"Vandenheim fell in the year 347, after Aurora descended and blessed humanity with the power of Mana," Ballinger recounted.

'Exactly two hundred years ago, huh?' Rowena realized. 'Wait, what does that remind me of?'

Seeing that she said nothing, he continued: "When the first great wave of Visitors hit the land, humanity as a whole was not ready. Surely, I can't say we are ever, but back then, it was too much to force back and the kingdom, already set ablaze by those demons, was also attacked by its neighbors. One of them was the kingdom of Arlen, the largest kingdom besides Vandenheim at the time."

Rowena could see where this was going. "So Vandenheim was absorbed by Arlen to become an Empire." She finally remembered the Bicentennial Banquet they had narrowly avoided due to their victory in the mountains.

"You're right," Ballinger pursed his lips, pondering how to carefully approach the heart of the matter, "Vandenheim had the choice of being completely destroyed by Arlen and other surrounding forces. At the same time, Arlen had also taken a hit, and if they had continued to battle, Arlen would most likely have suffered the same fate."

"This means that both sides had grounds to negotiate. Did they come to an agreement? A truce?"

"Very close," he faked a cough, trying to play down how proud he was of his young student for understanding politics well enough to come to that conclusion with so little teaching, "they made a treaty. The kingdom of Vandenheim would lay down its swords, in return, what remained of the kingdom would be left untouched for the most part. They even left the noble and royal families intact."

'Even the royal family? Isn't that kind of stupid?' Rowena wondered if that didn't mean they could try to overthrow the Imperial Family, since Arlen consisted of two kingdoms that seemed to have a very similar status. 'Just because one lost back then doesn't mean they don't have enough power to claim the throne today.'

Again, she didn't say anything, just showed a complicated expression on her face. Based on this expression, her tutor concluded that she must have already realized where he was going with his story.

"As you probably noticed, yes, the former royal family of Vandenheim decided to peacefully unite with Arlen. The king renounced the name of Vandenheim and returned to the maiden name of his royal mother," he went on, "which was the family of Varnhagen. One of her demands was that the family be placed forever above other families in the newborn Empire."

The Lady of the Grand Duchy of Varnhagen, who had no idea of this, almost started to hiccup, but caught herself and pretended not to be surprised, putting on her best poker face.

"So that's it," she tried to brush it off.

"Yes. Do you see now? The value and power of the Blood of Varnhagen does not come from the fact that they are the only Grand Duchy of the Arlen Empire," Ballinger explained passionately as he corrected his glasses, "but that the fact that they are the only Duchy of Arlen comes from the fact that they had enough power to mandate that there would never be another Duchy in the Empire besides them."

"I see."

"The family of the late Duchess - may Aurora send her to a new dawn - was originally the family with the bloodline of our current Imperial family, they were a Duchy during the times of the Arlen Kingdom, but lost their standing with the advent of the new Arlen Empire."

She also realized now what the Neuhaus girl meant when she said that her family was as old as her own. The Baldwin Marquisate, for example, was quite young, as mentioned in the novel. The Nerena Marquisate, the family of Rowena's mother Isidora, on the other hand, had been around for a long time, but no one seemed to talk about it.

'Some you win and some you lose, huh?' the lavender-haired noblewoman thought to herself, 'No wonder the king acts the way he does when it comes to our family.'

The odd relationship was indeed a sign of hostility after all. According to this, it made sense why it was so important to the king to keep Rowena either in his own family or to marry her off somewhere outside the Empire altogether.

It wasn't just the power of money and potential hereditary magical abilities, but the blood of both royal families that either ruled or once ruled over this Empire. Not that it mattered to her, as she didn't have any feelings of taking over anyone's throne.

She would have to ask her father about that later. But there was something else that begged to be addressed, as she remembered an event that had happened earlier that day.

"Could it be that the same thing that happened to the Nerena family also happened to Neuhaus?"

"That's right, how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Oh, I just had a hunch." That hunch was about a head taller than her and liked to hide behind fancy fans. 'Since she brought up our family, I can somewhat guess what's crawled up her ass. Though I missed the point where that's my problem, so why come crying to me?'

"In any case, you must have a lot of things on your mind right now, as I can tell you truly weren't aware of the legacy your family held."

'Well, it's not like it means much to me personally,' was what she really thought, but couldn't say out loud. "I think what bothers me the most is the fact that there was so much trust in a simple contract. If they are so wary of us now, why is no one acting on it?"

He laughed at her naïve reaction. She was just a young girl, after all, even if she was about to make her debut in the world of society and thus be recognized as an adult.

"They would never have trusted an ordinary contract," he put it simply, "it was a contract that prevented them from committing any form of treason. And it was done by someone with special powers."

'That I've heard before.' Rowena sipped her tea as she talked into her cup, forgetting all about her etiquette. "The same as the treaty between Lodden and the Church."

"So you know," he wondered if she had heard it from the source, "that it was done by the same person. Both were put to paper by the first Emperor of Arlen, only about fifty years apart."

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She didn't correct him on how much she truly knew. "Does that mean he was a Paladin?"

He barely nodded his head.

"But it's been so long, would it really be in effect now?" She wondered aloud, not necessarily asking her teacher, who probably did not know much about the abilities of a Numbered. 'Who's this dude anyway?'

'Mephistopheles, Keeper of Vows,' came the answer from somewhere else, 'Number 3.'

At that, she spat out her tea and landed in a coughing fit that made her teacher get up to check on her.

"Are you okay? Shall I call for someone?"

"No," she croaked out, "it's fine, I have calmed down already."

'That's surprising.'

'What is?' she replied in annoyance, it was hard not to say it out loud.

'I remember you being unimpressed by anything that wasn't Number 1.'

For a second, Rowena's mind went blank. 'Are you serious?'

'It happened to surprise me.'

'I don't think it's surprise you feel,' she assumed, 'and I didn't even think it, you just gathered a remnant feeling.'

'A feeling that was quite dominant.'

She couldn't tell if he was just being curious or if he was actually being petty with her. But she cleared her throat when Ballinger started to visibly panic.

"I'm fine, really."

"I should have known it was too much to burden you with. My pride got the better of me, I don't know how to express my regret."

"It wasn't your fault," she said, taking a deep breath, "it wasn't any of what you said either. I just happen to be a little tired after a long journey." She still had that excuse.

Her stamina had become remarkable after she started her Mana training, but now, with Pan's heart equipped, it was like cheating her human nature. There was no way she was tired from a bit of traveling.

Clearing her throat a few more times to get rid of the tea that was on its way to her lungs, she had little left to ask. He had just answered one of the biggest questions she had regarding her family.

However, she did still have to find out about the status quo of this world, since the book had mostly followed the upper echelon, leaving the general level of knowledge unclear.

"An ordinary citizen wouldn't know about the involvement of a Numbered in the Contract, would he?" Just like they didn't know about Uriel.

Speechless, Louis Ballinger stared at his student, only to laugh without any apparent reason.

"I'm afraid I don't follow. Was that question so funny?"

"I apologize," he said, still smiling, "you hadn't shown such a naïve side before."

Now that he thought about it, that wasn't true. Judging by her behavior, she could have always been naïve, but to him, she had seemed rather desperate.

Of course, he had only seen her in passing, barely exchanging a few words until about nine weeks ago. While she had seemed to be serious about learning, she rarely showed signs of emotion outside of curiosity, or sometimes worry.

"Ordinary people don't know much about these beings. Even I can only reiterate some of the wisdom of the old and know little about something as powerful as the 'Numbered'. In fact, as the daughter of His Grace, you perhaps know more than I do, my lady."

"Hardly," she said with a forced smile, knowing it's a blatant lie, 'though not because the Grand Duke told me. To be fair, there's still a lot that even I don't know.'

'I will give answers whenever I can.'

'Oh, will you?' she thought maliciously, 'okay then, for instance, why do you pop up at the arse end of random conversations to make some funky remarks, but barely ever talk to me otherwise?'

It took a while, as she continued to drink her tea while her teacher silently watched her, before an answer actually came.

And it came in the form of a humming sound. 'What do you wish to talk to me about?' he then added.

'Nothing in particular. Just... Have a conversation with me once in a while. Don't play dead all the time.'

'I see,' he said, 'I wasn't aware of the need for that. When inside my mind realm, I would only be aware of you if you were desperately calling out to me. If danger befell you.'

'What?' She had seen his mind realm, but this was something she didn't know about yet. 'Wait, does that mean you're going there to find peace without me?' There was a burning sensation in her stomach as this thought formed, she barely heard her teacher ask if she wanted to quit for the day.

'I am going there because I heard humans call it privacy. I thought you might prefer it.'

She was distracted by his answer as she noticed Ballinger standing up at the periphery of her attention.

"One more question," she blurted out in desperation, "can you show me how to dance?" She almost forgot the most important thing.

Her teacher froze. "Excuse me? Oh, well, it's not that I can't, but..."

He couldn't tell her not to bother learning, although he could see where this beseeching question was coming from. He didn't know how he could help her in such a short time.

They had five days left. "It's enough if you can teach me the basics."

More than memorizing the moves tailored to her first brother's physical stature. She would have to start today.

Mr. Ballinger scratched his chin as he thought. Strictly speaking, he had learned how to do it, but he had never taught anyone to dance outside of theory. Was there time to find another teacher?

"All right, I will do what I can. I will have to teach you myself if you deem me fit."

"I'm glad," Rowena said, suddenly thinking of something else as she remembered the banquet, "by the way, do you happen to know a story involving the young lady from Neuhaus and me?"

As if that was his answer, Ballinger tilted his head and stared at the petite girl he was supposed to be teaching. "Are you referring to Lady Sheila?"

'Oh, so it wasn't Shelly.' She made a mental note, since she was probably someone people knew. "If you don't know anything about it, it can't be helped."

Norina had said she didn't need to know, but that was usually code for "you really should know", and incidentally, Rowena didn't like being left out of the loop. Especially if it was something that involved her. And this certainly involved her a lot.

"Alright." With a sigh, she stood up and patted her down dress gracefully. "Will you grant me the honor of a dance?"

"Without music?" He was more surprised by that than by her casual way of approaching the matter, but he had no choice but to brush it off.

Well, he had already said he would teach her, and she had agreed. Correcting his glasses once more, he positioned himself in the center of the spacious study.

"It would be better if there was music," he kept complaining, "but we need to see what level you are at right now, young lady."

She didn't hesitate to get into position for them to perform a dance routine she would have to get used to. It was similar to a waltz in her old world.

That is, if she went by looks alone, for she had no idea how to dance as Celia.

Ballinger was of a similar height to Alan, so she could get used to him more quickly than to Prince Lucan, but her stiff movements, a mere memorized rendition of the steps without any finesse or tact, gave her away as the amateur she was.

During a small twirl, her teacher, a bit rusty though obviously well versed in this type of dance, turned to speak with her. "It seems you have been taught all the technical details, but none of the feeling, my lady."

"I'm pretty good at memorizing the routines, but I lack the understanding of how they flow with the music," she admitted, 'which is probably why I did so well in my few etiquette classes.'

He stopped and crossed his arms over his chest as he nodded to himself and distanced himself from his student. "Which is exactly why we should be playing mu-"

He didn't get a chance to voice his third complaint on the matter, as the door was hastily flung open, causing both of them to turn their heads in surprise.

"How dare you barge into your mistress's study?" Ballinger shouted in anger at the unknown maid standing in the doorway with a frightened expression on her face.

Rowena held up a hand and sighed in resignation. "It's fine. What's so urgent that you forgot to knock?"

"I, uh, there's a commotion in the main lobby."

'Also missed the part where that's my problem,' Rowena thought, raising and eyebrow, "Which is why you have come to me?"

Nervously, the maid looked left and right for a hand to break her fall. When there was none, she swallowed hard and bowed, not knowing what to do.

She had only been sent to fetch the young mistress because she was the youngest of the current maids in the main house and was easily pushed around.

'Why me?', she thought, but couldn't get away without talking anymore. "Uh, no, what I meant... I mean there's an annex maid that's causing a ruckus, so I was sent to get her mistress to come over and take care of it, my lady."