With a silence permeating the room after he spoke, Thoda kept her hands on top of one another, putting them delicately at the base of her stomach and standing there silently. As though waiting for him to speak, her body was constantly turned towards him.
Yet, as he was about to ask, she once again opened her mouth whilst shutting his one.
“You did a good job back there. I heard you had some tough opponents,” she cheered him on, but he simply stood there, unresponding. Dismayed at her words, the gears inside his head churned painfully.
‘No, no, she must be trying to appease me,’ he wondered before sighing internally, glancing up at the girl.
“Thank you, but if it wasn’t for Raeyine, I would have been dead already.”
“What matters is that you didn’t give them your coin away,” she said all of a sudden, clapping her hands cheerfully at the same time.
However, Lutiel looked at her eerily, not even noticing when a question left his lips.
“Who told you that?” He asked, at once freezing the noises in the room. The jolly mood around her stature disappeared and a flustered movement of her arms waved about.
“Eh, eh, no, I didn’t say anything. I was just wondering about something. Actually, I came here to inform you about Miss Zyponia in the first place,” she babbled with swaying hairs, quickly changing the topic. “She wants you to come to her room.
Glaring at her with coldly reserved eyes, Lutiel remained silent for a few moments before sighing once again as he saw her fidgeting about.
“Is there anything else?” He spoke, however, as the words left his mouth, she already darted out of the room, leaving it open to the world.
Left alone in the space of his room, the man could only close his eyes patiently before also leaving, promptly walking through the corridors of the mansion.
While he headed for Zyponia’s room, he met nobody on his way, allowing him to think about the girl’s words. ‘They were watching the fight through magic,’ he mused while turning right and constantly walking forward.
‘Then, why would they disappear all of a sudden, only to reappear at the last moment?’ The thoughts formed naturally as he stared at the different portraits of Zyponia, all in different styles and most likely by different artists.
‘Are they trying to gain my trust by saving me? Was all of that fake?’
He entered the grand stairs, walking up one by one before quickly ascending to the top floor, his mind plagued constantly.
‘But, would Raeyine actually kill them if that was the case?’
Finally, he stopped thinking. It was as though his mind went blank once he stopped before Zyponia’s doors.
Nevertheless, he breathed firmly before knocking on the doors of the room he hadn’t visited prior.
“I’m here, my lady,” he said, receiving similar treatment he gave Thoda. A few steps away from the large, ornate doors, he stood quietly, waiting for any sort of response that didn’t seem to be appearing. Not even moving his head, the butler seemed more like a statute rather than a human.
“Come in,” suddenly, a voice resounded from the doors, to which he replied correspondingly. A rigid hold of the handle made it move downwards before they gave way, brisk light encroaching on the faintly shrouded corridor from the interior.
Opening one of the doors on the right, an unfamiliar scene beheld the man crossing the doorway. Stopping in the middle of his tracks, he stared at the two demons standing close to the windows of the grand bedroom.
Having cleared up in the little time he spent going through the hallways, the sun revealed itself, enlightening those basking in its glory. On the right, donning a faintly limpid gown, stood the one that made his chest burn. Her purple hair glistened under the sunlight, falling calmly onto her back, her turned to the side eyes glancing daintily at him.
An opened book could be seen in her right hand, one akin to those he had previously seen in the shop with ink. Together with her body, they were turned towards his left, where a certain person could be seen, completely different from the people he saw inside the mansion.
Slightly shorter than the blue-skinned demon, her dress practically blended together with her. If not for shadows disturbing her features, Lutiel would have had trouble discerning her face.
Pale beyond his contrast, her snow-white image drew him towards the eyes, which were the only thing varying from the rest. As blue as the skies beyond the dark clouds, the man saw as they glimmered like gems of some sort.
“Lutiel,” Zyponia said all of a sudden, breaking him out of the weak reverie. Blinking two times, he glanced back at his master, who still had her focus on the girl. Although he didn’t know what to do in this situation, he still stepped forward on the carpet surrounding most of the bedroom’s floor.
With a steady arm, he closed the door while keeping his eyes towards the two girls. Even though he hadn’t seen her face before, a belief had already set inside his mind on who it might have been.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Almost scrutinizing, the girl’s gaze plundered through his body. From the shoes, going all the way to his head and remaining there for longer than other parts, she pondered something whilst he came closer.
With an abrupt turn, while the man was still a couple feet away from them, her head went to the demon with two horns, her own head bearing none.
Covering the mouth with her pillowy white hand, she spoke despite the man’s presence.
“Token’o, li junt ars’o?” Her soft, on the verge of silence voice still reached his ears, but he could know nothing of what she spoke regardless of any tone.
“Tig, junt li tis’e involni. Ars tane bic dho cin geas tomi zic kiz tacpunt dho intimau ciel,” Zyponia said eagerly, her lips moving swiftly while the girl’s face beamed somewhat. Her eyebrows moving up, they promptly calmed down as she turned back towards the human.
“Tis vidi,” she said, keeping her eyes towards a certain area around his body, just below the neck.
“Lutiel, do you remember what I told you a few days ago?” His master asked as he finally reached them, standing a few steps away from the two.
Slowly, he nodded at the question, looking at the lady while a white-skinned girl stayed in the corner of his sight. “You told me I will be your assistant in teaching, my lady.”
“That’s correct,” she said, moving her head away to look at the girl. “She is my student, the first and the only one I have ever taught.”
Turning his head as well, he once again stared at the girl, whose soft features of indifference began to change rapidly.
From the emotionless look on her face, a subtle smile formed as they looked into each other’s eyes. “My name is Camilla un Haziel. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” with a naturally calm voice, she stretched out the frail-looking arm and waited for the man with her hand in the air.
Despite somewhat of a change in his facial expression, he didn’t let her wait for too long, grasping her soft hand while she shook it vaguely.
“My name is Lutiel,” he introduced himself, even though Zyponia already uttered his name twice.
Ending the greeting after exchanging names, Camilla pondered about while staring at her hand for a few breaths, though she quickly lost interest, returning to the lady.
“Teacher, are we starting right now?” She asked, her long, white eyelashes fluttering about while glancing between her and the man.
However, before she replied to her disciple, she first opened her mouth to her sole male servant. “Are you capable of moving freely?”
Struck by the words, he let them sink inwardly. Wondering what all of this was about, he couldn’t help but recall her statement about some experiment with him.
A few of their breaths passed by as he finally opened his mouth. “I’m a bit sore, but I can bear with it, my lady.”
“Good,” she said, eyeing him from the top to the bottom briskly. “You can strip now, then.”
Frozen in place, he stared at the two girls mindlessly, as though not believing what he had just heard. ‘Strip?’ His mind wreaked havoc. What sort of teaching assistance was this?
“Yes? Naked?” He asked in confirmation, only to receive weird faces from them. The eyebrows of Zyponia creased after hearing him while Camilla smiled ever so slightly.
“No, strip down only to your underwear,” she replied, with a somewhat more stern voice than usual. “The first portion of the lectures is learning the anatomy of humans. After that, there will be a main lecture outside of the mansion.”
Although she had somewhat cleared up her statements, Lutiel still had no idea what all of this was for. But, regardless of his thoughts, it had to have been something that dealt with magic, so he began to unbutton his jacket, as well as all of the garments beneath.
One by one, the pieces fell to the floor, wrinkling erratically around him. Though, as he stood with just his underwear in the bedroom, his leg moved all of the clothes away, including the gloves that used to protect his glyph.
As much as he didn’t want to leave his right hand unattended, he couldn’t excuse himself under the gaze of the two demons. ‘I just need to keep myself at bay,’ he mused while staring at the girls who didn’t hide the interest inside their eyes.
His pale body lit up slightly under the bare sun beyond the windows, emphasizing the naturally formed muscles he had acquired through the years-long slumber of nothing but floating in darkness. Regardless, it wasn’t strictly them. Lutiel also peeked down, witnessing the skin.
The man was already aware that his new body was special. After all, the power it contained was more than astonishing when he compared it to his peak before imprisonment. Using it after just a few training sessions felt practically effortless, the body listening to most of his commands freely.
The veins around the body protruded as blood rushed through them and back to the heart in a rhythmic motion, further fuelling the pronounced muscles.
Keeping their eyes on it for a few moments, Zyponia finally shook herself clear. With a quick look at his face, she opened her mouth. “We have prepared a few exercises for you. You just need to complete them until I stop you or you can’t any more.”
Nodding softly, his head followed the lady moving over to her large bed, wooden cases visible on top of the cleanly arranged bedding. Curving along the edges, golden lines adorned the auburn faces of the four crates, each varying in size.
Two of them were relatively small, roughly the size of his collar while the rest dominated in length. Though, as the first one, Zyponia chose a chest from the smaller sizes.
A couple steps away, she didn’t maneuver her arms in any way, standing still while the chest began being lifted up in the space, leisurely floating about towards the man.
Pausing his glare, however, Lutiel looked at the snowy girl instead, precisely at her eyes. Glimmering in a specific way, they constantly followed the chest with marvel entwined within. Staring at the gems he could never know the feeling of, he promptly revived his attention around Zyponia’s actions.
The chest hovered practically in front of him, but it washed over the slave with an impassive attitude. He had already seen her move a rock around with utter ease, so he judged it couldn’t have been that much different to do so with a wooden box.
Still, his thoughts disappeared quickly as the chest finally landed on the carpet, right before his virtually glabrous legs. Lowering his head at the object with mystery contained inside, he looked at the front side’s crest, where a lock situated itself, slowly beginning to open up without any external aid.
Just like him, the other two inside the room also looked down at the chest, swiftly witnessing the insides. A round ball of cold metal, clear of imperfections, rested in a nest of dim red cushion, set in a little divot to keep it from rolling about.