“Greetings to the Duke of Marina, and to you Uncle Ruiz,” Malaya, while raising her skirt a little, courtesied with grace.

“What do you need?” Darren said with a neutral looked on his face. “Unlike you, I don’t have time to waste.”

“It would be quick Duke, but if possible could I have a word with you alone?” Malaya said maintaining her calm demeanor.

Darren gave a sideways glance to their Uncle Ruiz. Their uncle bowed and leave quietly from the office. When they heard the door closed, Malaya began speaking again.

“Brother,” Malaya said trying to stay calm as possible in the suffocating room with her brother. “I will be going back to the academy tomorrow.”

Darren didn’t respond so Malaya continued her words.

“This might be the last time we will see each other for a long time so, please accept this,” Malaya put down two white envelopes at Darren. Then she stepped a few steps away.

“Since the day of father and big brother Jules death, I-I…” Malaya clenched her fist.

“It’s all my fault and no matter how much I apologize, I know that it won’t easily absolve like that. I don’t even hope for your forgiveness, I know I don’t deserve that,”

‘the pain…’

‘the responsibilities you have to carry at such a young age…’

‘the hurtful words we kept throwing at each other…’

“But with this voyage, I promise, if there is something out there even at 0.01 probability that I could bring back Jules and father…”

*Bam!*

Malaya twitched when Darren stood up and slammed the table. He gave her an intense glare. “Malaya,” he rubbed his hair and breathe deeply to calm himself down. “They are already gone, Malaya.”

That words from Darren made Malaya bit the lower part of her lips. 

“I know,” 

‘But since I got transmigrated here when I thought I already die, there might be also a chance to save Jules and father, but I couldn’t tell this to Darren. He would probably not understand and what’s worst he might think that I’ve really gone insane,’ 

“I know,” Malaya repeated again making Darren looked intently at her. “I don’t want to give you false hope either or maybe I’m just saying this to make myself better,”

‘Since that time, I’ve been asking myself a lot of What ifs?’ What if I never made it to this world? What if I didn’t foolishly sneak with them? What if I’m the one who died instead of them? But no matter how many what-ifs I contemplated, nothing in the past could be altered. No matter how infuriating it is, every way ahead will only lead you forward. But in this world of magic and secrets, there could be possibilities…’

Malaya looked at her brother with determined eyes, “Even with that small chance, I will take it,”

She then gave a short bow. “That is all I need to say brother, please take care of yourself too.”

‘You don’t have to believe in me but even if could alleviate a minuscule of your pain, please believe in me brother.’

Malaya began to walk away without looking back. When she was finally out of the room, Darren sank in his chair. He supported his head with his hands clasped together in the table. 

‘This is why I hated you,” he released a tired sigh. “You are so selfishly stubborn making everyone always worried sick to you,’

“I never ever blamed you.” Darren let out another deep sigh. “Doing so would be disrespectful to both our father and Jules, who have given their lives to save you…”

“Then tell her all of that,” Cynthia emerged from the shadows. She took a seat casually on the sofa in front of Darren. “You have no idea how hard for the eldest seeing her adorable younger siblings having troubles at each other,”

Darren just gave his eldest sister a deadpan look. “It’s not really nice eavesdropping on people’s conversation,”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll keep that in mind, Milord” Cynthia said nonchalantly not taking his brother’s words into heart.

“I’m just here to tell you the attack that happened in the dorm of Malaya. The witch…” cold glint passed through her eyes, “…that both Dorris and Rein reported to us, I couldn’t find her.”

Darren raised his head. “The strongest mage has difficulty finding a mere dark witch? This is the first time I heard of this,”

“Don’t call me that,” Cynthia pouted. “The saintess right now is the strongest mage here. Oh, speaking of the Saintess, I’m quite surprised that she is close with Malaya. I thought they would hate each other over that whiner prince. But I guess that is not the case. She even saves Malaya from…”

“Witch, that witch…” A powerful gust of air engulfed the entire area, knocking the papers and books in Darren’s office to the floor. “If I find her, she will face a fate worse than death.”

Darren frows furrowed. “Sister,”

“Yes! I know I’m going to definitely find her,”

“No, not that,” Darren scowled.

“Then what?” Cynthia’s aura intensified.

“Be sure to clean the mess you caused here,” Darren addressed with a deadpan expression making Cynthia’s jaw dropped open.

“Milord,” Their Uncle Ruiz entered but he paused when he saw Cynthia and the mess she created.

“Uncle Ruiz!” Cynthia ran to him. “Darren is bullying me!”

Hearing this, Darren just wanted to facepalm. He really wished that his eldest sister could always act more mature and not like this. Life would surely be a bliss to him if that happened.

“Please clean this mess, Cynthia, your brother and I are already busy with lots of works to be troubled with this.”

“Alright, fine.” Cynthia harrumphed, but she still obeyed her uncle’s words. She clapped her hands, causing a gentle breeze to circulate throughout the room. It returned all of the books and papers to their proper arrangement.

After a few more minutes, everything was now clean and in order. “Done. I hope both of you are happy now,” Cynthia said, still pouting. But then something came to her mind. “Ah, little brother, catch,”

Cynthia tossed something at Darren, which Darren quickly caught. When he examined it, he noticed that it was a black key with an exquisite pattern. The key’s tip from its shoulders was formed into a serpent’s body, and the key’s bow was made into a serpent’s head swallowing the sun.

“This symbol,” his gaze narrowed when he realized the meaning of the design of the key. This was definitely the symbol of the Tenebris cult. The fanatics and worshippers of the first demon king Genelthus.

“It appears that there is more to it than we assume,” Cynthia remarked, her face no longer filled with childish expressions. “I will be gone for a while to look into this but before I leave, there is one more thing I wanted to tell you. Since our dear youngest sister was able to clear grandfather’s name that none of us has accomplished, a little reward wouldn’t hurt from the Duke of Marina right?”

“…”

“Have a nice day, Milord,” As soon as Cynthia said this, the wind started to envelop her and disappeared.