The grand dining table was fully prepared as a long line of silent servants began placing the final silver platters of hot food across the polished wood.
Duke Arthur von Nocte sat at the head of the table, his eyes fixed blankly on the steaming dishes while his personal aide, Jonathan, stood closely at his side, his voice a quiet drone in the quiet hall.
"Your Grace, the latest reports from the northern diamond mines show a four percent increase in overall yield this quarter."
Aldred said, tapping a finger against his leather clipboard. "Additionally, the management of the regional border lands has been stabilized, and the local guards report that the rogue monster populations near the outer villages are finally starting to dwindle."
Arthur gave a slow, tired nod to the words, though his gaze kept drifting toward the heavy grandfather clock on the far wall.
"Very well, Aldred. Ensure the border guards are well compensated for their efforts."
"Right away, Your Grace," the aide replied, bowing his head.
"You may leave us," Arthur commanded softly. "It is almost time for dinner."
He had spent the last hour feeling a lingering touch of worry that Fainyx might be sad about being left out of the family gathering, but he constantly reminded himself that this isolation was strictly for the boy's own safety.
He simply could not allow his unpredictable siblings to meet the frail child yet, terrified that they would get far too emotional and completely lose their restraint around a boy with such a weak constitution.
Between the endless stress of managing the duchy's mines and the upcoming royal events, his greatest source of anxiety was currently his own brother and sister, who were supposed to be on a peaceful academy vacation but had suddenly been slapped with an invitation from the King.
His old friend Clervaux, who sat on the imperial throne, had been making things incredibly difficult lately, especially since the servants had secretly reported that the twins were spending their first hours in the mansion aggressively searching through the corridors and popping open every locked door they could find.
"That bastard of a king is truly pushing my patience," Arthur muttered under his breath, his brow furrowing in deep irritation as he rubbed his temple.
Clervaux kept subtly prying for information regarding his hidden third child, which made Arthur all the more determined to keep Fainyx completely out of the high society's reach until he was strong enough to handle it.
It was an incredibly good thing that he had commanded Fainyx to remain strictly inside the safety of the west wing, but as he sat in the quiet dining hall, a strange, nagging chill settled in his chest, making him feel as though something had gone profoundly wrong with his perfect arrangements.
The entire family, excluding his youngest son, was scheduled to depart for the royal palace early tomorrow morning, and Arthur couldn't shake the protective instinct that made him dread leaving the sickly boy completely unsupervised for three consecutive days.
He knew the specialized medicine from Physician Michael would finally arrive next week, so he just had to endure this final stretch of waiting, reassuring himself that the heavily guarded northern estate was still a thousand times safer than the viper's nest of the capital city.
The heavy oak doors of the dining hall suddenly creaked open, and Arthur looked up to see Adam and Liam walking inside to greet him, but as his older sons stepped into the light, his heart instantly stopped when he noticed who was traveling right behind them.
Walking gracefully into the room were Alexander and Hestia, and cradled tightly in his younger sister's arms was the unmistakable, silver-haired figure of Fainyx.
Liam immediately splintered away from the group, sprinting over to the head of the table and aggressively tugging at his father's dark robes, his young face a dramatic mixture of profound sadness and pure childish anger.
"When we went to go visit Fainyx in his bedroom to say goodbye before dinner, Aunt Hestia and Uncle Alexander were already inside his room, Father!"
Liam pouted fiercely, marching over to his designated chair and slamming himself down into the cushion with a heavy scowl.
"They completely ignored our warning!"
Adam followed close behind his brother, offering a helpless, defeated nod as he looked at the Duke.
"It was already far too late by the time we arrived Father... because they had already broken his lock and discovered him completely on their own. We tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen to us."
" Sigh..."
Arthur let out a massive, exhausted sigh, having fully expected his stubborn siblings to check every single room in the mansion, but the harsh reality that his carefully constructed secret had been shattered on day one made him feel an intense wave of regret.
Realizing that there was absolutely no point in fighting the situation now, he rubbed his temples and gestured toward the empty seats, commanding everyone to sit down and begin the meal.
"Sit down, all of you. Let us not make a scene in front of the food."
He watched in pure disbelief as Hestia marched over to her seat while completely refusing to let go of Fainyx, unceremoniously plopping the silent child right onto her lap with a look of absolute, unadulterated triumph painting her face.
Arthur narrowed his eyes, his voice dipping with aristocratic ice as he stared across the table.
"Hestia, why did you remove your nephew from his quarters when I explicitly gave orders for him to rest? Explain yourself."
Hestia paused for a brief moment, her eyes darting around as she scrambled to invent a sufficiently noble excuse, before she proudly lifted her chin.
"I simply felt incredibly sorry that a sweet child was being forced to eat all alone in a dark room~ so I decided that he absolutely needs to sit with me for dinner tonight.
Is there a crime in wanting to eat with my family, older brother?"
She readjusted her grip on Fainyx, settling him securely against her fine robes, while the boy himself maintained a completely flat, nonchalant expression.
Fainyx looked deeply tired from the overwhelming dramatic ordeal he had survived in his bedroom, choosing to remain perfectly quiet as he accepted his bizarre fate.
Arthur's jaw tightened, his protective fatherly instincts instantly flaring up.
"Let him go, Hestia, and place him in his own proper chair where he can actually move freely without being suffocated."
"I completely refuse, Brother~," Hestia crooned, tightening her arms around the small boy with a playful smirk.
"He feels perfectly comfortable right here with his loving aunt."
"Can you not see that he looks entirely uncomfortable trapped on your lap?"
Arthur countered, his voice rising slightly as he gripped his armrests.
"How could you possibly know what he is feeling when his face looks exactly like yours, dear older brother~?"
Hestia teased, pressing her cheek against Fainyx's soft silver hair.
"He has the exact same unreadable Nocte expression but his face is undeniably different from this dark and cold older brother of mine isn't that right angel~?"
"I know because he is my son," Arthur growled, his blue crystal eyes locked onto hers.
Hestia's playful demeanor instantly vanished, replaced by an unyielding, fierce glare that matched the Duke's intensity.
"And I am his aunt, Arthur, so you have absolutely no right to completely exclude me from this precious child's life. We are his family too."
The air in the dining hall grew suffocatingly heavy as the Duke and the Academy's top sword prodigy began staring absolute daggers at one another across the table, neither one willing to back down a single inch.
Fainyx, who was thoroughly sick of being treated like a prize trophy in their aristocratic tug-of-war, decided to take advantage of his aunt's intense distraction.
With a remarkably fluid, silent movement, he quietly slipped off her lap, glided across the floor completely unnoticed, and climbed into the empty chair situated safely between Adam and Liam.
Hestia blinked in sudden confusion, looking down at her empty lap with a deeply disappointed pout the moment she realized her tiny captive had pulled a stealthy escape.
"Ah! Fainyx, come back over here!"
Arthur's lips twitched upward into a small, victorious smile, and he immediately raised his hand to signal the line of waiting staff.
"Bring another full set of porcelain plates and silver utensils for my youngest son, at once."
A few minutes later, the fresh table settings were neatly arranged in front of Fainyx, and before anyone else could react, the Duke suddenly stood up from his grand chair, reached over to take Fainyx's plate, and personally began piling it high with the finest cuts of meat and vegetables.
His movements were incredibly deliberate, his eyes darting toward his younger siblings as if to aggressively scream the fact that he was an attentive, loving father directly into their faces.
"Eat up, Fainyx~ You need the nourishment."
The twins stared at their older brother in stunned silence, completely caught off guard by his sudden display of petty domesticity, before Hestia's eyes gleamed with a fiercely competitive spark.
She immediately snatched up her silver fork, neatly slicing a perfectly tender piece of seasoned steak, and hovered it directly in front of Fainyx's mouth with an enthusiastic grin.
"This particular cut is exceptionally tender and tasty, little Fainyx, so you must eat it up from your Auntie Tia and grow strong!"
Alexander refused to be left out of the aggressive affection, using a silver ladle to carefully pour a portion of rich, nutrient-dense tomato and vegetable soup into a small bowl before placing it right next to Fainyx's hand.
"Drink all of this, nephew, because Uncle Alex knows the vitamins are highly beneficial for a frail constitution. Do not leave a single drop."
Liam's eyes went wide with pure outrage at the sudden invasion of his little brother's space, and he slammed his small hands onto the table.
"That is completely unfair! I want to feed Fainyx too! Here, Fainyx! take this piece of sweet bread, it's my favorite!"
Adam voiced his loud agreement, sliding a small plate of pastries over. "And take this fruit tart, Fainyx. It's much better than Uncle Alex's sour soup."
Within seconds, both older brothers and the twins began piling food onto Fainyx's plate until the dishes were practically stacked into a miniature mountain.
Fainyx sat paralyzed in his chair, staring at the chaotic pile of food with an immense, suffocating wave of stress washing through his mind.
Realizing that these four stubborn nobles would probably start a literal civil war inside the dining hall if he refused their offerings, Fainyx let out a silent, weary prayer to whatever gods were listening, picked up his fork, and began to eat each item one small bite at a time just to keep the peace.
'I suddenly want to bail from this mansion entirely...' Fainyx thought, chewing his food with a completely detached, deadpan expression.
The entire table watched his tiny jaw move with bated breath, and the moment he successfully finished a few pieces of meat and drank a spoonful of soup, the suffocating tension in the room instantly melted away into absolute joy.
With Fainyx actively participating, the rest of the family finally began to eat their own meals, and the cold, terrifying atmosphere of the Nocte house was briefly replaced by genuine warmth and lighthearted chatter.
Hestia began asking Adam and Liam about their latest studies, and the two boys proudly answered her questions between mouthfuls of food, filling the grand hall with a comfortable noise that Arthur hadn't heard in years.
Once the long dinner finally concluded and the table was cleared, Arthur elegantly dabbed the corners of his lips with a silk handkerchief before looking up with his usual stern authority.
"The dinner is dismissed. Adam, Liam return to your quarters and prepare your belongings for tomorrow's departure. "
"Servants, clear the hall and ensure the children are escorted safely."
The boys nodded obediently, and Fainyx offered a polite, silent bow from his seat, feeling a massive surge of relief that he was finally being allowed to escape his overbearing aunt and uncle before they could turn his hair into twin-tails again.
The children filed out of the room alongside the servants, leaving the massive oak doors to click firmly shut behind them, plunging the grand dining hall into a sudden, heavy silence.
Arthur remained seated at the head of the table, his expression unreadable as he waited for his younger siblings to speak, knowing that this confrontation had been building for the last six years.
Hestia stared down at her hands for a long moment before lifting her brilliant blue eyes, her voice uncharacteristically quiet.
"Can I ask you something, older brother?"
"What is it?" Arthur replied, his tone perfectly level.
"Why... why did you go to such extreme lengths to hide the very fact of Fainyx's existence from us?"
Hestia asked, her fingers clenching into the white tablecloth as her voice began to tremble with years of pent-up confusion.
"I just cannot help but wonder why, after all these years of absolute silence, you suddenly chose this specific moment to announce to high society that he exists. Why now, Arthur? Give us an honest answer."
Alexander nodded slowly, his cold face darkening as he focused his intense glare directly onto his older brother.
"It simply does not add up, Brother... Why did you force him into complete isolation away from everyone who could have helped raise him, and more importantly... where exactly was he kept after our sister-in-law passed away?"
"..."
Arthur stayed entirely silent for a full, agonizing minute, his head dropping slightly as his aristocratic features were completely swallowed by the heavy shadows of the dimly lit room.
He stared at the dark wood of the table, his throat tightening before he finally forced his mouth open, his voice cracking with a vulnerability that the twins had never heard from the fearsome Duke of the North.
"I... I might have left him in the isolated outer annex... the very day he was born."
Both of his siblings snapped, their chairs screeching violently against the stone floor as they both stood up and shouted in perfect, horrified sync.
"WHAT?! WHY?!"
"I was completely consumed by grief, and I was not in a right state of mind back then..."
Arthur whispered, his hands trembling slightly on the table as a deeply sickened expression crossed his face.
"Immediately after the funeral, I traveled directly to Celestyne's family estate with the intention of handing the newborn child over to them entirely."
"Why would you even dream of abandoning Celestyne's baby to those people?!"
Alexander shouted, his stoic facade shattering into pure, unbridled fury as he leaned over the table.
"You knew what kind of vultures they were! How could you be so incredibly heartless?!"
"I was a fool... I know that now..." Arthur said, his voice shaking as he forced himself to recall his darkest days.
"I... thought that since they were her blood relatives, they would look upon the boy and raise him with the warmth that I had completely lost, but when I arrived, Celestyne's aunt was already plotting behind closed doors to throw Fainyx into a common orphanage to protect their noble reputation... they didn't care about him at all."
Arthur's knuckles turned stark white as he clenched his fists, his breathing turning shallow.
"I nearly lost all control of my mana that day, and the sheer rage drove me to snatch the child back a day later. Celestyne's younger sister actually tried to stop me, crying and begging to take care of the baby herself, but she was still nothing more than a fragile teenager who had never raised a child, so I refused her."
He closed his eyes, a heavy wave of shame washing over his features.
"My mind was entirely broken by the loss of her... and I simply could not bear to look at the boy without seeing the cause of her death, so I placed Fainyx in the secluded outer annex where he would be entirely out of my sight. I left him there for three long years with nothing but a single maid, a chef, and a considerable monthly allowance... believing that material wealth was enough to fulfill my duty."
A suffocating, horrific silence stretched across the dining hall, heavy with the weight of his confession, until Hestia finally broke it with a voice that practically dripped with pure hatred.
"What the absolute hell is wrong with you brother...?"
Hestia whispered, her body shaking as she violently slammed both of her hands onto the polished table, causing the silver candelabras to rattle.
"Why did you just abandon a defenseless newborn baby in an isolated annex?!
How could the great Duke of the North even think of committing such a repulsive sin?!"
Tears of absolute fury began to spill from her red eyes as she stared at him with complete loathing.
"Our sister-in-law spent the final, agonizing moments of her life fighting with everything she had to protect that child in her womb before she died, and your brilliant response was to try and hand him over to a toxic family, before locking him away in a lonely building with only two servants to watch him?! "
" And now you just take him in that annex "that" you put yourself and takes him back here acting like a good father? Have you completely lost your mind, Arthur?!"
She stepped closer to the head of the table, her voice breaking into a passionate, heart-wrenching sob.
"Did... you ever stop to think about how that poor child felt... growing up with the terrifying knowledge that his own family had abandoned him in a corner of the estate?! "
" ... He never had a mother to cuddle him... he never had a father to hold his hand... and he spent his entire childhood without a single drop of family happiness for those whole three years because you completely blew it, Arthur! Why did you hide him away like a shameful secret when you knew he was severely, painfully sick?!"
Hestia choked on her tears, her hands pressing against her chest as the raw agony of the realization completely overwhelmed her.
"What if... what if his illness had taken him during those three long years, and he had suddenly died all alone in that annex without ever knowing that his family loved him, or that he even had a family at all?! "
" I... I cannot even bear to picture such a horrible thing... it makes me physically sick to my stomach!"
She broke down into a violent fit of weeping, leaning heavily against Alexander's shoulder as her twin brother silently supported her weight, his own crystal blue eyes brimming with quiet tears.
The Duke, who had remained entirely frozen under the weight of her words, finally looked up with an expression of profound devastation.
"I know that I messed up beyond repair..."
Arthur spoke, his voice completely hollow as he stared at his hands.
"I know that every single choice I made back then was horribly wrong... and that is precisely why I am desperately trying to make amends for my sins as a father now..."
He said as his eyes now a bit red as he looks at her.
" I almost failed him entirely... and I completely shattered the sacred promise I made to my late wife... I just... I didn't know how to handle the pain." He squeezed his fists so tightly that his skin threatened to tear, his mind filled with a crushing weight of guilt.
Hestia let out a shaky, trembling sigh, wiping her wet face as she looked down at her older brother.
"You truly want to make amends for what you did, Arthur? Do you swear it?"
The Duke offered a slow, desperate nod.
"I swear it on my life... Hestia."
Hestia closed her eyes, letting out a heavy breath.
"Celestyne's death anniversary is arriving in just a few weeks around June, which means that Fainyx's seventh birthday will be on that exact same day, correct?"
Arthur flinched violently in his seat, a sudden realization hitting his mind like a physical blow as he stared at his sister in pure horror.
In the three years since he had brought Fainyx back into the main estate, he had been so utterly consumed by his own grief during that dark anniversary that he had never once thrown a birthday party for his youngest son.
He had completely forgotten to celebrate the boy's life because he was too busy drowning in his own grateful regrets, and the realization made his eyes turn incredibly red with unshed tears.
'What in the world have I been doing as a father...?'
Arthur thought, a suffocating wave of self-loathing twisting his chest.
"To tell you the absolute truth, Brother... I completely hate you for what you became," Hestia said, her voice dropping into a cold, hard tone.
"You kept pushing all of us away, turning colder and colder until we couldn't even reach you, while you sat in your office during his birthday wallowing in nothing but useless regret and sadness. "
" Did you ever stop to think about Fainyx's feelings? He never got to meet his beautiful mother, and he spent the most formative years of his life inside that isolated annex believing that he was entirely alone in the world."
She let out a bitter, watery laugh, shaking her head.
"Do you even know what he wanted when we asked him what gift he desired? A book, Brother... He didn't ask for a grand toy, or a weapon, or a magical artifact, he merely wanted a single book. Normal children his age do not act like that..."
" His facial expressions... they are completely detached from reality, showing none of the vibrant emotions that a six-year-old boy should possess..."
" Children are supposed to laugh, cry, and play with toys whenever they want, but your neglect stripped that personality away from him, leaving him with nothing but a cold, distant face. It makes me incredibly sad, and it makes me furious."
Alexander nodded firmly, his voice steady but laced with a deep, lingering sorrow.
"I saw that exact same detached look on his face today, Brother. If you genuinely want to begin making amends for the years you stole from him, then you must celebrate his birthday with all of us the moment we return from the capital palace. No excuses this time."
Arthur remained entirely quiet, his mind violently flashing back to the day he had first pulled Fainyx out of the annex, remembering how the tiny three-year-old boy had stared up at him with those beautiful, crystalline violet eyes completely devoid of any human emotion.
'So... it was entirely my fault that he ended up so broken,' Arthur realized, his heart shattering into a million pieces.
He closed his eyes and pictured the brilliant, radiant smile his late wife used to give him, followed closely by the image of the profound grief and fading warmth in her eyes just before she passed away to bring this precious boy into the world, the exact same boy that Arthur had tried to throw away out of sheer cowardice.
"I... I need to make amends to him, no matter what it takes," the Duke resolved aloud, the deep depression that had clouded his face for years suddenly turning into an unyielding, burning determination.
He needed to wake up from his pathetic stupor, shake off the lingering ghosts of his past, and immediately begin preparing a grand celebration that would finally bring a genuine smile to his youngest son's face.
Looking across the table, he saw his younger brother and sister finally offering small, soft smiles through their lingering tears, having successfully forced their stubborn older brother to realize his severe shortcomings as a parent.
The heavy tension that had dictated the Nocte family for six long years was finally beginning to fracture, and as the twins stood together in the quiet hall, Arthur took a deep breath, ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead just to earn the right to be called Fainyx's father.