15 Chapter 14 - A Broken Arm

Damien woke up in his bed. He still didn't feel comfortable in this palace. There was the unwelcoming behaviour of Erina coupled with no one to accompany him during his days.

Erina's elder most brother and her second eldest brother were often in seclusion. They were born sixty years ago from Marquis' first wife. Marquis's second wife gave birth to his third son. He is a twenty-eight-year-old man who graduated from scholar academy and is inclined more towards ruling Arenhal than the practice of magical arts. His name was Louis and he was the only other relative of Erina that Damien had physically seen.

Erina is the daughter of the Marquis' third wife thus, his youngest child. Her mother died of complications after Erina was born, she only lived to see Erina grow to seven years of age. In honour of her memory, the Marquis' had built a beautiful fountain surrounded by a pond from pure white marble. The fountain was the statue of a noble lady waving a wand in her hands. Water sprouted out of her wand made a beautiful arc and splashed down into the pond.

Damien loved this fountain; he would often stay there for a few hours looking and admiring its practical beauty. When Damien looked at this fountain his heart yearned for a familial figure and looking at this figure reminded him of a certain someone's blue eyes. The very deep eyes like the invincible ocean yet forever calm reminded him of tranquillity.

"Oh, mother! How I much I have missed you in the past few days."

Damien grew homesick. He was accustomed to roaming around away from home for days, but those times were different, then he had Robert to accompany him now he had no one. The thought of being alone in an unknown place finally caught up to Damien he was concerned that he would lose himself if he did not divert his attention towards something productive.

"I am about to leave for the academy in a matter of days, how about I practice some magic and hone my skills until then?"

As Damien was rejuvenated by this thought he stood up from his bench he gave one last glance to the statue and with an innocent smile went into the woods next to the garden.

'This seems like a perfect place for practice lets start'

Damien began collecting mana in his body as he waved his arms. His oceanic blue eyes glowed with a dim light. He took a deep breath and slowly released the mana he had accumulated through the ends of his limbs. He tried to control the outflow but, it was too hard. All the mana suddenly gushed out of his limbs.

*Thump*

Depressions were formed on the ground and on the barks of the trees. He started to feel a familiar numbness spreading through his body. He frantically collected more mana to prevent fainting. His body was once again brimming with mana.

'Ah, the numbness is gone, but fatigue remains' Damien thought.

Damien once again tried to release his mana slowly and steadily. It was immensely difficult. He failed once again.

'I need to master this to practice mana breath- the technique widely used to reach Neomage rank!' Damien frowned and filled his body with mana once again.

He tried this twice but to no avail. Fatigue built up in his body, and he decided it was time to rest in his room. He accumulated mana for the last time and lazily walked back. He was swinging his arms while singing a melody when suddenly, due to his tired body, mana in his arm gushed out and hit the stone wand that the statue in the garden beheld.

"Nooooooooooo!" a shout rushed out of Damien's mouth as he saw the wand snap and fall into the pond along with it went the entire hand holding the wand.

'What have I done if anybody from the Marquis' household sees this I am totally screwed. They might just ask me to pack my things and leave. I still have to spend a few days in this dreaded place', just the thought of Erina finding out sent shivers down Damien's spine.

'I need to do something... but what? There is no way I can fix the statue and getting it made will take ages. Ughhhhh what should I do', Damien was in a tense situation he was afraid of losing what little respect he had and guilty of not being able to control himself. In some sense, he too had grown fond of the statue and found it to be pleasant to the heart.

'I think I should go and confess to Erina's brother and tell him the truth its better than covering my tracks... I guess', as Damien came to this decision he turned around and left for the castle.

While Damien was entering the castle, someone was leaving it from the other side.

"Your Grace we must hurry for the market or it shall be too late to buy anything," said a maid to a young lady standing in front of her.

"Oh don't worry I am the Marquis' daughter they will definitely have some special ones hidden away just for me," said Erina as she boarded the carriage.

Suddenly Erina remembered something and the carriage door was swung open.

"Your Grace where are you going?"

"I must bid farewell to mother without her blessing I wouldn't dream about doing anything. Erina walked towards the garden, after her mother's death the statue had been her constant companion in times of joy and despair. She would talk to it for hours believing it to be her mother, sharing her thoughts and secrets with the statue.

Erina finally entered the garden gates she walked towards the pond. To her shock and dismay, her mother was handicapped. The water gushing out of the broken stone hand like blood was enough to cause tears to flow down Erina's eyes.

"Wh..wh..who did this?" Erina looked around for someone anyone she could find but no one was around.

"WHO DID THIIIISSS!!!" shouted Erina as she fell on the ground weeping.

"Your Grace we shou.." as the maid entered hearing the loud shout they too were shocked to behold the site before them. After this, the words just didn't leave their mouths.

"Call the guards I want the culprit arrested right now... RUUNNN!!" screamed Erina, the maids ran towards the castle to call the gate guards.

Sometime later the guards arrived they too were shocked to see the statue broken.

"Who was the last person to enter the garden?" asked Erina by now she was determined to find the culprit and had therefore suppressed her emotions.

"Your Grace the last person to enter the garden was..." the guard seemed a bit hesitant.

"SAY IT!!" shrilled Erina the guard then lost all the hesitant feelings in him.

"It was Lord Damien, ma'am."

Erina's hatred for Damien went up several notches.

"That uncultured swine! I will kill him!" Erina shivered with fury. She ran into the castle, her long hair waved behind her.

Damien did not know of what disaster was storming in the castle looking for him. He was walking towards Louis- the Marquis's third son who managed the affairs of this territory's office. Damien was walking slowly, his head was buzzing with excuses.

'Umm... apologize for first then-' Damien's thought process was broken because of a scream. He tried to turn towards the source of the sound, but before he could, he was sent flying.

*Thump*

He rolled on the ground, his eyes unfocused.

"W-what in the world?" Damien shook his head and saw Erina holding up her hand towards him.

"You despicable maggot! I will end your life you here!" Erina widened her eyes in anger. She waved her hand and mana gathered in her body.

"Crap," Damien rolled on his back as he dodged a mana attack. He got up and collected mana by waving his arms. His body was tired but, the adrenaline and his will to live compensated for that.

*Whoosh!*

Another mana attack came from Erina, Damien jumped to his side and the window pane behind him shattered.

"YOU DARE DAMAGE MY HOUSE AGAIN!" Erina screeched as more mana attacks were directed towards Damien.

"Sorry I forgot you are a damage enough to this house," Damien dashed around avoiding mana attacks.

"SHUT YOUR ILL-BRED MOUTH!" It was becoming more difficult for Damien to keep dodging these attacks.

'What kind of mad mana pool has she got?!' Damien got grazed by an attack and his shirt was torn.

The hallway was a mess by now. There were pieces of wood and glass lying on the ragged carpet, the paintings were smashed, metal armours rested disfigured on the ground. However, the walls were perfectly fine.

'Arrrgh I can no longer evade these' Damien stopped in his track and stared at Erina, she was just like the day he saw her last except for the expression of unfathomable fury on her face. Erina saw this as a provocation and amassed more mana. She shot a powerful blast of mana at Damien.

Damien, who had gathered mana all this time, shot a blast of mana too. He expected the mana attacks to colloid and cause an explosion. That did not happen, his blast of mana simply disappeared while Erina's blast was weakened.

"Huh?" Damien was perplexed, "But that should have caused mana to produce an explosion of force in outward direction! But- wait, mana has a particle like natur-"

*Thud*

He was hit with a blast of mana in the face. He rolled half-conscious, it was as if someone had hit him with a hammer. His broken nose bled as he groaned in pain. The jerk had caused his spine to be shaken thus, his body felt numb. Erina walked up to him and held up a hand to finish things.

"Before you kill him, remember Father won't mind handing you over to the Earl," A man of twenty walked out of the shadows in a leisurely pace and spoke in a hoarse voice, "The Earl is a powerful Paladin. He was infamously known as the 'Demonic Chain Sovereign'. Although I would love to see you being tortured in chains till death, it would cause bad rumours about our family to sprout out. So I would like you to retire to your bedroom at once before I have to do it forcefully."

The man was wearing a brown formal aristocratic attire. He had a shrewd clean shaved face. His short curly blond hair was disorganized and lay in stark contrast with his get up. His green eyes glinted as he placed a hand on Erina's shoulder. A chill went down her spine.

"B-Brother Louis-"

"I said retire to your bedroom at once," a sinister smile spread across his face.

"Yes brother," Erina quietly left.

Louis looked around and sighed. He walked towards Damien who was lying on the floor; he looked pathetic with blood running down his nose and a black bruise swelling up his cheek. He lifted up Damien using one hand. Damien groaned as Louis carried him to his office. A few moments later some servants arrived at the disordered hall and began cleaning up.

***

In Louis' office.

His office was a large grey room. The walls were hidden with bookshelves and cupboards made of brown polished wood. Two windows were placed opposite to the entrance. A workstation was placed along the windows, it had a pile of documents on it. A golden chandelier hung letting out an aroma of resins.

Louis placed Damien on a chair and approached a cupboard. He opened it and took out a green bottle. He opened the bottle and drained the contents down the slouching Damien's throat. Damien's injuries started to heal at a visible pace. His broken nose cracked and went back to normal. His swollen cheek returned to its pale complexion and deflated.

"I apologize for the inhospitable behaviour of my sister", Louis stored the green bottle back in the cupboard.

"Aha Aha Aha," Damien coughed and sat up properly on the chair, "what was that?"

"A healing portion, in general..."

"Argh," Damien felt like vomiting by held himself back, the portion was extremely bitter and the aftertaste was even worse.

"Now that you are all fine I believe you should return to your room, but please remember that we will leave for your academy four days from today. So remember to make presentations till then."

"But what about the broken statue? How can I compensate for that?"

"It will be fixed in time besides this will help Erina get closure over her mother's death and if she doesn't there are other ways as well"

"Umm..."

"Is there anything else?"

"Y-yeah, please don't punish Erina, it was me who made her angry and all this happened thus, I think it was justified for her to beat me up."

Louis started laughing.

"I-is something wrong?" Damien was startled by his laughter.

"You are interesting, too kind for Demonic Chain Sovereign's son. Very well then," Louis smiled, "Erina will receive no punishment."

With their meeting concluded, Damien thanked Louis and left for his bedroom. Damien avoided the corridor in which the quarrel had taken place and arrived in his bedroom. The spacious bedroom felt incredibly lonely to him. A feeling of guilt and loneliness made him want to cry, but he held himself back. He quietly lay on the bed, still thinking of the aftermath of his actions

***

In his office, Louis sat on his chair. In the complete silence.

He spoke to himself, "Naive boy, I wonder how long will goodwill and honesty take you?"