66 The Rydel Estate IV

Things with the Rydels were not going as smoothly as Yuliang would have hoped.

Though he did wonder why they even bothered to keep inviting them back with how their discussions ended as abruptly and heatedly as they usually did.

Since their unfortunate first visit, Yuliang had now visited the estate another three times; the last two visits were with Yukio in tow.

It was only in a battle of wills and wits that Yuliang ever felt the need to call his twin for backup.

Yuliang's stubborn straightforwardness needed to be offset by Yukio's charm and sense of diplomacy.

While Yukio's charm hadn't managed to crack through that stubborn old bastard Lord Rydel's thick skull, his twin had managed to soften it at least a bit. On the other hand, Yukio had the Second Lord Rydel, practically eating out of the palm of his hand at this point.

Yuliang glared at Lord Rydel across the table as he bit into a perfectly cooked succulent piece of roast. The Lord met his stare with one of equal measure as they both silently consumed their dinner. They had been politely threatened by the unassuming Second Lord Rydel in words that had even Yuliang balking, after the third time they had gotten into a loud argument over the dinner table.

The rule of silence only applied for the two of them. Not his brother and the second Lord, unfortunately.

"Oh dear, I am so sorry to hear that. So, the two of you have had to take care of yourselves ever since?"

"We had our grandmother, but granny was the only Certified Healer in not just Mist Valley, but all the nearby towns as well. There's no big hospital where we lived, just our granny's clinic. So she had little time to spare to watch over our day to day needs," Yukio said with a sad smile.

Yuliang grimaced, hating how pitiful his brother made them sound. He didn't understand how Yukio could share their past so openly with virtual strangers, but he trusted his brother to not share such vulnerability without good reason. So he bit back the instinctive need to interrupt and continued to eat his dinner.

"That's terrible. There must have been someone else to look out for you during that time, right? Neighbours, maybe? Small towns tend to have close-knit communities, yes?"

Yukio's smile turned bitter, "Not until we were a lot older and didn't need much help anymore. That only happened after my brother began working at the clinic, and the townsfolk got used to our presence. We might have been born and raised in Mist Valley, but the people in our town were very… cautious with people who appear foreign to them. It is a small town, as you say. So there isn't a lot of diversity, you see. For the first three years after we found out about our parent's death, we only had each other." Seeing the horrified expression on the Second Lord's face, Yukio was quick to reassure, "It wasn't a difficult thing. Mama and Papa taught us to be self-sufficient before they left. Taught us everything; cooking, cleaning, how to manage the orchards… Not that anyone thought the arrangement would be permanent. They told us that they'd be back before we knew it, before they went to war." A slight waver entered Yukio's voice.

It was the only indicator Yukio gave of the effect talking about such painful memories had on him.

Unable to restrain himself anymore, Yuliang snapped, grip tightening on the cutlery to the point of bending the metal, "That's enough, brother. Shut up and finish eating so that we can wrap this up. I've got a lot of papers to mark tonight."

Ignoring the sympathetic looks the Rydel couple aimed at them, Yuliang clenched his jaw and directed his energy back to eating. No point wasting food, just because his mood had soured