75. Lessons and Lesions

Castus and Shi stood exactly two paces from the door to a carriage, reaching in a near robotic manner as they opened the door for the two sisters. Each had their own carriage as nobility dictated. Sharing a carriage was seen as an intimate thing, and arriving with a guest in one's carriage would only bring on the assumption of a romantic relationship or otherwise.

Castus stood firmly behind Aria, again exactly two paces. Shi did the same but lined up with Erin. They waited and the two girls stepped forward while casually discussing. 

"Oh, do you think we will finally get to spar for real! last year we only did drills." Erin rolled her eyes. 

Aria, rather gracefully and without warning, planted a heel into Erin's foot. 

"Erin, please try to at least act proper in public." 

Erin winced. "How can I do that when our little brother came back, and the first thing Lord Fulsin does is lock them in a basement for a year. Last time I saw him he was much shorter!" Erin shouted at Aria with a slight limp for a second while she recovered.

"I understand, while I too am excited, I am controlling it. So please do the same." Aria spoke. 

Castus though heard none of it while they walked through the gates that had once denied him. As it turned out, not only was Shi much better at combat than him, but she was also much better at manners. Castus had his full focus as the hundreds of lessons that were brutally pounded into him rolled through his thoughts. 

The last month of training had been the worst in Castus' opinion. While they had been in the basement, he had been able to focus his time and energy into being the most productive he believed. The mannerisms training had wrapped him up in rules and exact movements. It was awful in his opinion. Shi quite enjoyed it though, quickly grasping what to do and doing it to the upmost success. The teacher actually cried at one point, calling Shi the best student she had ever had. 

The four of them entered into the large doors that were pushed open by two guards that were wider than tall and looked to be able to bench-press a semi-truck. Castus listened to the door creaking and the effortless pushes of the guards and realized that they were not for show. 

The doors opened up to a grand hall, lined with chairs. A number of well dressed nobles had taken seats into various positions. Small groups had already formed. Erin shrieked and quickly rushed over to a girl and a guy. Shi gave Castus a quick glance of apologies and then rushed to keep up with her. Aria explained quickly. 

"Those two are Erin's best friends here. The guy is from a count's family known as the Fristal and the girl is from a baron family known as Vectis." Castus nodded in a small movement. Aria turned walking to a different group. Unlike the exaggerated movement of Erin and her friends, Aria's group matched her energy. 

The first was a boy, a little taller than Castus was currently. He had a sharp suit on and was sipping tea in his seat. He had a long black hair tied into a pony tail behind his head. On his left was a girl in a sleek dress that contoured out wide at the bottom into a wide flare. She had black hair as well, but when the light danced over the sleek hair Castus observed purple streaks. Their two butlers stood behind them. One a nervous looking boy with spikey green hair, served the man. The other was girl in a classic maid uniform who stood rigidly behind the woman, but looking closer Castus could see vacancy in her eyes, like she wasn't all there. She was a plain girl though, brown hair, brown eyes, and a clean face. 

Aria walked up to them. "Greetings to both of you." She gave a slight bow, the boy looked up from his tea. "Ah, Aria, glad to see you made it back for another semester." He looked past her and spotted Erin. "I see your ill-mannered other half made it as well." 

Aria rolled her eyes at the comment. "Rell, she is my sister, and while you don't like her, I'd appreciate it if you kept that to yourself." Aria retorted while crossing her arms. Rell frowned for a second. "You're right, I apologize for the comment." He then promptly went back to drinking his tea. The girl to his side giggled behind a hand at the interaction. "Oh you both try to act so mature, we're still kids no need to act all formal." 

Aria looked at the girl with a raise eyebrow. "Gretta, you know that the three of us are taking over our respective households one day, we need to be prepared, Rell and I are just practicing for that moment." Gretta looked at Aria for a moment before looking away. "Don't remind me. Father won't shut up about it." 

Aria stepped to the side suddenly, putting Castus suddenly in full view. "I would like to introduce Castus, my..." She paused for a second, almost saying brother. "My new dedicated servant." Castus flinched at the sudden change in subject and after a second realized his lines from his training. Bowing low, he cleared his throat as quietly as he could. "A pleasure to meet you both." 

Castus stood back up straight. Assuming his trained posture. Inwardly Castus was celebrating. He had done his introduction correctly. Aria continued though, unaware of his excitement about nailing that introduction. "Castus, this is Rell, son of Marquis Hawell. This is Gretta daughter of Duke Brechenwald." Castus bowed shortly once again, trying to remember the rankings of titles. 'Mmm, Marquis is middle of the tree, not low, but not in the upper echelon and Duke is...second to prince! Shit he's super important.' Castus remembered while bowing. The realization of the power of Duke made him bow even lower. 

Standing back up Aria took a seat next to them and continued idle chit chat. Castus took his place behind her standing next to the spikey green haired servant. "N, nice to me meet you." The boy extending a hand. Castus returned to greeting shaking his hand. He was sweaty and shaking slightly. "My names Fletcher." He introduced himself. Castus smiled and jibed him. "Nervous?" He asked. 

The boy looked shocked for a second before lowering his head. "Yes, I didn't have much training before this, and I somehow got chosen by a duke's kid. I'm super worried I'm going to screw it up." He looked at his palm for a second. 

"I wouldn't worry too much, after all I've only had a month of training anyway." Castus shot Fletcher a smile, but unlike what he expected Fletcher looked horrified. 

In a hushed tone Fletcher pulled Castus closer. "Are you a fool? You can't admit that. Most personal servants here spend years preparing for this and through a rigorous selection process. You shouldn't tell people that. When I said I didn't have much training, I still had four years." He hissed with an iron like grip on Castus' shoulder. Castus nodded at him in understanding. Fletcher's tense expression softened though at the sound of an empty tea cup tapping onto the plate it held. With a swift motion Fletcher took the cup and plate from Rell. "Master would you like some more tea or have you been satisfied." 

Castus stood dazed at the sudden changes of Fletcher. It felt like three separate people. Firstly the nervous wreck, then the ice cold serious, and finally the nearly robotic customers service representative that he seemed to swap between instantaneously. 

Fletcher quickly moved and put the tea and plate away returning to Castus' side. The nervousness quickly overtaking him again. "W-well, it's still nice to meet you Castus. I'm sure we will be grouped together as Aria, Rell and Gretta spent a lot of time together over the last year." 

Castus only dignified the response with a nod, while looking over to Shi as she and the two servants she was with giggled behind hands at the jokes their masters made. 'Seems like she got the better gig than me.' He thought. 

Fletcher nudged Castus on the side and stepped back ever so slightly, showing the zoned out girl again. "This is Mari. She's not always with us if you get what I'm saying." Castus nodded and turned to Mari. 

"It's nice to meet you Mari." Castus spoke. After a pause and a slight twitch Mari's eyes focused and she turned to Castus. "Pleasure to meet you." She then turned back and her eyes unfocused once again. Fletcher looked at her with a hint of displeasure before turning back to Castus. "Apologies for her behavior. She has always been like that since I've known her. Though her master doesn't seem to care." Fletcher looked down at his hands and started to fidget. 

Castus realized that the room they were in was starting to fill up quickly as more and more young nobles entered into the room. They were seated on the left side of the room near the middle but thus far none of the nobles had dared to sit in the front of the room. Very quickly every seat had a noble with a personal servant behind it, excluding the front row. Curiously Castus was about to turn to Fletcher as disturbing your master was considered rude, when the doors to the hall they occupied swung open with fanfare. 

Two people entered the room. A young boy and young girl walked into the hall. The boy had blue hair and an icy gaze. He stood tall, very tall for his age. The girl with vibrant red hair walked in step with the boy. Her face looked like carved marble. Perfect and vacant of any possible blemish. They both walked down the center of the row and split at the front. The blue haired boy taking a seat to the right and the girl to the left. Behind them two identical servants seemed to glide behind them. Their movements difficult to see, they stood behind both of them rigid. Castus realized he barely saw them enter the room. 

Once the procession finished and both children had taken their seats Castus could feel the room take a breath. Without warning a man appeared on the center stage in the front of the room with a podium. 

"Ahem. Firstly I would like to say to all of you. Welcome back! And for any newcomers I would like to say welcome! I would also like to personally extend the warmest welcome to the twin royalty that will be attending our academy this year. Please give a celebration for Prince Furis and Princess Fran." The words of the man sounded over the hall and a clap sounded from every person in the room. Castus joined in the clap as he looked at to the front. The prince and princess he assumed were the rigid and stationary two sitting on opposite sides of the hall. 

'Seems like I should definitely avoid those two.'

The clapping quickly finished and the man at the podium began to ramble into a long speech about the prestige of the academy and what lied ahead of all the young kids before him. 

Castus started to tune it out. Most of the speech was fluff and inconsequential to him. Before the end of the mannerism training he and Shi went through Fulsin had sat them both down and outline the biggest threats at the school. Who to avoid and what families would be on their sides. As Castus scanned the room he looked for the family gunning to marry Aria and quickly Castus realized that the room was split up into the two sides that Fulsin had laid out for them. Even Shi and Erin had retreated to left side with Aria at some point before the royalty had entered. On the left side of the room was the political faction of Fulsin and on the right side of the room was the opposing faction. 

Castus now realized the issue at hand. The political issues that he believed would only really affect the occasional interaction was disgustingly prevalent throughout the entire academy. Castus looked forward again, but just before he did he spotted a noble that marked the exact resemblance that Fulsin had described. Greasy looking, overweight, clad in green, with a left ear that had a split in the top. Anthony Prodrome. 

Castus' eyes narrowed as his gaze started to burrow into the back of the man's head. Anthony Prodrome was the second son of the Prodrome family and his father was looking to both expand out his influence and bless his second son with a noble title of his own, but he had failed to line up a marriage as his son was considered to be unmarriable. This had led him to start to target lower and lower houses until that fateful incident. With the death of Tyrus and the disappearance of Castus the Gliston family was left with no male head. They would have to marry and the Tyrus' stubborn nature to remain neutral had always left his house open to pressure, but their remote location and reluctance to travel to the capital always kept them shielded, but now he hoped to kill two birds with one stone. With Aria and Erin in the city he could pressure them all the time and at some point, he hoped to take control of the Gliston family. This would further his parties influence and give his second son a noble title. 

If Castus wanted his free ride off the continent and protect his sisters, Anthony was the biggest issue he needed to overcome. 

He continued to look deeply at Anthony. The man shifted around in his seat that was ill suited to his larger frame. Suddenly he turned his head around and his eyes fell on Aria. Aria didn't notice though. A sinful smile showed itself on Anthony's face. He whispered something to his servant, and he turned back around. The servant took a passing glance at Castus then also returned to his normal position behind Anthony. 

A sharp elbow in Castus' side brought him back from his thoughts. Fletcher leaned slightly. "Pay attention here." Fletcher fidgeted with his fingers as he spoke. "You don't want to be clueless, trust me, they will target you if you don't blend in." Fletcher stammered out.

Castus redirected his gaze, but his brow furrowed a bit. 'The nobles? Or the servants?' He thought trying to decipher Fletcher's words.