* slice *

The arm was cut and fell down. A cry of agony was coming out of Elliot’s mouth falling to his knees. Raja pulled out a long piece of fabric and enveloped the Arm before bringing it to Drak.

“You! What was that Sword! Answer me!”

Taking the Arm from Raja, Drak stored the bundle in his magic pouch.

“What do you mean? It is a sword of severing. I took your arm, and that is that.”

“What kind of sword is that?!”

Noticing the murmurs around him he knew something was wrong. It must be a magical sword, but because of the pain he could not remember right now where he heard the Name from.

“Sword of severing. What is being cut will stay cut. The sword is made to not let magical mending repair magic armor or cut off limbs regrow.”

“What?!”

“As stated you agreed for me to take your left arm completely. This arm is now mine and you will not grow another one back.”

“You bastard! You! Do you know what you have done?!”

“I took my price and with this the Duel is over. No revenge is being allowed for something we already settled in a Duel, even the price is included. Did you not remember Nobility lessons?”

Elliot wanted to shout, curse at him and even order his Servants to attack him, but he could not. If he does that a dozen Nobles would be a witness to an ‘unprovoked attack’. While the meaning of ‘no revenge’ is always being bent, it can not be so blatantly broken in front of all of those around. If Elliot could think straight, he would notice he had endless possibilities to later get even with Drak, but the pain in his left shoulder made it impossible for him to even make simple connections in his mind.

Glaring at Drak and keeping his emotion in check he suddenly fell over and fainted. Blood Loss, pain and the chaotic mindset made him finally break down. His Servants came after being dragged out of their stupor and closed the wound while also treating Hans.

—

The School day was rather silent for Drak, as everyone else was keeping their distance. Seeing he was not below using vicious means makes him not a target for any bullying attempt anymore.

The performance of one of his Maids made him already a bit of a gamble, but as he now showed how another one had rather overbearing strength, no one wanted to make him a target for the meantime. Many inquiries and orders to dig up Information were made by different kinds of Nobles, but had low hope of finding out anything at all. Drak’s Brother and Sister were suddenly spoken to by different kinds of Youths to find a reason for their younger Brother to be so protected by such high level battle Maids, but were all dismissed right after the name ‘Drak’ was mentioned and their true purpose revealed.

Some interesting Gossip churned through the School, as Noble Children all love a good Secret to be uncovered and speculated about.

At the end of the Day, Drak was walking to his Carriage, as he heard a female voice behind him.

“Brother?”

Turning around he saw Elizabeth clenching her hands, seemingly trying to ask something.

“What is it?”

While being annoyed by the sudden visit of his blood relative, he tried his best to keep his emotions from bursting out. Sadly he could not hold all of it in and his response was rather ice cold. Noticing this Elizabeth flinched a bit, but after a few breaths got her courage back to finally speak.

“I… We would like you to meet us again. I know we… are not close, but please let us try to close that chasm between us, even a little bit.”

Hearing those words, Drak felt weird. He felt painful, but also hateful. The mix in itself was rather poisonous and traveled through his body like magma making the Volcano named Drak more unstable by the second.

Suddenly feeling a hand rubbing his back he noticed how Seria soothed him and made him come to his senses. Unbeknownst to him all four of his Maids came closer and were touching him by proximity. Realizing how warm and secure he was, Drak could finally keep all the emotions in check.

“Not right now, as I need to study for a specific topic. We will send a request for a get together as soon as my schedule is free. Please send my regards to Brother. If you please excuse me, I have evening Studies to attend.”

“I understand… Sorry for taking your time. I will be waiting for your letter, dear Brother.”

Turning around, Drak did not say much more and just went to his Carriage. Korn already opened the door and extended the step for Drak and his entourage. Afterwards Korn closed the door and looked back at Elizabeth.

Feeling his look, Elizabeth noticed him and looked in his eyes. She felt like looking into the eyes of a Wolf or rather something much more dangerous for a split second. Her heart skipped a beat, but afterwards Korn just made a courtesy bow and entered his seat on the front and ordered the Horses to start the journey.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Elizabeth’s heart was beating hard but the blood inside felt somewhat cold. Not only because of Korn’s stare but also Drak’s demeanor. She noticed how hard it was for him to keep from exploding and if the Maids did not help, he might have even lashed out.

“I might have deserved it…”

Being rather melancholic Elizabeth turned around and went to her own stagecoach, where her carriage and her elder Brother were waiting for her.

—

“Information about Celia and her Family is not consistent. This will be reviewed and we will make sure to find out more about what is the truth.”

“You can relax your search. It is of no immediate concern.”

Eleonora was more relaxed than her Spymaster in front of him. Hearing how his Information was faulty at that degree seems to make him ashamed of being duped along the way.

“Princess? It would be problematic if we do not know our enemy fully, therefore we need to-”

“And that is the wrong mindset right now. We are no enemies. We are right now in a mutually beneficial contract and need to be on our good behavior.”

“But our orders are clear, we need to… No, you are right. We have opened up our cards in hand and are right now in an equal position of trade. While it is right now different than our original order, because of the direct influence of Sir Anderson Gracia Imperia the whole Mission needs to adjust.”

“Did you never had such an occasion?”

“I had, but every time this order came I was just extracted right away before I was noticed. I am not good in social interactions and rather in direct approaches like extraction of Documents, collecting evidence and direct assassination. I wish to ask for a replacement, as I can not help you in these aspects.”

“Denied. While you are not able to have the social interactions in your mind, your work is otherwise perfect. The whole time we were already being watched by the Mastermind behind our Target and still you could keep your composure and hold the organization stable. When I was a bit… shaken by the Bathroom incident, you kept everything under control and even made sure to not overreact. Others would have become paranoid of having double spies between our men, but you found right away no sign of doubt in our men and could see the traces of professionals.”

“While I thank you for your compliment Princess, I am not able to-”

“That is my part. I am in front and have all the social skills of Nobility trained into my bones since I was three. What I do not have is a cold calculating mindset, perfectly honed skills of intrusion detection and infiltration and especially not the ability to keep the spy network in my full grasp. If I change you out to a socialite Spymaster I do not learn new things but might even be replaced completely and do not learn anything for my later work. I need you as Teacher and second hand, not someone who takes all my work from me.”

“...I understand and thank you for your full trust in me.”

‘Sorry Spymaster, only half of it is trust, the other is the feeling of having more leeway with you here instead of someone who can read the room.’

—

The next day came and Drak was getting ready for his School day by his daily washing routine. Where other Noble Children would have their Servants do this, Drak made all of it on his own and even the former washing of his back was now done by him, out of his own order. For this his head Maids were busy making breakfast as they were awake earlier and already did their preparations for the day.

“Master gets a bit more irritated in the recent days.”

“He is still shaken Raja, even if he did not know about what~”

“While I was with him in bed tonight with Celia he was still shivering rather hard until he was asleep. Rest days now include two full rests and only the problematic lessons are focused. Also two of us must be with the Master to give him the feeling of more security.”

“While he might have bad thoughts trying to fall asleep, he had a rather nice dream I believe.”

“What makes you believe that?”

“Um… You did not notice because of you being on his back, so maybe I am wrong but… you know there were some signs of him having a good dream… In a kind of way.”

Celia’s voice got a bit more silent at every single sentence and her face was already flushed. Seria who was right now working on making a nutritional salad was not noticing it.

“What are you stuttering about? I asked why you know about his dreams. I just want to know what you mean.”

The others noticed Celia being a bit strange already saw her face and were trying to connect things when Celia finally said something that made their minds click into place.

“I got poked… in the stomach… by something…”

Hearing this Seria stopped making the Salad and froze a bit. Naturally she understood the facts now. If she had not tried to work out a good schedule for Drak to find more inner peace, she might have noticed it already and would not have dug so deep to want to jump in that hole out of embarrassment herself now.

“Ah… I see. Maybe we should stop thinking of our Master as just a child? He has grown and I forgot. No wonder he does not want us to help with the baths anymore.”

“He sees us as Women, so it is understandable~”

“Even me with all my scars. I feel strange but it feels good.”

“So being close to him might be problematic? No, we keep the status quo, but all of you need to have in the back of the head to see if he gets uncomfortable and needs to further your distance by then. Otherwise always be at his side. We might be the only thing which keeps him from breaking.”

“As you say Seria!”

“Understood~”

“Keeping Master’s heart in mind, as always.”

“Good, and if it is your night at the front if you… um… get poked, do not startle Master awake but give him room.”

“You need to give him a lot of room!”

“Celia!”

“Oh my~”

“Will do, Celia.”

Shortly after Drak was entering the dining hall freshly groomed and ready for the next school day. While he wondered what it was about his Maids were slightly pink in the face and also made a rather opulent breakfast.

Also the talk on the Table where all of them ate together was more relaxed. No talk about the Study Schedule, what the status of the fight between the slowly dying out gangs in the Imperial City was or what troubles the small hidden Villages Drak made for the rescued slaves had. Rather than that there was more lighthearted talk about the Gardener starting a flowerbed, Celia finding a new book about baking and her eagerness to try some new Cake recipes and the Market having a sale on some exotic Produces they could not procure about their own Villages.

While Drak could not put his finger on the difference in atmosphere he subconsciously felt it. He felt warmer and at ease. A smile was slowly creeping on his face and he felt more at home right now, as he ever felt before in this new Mansion far away from the Duchy he grew up in.