房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"..."

Aerena curtsied once more and asked, indeed sounding curious – so Zoemi stopped himself from asking about Reo whom he didn't meet or even briefly seen for quite some time already.

They didn't even manage to meet at the Academy – for however briefly the black-haired boy had returned there for, at least.

"Dad is our dad!"

"He is!"

"!!!"

The two corpse puppet sentinels cheered out without much thought or consideration – causing a wave of shock to spread around anyone within audible distance.

"O-oh, I see... then, by any chance are you the mother...?"

Aerena looked between Ettemi and Oemir who judging by the looks alone had no possible way of being the offspring of the black-haired boy, and then timidly turned to Elsby for confirmation.

"Oh, no. Unfortunately no. I am merely a distant relative that got found by young Zoemi and brought in – same with those children. I didn't know them before showing up at the mansion – although I know their other sibling quite well. Having them adore him so much is only proof of how good of a person he actually is."

Elsby didn't skip a beat and explained without any trouble while a gentle smile never left her face.

"I understand now, I apologize for jumping to conclusions..."

Aerena didn't flinch but her eyes widened slightly once she received a casual but polite answer to her question.

"You said that you know their sibling though... are they here too?"

The blue-haired woman didn't want to leave the conversation on the rather awkward apology, so she asked, looking around acting more curious than she actually was.

"Well..."

Elsby smirked, tilting her head, and just for a split second, a murky-black sphere popped up just the tiniest bit from the darkness of her hair.

"As much as they wanted to, the situation called for their presence somewhere else."

The jet-black-haired woman said cautiously, looking over at the black-haired boy slightly in front of her.

"It does sound as if lord Banemor did his best to gather as many family members as he could."

"...sister..."

Aerena's smile became a bit more somber, making Vianee glance at her with a worried expression.

"I like the idea of having a big family – the bigger the better. A little leftover wishes I harbored since the time I lost my mother."

Zoemi had a very good idea why the Moyena siblings might have a problem with his way of thinking, but had no reason to hide it. He wasn't going to force it on everyone else – it was just what he felt like.

"...one can only hope that you will not want to eat those words later on..."

Vianee muttered – very clearly didn't intend to be heard, but Zoemi's hearing was always much better than average so he managed to catch every single word.

It looked like things were worse than he originally thought...

In the game, Reo's bad end carried some heavy implications about the state of the Moyena family – and unfortunately, it seemed that exactly that was going on in the real world.

Things were probably worse in reality, actually – at least judging by the behavior of both Vianee and Aerena.

"Speaking about families. How is my dear friend, Reo, doing? I haven't had the chance to meet him back in the Academy during my brief return and considering that you were announced as representatives of your esteemed family, I am not expecting to see him..."

Zoemi decided to act as if he really didn't hear the red-haired young man's words and moved the subject along.

He knew that neither of the two liked their youngest sibling, but the green-haired boy was the best subject to push the conversation forward without showing that the black-haired boy knows more than he had any right to without planting a spy in the Moyena household.

"..."

"..."

"...here...?"

But as soon as he mentioned Reo, Vianee and Aerena looked at each other extremely troubled, to say the least, causing Zoemi to hesitate and look between them with a bad feeling in his stomach.

"...what happened to him...?"

"!!!"

The black-haired boy really tried to keep things civil, but somehow the question that came out of his mouth bore such immense pressure that everyone surrounding him – from his own corpse puppet sentinels all the way to bystanders listening in to the conversation – flinched and backed off in cold sweat.

"You couldn't have met Reo in the Aspakeony Academy even if you wanted to though..."

Vianee tried to control how much he trembled while facing the overwhelmingly threatening young man, but he couldn't even keep his voice in check, much less his hands and knees.

"Reo's back home under... house arrest... We... we don't know much detail but it is apparently about something that he talked about with father and brother Teviran that got him in trouble..."

Aerena gulped down her saliva and answered while cowering subconsciously.

"Then I believe that neither of those two is worthy to rule the Moyena family. Little ones, in case things get too messy and that matter will slip my mind, remind me of visiting them after we've dealt with the current affair."

Zoemi declared and his eyes gleamed coldly as if he was challenging the pair of siblings in front of him.

"O-okay, dad!"

"Y-yes...!

It actually took a few seconds for Oemir and Ettemi to realize that the black-haired boy was talking to them because of how shaken they were by the immense aura of hostility surrounding Zoemi like a veil.

"H-hold on, what do you mean by that...?!"

"Exactly what I've said."

Aerena flinched and looked around in shock as if she expected another Moyena family unrelated to her own to be the object of Zoemi's unbound wrath, but got a cold shoulder as the black-haired boy turned away, showing her and her brother his back.

"What was that about?"

Elsby asked looking back at the Moyena siblings that managed to shake off the shock and fear that Zoemi caused them enough to move to the back of the line and wait their turn to greet the young king properly.

"Just another matter added to my to-do list. Actually, it might be worth to sent one of my other little ones to..."

"Pardon the rudeness, young master, but you were the one to say that we barely have enough forces to pull off the plan. Young Reo was a strong person, the matter can wait."

The black-haired boy hesitated and wondered, but the dark-blue-haired young-looking man patted his shoulder both reminding and trying to reassure him of the previously taken decision.

"Grandpa... you're right."

Zoemi looked back at the serious expression Benevirau was making and breathed out having the tension leave him – or rather lower to a reasonable degree that did not make him release so much murderous aura that other people couldn't help but back off in fear.

"Representing the Espine family – Miriette Lisea Espine and her attendants!"

It also happened just in time for another's guest appearance and announcement – an appearance that made almost everyone turn their heads towards the entrance and the staircase leading to it.

Miriette showed up in a brilliant deep-green dress with black accents and was clearly basking in the attention.

She was a rather controversial figure that day especially.

After all, everyone knew that her engagement to the current king was under reevaluation while the latter was still the prince.

Officially nothing was canceled, but at the same time in those kinds of situations reevaluation always meant the brief period before breaking everything off.

The girl being the center of attention only smiled confidently in response to the looks she got and moved a strand of her dark hair that broke loose from the intricate hairstyle back into place with her gloved hand.

The hairstyle was also interesting – Miriette didn't dye the platinum streak in her fringe but instead had it styled in a way that looked like a part of the accessory adorning her head.

As she descended the staircase with such confidence as if she was the most important person during the evening, she was followed by three other people.

…or four, depending on how one looked at it...

They were in order – Teo, the younger of the twins that were originally Horeo's attendants, Mirienne / Roiso, the acid magician, and the pure-white Metavicero.

Teo was dressed in a butler's uniform, very official looking and more expensive than the ones she usually wore.

Mirienne and Roiso wore a frilly pink dress that matched their neon-pink eyes – at the same time, they certainly didn't let go of their hazmat suit with magic stones embedded into it, so the overall look could make others confused... putting it lightly, that is...

Metavicero were full-on white with a dress that looked sculpted from the delicate fresh snow – which actually could be true, knowing what kind of variant attribute she possessed.

The fact that the looks of the three girls passing off as attendants didn't cause a huge uproar was the best showcase of how much presence Miriette alone had – as always, she overwhelmed everyone and everything until she got what she wanted, whatever it was.

The proud dark-haired girl looked around the ballroom benevolently, briefly locking eyes with Zoemi who shook his head discreetly.

"..."

That made Miriette furrow her brow the tiniest bit - originally, they were aiming to have the four girls enter right after the delegation from Barbariacca nation - but the diplomats from the troublesome country have either missed their allotted timing by accident or were aiming for the dramatic late entrance.