Time skipped forward, and a knock rapped at his door.
Unsurprisingly, a different maid from earlier stood there, eyes downcast.
"Young Master Xenos..."
She tried to look up, but stuttered.
"They're waiting."
"Yeah, yeah."
He lazily stood up from the bed and followed her down the halls.
'Maybe that one quit... poor lady~.'
When they reached the meeting hall, a giant room with a fireplace big enough to roast a cow and that roaster in, he immediately caught a shift in the atmosphere.
As his niece always said whenever he saw his aunt... he got bad vibes.
A heavyset man with a trimmed gold beard scowled the second Xenos entered.
Next to him was a girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen, clutching her hands together like she was waiting for judgment day.
She looked stunned the moment she saw Xenos.
Yeah, no longer horrified, she was relieved.
'Guess she thought I'd be some deformed troll.'
Xenos ignored the looks he was getting and walked straight to the long table, plopping down beside his father without even greeting him.
Their Noble guest sneered.
"He is as mannerless as you claimed. Though a bastard, I pity my daughter."
At that, Xenos didn't even blink; instead, he turned his eyes to the girl, studying her quietly.
She had dirty blonde hair braided over one shoulder, and big brown eyes that didn't match her father's icy blue ones. Her face was cute enough with soft features and a small mouth, but definitely not the kind of face that would "start wars."
Solid seven out of ten, if he was feeling generous.
He could work with that... if he were a pedophile.
Vaynar's stare burned into the side of his face.
"Boy. Introduce yourself. You at least owe your fiancée that."
Xenos actually agreed. Yeah, the poor girl deserved that much.
Standing up, he put on his best mock-serious face.
"I'm Xenos of House Kharon, son of Veynar. The family disappointment, a spoiled brat, a useless lump, deadweight, and a local, maybe even a Stratum level disgrace. No doubt a future cautionary tale most mothers would use to scare their children into bed."
He rattled it off so smoothly, it almost sounded like a sales pitch.
"And apparently... your lucky fiancé."
He extended his hand to the stunned girl.
She blinked once, twice, then shyly reached out.
The moment she touched his hand, Xenos gently pulled her up to her feet.
Theodore looked like he was about to burst a vein.
"What in Tartoros are you doing, boy?!"
Xenos ignored him completely, deeming him not worth his attention, and led the girl toward the big oak doors at the end of the hall, not even sparing their guest's guards a glance.
Perhaps as an offense, one of them stepped forward, clearly intending to block his way, only for Xenos's voice to ring out, unusually cold:
"I'm taking my fiancée for a walk. You dare stop me?"
The guard hesitated, looking up at the "boy" before him, who stood larger than most men.
Behind them, Xenos heard a grunt—probably his father—and the guard stepped aside.
'Bastard might hate me, but at least he's got a brain.'
Xenos nodded slightly to the girl and let go of her hand, walking ahead of her.
She followed, looking at him like he'd just pulled her out of a burning building.
When they got a fair distance away, reaching the gardens, he finally spoke:
"We're not getting married."
The poor girl stumbled in her steps, almost tripping over her own feet.
"W-Wha—?"
Before she could string two words together, Xenos raised a hand.
"I'm leaving tonight. I'm ditching the House, yes, THE Kharon House, the one House that's blessed enough to be the pet dog of this Stratum's only Great House and very ruler. I'm ditching the manor, ditching all of it."
He turned to look her in the eyes.
"No offense. You're beautiful, you just had the bad luck of meeting me today."
Her cheeks turned bright red, lips parting slightly.
She looked like she had about a million different questions, but again, Xenos didn't give her the chance.
"Goodbye."
And without another word...
"W-W-Wait—"
Xenos left.
His real future awaited.
...
Night fell over the manor, and Xenos stood by his window, something of a hoodie covering his head, a very overstuffed rucksack on his back, weighing him down just enough to remind him this wasn't going to be some movie sneak-out.
For the past few hours, he'd done nothing but observe, obsessing over every little detail.
If it could, he would've learned the way the manor breathed.
He noticed that the guards rotated every forty-five minutes, and with the help of his scattered memories, he knew the maids cleaned the main halls around sunset and didn't pass through again until way later.
Some windows stayed locked; some were loose enough to wiggle through if you weren't a fat idiot. He was thin, and thankfully, he wasn't Draven. Xenos mapped it all out in his head, an engineer's kind of thinking, break down the problem, figure out the solution.
Of course, he also had to deal with his angry father after disappearing on them like that, but it wasn't too hard, just a few well-placed promises, a few 'yes fathers,' and many nods of the head.
Xenos was still set to marry the girl...
Heh.
Yeah, he was.
And he'd definitely do it.
Hm.
Definitely.
"...It's time."
Xenos stepped away from the garden-facing window and crept out of his room, the door clicking shut behind him without a sound.
Step by step, he made it to the grand staircase, moving down it like he was floating.
The first floor was dimly lit with only a few lanterns left burning, mostly to keep the place from looking haunted.
There...
A window near the kitchen.
One he'd tested earlier, its latch broken.
Xenos slid it open, slipping through and landing softly on the gravel outside.
...Freedom. Almost but not quite.
He ducked low, sticking to the shadows, zigzagging between trees, hedges, the occasional statues, and God-awful fancy fountains.
But just as he was about to round the corner to the courtyard, he froze up.
Crunch, crunch, crunch...
Yeah, footsteps were closing in fast.
It was a guard, no doubt, turning the corner too soon.
This was entirely off-pattern.
'Hm... is my Rune broken?'