Lizbeth gave them a pretty brief tour.
The manor had six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a single office, and two kitchens. Much more than he’d ever need, but since each person had a room to themselves, it worked out.
As for the maids, they were surprisingly professional.
Noa, the head maid, was in charge of cooking and food prep. She also oversaw the other two maids.
Then there was Isabel, who handled laundry, and Lydia, who was assigned to cleaning duty for the time being.
The most interesting maid of the three was Isabel, since the way she moved made it clear she had some combat proficiency.
As for Noa and Lydia... they’re just normal maids, except one is a potential rat, and the other is still to be determined, Raelis thought as he strolled to the kitchen and sat down beside his mother.
Food was already prepared, so he was ready to dig in.
"Raelis, I really hope you’re not going to avoid telling me what happened back at the palace," Sophia brought up, biting into a piece of chicken.
Raelis stared at his food in silence for a moment, then let out a sigh. "Mom... it’s really not as serious as you think."
"Look, Raelis..." She placed a hand on his cheek. "While I don’t have a fire-based bloodline like you, I do have a bloodline. I can control the wind to an extent, and because of that, I caught a glimpse of her using a burst of heat to attack you."
Just as he was about to speak, his mother continued. "I know it wasn’t a serious attack, but I also know she’s not the type to strike someone irrationally like that. So what happened?"
As much as he didn’t want to talk about it, he decided to at least give his mother a basic, vague rundown.
"Zeri’s not really as innocent and playful as you might think. That’s all I will tell you, Mom. So can we eat now?" Raelis said, then picked up his fork and stuck it into a salad.
His mother’s brows twitched as she took his fork and stabbed it through a piece of meat before bringing it up to his mouth.
"...I’m not eight yea—"
"Fine." Raelis gave in pretty much instantly and bit the meat off the fork in embarrassment.
"Good..." Sophia muttered in satisfaction as she leaned back in her seat. "And I know, Raelis. I remember watching Zeri train with her mother... her training wasn’t exactly pleasant to watch."
He raised a brow in interest as he listened to his mother continue.
"Zeri’s mother, Laurentia Varekan, used to have disposable maids, literally," Sophia commented, pushing the food around with her fork as she gathered her words.
"Every time the maids did something wrong, Laurentia sent Zeri to deal with them. If the punishment was adequate, then Zeri would be rewarded. But if the punishment wasn’t harsh enough, Zeri got whipped. I walked past her being whipped twice and noticed the scars on her back... it looked really bad."
Raelis was surprised to hear something . While he did expect Zeri to have some sort of tragic background, he never thought she had been abused like that by her mother.
But even so, that didn’t excuse all the horrific things she had done, or would do in the future.
His mother kept recalling the scenes and stories, explaining how the most common punishment for the maids was death.
And the maids who seemed promising? Zeri and Laurentia would manipulate them into becoming spies planted within the direct line. fr\eewebno vel .c(o)m
Such as the princes and princesses who were direct descendants of the emperor, including Zeri’s father, Prince Faunus Varekan, fifth in line to the throne.
Since my father is dead, fifth in line is extremely high. My father was around 20th in line, which was of course last, Raelis pondered, letting out a sigh.
This conversation didn’t change how he planned to deal with Zeri, but it did give him some necessary insight on her background.
Roughly half an hour passed, and the two finally finished eating.
They chatted a bit about the mundane things that had happened over the three years he’d been asleep.
She had taken up knitting during that time and even made the clothes he was currently wearing.
She had also begun growing some plants in his room back at the palace. But apparently, every now and again, he emitted a heatwave that killed all the plants around him.
Still, she never moved those plants, even after he killed them repeatedly.
Apparently... me killing those plants was like a sign I was still with her, Raelis recalled as a warm feeling welled up in his chest. I’m glad she’s alive... and I hate that I never got the chance to really bond with her in the past...
After all, on his 14th birthday, she had been poisoned to death.
Raelis set that memory aside as he clenched his fists and stepped outside the manor.
His mother had gone to bed early, and the maids were in their usual posts.
There was also Lizbeth, who didn’t have an assigned role beyond guarding them, so she was currently following him from a distance.
When he stepped outside and looked up, he realized the sun was close to setting. He had about an hour of training left before he’d need to head back inside.
Even so, he walked to the forest clearing and finally turned around, meeting Lizbeth’s gaze.
"Bored?" Raelis asked.
Lizbeth rolled her eyes and nodded. "I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have anything to do. It’s always fighting this, training that. But now? Who am I supposed to train against, the trees?"
Raelis listened to her little outburst, and suddenly, an idea came to him.
As she kept ranting, he summoned a cold fireball in his palm and hurled it directly at her face.
"Like, if I could at least get a training dummy—"
She tilted her head mid-sentence, easily dodging the fireball. It flew past and dissipated against a nearby tree.
"Kid..." Lizbeth muttered, facepalming. "What do you think you’re doing?"
A faint smile tugged at his lips as he tilted his head.
"What do you say I become your sparring partner?"