood everywhere, and..." Allney's voice falters.

"And you took it as your fault because you didn't give him what he wanted," Alfonse concludes.

"Yes..." Allney admits.

"I'll talk to him as soon as I take you back to your room," Alfonse decides.

"Don't do that, he'll just tell you he won't do it again, and then he'll do something worse to me for telling you about it," Allney blabbers.

"What do you plan to do then? Just let it be?" Alfonse inquires.

"Even if I called her, she wouldn't come right away; surely she's busy..." Allney trails off.

Alfonse sighs, realizing that's likely not the whole truth. Matyash is quite... strange, but he wouldn't wreck his room just because Allney didn't want to call Frezya. Unless it was very important.

Alfonse sighs. Maybe he could ask Frezya if Matyashe wanted something from her because why else would he go to Allney to ask her to come? Matyashe could simply send her a letter to come, so she must have refused, and that's why he wanted Allney to call her instead.

"Leave it to me; I'll figure something out," Alfonse declares.

Allney doesn't say anything in response, but it's evident that he's quite scared.

----------------------------------------

A few weeks later, everyone gathered for the meeting.

"As you surely know, a lot has happened since the last meeting, and I've had enough of all of you," Uncle says angrily, slamming his fist on the table. No one utters a word. He shoots an angry glance at Matyash.

"Matyash, we've heard that you haven't been attending classes and instead, you've been wandering around the woods and constantly going somewhere," Uncle accuses, his voice so loud that Allney flinches.

Then, his gaze shifts to Allney. "You! Teachers have complained that you haven't been to a SINGLE class in the past month!" he shouts so loudly.

He then turns his gaze to Alfonse. "You, stop doing everyone else's work! It's great that you help, but first, do your own work, and then, if you feel like it, you can help others!"

Pointing his finger at Haffrey, he hisses, "You infuriate me the most! Others at least go to that stupid church once in a blue moon, but you haven't shown up there for more than a year! You don't do your work, and instead, you wander around the town as if there's nothing else to do!"

He angrily slams his fist on the table again. "Do you all find this amusing?! All you have to do is attend classes, go to church, and occasionally fill out some documents to learn something! Everything is arranged for you! Is that not enough for you?!" he continues to yell without pause. "You all have everything served to you on a silver platter. At your age, I was already riding into wars and leading battles. If someone sent you to the front lines, you wouldn't last a day! Each of you has everything handed to you! Your entire life is already prescribed, and you don't have to do anything! Each of you has a clear future for which many would sell their soul! What more do you want?!" He angrily kicks the chair.

No one says anything, and they just wait until they can finally leave.

"I've had enough. You will attend church every other week on Sundays. You will be obliged to participate in balls and all events, in addition to classes. Those who lag behind or fail to show up will get the tracker or be fired straight away!"

The tracker is a bracelet that cannot be removed. The only way to get rid of it is to cut off your hand or have it removed by the one who put it on you. Whenever you stray, you'll get shocked, and your position will appear on the map. It's not something anyone would want.

Uncle continues angrily, "This is not acceptable at all. Your sisters manage everything, which is also why I excused them from today's meeting. There are eight of you, and only two are capable of doing everything correctly..." He sighs loudly and then continues in a calmer tone. "If it took up your entire day, or even just half a day, I'd understand if you tried to wriggle out of it. I myself sometimes skipped training to go to town for women, but this will only take a few hours a week."

Uncle falls silent for a moment, and the room is filled with grave silence. Alfonse hears a tapping sound next to him; it's Allney nervously tapping his foot. Alfonse discreetly glances from under his bangs at Uncle, which fortunately didn't notice the sound.

With another loud sigh, Uncle slumps back into his chair. "I'm ending the meeting. Get out, all of you."