HIS EMOTIONS ON HIS SLEEVE

"YOUR Highness, didn't my wife said that you shouldn't address us that way?" Gage said, his tone laced in condescension. "Given your status, you must consider propriety. You can't casually refer to anyone as 'aunt' or 'uncle.'"

"But you're not just anyone. You're Aster's parents," Wulfric said almost without hesitation, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, not even worth a second thought.

This response, something the other clearly hadn't even paused to consider, took Gage by surprise. He hadn't expected such a genuine reply, delivered so naturally. It sounded so sincere that, for a moment, Gage almost believed he meant it. No—maybe he truly did.

From what he had observed earlier, this guy wasn't exactly the thinking type. He was the kind who acted first and thought later—someone driven more by instinct and emotions than by logic or reason.