I put my hands in my pockets and walked towards the door that led into the hallway, turning my back to the ruined nobles. As a final warning, I flexed the full extent of the elixir’s remaining aura, and the Milbournes gasped for air as they were briefly exposed to an unimaginable pressure. “I reckon they’ve learned their lesson for now.” I muttered to myself as I reached for the door handle, relaxing my mana use.

Just as I was going to grab the door handle, I heard loud shattering noise right behind me. I whipped around to glimpse Braxton, my own dagger in his hand, lying unconscious on the floor at my feet, covered in shards of ice that looked like shattered glass.

Livi breathed heavily, her hands still outstretched in a conjuring motion, her lips quivering with a distressed expression. Damn it, Ikarus. I had gotten drunk on the power and became arrogant, assuming that all of the other members of the Milbourne family would simply lie down in fear as I made my exit. And if it weren’t for Livi, I would have paid the price big time.

Why didn’t you warn me? I communicated mentally to Khiros, a trick he had taught me on the long walk back to Camidinne.

‘I-uhhh, wasn’t looking.’ He communicated back, sticking out his tongue at me.

Bastard.

“Livi, you—-” A woman with white hair and icy blue eyes just like Livi murmured worriedly.

“INSOLENT CHILD!” Christina exploded at Livi, “HOW DARE YO—-”

Her beration was cut short by me releasing my aura again. If I left Livi here now, it was clear she wouldn’t be able to return to the life she had before. Christina would likely not be so forgiving as to let her off with just a slap on the wrist. Livi had saved my life just now, so I suppose it was natural I returned the favor.

“Miss Milbourne.” I addressed her calmly, which did not prevent her from trembling as if she was standing in the center of an earthquake. “My earlier request now extends to these two lovely ladies of the Heirel family.”

“If you would like to keep the remnants of your family alive and well,” I said with an eerie smile that heavily contrasted my youthful appearance, “You will stay away from both the Velor and Heirel names.” I needed to drive home the point that if they launched an attack or told the guards about us, I would come for revenge. Of course, once this elixir ran out, I had no means of getting revenge, but that’s what bluffs are for.

“You two, with me.” I ordered the white haired girl and her mother, prioritizing getting out of this manor before I thought of what I would do with these two. Livi and her mother winced, but her mother dragged Livi and followed me out into the hallway. We rushed by a number of concerned and powerful seeming butlers, but none of them made a move as I continuously released mana into the atmosphere. It was draining my powerful mana capacity very quickly, but it was necessary in order to get outside safely.

Once we were a comfortable distance away from the manor, I finally retracted my aura. Our pace slowed to a walk, with the two Heirel’s behind me and Khiros trotting along next to me.

I looked around my shoulder and asked the two if they were okay, to which they jumped and held each other with a terrified expression. Ah. I guess it makes sense that they would be afraid of me after a display like that.

“Listen, I’m really sorry to have frightened you, but I mean both of you no ill will. I’ll try to get my family to help you guys out, and they’re pretty nice, so you don’t have anything to worry about!” I said with a reassuring smile, that I later realized did not come off that way due to my bloodstained appearance.

“Are you… back to normal now?” Livi said hesitantly, breaking out of her mother’s embrace.

“Back to normal…? I guess so,” I replied, a little confused.

“Because you were really scary in there…” Livi trailed off as her eyes gravitated towards the ground.

So that’s it. “I know. But I’m still me. So thank you for saving me.” I said as I put my hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at me, tears welling in her eyes and nodded slightly with an “Mm” before running back to her mother and wiping her tears off on her sleeves.

“Smooth talker,” Khiros teased.

Once Livi stood back next to her mother, Ms Heirel whispered something to her, whose expression suddenly became sullen. Her mother turned to me and calmly stated with empty and pathetic eyes, “Ikarus, I appreciate your kindness thus far, but I think it’s best we return to the Milbourne household.”

“Go back to the Milbourne house?! Wh-Why?” I stuttered, stunned at Ms Heirel’s sudden suggestion. “They are going to punish you, maybe even torture you and your daughter!”

Ms Heirel solemnly exhaled. “Even so, we must return. I cannot imagine life outside of serving the Milbourne family, as it is all I have ever known.” She replied with a vacant and meek look, the same damned expression worn by the fools of my past life who had entirely given up on fighting back against the empire.

Seeing that face again sparked the same anger inside me that led me to rebel in my past life. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” I said, my eyes twitching in anger.

“Just for your own comfort… just so you don’t have to use your tiny little brain for once… you’d recklessly endanger your own daughter?!”

My shouts caused the two to jump backwards, but I didn’t stop. “Did you hear how Christina was yelling at Livi? Do you think she’ll let you off with an apology?” I questioned mockingly.

“What is wrong with y—-” My reprimanding abruptly stopped as I noticed the same fearful look on Livi’s face.

…

“I’m sorry, If that’s what you two chose, then I have no say in the matter.” I murmured, swallowing my pride and turning away from the Heirels. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I didn’t want to continue to frighten Livi anymore.

“Wait!” Livi called out from behind me. She ran up beside me and then faced towards her mother as she sheepishly murmured, “I don’t want to go back.” A smile tugged at the edge of my lips as Livi, at only age seven, was able to take a stand against her mother for what she wanted.

A brief moment of silence passed as Ms Heirel appeared to be lost in thought. “I suppose you’re right. We’ll go with you for now.” She conceded.

That’s it? That’s all it took? I found it ironic that she was persuaded so quickly, but I guess it is reflective of how she has lived her life up to this point, blindly going along with what others say. I pitied the woman, but frankly that mouselike behavior irritated me.

Still, I wasn’t going to point out the irony, as at least she was on my side now. “I’m glad to hear that.” I replied.

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The three of us continued walking towards the teleportation portals, when Ms Heirel suddenly spoke up. “You should still be wary, boy. The Milbournes may not go to the government for this, but they do not forget so easily. They may try to strike back sneakily.”

“Yeah, I know.” I replied. I had thought about it before as well, but I wasn’t sure what I would do if they really did decide to strike back. I hoped that my intimidation would at least keep them at bay for long enough to grow strong enough to defend myself, but I would try to avoid them as best as I could.

The rest of the walk home was largely in silence, as the two processed the drastic change that would result in their life never again being as it was. Before we reached my house I took off my bloodstained jacket and tossed it into a pile of garbage on the street. I was lucky to have my shirt unstained and only a few splashes on my pants which I washed off in a nearby river. I didn’t want to approach my unsuspecting family looking as if I had just murdered someone, after all. As they say, ignorance is bliss.

“Are you sure your parents will be willing to help us?” Livi asked timidly as they waited for me to clean up.

“Don’t worry about it, I've got a plan.” I replied with a smirk.

She nodded in response.

“Hey Khiros,” I asked the shadowy cat who was currently slinking around in the background per my request, so as to not raise any more questions from the Heirels, “Might you know where we could get any more of those elixirs?”

…

A brief silence passed as I noticed him looking at me deadpan from a tree.

“I’m not your drug dealer, Ikarus”

“Right, right.”

“We joke about it, but many men have been driven to madness through that power. I am doing you a favor.”

Looking back at it, my thought process did seem a bit dulled as I was under the influence of those elixirs. I’m not fond of the idea that I was leaned towards attacking the Milbournes by the elixir, but it did seem possible.

I walked up the familiar steps leading to my house, as an unfamiliar comfort set in. The feeling that after pushing myself to my limits, working myself to the bone and tiring out my brain, I was returning to a place that I could truly rest and call home. The only time I had felt anything like this in my past life was as a child, before my parents were—-

Stop, there’s no need to think about things like that anymore. The feeling might have conjured up some old memories, but it was still nice.

My mother hurriedly answered the door and pulled me into a hug, her long brown hair draping over me like a blanket. Her embrace reinforced the warm feeling from earlier, and it made me want to stay like this forever.

“You were gone so long, I was starting to get worried! Did you have fun on your adventure?” She asked with a smile as she pulled away.

“Yeah… sure.” I couldn’t really call it fun, but it was definitely an adventure.

My mother finally noticed the Heirels, and a puzzled expression crossed her face. “Are these your escorts or something? But that girl seems a little young…”

“Actually mom,” I said, mustering the best pleading eyes I could manage, “I was hoping we could let them stay with us.”

All of the surrounding people froze as an uncomfortable silence passed over us. That’s right, I had neglected to tell the Heirels about my plan. They had no idea I would ask this.

“Let them… stay with us? Why exactly?”

“Well, the Milbournes were being really mean to them, and now they can’t live there anymore, and I don’t want them to be homeless!” I replied in a childlike tone, hoping to appeal to my mother’s morality. I noticed Ms Heirel with a somewhat awestruck expression as she witnessed the contrast between my behavior at the Milbourne manor earlier and the childish face I was showing right now.

“Well, that might be a problem…” She murmured to herself as she brought her hand to her chin in a thinking pose.

“They are also really good cleaners! Don’t you not like it when the house is dirty?”

There were two parts to my plan to get my mother to accept us sheltering the Heirels. The first was to appeal to her emotions and make her pity them, because my mother was a good person in nature. The second was to show that they could actually be of great use to us if allowed to stay with their professional maid background.

“Cleaners… are you two maids?” My mother asked the Heirels with an expression on her face as if she had an epiphany.

“Y-Yes, that is correct, Mrs. Velor. And I’m very sorry to impose on you like this, we completely understand if you cannot oblige—-” Ms Heirel responded, preemptively preparing for rejection.

“Hold on a second now,” My mother marched over to Ms Heirel and whispered something in her ear.

Ms Heirel’s eyes widened as she responded, “Yes, I am trained in that.”

“Then welcome to your new home!” My mother exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air in celebration.

Huh? What was that about? Ah whatever, all's well that ends well.

“Huh— really?” Ms Heirel blinked in surprise.

“Really really!” My mother replied joyfully. Come on in, come on!”

A smile fell across my face as I watched my mother hurriedly usher the Heirel’s inside. Once she got excited about something, there was no calming her down.

She showed them to the guest room that they would be staying in, and my father was surprisingly accepting of the new arrangement. “They’re maids, right? We could use a bit of cleaning around here, Hazel doesn’t get aroun—-- Ow!” My father’s jab was stopped by my mom pinching his ear.

“Hey mom, where’s Elise?”

“I think she’s in her room right now!” She replied quickly before going back to showing the heirels around.

I walked up the stairs and knocked on Elise’s door, debating just how much of the truth I should tell her when the door suddenly swung open. Elise stood at the door, and even with her bangs covering her eyes I could tell that she had been crying. She knelt down and pulled me into a hug, softly whispering, “I’m sorry..”

“Ah– Elise, what’s going on?”

She didn't respond, only continuing to hold onto me.

I awkwardly stroked her hair in an attempt to comfort her, but I'd never had to comfort someone before so I didn’t know what I was doing. It didn’t seem to help much as I felt a few tears fall onto my back, and Elise squeezed me tighter.

After a while of silence, she patted me on the back and stood up. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

“...Alright.” I didn’t want to pry and make it any worse, so I left her and went back downstairs.

My parents and the Heirels were all seated in the living room and getting to know each other, and it seemed like they were at least a little more at ease now. Livi still seemed to be tense though, as she maintained her polite and trained valet expression even now.

“Ikarus! That’s a rather heavy expression for someone who just got their girlfriend to move in with him!”

I raised my eyebrow in confusion, not understanding his meaning at first. Livi’s face flushed as she shifted awkwardly in her seat.

“Ah! You two are—” My mother gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

Finally realizing what he meant, I cut my mother off. “Of course not.”

“R-Right.” My mother breathed a sigh of relief.

My father chuckled at the chaos his joke had caused. I took a seat on the couch next to him, when I noticed a slight difference in one of my family members' usual appearance.

“Mom, did you get fatter?” I asked abruptly, without thinking. The instant the words escaped my lips I immediately regretted them. My years of little to no social interaction had finally shone through all the work I had done to make myself as amiable a person as I could be. The entire room went silent as everyone tried to make themselves as small as possible. I could practically see the vein on my mother’s forehead burst as she turned toward me.

“Ikarus, sweetie,” she said with a strained smile. “That’s not a very nice thing to say to a lady.”

…

“I’m so very sorry.” I said quickly with my eyes on the ground.

…

A light chuckle broke through the silence as Livi quickly covered her mouth with an embarrassed expression

“Ahhh. Alright then, I guess it can’t be helped.” My mother shrugged as the tension dissipated from the room.

“I’m having another baby.”