Hana Orstein couldn’t help but be satisfied, her first impressions of the young master of the Rodin family left her in awe and respect. She was sure their meeting would be a bit awkward and childish since he’s still a child but the mannerism of the Young master and the way he carries himself destroyed such expectations.

August Rodin was no ordinary noble child, it was just as her father told her.

‘You will personally deliver this letter to the next lord of the Rodin family. Make sure to present yourself properly and converse with him as I have taught you, trust on your father’s intuition, the young master will definitely be an important figure in the future so it’s best to have a connection with him early on.’

Although it was their duty as vassal families under them to follow what the head family says, the relationship between the Rodin family and its vassals are strictly professional as orchestrated by the Duke.

It was all for the sake of maintaining business relations at key locations within the kingdom.

That’s why the Baron of Orstein ordered her second daughter to run an errand to the Rodin estate.

Personally though, Hana felt like a puppet under the Baron’s palm. Sure, she’d like to have a friendly relationship with the Young master but to forcibly visit him despite her protest to her father, it was nothing short of agitation but that was before she met him.

Hana could definitely say that it was worth it.

“So how did it go?” Her father asked.

They were inside the carriage heading back to their territory.

“It went well.” She said, “the Young master is definitely someone that’ll shake up the kingdom’s future.”

“I see, then what of his reply?” The baron asked giddily.

“The Young master is looking forward to it next season.” He grinned at her words, and then looked at her daughter with an intense leer.

“You and I will be preparing a banquet for the Young master and if things go well…” Her smile dropped at his expression, there was a strange atmosphere building up inside the carriage.

—Then our favorability will go up! With that my dearest daughter, there’s a chance for us to become Viscounts again!” She doesn’t understand what he just said.

Hana Orstein looked at her father in confusion. 

“Father, what do you mean by that?”

“This may be a bit complicated for you to understand, but bear with me.”

The Baron clasped his daughter's hands together, “I’ll try and betroth you with the young master.”

She couldn’t help but feel terrified and confused again, desperately she asked why.

“My dearest daughter, this is all for the sake of restoring our honor and status. Our family were once prominent viscounts, however the lands that our ancestors fought for were devastated to a point we had to incur a huge amount of debt just so we could salvage what’s left.” He looked at her seriously.

“That debt still remains as of this day and the ones who credited it to us were the Rodins.” 

Even though it was a plan to reclaim their status, the Baron of Orstein still remembers the kindness of the current Duke. Having given a helping hand in their lowest, it was one of the reasons why he still remains as a loyal vassal to the Rodin family. 

Seeing her father's sincerity, she mustered the courage to shake off her wariness.

If it’s to make her father proud, then why not respect his wishes?

“Don’t worry father, I’ll do my best to win over the Young master.”

Her father smiled at her.

After all, what’s better than killing two birds with one stone?

 

---

 

The scion of Rodin and the crown prince of Leotopia were having a cup of tea inside the royal pavilion, while enjoying their refreshments. The two have grown comfortable in just a span of a conversation.

“Again, I have to apologize for being an asshole. If you want, let’s have a drink or two later.” The crown prince shrugs as he holds up his hands.

“It’s fine, there’s no—Wait, we're still children. Drinking at such a young age will certainly cause complications later on.” 

“Oops, I meant to say in the future. Once we’re fifteen, we’ll drink to our hearts content.” 

Truly the epitome of male friendships.

“I’m curious, what were you going to do with that journal anyways.” He changed the topic back to what he had in mind, he was still curious about what the journal actually is.

The scion of Rodin explains it to him plainly.

“It’s an accessory of finding the truth out of the targeted person.”

More precisely, it’s a medium for performing a simple hypnosis spell. 

Though not as potent and effective as full-on mind control. It's still a spell that creates a cognitive dissonance that alters the target to respond truthfully.

“That’s why you were so adamant…So, how does it work?”  

The scion looked around and saw a passing servant. 

It looks like a volunteer has shown up, the test subject would do well in demonstrating the journal’s ability.

He gestured to the crown prince and pointed at the unknowing servant who was oblivious to what's going to happen next.

He called out to the passing servant who was minding his own business.

The servant’s ears perked and turned his attention to the crown prince, carefully, he made his way to the pavilion.

“I greet thee, your Highness!” The servant kneeled as he gazed on the floor, not daring to meet his highness’ gaze. 

“At ease.” The servant’s shoulders relaxed as he looked up.

“My friend here, Sir August of Rodin. He has something to request.” The servant nodded and proceeded to look at August.

Holding up the journal, he says, “Here, I have designed a paper-back. I would like to know your opinion about the texture of its materials.”

The servant nodded at him and gracefully took what was offered to him, a sense of glee washed up on his mind. He thought that he was going to be tasked with something like bringing them tea or something like that.

This was much better than running an errand.

Unbeknownst to the servant however, he couldn’t anticipate that he had unknowingly become a test subject of someone’s experiment.

As he felt the texture of the covers by running it over his fingers, a tingling sensation like a zap of a lightning spell ran through his fingers and up to his head.

Seeing this, August coughs and orders the servant, “State your name and status.”

As if in a trance, the servant obeyed his words and revealed his identity.

“I’m Knight Roan Calroy of the 13th Battalion of the Order of Leotopia.”

August did not expect that the servant was actually a knight. 

He shoots a look at the crown prince.

“Don’t ask me, I have no involvement in hiring them.” He whispers to him.

August didn’t think so too, the selection of servants was up to the administrative officials…

“Anyways, why not suggest something to me.”

“Can I not give the command?” August shook his head.

“It doesn’t work that way, only the caster can interact with the target. Words from people other than the caster wouldn’t be processed.” 

“That’s how it works…Then tell him this.” The crown prince told August his request.

There was something that the crown prince wanted to test out and August thought it was a good idea.

He turned around and looked at the tranced servant, “As a Knight of the Order of Leotopia, are you truly loyal towards the King and its Kingdom?”

With a blank look on his face, the servant spoke robotically, “My loyalty remains to his Majesty and his kingdom, and that will remain till the day I perish.”

August smirks at the crown prince, the latter was satisfied.

Severing the connection from the journal and the target, the servant snapped awake from his trance. 

“So, what do you think?” August faked an eager expression, awaiting the servant’s opinion about the journal.

Seeing this, the servant hurriedly arranged a response. 

“A-ah, the material is quite exquisite.” 

“Oh! Truly?!”

“O-of course!” The servant returned the journal and bowed, not daring to meet the scion’s gaze. 

August let out a low hum, “If that is the case then, thank you for taking your time, you may go now.” 

The servant shifted his body and bowed deeper as if to show his gratitude, “It is my pleasure to be of service to the scion of Rodin and to his Highness.” He then excused himself and left the premises.

A moment of silence followed as a wind carried a refreshing breeze to the pavilion.

The two looked at each other for a while before the crown prince briefly glanced at the journal.

“Do you think Sir Roan noticed it?” He asked August.

“He may remember the weird feeling but nothing more.” 

August was sure of that, the victims that fell to it back in his past life were all rendered to have no recollection of being hypnotized after each session.

And if the worst-case scenario happens when the victim remembers the whole interaction either due to having a very strong mental fortitude or other similar instances, he could always resort to personally altering the victim's memories though that may take a lot of time and effort on his part.

But since the servant looked as clueless as someone trying to figure out how to assemble an Ikea furniture, there’s no need for August to worry about it ever being the case.

“Rest assured. I’ve done this quite a lot back in my days as an assistant.” The crown prince shudders at the thought.

“What caused you to resort to that?” 

“Having to deal with plagiarizing and cheating students.” Just remembering those snobbish and arrogant pieces of shits with silver spoons up their ass pissed August off.

Even if they were faced with being exposed for their crimes, they still continued acting like hot shit.

If only corporal punishment was permitted at the Institution…

August would’ve had a great time beating those pieces of shits senseless.

“I guess I could see how you would use it in that situation.” The crown prince swirls his cup and takes a small sip.

Silence ensued between them again.

August looked around the pavilion, the last time he observed the lawn, its height was around his ankle but now it was reduced to nothing more than a snail’s shell.

The grass field surrounding the pavilion looked like a mowed lawn in someone’s backyard…

Come to think of it, didn’t the pavilion look too clean? Where were the bushes and shrubs? Or the small patches of colorful flowers?

“August.” The crown prince said, breaking the momentary silence.

 The scion immediately responded with a look to his face.

“Is it possible for me to borrow your journal?”

“Why?” 

“There’s something I need to confirm in regard to Duke Starheim—” Now August was taken aback, hearing a topic related to his father’s antagonistic colleague was always interesting news to him

“I have an inkling of suspicion.” 

The crown prince, Leotopia, looked at him dead in the eye.

“Duke Starheim may be planning a coup.”

August's mood went from a hundred to zero in an instant.