I could tell from how crowded with guards and attendants along the corridor we went through was, and from the noise in some apartments that a considerable amount of guests arrived in the castle during the time we were in our room.

The famous room was on a completely different wing of the castle, we only reached it after around 10 minutes of walking.

“Ah~ You’re all finally here.” A voice immediately welcomed us as soon as we opened the door.

The one welcoming us wasn’t Leonore but rather Ramia’s mother and behind her, we could see Leonore accompanied by several attendants and Luke who was holding Aeliel in his arms.

“Aunt, what are-”

“Maa~ Maa~ Don’t fuss over the details.“ She said as she urged in.

The room has exactly everything expected from a ballroom, a giant free circular space in the middle, and on the corner where people holding instruments.

“My aunt, can you explain the meaning of this?”

“Weren’t you two here to help Ramia with her dance lesson?”

“No-I means yes, but what I meant was are you two doing here?”

“We are here for the same reasons as you two: to help.” She said with a wink.

She then turned to Luke as if to deliver a message, which Luke immediately understood because he approached Leonore and handed Eliel to her.

“You three, watch carefully.”

Luke and Ramia’s mother went into a corner of the room, Luke held out his hand as if to ask Ramia’s mother’s hand, which she elegantly offered.

And the moment she did, the musicians who were silent from the beginning, finally began to play waltz music.

When the music started, Luke and Ramia's mother slowly moved to the center of the room while still holding hands, and when they stopped walking, they took a salute-like position.

From there, they began to engage in a dance that my uncultured self wouldn’t be able to describe with words.

Despite not being an expert on the subject, I could tell those were expert maneuvers. Not only was their choreography gorgeous and graceful, but there was something else about their dance that made it feel like a fairy tale, and that was their connection.

It was clear that they had done this dance more than one time since they were performing as if it was the most natural thing ever.

After some time, I could feel from the music played that their dance would come to an end, and it did.

They completed their dance with that stance, you know the one where the girl is going to fall backward headfirst and the guy trying his best keeping her from doing so.

We naturally let out a round of applause, their choreography deserved it.

“That was fantastic.”

“Yes, Uncle, Aunt, your dance was incredible.”

“Thanks. I expect you to perform something as good as this tomorrow.”

“That’s a little bit ...”

“Now back to Ramia’s training But first, Lenore, do it.’”

“Yes, My Lady.” She said as she gave back Eliel to his father and approached Ramia. “Come on, Young Lady.” She stated this as she escorted Ramia to the adjacent room.

They left us in a strange silence, but it was only for a little while since they returned not long after.

Ramia who entered the room with her long dress wannabe now came out with a long black dress with braised motifs.

“How is it?” Ramia asked us.

Eh, To be honest, it just looks weird.

The dress looked lovely on her and that was that same loveliness that made it weird.

“It looks very good on you. Right, Mael?”

“Yes,.. yes it is as Ronandt said.”

“Hum.”

“See, I told you that it looked good.” Ramia’s mother commented.”Now, Ramia, try doing like your father and I did earlier, Mael please?”

“Guh.”

Sorry, Mael, good luck on your mission.

Since none of the focus was on me, I stealthy went to the most primordial furniture of a nobility’s rooms: The sofa

“Actually...Ronandt, would you like to try to be her partner for this session?”

“Eh…I don’t think I’m...”

“This is merely the opinion of this humble butler, but I think this is a good idea. I doubt the meager pointer from me and his governess was enough. Please, Young Lord, accept this generous proposition.”

Syrus, you damn traitor. It was true, that I received some pointer from Maa and him, nothing extensive, just the basic of the basics

“Weren’t you the one who said earlier that he wanted a final lesson?” Mael added.

Et Tu Mael.

“That was just-”

“Come on, you can do this. Remember nothing is impossible with the help of the seven .” Ramia said, mimicking what I had said earlier in the afternoon.

“Okay, I will try but only once.”

Just like Ramia’s parents earlier did, we went to the corner of the room.

I held out my hand just like Luke did earlier.

“Please, spare my feet. In exchange, I will do my best to spare this beautiful dress of yours.”

“Why do you think it was made black for?” She said as she offered her hand.

We slowly drifted to the center of the room while following the rhythm of the music.

The dance itself is pretty simple; it mainly consisted of drifting around throughout the room without trampling each other feet, some rotations here and there with each rotation, his variations.

Okay, maybe it's not as simple as I make it sound, but the male partner has it easy in this dance. Some moves may appear complicated, but they are mainly derivative of the one you've done previously. For the male partner, it's almost the same move over and over again; it's only for the female partner that there are many different moves and variations, particularly the rotation.

So yeah this dance was fairly repetitive but it was up to you and your partner to give it an air novel, just like Ramia’s parents did earlier.

To be honest, from the moment we reached the middle of the room, I went into auto-mode, or maybe I should say I let Ramia handle everything, except maybe some acute pains in the feet I felt from time to time. I can say that it went pretty well.

Once we finished, a rumble of applause erupted from the room.

Was it that good?

“That was lovely, I told you Ramia that it wasn’t that complicated as long as you put some effort.”

“I wish Maa saw that dance, I’m sure, she would have been so proud of you,” Syrus said while wiping inexistent tears over his masked face.

“I didn’t know that you had that much talent for dance.” Mael teased.

“Please, spare me.”

Seeing that Ramia’s mother and Leonore were about to ask me to make another round, I immediately went with a:

“Sorry, I am not used to this, this is all for me today,” I announced as I headed over to the corner of the room where the sofa was.

“What a shame, come on Mael. It’s your turn.”

“My Aunt, I think -”

“Hey come on, no excuse.”

“Yes, Aunt.”

Unlike our dance, this time Ramia and Mael were showered with pointers by her mother, pointers she must have come up with by watching our choreography since from here I could hear my name thrown here and there.

“Don’t they remind you of someone?” Luke asked while approaching me.

It seems that the question was not addressed for me but rather for Syrus who was standing by my side.

“Yes, Lord Luke. They do, remind me of someone.”

“Who reminds you of who ?’ I asked Syrus but it was Luke who answered my questions.

“You three, you resemble us very much when we were your age. Is it right, Rufus?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Ramia has a personality similar to Phillip, loud, passioned, energetic, and violent, I can’t count the number of times Damien and I had to stop him from strangling that one annoying Bartholomeo child,” Luke said with a voice full of nostalgia.

“Oh, I remember that, I must say that I’m very impressed that he has managed with his personality to become a decent doctor.”

“Love, when he met his wife, it completely changed the man. I'm not sure if it was his passion for his research that ignited his love for her, or perhaps the inverse, but these two are inseparable now.

Eliel, who between his father’s thighs was playing to unfold and fold back into a ball a small rope coming from his bow ties, didn't seem to mind the discussions at all.

“In a way, I feel bad for Mael born out these two. He definitely would’ve been better if was born the son of Damien.”

“What kind of person was Damien? I only heard that he was the one who took care of Mael when he was a child but nothing much except that.”

“He was the serious and collected elder brother in our trio, the polar opposite of the one who was meant to be his elder brother. His only problem with him was his tendency to be easily swayed by Philip, and even if he didn’t, he on countless occasions was left no other choice but to deal with the mess left by his brother, ~Ah I still remember how mad Mathilda was each time it happened.”

Having done playing with his bow ties, Eliel curiously observed me from where he was, it was like he was using his father like a tranché.

“His decision to join the Paladin Order caught both Philip and me off-guard, he wasn’t even 17 when he announced it to us, apparently he has found someone he could relate to on many levels in the Paladin Order. His habit of cleaning after his brother didn't seem to have changed much given that he even took five years off to take care of Mael.”

With a sign of the hand, I called over him to come by. Though hesitantly he left his father and went in front of me.

I took the rope he was playing with and made a star pattern with it. It seems he did like it so I undid it and made it at a slower pace so that he could see how I did it.

“And you? what were you like, years ago?” I asked to relaunch our earlier discussions

“Me...Let’s see…”

“Younger, Lord Luke was very much like you, silent though not as much as the Young Lord, he was the type to cause messes behind everyone’s back. If Lord Damian was an angel and Lord Philip a devil, Lord Luke would’ve been the devil disguised as an angel. To be honest Lord Damien wasn’t only cleaning up after his brother but also after his cousin.”

Are they insinuating that I am causing messes in the background?

“That was harsh.” Luke commentated.

“Truths hurt but are still preferable to lies.”

“Certainly.”

Without us noticing Ramia and Mael dance took his hand, now they were approaching us.

“Thank you for today Ronandt. I think Ramia is ready for tomorrow.”

“It was nothing.”

“You can now return to your rooms, I’ll send over something good to eat. I think it is time for us to go back to welcome our guests. Elliel?”

Elliel, who was in front of me, still doing his best to reproduce a star with neckties, didn’t seem to have heard his mother calling on him.

“Elliel, I think your mother called you,” I said with a small swatter on his shoulder.

Only then that he noticed the crowds surrounding him. He immediately went into his mother's hand.

“See you later, for dinner surely.” She said before leaving in the direction of the room’s door and followed by Luke.

Elliel bid me goodbye with his small hands, and I replied with one of my own.

***

After our business in the dance room, we returned to our rooms, or rather Mael’s room.

Not long after we arrived in the room, Leonore arrived, bringing with her candy and chocolates.

I was no child to be coaxed with candies but come on if you receive free candy from someone wouldn’t you take it?

We were seated cross-legged in a way to form a circle on the bed, we resumed our earlier play rock-paper-scissors but this time with Ramia who retrieved the clothes she wore early in the afternoon.

Given the fact that I had lost the last game, I was required to answer one of their questions.

Ramia and Mael were doing their best trying to figure out what to ask, it’s only after that Mael hesitantly asked

“You said that you were here just to meet your Great-grandfather, what you’re going to do after that.”

~Ah that.

Personally, even I didn’t have the answer to that question.

“I’m not sure yet but it all depends on my family, if they allow it maybe, I will be stays here for a time, To be honest, what will happen after tomorrow is still vague even for me.”

“Come on, go ahead and ask them to let you stay. Isn't it fun here? If possible I would like to visit the Lower district again, buy that sour-tasting fruit, this time I would want to try that strange food the woman was grilling, and I'm sure Mael is eager to return to that tree, too. right?”

“Yes, I agree with Ramia.”

It was true these 3 months went by without me noticing. I didn’t expect it to be so fun.

Everything here was so different from my daily routine at Rosetta's home.

At first, when Grandfather Emilien, took me from the manor to here, I admit that I was very stressed out by that sudden change of environment, I didn’t expect this stay would be so enjoyable.

“I will do my best to request that from them.”

“Yes, please do.”

We then resumed our game and this time the game settled with Ramia’s loss.

“Come on, bring it on.” She said, puffing her torso as if there was anything to be proud of.

“Do you have any questions to ask, Ronandt, because I don’t?”

“Me too. One must say that there aren’t many interesting things in her life.”

“Hey!”

“Sorry~ Sorry, I was just kidding. A question… huh… okay then, why did you begin training with swords?”

It seems my question took her off guard since for a moment she remained dead silent.

"Great-grandfather,” she muttered.

“What’s with your great-grandfather?”

“When Elliel was two he received a sword as a gift from great-grandfather. I wanted one too, so I began sword-training myself.“

There was no reason for someone to give a two years old boy a sword, except maybe a noble custom: which consisted of gifting a tool (In this case a sword) you are living off to the younger member of the family who has the same gender as you.

This custom had no name, but it is a way of saying that the older generation hopes that the younger generation would follow in their footsteps and, perhaps, even surpass them in the future.

“Weird, but I guess that’s a valid motive.”

“Yeah.”

“Rock-paper-sci-” Our game was suddenly cut short by the door of the room, suddenly burst open.

Syrus who standing on standby immediately drew his sword in direction of the door, but he immediately lowered his sword when he saw who was the one opening the door: It was grandfather Emilien.

“Ah~ You were here, Ronandt quick come here, we must leave immediately.” He said with a panicked and very anxious voice, I’ve never heard before.

“Lord Emilien, what happened.”

“Syrus, Ronandt must leave immediately.”

“Why.”

“We have no time to explain, we will explain it to you later for the time being you must follow us.”

I didn’t understand who exactly he was referred to by “us”, at first I thought that it referred to him and Syrus but when I saw the man behind him, I immediately knew who he was referring to.

The first time I remember being conscious there were four people I saw in that room: Maa, Luke, Grandfather Emilien, my mother, and finally this man.

I didn’t saw his face that time but I immediately recognized him thanks to his mask and the same strange cloak.

“Grandfather, what happened?” Mael asked.

“Please, Mael, Ramia, and you to stay here until I go back, I need to escort Ronandt somewhere, I will be back soon after, can you two do that for me ?”

“Yes, ...” They both reticently said.

“Ronandt, come on we can’t tarry here any longer.”

“Yes.”

I threw a last glance to Ramia and with a wave of the hand bid them a farewell.

We began walking at very hurried steps toward a part of the castle, I was unaware of.

“Lord Emilien, Vicar Serana, What exactly happened? “ Syrus ventured after we reached a place of the castle he was sure a person wouldn’t overhear.

“Plans have changed, Ronandt must leave the castle immediately, two of the worst people, Ronandt should never ever meet are heading over here?”

“Who?”

“The Ashens cousins: The Archbishop Gregor Medvedick, in charge of the authority of Djeem the accursed, and The Holy Paladin Dominik Medvedick, the golden storm.