A blinding light strikes Virans eyes as he is jostled awake from his sleep. Blinking repeatedly he sits up on the corner of his bed and slowly walks towards the bathroom next to his room and enters. A warm mist hits Virans face that makes a smile blossom on the child’s face as he begins to walk further in. A deeply warm bath had been prepared for Viran by the servants, though they had immediately left afterwards.

 

A deep sigh filled the entire room as Viran began to submerge himself in the warm bath.

Viran’s residence was devoid of all life save for him. It was a natural occurrence in his residence that the servants would only stay to clean and tend to his needs before immediately leaving, after taking a bath it was almost due time for his breakfast. 

 

A light knock rang on his door as a servant elegantly served Viran his breakfast. Laid upon his plate was cooked eggs and two slices of a soft bread with butter placed on top. While eating, Viran was expected to show an elegance expected of a Noble and he ate with a certain elegance and air unbefitting of a child his age. Viran truly looked mature for his age with the etiquette he showed while eating his breakfast.

 

Standing up, Viran left his dishes where they were and began to get dressed as he walked out of his room. Viran walked at a brisk pace through his residence barely blinking throughout. As Viran slowly opened the door to his residence and was prepared to set out on his day, he was met face to face with a boy almost the exact same age as Viran; Gregory was standing in front of the door with his fist up high prepared to knock.

 

“Ah.. Um, erm.” Gregory’s face turns into one of apprehensiveness as he tries to find what words to say.

 

“Do you need something?” In a harsh tone Viran spoke directly to Gregory, neglecting to greet him.

 

Viran had gone through an earth-shaking day yesterday, yet throughout learning everything he still could not bring himself to truly hate his Father. Though his Father neglected him, and showed much more care towards a boy he had just met recently Viran felt no anger towards his Father. Only sadness. The anger swelling in Viran’s heart was true and there was only one other person to direct that hate towards besides his Father, Gregory.

 

“Ah yes there is! I was thinking that maybe you would’ve wanted to play with me a bit outside? I heard from Spion that today was your day off and i’m not starting my lessons yet…” Gregory meeks out in a shy manner.

 

Contrary to Virans expectations, Gregory pays no mind to Virans harsh tone and disrespect. Even the mockery that Viran had sworn he had seen yesterday was gone from Gregory’s face and he seemed like a regular child to Viran; not so different from the servants' children.

 

“Play? What do you mean? Like tag… Or something?” Time Viran himself had a little embarrassment leak out of his voice.

 

The truth about Viran was that he didn’t have any friends. The servants and guards neglected him, the servant children had too low of a status, and there were no other noble children staying in the estate for him to play with. He had seen servant children play alongside each other frequently, prompting immense envy from Viran.

 

“No! How would we even do that? There’s only two of us!” Gregory experienced shock from the notion.

 

“Th-Then what do we do?” Showing excitement Viran quickly asked back.

 

“There’s lots of things! We can go exploring, hide and seek, play chess!” Gregory names off numerous different things to do at the top of his head prompting Viran to take a gasp of shock.

 

‘H-he must play a lot!’ Viran was genuinely shocked by how fast Gregory was listing off activities.

 

“Come on! Let's go!” Gregory begins to pull on Viran, and all Viran could do was follow.

“Can I move this piece here?” Viran slowly picks up a black bishop and places it over a white knight on the opposite side of the board.

 

“Mmm. Yeah it goes diagonal.” Gregory shows a grunt of disapproval as his piece was taken.

 

“Did you really not know how to play chess before this Viran?” Gregory has a shred of doubt over his face as he asks this question.

 

“Yeah… You were the one to teach me this after all.” Viran cocked his head to the side quizzically.

 

“Hahaha… I see.” Gregory says this with his hands clenching into fists as his Queen is then taken away.

 

Before this Gregory had simply given Viran a short rundown on the rules of chess… Yet Viran had already won every game since his first defeat. It was natural for Gregory to be dubious of his declaration that he was a beginner at chess.

 

A few more turns pass, and Viran is able to effectively garner another victory under his belt as Gregory frowns seriously at Viran. In reality, Viran had truly never learned how to play chess since no one was willing to teach him much less play with him.

 

“What did you even do before I came here then?” Gregory begins to reset the pieces in a hurried manner before passing this question over to Viran.

 

“Ah, well, I mostly just practiced or read. There isn’t much to do here alone, ha haha.” Viran despondently responds, with a small hollow laugh going on after.

 

Gregory grabs Viran’s shoulder and says with conviction, “Well don’t worry! I’ll make sure we’ll have a lot of fun together. I mean, you are my new brother right?” Gregory smiles.

 

“Y-yes well I suppose.” Removing the hand from his shoulder, Viran responds in a shy manner.

 

Gregory and Viran start to play chess once again before a new question is posed towards Viran.

 

“So, when’s your birthday?” Gregory says as he takes Viran’s rook.

 

“Oh it’s on the last day of the Week of Unity in the Summer.” Viran responds, his hand resting his chin up.

 

“That’s a weird time to have your birthday hahaha.” Gregory Laughs. “You could always think about the entire week of festivities to be related to your birthday.”

 

“Well when’s your birthday?” Viran strikes back with a question.

 

“My birthday is a few days before the Day of Awakening.” Gregory responds.

 

“Hoh, so I guess I really am older than you since that’s in the Winter.” Viran says with a smirk on his face.

 

“Yeah? So what? What’s with that smirk?”

 

“Well since I’m older, you may as well just call me your older brother when introducing me.” Viran’s smirk grows a few inches all over his face as he snickers to himself.

 

“Pah! Who’d ever want you as an older Brother Viran!” Gregory retorts.

 

“Probably all of the other bastards our Father has left around the Empire.” Viran slowly says.

 

Silence descends in the room as both boys stare at each other. The silence continues for what seemed like an eternity. Anxiety begins to swell in the chest of Viran before suddenly Gregory erupts in a boisterous laughter. Out of nowhere Gregory's fist "accidentally" knocks on the table knocking off all of the pieces on the board.

 

"Gregory! The board!" Viran yells out in shock.

 

"Ohh. That is my fault. My apologies." Gregory responds back in a monotone voice as a small smile forces its way on his face.

 

'He ruined the game on purpose!' Viran also has a sly smile on his face as he realizes Gregory's the truth behind Gregory’s “accident”.

 

“Hmm I don’t know Gregory… I can’t help but notice I really was winning in that game-” Viran is cut short when Gregory interjects.

 

“No! Really really it was an accident! But oh man today was fun Viran. I think it’s time for you to go back and get a good night’s rest!” Gregory quickly gathers Virans things and begins to push Viran out of his room before slamming the door shut.

 

Viran silently laughs to himself as he begins to walk through the main residence back to his own home, dinner was about to be served and he needed to prepare for his new schedule tomorrow.

 

As Viran walks himself back to his residence, a distinct voice is ushered into his ears.

 

“Spion, inform Gregory to be ready to eat within ten minutes. Show him to the dining hall as well.” Lord Idiciums voice echoed repeatedly in Virans ears, forcing his feet to come to a complete stop.

 

Shaking his head repeatedly Viran begins to walk faster to the entrance attempting to get past his Father. Yet, Viran isn’t fast enough and quickly feels a cold gaze upon his back.

 

“Stop.” Lord Idicium’s cold words ring in Viran’s ears as he begins to turn around.

 

“What business did you have in my residence?” Lord Idicium asks with a colder gaze than usual.

 

“Father I-” Viran begins to speak but is shut up by Lord Idiciums following words.

 

“Stop. That isn’t how you’re supposed to refer to me. Not explain.” These words prompted Viran’s hands to clench further together.

 

“Apologises my Lord. Gregory and I were getting along, just like how you requested. We have been playing chess since this morning…” Viran spurts out.

 

Lord Idicium nods at Viran prompting him to finally leave the residence. When Viran finally reaches the outside of the residence he takes a large breath of air as his body trembles slightly, he had thought Lord Idicium would forbid any contact with Gregory.

 

“Gregory will come get me to play tomorrow too… Wait, he won’t actually…” Viran looks down despondently.

 

Viran had just remembered what injustices happened to him due to Gregory’s inclusion into the household. They were to have differing hours to learn and train with their respective tutors and thus were unable to speak much.

 

“Well we can just play on our days off. Yeah we’ll do just that.” Viran smiles towards himself as he begins to walk towards his residence as the sun slowly begins to descend behind his back.

In the main residence stood a large banquet room that would usually accommodate more than forty people at once, yet irregularly there were only six people this time. As Lord Idicium continues to elegantly cut a soft piece of steak and eat it Gregory could not hold back his confusion regarding the current situation as he looks around the room, yet continues to only see servants.

 

“Erm. Father. I mean my Lord!” Gregory quickly corrects himself before continuing, “May I ask a question?”

 

Seeing this Lord Idicium has a small smile plastered over his face as he says, “You may call me Father I do not mind, and yes please ask away.”

 

Gregory was visibly confused due to Robert Idicium allowing him to call him Father, he didn’t let Viran call him Father afterall. Shaking his head Gregory continues on.

 

“Well, erm Father. Where is Viran?” After asking this question Gregory can feel the air in the room stifle as the surrounding servants express some appal and surprise.

 

Looking forward Gregory can see Robert Idicium accidentally clench his fork too hard, bending it completely in half. Realizing this Robert Idicium smile and laughs away before talking.

 

“Ah well, Gregory, it’s because you’ll be the one to succeed this House. Though I did ask for the both of you to get along, it would be better if you still kept a firm boundary between the both of you Gregory. Also, don’t ask any questions like this again.” Robert Idicium continues to eat with a new fork and says all of this.

 

All Gregory could do in regards to this, is silently nod his head before continuing to eat once more. Though Gregory remained concerned and unsure about many things.