Not what you think

The light from the sunset hit the grass and made it take on a yellowish tint it was a beautiful scene, but Leander couldn't care less about the view, a week had passed since he woke up in another world.

Since the forest incident, Celine and Lydia have been keeping always an eye on him, he tried training magic when they weren't around but he had to be cautious, Lydia and Celine had sharp senses when came to mana.

He remembered how Lydia managed to kill the beast with one shot.

Leander could see her from the window, she was taking care of the garden as she did every morning, looking closer he could see how the two of them were similar in appearance.

Leander had dark brown hair that fade into a golden blonde at the ends, and his eyes were a reddish-brown color similar to Celine's but a slightly stronger shade.

'Right now my chances of survival out there are less than zero I have to depend on these two'.

Watching her calmly taking care of the little garden made him more anxious for some reason.

"Ferran can you help me **** dinner today".

To add one more problem to his list, the language was different from other languages he learned in the past and making it difficult to learn.

'Ok let's try this one last time'

"Aunt Celine, can you teach me magic?" Leander did the puppy eyes that should increase his chances of getting a yes.

He had tried this na hundread times with Lydia but to no aval, she alaways refused harshly leaving Celine as his only option.

Celine made a complicated expression.

"Ferran we already talked about this you only need to wait for a little until you get older ok"

Leander kept making the puppy eyes.

"Please"

'Just say yes I can't keep this face for too long brat'

"Using these puppy eyes is unfair," She said trying her best to resist.

He decided to finally give up, no matter how hard he tried Celine and Lydia always said no, he was incapable of disguising his disappointment.

"No need to get gloomy if you help me with dinner today I promise I will teach you a bunch of things about magic when you get older"

"*sigh* okay".

The two headed to the kitchen, Celine placed a bunch of vegetables and started to cut them.

The two entered the house and she went to the kitchen, Leander wondered how in such an isolated place she could find such a variety of ingredients.

Lydia entered the house as well and started organizing the kitchen pantry.

Suddenly A knock on the door drew everyone in the house's attention.

"Oh looks like we have a visitor," Leander's mom said heading up to the door.

"Visitor?" Celine had a puzzled expression.

They never had a visitor before, and seeing casually talking about one made both Celine and Leander raise an eye brown.

Lydia opened the door revealing a tall man with blonde hair, His clothes were slightly torn, indicating that he had traveled, yet he did not appear tired with his well-trained straight posture, for some reason, there was something unusual, almost cruel, about his face and smile.

He shared a certain resemblance with Lydia and Celine but looked a bit older than then, Leander felt something unsettling looking into his eyes.

"It was really tough to locate you two, my sisters." He smiled at Leander before continuing.

His eyes fell on Leander and his smile widened even more.

"And little brother as well".

Celine's eyes widened when she saw the man making Leander believe that she knew him somehow, but seeing the despair that began to form on his face he did not seem to be a good acquaintance of hers.

"Lydia?" Her gaze shifted from the man to Lydia.

"Don't ask me he is not the one supposed to be here" for a few seconds, Lydia just stared at the man before just shrugging and casually replying to Celine's question.

Leander looked at Celine again just in time to see her expression changing from astonishment to complete disbelief, her eyes focused on her sister and her mouth slightly open, almost as if she was trying to say something but the words wouldn't come out. To Leander, everything seemed to be happening too fast; the atmosphere in the house had suddenly changed with the man's appearance; their conversation didn't make any sense to him. But just watching Celine's expressions made him worry.

"Indeed I'm not the one supposed to be here" The man moved his hand so fast that all Leander could see was a blur, and Celine was equally surprised as him, her eyes incapable of tracking his movement.

Spikes of blazing metal erupted from the ground, shattering the wooden floor and piercing both Celine's arms and legs at the man's command, Leander immediately knew this man was stronger than the beast he encountered yesterday, he glanced at Lydia expecting her reaction but she just stood there with the same distant expression She used when tended the garden.

The blonde man twisted his wrist and the burning metal twisted as well wrapping itself around Celine's limbs making the smell of burning flesh rise in the air together with her scream of pain.

In seconds she was completely pinned to the ground.

The amount of mana that came out of the man's body was too much freezing Leander on the spot, his mind was strong to resist months of torture but his infant body obeyed and opted to obey instincts when coming across a dangerous threat.

"I assume that you were expecting the person you had a deal with, but may I gain your trust if show this?"

He rolled up his shirt sleeve and showed Lydia his wrist engraved with red runes.

"So you were the second one contracted by that person" Lydia's eyes wandered over the rune's seal on his hand, Leander didn't know why but that seemed enough to convince her, she certainly understood what the runes meant.

'Contract?' Lydia's lack of action, while Celine was attacked already, spoke volumes, but hearing her speak here was all it took for Leander to understand that his mother was not on his side.

"Surprised?"

"Not really, you are definitely someone who would accept this kind of deal, I just don't get why he didn't tell me it was you" Lydia looked unimpressed, she couldn't care less who her partner was as long as they got the job done.

"You know how he is paranoid, he thought it would be wise if our identities remained anonymous to each other, so there would be no risk of betrayal or both o us plotting against him until the work was complete".

"It makes sense, yet it took a long time because of his damn paranoia," Lydia said with an annoyed tone.

'What the fuck is happening here?' that was the only phrase occupying Leander's mind.

He looked at Celine bleeding and pinned to the ground while Lydia talked with the man as if they were casually talking about the weather.

The man's smile grew again when he perceived his confusion and decided to mess with him a little, after all in his mind the best kind of job is the one where you also had fun while doing it.

"I know this may be confusing to you little brother but when Family is in the middle everything get's complicated...Well, counting on the mother we have things becomes even messier." His spite for the word mother was noticeable.

Leander looked at Lydia when he heard the word mother making the tall man laugh.

"Hahaha I'm not talking about this woman"

He took a few steps closer and crouched down to look at Leander in the eyes, as soon as he did Leander finally realized why he felt something unsettling looking at him, it was because there wasn't even a single drop of sanity in those eyes.

"I'm talking about our real mother brother"