The wooden stairs creaked beneath Lucien's cautious, heavy steps.
Despite wearing a plain dark t-shirt and jeans that Kagen had bought him at a nearby department store, Lucien moved with the rigid, watchful grace of a soldier navigating a minefield. His long silver hair was tied back tightly at the nape of his neck, concealing most of the dark, vein-like corruption on his throat, though a faint tracing still peeked above his collar.
"Relax,"
Kagen whispered over his shoulder, carrying a small bag of groceries up to the front door of a suburban house. "They are just my family. They don't bite."
"Easy for you to say...I have faced demonic beasts and imperial assassins, before," Lucien murmured, his eyes darting nervously toward the potted plants on the porch.
"Yet the prospect of facing your mother fills me with an unsettling degree of apprehension."
Inside Lucien's mind, Jerga cackled with ruthless glee.
["Oh, look at the mighty Holy Knight! Quaking in his boots before a middle-aged woman! Should I lend you some dark mana to bolster your courage, Duke Arden?"]
'Silence!'
Lucien commanded mentally, clenching his jaw.
Kagen unlocked the door and pushed it open. The smell of roasted chicken, garlic, and fresh baked bread immediately flooded the entryway.
"Don't worry Lucien, they will definitely like you," Kagen said, turning his head slightly as he stepped inside. "And remember, these marks are tattoos, okay?"
"Tattoos," Lucien repeated, tasting the foreign word carefully.
"Yes, tattoos," Kagen said.
"You remember the pictures I showed you of them, right? So don't be caught off guard when they point it out. There's no helping it, it's all very noticeable after all."
Lucien nodded, swallowing nervously. Kagen then led the way further inside the house.
"Mom! Mellisa! I'm home!" Kagen called out and footsteps instantly echoed from the kitchen.
A middle-aged woman wiping her hands on a floral apron stepped into the hallway. Her face, lined with gentle age, lit up the moment she saw Kagen—before her eyes drifted upward to the towering, ridiculously muscular man standing awkwardly behind her son.
She gasped in surprise.
"Kagen, honey! You brought a... guest?" Mrs. Walker paused, blinking as she took in Lucien's broad shoulders, piercing violet eyes, and shoulder-length silver hair.
Just then, a teenage girl with headphones around her neck poked her head out from the living room, holding a smartphone. She took one look at Lucien and nearly dropped her phone.
"Whoa,"
Mellisa breathed, taking out her earbuds.
"Kagen, since when do you hang out with high-fantasy cosplayers? Is he a model? Or is he a tourist? He looks so handsome!"
She stepped closer, leaning in to look at his arms.
"Look at those arms! He has tattoos too, just like the bad boys from our town's college!"
Lucien checked himself out for a moment, looking down at the dark lines tracing along his skin.
'Just like Cassian said, they'd assume they are tattoos,' Lucien thought to himself amused.
'Are tattoos a common thing here?'
"Hey! Hush!"
Mrs. Walker scolded, though her own eyes were wide with curiosity.
"Mom, Mellisa, this is Lucien," Kagen introduced, stepping beside Lucien to give his arm a reassuring squeeze.
"He–... recently moved here from abroad. He doesn't have a place to stay for a while, so I offered to let him stay in our spare room upstairs."
Lucien stiffened, placing his right hand flat across his chest and executing a flawless, sweeping knight's bow that would have been appropriate for the High Council of Edrath.
"It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Lady Walker,"
Lucien spoke formally, his voice rich, deep, and heavily accented.
"I am deeply indebted to your hospitality and swear upon my honor to bring no harm or dishonor upon your household."
Silence fell over the hallway.
Mellisa stared in absolute awe.
"Oh my god. He talks like an NPC. I love him!"
Mrs. Walker's expression melted from confusion into warm, motherly fondness. "Oh, goodness! What a polite young man! No need for the grand bow, dear. Any friend of Kagen's is welcome here. Goodness knows he's needed more friends since getting out of high school."
She walked right up to Lucien, patted his gigantic bicep casually—making Lucien freeze in sheer shock—and smiled. "Come in, come in! Dinner is almost ready."
Kagen also smiled at him in reassurance.
*****
The next few days were a fast crash course in surviving in the modern world. Living in the Walker household meant Lucien had to quickly adapt to technologies that broke every rule of magic he had ever known.
On his second morning, Kagen found Lucien standing in the bathroom, staring at the shiny sink faucet with deep suspicion.
"There is no mana stream,"
Lucien observed, leaning close to examine the metal. "How does the water know to flow when you move this handle?"
"It's just water pressure and pipes," Kagen explained, reaching over to turn the handle. Water gushed out instantly into the basin.
"Hot water goes left, cold water goes right."
Lucien carefully extended a finger, touched the warm stream, and pulled it back right away in surprise.
"A heat spell without a spoken incantation. How remarkable."
Kagen softly laughed, he found him very cute.
And later that afternoon, Kagen sat beside Lucien on the back porch to teach him how to use a basic smartphone.
"This is a phone,"
Kagen said, unlocking the glass screen.
Lucien stared at the bright glass as Kagen opened a map app.
"It... holds a tiny map inside a glowing glass rectangle?"
"More than that," Kagen smiled. He typed a question into a search engine, showing him how information could be found in a second.
"It connects to a network of information from all over the world. Watch."
Kagen pulled up a video of a loud thunderstorm with clear audio.
Lucien flinched, his hand instinctively dropping toward his hip where his sword used to hang.
"Is there a lightning spirit trapped inside this device?!"
["Fascinating!"]
Jerga interjected within Lucien's mind.
["Can we burn down an entire kingdom with this little glass brick? Ask him!"]
'No, we cannot,'
Lucien snapped back internally, rubbing his temples to push the voice away.
'You only think about killing.'
Although the afternoons were the most busy for Kagen in terms of teaching Lucien about the modern life.
The dinner times were the most chaotic.
The family sat around the dining table while the television in the living room showed a live soccer match. Lucien barely touched his food for the first twenty minutes, his eyes locked onto the screen in total disbelief.
"Are those small men trapped inside that glowing box?"
Lucien asked softly, leaning toward Kagen.
"Is this a form of magic prison?"
Mellisa let out a loud snort, nearly choking on her orange juice.
"Kagen, where did you find this guy? He's hilarious!"
"He grew up in a very isolated, old-fashioned community,"
Kagen lied smoothly, kicking Mellisa gently under the table to shut her up.
"Well, he eats like a knight!"
Mrs. Walker said happily, placing a third helping of roasted chicken onto Lucien's plate.
"Look at him, Kagen! Take notes, you barely eat a thing."
Lucien looked down at his plate, then at Kagen's smiling face, and finally at Mrs. Walker, who was watching him with real warmth.
For the first time in his life, Duke Lucien Arden—a man raised among cold political tricks, bloody battlefields, and heavy titles—felt the gentle, chaotic comfort of a normal family.
And later that evening, after Mrs. Walker and Mellisa had gone to sleep, Kagen and Lucien sat together on the edge of the bed in the guest room. The quiet hum of road traffic in the distance replaced the sound of rain outside.
Lucien reached out, taking Kagen's hand into his own large palm, holding his fingers tightly.
"Your mother is very kind," Lucien said softly, his eyes reflecting the light streaming through the window.
"And your sister... though strange, she has a very lively spirit."
"I told you, didn't I? They really like you," Kagen smiled, resting his head against Lucien's shoulder.
"Even if they think you're a bit strange."
Lucien looked down at their joined hands. The faint dark lines on his wrist pulsed weakly, a quiet reminder of the dark power he still carried under his skin.
"I was afraid my presence would bring danger or strangeness to your life here, a world built on peace and glass devices" Lucien admitted, his voice dropping to a low whisper.
"After all I am merely an abnormality of another world, a world full of war and magic."
Kagen lifted his head, looking straight into Lucien's eyes. He reached up, gently touching the dark mark near Lucien's collarbone.
"You brought me back to life, Lucien," Kagen said with quiet, strong love.
"In Edrath, you protected me from everything. Now it's my turn to help you live in my world. For now, you belong here with me."
Lucien's breath caught in his throat. He leaned down, pressing his forehead against Kagen's, letting out a long, peaceful breath.
"Then I will learn every strange machine," Lucien promised softly, kissing Kagen's lips with tender, strong love.
"And I will stay by your side for as long as I can."
*****