房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Zoemi as the host took upon himself the explanation.

"But considering who she was, I asked her to leave."

And the black-haired boy certainly wasn't going to hide what happened either.

"Good choice. Surou, if she will still cooperate with you even after that, then I will think of some sort of reward."

Horeo nodded and did not question Zoemi's choice in the slightest.

"She will. I know that she and lord Banemor have a difficult past together but she isn't a bad person. She only wants to be able to return to her former life... at least as much as possible..."

Surou put his hands together and nodded slowly, carefully choosing his words.

"The thing with that is, Miss Sifra was never officially exiled from the kingdom though. She was only ever expelled from her family. If she wanted to, she could return to Bellcephora at any time, it's only that her family suffered a serious blow because of her utterly stupid act that she basically did just for fun. I could talk to lord Ralia, but having her return to her family just because the king pressured her family into it might not be as good of an idea as she expects."

The young king shrugged his shoulders and revealed, surprising both Zoemi and Surou.

"Well..."

"What is it?"

The blue-haired boy fidgetted at the words of his older brother, which got the black-haired boy's curious reaction.

"Sifra isn't exactly a Miss now... she is the youngest wife of Cevira, the owner of the biggest slave market in Vexzi."

Surou breathed out and explained slowly, cautious about the reaction that his words would cause.

Not because he was responsible for such a turn of action or anything- just because not shooting the messenger was a good proverb but didn't usually happen in the real world.

"Ah, yes – you did say that your sponsor was the married lady – that's why I didn't consider Sifra to be it."

Zoemi nodded his head in realization, not very bothered about it.

"...that changes a lot though..."

The young king furrowed his brows looking at the juice in his half-empty glass.

"It does indeed – I believe that Sifra's saying that she wants to return to the Bellcephora kingdom and her former life, she means that she wants to cut the ties with her husband..."

Surou nodded jumping on the slightest ray of positivity.

"That too, but what I meant by that is as a wife of someone from Atreterve – especially someone influential like that slave market owner – Sifra became the citizen of Atreterve. Most of our laws don't involve her anymore. We could try to work something out if she divorced the guy first, but if we tried to get her to move to Bellcephora without her husband's knowledge, that would be considered a kidnapping. A kidnapping of a wife of an important person."

Horeo breathed out and changed his point of focus from the glass to his younger brother.

"Have you considered that this is all a part of the plan that Atreterve conceived with the knowledge of the problems we have with the reappearance of the Barbariacca nation? Maybe even it was all prepared in cooperation with the Barbariacca, to begin with? If let's say, Zoemi had been a kindhearted fool and I was an idiot and we would immediately agreed to fulfill Sifra's wishes, that could lead to war – or give Atreterve good enough reason to at least threaten us with war and put us into a very difficult spot."

The young king asked, without taking his eyes off of his younger brother.

"...that is something that came to my mind, yes. That is also why I wanted to get over her request as soon as possible. That is also why I didn't inform lord Banemor about her identity so the exact outcome that we got could occur... Although I did lose my cool a bit after I was called an idiot before I could explain my exact way of reasoning. Not to mention meeting Buru... miss Burushiitto, face to face... I was a bit off."

Surou took a deep breath and explained, doing his best to brave through keeping eye contact with rather annoyed Zoemi.

"I would love to believe that, because if so it would mean that my younger brother is really back. Pardon my doubts though, I have seen you doing some of the dumbest things that I have ever had the displeasure of witnessing."

Horeo looked between the two and sighed downing the rest of the juice before refiling it in the same swift motion.

"Please excuse the change in the subject but... that did sound like you wish to repair the relationships that we had."

The tension left Surou and he asked in a hesitant but soft voice – it really did sound like he didn't count on the chance to repair the brotherly bond that was basically severed by the actions that he did under the influence of the hex, but would love if it was a possibility.

...but unfortunately because of the current circumstances, despite being honest, did seem like the result of cold calculations...

"That indeed would be quite welcomed. Although I can still get what I want with no allies whatsoever, having at least some people that I could trust would definitely put my mind at ease."

Horeo nodded and smiled, although his smile was rather imposing for the things he talked about.

"Let's get back to our original objective though, shall we?"

The young king waved his hand dismissively, showing off his teeth in a grin.

"For the time being, I would advise you to stay away from the political scene. We expect that some rather unsavory individuals would like to seize the power in a similar way I did, albeit more bloody. Not that it would make much of a difference, but I would prefer if in the midst of that your faction would not raise its head to attempt a backstab."

"I still have a faction supporting me?"

Horeo announced, or maybe the better word for it would be – threatened – Surou, making sure that his point will go through to him, but even though it didn't, the effect wasn't exactly as the gold-haired youth wished for, but rather made the blue-haired one surprised.

"Indeed, you do. Because of them, I decided to not only reveal your disappearance – that wasn't run by me, might I add – from the monstery, but added some details that would keep them in check, or at least make them rethink collaborating with the enemy."

The young king confirmed without batting an eye and added, partially filling his younger brother on some details that he had no access to.

"That's a bit reassuring. I was wondering why the information about me being abducted and tortured until I gave out some valuable information was added to the report about the former royal couple... I am relieved hearing that it wasn't done just so you could capture and imprison me for treason."

Surou said, although he never once sounded relieved or reassured while saying that – just increasingly anxious.

"Not imprisoning you is still up for debate, though."

"...!"

Horeo pointed out, and Surou flinched and became a lot paler.

"If it wasn't for Zoemi explaining things about the hexing and all – especially that piece of filth Arisu – this meeting would not be as peaceful as it is."

The gold-haired boy snickered, although the things he talked about were not a laughing matter at all.

"Th-thank you...?"

"You're welcome."

Surou flinched and bowed his head to Zoemi almost unconsciously, to which the black-haired boy shrugged his shoulders and responded dismissively, not really feeling like it was very important.

Well, rather than feeling, it was more of a certainty – he knew full well when Horeo was serious, and when he was only acting... and at the moment, he was definitely just acting.

Whether it was just for the laugh of it to relieve the pent-up stress of being the king or was he getting back at Surou – that was a harder division to make, even for Zoemi though.

"Then, about the ball... Should I show up too...? Even incognito?"

"Most definitely not."

Surou asked, and got an immediate answer from Horeo – this time completely serious.

"We can't be sure what the Atreterve nation is planning, we can't be sure whether the Ghosts of Bellcephroa will show up to wreak havoc, we can't be sure whether Arisu will make a move together with Ehmi. O am not going to let you risk your life in the midst of that. And speaking of that couple of unreasonably powerful and equally annoying menaces... they somehow got Vanterl killed, but the Vanterl family still got their back as if there was no tomorrow, that might be something worth looking into. Not what I would expect."

The gold-haired young king went out of his way and gave his reasoning for the decision he made, which was already a sign of major improvement in his relationship with his younger brother.

Maybe actually being reasonable and even a little bit helpful, and not making public demonstrations of overusing one's power and status were really all that Surou needed to gain Horeo's favor.

"Mrs. Ehmi is a sage with a quite powerful ability that enhances her spells – she can absorb any kind of flames, created by magic or not, and use it to not only replenish her mana but even gain more strength from it. Vanterl was a true beast in terms of combat, but out of the two, Mrs. Ehmi seems like an ally who can be more useful – as long as there are flames around, she cannot be defeated,"

Surou spoke up, revealing that despite being stuck in Atreterve, he did have access to some good information.

"She's just harder to defeat when she's around the fire. She can absorb the flames, sure, but it's not like she can do it subconsciously all the time. Out of the two, Vanterl would definitely be the better choice to pick for an ally."

Horeo shook his head dismissively.

"But Arisu is a sage now too, though. With them two together, that choice you are talking about gets a bit more difficult."

"...true... together they make for a stupidly dangerous pair when you put it like that. Ehmi is a fire sage that can absorb fire and Arisu is a variant who can use different attributes as he wishes."

Horeo nodded and silently offered to pour the drink to Zoemi, who seeing the motion pushed his glass forward.

After the refill, the young king looked at his younger brother, who panicked and immediately grabbed the glass and pushed forward, so as to not gravely offend Horeo.

"It looks like some difficult times are ahead of us. They do say that the beginning is difficult, but this is ridiculous..."

The young king sighed and after pouring the juice to the other two, emptied the bottle into his own glass.