35 The fathers

"You called, father?"

"Oh right, Calla. Come in, my daughter."

I entered the Duke's office of gold and crimson, the aroma of freshly-brewed Western Green Tea lingered through the air. I did my best not to hack out a gag—I have never liked this flavor at all. Then I saw that he was not alone. There was someone else standing beside him. A man in his thirties with hair a familiar shade of silver, he wore a monocle glass but it did not hide the monochromatic gray of his eyes. He stood in dark green livery and upon the left side of his chest was a silver pin that outlined that of a carnation flower in front of two crossed swords.

It did not take me long to recognize who this person was. I dipped into a curtsy as I stopped in front of the office table. "My greetings upon the Duke of the West, it is a pleasure to meet you here."

"Lift your head, my dear." I did what he told me to and my eyes landed upon a playful grin. Lines surfaced on his face but it did not take away his allure. "We should keep away with the formalities. After all, we shall soon be family- Ow!"

The Western Duke yelped in pain as my father seemed to have stomped his feet on his toes. While doing so, my father just kept his gaze on the documents that he had been scanning since I came here. My brows were raised, my lips pressed, as I stood there awkwardly.

I nearly choked at his words. It was as if a bomb was dropped right at the start of the conversation and I did not know how to react to the scene before me.

"It is still too early for talks of marriage." muttered father as he dipped a quill pen into an inkpot, the action made a loud 'clink' that opposed to the calmness of his voice.

Sein's father just shrugged and went back to skimming through some documents. He replied words that almost sounded like mere mumbles, "Still going to happen either way…"

My father cleared his throat, as if preventing the other person from speaking any further. He didn't take his eyes off from the papers as he spoke to me, "Have you finished the paper works that I had asked for, Calla?"

"Yes father, I sorted out the suitable subsidiary funds for the villages that are out of reach from the benefits of the city." I raised my chin a little higher, feeling proud of myself. This was the normal life. "I'd also written letters of recommendations to merchants and traders so that they won't shy away from the small villages that had promise of high-quality crops and products."

Both men nodded several times with lifted brows.

"You've done a great job, and I'm gratified for being spared of the extra work." said father with a face that looked brighter even if it did not show any kind of expression at all.

My heart pounded with a sense of pride as I bit my lip to push back a smile. The economic books that had almost made me cross-eyed had finally bore their fruit.

"Pardon me for asking this, my dear child, but you could not have learnt to do all that in such a short period of time since the day you've unfortunately lost your memories." said the Duke of the West, again with that playful sneer. "Did you receive some help?"

"Well…" I hesitated to answer but I continued anyways. This was before Sein became busy with the academy. "Sein did give me a tiny bit of assistance here and there." I felt my cheeks heating up.

"Hmmmm…" The Western Duke mused as the sides of his lips tugged. He murmured some last words that I had failed to comprehend. "I ship."

The door bolted open in a way that made my heart jump. I looked behind me and I saw a blue-haired man walking towards us with incredible speed. His fists were clenched.

"Have you seen my wretched spawn of a son?" He bellowed out as soon as he'd stopped from his tracks.

I stepped a few inches to the sides as I gave way to this fuming man. The word 'trouble' was etched into his forehead. It looked like I was the only one concerned, seeing as the two dukes were unfazed and continued to do their work.

Then Sein's father answered, adjusting the single piece of round glass on his eye. "Nope, haven't seen that cute one these days. That child looked rather busy the last time I saw him."

The blue-haired person aggressively combed his fingers to his long hair that was tightened into a ponytail. "Why can't that brat just stay in one place for once?!"

"Beats me, have you ever stopped and thought where he might've gotten that trait from?" asked Sein's father.

"Surely not from me," The man said while pinching the bridge of his nose, the other hand on his waist side. "Lavi got it from Inca."

"I'd like to think that it's both."

My father snorted from the remark.

Wait, what? Now that I think of it, he looks like someone. I slowly took in the black and gold robe of a wizard's that this man was wearing. The blue of his hair that fell straight and silky as if he was a model in a shampoo commercial. His eyes were the same hazel as Lavi's, but brighter. He behaved in a way that made him youthful, but in reality, he was just the same age as the other two before me.

He was Lavi's father. Why am I meeting both Lavi and Sein's fathers at the same time?

Then he turned to my direction, and it made me dip into a rather hasty curtsy. The Duke of the Northwest bowed in return. But his eyes lingered to me for a few seconds before turning back to their conversation.

Lavi's father returned to letting out his complaints about, apparently, his youngest son and how he can't just behave like his older brothers. Another fact about Lavi that I did not know about—he was youngest and he had two older brothers.

While listening to him ramble about, I had almost drawn out a conclusion that Lavi was a problem-child. Indeed, thinking about how he'd been out and about here in the East most of the time made him look like a homeless runaway.

From my peripheral vision, I noticed a figure pass by from the wide-open door. It was Lavi. He turned to look inside for a moment, and then stopped to look again for the second time. As he confirmed that it was indeed his father that he saw, his eyes went wide with shock as his head was knocked back slightly. He scurried away, his robe fluttering behind him.

I decided to follow him. I took a step but stopped midway and decided to curtsy to the men who had seemingly forgotten about my presence.

I hurried out to the halls and saw the slender figure of a wizard turn to another path in a blink of an eye. He was too swift. 'Quick, before he teleports away', I thought, while cursing magic. I ran at the fastest speed I could ever muster, past the servants' curious glances.

I took the same turn that Lavi took and saw him about to exit the mansion, but he seemed to have slowed his pace. Shit, outside was already a place full of roses.

"Lavi, wait!" I called out to him, still running. Damn this goddess-forsaken huge mansion. 'If this place was small, then Lavi could've gone outside a long time ago, stupid'.

The wizard seemed to have heard me as he faced his body to my direction. Due to his action, his shoulder-length hair covered one side of his face. For a moment, he looked cute.

Seeing me, he finally stopped. Just by the doors, great. He saved me the trouble by walking back towards me. The panic of his eyes were gone, and it was replaced with a calm and complacent demeanor.

As I finally stood in front of him while huffing and puffing, I didn't waste my time and spoke immediately.

"Can we talk?"