"Tê!" Thays exclaimed when she saw her brother stepping down from a carriage at the entrance of Lawrence Palace.
Circling the water fountain shaped like a sea serpent, Thays ran to hug her brother. With his arm still wrapped in bandages, Theo clenched his teeth as he felt a sharp twinge in his fractured arm, but he soon returned his sister's embrace.
"Lady Luanne," Camille said, surprised by the presence of the Priestess of Alunne. Bowing slightly, she added, "It is an honor to see you here…"
"Aaaah, Camie," Luanne replied casually. "No need for such formalities. We're family here."
After Ethan stepped out of the carriage, Etrian ordered a group of butlers to take the luggage inside the residence. While they were doing so, Theo walked over to his mother.
Standing in front of Camille, the boy buried his face in her waist.
"Did they find anything about Magnum's father?" he asked in a melancholic voice.
"Not yet, my son…" Camille's lips twisted. "Sir Anton is still missing… But Magnum was taken to a better home."
He shook his head, disagreeing. After all, no house is better than one's own.
After Anton's disappearance during the Black Cataclysm, Magnum spent a week under the custody of the Loureto police, just like all the children who had relatives killed, hospitalized, or missing after the global event.
Before they left for Athenian, one of those children fell under Ethan and Camille's care…
With Michel having died during the Cataclysm, and his mother remaining in critical condition before passing away only a few days later, Agnes Hansen would have shared Magnum's fate—being sent to an orphanage and disappearing from the Lawrence family's sight.
However, due to their closeness to the noble family, Agnes was adopted by the Lawrences. Magnum had also caught the couple's attention; although he would not be adopted as a family member, Ethan wanted to take him as an apprentice and eventually make him the head of some ducal secretariat.
Being close to Anton, he wished a better future for the boy… But before he could act, Magnum had already been taken by an institution from another Duchy, which refused to return any of the children it had acquired.
They claimed that Duke Landwell wanted all of them for his garrison or service, without exception. Unfortunately, the law of that empire allowed such actions.
Still, even without knowing his friend's whereabouts, Theo wanted at least to be able to tell him what had happened to his father if they ever met again.
Holding Theo in an embrace, Camille spoke for a few moments with Ethan and Luanne while Thays tried to follow the conversation. However, everything revolved around the Duke's condition.
Compared to the previous night, Ethan was handling things with a more pleasant outlook.
Yet night gradually deepened. The few lampposts at the entrance could no longer illuminate the distant corners of the small square. Even so, a glow from the water serpent's eyes in the fountain lit the true entrance to the house.
On a small hill, where a mini wall of gray stone bricks rose six meters high, two stairways diverged along the sides, granting access to the upper fields. However, as he pulled away from Camille's embrace, Theo noticed something at the center of the stairs…
In the middle of the small wall, a two-meter statue lay within a recess: a man driving his sword into the statue's base.
Erling Lawrence—the man who founded that territory. One of the ancient revolutionaries responsible for staging a coup against the old dictators and, indirectly, for the existence of the current group known as the Titans.
Although he had no blood relation to Ethan, the current Duke claimed the territory because after Erling's death in the imperial square on the day of the Governmental Protest, Loureto became property of the Caesar family.
Looking at Erling's image brought several conclusive thoughts to Theo's mind.
"Dad, Mom… I want to talk to you tomorrow morning. Can I?" Theo asked, leaning against Camille again.
"Uh… you can…" Ethan said hesitantly.
Camille looked to Luanne, seeking refuge. Yet even the godmother didn't know what to say.
"Okay. Mom, where's Agnes?"
Unable to answer immediately, Camille's words were stolen by Thays.
"In your hideout," the older sister replied.
Theo nodded, as if he had obtained the confirmation he needed. Leaving the group, he walked toward the staircase on the left—he had always thought it was the shortest route to the fields, even though both stairways were equivalent.
Disoriented and swallowing hard, he vanished from the adults' sight.
At the first lamppost at the entrance of the square, the hoot of a white owl set the mood of the night. Taking flight over the estate grounds, the owl landed on the palace's front roof, where a small inactive tower served as shelter.
Sitting on the edge of the roof, legs dangling over the ceramic tiles, Agnes gazed intuitively toward the horizon… In the distance, remnants of Loureto's capital appeared, residential lights illuminating the forest that separated them. Yet the visual pollution wasn't enough to outshine the stars' brilliance.
The moon, dominated by daytime clouds, did not reveal its waning glow at that moment.
Attentive to the movements on the estate grounds, where the last butlers were entering the residence, her ears were suddenly flooded…
The butlers' voices abruptly turned into a thunderous, deafening scream, accompanied by the sound of glass shattering. The shards echoed through the vacuum of her mind.
Covering her ears, she sniffled. Remembering her mother's name, she twisted as she forcefully expelled the air from her lungs. Her nostrils burned, raw and irritated. Her breathing grew erratic as tears formed.
"Hey… that's depressing," Theo said, resting his hand on the girl's shoulder.
Sitting beside Agnes, the Young Master also looked toward the capital. Theo swung his legs as he tried to control his thoughts.
But Agnes's morbid silence made him reconsider instantly.
"About that ghost…" Theo said, looking at his feet.
"Theo, don't—"
"Yes, Agnes. We need to talk about it, because… I believe you."
The girl instantly snapped out of her sadness.
"How… what?"
"I believe what you saw, Agnes. I believe there are things in this world that our eyes can see, but our minds can't explain…"
Agnes listened closely to her brother's words.
"You talked like an adult…"
Theo laughed quietly.
"Well, I guess I'll become one someday, right? Unless I die before that…"
Agnes stared at him, stunned by his last words. She looked at him as if judging him intensely; in response, Theo tilted his head, closed his eyes, and feigned a gentle smile.
"Why… did you say that?"
"Vagus," he replied suddenly, as if the answer had already been prepared. "During the days I stayed with Aunt Sthefanny, I asked about the Four Great Orders…"
The great organizations that a Deviant is destined to serve in the future…
Myrddin, the Order of Conjurer Deviants; where most of the social caste is present, responsible for maintaining the balance of the magical world.
Solomon, the Order of Supernatural Deviants; where mediums gather to study the supernatural, beings from other dimensions, the universe's cosmology, and ultimately the assignment of summoning.
Fulmenbour, the greatest scientific society in the world; responsible for studying, creating, and developing the laws of alchemy and the science that studies energy cores, also where the global economy is monopolized and concentrated.
And finally, the most important of all… Vagus, where kings are forged and heroes are born; where the world's security is guaranteed and power is stored. The organization where the knowledge of the previous three is gathered in the name of global peace.
The Four Great Orders were founded centuries ago by the ancient revolutionaries, but only gained such prominence after the judgment of those who defied the laws of the world.
The dream of every Deviant is to become a member of one of these four organizations… sometimes even of humans.
"I will become an agent of Vagus… I will uncover every fragment of this world and its mysteries. And I'll find the ghosts responsible for their deaths…"
"Theo…" Agnes said, frozen as she noticed the intensity in the boy's gaze.
It wasn't Theo's eyes… but those of his alter ego…
Recalling the day of his death, the Black Knight's voice echoed through Liam's mind… That being had been involved not only in the former general's death, but also in the deaths of all those civilians.
Liam's selfish instinct wanted to know only his own part… but Theo wanted to uncover the reason why that knight killed so many people.
'The boy carries a bitter presence…' a hollow thought broke the silence of the owl watching over the children.
'And what are you doing here, spirit of the night?'
A flaming light emerged behind the owl, turning the night inside that small tower into the brightest day.
Twisting its neck, the owl found the source of that presence.
'Phoenix… the guardian of this home… So it was you protecting the Lawrence family while the Duke was away? How did I fail to notice your presence…'
'You didn't answer me, spirit of the night. You know very well that only one guardian may exist per residence…'
'Hey, hey. Easy there… I'm just here as a visitor.'
'I know… As long as you leave soon, I don't mind.'
A small flaming ghost drifted beside the owl, abandoning the wall of fire the Phoenix had assumed.
'What is your goddess preparing for this boy?' it asked, glancing at Theo.
'Hm… divine matters cannot be spoken of, not even by me. However, if you want a hint… I believe only the fate of Araav can tell us.'