Author's Note:

I'm sooo sorry! I meant to post this chapter up days ago but unfortunately, I got sick. Like, badly.

An innocent sore throat turned into a 103 F degree flu overnight; accompanied with chills, muscle aches, nausea, the reappearance of my dinner (twice), and a near heart attack from my aunt. It came all too suddenly, in the freakin' busiest time of the semester, and I have no tears left to cry seeing how much work I have to get done regardless if I fell sick or not.

I can hear the virus incubating in my body laughing at my misery. Stupid virus.

Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better so I'm mentally able to post up this chapter. This particular chapter is nice and long and I'll actually be posting up the next chapter quite soon after making some additional adjustments to it.

This is actually a very informative chapter. I'm terribly sorry if you guys get confused or muddled-headed by the end of it. Editor-chan demanded that I write up some fluff at the end of this chapter so that I could reward you guys for sticking with me for as long as you did.

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Despite the lectures, the warnings, the threats, and the 'punishments' (all given by either his professors or his father), Tanaka didn't change much of anything in his general routine. He still slept during class or sometimes skipped them all together. He kept up with his regular sleep schedule (which consisted of 18+ hours of sleep in combination with nap-times) and practically avoided everything that had to do with school work at home. The only thing that was different was that he had started turning in his school assignments, but that was it.

Clarisse had never seen her young master study or read his textbook even once and when she had confronted his teachers, they had told her with obvious irritation that the youngest Rosetta had been using their notes and assigned books as a pillow during their lectures.

Knowing that she could never force her young master to do anything he didn't want to do, she found herself helpless and distraught.

Then her young master came back from school on Freyja day (Friday) with his report card in his small, unblemished hands. He gave it to her so willingly, that she was startled. Much to her complete disbelief, as she took the piece of paper and looked down at the scores, she saw the letter grade 'A' written under every single subject except for 'Practical,' which of course got an 'F'. It was such a big jump from his efforts (or lack of efforts) from last week that it was almost jarring to see.

At first, Tanaka's professor had also thought that his scores were unbelievable-- meaning they thought he had cheated. A letter grade on a sheet of paper doesn't tell much of his placement in the class but if Tanaka wasn't always failing the practicals, with his recent scores, he would be number 1 in his grade. He made perfect scores on every test except for the practicals and that was what made him very suspicious.

When the results were finalized, all of his professors had summoned him to the teacher's lounge. Immediately, the majority of them had accused him of cheating. Tanaka, not wanting to stay in the academy for long because of the thick layer of magic surrounding the area, especially closed spaces like the lounge, recited every question and the answer to every question that was on the exams. And considering that there were five separate exams for five separate subjects, his professors found themselves speechless.

With no other proof other than their prejudice and his former scores, they had no choice but to let him go with sour hearts. It almost made them want to cough out blood knowing that the five-tiered student who had been sleeping their lectures and skipping their classes had been deemed innocent and allowed to keep his perfect scores. They could only be satisfied with the fact that his rank would never rise due to his performance on the practical. He would always be in the lower percentile because of it.

On the other hand, Tanaka just wanted to make sure he's passing. He didn't really care where he was in class rank. As long as he didn't get expelled, he was pretty much okay with everything else. There was nothing much he could do about his practicals, but he thought he could make Clarisse happy by doing well in his theoretical classes at the very least.

And she was happy. As soon as she realized that the test scores were not a figment of her imagination, Clarisse immediately praised and gushed over her young master's intelligence. Though Tanaka outwardly preened at the positive attention, coupled with Clarisse squeezing his puffy cheeks and a kiss on a forehead, he couldn't help but feel a little bit conflicted. After all, he's 26-year-old man inside a 13-year-old body. Though he had never tried to pretend otherwise, most people would still consider him as a child with his appearance and take his maturity as 'playing adult'.

Despite the fact that he had never been really treated as an adult by his friends or family, he had long passed earned his PhD in several fields and held a full-time job with the Japanese government (though he had only agreed to take the job as long as he can work at home and in his room. Or for someone at least to pick him up -literally- and take him to the labs/offices). Wasn't it rather shameless for him to be proud for achieving better academic scores than a bunch of pubescent children?

Either way, since Clarisse is delighted regardless, Tanaka had decided not to think too much about it.

Now if only everyone else in the Rosetta Manor (excluding the Rosettas) could stop congratulating him in such an over-exaggerated manner. Clarisse had already bragged about it to all of the butlers and maids who were willing to hear it. Henry had asked what kind of reward he wanted for his academic achievements (which he tried refusing, but the elder gentleman was much too persistent and Tanaka was just too lazy to argue back. So he asked to be told a bedtime story, much to the old butler's surprise). Fifi had made him a celebratory dinner complete with all of his favorites (well, Thomas' favorites, but Tanaka was never a picky eater in the first place so he took what he got) and Conrad decorated his side of the manor with stalks of lavender (which made him homesick and happily blissful at the same time).

It made him feel both warm and embarrassed at the same time.

Guys, please stop. Even his family from his past life hadn't celebrated this much when he came back with his first 'A' during middle-school...

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Once again, the youngest Rosetta had disappeared from the careful watch of his caretaker but after two and a half weeks of continuously vanishing from plain sight, no one was too concerned for the young master's safety. Not because they stopped caring, but because Rosetta Manor was one of the most secure estates in the entire Noble District and their young master would never nap anywhere outside of the perimeter. Nowadays, whenever they were notified of the little one's disappearance, they would go about their days like usual keeping in mind that their young master could sleep anywhere he could fit. Clarisse had even calmed down and started doing chores with the other maids while her young master is absent.

On most days, a maid or a butler would casually find him in one of the cleaning closets or cabinets and when they did, they would either take him straight to his bed or give him up to his caretaker, Clarisse. On others, when no one could find Young Master Thomas passed two hours later, Clarisse would have to recruit Amir's apparent 'Locating Where Young Master Thomas Sleeps' expertise to find the child. Or, if the handsome, dark-skinned butler was too busy tending to Young Master Edward, Henry was generally the next best person to scope out the youngest Rosetta.

Either way, no one would be frantically searching for their young master anytime soon, which was fine for Tanaka since he wanted to test something he was curious about.

Instead of napping, Tanaka decided to take a bath. If Clarisse knew that her young master was in the tub by himself, she would have a heart attack. After all, because of Tanaka's listless personality, he had the ability to sleep even during mid-cleaning and the poor maid, if she looked away for even a second, would sometimes find her young master drowning inside the bath because of how comfortable he was. Still, despite his relaxed condition, Tanaka was widely awake and had no intentions of closing his eyes to rest.

Mist rose over the tub and into the air, making the environment hazy and dream-like. Floating in the air along the large cloud of hot air was a large ball of water just half the size of a basketball. There were actually several of these spheres drifting around the room, all originating from Tanaka, who was standing on one of the bath benches attached to the wall, the water lapping his chest as he once again cupped some of the warm water into his hands.

With eyes full of concentration, he stared at the water in his hands and waited. It was not until nearly 10 minutes later that the liquid he was staring at started to move. Slowly, almost sluggishly, it shaped itself into a blob-like sphere and once it had settled down, Tanaka lifted it up out of the water and into the air. Gently, with a feathery touch, he let the product of his experiment go and watched with wonder-filled eyes as it flew away out of his reach.

As he interacted with more and more people of this impossible, magic-filled world, he noticed something rather intriguing with his strange hypersensitivity to magic. If he ever closed his eyes (which was often) and moved into someone's personal space (which was also often, considering how many time he was carried every day), he could feel their magic (or what he assumed was their magic) concentrated in the center of their bodies. He had reasoned out that this was probably the famous 'magic core' that almost every fantasy novel had described (even if it did sound stupid to his scientific brain). And if Tanaka had skin-contact with anyone that had magic, he would be able to predict the 'flow' of magic through the body from the core.

This type of realization prompted Tanaka to actually look at his own magical core and magic flow, which he never bothered with before because he assumed he had no talent in magic at all. Not that he was particularly trying to use magic or confirm he had magic, since he found it too tiresome to test out in the first place.

Regardless, after several minutes of trying to block out the magical signatures of every living being within a 20-meter radius-- Tanaka gave up and realized that blocking them all out took too much effort to do so. To be fair, trying to attempt such a thing while hiding out in the closet under the stairs of the main foyer of the manor where everyone tended to pass by or gather was probably not a good idea. So instead, Tanaka tried to meditate inside the storage shed located at the farthest edge of the garden. It had been his go-to place if he ever felt overwhelmed by the number of people in one place.

It was then, after curling up against the pillow and comforter Conrad had left him ever since the young gardener had found out how often he slept in the garden shed, that Tanaka found out that he does have magic and his magic core is actually a decent size comparable to a mediocre magician as well. But there was actually a problem with the flow of magic in his body, which was the cause of his five-tier status.

In the Kingdom of Astria, there was a ritual that every five-year-old went through called 'Revelation'. On their fifth birthday, every child has the chance to test their innate talent for magic using a magic stone developed by old guy long ago (the founder of Evadne Academy, if he bothered to recall) called the Revelation Stone. There were only four in the entire kingdom-- one in the capital Evadne, the second in a military institute southeast of the Holy City of Evadne, one further south taken care of by a Duke who presided over the harbor city of Sachiel, and the last in the west of Astria being under the ownership of the Pope in Saint Liana, the main church that worshipped over the Goddess Ariadne.

All-year-round, as soon as one of their children turned five years old, parents would take them to the location of one of these stones and test their innate talent. Since Astria highly values those of great magical prowess, to many of those who are not well off or struggling, this was the chance for families of lower and middle classes to climb the social ladder. There were many couples who had many children, hoping they would conceive the 'lottery child' but unfortunately, Tanaka had already theorized that magical aptitude was something heritable rather than randomized.

After all, from what he had observed, there was not a single noble in Astria's nobility that wasn't magically competent. In turn, if they breed within one of another, their children often become magically competent as well. The likelihood of noble children being born as a third-tier or higher is large, whereas the normal population outside the small percentage of nobles are much less predictable and more haphazardous depending on certain ethnic groups. It's all basic genetics really.

Also like many things, a child's 'Revelation' is not free. There are about 18 million people in the entire country and 38 percent of that 18 million should have at least one child. Since there are only four of these stones nationwide, obviously there is a need to control the influx of parents and children (or any other late-bloomer that decided to try their luck) being tested for their potential. Each Revelation Stone have different requirements depending on who presides over the testing and their location.

For example, the church requires a test of faith and is strongly biased over children with light and water elements. If a child happened to meet their standards, then they could recruit that child into their circle. The military institute is the same as well. They have a test of strength and courage and a bias of children with fire and earth elements. If that child is up to their approval, then they can bring that child into train into their ranks.

For the Revelation Stone in the city of Sachiel, it seems to be the hardest to challenge. Though the Duke had claimed ownership of the stone, he doesn't have it himself. For some reason, its creator had placed it inside of Cave of the Sirens just off the coast of Sachiel and declared 'only of those with pure intentions can enter and find the stone'.

It was thought that Sachiel's Revelation Stone was a lost cause, though there had been plenty of parents who had forced their children to try anyway. But so far, everyone came out empty handed.

The Revelation Stone in the Holy City of Evadne has no test or trial-- but there is a base fee of 1,000 Rafer. Inexpensive for nobles and rich individuals alike, but worrisome for the middle-class citizen and daunting for those who only have enough money for food.

Of course, there are some exceptions. If someone displays extraordinary magical aptitude, like the heroine who was discovered by one of the teachers in Evadne Academy, they could bypass the Revelation Stone entirely and be enrolled into the institute of their choice. But that rarely happens outside of the noble circle and certain knowledge is required to learn how to even use magic, which only applies to the educated population.

Either way, to use these Revelations Stones, there are a lot of unfair and often biased obstacles in between.

But Tanaka really didn't care about the last 685 words detailing the tier-ranking process of the Kingdom of Astria.

What he wanted to know was how the damn Revelation Stone worked.

Unfortunately, there was no way he could actually study the one Revelation Stone in Evadne since it was heavily guarded by the Royal Army. And Tanaka was too lazy to travel to the other stones to investigate as well, but he did have a theory.

After asking around a few people, the way tier-mediators determine a person's magic potential is by detecting the amount of magical energy one can emit. The stone would detect and partially absorb this free energy, which the tier-mediators then can measure using a separate device made by some headmaster a couple of centuries later (he didn't really ask for any details about who made it, just that it was there). Depending on how much the magic stone can detect, you would then be assigned a tier.

It made sense, considering what Tanaka had observed so far.

It seemed that people of this world naturally emit magical energy (or something like that-- Tanaka didn't know what else to call it. Aura? Presence? Ki?) and as he had already noticed, the more they emit, the higher their tier. But tier-ranking did not necessarily correlate with core size.

For example, Sven has a four-tier aptitude in magic, but his magic core is unusually strong and bright, probably because of his light-base. Tanaka could easily close his eyes and detect its vigorous energy from across the estate, but the size of his core was unusual smaller than average. Even Tanaka's own magical core has more volume than Sven's. But because of the rate of magical energy produced by Sven's core is five times more efficient than the average five-tier core, the Revelation Stone detected him as a four-tier instead.

Therefore, tier-ranking was most likely reliant on the flow rate of magical energy (particle? Substance? Matter? There's not really an official name for magic other than 'magic,' but Tanaka felt that 'magic' is just too broad...).

Henry is a perfect example of that. The amount of magical energy he emitted is stifling-- at least to Tanaka, who is overly sensitive to these kinds of things. His core is one of the biggest Tanaka has ever seen and his flow-rate is just as equally impressive. Since Henry is considered a second-tier magician, Tanaka could only imagine how intimidating it would be for him to meet a first-tier magician. Tanaka would probably be able to sense someone with that much magical energy several kilometers away.

The only anomaly to his observations was probably Amir, who confused and fascinated the inner geek and science nerd in him.

Amir emits the same amount of magical energy as a third-tier except... it feels repressed. Controlled somehow. Almost calculative. Tanaka had never felt the amount of energy ejected fluctuate, so he couldn't really tell whether the suppression was deliberate or normal.

And Amir's magic core... Tanaka couldn't even estimate its volume. The closest comparison he could think of was the vast sea. The closer he looked, the more endless it seemed, and he couldn't help but feel that if he dared look even closer, he would drown as it could swallow him whole. It was both terrifying and captivating. For all that magical energy to be subdued so significantly...

"Young Master Thomas?"

Startled, the water ball that Tanaka had been forming wiggled, part of it collapsing while another part of it... exploded on his face.

Tanaka sputtered as he wiped the water away from his eyes before he turned around towards the bathroom door. To his amazement, as he looked up at the familiar handsome man with wide, blinking eyes, the subject of his thoughts was standing within the frame of the door.

Amir's blank expression was familiar to Tanaka, one that the dark-skinned butler had always given him when he had done something... probably unlike the original owner of his current body. Though Tanaka wasn't exactly sure what he did to warrant such a look in the first place. He was just being himself... or maybe that was the problem.

Regardless, Amir seemed to be staring at him once again, his face not giving away anything that Tanaka could decipher and the transmigrator couldn't help but wonder if he had done anything wrong. Then, one of his floating ball of water sailed lazily pass in between them and Tanaka finally recalled that the bathroom was currently filled with floating water balls. He had made around 15 in the past two hours.

As if to emphasize Tanaka's observation, one of the water balls that was drifting above his head suddenly burst, drenching his entire head with his curly hair temporarily blinding his eyesight from Amir.

Ah right, he had almost forgotten that these 'magic particles' will eventually disperse into the air after some time.

He had theorized that 'magic particles' are very unstable to exist in nature. Tanaka was not exactly sure how humans are able to naturally harness these 'magic particles' or how these 'magic particles' can be created within their core, but they're probably similar to photons or an unknown element with a very short half-life. Either way, his little spheres of dihydrogen oxide should not last very long. The fact that none of them had burst until a couple of hours later had already exceeded his expectation.

"Young Master Thomas?" Amir had once again called out when Tanaka had stood still for the past few minutes. His voice was strangely soft, which... Tanaka couldn't help but feel nervous about.

In all honesty, he had never actually seen anyone using their magic so casually. Of course, that was probably due to the fact that complex chants were required in order to perform magic, which... no. Just thinking about it was embarrassing. If he ever had to say, 'I Ask the Goddess Ariadne To Grant Me the Power to blah blah blah blah' out loud, he would rather the spell explode into his face. Not to mention, a lot of the chants taught in the academy required memorization and perfect pronunciation in order for them to work and... honestly, that sounded like work.

It was not like chantless magic didn't exist but apparently, chants allowed the magic user to fine-tune their magic to go to a certain way. Words have power, his sister had told him once when he had refused to talk out of laziness and had resorted to sign language. Words have 'intent,' therefore, it was used as an intermediate in order to increase the power of their magic.

Regardless, Tanaka was not sure what was the proper etiquette for using magic but there was something rather... unnervingly serious about the way Amir looked at Tanaka. Though maybe that was just his imagination, considering that the butler was often hard to read even on a good day.

"Young Master Thomas." Once again, Amir called him out, and Tanaka immediately noticed the close proximity of his voice. From between the fringes of his hair, Tanaka saw a dark hand reaching towards his face. It startled him for a moment, but he didn't move away as the older man lifted the strands of his hair away from his eyes. Large, limpid, but innocent eyes met unreadable, sharp but dark ones and Tanaka couldn't do anything but blink as Amir brushed his wet hair away from his face. "Did you do this?" Amir asked promptly, cutting right into the meat of things without bothering to be subtle. Tanaka stared at the other for a short while before obediently nodding to the question. The man-turned-child wasn't sure what to think when the young butler narrowed his eyes at his response. "I thought young master was incapable of using magic."

Truthfully, Tanaka had thought so as well. In comparison to everyone, his magical aura (the number of magic particles being emitted from a person) was very weak despite his sizable core. It wasn't until he discovered 'magic flow' did he realize why, which brought back to Tanaka's original problem.

Though the production of 'magic particles' from his core was actually decent, the flow from the core to the other parts of his body was obstructed. After careful observations, he found out that magic was not dispersed randomly or in an unorganized manner, but through channels. Like veins (therefore, he called them 'magic veins' or 'magical veins' to be unoriginal). Unfortunately, in comparison to other people, his channels were much narrower than the norm and his 'magic veins' branched off a lot less too. There were only so much 'magic particles' these veins could fit, therefore significantly reducing his 'magic flow'.

If Tanaka wasn't so patient and so aware of the happenings in his body, he would have believed himself to be magically incompetent-- not that it would matter if he was in the first place. He had lived the entirety of his last life without magic (as short as it was) and he never felt he would need it in this life either.

If he couldn't use magic, it was no skin off his back. If he could... well, he had been trying to think of ways to use magic to improve his lazy lifestyle.

Nonetheless, in the face of Amir's skepticism, Tanaka reached down and cupped some water into his hands. Though he was not sure why he felt uncomfortable with the butler's doubt of him, enough for him to want to show off and prove the other wrong, he felt that Amir would probably 'persuade' him to use magic nonetheless.

So, for the next six minutes, he controlled the direction of his magic mainly to his hands, manipulating it around the water, but instead of making it into one sphere, Tanaka segregated and shaped the liquid into pearl-shaped sizes. Somehow, he wanted to earn Amir's praise, which was not even given to his brother.

So dedicated to his work, Tanaka didn't notice the strange, ambiguous light flashing past Amir's eyes or the way his lips pressed together in the straight line momentarily. Regardless, once Tanaka had finished turning the water into perfectly round droplets, he had adjusted the 'intent' of the magic surrounding the clear, pearl-like items and let the float out of his hands.

Then, there was a gasp, which had both Tanaka and Amir turning around to look back at the open bathroom door. Within its frame was a shell-shocked Clarisse, who saw the whole process since Tanaka wasn't actually hiding what he was doing.

Though Clarisse's expression remained dead-like, her mouth was gaping unabashedly. It took several moments before she could snap out of her daze and speak. "Young Master Thomas, you can use magic!" Clarisse gushed happily. The only way you could determine her giddiness is by the sparkle in her eyes and the joyfulness in her voice. "That's wonderful!"

"...Is it?"Tanaka couldn't help but ask he tilted his head in a curious manner. As a person who had originally lived in a completely non-magical world, he did not understand or realize the importance that many Astrians had placed on magical abilities.

"Yes!" Clarisse exclaimed as she trod closer to her charge, her hands clasped together upon her chest. "Now young master can pass the practicals!"

Tanaka made a doubtful expression at her statement.

To manipulate existing matter in the environment was different from transforming magic particles into different elements of nature.

Tanaka had hypothesized that since magic particles were naturally unstable and unable to exist by itself without immediately falling apart, there was a possibility that it could be directed into a more stable form like what had already existed in nature (such as water, earth, fire, etc.) with the use of a catalyst. Of course, that catalyst is humans.

Anyway, this generally defies the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the universe tends to lean towards disorder. For an unstable element like magic to convert into a more stable form usually requires a shit ton of energy, but Tanaka had given up trying to make sense of it after stewing for days in his room wondering where this shit ton of energy had come from. There are some things in magic that even he can't reason out. It was too bothersome to do so anyway since he didn't exactly have the necessary instrumentation to test out his hypotheses in the first place.

Regardless, Tanaka didn't have the heart to shoot down her enthusiasm.

After a couple more minutes of gushing over her charge, Clarisse finally realized Tanaka's undressed state. She immediately carried out the youngest Rosetta from the bathtub and started to fuss over his health. Preoccupied with each other, both were not aware of Amir quietness. Nor did they notice the way he looked at the young boy currently being dried by his caretaker as if Tanaka was an anomaly.

Clarisse was only able to see the last half of Tanaka's performance. If she was there from start to finish like Amir, she would only be even more speechless, maybe even frightened despite the maid's fierce love for her young master. Whether she would be fright of or for the child was debatable though.

Chantless magic does exist, but only in accidents. Usually, when children went through a lot of stress or when they become extremely emotional, their magic tended to fluctuate out of their control. Those were the majority of the cases where chantless magic could be seen. Puberty also tended to be a time where displays of chantless magic were common, but the ability to use magic without a chant... there was only a handful of individuals that could do so.

And Tanaka had used magic in front of Amir without a single word spoken. Not even a whisper passed through the child's lips.

As if physically feeling Amir's stare, Tanaka turned his head away from his maid to look at the older male, blinking in confusion as he saw the butler's superficial and pleasant-looking facade with his eyes curved and his mouth holding an insincere smile.

"This is quite an incredible achievement for the young master," Amir admitted truthfully though the tone of his voice seemed rather ambiguous.

For a five-tier who had never successfully performed a spell or displayed any type of magical talent to suddenly have this kind of ability that many could only dream of-- saying that it was an 'incredible achievement' would have been an understatement.

Nonetheless, despite how vaguely cynical it sounded, Tanaka brightened up at the compliment: his small mouth slightly parted and his cheeks dusted with pink while his eyes shone in pure happiness. Amir was surprised by the reaction; he did not expect that the little one would be so pleased by his careless praise.

"Young Master Thomas, did you bring clothes with you to change into?" Clarisse abruptly asked as she looked around the room, breaking their moment as the young boy turned back towards his caretaker.

For some reason, Amir felt something prick inside of his chest.

"I didn't," Tanaka answered as he pulled the towel around his shoulders and closer to his body, the chill of being naked starting to seep in. It was only until after he climbed into the water did he realize he did not have any clothes to change into. He later reasoned that he could just quickly run to his room after his bath without worrying about offending anyone's sensibility. Other than the servants, no one would usually come into his wing of the manor.

Clarisse couldn't help but sigh in response, shaking her head mostly out of amusement. "Then I'll go get your clothes for dinner. Amir, can you watch over Young Master Thomas and make sure he doesn't drown himself in the bathtub?"

"... That was one time..." Tanaka protested with his cheeks puffed up. Sure, he had dozed off plenty of times in the tub, but he never was actually in the danger of drowning. Despite her dead-like face, Clarisse was somehow able to convey her disbelief.

"I'll watch over the young master," Amir interrupted before a debate could even spark. It amused the butler to no end that the little one seemed very stubborn about his own independence.

With a huff, Clarisse gave one last look of warning to her charge before striding out of the bathroom and into the hall, leaving the two other occupants alone inside a room full of floating balls of water.

Once the maid was out of sight, both of them turned towards each other, one small and naked while the other tall and proper. It would be a funny sight to see for anyone who was passing by.

"...Edward?" Tanaka mentioned after a few minutes of silence had passed between them.

Amir answered promptly and mechanically, his tone cold and professional; "He's currently attending a party hosted by the Theodora family. Young Master Edward had chosen Morgan to escort him to their estate." And by 'escort,' Tanaka deducted that Amir probably meant 'to show off'.

Morgan was one of the butlers -third-tier with a fire-based affinity if Tanaka remembered correctly- that personally served his brother. Morgan also detested Thomas and considered the youngest Rosetta as a bug beneath his expensive dress shoes. Actually, many of his family's personal staff hated him, other than Henry and Amir (maybe).

"...Was I gone long?"

The corner of Amir's mouth twitched and the butler suddenly seemed very amused. "It has been two hours and a half since you had disappeared, Young Master Thomas."

Ah. That explained the other's presence since the butler doesn't normally interact with Tanaka unless Clarisse had recruited Amir to find him. To this day, Tanaka still did not understand how all of his napping spots were rooted out by this good-looking servant.

There was another period of silence in between them, one that both did not care to interrupt. They continued their quiet stare down, neither willing to back out even though Tanaka's neck had already started to strain from looking up for so long. Just as the younger was about to quit and turn his head away, Amir suddenly moved forward, his hand reaching out toward another towel placed near the bathroom sink before dropping it on Tanaka's head.

The child's hair was still dripping drops of water onto the bathroom floor so Amir took the liberty to rub the other dry.

Tanaka narrowed his eyes out of the comfortable feeling of Amir's touch, drifting off slightly at the warmth and pressure surrounding his head before a deep, familiar voice spoke next to his ear. He didn't notice how unusually close their faces were, their cheeks nearly touching. "Young Master Thomas," Amir suddenly whispered, his voice hushed and reserved. "What young master had shown me-- it would be best to refrain from performing such a thing to anyone outside of this room."

As the older man leaned back, Tanaka's face scrunched up in confusion, finding the request (warning?) to be unusual. Nonetheless, the little one nodded, his expression clear and willing.

Maybe it was bad etiquette to use magic so casually? And it's not like Tanaka had any plans to try anything for practicals since he still was not able to do anything else outside of levitation.

Amir seemed very pleased by the young one's obedience since he rubbed Tanaka's hair with the towel a little more before placing it around his neck. "Good," the other praised softly, causing Tanaka to flush in pleasure, the little one's eyes shining in delight.

Then Amir stepped back and Clarisse came through the door with Tanaka's clothes in her arms, completely oblivious to the good atmosphere between her charge and her colleague. "Let's get you all dressed up, young master. Before you catch a cold."

Turning his gaze away from the older male, Tanaka looked at Clarisse and nodded obediently at her statement before pitter-pattering towards the maid, unaware of the change that had occurred between him and Amir.

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Author's Note:

You know, I realize that a lot of you are crying out as if you never saw or read something cute before. But the cuteness is basically the selling point of this book, so ╮(╯▽╰)╭

I'll make sure the cuteness, meng, kawaii-ness, etc. keeps on coming

Anyway, I'll do my best to answer any questions you guys have on the theorems that I have addressed about magic. Or any other questions you have (I won't give any spoilers though, lol). The wattpad app is giving me trouble right now, so it might take a while before I could answer anything.

Btw, anyone got any remedies for a really bad sore throat? Q.Q