The n.o.bles over in Red-water didn't keep the sign of her shop but he managed to find it at the rug store it had become. The lady that bought the place kept the sign to turn it into firewood, he bought it from her instead for a bit more than what it would have cost her in ordinary wood. He didn't clean it or anything but when he got it out of the bag and placed it in her arms, she got very emotional and hugged the piece of wood strongly.

He was very happy he took the time to go get it. He let her get used to her room on her own and enjoy the things she had recovered and went to his own room instead.

Over there he had a rather long talk with Calla, telling her all that had happened in detail. He left nothing out, even their strange quarrel at the trial or the one they had going to Palonia's store that morning. How the lord of Red-water now knew who he was and the entire city learned of his existence was more important but he knew Calla was much more curious about Galana herself.

After she knew everything, she agreed that he was doing the right thing. Calla wouldn't be herself if she didn't want to help someone in trouble. She was convinced that he did as he should have and thought that having her work with his books and papers was a great idea but in practice, she was unable to communicate with Galana.

The new arrival felt bad towards Calla and feared that she might be unwelcome so she did her very best to be friendly and helpful. Over the next few days, she tried many times to talk with Calla in earnest, both to learn what sort of person Emp's wife was and to apologize more properly.

Calla only felt overwhelmed by her strong approach and recoiled every time, she froze most of the time and whenever she didn't she only answered with nods and shakes of her head. That only made Galana more worried that Calla might be angry towards her and pushed her to work harder and be more present at the great despair of Calla.

Emp saw none of it because he shut himself back into his workshop to finish his gift towards Mable. It was Svae in the end that mediated between the two and managed to find out what was wrong. She listened to both and told the other in turn how they felt. Everything fixed itself smoothly and Emp only noticed that the mood around the house suddenly became better overnight.

Galana stopped hara.s.sing calla all the time and gave her some s.p.a.ce while Calla made efforts to convey that she was welcome here. Aside from Calla, the others got used to Galana being there quickly.

The first morning Galana was there, she asked Svae to let her take a look at her seal from closer. She had the same on her forehead but without a mirror, she didn't have the occasion to ever see it yet. She wanted to see it from close to give herself an idea of what her own forehead looked like. At first, Svae thought it was a pretty strange request but agreed anyway for the sake of better acquainting herself with the visitor of her master.

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Since Galana came to see her specifically, they talked in Svae's room for a bit and Galana ended up pulling up the band wrapped around her head to show the seal to Svae. Understanding what this was all about, Svae turned a lot warmer towards Galana right away. Even though they didn't have much in common at all and Galana wasn't sure she could trust a cursed blood, they bonded over how Emp helped both of them out. The things he did for them weren't on the same magnitude at all, but for Svae, it was all the same.

The two final girls were both curious and wary of the new arrival. They kept asking questions to Galana but she dodged them all. They asked about the statue, they asked when she met Emp and how, they asked how he helped her, why she was here, why he trusted her with the key to the study and not them and so on. Galana didn't want to say anything about her ordeal up to now and couldn't reveal Emp's ident.i.ty to them either so there was no way she would say anything. Instead, she lost her patience really quick and pushed the two girls away more harshly every time they came charging at her again. At some point, she ended up shouting at them to stop asking her questions.

The two girls were more convinced than ever that something fishy was going on but Emp was adamant that she was his friend and neither Svae nor Calla seemed to care about this. Erin and Leo made it their mission to follow Galana everywhere to spy on her every action and catch her red handed doing something bad. This way, the others would have no choice but to believe them.

Anytime they weren't practicing their ways to beat Emp's game, they would sneak around and hide in corners to observe Galana. They'd look at what she was doing from windows, hanging over the doors, crouched under or behind furniture, sneak behind her and so on.

Galana didn't have any dark or evil secrets to hide but she would still get furious when she caught the girls doing that. Most of the time, she would just barely catch them from the corner of her eyes and jump in fright before cursing and shouting at them.

"Again! Are you trying to make me die of fright!"

Galana would run after them in anger but with her still weakened state, there was no way for her to catch the two over-energetic girls. In the end, she could only raise her fists in the air and watch them disappear in a hurry. Thanks to Calla's copious meals, she was getting better but it would take more than just a few days to repair the damage on her starved body.

Aside from how she was very annoyed by their incessant questions and how she hated to be jump-scared by them, Galana remained reasonable and didn't hold a grudge on them for long.

A few days after her arrival, everyone was eating one of Calla's meals around the large table and like always, it was delicious. There was an animated discussion around the table and from this to that, Erin brought up something she found interesting.

"There's a lot of girls in the house. There are five of us and Emp's always hiding in the workshop so it feels like there are no boys at all."

"But that's not strange, is it? There are always more girls then boys in houses." Emp pointed out.

"Well, normally yes but they're usually related in some way. It's strange because none of us are related to you in any way aside from Calla who's your wife. You're even planning to have more come soon." Galana told him. "People outside might think you're in this sort of relations.h.i.+p with most of us you know?"

"What sort of relations.h.i.+p?" Leo asked, unable to get it.

Emp ignored her for now.

"It just happened that way, it's not like I'm trying to fill all the free rooms in the house with girls. It's because you girls keep getting in trouble. The guys I know don't usually get in so much trouble that they don't have anywhere to live anymore."

The two sisters and Galana all made a grimace at once.

"Is it really because they don't get in trouble or because master doesn't have that many guys friend to begin with?" Svae asked in an attempt to save her friends from their embarra.s.sment.

"I do have have male friends. They're just busy, or in Bêtéclair."

Aside from Calla, everyone else shot him a skeptical glare. Did he really spend so little time with other guys? Should he be worried about that? He didn't meet all that much with the knife boys anymore, Gilbert had become his brother in law so he didn't count, Manley was super busy with his new wife and work, He didn't speak to Martin since he arrived with him at the village and he couldn't say anything about his friends from school in front of the Porter sisters. Anyway, he was conscious about the fact he spent almost no time with any of them, he was too busy training, or watching over Mable...

"Well at least none of them stabbed a guy in the neck."

"How did it turn into an attack against me?!" Galana complained with a pout. "It's not my fault you can't name a single one!"

"Woah! Did she really stab someone in the neck?" Leo shouted with curiosity.

Emp jumped on the occasion right away.

"She did and got into even more trouble than she already was for it."

"Tell us how it happened! How did you do it?" Leo asked her excitedly.

"Should I really say it?" Galana asked Emp, a bit taken aback by her interest.

"Sure, why not?"

"Uh... I held the dagger with both my hands and I waited by the door, when he opened it, I turned around and stabbed downward with all my strength like that."

Galana showed it with an imaginary knife, bringing her two hands over her head and striking down.

"I wasn't aiming for anything in particular, I just wanted to hit him. I managed to hit his neck and that was it."

"Wow, we never managed to do that! What happened next, did you win?"

Galana furrowed her brows because she didn't feel like the question made sense. Meanwhile, Erin made a grim face as she understood the meaning of the story.

"Well, he died."

"Eh?" Leo said, clearly confused.

"It wasn't a game Leo, she killed a guy with an actual knife." Erin explained.

"Eh!?"

Leo jumped on top of her chair, almost falling off of it.

"Of course it wasn't a game! Who plays around by stabbing people?!" Galana exploded.

The two sisters turned their eyes toward Emp.

"What? I didn't give you any actual weapons, I gave you wooden training swords. How else are you supposed to learn anything."

"I knew it! Both of you are bad guys! An evil looking man and a murderer!"

Erin pointed their way accusingly while Leo was biting her lips.

"You're clearly dying to say it too!" Emp complained.

Even though she said she wouldn't do it again!

"Master isn't a bad man though." Svae commented to calm down the two girls.

"But why won't he tell us anything then? They're clearly hiding something!"

"Then beat my game if you want to know so badly. Galana might not have done the best thing that time but she wasn't in the wrong."

The two sisters didn't insist because neither Calla or Svae seemed to agree with them. They only sulked for a bit instead until Svaenaha came to promise them that Emp wasn't hiding some dark secret or trying to trick them.

"But how could it be a good thing to kill someone?" Erin asked Emp the next day in the storeroom.

She had followed him alone, according to her, Leo was doing some important task.

Emp was in the storeroom because he had received a big new batch of talismans from Penny and he decided to store some here as well as in the bag. He kept buying more and more because he wanted to make sure he wouldn't lack any if he ever needed them. His fight with Sophus had wasted all those he had but now, he had plenty of all kinds again.

While he was placing them in a box on the higher shelves, he tried answering her question as best as he could.

"I'm not sure how to explain it properly. I don't want you to misunderstand either. I said that she wasn't wrong, not that it was good. Sometimes, people are just bad. Not the way you keep calling me bad but more like a monster, a creature from the woods."

"I don't get it."

"If you see someone that's doing a bad thing, what would you do? When we met, you tried to jump on me but I hope you know better now."

"Uh... Call the guards?"

"Right, and if this time you are right, the guards will arrest them, I'm sure you know what happens to the guys they arrest."

"They get turned into slaves? What does it have to do with killing someone?"

"They don't always get turned into slaves, some that didn't do much will just have to pay for their release and some that did something terrible could get executed. We saw the trial of the son of a viscount the other day in Red-water, he was sentenced to death so even n.o.bles aren't safe."

"Really? But what did he do?"

"Two murders, as well as other bad things."

"So he got killed because he killed? But why did he kill in the first place?"

"The reasons behind it aren't that important for now, for now, let's just say he was just a bad guy. If a bad guy comes at you with a sword and wants to kill you, do you think its best to let him do it because killing isn't good or is it best to beat him to protect yourself?"

"Huh... Isn't it best to hide?" Erin wasn't sure.

"Now we're just back to talking about when to run, when to hide and when to stand. Sometimes, people are just as bad as monsters and if they want you dead, you have to make sure you survive somehow. If he's the one that end up dead, I'd say its better that the bad guy is gone instead of you."

"So, you're saying that Galana didn't just murder someone, she was protecting herself?"

"No, she wouldn't have ended up in trouble if she had just protected herself, she was avenging herself instead. Even though this isn't wrong, the guards still consider it a crime."

"Then she is a criminal, I don't get what you're saying at all."

Emp groaned and stopped storing the talismans to think about what he would say next.

"I'll use Leo for the example again then. What if a monster eats Leo in front of you?"

"I don't want to think about that, I won't let that happen!"

"But if it did happen, think about how you would feel. Wouldn't you be really angry at the monster? I'd be angry. I would want to destroy it."

"Maybe. So you're saying that you think its okay to take revenge?"

"For a monster, yes, for a man, you should go to the guards and let them do the work. The problem is, what happens if the guards don't believe you?"

"What do you mean?"

Emp went for the extreme straight away.

"What if the imperial prince murders Leo in front of you? What do you think will happen if you tell the guards?"

"They'll arrest him?"

Emp found it funny and smiled brightly. He felt like he was talking to himself from two years ago. He said almost the same to Galana back then. Erin frowned at his amused look.

"Whats so funny?"

"The first time I met Galana, I had a similar conversation with her. She told me that the guards wouldn't believe you, they'd rather believe the imperial prince because he's such a highly ranked n.o.ble. He's not going to be arrested."

"But that would be unfair, if he's guilty then he's guilty!"

"I told her the same, I said but it wouldn't be the truth, that would be wrong. I didn't understand then but now I do. Even if you say the truth, sometimes, there's is no way anyone will believe you. Maybe because you're just a girl talking against a big n.o.ble or maybe because the story is so extraordinary they won't believe it could possibly be real. Either way, the guards won't help you and the prince will be free to go. Then he comes for you because you dared speak against him. What choices do you have then?"

Erin sat down on a box and thought hard about what she had just heard. Emp waited patiently for her to come up with something.

"I don't know..." She finally said.

"Right, It's hard to think about this, the whole thing is far-fetched after all. Galana had a similar problem, she made a choice. It might not have been a good one but it wasn't bad either. There was no perfect answer for her problem. I feel satisfied with what she did because she was justified, even though I understand it wasn't actually right. Like I said that other time, the important part is to not regret the choices you make. Galana has a lot of regrets about a lot of choices she made but this one isn't one of them I think. To answer the question you really wanted to ask first, Galana isn't a dangerous murderer that will harm us. I can't tell you how to think about Galana or what she did but at least, you should keep your mind open until you know the whole story."

Erin seemed to feel better now. She was still doubtful about Galana's presence but Emp had appeased most of her worries. She agreed to his words with a nod and watched him turn back to his task. She remained sitting there for a few moments and asked something new with curiosity.

"What are you storing? They're looking like strange rock from here."

"Those aren't rocks, those are talismans."

"What's that? What do they do and why are you putting them in a box over here?"

"Talismans are magic weapons. If they are broken, a spell is released at the spot were they broke, it could be anything, it all depends on what the person who made them wanted."

"That's amazing! So magic happens if they are broken! These sounds great!"

"They are, a friend of mine made them. I was thinking that when I'm not there, I want everyone here to be safe anyway. Even if Calla is too scared to move, At least Svae and Galana will be able to use those to protect her and the others."

"Only Svae and Galana? What about us?"

"No, it's too dangerous. Don't ever touch them, understood? Leo and you are forbidden from touching those. If you have one in your hand and you fumble with it, it'll blow up in your hand. You could hurt yourself badly enough that you might die. Those are real weapons, not toys."

"Now you're treating me like a kid! I'm not that small, I'm older than I look!"

"You might be fine but as we all know, you're the sort to make accidents happen around you and I don't want to risk it. Plus, if you touch some, your sister will think its fine to do the same and my house will disappear in no time. Don't touch them, each is worth a lot of money too."

"Gnw, fine..."

Emp laughed at her reaction and shooed her away.

She was right about not being a kid but the amount of mishaps happening around her and her sister was catastrophically high. Even if it sounded like he was treating her like a kid, he could not let her get close to the talismans. He was certain that eventually he'd be able to let her use them in case of emergency but that time would only come after she managed to reduce her clumsiness to a safe level.

Aside from storing talismans and finis.h.i.+ng his confirmation gift, he also had to go work with Marcy and tell her all about what happened in Red-water.

Her reactions to the story were pretty violent all around. She got mad when he told her about his troubles on the road, then again when he told her he called Palonia auntie and reacted even worse when he told her about the trial and how he stood in front of everyone. She was absolutely furious. He had already known she would react this way though so he had been prepared to withstand her anger, mostly.

She had him work on a bunch of small annoying tasks as punishment on top of getting yelled at for the things he did. At least, Galana got yelled at too so it didn't feel lonely. Marcy was way harsher on her so it was a good thing that Emp was there to calm his mother. Galana had felt pretty bad about it already and all that yelling didn't make her feel better at all. At least this time, she didn't yell back.

She told Emp that she felt extremely nervous about this. If his adoptive mother reacted so violently, she didn't dare imagine how his actual mother the G.o.ddess currently felt.

A few days later, Emp heard that Galana went to the village head to borrow the heart statue they used for marriages one afternoon. He was pretty certain she made another long round of apology in front of the statue just to be on the safe side.

She might not have done so if Marcy hadn't been so hard on them but one had to understand how she felt. Marcy didn't want to be disturbed by a bunch of n.o.bles all the time and she didn't want the family to swarm around Emp for this and that.

They would have done so eventually for sure but now that he had showed up and caused the execution of another n.o.ble, the rest of the Muracier house couldn't possibly ignore him. They'd want to know where he came from and who he was exactly as fast as humanly possible. After all, someone had used their name to kill a n.o.ble, and they knew nothing of either party. They'd just look like a bunch of idiots if they were asked for answers and they didn't even know his name.

In the end, Emp felt she just didn't want her family to disappear again. That was the primary reason why she got so angry.

Speaking of family, once she was done yelling at him, Emp told her that her brother said she could use her legs to come see him.

"What did that slag say! He's got some b.l.o.o.d.y legs too I'll have him know! He can come anytime he wants! The only reason he doesn't want to see me is because he doesn't have any niece or nephew to show me!"

"He does have two though?"

Emp had met them, twins, a girl and a boy, there were really small though so they slept in a crib all the time. Tiberius had a young girl take care of them so that both he and his wife could work properly.

"What! How come he never told me! That old piece of rotten slag!"

"You know, he said almost the same thing when I told them about you adopting me."

"I'm still angry. Do ya even know their names?"

"No, sorry, I forgot to ask, they were too small and I was busy trying to get Galana out of trouble. You'll have to go there yourself to meet them I guess."

Emp gave her an apologetic smile and his mom glared at him.

"I'm sure ya're doing it on purpose."

He did think they should meet up after such a long time away but he didn't do anything on purpose, it just all happened this way.

Marcy eventually let him go and he was able to focus on the last details of his gift, he took his time and after a few more days, his sun amulet was ready to be gifted.

With all that out of the way, the only thing left for Emp to do in the village while he waited for the seal to reach him was to train and continue to test the sisters.

As for Galana herself, since he didn't have any work to give her in that time, he just let her read as much as she wanted. He also told her to take a look at his notes on magic but to not try anything on her own. He left all the papers of all the notes he had taken in every subject at school so far in the study room for her to store properly and read as she wanted. She didn't go out of that room much, she mostly just walked from her bedroom to that place and back, only going downstairs to eat or to do something she was asked to by Emp. She would have listened to Calla as well but she never asked anything from her because of her shyness.

The last thing to mention would be that Emp gave her one copy of the ring. Hers turned into something looking like a bronze book with a ruby shaped like fire over it. The hoop of the ring was like a golden crown pierced at the center. She got rather miffed that he linked money so much with her that her ring looked like a pierced coin but kept it anyway and told him she'd do her best to change how he viewed her in the future.

*-*-*-*

After Emp rushed to Dark-glint and came back, things got a bit hectic in school.

He came back late in the evening the same day he left and went straight to his room. The first thing he had to do was to rea.s.sure Celtine and Harriett and tell them what happened. Unable to recall the other him out of the blue he was still nervous by the time he came back and until he gained the confirmation that Galana was alive.

He got really angry about the books being stolen and everything that happened but he trusted himself to deal with everything properly.

After he told them about the new details on the situation, Harriett told him her own news in return. She said that Juniper came to knock on his door frantically saying it was important. Harriett had felt rather powerless to help with anything because she had been told to simply say that her master was busy. Juniper insisted for a long time but the only thing Harriett could do was repeat over and over that Emp was busy.

He felt rather sorry because he had not thought about this sort of thing at all. What could possibly have been so urgent anyway. He decided to go meet with her in the morning first before he braved either the duke or Blackbull.

He was also told that Aglaya came as well but she didn't insist and left quickly so he'd go see her last.

The next morning, after waking up, he made his way right to Juniper's Room, or rather, he would have but he had no idea where it was so he had to go to the main all and ask Esther to send someone to get her. The servant came back as quickly as possible to lead him to her room at her request. Like usual, Celtine was on his shoulders as he walked through the school to Juniper's room.

Hers was pretty far away from his' and Mable's, not even on the same floor. Once the school servant pointed a door to them he knocked at the door and announced himself.

"It's Emp, I'm here because you wanted to talk to me yesterday."

"Come in," One of her two slave said while opening the door for him. "Mistress has been waiting impatiently for you."

The school servant bowed with her mission now accomplished and left as Emp stepped inside the room.

Juniper might not have been a n.o.ble but her room seemed more luxurious than any he had seen so far. There were lights and fragile looking gla.s.s everywhere. Everything was s.h.i.+ning in its pure cleanliness and delicate beauty.

Juniper was the less delicate thing in the room right now, she was pacing behind her table when he stepped in.

"Finally you're here! I really needed to talk to you but you didn't show up in cla.s.s yesterday and your servants wouldn't let me in at your door."

"I was busy." Emp answered simply.

"Yes, I was told that repeatedly but I need you to tell me what to do before I get into huge trouble. I can't deal with it on my own, I don't know how and I'm panicking."

She really did look desperate which troubled Emp because it was so far apart from her usual appearance.

"What is it you're panicking with? Am I really the one you should ask things to?"

"You are because you're the reason I'm panicking in the first place! Your name is Muracier, isn't it?"

How did she learn about that! Her own two servants almost collapsed in surprise as well. Apparently they didn't know yet. Juniper ignored them, focusing on Emp instead.

"I can see by your two faces that I'm right. Both you and Celtine can't believe I found out. That's exactly my problem too!"

She told him in details about the stories her workers brought back with them and what she guessed from all those. She didn't know the Muraciers had any heir and considering all the mysteries surrounding this, she knew it was probably a big secret. She didn't know what to do about what she now knew and wanted Emp to tell her what to do with her workers before they spread their stories everywhere. The last thing she wanted was to upset the Muraciers by accident because her workers couldn't keep their mouth shut about a duke and a renowned smith.

At first, Emp was really surprised that she guessed his name, and very worried that everyone else would soon know but the more he listened to her worried rambles, the calmer her felt. He was soothed by two things. First, she was very clear that she would do anything he would ask about this and second, it would soon not matter anymore. He told her exactly that.

"It's true its a secret but it won't be like that for long anymore so don't worry too much about it. I was in Red-water yesterday and because of some things that happened, I might not be so unknown for much longer. You can just let them be I think."

In fact, since this thing was more because of how the duke bowed for Calla than his own fault, he thought that this news might be helpful to him instead. The duke could hardly be angry at him for something he was also guilty of to an extant.

Juniper seemed Partly relieved by his answer and partly offended.

"You mean I stressed this much over nothing! What in the... Urgh! I can't believe it! So it's fine if I say it to anyone?"

"No don't!" Emp stopped her hurriedly.

"Why not?" Juniper frowned, hesitating between renewed worry and annoyance.

"Because I don't want everyone here to know that name. I don't want everything to be different. Also, even though everyone will soon know I exist, I still don't want them to know I'm here. Do you understand? If you tell everyone, there's bound to be someone who will tell a member of their family that they know me and that I study here. I don't want to be called to the main hall everyday because someone I don't know wants something from me. Also, I don't want to be scolded by the duke more than I already will."

Juniper made a dispirited groan.

"It will be hard to hide the link between you and what the people outside know of you."

"I still want to try though, why does it seem to make you so upset?"

She looked to the side to escape his eyes.

"I might have let something slip to Aglaya yesterday. I was too panicky and she buried me in questions when I tried to escape from the cla.s.s."

That was indeed really bad for him. He needed to speak to her right now.

"Please, don't say anything to anyone else. I'll leave now because I need to catch her before my name spreads further."

"I understand, I'll keep my mouth shut now."

"For now, please, tell those two to keep the secret no matter what but once we're all done with school, I don't mind you saying everywhere that you sold me jewelry or even that you're my friend, because you really are. How does that sound?"

"That's just perfect for me." She answered with the smile of a wolf.

Hopefully, Mable wasn't yet aware of his ident.i.ty. If she was, her father might be easier to convince of his worth but Blackbull would be the most furious against him that she had ever been before.