(Lilla POV).
When did I start to be afraid of Young Master Rudeus?
That's a question I asked myself for sometime, he was born to a very weak body, which made me anxious and a little afraid of him dying while he is in my responsibility.
(Yet somehow he survived and even grew powerful, while he was still a toddler, not mentioning the scare the day he used healing magic. And he was using it for longer and stronger with every passing day).
As much as I know how Lord Paul hates the point of nobility seeing themselves as humans and everyone else, is some kind of awful creature below them.
That doesn't change the fact even a little bit, that if his son died because of me, he will cut off my head in the next second.
I heard it first-hand when Sir Andrew unsheathed his sword towards Young Master Rudeus. In the same second Paul had already cut Sir Andrew's sword with a very fast Long Sword of Silence before smashing Sir Andrew's face with his punches. And told him.
"Next time you dare to do something like this again, your head will be sent to Philip and I will ask him to send a new Reeve." With a death glare and sword in hand while standing between him and Young Master Rudeus.
That was what Lady Zenith had told me, about why they were kicked out of the room, this made Young Master Rudeus snap and tell them the next subject is not for women to hear.
Apparently she herself was unsatisfied with what Lord Paul did. She wanted him to not give him a chance to do that in the first place. She was saying that, while she was stomping the floor in frustration.
(Thankfully we left Young Lady Samantha at the Master bedroom sleeping alone, the room has thickest walls in the house it worked well with how many times Young Master Rudeus snapped that day).
That day was the first day I started to be frightened of Young Master Rudeus. (Well, no one has the right to blame me for that).
Just the day before I started to be scared of him. Because he made the chair float for about 3 meters to watch the Master and the Mistress arguing from the window. When I saw the scene I was just about to take a break I decided against it and worked just to be away from him.
Then after 4 hours of playing with his friends he came back carrying little Sylphiette after she fainted from the view. I had just heard the Reeves standpoint bells being rang so I thought it was your everyday bandits and they would deal with them immediately. After that the day will continue, but because we have children in the house we decided to hole ourselves in.
After 2 minutes of us starting to close the doors and windows I saw him carrying little Sylphiette princess style. With one look in his eyes. (Revenge). His eyes were repeating the word over and over again.
(She fainted because she saw a horrible view of Sir Ferland being cut into pieces before cutting his arm and killing him by decapitating him).
The truth is I felt bad for her. She saw something I didn't see except when I worked in the Silver Palace and saw it only in torturing rooms.
But what Young Master Rudeus did was the opposite; he was very calm. He was very calm. He gave an eerie, chill feeling that makes your spine shiver.
He started by asking an edged sword to kill the bandits himself. We tried to calm him down but he didn't calm until Lady Ena shouted at him.
That's when he gave us a fake smile and agreed to sit down and he even went to sleep to not interfere. (or so we thought).
It appears he somehow managed to put a huge rock in his place on bed and fled the house twice or thrice if we count how he got the rock in his bed. (I had a hard time lifting it from the bed).
And one of them was moving a rock and another had a newborn in his arm. (Even if he is a Miko, that's too much).
And he appeared in front of me in late evening, almost early at night, he came to check on us and see if we solved the bandits problem ourselves. When he found we didn't he said: he will continue sleeping.
(Maybe that's when he escaped the house, I don't know when he did it because we were calming down crying little Sylphiette with everything we got, so we hadn't a good chance to see a soundly sleeping toddler).
Well, in reality it was more of me wanting to avoid him than worrying about little Sylphiette. And because of that no one tried to wake him up not even once.
And when we finally managed to calm down little Sylphiette I decided to join the suicidal team to make sure the bandits worried all the time and not escaping until Lord Paul returns with the hunting party.
(We had already sent him to return and he was supposed to reach at maximum the next day. Also I wasn't in the team as a fighter, I was more of a scout and my mission is to return after gathering enough information unlike them).
But when we broke into the Manor it felt strange like everything is organised not like the usual when bandits attack some place.
The only place that was slightly disorganised is the basement by being filled with damaged leather armour.
And when we were going to search more we felt the place was too silent like we were heading to an ambush until we heard someone say.
"Really will ya let me leave, but can ya heal me too." Said a shocked voice.
That made all of us confused but Sir Andrew took the lead and made a gesture with his hand that we will continue, but in more silence.
Suddenly we heard another sound but it was a sword swing sound and high level one too.
Sweesh.
And suddenly a voice said.
"Again why would I let a person who harmed the village, killed a good man and above all his true mission is to kill my family alive? For real you and your boss are stupid." The voice belongs to a kid. (And somehow I feel familiar with it).
That made us stop moving in silence and move towards the voice faster but cautious. That's until we heard.
"Anyway it's about time we leave." When the voice said that Sir Andrew ran at maximum speed to stop the owner before escaping.
But suddenly he stopped in front of us at the door frame, because of the gruesome view in front of him.
Corpse of a headless man in front of him is a toddler covered in blood from head to toe and the blood is increasing from his legs. And between his legs is the head of the man.
It took me some seconds to realise in front of me was Young Master Rudeus but covered in blood the only thing that wasn't covered in blood was two lines starting from his eyes like he was crying.
When Sir Andrew talked to Young Master Rudeus he unsheathed his sword in shock, but sheathed it again immediately after finding out that it was Sir Andrew who was talking to him.
His demeanor changed immediately into a smile asking us if we were willing to attack the bandits like him. But he said many strange things. (Like him? Does this mean he attacked them solo? And using night as cover? Doesn't he know we are in the early morning? And many more questions arose. Where are the bandits? And what happened to them? And why did they left him torture this guy like that? And why is he torturing this bandit, specifically this harsh? All of these questions I wanted answers for, that I completely neglected the fact he is bleeding heavily and will bleed to death if he left unattended).
The conversation with him was going darker and darker every time Sir Andrew asked a question we got answers we wouldn't ever like.
We were trembling from his answers. All of them were brutal and very harsh. The only thing makes me sure he wasn't okay with what he did. He was crying while answering. (His tears were non-stop like the blood out of his legs yet no one, not even me, tried to calm him down and see his wounds).
That was the case until, While he was explaining that he didn't kill all the bandits left some of them for interrogation. That's when he snapped. Because we didn't sheath the swords even after knowing there's no danger whatsoever even worse we were aiming the swords towards him.
(That goes for everyone including me, my sword was aimed at his face. He was angry and we were afraid of him after doing our job perfectly, and he wasn't wrong, but he was too brutal. But his words all hit hard, probably he heard many things a toddler like shouldn't hear all of that right after they killed Sir Ferland in a horrific way in front of him).
With a sigh to calm myself I explained to him.
"Haa. Young Master Rudeus, have you looked at your state or the state of little Samantha? And we told you back home, 'let adults do their job.' I wouldn't say what you did is right, nor I would say if we were in your place we were going to do a nice plan like this we were at best to strike from the shadows.."
But yet he cut me to say: like if it was that easy to kill them all and look at his state. Explained before that their boss is an advanced class at North God Style.
He was covered in blood from head to toe and he wasn't alone in that he had Young Lady Samantha. (Even before adopting her he was already taking care of her, because of that she grew very attached to him).
When he realised what state he was in, he started to check his body like a maniac, before giving Young Lady Samantha to Sir Andrew after that he lost his consciousness immediately afterwards.
I couldn't catch him, his head hit the ground that made it start to bleed too. Immediately I carried him and followed Sir Andrew's orders and returned home to take care of him.
His whole body was a mess. No this is understatement his body was beyond mess. His arms have grazes from the shoulders to fingers (including his arms, elbows and forearms) thankfully all of it was safe after being bandaged. (Nothing too dangerous). But his knees were in very bad shape to the point his bones appeared after me and Lady Ena shut the blood from going to his legs.
We did a very hard job to calm little Sylphiette and little Anna from the gruesome view they saw Young Master Rudeus in.
After two hours of stopping the bleeding Madame Zenith appeared in the house, her eyes full of concern and asked one question. "Where is Rudi?"
When she saw his form she cried heavily, but clenched her fists and pursed her lips before healing him with intermediate healing magic, for each leg once and one normal healing for each arm.
And she did some healing for his torso and head. Both were also damaged. We all looked in silence. The first thing she did when Lord Paul appeared was a hard slap on his face while saying.
"If you hadn't told him the village under his protection, he wouldn't have been in that state. Because of your stupid way to appear cool. We almost lost our son."
She snapped at him while almost everyone in the village were here, but yet no one said a word because everyone had seen what state Young Master Rudeus was in.
I was the one to break the silence, by explaining the situation to her, that he said he had done this because he saw Sir Ferland die a horrible death. And he went for revenge, but midway through it he heard many horrible things from them made him lose himself to anger.
And me and Mistress Smith told her what happened. She fell to her knees crying and it took a lot of time to convince her to help the wounded and to leave him to go. (Lord Paul almost begged her to go and heal them). She healed them immediately and ran back here to heal Young Master Rudeus again, but with detoxification magic this time to him and Young Lady Samantha.
What happened after he started talking in strange languages, before suddenly crying while sleeping, before suddenly his breathing stopped, he also stopped moving and suddenly he stopped giving any hint of life.
Lady Zenith cried even louder than Young Lady Samantha who was crying at the same time, that's when Mistress Zenith put her on his body to try to heal him again over and over again. Until he started breathing again. (It was the longest 10 minutes passed on us).
After that Lady Zenith was very fatigued to the level she almost fell to the ground many times Lord Paul begged her to take a rest and go to sleep, but she refused she kept holding his hand not wanting to leave him.
After moving a lot of chairs to the room. So we all waited for him to wake up. A lot of time had passed to the point most of us dozed off. Until suddenly at midnight we heard Mistress Zenith were crying and asking if Young Master Rudeus is fine.
Almost everyone moved to the room to the point it was hardly fit anymore.
The first thing he did was hugging his mother tightly, before crying silently. But he stopped immediately, when Young Lady Samantha started crying. That's when Sir Andrew put her on his lap to make sure, does she really stop crying around him? And her cries calmed gradually but still not fully stopped.
That's when he started humming like he was humming some kind of song while cradling her and after he finished she was giggling and smiling in his hands.
But he didn't, he hugged her first while continuing to humming her, until she fell asleep again. After greeting everyone and smiling at them. Suddenly his demeanor turned and with a serious face. He asked us if we got any good information from the bandits. We hadn't any good leads except they aren't your everyday bandits, especially when they said two of them are on an advanced level of North God Style.
(Their leader is in a higher advanced level and armed with magic tools and items he said he will challenge a North Saint one day, so they didn't believe he died, except when they saw his head).
All of them turned pale, but they said the ones who got the job were their leader and his vice leader.
(A huge bald man with a scar on his face while armed with magic tools, he was on an advanced level of North God Style).
So after failed interrogations we sent them to Roa to receive the bounty. He had been sleeping until Bragg had already returned with it.
When he realised the little girls would be out of place in this he asked me to take them to the other room.
After 15 minutes Mistress Zenith, Mistress Smith and Lady Rose were also kicked out of the room. Right after when Young Master Rudeus snapped shouting in a very loud voice.
After 15 minutes of calm only Young Master Rudeus crying, we started to hear conversations again, until we heard many stomps and bangs of frustration on the ground.
And the Young Master suddenly said, "Who said I finished? According to the bandit leader after extracting information from him, through more brutal torture than the average. The man was coming from the Manor. In another way he is a retainer to Lord Sauros who betrayed him and joined James."
We heard this from the outside. We all had very conflicted faces. The first is that the two girls heard this.
And the second is the Young Master revealed we are in middle of the nobles dirty fight and he discovered all of that through what he identifies as brutal torture. (We don't want to know what he did to him to make him talk). All I had to do was to calm Lady Zenith down because she was crying on what she heard.
And not 5 minutes have we heard many frustrated cries.
The Ladies decided to ask their husbands what happened after they got out of the room. Because we no longer can hear anything. Until we heard.
"'What do I mean by this?' Is that what you wanted to ask? I'm saying right now that I am adopting a girl who I found was going to die of hunger because she no longer has parents. And she doesn't have anyone to take care of her anymore." Said the Young Master angry.
Mistress Zenith left all of us and went to the room where Young Lady Samantha is in. And patted her head and called her daughter before deciding to enter the room.
That's when she returned suddenly and pulled a knife from the kitchen and I found little Sylphiette, little Anna. We found them with tears in their eyes. I tried to ask them what happened and tried to calm them down when I heard Young Lady Samantha crying so I left them in their mothers care and went to calm her down.
And when I was leaving I found the door opened in an invisible way like how Young Master Rudeus carried the chair.
After calming her down by feeding her and changing her diapers and staying with her until she sleeps.
Then I found little Sylphiette followed by little Anna running out of the room to where I'm and asking me to hide them from the Mistress.
After 2 minutes I found Lady Zenith running to where we were, but she ignored us all and went straight to the master bedroom to search in her luggage for something. That's when she started giggling, returning to them deer jumping.
After a long stern scolding from Mistress Smith they returned with their husbands and Lady Zenith stuck her tongue out to Lord Paul in a demeanor that is strange considering he... no it wasn't that strange.
But she left him with the gifts Young Master Rudeus had left for her and went on her top speed into the room to hug him. Mistress Smith sighed and said: she will bring Young Lady Samantha to him because he wants to meet her.
But I gestured to Mistress Smith to go in there alone when she tried to ask me to go with her.
Suddenly I heard Young Lady Samantha crying and everyone was laughing.
Until I heard the Young Master singing with a beautiful voice for the Young Lady.
And conversations continued until I started yawning and wanted to sleep until I heard.
"Lilla, we need help." Lord Paul shouted as he escaped the room.
But after he saw Young Master Rudeus taking responsibility and changing diapers himself he gestured to us not to interfere.
After some joking between them, Young Master Rudeus ordered me to get her something to eat before leaving and going to sleep.
After 5 minutes we heard an ear piercing cry and the reason was because Young Master Rudeus thought it was a good idea to leave her to sleep on the crib.
After calming her down, Lord Paul built for her a kind of fence around the bed to help her sleep on the Young Master bed. (And until now she sleeps the same way).
That day when I slept I dreamed the Young Master armed with a knife tore us down one by one. (All of that while smiling menacingly).
The dream repeated over and over again.
And my memory of him cutting the bandits or how he was covered in blood didn't help. (And the dream shuffled part of my memory with it).
When I finally woke up and decided to calm myself down.
I found him flying and getting out of the well. After a very high splash sound was heard.
I ran to my room and closed the door on myself even when the madame checked on me she told me I have a slight fever and I should rest after she healed me with detoxification magic.
But I didn't rest after she left. I left to buy a charm that ward off the spirits. (The charm from my homeland and it is working perfectly fine with kicking the spirits off).
(I heard in the past some prince in Asura kingdom was crawling early like Young Master Rudeus and when a maid unsuspecting hugged him he stabbed her with a knife killing her immediately, to make things worse the prince was possessed with a demonic presence and what if Young Master Rudeus too was possessed, the only thing maybe was holding Young Master Rudeus from doing that he was still growing and need our help, but now he doesn't).
When I returned I hid the charm well and waited until everyone went to sleep. I brought a chandelier, some water and a torch.
(This is how we do the charm to ward off the spirits in my homeland).
After setting up everything I saw Young Master Rudeus waking up and looking at me with a raised eyebrow.
When I started chanting and burning the charm to ward the spirit he had a wicked smile and laughed menacingly.
That scared me to the point I peed on myself while running because of how a weapon appeared in his hand from nowhere.
(My brain was saying only one thing. He is going to kill me. He said it over and over again).
I closed the room on myself and didn't sleep that night.
The next day the madame checked on me, then she scolded me for not resting saying she found the jars that were supposed to be empty were filled with water. Some floors mopped with water and Young Master Rudeus' clothes were cleaned too.
And when she touched my head she said: my fever got worse and that made her say to me she will not forgive me if I don't rest today. (So I decided to comply, she could fire me after all).
After the madame left I found the Young Master entered wearing a face of concern and he had an apologetic smile.
Before I said anything I found him bowing and apologising.
"I'm sorry, Ms Lilla! I realised you were slightly scared of me before and when you were doing the charm to ward off the spirits, I decided to prank you. But I didn't mean to scare you this much. And I didn't know you were ill. I'm really sorry." Said Young Master Rudeus while apologising earnestly and didn't even look at my eye from embarrassment and guilt he was in.
I was trembling from the moment he entered the room, especially after he closed the door. But when I realised he closed the door because he was caring about me.
I started to calm down a little but the trembling didn't entirely stop.
"Haaa. Listen Young Master Rudeus to tell you the truth I'm afraid of you." After sighing and calming myself down, these were the only words I could master.
He didn't look surprised, instead he went near me then sat on the floor to listen attentively.
But before I could continue, he started to talk.
"I know, at first you had a face, you were scared of me dying and you being blamed for it, then later when you explained to me my bad habit of calling people from right behind them. And now I think it's about how you found me yesterday. Is there another reason." He talked calmly almost with apologetic behaviour and finished the last one with a warm smile.
"You aren't mad I did a charm to ward the wicked spirits off, on you. You know this could have harmed...."
He cut me suddenly with a very calm attitude.
"No need, if anything I'm more surprised by my parents' reaction to all of this. All I know, if my toddler child at the age of two massacred a bandits group at the very least I would have at least slight discomfort, especially if I saw him in the same state you saw me that day." He said the final part while caressing his new scars on his knees.
"But unlike you I would have looked at his mental state because sure he would have a life full of nightmares." He answered this part with a hurt smile.
"Are you.."
"Don't worry about me now, just tell me what's made you afraid of me again." He cut me for the second time and answered while looking straight into my eyes and his eyes for the first time seemed broken.
Somehow I started talking and explaining everything.
"I saw you the other day floating things around and yesterday you were flying. It makes me remember the old stories of the demons and how..."
I was stopped by him rolling in the ground while chuckling like he heard the best joke ever.
"That's not something to laugh off." I said with a firm face, while I was trembling from the fact he was laughing.
"Sorry, I'm sorry, but what you said is very funny. Hadn't you heard what I had said to Reeve Andrew? I have killed the bandits because they were willing to harm us. And in normal circumstances I would have been leaving the Reeves job to the Reeves, but I realised they were out-matched and if I didn't interfere they would have attacked us. Also in case you don't know, I will always protect my family and you are part of it." He dried some happy tears from his eyes first before turning into a serious face explaining the situation to me. But he smiled at the last part.
"And as for magic?" I asked, still scared.
He laughed awkwardly trying to avoid the subject but sighed and decided to say the truth.
"Hehe, well the truth is. Uffff. What you saw is one of my latest developments in gravity magic, but unfortunately it is still under training and still in very early stages. As much as I want to tell mom and dad about this, it's still very early and very dangerous for that. All I know, if I told mom about this she would forbid me from training on it, fearing for my safety. And all of that not mentioning mom and dad's promise about their son being a knight and if it is a daughter then a magician." He showcased it by lifting the mat he hated while he was young before returning it to its normal place.
".." (As for me I was silent, my mind couldn't comprehend the fact that the whole world is searching for the secret magic of the Rybacks and couldn't do it just for a toddler to discover it on his own).
"Well since you discovered me, I will tell you the whole truth, but I will ask you for advice, because as you know my experiences are really low and I will need other people's advice to help me." He said calmly as he suddenly focused on his hand to summon a small stone before making it bigger then making it into cylinder shape before making a hole in it from one side to the inside making it a perfect cup.
After that he summoned water in it before drinking it.
"And ta dah, I'm what you call a perfect beginner level chantless mage." He said it with pride then he performed a bow like he is someone doing an act in a theatre.
".."
"Is something wrong, Ms Lilla?" He asked meekly with an awkward smile and he looked apologetic.
"Chantless magic, huh? And why are you hiding this achievement from your parents?" That was hardly the words coming out from my mouth.
"What do you mean 'achievement' ? All I did was think on the spell while knowing how it works after saying it once nothing hard about this. And the skill isn't hard or something, right? it is very easy, it is like breathing with your nose like you are used to using your mouth instead it is hard and inconvenient but better, if you want to take a big gulp at once..." He said while caressing his chin and looked in deep thought. Until he stopped suddenly, before raising an eyebrow. And said,
"No, when you think about it, the chant way is more like using your mouth until you discover you can use your nose instead. It is easier and more convenient as It's but you will have to control other things manually... Haaa.. see even now, I can't even figure out what is the best way to describe something I have been doing for a whole year. So please can you help me until the day I tell my parents." He said the last part with puppy eyes.
"Haah... I agree but you have to tell your parents and if they ask me before you do. I will tell them the whole truth, but just to know that chantless magic isn't a simple thing, it's a big achievement, especially at your age."
"Thanks even so, I don't know when, but I promise you I will tell them, when either I hit a wall somewhere or I feel I have done a great achievement on my own in magic, to convince them to teach me both swordsmanship and magic."
He said this part with a bow. (Something strange here, I remember how the young master was grumbling a lot about having to bow to other people while greeting them. In the nobleman way.
"...I will do my best to help you." I said after a long silence in which he smiled at me.
And since that day every 10 days he comes to me and asks me for advice about something he hides from his parents, like the fact he learned all the healing magic Lady Zenith used in front of him.
And I helped him a lot with his sentence structure after he asked me for help because he is afraid of making himself troubles in the future because he can't talk the right way.
But to tell you the truth I'm afraid of him still he is scary as long as none of his parents or Young Lady Samantha are around.
When they are around he has his ever brilliant smile, but he loses it immediately if he feels someone is willing to harm someone he cares about.
The proof of that, yesterday he came and asked me, if he was wrong because of his argument with Sir Laws about how he raises little Sylphiette about being dependent on others and weakening her weak character even more.
I responded by saying: he is right, but she is Sir Laws' daughter and no-one will care about her as he does.
In which he sighed before nodding but he muttered under his breath. "Not sure if that's true, but you are right. Parents do love their children more than anyone else." He said the final part with a smile.
Somehow even though he knows I'm afraid of him he does his best to lessen the fear of me.
And I realised one way or another he is the perfect mix between the two masters. All I hope from him is not harming me or any other girl the same way his father did. (All of that of course with the hope that he stays seeingbme as a family).