Doppelgänger

Two months went by in relative peace after that. 

Ever since that moment dad and I shared, we've grown closer than ever. He would take time out of his day to keep me company and would sometimes offer to go out on stroll for  some fresh air. I got to discover amazing places in the southern parts of Bursborough (where we live by the way) and even went to the beach. My body was also recovering steadily and I no longer felt heavy or weak. Donellan even suggested taking some sword lessons once I've been completely healed which I was excited for. I still kept in touch with Ms. Levinseon and gave her monthly reports on how I was feeling and even got the chance to talk to Nella and Nix sometimes.

We've grown a lot closer during our "zoom meetings". In this world, they have tools that allow you to communicated with anyone either via audio call or visual calls. These tools were powered by mana and once a significant amount was infused, you could communicate with anyone in the world. These weren't used frequently however considering the amount of mana you needed to get them to work and also their price. But this wasn't a problem for me since dad payed for them and he was the one infusing his mana. (Yes I've grown quite spoiled since my time here. Donellan has been encouraging me to be more selfish). 

I was actually reminded of the coming of age celebration I was invited to by Johannes Friedrich during my visit at the capital. We've been talking and communicating by letters quite a lot and I've grown closer to the both of them, however, I stopped talking to Johannes as much as I used to since hearing about the rocky history between our families. I did it mostly out of consideration to Donellan but upon realizing this, he reassured me that it was fine to continue my friendship with him. I still had mixed feelings about it because I did like Johannes and we had a lot in common, but I also didn't want to put Donellan in a tough position even if Johannes himself wasn't involved in the incident, he was till apart of the family. All of this was resolved however and Johannes sent me a message recently to confirm wether or not I'd be able to attend. And upon asking Donellan, he didn't see a problem in attending. Therefore it was decided that I would be attending with dad of course. 

The party was said to start in the afternoon and would go on until the end of the night but because Donellan had no plans of arriving on time, we started getting ready exactly at noon. Because this was a formal event, we needed to get ready a little earlier in order to make sure my costume fit nicely. Gwendolyn laid out three options to choose from. There was a black and grey ensemble, a white and grey, and a black, white and grey ensemble. As you can see, quite the variation. We all agreed that the black, white and grey ensemble would suit the occasion best. Gwendolyn and Yvonne both dressed me in a white blouse that had silver detailing on the collar. They paired the blouse with black dress pants that was adorned with the same silver detailing as the collar. The whole outfit was paired with a grey vest and beautiful black shoes. My hair was gelled back, revealing my youthful face, and since my skin was devoid of any blemish, Yvonne didn't feel the need to do anything to it. She only added a little bit of lip oil to soothe my dry lips due to the constant licking I've been doing these past few days. The both of them didn't forget to give me some jewellery to accessorize, and added a brooch with the family crest on the side of my vest. While looking at myself in the mirror, it was like I had become a younger version of Donellan. We looked almost identical. 

"I think people would believe you if you ever called his Grace your older brother." Saoirse couldn't help but exclaim. This comment resulted a light smack from Yvonne. "Don't say something so foolish." She quickly said, while shooting a quick glance at Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn on the other hand couldn't help but agree with Saoirse's comment which surprised the both of them. "His Grace does look rather young for his age, so it wouldn't be strange for people to think they were brothers" She said while laughing. The two others glanced at each other before laughing as well. I also agreed with the three of them too. I looked like an exact copy of Donellan, which leads me to believe that I would most likely look like him when I got older. The only major difference was our eyes, although we both had grey ice, if you looked closely, my eyes had light blue specks in them while Donellan had specks of black. 

This is something I noticed whenever I got close to him, but I never got the chance to bring it up or ask him about it. But I suspected it had something to do with our levels or type of mana. Well not that it's of any importance right now, I thought to myself. I'll worry about it when the time comes.  After getting dressed, we headed downstairs where Donellan was waiting for me. He was dressed in a similar attire to me expect he was wearing a cravat and had a cap with black and white detailing on it and had black fur on the collar on his person. He looked even more handsome than usual, and the air around him exuded 'rich and powerful pretty boy' . I couldn't help admiring him. "You look very handsome today daddy." He looked down at me and smiled. "Only today?" He retorted back with a smug look on his face. I rolled my eyes at that comment. "No not just today of course. You look good everyday!" I said while giving him a big smile. Of course he caught me rolling my eyes at him, which resulted in a pinch on the cheek from him. "I wonder where you got this bad attitude from." He said seriously.  Although no one said it directly, everyone in that room thought it in their minds: "From you obviously." But no one dared to say it out loud, well, except for me of course. "I got it from you." I answered him with an innocent smile on my face. Since he couldn't argue back, he grabbed me and carried me in his arms saying:

"Let's go quickly. We are already late."