INITIALIZING
Hi. This is– Maximillian, apparently. I’m presently standing in a posh bedroom with a window wider than I am tall. That’s how I know the sun is rising. God that was a long night. Anyway, today -against Meno’s better judgment- we’re going to be running a few tests.
Let’s confirm magic! As I return the chair to it’s normal resting place, my eyes drift to the gold and burgundy patterned rug on the floor. They close, and I sit down on the rug in a lotus position. I breathe slowly, carefully, noticing every breath, noticing every movement within my body as each breath is taken. Then I can feel it: mana. I draw my attention to the magic power within my body, pushing and prodding it with my intentions. Then I expand my attention outwards and find I can now sense the ambient mana in the room. Suddenly an announcement bell rings in my head.
That was easy. This isn’t my first rodeo, so at this rate, I’m going to be hearing this noise a lot.
In response to the alarm, I feel a sluggish shifting in the back of my head, as the edges of my perception give birth to a single black wisp.
“What? What was that noise?” Meno grumbled. His eyes are now a dull green in contrast to yesterday’s luster.
Without bothering to respond, I take a crumpled-up piece of paper and place it in front of me. The reincarnation package should have made it easy to learn every major element, so I’ll first test using pure mana and then with every element. I will the mana within my body to reach outward, extending like the appendage of a slime mold, slowly enveloping the paper. Then I lift up, leaking mana from all directions. When I open my eyes I see a wad of paper hovering a few feet in front of my chest.
“So you’re practicing magic. Ego, didn’t I advise you to rest a few days, and then I would have some tests to propose?”
“I was bored” I reply nonchalantly. “Plus, thanks to your lessons last night, I can already think of most of the tests you had in mind.”
And in advance of the third no-attribute skill, I again call out “status” and notice that my MP has dropped to 447. I expected that using pure mana to lift objects would be inefficient, but to consume just over a tenth of my power to lift a single piece of paper! Well, that goes to show just how long of a road is ahead of me. At the very lest, that one attempt should have cost me enough mana. I push some of the mana out of my body in a wave to perceive the ambient room. When I can see that the ambient mana has grown a bit from my last spell, I reach out with my mana again, but this time use it to reach into the air, slowly using my own wisps of mana to shepard the ambient clouds of the stuff towards and eventually into my body. At first I was losing far more mana than I gained, but as the ambient mana in the room only grew from my failure, the task became progressively easy.
“Status”
MP: 261/500
So I lost more than half. I’ll be spending plenty of time practicing Accelerated Magic Power Recovery ton-
“Say ‘Version’” grumbled Meno.
“Version”
Nothing happened.
“Say ‘Calculator’.” “Calculator”
’“Message?’ ‘Appraisal?’” Still, nothing happened.
“It’s a dud. I don’t know if you need to die and try another world or what. But I can feel my presence is putting too much of a strain on you… I’m going to sleep.”
Wait. I might have to die again? Just for that?
No. I refuse.
Gritting my teeth, I tried putting mana into my voice as I repeated those things, all to no avail. Information magic is the strongest magic there is, and the most important magic. That I learned from Meno’s memory dump last night. If I master information magic then maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to escape this blasted world. Even if it’s not – I’ll look for other ways. Nonetheless, it is a mystery. If there is a “status”, then there should definitely be some information magic. I just need to find it somehow.
Crap. I don’t want to end this session on a losing note. Let’s continue with the easy stuff.
“Fire”.
As I focus on the image of a small sun in the palm of my hand -a sunshine I imagine to fight my growing depression- a ball of mana combusts into an iridescent flame. I follow this same principle to summon a ball of every other element.
I wonder if learning magic is supposed to be hard in this world. I should be careful that I don’t stand out too early. With that, let’s begin the final set of tests today. I reach on the ground with my wind mana and let it slowly float the paper back to chest height. The amount of mana lost was less than 15. With improved mana control the cost should drop to almost nothing. This time with dark magic, a shadow extends from the ground and lifts the paper. I can feel the paper wobble as the thin shadow struggles to keep its form. I fixate my eyes on the shadow, intent on getting this right, and just as the paper is hovering right where it should be-”
“Young master?”
Standing in the doorway was the maid who had first shown me to my room, holding her rough, pale hands over her mouth, her dark green eyes wide with shock. Involuntarily, when I would prefer to be silent, I shouted the worst possible thing I could say in this moment.
“Shit!”
YOU’RE A WIZARD, MAXXIE
The pale boy trembled as he locked eyes with Ioana. As his eyes darted around the room in the panicked manner of a felon trying to excuse himself as he was caught red-handed. Yet the panicked movements were limited only to his eyes, and the room itself remained quiet enough to hear a pin drop. After a few moments of this.
“Amazing!” Ioana shouted.
The boy froze.
“That was amazing.” She repeated, determined to make sure that the young Highreich heard her praise. She slowly walked up to hug him and pat his head. Until this point, young Maximillian never shied away from physical affection and beamed whenever praise was given to him, but this Maximilian stiffened up and silently looked confused.
“I’m sorry, was I not supposed to see that?” Ioana continued, intuiting that maybe what the child needed was consolation for a problem he was not comfortable saying out loud, then a light went on in her head. “I see! You’ve been practicing in secret, haven’t you?”
Sensing his cue, the boy violently nodded.
“Yes. And then your insistence on seeing the sunset, and your silence the rest of the way after. Let me guess, you wanted to show off to the rest of your family that day, but you weren’t ready yet, and went home in disappointment?”
The boy nodded four times along with this line of speculation. Then, the boy mumbled in a wavering tone, almost as if he was unsure how to address Ioana now that she knew his secret. “Uhm. C-could you please not tell anyone just yet?”
Ioana smiled with features that radiated pure warmth. “Your secret is safe with me, young master. Although -” she paused, causing the child who had just relaxed to stiffen up in her arms again “- your parents, and the rest of the household are quite worried about you. So please cheer up.”
The boy smiled back with a smile she’d never seen before. It was a patient, measured smile. Unsure of what to make of this new information, the maid simply chose to ignore it. Releasing her grip, she stepped back and announced “It’s dinnertime. The rest of the family should already be at the table by now. Will you please join them?”
The boy’s eyes shifted to the wad of paper currently sitting on the floor, then slowly drifted back to hers.
“All right.” Ioana replied. “I’ll tell the family that you’re feeling unwell from the journey and are currently resting.”
The boy gave one large nod that even incorporated his shoulders and upper-torso.
Ioana gently shut the door behind her as she left.
LAUNDRY DAY
A few days later, Ioana found herself hunched over, loading a small mountain of bedsheets into a wooden tub, already half-full with water and lye. Meanwhile, the maid who always wears a bonnet pulls a small mountain of lye-soaked sheets out from an identical tub and hands them to two blonde maids who proceed to load them onto a washboard and hand-wash them. At the far end of the room, a cat-eared maid scurries with the washed laundry to the maid waiting outside under six rows of clotheslines.
“Thanks for helping us out with this, Ioana.” Chirped the taller of the two blondes at the far end of the laundry assembly line.
“There’s no need for that, Diana. I’m only doing my job after all.” Shouted Ioana in return.
“You say that, but -” chimed in the shorter of the blondes ” as young master Maximilian’s personal maid, you could use him as an excuse to get out of stuff like this anytime.”
“Yeah.” agreed the taller. “All you’d need to say is ‘the Young Master needs me!’ Given how much the Lord and Lady -not to mention master Friedrich and mistress Bella- like to dote on him, that should be enough.”
“Especially these last few days” concurred the bonnet wearing maid. “Rumor has it that master Maximilian has been acting strangely ever since the family returned from their mountain-climbing excursion.”
“I wouldn’t lie like that!” Ioana gasped. “And these days, the Young Master has been a bit busy with something, so he hasn’t needed me much.” As she uttered these last few words, the other maids could see Ioana’s eyes turn down and to the left, and a small frown appear on her face.
“Busy is one way to put it!” Cried out Diana in return. “It’s like he’s a whole different person! Normally he runs around and tries to rope anyone he can find into playing with him-”
“I miss our tag.” Interrupted the cat-eared maid, her ears folded down.
“And our hide-and-seek” appended the shorter blonde. It’s just so cute the way his little feet are visible when he crouches down behind the curtain.”
“Right.” Continued the taller blonde. “Nowadays when he’s not shut up in his room, he’s either wandering aimlessly about the castle or sneaking into some garden or shed. He’s always alone”
“Do you know anything that might have happened to him?” Echoed the bonnet-headed maid, her voice laced with concern. “Is he sick?”
At this moment all the other maids stopped what they were doing and their gazes fell collectively on Ioana. Instead of matching their worried expressions, the women watched in surprise as Ioana’s face blossomed into a full, closed-mouth smile that radiated maternal warmth. It was a glow so intense that for a moment, each of the other maids felt a strong pang of envy, wishing that they instead had been chosen to serve as the young boy’s wet nurse, and that they had been given the privilege of caring for the adorable young Maximillian since he was an infant.
“I can’t tell you.” Ioana cooed, gently.
“Ny~o fair! Nyo fair!” protested the cat-eared maid.
“Yeah! Tell us too!” seconded the shorter blonde.
“Calm down Minnie, Stephe” Diana replied.
“I’m sorry Diana, but I’m afraid I’m with them on this” sighed the bonnet-wearing maid, her brow still creased with worry. “Even if nothing bad is going on, it doesn’t change that most of the castle is concerned for master Maximillian, not least the Lord and Lady.”
“Yeah! They’re worried sick!” said Stephanie, the shorter blonde.
“Well, I kinda promised I wouldn’t tell” Ioana sighed innocently.
For a reason Ioana didn’t quite follow, the other four maids exchanged a knowing look, and Diana smoothly sidled up next to the confused Ioana, gently slipping her hand on Ioana’s forearm. At the same time, the bonnet-headed maid came up and took Diana’s hand, looking her softly in the eyes.
“Diana? Gretchen?-” Ioana started.
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“You know-” Diana began. “Just how adorable and sweet the young master can be.” Diana’s gentle gaze fell directly on Ioana’s eyes and did not waver. “And you know, better than anyone, just how sad everybody gets when he’s not his usual, adorable self. I’m sure you’ve also heard about how the Lord is just about ready to call in a doctor to have the young master looked at.” Ioana’s face turned to a perplexed expression, but Diana pressed on. “And I’m sure you know better than anyone just how oblivious the young master is to his own charms, for if he knew how sad everyone was about his behavior, he wouldn’t have asked you to keep the reason a secret.”
Ioana’s gaze softened, beginning to yield. All Diana needed was one last push. She could feel it. She pressed on. “Ioana. May I remind you that we are also both servants of the lord Curtis and lady Helena, who have treated us very well and who we all love. Could you really keep a secret with master troubled so when you know that one word from you would ease his fears?”
Ioana broke.
“All right. I’ll talk.”
The moment Ioana broke eye contact she noticed that the remaining maids had all crowded around her, with an expectant cat-eyed expression that she had heretofore believed was only possible on Minnerva. Speaking of Minnerva, Ioana noticed that although Minnie was at the back of the group, she was slightly crouched with her tail arched upwards behind her, as if she were about to pounce onto her over the other three maids if Ioana did not tell the story right now. Ioana took a deep breath.
“The other day I stumbled upon the young master practicing magic.”
The room went completely silent.
“He was levitating an object with a shadow.” Ioana continued. “After speaking with him, I surmised that he had secretly been practicing magic for a while, and wanted to surprise everyone by showing it off at the mountain. He’s disappointed because he wasn’t ready, and is working extra hard so this surprise won’t fail again.”
A collective gasp echoed throughout the room. Then, the voices rang out:
“Magic already? He’s a genius!”
“As expected of our favorite Maxxie!”
“Even master Friedrich didn’t learn any magic until he was past ten!”
“Yeah! And he did this all himself? Imagine how far he’ll go when he gets a tutor.”
Over the next few minutes the women returned to their work with renewed cheer, their worry for the young master replaced with the excitement and expectation of knowing that the cutest member of the Highreich family is, in fact, a genius. Just as Ioana felt she might start whistling at any time, Stephanie -the shorter of the two blondes- turned towards her with a massive grin plastered on her face.
“It’s too bad Ioana wasn’t included in Maxxie’s practice.” She said with a smirk. “Our cute Maxxie is a growing boy. Maybe the time of the mother is going away, and he’ll soon be asking for a girl his age.”
“Stephe don’t scare me like that!” Pouted Ioana. “Besides, the youngest girl in the castle is his sister and she’s fourteen. The two are close, but she has her own responsibilities. There isn’t a maid to fill that role.”
“Not~ so~.” Stephanie retorted with a cheerful lilt in her voice. “You may have forgotten, but my eldest ‘Samantha’ turns seven this year. She’s been helping around the house with a number of chores, and the way things are going, it looks like she’ll become a trainee maid when she gets back from her baptism.”
Ioana’s mouth gaped.
“No-” she whispered.
“She got that big and I didn’t notice?! Stephe, you need to let us see your family more often!”
“Well, that’s how it is.” Stephanie finished.
Amidst the following wave of congratulations, Ioana declared her intent. “Well, I won’t let anyone take my Maxxie- erm, the young master, away from me, no matter how cute and lovely she is. Share him, maybe. But not take.”
Eventually the maid waiting outside stepped in to inquire why no new shipments of clean sheets had been delivered to her to hang to dry. The ensuing discussion did not lead to greater productivity.
FIRST FAMILY DINNER
– Experiment with telling this story from Curtis / Bella’s perspective
Bella entered the family dining room and couldn’t help but wonder if she was spoiled.
Hanging above a table big enough to seat thirty people were three chandeliers, formerly holding candles but recently upgraded to provide light through magical lighting artifacts. The room they illuminated had forest green walls with a gold leaf in the form of trees and shrubberies that taken has a whole, form a forest that shines as long as the artifact was on. The tablecloth was white and pristine, as it was with every meal, and Bella wondered just how much work it must have taken to make that cloth spotless again anytime her or her brothers accidentally spilled food (which as best she could tell was more often than not, given little Maxxie’s age). The noble academy, as fancy as it was, was nowhere near as opulent as this. In fact, if Bella were disowned by her family and stripped of her nobility, the amount of money it cost to build and maintain this one room for a year was likely more than she could hope to make in a lifetime – and yet to Bella this was just “home.”
Bella moved to her seat at the table as if it were just another Tuesday, and for her it was. The only thing special about this meal was that her littlest brother Max was expected to join them. Max had been strange since the trip up Mount Kilua, and for the last few days the doctors had seen fit to have him confined to his room for rest and careful observation both from them and the castle servants. Everything was reported to her Dad, so she didn’t know exactly what was going on.
I hope I get to see him today. Bella thought.
There was one other thing that separated this from every other family dinner — Bella was early. She only realized this as her parents entered the room, trailed behind by her little brother, Friedrich Highreich.
A tall and composed man, with dirty blond hair and vibrant blue eyes that always seemed to be gazing off at some bigger picture, while at the same time perfectly focused on you, she always thought that if someone were to draw a portrait to “professional noble”, her father, Curtis Highreich, would be first things out of that artist’s imagination.
A soft voice cooed “Hello Bella.”
Her Mother, Helena, would be the second. With a statuesque figure, raven black hair, and violet eyes that seem to pierce your very soul, her mother looked at her and gave a faint smile. Somehow, Bella always felt vindicated as a person when her mother smiled at her, as if her soul had been judged and found to be good.
“Hi Mom, Dad, Freddie.”
Her brother -about 13 now, right?- he had grown while she was at the academy, and was now nearly as tall as her. He inherited their Dad’s dirty blonde hair, but their mother’s eyes, and stood with a forced rigidity that made it look like he was trying to be as imposing as his parents. Bella found this to be cute.
After exchanging greetings and her Dad began to question Bella and Freddie about the day, they all sat down and waited.
“By the way, will Maxxie still be able to join us today? When will he get here?”
Her father wore a pensive frown.
“I’m not sure, Belly. The doctors said he should be good for today, and the maids didn’t report any new incident, so he should have gotten here a few minutes ago.”
“Do you know what’s wrong with him?”
Their parents exchanged worried looks, then Curtis shook his head.
Freddie chimed in.
“I heard that he’s been wandering the halls in silence. And that he’s stopped talking to most of the staff. And the few maids that he has addressed, he called them by their names, not by the nicknames that he used to call them.”
All that? Looks like Freddie moved his bed inside the rumor mill while I was gone.
Suddenly Bella felt bad that her quarters were in a separate part of the castle from her brothers.
“That is strange.” Bella replied. “It seems my maids are not close Maxxie’s. I haven’t heard any of this.”
Friedrich leaned forward. From the corner of her eye Bella noticed he parents looking more worried. Did they not already know this, or did they not want Freddie talking about it?
“Yeah.” Freddie added. “And the way he talks, they say it’s like he’s a different person. Apparently he’s been caught talking to himself more than once and - why are you looking at me like that?”
This gave Bella pause. She hadn’t heard of an illness that caused hallucinations and amnesia, but if it did it had to be serious. She could see why her parents were now hushing Freddie with dread and worried looks. Did the doctors really have no idea what was causing it? Before Bella could regain her composure, the door opened and in stepped the figure of a small boy, one of roughly four or five years of age. He made his way to the empty table setting, eyes wandering around the room as if he had not seen it for a long time. He looked at his family, opened his mouth, then, as if unsure what to say, closed it again before sitting right next to her.
He didn’t even say hi.
“Maxxie-”
“I’m glad that you could finally join us, Max.” Bella started but her father cut her off.
“Yes Maxxie.” Bella confirmed. The boy seemed so stiff - his very posture was different. Unsure of whether he would still welcome it Bella tentatively put one hand on his head and began to play with his hair. He stiffened but didn’t resist or complain.
“Your big sis was really starting to miss you, you know.” She said, as she continued mussing up his hair.
Maximillian simply looked around the room. It was evident on the faces of her brother Freddie and their Mother that all four of them shared the same sentiments.
“Thank you for thinking of me, everyone.”
This was strange, but Max looked clearly uncomfortable so everyone seemed hesitant to press him about his behavior. Instead, Bella forced a smile.
“What’s with the polite behavior all of a sudden!?” she exclaimed as she switched from massaging Maximillian’s head to giving him a noogie. “And why did you stop calling me ‘Big Sis’, eh? Everyone can call me ‘Bella’ but only you and Freddie over there can call me Big Sis.”
At her words Friedrich blushed.
“Thank you Big Sis. I will treasure that nickname.”
“And you can keep calling me ‘Big Bro’. That, or ‘Friedrich the Great’ works too!”
“Psh! He never called you that! And where do you get off calling yourself Friedrich the great?” Bella flicked a grape at her brother, which he half flopped out of his seat in an attempt to dodge.
Tonight’s dinner was T-bone steak, baked potato and peas – on the surface. In the kitchen sat another two dishes in reserve, one for Friedrich and the other for Maximillian. The rule of the house was that the children were to be presented with the same foods the adults were eating, but if they made too much of a fuss, then foods they were used to would be provided. Maximillian always complained at this type of meal, while for Friedrich it came down to about 30%. This time however, after waiting for lady Helena to start eating, Maximillian calmly took his fork and knife, cut two bites off the steak and began eating the food as if it were the most normal thing in the world. He had consumed about ten bites of peas by the time he noticed that he was the only one eating; everyone else had dropped their utensils and were staring at him dumbfounded.
Maximillian looked at the open-mouthed faces around the room. “Is something the matter?”
“This-” their father answered. “-is the first time you’ve eaten the food we’ve presented to you without complaint.”
“Uhm, it’s good. Thank you for providing it.”
The room descended into an awkward silence as Maximillian tried to cut more of the steak with his four-year-old body using utensils built for adults. After sawing off a couple more chunks of meat of random sizes, he stopped and turned to Bella for help.
“Big Sis, would you please help me cut this?”
“Uhm, sure.” His wide-eyed sister looked at him briefly, then edged her seat closer and helped him with the steak.
“Thank you.”
The next few minutes were the quietest meal Bella could remember.
As dinner was wrapping up and the kitchen staff moved to prepare dessert, her father moved to break the silence.
“So. Bella-” he started with a strained voice. “- how was your day?”
Bella smiled softly at the question.
“It was great, Father. The piano and dance teacher was strict, but as a result I was able to feel myself getting better. After my lesson I got to sneak out and play with Freddie for a bit.”
A smile lit up on both their parents’ faces.
“That sounds wonderful, Bella.” Helena responded. “And? How about you, Freddie?”
“It was good.” Friedrich replied, biting down on his last mouthful of potato.
“Good?” Curtis prodded. “I heard you had sword training today.”
“I did.”
“And did you learn anything?”
“I swung the sword a lot.”
“I see. Then what was your favorite part of the lesson?”
“After. Bella came and said I did a good job and gave me candy.”
Bella’s jaw dropped.
“I told you not to tell them about that last part!” she cried, flicking grapes that had kept mysteriously hidden somewhere across the table while Friedrich moved to dodge. Curtis caught the last grape.
“Now now Bella. What have we told you about throwing food?”
“Flicking isn’t throwing” she told him with narrow eyes.
Curtis leaned in, his expression matching hers. “No more grapes for you.”
They stared each other down like this a few moments longer, then –
*clap*
Their mother, lady Helena, was holding her hands together as if in prayer and smiling. Behind her was the butler with a new set of trays.
“It would seem dessert is ready.” She said in a placating tone.
As the plates were being swapped out, Bella noticed that dessert this time consisted of small cakes about the size of an open palm for her and the adults. For Friedrich it was about 3/4 of that, and for Maximillian: half.
Curtis finally turned to his youngest son.
“So Maximillian, what did you do today?”
----------------------------------------
“Um.”
I couldn’t answer.
How could a four-year-old confess to practicing magic?
Should he tell the Duke that he wasn’t feeling well and thus rested in his room? No. They’d ask Ioana and he’d either get exposed right away, or she’d look bad and be replaced with a less-trustworthy attendant.
He looked the duke flat in the face.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Could it be, you were practicing magic?”
Again this evening it seemed the room had stopped as all eyes flicked between the father and son, me and Curtis. Curtis looked intent, as if he were patiently drawing a fox out of a hole where he knew it resided, whereas I kept a steady gaze on the surface, trying to ignore the beads of sweat began forming on my brow.
“Don’t joke, honey. Magic, at that age?!”
“I heard it from the maids” Continued Curtis. “That you’ve been practicing magic in secret. That it was something you wanted to show us the day we went to see the sunset, but you weren’t ready then.”
Was I, trembling before? For some reason I feel much calmer now.
“If that’s true that would be amazing. Would you be willing now to show us what you can do?”
“After all, you gave us quite a scare.”
At that, I turned an outstretched his hand towards Friedrich, but my shadow did not stop when my hand stopped. Instead it extended another three feet to Friedrich’s plate holding his barely-touched cake. As the shadow hand retracted, it dragged the plate with it until it sat directly next to Maximillian’s plate. Ignoring my own cake, I dug into his brother’s. Isn’t that what brothers are supposed to do? Besides, I earned the bigger one.
Everyone but Friedrich’s jaws dropped in astonishment, while his dropped in horror and despair.
“Hey! That’s mine!” he cried. Manifesting a ball of wind around his stolen plate, he managed to shakily levitate it back across the table, leaving a trail of crumbs tracing the path between our table settings. I ate my own cake like a gazelle at a watering hole watching for predators, waiting for something else to disturb my moment of peace.
“Amazing” Bella breathed.
“I— I have no words.” Lady Helena commented.
The attendants in the room were equally shocked. Instead of shouting out however, they stood frozen, afraid that their exclamations might interrupt the Lord or Lady.
“That … truly is amazing” the Lord Curtis concluded. “You – are a genius. I will arrange a magic tutor for you soon.”
“Father…” I looked directly at him.
“Could you get one who can teach me information magic?”
The man frowned.
“Unfortunately, that branch of magic is restricted to the clergy. However, I could provide you some spell scrolls for you to play with.”
“Hmm…” I thought out loud. “I wonder what it would take for me to join the clergy? I-”
A fist slammed on the far end of the hardwood table.
“Maximillian Highreich!” A shrill voice called out. Was that my, mother? “You are the son of the Highreich duchy and one of the highest nobles in this kingdom. The clergy has nothing significant to offer you over noble life. It will only weaken our connections.”
I paused at this. Shouldn’t noble houses be envious of the Church’s power?
“What if I learned information magic and brought it back to our house?”
Curtis smiled faintly and shook his head.
“Son, do you think that hasn’t already been tried?” He said. “Many times over? Many nobles have managed to get spies into the Church. They’ve been able to acquire information magic, but they’ve never been able to pass it on to someone outside of the church. The most they’ve ever done is steal spell scrolls, and that is not worth risking your life, or compromising our relationship with the church of the twin gods.”
I bowed my head in apology. I’m not sure if that’s the custom here but it felt right.
“My apologies. I look forward to using those scrolls then.”
When I raised my head I found everyone still staring at me, mouths agape. Perhaps that was a mistake.
“Please excuse me. I am still feeling out of sorts and need to rest.”
I got up and turned to leave-
“One final question, Max” Curtis called out. “Why the sudden change in your behavior?”
That gave me pause.
“After watching Big Sis and Freddie, I’ve decided to be like them and take life more seriously.” I answered after some delay.
“I see.”
Luckily no one stopped me as I made my exit.
As soon as the door closed behind me I couldn’t hide it anymore. My face split into a massive grin and I began shaking. When I regain my composure I’ll order the servants to forget what they saw, but for now I can’t help it. I’m so happy!
I have a _clue!_
----------------------------------------
An ear splitting silence engulfed the room the moment the door closed behind Max. Finally, Friedrich started to speak up.
“Father-”
“Do not speak!” their father commanded.
Bella looked from one face to another. Something was terribly, horribly wrong. Friedrich was just trying to earnestly point it out, but from the expression on their Father’s face, well, Bella could see why the expression “don’t kill the messenger” had to be said.
What her littlest brother said about the reason for his changes was an obvious lie and everyone knew it. But from her parents and herself, all she could feel was a desperate desire for his words to be true.
“But-” Friedrich squeaked before being silenced by killing glares from both his mother and father.
And for a moment she couldn’t help but glare at him as well.