Corridor

  Walking to breakfast was a bit awkward, for one it was painfully clear the other three guards weren’t fond of Noah anymore and the staff they passed by were all whispering about how surprised they were that he didn’t leave.

  Veronique simply didn’t feel comfortable with Noah, and was already dreading the day Kain would come back.

  Could those two ever work together? Should she worry about the two of them sabotaging themselves? She trusted Kain but while she had been neutral to Noah in the past the last events had put the former knight in the untrustworthy category.

  It felt as if she had to watch her back with him and she didn’t like it.

  One thing was clear, out of everyone Noah must never find out about her hallucinations, he would no doubt rat her out in an heartbeat.

  “I owe you, Lady Veronique, an apology, my behaviour from yesterday was out of the line” Noah had apologized from out of the blue

  “Yes it was, but I am not the only one you should apologize to” Veronique quickly recomposed herself then added her own suggestion “next time you feel angry about something go for a run around the Estate that should cool you down before you do something stupid”

  “I will take it in consideration” Noah meekly answered back

  “And take off that helmet! You are the only one wearing such thing and it makes you look like a creep” Veronique ended up saying, the full face helmet Noah was wearing irritated her to no end “I can’t take you seriously with your face covered”

  “I will store the helmet as soon as I go back to my rooms” the man had said without missing a beat, it gave the redhead the shivers to hear Noah being so formal

  ‘Shit it’s as if I am waiting for a snake to bite me’

  Kitchen

  Chef Bernard was irritated, his meals were perfectly balanced to make sure the Aurelia would stay healthy and fit, but now because of Veronique his whole meal plan was completely thrown off by a rogue unbalanced breakfast.

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  He was no fool he knew Lady Rhea didn’t particularly enjoy that breakfast and was only saying so to appease that red headed bad omen.

  Other then that he hated to admit there was a wound on his pride by watching Elise acting in his role to make breakfast to the Aurelia.

  It was humiliating to have such a low skill cook have such honor, yet he kept himself in check, he was sure things would go back to normal sooner or later.

  The Aurelia wouldn’t tolerate such a downgrade for long, so he just needed to be patient and wait it out.

  No need to tarnish himself by doing dishonorable acts, his meals will speak by themselves in the end and he was far above such puerile behaviour.

  Ivan Doppelganger’s Study

  The Duke ended up assigning a room for Ivan to do his practice Skill lessons, it was a copy of the room where Madame Luise had done their skill assessment.

  The walls were of covered in large gray marble tiles with light green specks, while the floor had smaller tiles but in a dark green, but instead of being empty it had a few bookshelves along with desks, even if at the least half of it was an empty space.

  ‘I wonder if this material is particularly resistant against Skills’ Veronique had wondered as their teacher had both her and Rhea practice with the labyrinth toy.

  “Alright kids, now let’s try to use that feeling you had while making the marble visible to cast Hover” Ivan had said at about the half hour mark still keeping a bit of informality in his tone “make sure to keep your intent clear” he had instructed

  “But I still can’t make it visible” Rhea had cried out in frustration

  “It’s alright Lady Rhea you will get it later, there is no rush about it” Ivan had been gentle about it “but there is no reason for Lady Veronique to not go forward, you don’t want her to waste her time right?”

  “No, I don’t want that” Rhea ended up saying sounding a bit disenchanted about it

  ‘Shit what if Rhea grows up to resent me if I am better at this then her?’ the redhead had thought in alarm

  “Good, then Lady Veronique if you could give it a try” Ivan had told her

  “Shouldn’t I try to move the marble first?” Veronique tried to get out of doing it to give Rhea more time to get it too

  “Trying out a skill is a good way to gauge your progress, remember the Artifact is just a tool to exercise your control on mana” the man had explained “now kid try to use hover on those wooden spheres, visualize them fluctuating above the table”

  “Alright…Hover” Veronique had tried to do exactly as he said, her intention was to make the spheres hover and fall in a few seconds ‘if I am not too successful at it, maybe Rhea won’t feel jealous’ but instead of hovering above the table the spheres had essentially just jumped a few feet up and ended up chattering down in an instant.

  “I see you still need to practice more, you let too much mana pass when you casted and left too little to keep the Skill active” their teacher had observed “you have to leave a constant stream from start to finish while keeping your intent clear, it will be an easier process once the Skill registers”

  “How would I even know when that happened?” Veronique had questioned him knowing it wasn’t as if she could check her status window

  “Oh you will hear a bell chiming” Ivan had responded without much of a thought

  “I could miss it out” Veronique had pointed out

  “It’s a very peculiar sound and you would surely notice the Skill is easier to cast” the man responded sounding irritated “Now stop stalling and go back to practice, we got no time to lose there”