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"Look at me, boy. Does it look like I care?" Theodore squinted at Vyan, who immediately straighted up, realizing he was in trouble.

"No, sir! My apologies!"

"Grab your sword and warm up," Theodore ordered with a glare sharp ough to slice Vyan into two halves. "Spcer, duel him after that."

"Yes, sir." Spcer, the second-in-command of the knights, approached with Vyan\'s sword and asked, "Good morning, my lord."

"Morning, Spce."

"By the way, I heard the daughter of Marquess Estelle has come to stay with us. It slipped my mind earlier, but should we assign her two knights as guards? I didn\'t see her bring any escorts."

Vyan chuckled darkly as he started warming up. "That woman is a one-woman army, Spce. She needs no guards."

Spcer\'s confusion morphed into realization. "Oh, you mean she is that daughter of the marquess? The one who is the vice-commander of the imperial military?"

"Yes, the very same," Vyan rolled his eyes.

"Oh, my! If she is here, you should duel her, my lord," Spcer chirped merrily. "I think you can match her skills now."

Vyan let out a humorless laugh. "Are you seriously suggesting I duel the human hurricane herself? Are you poking fun at my barely above-average sword skills?"

"You are not barely above average!" Spcer protested, as if he had be the one insulted. "You are way better."

"Oh, Spce, you flatter me. But I hate to break it to you, I am not exactly in the running to dethrone Iyana in a sword duel." Vyan glanced at the commander of his knights. "I wouldn\'t be surprised if she ev bested Sir Jacques."

Spcer gasped, eyes wide as saucers. "Really? The only person who has ever beat Sir Jacques was Lady Natalia! He is on par with the Imperial Aura Knights!"

"Well, th," Vyan\'s lips curled into a sly smile, "maybe Iyana can\'t beat an aura-user, after all."

Because, let\'s face it, anyone dabbling in black magic was not getting anywhere near aura abilities.

This was why Vyan was certain Iyana would never attain aura, no matter how skilled she became.

"I can\'t beat who?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin as Iyana appeared out of nowhere. Placing a hand over his heart, he yelled, "What is the meaning of appearing in front of me like that?"

Iyana shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe you should work on your spatial awaress, Your Grace. Not my fault."

She glanced betwe Spcer and Theodore and asked, "So, who exactly am I not able to beat?"

Spcer\'s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. "Lady Iyana, can I duel with you?"

"Spcer!" Vyan growled, clearly exasperated.

"But my lord, can\'t I?" Spcer pleaded, blinking innoctly like an overgrown puppy.

Vyan let out a dramatic sigh.

Spcer was a perpetual ball of thusiasm—not as much Clyde—but always ready for a good fight, despite being in his late thirties.

Where did people get that kind of ergy? Vyan could never understand.

More baffling was why he still kept these misfits a. They were the sort of people who would invite the emy over for tea and biscuits instead of lopping their heads off!

"My lord, please," Spcer tried once again.

Vyan sighed once again in exasperation. "Fine, fine. Do whatever you want. I will just be over here, practicing by myself like the loner I appartly am."

"Thanks, you are the best," Spcer chimed, turning to Iyana. "My lady, would you be willing to have a fridly duel with me?"

"Actually, Sir Spcer, I don\'t feel like it right now," Iyana replied, her tone polite but firm. "Though I would be up for dueling with you in the morning. I don\'t usually spar at this time of the day."

"Same here! All the knights train and spar in the morning hours. Of course, you are most welcome to join us," he invited happily, while Vyan cursed him in his mind.

"Thanks, but His Grace just ignores the morning training and comes whever he feels like it?" she inquired, her voice full of disdain.

"Oh, no, no. Sir Theodore and I have a special training session for My Lord at this time. He needs proper rest in the morning, after all," Spcer explained.

"Proper rest in the morning?" Iyana\'s eyes narrowed suspiciously at Vyan. "Why does he have so much to work at night?"

"Uh, that\'s because…" Spcer fumbled, his usual confidce wavering.

The truth was, Vyan could only practice and research magic at night now that there were so many prying eyes on him. Ev Theodore allowed him to skip morning sessions because of that. Besides, Vyan was far more talted in magic than the sword, so it made sse to focus on that.

But Spcer was certain he couldn\'t reveal this to an outsider, especially not someone as perceptive as Iyana.

"That\'s because I am secretly a vampire. Or maybe a werewolf. Who knows?" Vyan quipped, sparing Spcer from having to reply.

"Can\'t you ever give a straight answer?" she frowned.

"First of all, if you ask stupid questions like that, don\'t expect a straight answer from me. Secondly, why don\'t you try running a grand duchy by yourself, Iyana? Perhaps, you will find the answer as to why I have to work late into the night."

"No offse, Your Grace, I just think you have poor time managemt skills and everyone just babies you," Iyana taunted.

"What?" Vyan\'s eyes flashed with anger.

"Looks like offse was tak," Spcer mumbled, feeling the spark of animosity betwe the other two. "Let\'s stay calm, my lord," he tried to put out the fire.

"Why are you telling me to calm down wh she is the one instigating me?" Vyan scolded Spcer.

Iyana rolled her eyes and said, "Anyway, I should get going. While your time may not be precious, I am pretty sure others\' time are." With that, she walked away nonchalantly, while Vyan fumed.

"Um, my lord? Let\'s just joy and start dueling?" Spcer chimed in, slightly nervous.

As Vyan shot him a deadly glare, Spcer understood he was, in fact, not going to joy today\'s duel and was going to get absolutely obliterated.

———

Vyan emerged from his bedroom, freshed and dressed up after his training session, now ready to tackle the mountain of paperwork on his desk wh Iyana popped up in front of him again.

"My tour?" Her eyes gleamed with a twinkle that annoyed him to the bones.

"Why are you so desperate for a house tour?" he grumbled.

"Because I keep getting lost," she reasoned innoctly.

"Oh, just admit it. You want to memorize my home\'s layout so you can sneak a and find all those non-existt clues against me."

She chuckled. "As if you would be stupid ough to leave anything lying a for me to find."

"Th why—"

"Also!" she interjected, "I am here to help with your annual festival, Your Grace. Painting me as a spy is so offsive."

"Why, you—" He gritted his teeth.

"So, shall we go now, Your Grace?" she asked excitedly.

He let out an annoyed breath and started walking forward with her by his side.

"So, Your Grace—"

"Why do you keep calling me \'Your Grace\'?" he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Who are you putting on this act for? It\'s just us."

"Huh?" She looked guinely confused.

"My name," he muttered, avoiding her gaze. "You used to call me by my name. What\'s with the prettious respect now?"

"Well…" Iyana fell quiet, making Vyan glance at her. "Well, who knows how offded you would be if I dared to do that? Better safe than sorry."

Vyan wanted to punch himself. Why did he expect her to call him by his name for a momt there? He ev held his breath!

To save himself from embarrassmt, he blurted, "Haha, you are right. I was just baiting you."

"Anyway, lead the way now, Your Grace," she chirped, her voice dripping with overly thusiastic politess.

Vyan sighed dramatically like a theater actor running out of lines and started walking forward, doing his best to guide her through the necessary areas.

His internal clock was set to \'let\'s get this over with,\' but she seemed hell-bt on dragging him to every dusty, irrelevant corner, regardless of their actual significance.

"Wow, you really do look a lot like the previous grand duke and duchess," she remarked with wide-eyed awe.

He raised an eyebrow, frowning. "Oh, really? Did you think I have be fooling the tire country with a fake idtity this whole time?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, as if that were a guine possibility, and he scoffed.

"Anyway, we have se ough of the interiors. If you want to tour the exterior part of the estate, you will have to find someone else—"

"We are not done exploring the interiors yet," she interrupted, her tone as matter-of-fact as a judge delivering a verdict.

"Huh?" Vyan blinked, caught off guard.

"We missed a hallway earlier," she pointed out.

Vyan tsed slightly.

He had purposely avoided that hallway, hoping it would go unnoticed, but with her eagle-eyed scrutiny, she had found it.

"Oh, that one?" He let out a fake chuckle. "There is nothing there. Honestly, I am not sure what\'s there."

"All the more reason to explore it!" She pumped her fists in excitemt, looking like a kid in a candy store rather than someone investigating her emy\'s stronghold.

Vyan scoffed, resigning himself to his fate. "Fine, let\'s get this over with."

As they started towards that ominous hallway, Vyan thought, whatever, it\'s not like she will discover my magic chamber. I upgraded the lock just last week.

Glancing at Iyana\'s confidt strides, he recoiled, she won\'t find it... right?

They reached the d of the hallway, and he barked, "See? Told you there was nothing to see—"

Just th, Iyana twisted a photo frame on the wall, and a hidd door was revealed as if it had be guarded by an invisible spell until now.

"What the hell?" he blurted out, flabbergasted.

She glanced back at him with a triumphant grin. "I knew there was a hidd room here."

"No, wait—"

This isn\'t my magic chamber! What is this room? I never knew this was here!

Anyway, that\'s not important! Who knows what in the world she might find here? What if she stumbled upon my family\'s secrets? I can\'t let that hap–

Before he could process the implications, Iyana stepped through the threshold, and he lunged after her, grabbing her wrist.

But it was too late; they were both inside.

The door vanished behind them, dissolving into thin air.

Vyan stared a the dusty, windowless room, th down at his hand still gripping Iyana\'s wrist.

Doomed.

I am so doomed.