This chapter is brought to you by Beautiful Wish by Eri Kitamura.

Edited by: bafflinghaze

---

Neo woke up thirty-four hours after his surgery, incredibly behind on his summer homework—he would realize belatedly—, and feeling fantastic.

Wow.

Was his first conscious thought.

They definitely put me on the good stuff.

Was his second.

Vermillion eyes opened lazily to the sight of light creeping in from the edges of thick window curtains.

He was in a room, but not one he recognized. It smelled oddly like a modern hospital, but with hints of what was distinctly the Odum Manor's scent—a familiar blend of cotton, lily-of-the-valley, and soap.

Neo realized he was still in the manor, but where?

Then he felt it. A warm and large hand overlapping his own.

He heard a light snore beside him.

Turning to his side, Neo saw his sleeping father slumped over right next to him, half sitting on a chair while his head was being supported by one arm. A blanket had fallen off of him and was currently pooling around his waist.

If he was not drugged up to his eyeballs with all sorts of painkillers, he might have felt very awkward toward his father's unusual affections, but he was, as a matter of fact, very drugged up and high.

The inner street rat locked away deep inside his head emerged from its prison with pupils blown wide and eyes unblinking, ready to take full control of all his mental faculties.

His entire focus centered on his father with a predatory gaze. The sight of the man resting so close to him, asleep, defenseless...

Someone had cut his hair. Had taken a pair of scissors and chopped off that proud length of hair.

Who did it?

Who dared to leave him in this state of vulnerability?

Neo stared and stared, watching his father sleep.

If it were not for the street rat piloting his mind, he might have deduced the need for a change in his father's hairstyle, but in this rare instance, the good drugs were working harder than his brain cells, making it rather difficult for him to think rationally.

He stretched out his hand, reaching over to touch his father's face

The man had his eyebrows furrowed together, a sign of restlessness paired with exhaustion, judging by the bruises beneath his eyes. His cheeks were also gaunt and his lips were dry, indicating a lack of food and drink.

... And now, speaking of food and drink, Neo was hungry and thirsty.

He pulled away and climbed out of bed with a surprising amount of strength and energy despite being asleep for...

Well, he didn't know exactly how long, but it had to have been a week at least if he was poisoned with Ricin Flowers.

He stood up and took the blanket from around his father's waist and pulled it over the man's shoulders.

The action caused his father to move a little.

Neo froze and stared down at him, wary that he might have woken him.

Seconds passed, and he finally heard even breathing once more.

Again, Neo found himself staring.

This kind of weak-looking person wouldn't survive a day in the slums. The thought was sad because he was his father.

Long ago, in his childish dreams, Gareth Odum had been a formidable figure who he both admired and feared.

But that was because Nazareth never saw him as a father. A sire, perhaps, but father?

Hmm, perhaps he still held on to some resentment regarding his first childhood.

It had been rather unfair. For him.

This person, who looked like a strong wind could blow him apart in seconds, had held his hand and trusted him, sleeping beside him with his neck exposed... defenseless.

Why had he trusted him to not do him harm when he knew what he was capable of?

Slowly, he placed a hand on the back of his father's neck.

Though Neo couldn't see entirely due to the darkness of the room, he knew that the state of his father's pallor would have been less than healthy. The delicate skin was likely pale, translucent, and with visible blue veins.

A slight pressure in the wrong place would kill him. He could kill him right here, right now, and no one would suspect a thing if he only went back to bed and pretended to sleep for another few hours.

Neo swallowed. It was difficult to articulate how he felt when he was only moving by instinct, only thinking in the way animals do, impulsiveness controlling every aspect of himself as he tried to wade through the drug-addled fog in his mind.

He took his hand away.

Then, the next thing he knew, he had pressed himself against his father's side and buried his face into his shoulder, nuzzling into the fabric of his clothes as if he wanted to just disappear into the comforting warmth.

This was a man who he had always thought of as an acquaintance rather than a father.

He had always believed he would think the same of him.

So why sleep beside him and hold his hand? Trust that he would never harm him?

Neo inhaled the scent of cotton, lily-of-the-valley, and soap as he clung to his father for a moment longer.

The hug hadn't roused the man. He was completely dead to the world.

Neo leaned down and kissed his forehead, humming in satisfaction at the job well done in staking a claim so no random street rat would try to mug this defenseless and weak man.

Then, he stood back up and made his way to the door.

(As Neo left the room higher than a kite, he had completely missed Aurelion, who'd been asleep on a sofa near the foot of the bed, Guinivere, who was sleeping on a cot by the corner of the room, and Vespera, who had fallen into a deep and unconscious meditative state whilst standing sentry a few feet away from the door.)

Neo stumbled a little as he walked down the hall of the West Wing. His head was a little fuzzy, but everything else was fine. He was feeling really good. Maybe a little too good, judging by the way he suddenly had the urge to go skipping through a farmers' market.

Barefoot, he walked until he was in front of a wall. He knocked on the wall and a servant's passage opened up. He entered it. The wall closed just as a few servants patrolling the hallway passed by.

In the passage, Neo continued on his way down a flight of stairs.

The passage led him to a small kitchen that was rarely used by the servants for cooking.

The gardener, Eun-Ki, usually left bread and grain there to feed the songbirds and ducks out in the garden:

Neo found a loaf of bread lying on a table and claimed it for himself as any self-respecting street rat would do. Then he went and got himself a glass of water from the sink and voila, a feast for a king.

He sat down at a table and started to eat.

The bread was stale, but that was alright. Moldy food tasted worse. Neo managed to swallow it down with his water, which tasted surprisingly clean and had no weird flavors added to it.

Once he finished eating the bread, he guzzled down another glass of water and stumbled outside.

The kitchen led to the Western Garden.

It was quiet outside, but not in a foreboding way like in the Western Slums.

Neo hummed.

His voice was raspy even after drinking two glasses of water.

He hummed again, the scratchy melody of a forgotten song taking shape in the back of his throat.

He giggled and then went over to a soft patch of grass covered with—oh, were those dandelions? When did they suddenly have dandelions growing in the Manor?

He lay down on the little dandelion field. The flowers tickled his ears.

Neo giggled again.

It was a good day.

The sun started to rise over the horizon just as he closed his eyes.

---

Aurelion woke up on a weekend, saw the empty bed, and let out an undignified scream so loud and piercing that he woke up everyone else in the room.

He immediately took a pillow to the face for his screaming.

"What is wrong with you?" Guinivere hissed, and good gods, her bedhead made her look like a murderer who'd been living in the woods for decades.

Aurelion regained his composure, only so he could point at the empty bed and shout, "Brother!"

All heads turned to the empty bed in silence.

They blinked, and then blinked again, hoping to all gods and Aunt Auria that this was all merely a large-scale illusion and not, as it became more and more apparent despite their denial, reality.

Finally, Father tried to stand up, only to be pushed back down by Mother.

"Call the guards. Find him."

Do not let him escape.

The unspoken words were promptly ignored for more positive thoughts, like finding Nazareth in his lab or drinking tea somewhere.

Leave it to Mother to change the atmosphere from a wholesome family affair to a prison thriller.

Both Guinivere and Aurelion left the room, first notifying the servants patrolling the halls, and then making their way toward a random bookcase by the corner.

"Why do we have so many servant passages?" Aurelion mumbled, tugging on a few books until he heard a click.

"Great-great-grandmother Galatea liked them," Guinivere quipped. The bookcase swung open, revealing a hidden stairwell. They stepped inside and the bookcase closed back up.

"Plus, they're fun."

Aurelion sighed, grabbed a light pearl from off the wall, and they descended the stairwell in silence.

Trying to find Nazareth in their own home was like trying to find a very specific dust bunny, especially when he wasn't in his usual haunts.

His bedroom was empty, and there were no attempts made to get into his locked laboratory. Where else could their brother be?

The Glasshouse, perhaps?

They made their way to the Western Garden, making sure to check the gazebo first for any signs of their brother before walking through a path filled with blue hydrangeas.

The familiar sight of pink peonies was long gone as the weather grew hotter.

It was right there, just as they were about to pass by when Aurelion stopped and noticed a small field of yellow flowers a little ways away from the path.

Guinivere noticed he had turned his focus toward the field, and she too paused in her steps.

Someone was lying in that field.

The figure was wearing a set of white cotton pajamas—clothes recommended by Duchess Elysium and Aunt Auria for the patient's recovery.

The color further washed out the wearer's pallor. This was proven by the pale wrists peeking out from sprawled-out arms.

Aurelion and Guinivere drew closer, until finally, they saw him.

There, surrounded by a field of yellow dandelions, was their older brother. His eyes were closed, and he looked to be at peace.

"Brother..."

Vermillion eyes cracked open when Aurelion uttered the words, and both he and Guinivere found themselves frozen on the spot as their brother's gaze met their own.

There was silence, as neither younger siblings knew what to say.

And then, a small smile graced Nazareth's face, and he chuckled.

It was a rare sound, hearing Nazareth's laugh, but the warmth of his laughter and the familiarity of the sound had been missed.

Aurelion pursed his lips, keeping them from trembling.

Guinivere's expression turned something fierce. Furious and angry, but also equally relieved at the sight of their older brother, laughing and whole.

"You idiot..." she mumbled, and then promptly tackled Nazareth, uncaring of etiquette or decorum.

Aurelion didn't wait for an invitation to join in and did the same.

"Oomph!"

Nazareth grunted but didn't protest the actions.

Rather, he somehow managed to wrap his arms around them.

They were held tightly, given nuzzles against their cheeks, and could feel their brother's heartbeat.

He was warm. He was alive. He was here.

Nazareth gave them both kisses on their foreheads. The action was so very strange and silly, but neither of them minded as long as their brother continued to breathe.

It was weird, it was childish, but they didn't care.

Their older brother was most definitely high from whatever drug Aunt Auria and Duchess Elysium gave him, but that was fine.

It was all fine and well.

Nazareth was awake and all was good with the world.

Finally.

---

Ethel was having a lovely time in her prison cell. Lethe had brought her a few more books—romance novels with a hint of spice were her few guilty pleasures—as she awaited the Duke and Duchess' decisions regarding her status as an Odum staff.

The books have so far kept her nerves in check, her anxiety from overwhelming her senses, and held off any emotional tears that would most certainly go off, regardless of whatever decisions were made.

She knew, in no uncertain terms, that if she were to be dismissed from the Odum Ducal's employment, it was to the poor house with her.

Hmm, mayhaps those books have encouraged her fantasies somewhat. Specifically the ones with the poor unemployed girls being carried off to a lovely castle in the countryside by a wealthy noble.

Ethel turned a page, sighing to herself as Sir Fictus of House Imaginarium announced his undying love for his beautiful, enchanting, but lowly chambermaid, Phantasia.

The morning light streaming in from her tiny window made the perfect reading light. She hadn't needed a candle since she'd been in this cell until late evening.

Thank her lucky stars for Rhine prison policy requiring all dungeons and underground cells to have at least one window per cell.

"Pst!"

There was a hiss.

"Pst! Pst! Ethel!" A voice whisper-shouted.

Ethel paused in her reading and sighed.

She was just getting to the bed scene, too.

Turning her focus to her cell door, Ethel spotted a figure standing on the other side of her cell.

They were dressed in a familiar maidservant's uniform, wore their mousy-brown hair in twin braids, and had on a pair of glasses that looked eerily similar to the spare Ethel had in her bedroom.

It was like looking at a mirror.

Ethel resolutely ignored the presence of the other and went back to reading her book.

"You can't ignore me forever."

She was steadfastly silent, making a point to turn another page.

The person on the other side, wearing her clothes, and claiming her identity, sighed.

"I said I was sorry, okay? If I had known they would do that, I wouldn't have—"

Ethel faced her body toward the window.

"Oh, come on. Are you seriously doing this right now? Attachments, Ethel. Lethe is corrupting you with those useless morals. Now look. The first sign of wrongdoing and they toss you down here without a second thought."

Again, Ethel didn't answer.

After not seeing her sister for several years, she had hoped the other might have changed for the better.

Instead, the first thing she did was slap a compulsion charm onto her back while she'd been sleeping and used her to harm a member of her employer's family.

Yeah, she could totally feel the love and concern, Telhe.

Truly, the best sister in the world.

If her coworkers hadn't realized something was wrong with her, she could have been executed on the spot!

Arse-biscuits.

To think she'd been excited about vacation days and health insurance. Who could have known her psychopathic older sister would be the one to jeopardize her employment?

A shiny-looking toy was tossed onto her cot.

Ethel flinched and backed away from it.

"Tch, it's not a mana bomb, Ethel. Honestly, I paid good money for that, you know. Don't you still like those silly trinkets? I saw some of them lying around on your shelf."

Learning that Telhe had been in her bedroom didn't fail to make her sick to her stomach. How long was she there? Was she sleeping under her bed? On her bed? Watching her every move and staring at her as she slept?

Ethel gripped her book tighter and refused to acknowledge the shiny toy on her cot.

"What are you doing here, Telhe?" she finally asked.

Telhe looked amused all of a sudden.

"I'm working. Just like you and Lethe. Not my fault the two of you deserted. I had to work so much overtime when you two left."

Ethel shivered at the tone she took on when she said the last part.

Someone, anyone, please come quick, she prayed, staring down at her lap to avoid Telhe's gaze.

"Oh, Ethel. Don't cry. You know I don't know what to do when you cry."

Was Ethel crying?

She touched her cheek, just to make sure.

Her fingers came back dry, and she almost wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

She should have expected nothing else from Telhe, who enjoyed toying with people's emotions.

"You've had your fun masquerading as me, but now what?" Ethel whispered, voice leveled. "You haven't made any progress beyond poisoning the eldest young master. Everyone is aware of your presence in the manor, and now that I'm in here, your disguise is useless. What do you hope to gain from all of this?"

Telhe remained unmoved as Ethel listed out all the 'failures' she had experienced since the eldest young master fell. It was all too obvious, and anyone with half a brain cell would have realized they were either done on purpose, or Telhe was too confident in herself.

But Telhe didn't look done in by Ethel's words. Rather, she shook her head and sighed.

"Distractions, Ethel. We all took the class back when we were, what? Eight? How daft can you be? This is why you need to come home. You're becoming stupider with every year you're away."

"Distractions?" Ethel's eyes went wide.

Telhe crossed her arms. "The poison tea was a warning—nothing personal from me, you understand. The kid's the one who made the Thrall Mark, right? Talented. I don't like it, but talented—Anyway, the Head Lotus went crazy four months ago and decided to punish a bunch of people, and I don't know how he got on her bad side, but he did. Now I'm here." She shrugged.

Ethel felt her left eye twitch at Telhe's nonchalance, but she took a deep breath to calm herself.

"So that's all? You're here to send a message?"

Telhe rolled her eyes. "Honestly, it's like you don't even know me. No, I'm here because there's going to be another coup."

Silence. Dreadful silence.

"... What?"

"Oh, yeah. So apparently, the leader of the Syndicate couldn't keep it in his pants and now there's this mysterious illegitimate long-lost grandson who showed up out of nowhere and wants the Head Lotus spot."

Ethel tried to maintain her composure in the face of... all the overwhelming information.

A coup?

She and her siblings were treated like spare parts during the last one when Astella Castas broke away from the Syndicate and took control of the Iron Lotus. What kind of destruction would another rebellion wrought in the underworld?

"—thought you and Lethe might wanna come back since things are changing."

What was that?

Ethel blinked. She hadn't realized Telhe was still talking.

She ignored that part about coming back because there was no way she and Lethe were ever going back.

Hesitantly, while Telhe was still feeling generous with information, Ethel asked, "Are you going to join the coup?"

Telhe answered her with a sharp smile. "Why do you think I took on this mission? To frame you?"

Ethel didn't answer.

"Wait, hold on." A shit-eating grin spread on Telhe's face. "By the gods, you actually thought—hahahaha—!" She burst out laughing. "No, seriously—hahahaha—I can't breathe, I can't breathe. This is way too funny hahahaha!"

Telhe laughed at her face for five minutes straight.

Ethel wanted to throttle by the first minute.

When her sister finally stopped laughing, Ethel had already begun to file away the information in her head.

There was a new challenger for the Head Lotus position. Telhe was siding with the challenger, hence why she took on the mission to poison the eldest young master.

Hold on, if she wasn't framing Ethel, then that means...!

Ethel looked at her sister incredulously.

No way.

No way.

There was no way Telhe had a—

"Who is the master you serve?"

The question sapped all the air from the room.

It was as if the previous teasing hadn't existed.

Ethel suddenly felt very afraid.

Telhe was still. She had frozen completely like a stiff doll.

Little by little, the playfulness in her eyes disappeared.

Again, Ethel repeated in earnest, "Who is the master you serve."

And again, Telhe said nothing.

She stared at Ethel quietly, and at that moment, Ethel knew the truth. Even if she had never seen one before, she knew what the mark could do to its victims, how they shackled them down and played with their minds.

"You have a Thrall Mark—"

"That's enough. You don't have to rub it in," Telhe said shortly, her previous high-spirited mood gone.

Ethel bit her lips.

Well, if that was how things were going to be, she might as well ruin her day.

"You know how you laced that teapot I was holding with the Ricin Flower? Yeah, I stole that from the eldest young master's office?"

Telhe froze.

"You little shit."

Ethel stared into her eyes innocently. "Oh, did you not mean for me to do that? So very sorry, but next time, when you slap me with a compulsion charm, be a little more specific than 'go get Ricin Flower.' You never specified where to get it."

Telhe's face paled at the realization.

Ethel tilted her head. "Funnily enough, the eldest young master had a collection of different poisons all labeled inside one of his drawers. Quite the lucky coincidence, don't you think?"

Telhe banged her fists against the bars of her cell and she snarled, "You idiot! Do you know what you've done?!"

Ethel inwardly rolled her eyes.

It wasn't like she lied. The eldest young master really did have a drawer of labeled poisons in his desk.

Also, from what she understood about Telhe's information, she wasn't even trying, anyway.

Ethel didn't know why the poisons were labeled—she learned from her colleagues during her onboarding that the eldest young master never labeled any of his poisons, just as she learned to avoid the North Wing every other weekend because the Duke was disarming mana bombs, and to expect the entrance hall to be covered in blood every first day of the month as a result of another successful hunting trip led by the Duchess—but it was truly a lucky coincidence.

She returned to her reading as Telhe raged from the other side of the bars. She didn't worry as there were barriers in place to prevent her from getting inside.

"You are an absolute disgrace, Ethel! I cannot believe you would do this! You will be the reason the family legacy is destroyed—"

Telhe soon gave up trying to get through the bars and settled on verbally assaulting her, which might have worked in the past, but Ethel had survived the Servant Academy and dealt with worse.

Her sister's words no longer stung the way they used to.

She opened her book once more and began to read.

Lord Fictus was just about to propose to Lady Phantasia—

"Telhe?"

Oh, for the love of—

Her brother, Lethe, popped out from behind one of the servant's passages and immediately came to a stop the moment he saw that she had a visitor.

Telhe froze mid-sentence, just as she was about to explain in great detail what a disappointment Ethel was.

At the sight of their brother, Telhe scowled.

"My dearest brother," she greeted, though her tone was anything but happy.

Lethe's eyes flashed with caution and his hand went to the hidden dagger Ethel knew he kept in his pocket.

"What are you doing here?"

"Come now, Lethe. Did you forget? I always know where the two of you are. Always."

Lethe took a step back. "We will not go with you, Telhe. Leave this place, or I will have no choice but to summon the guards."

Telhe's eyes narrowed. Inside her cell, Ethel tensed.

She no longer pretended to read her book as she warily stared at her two siblings on the other side of her cell, trying not to tremble in the face of greater forces.

Before the tension could build up to the extreme, Telhe's lips twisted into a smirk and her gaze suddenly met Ethel's.

"This is why you're my favorite, you know."

The statement felt like a bucket of ice water being poured on top of her.

After Telhe said those words, a transportation circle appeared from under her feet.

Ethel shielded her eyes from the light, heart hammering at her throat. She felt sick to her stomach.

Lethe shouted, whether in panic or frustration, Ethel didn't know, but before he could stop their sister, she disappeared into a cloud of smoke and light.

In seconds, Telhe was gone—and she left behind the black runic marks of a transportation circle on the stone floors of the underground cell.

Ethel closed her eyes.

Arse-biscuits, they were done for.

---

"When I said to find him, I also meant to bring him back. Children."

Neo found himself awake once more.

Belatedly, he realized the foggy drug-induced lucid dreaming-esque psychedelic mini-adventure extravaganza was real.

His two siblings, both of which were cuddled up next to him in a dandelion field, were evidence of that.

"You're looking quite cozy," his stepmother noted.

Neo felt his face flush red. He huffed with annoyance and tried to sit up, only to wince in pain.

The stinging and soreness were around his abdomen.

Gods, what happened? Did he lose his spleen?

Why he required anesthesia was another mystery. Neo had felt the bandages around his torso; the only question was why, because last he checked, Ricin Flower poisoning did not require invasive treatments.

Both Aurelion and Guinivere protested the jostling.

Cute.

A smile slowly stretched across his face. Before Neo could stop himself, he nuzzled his cheek against theirs.

Then Neo remembered they were not alone and he quickly turned back to his stepmother.

She smirked at him.

"Go on. I think your father would like to join in. I will bring him out."

"There's no need—"

"I will bring him out."

"Okay."

She left as quickly as she came.

Neo stared at the sky in silence, wondering how this was his life.

Fifteen minutes later and his father arrived in a wheelchair.

He was being pushed by Kaena, one of his stepmother's personal maidservant.

"Father."

The other didn't reply. Instead, he stood up on shaky legs and clumsily stumbled over like a baby giraffe.

Neo was about to greet him once more, but he soon found himself swept into stiff and shaky arms.

"You will not let this happen again, understood?" The command was spoken in a hoarse voice. "No more messing around with the Iron Lotus or the Syndicate. Cut your ties with them and I will deal with the fallout."

"But what about—"

"Nazareth," his father cut him off. Sapphire blue eyes bore into him with an unfamiliar intensity. "I don't care. If there is an option to choose safety, then do it. Don't put yourself in harm's way just because it's easier. I will not allow it."

Neo swallowed. This overbearing protectiveness was not something he could have ever expected from Gareth Odum.

His father was a man who loved his children from a distance but was unable to articulate a single word of affection. Why would he shed his image now?

And why not before?

Yet, despite his own reserves, Neo found himself hugging back.

Meanwhile, Aurelion shifted in his sleep and moved to rest his head on Neo's lap. The position became infinitely more uncomfortable as he wrapped his arm around Neo's torso.

This prompted Guinivere to shuffle aside. She rolled over and nuzzled her face against Neo's side.

This was fine.

Neo thought, giving in to what was essentially the first-ever Odum cuddle pile in history.

Everyone was alive, the sun was rising over the horizon, and the world was still spinning.

They were all going to be fine.

---

Vespera wondered why she was here, in her office, and not in the Western Garden, watching over her husband and children.

While she was aware official business and investigations always came first, it felt hardly fair for anything worthwhile to happen now, rather than later.

She stood behind her desk with her hands behind her back and posture rigid straight. She knew she made for an intimidating figure as she found herself meeting the eyes of Lethe, her finest coachman to date.

Beside the young man stood his younger sister, who had been escorted into the room by a few other Capable servants whom Vespera trusted to carry out her orders at a moment's notice.

At the very least—Vespera thought to herself, pleased—Ethel had not hidden herself behind her brother. There was a reason the girl had been hired, after all.

One could possibly question why Vespera chose to listen to the words of these two siblings despite all the evidence pointing toward them as treacherous and unfaithful, but Vespera could see a conspiracy for what it was.

She survived the war, faced political bullshittery, and dealt with societal expectations long enough to know when something was off, and this?

This was sloppy work.

"Our sister," Lethe began, and a wave of information started to spill from his lips like a never-ending stream.

The Thomas twins, as Vespera was led to believe in the beginning, had turned out to be a set of triplets.

Born to a pair of famous murderers in the underworld, they were gifted to the Syndicate. After Astella Castas' rebellion, the Iron Lotus took them in and put them to work as assassins, spies, and torturers.

Quite unfortunate something like this happened. It made the siblings' plight much more sympathetic, seeing as they had no choice in their upbringing.

This information was no surprise to Vespera, as Eun-Ki had informed her of it when Lethe went down to the cells to visit his sister after his return from the Holy City.

The extra information they finally obtained from Lethe when they noticed Ethel's inability to deliver the proper information led to an enlightening revelation.

The strings and threads brought them to the truth. The Countess had used the third Thomas sibling to do her bidding, and what resulted was her son's previous comatose state.

Vespera was also deeply displeased to learn the culprit was likely still in the manor.

The urge to hunt down the little rat sneaking around her home was strong, but patience was a must if she wanted to catch her prey properly.

"We left," Lethe explained in remorse. "I took Ethel and ran, and left Telhe behind."

Vespera hummed with some interest.

Of the three siblings, only two managed to escape the Iron Lotus.

Revenge was oftentimes a proper motivator. Vespera wouldn't be surprised if she were to discover the eldest Thomas sibling framed Ethel as a form of vengeance.

"No, it's not revenge."

"Oh?"

Vespera raised a brow at Lethe, who dared to challenge her.

It was Ethel, still quailing like a chick and nervously wringing her hands, who met her sharp assessing gaze with a hint of resolve.

"She wanted to stay. When we ran..." the girl swallowed nervously, "she was chasing after us. Trying to stop us from leaving."

There was a glazed-over expression on Ethel's face as she said this, and Vespera sighed.

While she was ever rarely soft when interrogating, the situation of the Thomas triplets reminded her of her own children.

"Remind me again," Vespera said, taking a seat behind her desk and leaning back with her arms and legs crossed, "What does your sister intend to do after all of this? Has she spoken of her orders in detail?"

The two siblings started to explain once more.

---

They moved him back to the room he had woken up in after the weather got too warm.

A healer visited soon after he was placed on the bed.

They claimed he needed more bed rest, but with the aid of healing elixirs, the surgical wound on his abdomen should be completely healed by the end of the week.

Aurelion and Guinivere were both seated on either side of the bed, neither willing to leave his side.

His father was taken to another room to rest as he had lost a good amount of vitality during the period Neo was... completely incapacitated.

Neo later had to find out from the healers themselves that his father acted as his Lifeline during the entirety of his coma, which nearly shook him to the core, because why?

"How long was I asleep for?" he asked, the question tentative as he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

Aurelion and Guinivere had a silent exchange between them that stretched longer than it was necessary, and that worried Neo.

Finally, Aurelion said, "The midsummer celebration is in two weeks. You've been asleep for nearly a month."

What?

"No, that can't be" Neo shook his head. "Ricin Flower only takes a week to wear off—"

"You got poisoned a second time when you fell into a coma. The healers didn't know how to treat it so we invited Duchess Elysium and Aunt Auria to help you."

"Duchess Elysium? Wait, who's Aunt—"

"She is the current Saintess and we needed to smuggle her out of the Holy City, but that's not important. They did something and now you're awake."

"... Who is the Saintess? The Duchess or the Aunt?"

"The Aunt. The Duchess... actually, I don't know how she's related to all of this, but she's a decent healer and was the one who recommended Aunt Auria's expertise."

Neo blinked.

"Okay, I need you two to tell me everything that happened while I was gone. But slowly. Also, where's Rainier?"

---

Evening. Odum Manor.

Vespera sat at her husband's bedside.

The day had been hectic, with the manor bustling with servants on the hunt for the intruder and her younger children refusing to leave her oldest.

Vespera never wanted any of her children in harm's way. No parent would wish for that, and some would never allow it.

She and her husband failed in this aspect with Nazareth, who was so different from Aurelion and Guinivere, and only knew how to hurt others to protect himself.

Vespera had some regrets about that, looking back on all the morally questionable things Nazareth had done.

Aurelion was hurt often and put in harm's way, and she rarely spoke out against Nazareth's behavior and actions except to administer punishment in the form of running laps.

Vespera wondered if the last nine years might have gone differently if she had been a better parent—if she had been more expressive, and if she had met Nazareth at his level rather than at the level of her own children.

Regretting the past couldn't change what already happened.

In the blink of an eye, Nazareth went from hurting his brother and intimidating his sister, to cuddling with them like a feral kitten marking his territory.

Vespera's stone-cold heart warmed at the sight, and she knew with certainty that all would be fine, regardless of the past.

Now, she just needed to destroy their enemies, and all will be well with the world.

"We can rally our soldiers and march into the Moores Manor right now if you say the words."

Gareth shook his head.

"We must wait."

Vespera was unhappy with the response. "You will have us do nothing when the culprit is right there, sitting at home safe and sound?"

At this, her husband looked into her eyes in silence.

"You know something." She felt her spine grow rigid.

It was suddenly all too quiet.

But then, Gareth sighed and rubbed the skin between his brows.

"It doesn't make sense. She avoided Nazareth for years, going as far as relinquishing her custody of him by spreading that rumor. Why a change of heart?"

Vespera narrowed her eyes at the implication. "You told me it was an unknown benefactor who sent you the news regarding the rumors. What does she have anything to do with Nazareth?"

A spark of joy appeared on Gareth's face when Vespera implied she had never pried into the inconsistency of his poorly thought-out excuses from back then.

The spark made Vespera relax. A warm feeling spread through her chest as she and her husband stared into each other's eyes, letting nothing and everything pass between them in that moment of silence.

Nazareth's background and the Odum Curse were one of the few things Vespera took a step back from, trusting that her husband could handle it.

He took her hand and gave it a kiss. She raised a brow at the sudden gesture, but he merely kissed her hand again.

"I adore you," he whispered.

"And I, you. Now please stop distracting me. What is this about Countess Moores and Nazareth?"

Gareth laced their hand together, stroking one of her knuckles as he spoke. "As you are aware, the Countess' grandfather is the current head of the Syndicate."

"Malark, Ortho, and Artho have spoken about him. They are concerned by some of the underground activities happening in the black market and think the Syndicate is related. How is he involved this time? I was made to believe he and his granddaughter are no longer on civil terms."

"The matter has more to do with his son."

Vespera was confused. "The Countess' father? Is he not dead?"

"He is," Gareth responded, gaze not meeting hers. "But the issue has to do with what he did before he died."

"You mean when he ran off?"

There were rumors as far back as their parent's generation, though neither Vespera nor Gareth were alive to watch the scandal unfold.

The Castas Family, which, at the time, still held some sway in the political arena (before their connections to the Syndicate were revealed), had been incensed when their heir went missing.

"He was escaping an arranged marriage. I believe he was on the run for a few years before they brought him back."

"You investigated this in the past," Vespera deduced in a wary tone. "Before Nazareth collapsed. Why?"

Her husband continued to toy with her hand, unable to meet her gaze. "Both the Castas Family and the Syndicate were going crazy trying to find Lord Castas' runaway son, meanwhile, the former Duke Elysium was rumored to have fallen in love."

"Duke Elysium? Eubulous' mother?"

"You can guess what happened next."

"Eubulous' mother had a child with Lord Castas' son..."

"Yes."

Vespera stared at him. "Is the Countess aware of this?"

Gareth's shoulders slumped. "... Yes."

"And Nazareth. Does he know?"

Her husband made a pained face. "No. But he will. Soon."

"How soon?"

The door suddenly burst open without warning.

A healer ran inside and in a panicking voice, she cried out, "Your Grace! Young Master Nazareth—"

Gareth and Vespera were running out the door before she could finish.

It was not, as a matter of fact, a very peaceful day in the manor, nor was everything fine and well.

---

Step 52. Do be sure to greet your loved ones in an appropriate manner when you are no longer physically incapacitated. They will appreciate your affection. Be aware that not all is over yet.

---

Thank you, KaiK and purple_gravity for the fabulous fanarts! You can check them out on the fanart page in Chrysanthemum Garden. The link is in my profile.

Y'all, I waited eight months to finally make that Lethe joke. Did you guys catch it? Where are all my Greek mythology nerds at?