Special Story 7

Caldeon’s threat—that he would bar them from the Grand Duchy entirely if they troubled Heiji with the topic one more time—left Teiro and Lyven nodding their heads in stiff, synchronized tension.

 

Only then, looking satisfied, Caldeon curled one side of his mouth into a smirk. He lowered Heiji gently from his embrace and spoke.

 

“If those rascals bother you, just call Blizzan.”

 

“Blizzan is even more of a bother,” Heiji replied, her brow furrowing slightly.

 

Caldeon’s eyebrows twitched. “That fellow is bothering you?”

 

“I’m not sure if ‘bother’ is the right word…”

 

If she were to say that he had been aggressively hitting on her lately, Caldeon would surely foam at the mouth. And it wouldn’t stop there; the news would undoubtedly reach Hayden’s ears, and Blizzan would find himself facing the wrath of both father and son.

 

Then there were Teiro and Lyven…

 

Heiji instinctively glanced at the two pairs of puppy-dog eyes fixed on her.

 

Knowing they would throw a fit if she said she wasn’t going to the academy, she had actually planned to tell them only after they had already registered. However, the trouble started when they barged in while she was reading an ancient tome, noisily debating which academy dormitory they should choose. Annoyed, she had snapped that she had zero interest in dorms and told them to discuss it between themselves—which had backfired.

 

“If that fellow does anything even remotely suspicious, tell me, Heiji. I’ll make sure he can never loiter around you again.”

 

With that, Caldeon turned and left.

 

Heiji walked back toward her armchair and asked, “When are you two going?”

 

Instead of answering, Teiro and Lyven both arched their eyebrows so high they nearly reached their hairlines and interrogated her.

 

“That fire spirit guy… he really is aiming for you, isn’t he?”

 

Teiro seemed uncharacteristically agitated. Lyven, his eyes wide like a startled rabbit’s, turned to Teiro.

 

“Wait, that fire spirit mister?! He’s an adult! An adult is aiming for a child?!”

 

“Spirits are beings without a specific age,” Heiji noted.

 

“Even so, his appearance…!”

 

Lyven cut himself off and scowled.

 

Come to think of it, whether he took the form of a fifteen-year-old or a full adult, the spirit’s looks were undeniably flawless, even from a boy’s perspective. In his adult form, he even possessed a certain sexiness and relaxed air.

 

“So annoying… I want to be an adult soon,” Lyven muttered, a sentiment usually reserved for teenagers hitting puberty.

 

Heiji let out a small, hollow laugh as she reopened her book.

 

“I wonder if becoming an adult will actually give you a sexy and unique aura like Blizzan’s.”

 

At her words, Lyven’s face hardened instantly.

 

“You think I won’t be cooler than that fire spirit when I grow up?”

 

Heiji gave a non-committal shrug.

 

“Honestly, looking only at your features, you’re certainly handsome enough.”

 

“Exactly! I’m already told I’m the most handsome in the Empire…”

 

“Not ‘the most.’ Are you really saying something so shameless while my father and brother exist?” Heiji shot a sharp glance at Lyven.

 

“No! I mean among people our age!”

 

“Hey, you think you’re more handsome than me?” Teiro chimed in.

 

“You have the kind of face girls like, but you aren’t ‘handsome’ handsome!” Lyven countered.

 

“A face girls like is a handsome face. Why are you separating the two?”

 

As Teiro spoke in disbelief, Lyven began recounting something he’d heard from one of his mother Belona’s acquaintances.

 

“Putting everything else aside, if you look strictly at the features, they said my face is objectively incredibly handsome. Like, excluding charm or anything else—just the face itself.”

 

Since Heiji also agreed that Lyven was quite handsome, she found herself nodding along.

 

At her nod, Lyven’s face brightened instantly.

 

“Heiji, do you think I’m handsome too?”

 

“Well, I do think you’re handsome.”

 

“More than Teiro?”

 

Because of Lyven’s sparkling, hopeful eyes, Teiro’s brow twitched in annoyance.

 

Teiro was no slouch in the looks department either, but his style of handsomeness was so different from Lyven’s. At their current age, the angelic-looking Lyven certainly had a more conventionally ‘pretty’ handsome feel.

 

As if reading Teiro’s thoughts, Heiji shook her head and clarified.

 

“The two of you have such different vibes that it’s hard to say who is more handsome. Strictly speaking, you’re much ‘prettier,’ but Teiro is the type who will be extremely charming when he becomes an adult.”

 

Teiro nodded, satisfied.

 

Lyven argued back, asking how she could possibly know if he’d be charming as an adult.

 

“It’s just something you can see. To put it simply: you’re handsome in a way that’s close to beautiful, while Teiro is handsome in a masculine way. But why are we talking about looks for so long?”

 

Heiji let out a short sigh, clearly bored with the topic despite having answered.

 

Lyven looked at her for a moment, then whipped his head back toward Teiro.

 

“Anyway, for now, I’m the most handsome. Among our peers, at least.”

 

Lyven grinned triumphantly, chin held high as if he’d won a great victory.

 

Heiji spoke in a flat, calm voice.

 

“You’re wrong, Lyven. The most handsome boy in our age group is Graum.”

 

Lyven’s face turned stone-cold in an instant.

 

 

***

 

 

Back from Heiji’s library, Caldeon asked the other two men if they knew their sons wanted to marry his daughter. Rahar simply shrugged.

 

“Well, Lyven says he’s going to marry Heiji as often as he eats, so it’s no surprise.”

 

“Teiro also said the only person who could ever be his partner is Heiji.”

 

The casual indifference of the two fathers made Caldeon’s eyes narrow sharply.

 

“And what about my daughter’s opinion? They’re just deciding to get married between themselves?”

 

“Heiji will choose one of them when she grows up anyway.”

 

“Exactly. Who else would be a better fit for Heiji than my son or Tearen’s son?”

 

As Tearen and Rahar added their pieces, Caldeon frowned at them.

 

“Heiji is going to be the Head of the Grand Duchy. So, marriage is…”

 

“Actually, Lyven asked if Heiji would become the Head since Hayden became the Tower Master.”

 

 

“Teiro’s goal changed recently, too. He asked Roseanne what the duties of the spouse of the head of the Grand Duchy were.”

 

Tearen mentioned that Teiro had been pestering his mother ever since he found out Roseanne had once acted as the deputy Grand Duchess.

 

“The children are that sincere about Heiji, so I think it would be a good idea to choose one of them and get them engaged now.”

 

Rahar’s eyes sparkled at Tearen’s suggestion. “That’s a great idea! If one of them gets engaged to Heiji, the one who doesn’t can give up on her early, right?”

 

Rahar nodded vigorously in agreement, while Caldeon’s face twisted in disapproval.

 

“Heiji is only eleven years old.”

 

“My son is eleven, too. So it’s better to seal the deal while they’re young…”

 

“And what if they change their minds when they grow up? Break the engagement?” Caldeon snapped.

 

“Why are you assuming they’ll break it?” Tearen asked with a shrug.

 

“Because they’re young. There’s no guarantee a choice made now will last.”

 

“If Heiji chooses him, my son will make sure she never regrets it for the rest of her life. He takes after me, after all.”

 

“Ha! If he takes after you, he’ll become a promiscuous adult who doesn’t turn anyone away and won’t let anyone go.”

 

“Watch your mouth. Who are you calling promiscuous? You know perfectly well that was a misunderstanding.”

 

Tearen argued that while many had approached him, he had never been in a serious relationship with anyone else; his first and last love was Roseanne.

 

When Rahar and Caldeon grimaced as if they’d heard something nauseating, Tearen shrugged, noting that they were the same.

 

“Well… I mean, she wasn’t my first love, but Belona is my only true love,” Rahar muttered.

 

“It wasn’t a first love for you; it was a one-sided crush,” Caldeon pointed out.

 

“A one-sided crush is still love! What’s wrong with you?”

 

“Sure, sure. A ‘one-sided’ love you did all by yourself without anyone knowing. Even the person involved didn’t know.”

 

As Tearen teased him, a triggered Rahar shouted back.

 

“I wasn’t the only one who knew! You guys knew back at the academy! And even when I liked Enria…!”

 

“Liked who?”

 

Suddenly, Caldeon’s face turned frigid as he stared at Rahar.

 

Rahar froze, realizing his slip of the tongue, but the damage was done.

 

“Ah, right. That’s right. You… you tried to run away with Enria.”

 

As Caldeon arched an eyebrow menacingly, Rahar protested, saying he only went to the Endelie mansion back then because Roseanne told him to.

 

Caldeon began bringing up Rahar’s past crush, saying he knew Rahar had disrespectful feelings for his woman but didn’t act on it because Enria never saw him as a man. Rahar was flabbergasted that he was being interrogated over a crush from a decade ago.

 

While the two bickered over Rahar’s old feelings for Enria, Tearen stared out the window, lost in thought.

 

If he could get Heiji and Teiro engaged right now, Lyven wouldn’t be able to harbor any false hope—it would be for the best for all three of them.

 

He decided he should hurry the engagement between Teiro and Heiji.

 

Even if they developed feelings for others as adults, he believed no one else was a better match for his son than Heiji.

 

They were children who possessed Great Holy Power and Illusion Magic, respectively.

 

Beyond mere romantic feelings, it felt only natural that Teiro and Heiji should be the ones to marry.