Although Simuel had been expecting this situation, he was still surprised to be asked so directly. 

He doesn’t hold back any punches, he thought to himself. 

Simuel looked up at his father observing his face. There wasn’t a single trance of emotion so Simuel couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He decided that the best course of action was to be honest. Knowing Donnellan, he probably already knew what he’d been up to over the past few weeks and therefore concluded that lying wouldn’t be wise. Plus he didn’t have anything to gain from lying, if anything telling him everything could benefit him in some way. 

“I’ve been going to the library to do some reading.” 

“Why the sudden interest?” Donnellan asked.

Since I was trying to get on Donnellan’s good side, I decided to give him an answer he might want to hear. 

“I’ve being in bed for such a long time, I thought that I shouldn’t be waisting my time away and decided to take my studies a bit more seriously. I’ll be resuming my lessons again and I don’t want to fall behind, so I thought about reading up a little.” I replied back honestly, 

This answer should be satisfactory enough, I thought to myself. 

“Mmh” I heard Donnellan say, and looked up to observe his reaction. 

“Yes, keeping up with your studies is important but make sure not to overdue it.” 

This kind of reaction was completely unexpected.  It sounded like he was concerned or even worried for my condition, I mean granted Donellan did care for his son but he’s never expressed his concern so openly I thought. Also this is the first time anyone has ever shown me real concern. It’s kind of disconcerting.

Since I hadn’t said anything for awhile, Donellan cleared his throat in an attempt to get my attention. He could tell that I was in deep thought. 

“Right, there is no need to worry father, I’ll make sure not to overdue it.” I said back. 

“Good, you may take your leave now. I’ll send Emille to inform you regarding when your teacher will be arriving as well as your etiquette instructor.” Donellan said before going back to his papers. 

Since there wasn’t anything more for me to say at the moment I decided to take my leave. The last thing I wanted to do was disturb him while he was working. Getting on his good side is a must. 

“I’ll be going now. Please do not work too hard as well father” I said hurriedly getting up and leaving. 

To be honest I was hesitating on wether or not to show a little concern towards Donellan. He is my father and showing concern towards your parent isn’t odd but it would definitely be considered strange in the case of Simuel. But I figured that saying it wouldn’t hurt me. I was going to add a cute smile at the end but decided not to push my luck too much. The smile can be saved for another time. And with that I left the room. 

As soon as Simuel left the room, Donellan looked up from his papers and stared at the closed door. You could say that he was quite surprised to hear his son show some concern for him. He wasn’t expecting it at all. Donellan was pleased with the answer his child gave him and his impression of Simuel grew quite a bit. However there was an inexplicable sweetness dwelling deep within his cold heart that he couldn’t quite pick out. Donellan hadn’t even realized that there was a small smile adorning his lips, the first ever smile he had for awhile. 

“Things are finally starting to get interesting” he thought to himself.