You Do not have much time left

"E-Elara did?"

Astra was shocked to the point where she stuttered. Something that wasn't a very common occurrence.

"I don't believe this. You are putting the blame on her, she would never suggest something like this." Astra spoke as she narrowed her eyes. It wouldn't be the first time Vaan pushed the blame onto Elara, in Astra's mind, the chances of that happening again were higher.

"With that girl's nature, she would never suggest you to challenge other mages out in the open like that, if she did that, one of the biggest worries of my life would be solved," Astra spoke, and hearing what she said, Vaan frowned in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

Astra stared at Vaan for a while then, she decided to share her problems with her son, "You know how Elara is, she is timid."

"Mhm, that she is. Too timid actually, although she has her charm and looks absolutely adorable as she blushes in embarrassment, her nature is a problem. If she doesn't change that, people would start walking all over her." Vaan nodded.

Astra nodded her head as well, "That is what I am talking about, it would be a problem for her in the future, no actually, it is already becoming a problem for her right now.

Her timid nature is affecting her Magic."

"Huh? It is affecting her Magic? How?" Vaan questioned with a surprised look on his face, this was the first time he was hearing something like this.

"Well, it isn't affecting her Magic Study, it is just affecting her performance." Astra then started explaining the problem,

"Elara is a Magic Prodigy."

Vaan nodded.

"However, she has never done well in the Elemental Clash even when she was perfectly capable of doing it.

It wasn't a problem before since she entered the field of magic much quicker than most of her peers. The opponents she fought were much older and more experienced than that.

'She is just a child'

People were ignoring her bad performance because of that, however, now she is 21 years old, and even though the enemies she is battling are still much older than her, people aren't using it as an excuse anymore.

'Vesta Family Head's Student is continuously performing poorly.'

People have started to make remarks similar to this, and although I do not care, these remarks are affecting her and rather than stand up for herself, that girl is letting those remarks get into her head and her already low confidence is falling even further."

"…" Vaan turned silent.

"I tried to help her, but no matter what I do, in the end, she is the one who has to cast the spells in the Battle. She however starts worrying for her enemy in the middle of the battle and even though she can easily defeat her opponent, most of the time she doesn't use her best spells in order to not hurt her enemies."

Astra explained the complete situation. Vaan nodded in understanding, well it wasn't really surprising, this was in line with Elara's nature.

That girl was too kind and she was shy.

However,

"Don't worry Mother."

Suddenly, Vaan smiled.

"I promise you, this time, Elara would be different.

I'll train her."

"You…?"

Astra was shocked.

Vaan blinked a few times, then, he cleared his throat,

"I may not be good at teaching Magic, but trust me, I am damn good at corrupting.

Leave my fiancé to me."

"Corrupting? Oi, I am telling you, nothing should happen to my Daughter in law."

"Yes Yes, just trust your son."

"I for some reason do not trust you at all."

"I shall let the results speak for myself."

"Is that so? Come here, let me predict these results."

Astra chuckled as she grabbed Vaan's cheek.

…

In the Stormweaver House, Seraphina sat in her room, there was a piece of paper in her hand, it was the announcement Vaan had made. Seraphina was staring at it with a grave look on her face.

"This is not good."

She commented.

"There was no apology in the entire announcement, let alone apology, he just said 'I didn't do it' and directly challenged others for a Magic Duel. He didn't even talk about my opinion or how even I am against those rumors.

This announcement is his declaration of war against me.

He is indirectly telling me that he doesn't need me. The open challenge must be his way of challenging me. I indirectly stopped him from practicing Magic and he is involving Magic in this to secretly send me the message.

Especially with how he is asking for Spell Directories if he won, he obviously has no use for it, he is just doing it to strengthen his message and show how he will continue practicing Magic after this."

Seraphina analyzed the content of the announcement.

And of course, she was completely wrong.

Vaan simply wanted to use this opportunity to get his hands on some spells he could learn. In truth, he wasn't even thinking about Seraphina while writing the entire thing.

"…"

"…"

Seraphina obviously was reading too much into it. Anna, who stood behind her was silent as well.

"Anyways, did you get any leads on the person who actually started these rumors?" Suddenly, Seraphina questioned.

Anna, however, shook her head, "As Lady Seraphina knows, it is extremely difficult to track down the people who start rumors like this. We haven't gotten any lead yet." Anna replied.

"…"

Seraphina turned silent.

If only she could find the bastards who did it, she would have taken them to that fool and proved her point. That way, she could have even used this entire thing to her advantage, acting like a victim and getting something from Vaan in exchange for excusing him for not trusting her and maintaining their previous relationship again.

Though Seraphina doubted the current Vaan would have agreed to that, it would still be better than the current situation.

Seraphina sighed as she shook her head, then, she shifted her attention to another problem that was troubling her, "Has Roland replied to our messages yet?"

Anna, however, shook her head again.

"What is that idiot doing?" Seraphina clenched her fists in frustration.

"I even tried visiting the Frostmoon House but they didn't allow me to meet him. What happened so suddenly? Why is he cutting me off!? Is it because of the rumors? But that doesn't make sense, he came to meet me after the rumors were spreading around."

"…"

Anna didn't say anything.

"Everything is falling apart." Suddenly, Seraphina commented.

Vaan was her biggest source of 'Magic Resources', after him, it was the other simps, however, with the rumors spreading around, some of the simps are stepping back as well, even the Simp General is not replying to her letters. Aldric, whom she had kept to keep an eye on Vaan, he has been ignoring her as well, only giving out partial information and not replying when she wants him to.

All her options were slowly being shut down…

She was being trapped.

She needed a solution,

*Knock* *Knock*

Suddenly, a knock was heard.

"What is it?" Seraphina sighed as she shook her head, then questioned.

"Lady Seraphina, Young Master Asher is requesting to meet you."

"Asher?" Seraphina frowned.

"I am coming."

She nodded then, without wasting any time, she stood up. An opportunity can come from the most random of places, maybe, Asher was her opportunity.

5 minutes later, Seraphina walked into her Guest room.

"Lady Seraphina." Asher greeted with a slight smile.

"I didn't see you and your friends coming to me with recording crystals like you told me." Seraphina directly jumped onto the topic.

"Vaan canceled that plan," Asher replied.

"That doesn't give out a good image, you know that right?" Seraphina replied.

"I know, but I do not control Vaan's actions. I am just an agent. I can only tell you what he tells me, I cannot read his mind." Asher shrugged.

"Why are you here?" Seraphina questioned.

"I am here to ask if you have decided on following through with my plan or not."

"…" Seraphina turned silent.

"…" Asher didn't say anything and patiently waited for her answer.

"I need more time."

"You know we do not have much time, right?"

"…"

"Look, your relationship with Vaan wouldn't improve from this point, if you do not control him, you will be finished, and after you, it will be my turn."

"Well at the very least, I won't die even if I don't do anything, so my position isn't as bad as yours."

"Right, I am sure you would live a happy life with the Young Master of the Vesta Family treating you as an enemy.

Seraphina, don't get me wrong, what you have right now is because of Vaan's status as a waste. Even if he was your enemy, it wouldn't have mattered since he had no say in his family, but Vaan has changed, and from his recent actions, I can tell that he is actually trying to actively participate in his Family politics.

Even if he doesn't have any power right now, it is only a matter of time, and once that happens, and the bad blood between him and you is revealed,

Then even those stupid fools who are ready to 'die for you' won't stick around. No one, absolutely no one wants to get on Vesta Family's bad side.

So think carefully,

You aren't safe and,

You do not have much time left either."