“Lord!” Sophia stood beside Leon, overlooking the garden as a cold gust of breeze brushed past her cheek, swirling through her tan hair.

“Yes!”

“Are you really, ok?” asked the maid, observing Leon’s behavior. He was leaning on the stone railing with an exhausted look on his face.

“I am fine. Just have many things to piece together.”

Tim smiled, not averting his gaze from the greenery. Within a couple of hours, he had learned so many things that his brain could not even process. And now all of that was weighing down on him.

“Probably you can piece everything more efficiently if you eat something.”

Finishing her words, Sophia dragged him towards the table where the food was. He could not object and quietly sat down. Food was served and Leon finished it, adding no comments.

As the food made his way into Tim’s system, he felt his head a little lighter and the world around him a little bright. He didn’t feel sleepy, or that exhausted anymore.

“Sophia!”

“Yes Lord.” Sophia looked at Leon, leaving the dishes she was picking.

“Can you do magic?” asked Tim. He was just curious, after seeing what Adel did and wanted to witness how it was done up close.

“You mean… Can I use mana?” Sophia appeared a bit perplexed as her Lord’s words were a little strange. He taught her the basics but was asking if she could do it or not? Was it some kind of test?

Leon made a confused expression at first but soon nodded, as if he understood what she meant.

“Yes. I can.”

“Can you show me?”

“Sure, but… you know it, far better than me.” She smiled awkwardly. “Also, my spells are not that flashy or powerful like yours.”

“Well… Just do it.” Added Leon with a confident smirk on his face.

‘This is a test, huh?’ Sophia thought as she prepared herself. She had been learning many spells but never succeeded in any except one, where she poured all her effort. It was a basic one, but still took a hell of a lot of time to learn. But in the end it was all worth the suffering, and she was happy with the result.

Closing her eyes, she clasped both of her palms together and muttered something like a chant under her breath.

Soon, the surrounding air started whirling slowly as the outside air zoomed in to fill the gap. And after a couple of seconds the air picked up its pace, creating a circular see through barrier around them.

“So, how is it?” asked Sophia, opening her eyes with a proud smile. She had done her best to create a sound barrier and Leon had to be impressed, right?

“Good!”

Honestly, it was awesome, but Tim was not that awe-struck‌. He really wanted to be amazed, but couldn’t. It seemed like a child’s play for him. Like he could do it a thousand times.

Still acted like he was impressed because she had tried and deserved praise.

“A wind barrier huh…” Mumbled Tim with a grin, raising his hand as the air spun around his fingers. He felt like he had a connection with it, could control it and it easily listened to him. He rotated his fingers, and the air obeyed his command, flowing like he desired.

“Yes, and it is the best…”

Snap!

Sophia could not even complete her words as Loen snapped his fingers and the violently whirling air was gone in an instant. It just disappeared into the room like nothing, but every door of the room was opened to ease the pressure.

Tim, who was caught up in the act of controlling the wind, didn't listen to what the maid was trying to say before breaking her creation. He just wanted to see what he could do and broke it in the next moment by accident. But realized soon enough.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“No, it’s fine.” Responded Sophia with a soft smile. “Sometimes, I forget that you have a special affinity for wind. It is like a child’s play for you.”

“No… it was impressive. You did your best… I should not…” Tim tried his best to comfort her, but no more words came out of his lips. It seemed like by breaking her barrier, he had made fun of her. Told her ‌it was not worth his time. Humiliated her.

“It is fine, Lord. You don’t have to be considerate.” Sophia got up with a broken smile on her face. “I am just your maid.”

She hurriedly placed all the plates on the tray and began to leave, but her movements stopped once she felt a firm grip around her shoulder.

"I am Sorry." Said Tim, as he forcibly turned her around to face him. "I know you tried your best to create, and I broke it like nothing, not caring what you are trying to say."

Sophia said nothing and kept avoiding Leon's face. Deep down, she knew it was not his fault still…

"I know how it feels when someone does not appreciate something you worked hard for. It may mean nothing for them, but for you, it means the world." Listening to his words, Sophia slowly raised her head, looking at Leon's obsidian eyes, which carried a glint of sadness, a glint of hope.

"No matter how small the effort is, it needs to be appreciated. It needs to be praised. You tried your best, and I failed to appreciate it. I upset you. I am Sorry…"

Effort needs to be appreciated no matter how small it is, because it matters.

Sophia blinked twice to confirm what she just heard. It was her prideful lord, acknowledging a petty matter involving feelings of someone else. 

He was not like that. It was just impossible. Only things that mattered to him were his own priorities and own feelings. Not someone else's. He would happily discard anyone and everyone for his own gain.

But now Leon was being compassionate. He was considering other feelings. Something had to be terribly wrong if that were to happen.

“Leon… you seriously are not sick, right?” Sophia held onto the platter in one hand and touched his forehead with her free hand for a possible fever or anything else. But there was nothing to be found. His body seemed to be perfectly fine.

“What? I am fine.” Leon chuckled at this unexpected question. “I just wanted to say sorry.”

“You don’t have to, you know.” Sophia giggled as she caressed his cheeks.

“Why?”

“Because…” She moved closer to Leon’s bewildered face before pecking a light kiss on his lips. “I am your maid, dummy.”

“Wha-”

Leon was too surprised to process what had just happened. He just stood there motionlessly with wide eyes and Sophia left the room with a satisfied smile.

***

And just like that, the whole day went by for Tim, who sat in his room trying to figure out things he could not understand. His relationship with Sophia was still weird at its best, but he didn’t hate it. A mixed feeling where he wanted to send her away and wanted to hold her close at the same time.

A pretty messed up situation, but after some careful thinking, he just threw it to the back of his mind and focused on this outlandish thing called mana and his affinity towards wind.

She said he had a special affinity towards air as he could manipulate with ease, like none other. And it probably was true. Tim could play with the air like he had been doing it for ages. He could increase its pace, decrease it, create a gust of wind out of nowhere and many more.

Totally bizarre, but it was more than awesome. He felt like a wizard who could control the power of nature. Still, that was not all. Soon he got the idea of doing something outstanding, something big.

Just before the evening, Tim stood on the balcony trying to control all the surrounding air and strangely, it obeyed his command. Next, he began rotating at his highest capacity, which gave birth to a small tornado at the very end of the garden.

The whirlwind was under his control for a moment as Tim moved it how he wanted. It moved, blowing leaves here and there. Nothing big happened and everything was under control until he messed up the whole damn thing.

Soon he felt breathless, followed by pain all over his body and the tornado grew bit by bit, taking chunks of the garden with itself. It was spinning at a wild speed, and Tim knew something was not right. He was slowly losing control over the monstrosity he had created.

And within a couple of seconds, he lost control as his body gave up. Tim fell to his knees, groaning in pain as his body ached everywhere. The tornado, which had outgrown its limit, approached the mansion with a thunderous noise, blowing everything on its way.

“No… No…”

The entire place shook violently, and many distressed shouts were heard from everywhere. Tim just wanted to test his power, not create an actual abomination to destroy the mansion and its people.

So, with every ounce of strength, he stood back and tried to control the shit storm. For a couple of seconds, nothing seemed to work. The entire structure shook aggressively as it drew closer.

Then, all of a sudden, it stopped on its path and started dissipating. And within seconds, it was gone. There was no existence of the storm Tim had created.

“I did it…” Muttered Tim under his breath with a shocked expression on his face, unable to believe what he just did. He literally created and dispersed a freaking tornado, breaking every natural phenomenon he ever read. How cool was that?

“Yes… Ye….” In an overly excited mood, he shouted, celebrating his achievement, but his words were cut short as the dread within him intensified. He felt like his heart was clutched by an icy hand. Except rejoicing, he sweated and turned towards the garden.

There stood the duchess with a deadpan look in her eyes, staring at him. She was in the middle of the garden holding a broken rose flower in her hand.

Tim’s entirety shuddered as his gut feeling told him that ‌he had messed up badly. Half of the beautiful garden was gone, which was definitely not a good sign.

She raised her hand, doing only one gesture, and Tim was thrown out of the balcony into the ground but didn’t hit his face. He flew towards her, shouting on top of his lungs before crashing on the soil, rolling several times, and finally stopping just inches from her leg.

“Now Leon, my son, tell me what the hell you did here?”

“I… I can explain.”