Lyzekiel De Murdine

Chapter 7 - Lyzekiel De Murdine

The black-haired librarian shook of the annoying feeling.

It never felt good when she was close to nobles. But it was especially the worst for that one woman.

'Those shitty nobles think us mages are under them just because they built the magic library for us..'

<Calm >

Morticia took one deep breath, the spell she cast on herself working wonders as they usually did. Looking back to where she left the intruder, her grey eyes found someone who probably needed it more than her.

"What's wrong with that fa-?"

"...Who were those people?" Sequentia's white cold eyes never left the door the group disappeared from.

Morticia perked up at the lady's change in demeanor.

"For someone who was so cheeky earlier, you're oddly serious right now." She smirked and cleared her throat as if introducing someone with significant influence, "If you know your royals then you'd know that the man in front was the second prince Kidian Murdine. His aid, Mint, was there too. The other two are his usual guards..."

Sequentia removed her eyes on the door, eyeing Morticia with a face that she wasn't into the game she's playing right now.

The former smirked and crossed her arms, "You ought'ta give me a chance to be cheeky too. Anyways the woman is Lady Rolette Damaris. One of the heirs of Merchant Group Waterwheel." Morticia shrugged, "Well, I say one of the heirs but she's the leading lady of all probable heirs. I heard she singlehandedly acquired 35 percent shares on her own."

White-grey eyes observed the library and sighed.

'It's annoying that I can't trace magic.'

The humanized bat stared at the lady who seemed to be in conflict with herself.

Morticia walked over the desk and took the book she was reading earlier. "Hey. You said that you wanted a book about Roa, right?"

"Yeah." Sequentia's eyes moved back to her second homunculi.

Eyes of creator and created being met in the air.

Morticia tucked her short black hair back inside her hood to be hidden. The action could've been taken as an instinct of cute mindfulness about the appearance.

However for Sequentia, who didn't even have magic right now could see the unnatural lines of hair.

The fur-texture and frizz.

Of course, one conclusive evidence after another had confirmed Morticia's background.

Whether she was experimented on by someone else in this timeline, or if she had naturally shed her animal shell away to mutate, it was true that Morticia was an animal before. Yet even if she wasn't her creator now, there was one true thing for Sequentia the Great Witch...

Her white eyes softened and her hand unconsciously pulled Morticia's robe forward, covering half her eyes.

She smiled.

'You are my child.'

"Your secret's safe with me."

Even when Morticia couldn't hear Sequentia's inner thoughts, the words she had spoken were still baffling. She frowned, "Huh? What do you mean?"

The latter wanted to pull her robe even further over her head to cover everything up.

'Did she see?'

Sequentia seeing the slight trembling of her child's eyes chuckled. "I meant... hm, when you let me inside the magic library."

"I didn't let you in."

"But you gave up midway, right? You gave up trying to find an intruder. Plus..." The Great Witch grinned as she pointed to the book Morticia held. "Aren't you trying to show me this book?"

The latter's eyes grew conflicted and in the end clicked her tongue as she handed the book.

Sequentia chuckled as she surveyed the book.

"This is the book you're looking for. I can sense these things.. And I'm not merely letting you see this, I'll let you borrow it for two days, okay? TWO days."

The creator smiled.

Now that the analysis theory she wanted to read about Roa Kingdom was now in her hands, there was no need to stay. "I'll come back in two days. See you then, Librarian Morticia."

Grey eyes calmed and she sighed as the unknown lady walked away.

 She didn't know how the lady knew her name. Probably on one of the makeshift nameplate on her desk.

However there was an even bigger mystery in her mind.

For someone joking about a 'secret' about herself, there were countless people buried for that one mention. And yet, Morticia placed a hand over her chest.

Her human heart was beating calmly.

Her animalistic instinct told her that she can trust that girl.

"What a load of bull.." Morticia clicked her tongue and went over to the shelves to find something else to read.

-----

"Connie? Hey, where've you been?"

Constance looked up at the familiar voice.

Her eyes met with familiar black eyes staring at her with contempt, worry and slight fury.

She was seated outside a restaurant that sells desserts and hot beverages while reading the book 'Mysteries of Eldritch'. It was a compilation of the creepy and unknown events in history that was connected to popular mages in history, or with magic that did not have any known owners.

Such events like when Julius Ardine defied the 'Master of the Land', Roa Kingdom's disappearance after a surge of mana, etc..

Cade clicked his tongue towards his sister who blankly hovered her gaze between him and her book. "I asked where you went to? Did you know how worried our parents were when you suddenly left home without any guards nor informing anyone?"

"I left a note."

"You could've at least knocked on our parents' door or told a servant." He looked at her scornfully but sighed in the end.

It wasn't really her fault.

Well she has her own faults like what he just mentioned but particularly there weren't.

The duke's mansion in the capital did not have guards stationed outside since there were high fences and the knights were currently lent to the Crown Prince. It was also lunch time, this meant that when Constance left home it was right before that.

Her maids were probably preparing food and she slipped away in that timeframe.

Cade sighed again, sitting down on the chair across her.

"Please inform anyone within the mansion if you leave. You don't have the MCD yet too... We never thought you'd leave on your own so we never thought you'd need it."

"MCD?" Constance perked up at the mention and Cade almost rolled his eyes.

His sister was such a nerd. There was nothing wrong with it but she can be such a narrow person against other things that's not her hobbies.

Cade put his hand up, rather, he gestured towards his wrist.

There was an elastic material hugging his wrist. He clicked a panel-looking space on the very top and it 'turned on'. "This is the screen and you can send or receive messages through it. The coverage only lasts within the Capital of Ardine so it's only used here. This powers up with miniscule amounts of mana. So it's called Mana Communication Device. Natives would call it Com-Dev or Comms.."

Constance observed the device with interest and pointed to herself. "So I have one of these things too, right?"

"You're picking it with me. Our parents asked me to find you and do that so we'll do that."

However contrary to Constance's excitement and expectation Cade remained seated.

"I thought we were going to buy now?"

"Oh I'm waiting for a friend. He's buying a lot of stuff right now."

"...Is he the one you gave the chocolates to?"

"Hell no!" Cade spat out after ordering coffee. "...It's his sister."

Sequentia clicked her tongue at him. "That's scum-ish. What are you doing trying to date your friend's sister?"

Cade raised a brow and smirked, "It's his older sister and she likes me too so what's he gon' do about it?"

"Woah, what a scum friend." Sequentia clicked her tongue.

"Right, he is."

A sigh came from the right of Constance as an unfamiliar voice joined in on their sibling conversation. A man, with long brown hair and green eyes, took a chair from an empty table and sat by theirs while fixing a shopping bag.

Cade watched his sister blink in confusion.

It was one of the few things he found odd but funny about Constance. 

She was a total sucker in conversing with new people.

However contrary to his previously believed concept, Constance continued to stare at the man and raised a brow. "Excuse me, this is our table. Who may you be?"

Despite her polite tone she was obviously kicking the man away from the table.

The guy's brows raised in surprise and turned to Cade with a chuckle. "You told me you wanted to prank your sister with a stranger but look at her, she's reacting well."

Cade observed his sister too.

"Right. She always curves into a ball and fidget away from the room when unknown people arrive. Woah, you definitely did change though I don't know how... and only in the two months we haven't seen each other."

Sequentia felt like an open book.

Because she was truly like that from the beginning.

But the memories of her long life as a Great Witch passed through her mind, a flash of memories of her encountering new and old black mages with the Magic Council, and taking care of random visits by people who wanted to be her apprentice.

Such events were the catalyst for her advanced social skills now.

The stranger smiled, meeting her eyes with a curious gaze. "Well it was nice to meet you, Constance. Despite my mature look, we're the same age." 

"In my case it's not nice to meet rude people like you."

"So you really don't know me?" He smiled and pointed to himself in excitement. "Man, I'm not arrogant but it's kinda fun to meet people like this once in a while. The Duchess even mentioned that she hung our family portrait in your room so you'd memorize our faces by now."

Sequentia raised a brow, "Family... portrait? Oh."

A lightbulb appeared on her mind.

"You're the Crown Prince?"

"The one and only."

Sequentia frowned. "You're THE Lyzekiel De Murdine? You don't seem like the kind of guy who'd plan out a well-structured vehicle that shook the world."

Cade snickered at his sister's words while Prince Lyzekiel frowned. "Well you got that right."

"But it was my idea. It was only reformulated by the scholars to make it work." The Crown Prince glared at his best friend. "Well the credit is of course given to those teams."

Sequentia continued observing the Crown Prince.

'This is Lyzekiel De Murdine. He acts like a boy but he's definitely of royal blood. He's way handsome than that Kidian too. Where did this guy pop up?'

She wondered how such a figure who created the 'Train Marina' went in her past.

There were only rumors of Kidian De Murdine before and he was the sole crowned prince. How was there another prince in this version of her reality?

"Oh by the way, where's Rohwell?" Cade asked after remembering their other companion.

Kidian smiled happily as he pointed to a nearby store. Somehow the signboard was graphic and violent. "I sent him to buy a sword and a scary mask."

"But he hates scary things..."

Despite Cade pointing this out and Kidian, who probably knew of that fact, the Crown Prince remained smiling brilliantly as if it didn't bother him.

Not long after, a bloodcurdling scream came from that shop.

Chapter 7 - End

Lyzekiel De Murdine - '...Is honestly unprince-like than he looks.' Sequentia thought.