Archive 11: No man is an island.

The following day, the doctor came to check on Magnus once again. 

"How are you feeling today young master?" Asked the doctor. 

"I am feeling better than yesterday. I still get a little headaches but nothing serious besides that." 

"That's good to hear. Actually I can tell that your condition has greatly improved since yesterday, so it looks like your recovery will be quick." 

"Yes." 

"Whatever you're doing, please keep doing it. That's all for now, I'll go speak with your mother." 

"Thank you doctor." 

The doctor in question smiled at the young boy. Contrary to the rumours he heard from others, Alastor was not as shy and timid. In fact, he possessed a strong personality and a high level of self assurance, which he found pleasant. 

Duchess Caesrus was standing by the door, frantically pacing around the large hallway. She looked up upon hearing the door open. 

"Doctor how is he? Is he doing better?" She asked anxiously. 

"Yes he is fine. In fact, I believe his condition has greatly improved. He should be fully recovered in a week but I still advise calling a holy official just in case." 

"Right. Well thank you so much for looking after him. I'll have Pollux walk you out." 

"Thank you." He said while making his way down the stairs, accompanied by the house butler. 

Meanwhile, Esmeralda was hesitating on wether or not she should enter her son's room. Esmeralda had a rather complicated relationship with her son.

She was never sure how to act in front of him. Whenever the duke was around, she tended to act a little cold towards him more so because it's how the duke acted when it came to his son. But whenever he was away, she would try to treat him better, mostly out of guilt. He was her son, but he sometimes felt distant, and because of his timid disposition, it made it even more difficult to approach him or for him to approach her.

She couldn't blame him though, considering how she'd been acting. The same went for his brothers. They weren't close to him but that didn't mean they didn't care for him either. So when she found out that her son had disappeared from the house for several days and came back looking lost and disoriented, talking about him going to the forest of no return, she was absolutely terrified. Terrified at the possibility that she could've never seen him again or that he would come back severely injured.

But a part of her couldn't help but feel proud that he did make it back in one piece. And she hoped that he had gotten stronger, if not a little. 

The more she hesitated, the more frustrated she became with herself. Why was she so afraid of speaking to her own child? He was only a little boy, what was the worse that could happen. So she took a deep breath and turned the handle of the door. She slowly peeked her head through and saw her little boy lying in bed.

She carefully entered the room, as to not make any noise in case he was sleeping. She slowly made her way to the large bed and approached her son. Despite how pale and sickly he was for the past couple of days, he still looked breathtaking lying there with his eyes closed.

His raven coloured hair synonomous to the Caesrus clan was tousled to the side and his skin free of any blemish was starting to gain some colour. She lightly traced his sharp eyebrows with her fingers and stared at her beautiful boy for a while. 

Sensing someone's presence beside him, the boy opened his eyes and stared at the person in front of him. He didn't say anything at first staring back at her. He then opened his mouth as if wanting to say something but his voice sounded a little hoarse.

She quickly got up and went to the night stand to pour the jug of water into a clear glass and handed it to him. He graciously accepted it and drank all of its contents. The mother took the glass from him, silently urging him to speak. 

"Thank you." He managed to say. 

"It's no problem son." 

He looked at her for awhile contemplating on wether or not he should say what he wanted to say. 

"Are you really my mother?" He asked. This question struck her a little bit. She could feel an unbearable pain in her chest. The boy could tell she was upset by her question, and he felt bad but he knew he needed to ask. He had to be sure.

From what he had observed for the past two days, his mother only came to see him once, the same could be said for those two boys as well. He wasn't sure of their identities, but he suspected they were related to him.

This behaviour didn't seem normal, at least based off of the information he had on humans. Mothers are usually supposed to care deeply for their children, and his son who is bedridden, didn't seem be getting the attention he needed. So he was a little confused and maybe thought that he had understood wrong. Or maybe he wasn't her biological child so maybe that's why she was so distant. 

The mother went silent for a minute before answering. 

"Yes I am your mother Alastor. I know you may not remember at the moment but please know that I am your mother." She said. It almost felt like she was convincing herself but Magnus didn't think much of it. It's not like he was her actual son.

He was just taking over this boy's body for awhile so whatever relationships he had didn't concern him, however he wouldn't tolerate being neglected. So he needed to asses how this child was being treated in this household since he was going to be living here. 

"Alright." He simply replied. 

"Listen son, I know that we… no I haven't treated you well for the past years and I deeply regret that, I don't expect you to forgive me, but I want to try being a better mother to you. If you could allow me to do that…" 

"It's fine mother. I don't have any memories of being mistreated so let's think of this as a fresh start." He said. 

Esmeralda looked at the boy in front of her and could barely recognize him. He was so different from his usual self and she didn't know how to feel about this. She did think one thing, that maybe this was a blessing in disguise.

She became even more determined.

She would never let this boy feel unloved ever again. She would shower him with all the care he would ever need. 

"She put her hand to his face and caressed him lightly. Her eyes softened upon seeing his body tense up. She then slowly took him in her arms and help him tightly.

Magnus remained motionless, he almost never experienced such a thing. He's only hugged a person once in his lifetime and that was his best friend Uriel. It wouldn't allow anyone else to touch him like this and he was about to push her off when he received a notification saying congratulations for unlocking a feature.

Confused he looked at the status screen and saw a new feature. 

Affection: 5/1000 

He couldn't ask the system what this feature was for but he knew that it was unlocked when he accepted her hug. So he let the woman do whatever she wanted and they stayed that way for another minute. She then separated herself from him, and looked at him seriously. 

"The doctor recommended sending a holy official to examine you. I called one over and he'll be arriving tomorrow in the morning. Make sure to rest properly. I'll have the maids come and run you a bath and Pollux will bring you your meal after."

She then stroked his hair attempting to fix his bed head and then exited the room.

The moment she left Magnus didn't waste a single second and called out to the system. 

"What does this affection feature mean?" 

[I see that you have unlocked it, congratulations. This is an important feature that will help you get more in tuned with your human side. Forming connections and meaningful relationships is extremely important. The more affection you receive from others and give to others the higher it will increase.] 

"Right, humans thrive on affection. That makes sense." 

[You do not have to get them up quickly, you can take your time with this. But do not forget about it either.] 

"Right." 

Later that day, as his mother promised the maids came in to give him a quick bath and Pollux brought him his meal after. 

Pollux was a kind middle aged man with shoulder length hair tied back into a ponytail. He had soft green eyes and a kind smile. For some reason, Magnus saw Pollux a lot more then his own family. He started to build a strong rapport with him. 

Even thought it wasn't asked of him, Magnus decided he would also meditate before going to bed.

He felt like it helped him sleep better. He then fell asleep.