As I walked back towards my room with Vivi, Kras were standing in front of my room waiting for me.

“Kras? You were waiting for me?”

“Oh! Finally you’re here, Little Bro.”

As my blood brother, he’s one of the bunch that treats me like a normal human being even with my so called limitations.

“So what’s the business? I need to prepare for tomorrow's departure.”

 “Nothing really. Just wanna say be careful on your way and also when governing the area. Ah! Almost forget, mother wanted me to give you this.”

He reached out to one of his pockets to bring out a small cubical wooden container that has many unique engraving in it.

“Mother said that since us Giesen haven’t really had the chance to celebrate anything in particular, she bought you this in return.”

I took a closer look at the thing that mother bought, as I confirmed it to be a container of some sort, he brings out the same box as the one that i have.

“She also gave one to me when i was in my twenties.”

“Thank you, Kras.”

“What’re you talking about? It's from our mother, thank her not me.”

He smiled at me, like always his smile warmed my heart. He may not be the most influential in the family but he’s the first to protect us Giesen when we’re in trouble no matter where and what happend.

After exchanging smiles, he just left. Then i just continued on entering my room.

“Sir, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Maybe she saw through me showing an expression that I never shown before.

“Also, from today onwards your master is none other than me. So, prepare yourself for departure tomorrow.”

“Eh? EHHH?!?! W-Why me!”

“Don’t scream like that near me, I feel like my eardrums are about to explode.”

“B-B-But, i’m just a lowly servant”

“Don’t think too much about that, just prepare yourself. That's an order!”

“Y-Yes.”

After that, she just left my room before bowing her head as usual.

Hah. 

There's too many possibilities that could happen in my journey going north, since Anna wanted to get rid of me from the succession battle. But, I do wonder why she doesn't do anything towards Kras—Or maybe I'm just an ignorant fool. 

"I know you're there, come out."

People may think that i'm crazy talking to myself in this room, but there's a reason. 

"You saw through me again, My Lord. Impressive as always!"

My personal handpicked assistant—Well, Vivi is also my assistant but she mostly does housework for me and nothing else. Many would say that it's a controversial pick but no one would do anything since father already agreed on him becoming my butler. 

The reason is that he is a Demihuman, and being one can make life pretty miserable, especially if you live in this continent. I gave him a name Cassius since he ask for it when we met for the first time. We go back for a long time.

…

10 years ago.

I was in a small journey coming back from the neighboring country attending a school meant for the royal families around the continent.

That's where i stumbled upon a situation, where I found him battered up from it looks like a fight. I ask the boy a couple of questions but since he's not answering, I decided to bring him in for the journey with the excuse of "I want to have a talking partner along, it's been lonely since i can't really relate to you parties of knights here."

Well, I did get scolded by father but I'm happy that he accepted it, and the reason is because Cassius is still young. They say youngins can get swayed easily no matter where they from, so all the nobles agreed to take in the young demihuman, also father seems to know the value of a demihuman just from a glance.

"Milord, is there something wrong?"

My thoughts of the past got interrupted by the person in question.

"Nothing, I was just reminiscing about when we're met for the first time."

"Ah, i see. It has been 10 years since we've met, Milord."

No matter how I look at him, he became such a refined person in just 10 years even though he's 2 year younger than me, taller than me too. He has a really silky obsidian-like black short hair, slender yet slightly muscular figure and ruby red pupils. Since he's part demihuman, his skin is a bit darker than normal people, also quite a handsome face considering the species of his father is a revenant.

I'm guessing that face came from his mother.

Behind all that looks, hides a pretty scary innate ability left by his father. I think he calls it "Night Walker" or something like that, which makes all traces of him disappear in a blink of an eye. Not only that, he also had a pretty good swordsmanship even rivaling this country's head of royal knights.

And the reason why I can see through him when he's using his ability is because i also have an ability, well technically a couple of abilities. I kept them hidden since i don't want to make an uproar within the main castle. If i just state the fact that i have an ability that would’ve make all of my family opposition enraged and possibly done more damage to me and my family, even though they’ve done enough already.

One of them is an ability that makes me see what can't be seen by normal means, for example on how i find out that Cassius is hiding inside my room. Thats also one if not the only reason why i take Cassius as my personal servant, since i saw his ‘Potential’ the first time we met.

I can't really explain how this ability exactly works, but it activates automatically whenever something is out of the ordinary and whenever it happen my vision would change a little.

"Milord."

"Ah—Yes, it appears I was lost in my thoughts again. Cassius, make sure to prepare for our departure to the north. Inform some of your subordinates to keep doing their job here within the capital."

Cassius subordinates, a notorious underground organization called Hollowfall. Not so much of a criminal ones but more of a ‘Information Gathering’ organization. Almost all of the identity of the people there is a secret, including Cassius himself, of course only I know of that fact.

“Cassius, do you have information about the north? I only know that i suppose to go to the old capital of Valoria, Oakandfort, which held the most secured fort out there in the entire continent.”

“It is in fact true, Milord. Oakandfort used to be the empire old capital city until the ‘The Great Demon Invasion’ 55 year ago, as of now the city became a strategic stronghold for humanity and also somehow it became a port of somesort, since a variety of ships and cargo have been reportedly make contact, I can’t say for a certain that it is a military port or just another commerce ones.”

Interesting—That would make sense if it is a military port since it’s one of the closest part of humanity towards the demon influence.

“What about the legacy that was left by the previous lord?”

“I know for a certain the previous lord was from a low-rank noble within the empire, and the state of Oakandfort generally in an ok-state one would say, so they didn’t really make much of a change within the city.”

“So, what happened to that person?”

“They got assassinated, Milord. Atleast, that was what my subordinates were getting from the locals. Do you want me to investigate it further?”

“Better be safe than sorry.”

“Alright, I would do just that. Do you require anything else, Milord?”

“That’s all for now. Go get some rest, we will leave early in the morning.”

After our short conversation, he left my room with his ability. Since, a demihuman in the royal castle isn’t really fond of by the nobles, especially the one on Anna's side.

Hah—What a tiring day.

I hope things will get better once I leave.

But, we all know that life doesn’t work that way.