Chapter 5 - The 2nd eldest of the Noctis
[Third Person POV]
For the first month of the term, Luan perfected the art of becoming a ghost.
Navigating the grand halls of the Royal Academy required military precision. If Luan saw a flash of dull gray hair surrounded by fawning students, he immediately ducked down a different corridor to avoid Kaelen Noctis. If he caught even a glimpse of the Crown Prince's golden aura approaching the library, Luan would seamlessly retreat into the restricted archives until the coast was clear. He kept his head down, his grades flawless, and his presence entirely unremarkable.
His only true sanctuary, aside from the library, remained the ancient oak tree in the gardens.
It was beneath this very tree that the carefully constructed walls of his quiet life began to crack.
Lord Luscious Noctis, the eldest brother of the Noctis Duchy, had arrived at the Academy on a brisk Tuesday afternoon to submit a stack of bureaucratic paperwork on behalf of his brother, Victor. Luscious was a striking Alpha, possessing the legendary silver hair and piercing silver eyes of their lineage. As he walked down the stone path, surrounded by bowing faculty members, he paused.
Through the courtyard windows, he spotted a lone figure sitting under the grand oak.
Luscious squinted, waving off a rambling professor. His eyes locked onto the boy's head, which was bent over a thick history tome. The hair was unmistakably, brilliantly silver. It caught the sunlight exactly the way his own did.
A sudden, sharp ache bloomed in Luscious's chest, an inexplicable, instinctual tug that made his breath catch. It was a strange, frantic itch in his heart that he couldn't put into words. He stared at the boy, his aristocratic brow furrowing in deep confusion. No one outside the main Noctis bloodline possesses hair that pure, Luscious thought.
Instead of approaching, Luscious quietly observed. For the next month, he became a shadow, watching Luan from afar whenever he visited the Academy grounds. He noted the boy's frail stature, his solitary habits, and the muddy brown of his eyes that immediately dispelled any rumors of him being a high-born noble.
Driven by the relentless, uncalming itch in his heart, Luscious ordered his private investigators to look into the boy's background. The report that arrived a week later painted a remarkably ordinary picture that neatly explained the anomaly.
Luan Woods. The son of Maria Woods.
Luscious remembered Maria. She had been a gentle, quiet maid in the Noctis manor, a very distant offshoot of a forgotten branch of their family who possessed just enough diluted noble blood to work in the main estate. She had abruptly left their service fifteen years ago, right around the time Kaelen was born. The investigators concluded she must have married a commoner, diluting the bloodline even further, leaving her son with the signature hair but the brown eyes and lowly status of a slum-dweller.
Armed with this knowledge, Luscious made his move.
Luan was walking out of the library, his satchel slung over his shoulder, when a tall figure blocked his path. Luan stopped, his eyes widening as he took in the imposing Alpha with silver hair and silver eyes.
"Luan Woods, I presume?" Luscious asked, his voice smooth and commanding.
"Yes, my lord," Luan replied, immediately bowing his head. "If you will excuse me, I have studies to attend to." He tried to sidestep the noble, eager to maintain his invisible existence.
"I knew your mother," Luscious said quietly.
Luan froze. The defensive wall he had built around himself instantly crumbled. He slowly looked up, his brown eyes wide with shock. "You... you knew Maria?"
"She was a maid in our estate. A distant relative, actually," Luscious said, his expression softening as he looked at the boy. The strange tug in his chest was back, stronger than ever. "Come to the Noctis Manor this weekend. Have tea with me. I can tell you about her."
The thought of walking into the lion's den terrified Luan. But the desperate hunger to know more about the woman who had raised him, who had traded her life to buy him his bitter medicine, overrode his fear. He nodded.
That Saturday, the towering wrought-iron gates of the Noctis estate loomed over Luan like the jaws of a beast. He presented his invitation to the armored guards.
When the guards looked down at Luan, taking in his threadbare coat and brilliant silver hair, their eyes widened in absolute shock. Whispers immediately broke out among the staff. A silver-haired boy? From the slums? Is he the late Duke's bastard?
The tense murmurs only ceased when the head butler emerged, sternly informing the guards that the boy was merely the son of a distant, common-wed relative, putting the scandalous rumors to rest.
Luan was escorted into a sunlit conservatory that smelled of blooming orchids and rich tea. Luscious was already seated, pouring steaming jasmine tea into porcelain cups. The grandeur of the manor was suffocating, a stark contrast to the soot-stained walls of Luan's childhood, but Luscious's demeanor was surprisingly warm.
For an hour, Luan sat in rapt attention as Luscious shared memories.
"She was incredibly kind," Luscious said, a fond smile gracing his lips. "When I was a very young boy, I would get terribly frightened during the summer thunderstorms. My father was too strict to comfort me, but Maria would sneak into my room and sit by my bed. She used to sing these old, beautiful folk songs until I fell asleep."
A genuine, radiant smile broke across Luan's face. His chest felt incredibly warm. "She used to sing to me during the storms, too. She said the thunder was just the sky rearranging its furniture."
Luscious laughed, the sound rich and genuine. Looking at Luan's bright smile, the older Alpha felt an overwhelming surge of protective affection. It defied logic, this boy was barely a noble, practically a commoner---yet Luscious felt utterly at ease with him.
"You know" Luscious chuckled, leaning back in his chair and gesturing to Luan's head. "Your blood might be mostly common, but that hair is purely ours. Looking at you in this light, you could easily pass for one of my own brothers."
Outside the conservatory doors, the air suddenly turned ice-cold.
Bang!
The heavy glass doors were violently shoved open, shattering the peaceful atmosphere. Kaelen stood in the doorway, his chest heaving, his face contorted in an ugly mask of pure, unadulterated rage.
"Brother?!" Kaelen shrieked, his voice cracking with hysteria.
Luscious blinked in surprise, standing up. "Kaelen? What are you doing—"
"How dare you?!" Kaelen marched into the room, his blue eyes flashing with venom as he pointed a trembling finger at Luan. "How dare you bring this... this filthy slum rat into our home! And how dare you compare him to me!"
The jealousy that had been festering inside Kaelen since the library incident erupted like a volcano. His eyes darted wildly from his brother's perfect silver hair to Luan's equally flawless silver hair, and then caught sight of his own dull, gray reflection in the conservatory glass. It was a physical blow to his pride.
"He is nothing!" Kaelen screamed, tears of furious envy pricking the corners of his eyes. "He is a commoner! A beggar! He doesn't belong here, sitting at our table, drinking from our porcelain!"
"Kaelen, control yourself immediately," Luscious snapped, his Alpha aura flaring slightly in warning. "He is our guest, and the son of Maria. He is family, no matter how distant."
"He is not family!" Kaelen slammed his hands down on the table, making the teacups rattle violently. He glared at Luan, his face twisted with a hatred born entirely of insecurity. This boy had the Crown Prince's attention. Now, he had his eldest brother's affection. And worst of all, he wore the brilliant silver crown of the Noctis line effortlessly, while Kaelen had to drown himself in perfumes and expensive dyes just to feel worthy of his own last name.
"Look at him, Luscious!" Kaelen sneered, his voice dripping with venom. "He has muddy brown eyes. He smells of poverty. Having our hair is an insult to our bloodline! Throw him out before he taints this house any further!"
Luscious let out a heavy, exhausted sigh. The warm, nostalgic atmosphere of the conservatory had been utterly decimated. He raised a hand, elegantly waving two long fingers in the direction of the doorway to signal the head butler, who had been waiting discreetly in the hall.
"Take Kaelen to his room to calm himself down," Luscious instructed, his tone dropping into a cold, authoritative register that brooked no argument.
Kaelen's eyes went wide with disbelief. He immediately fought back as the butler stepped forward. "Why are you telling me to go back while you keep a nobody here?!" Kaelen shouted, his voice shrill and echoing off the glass walls. "I am your brother! He is a rat!"
The air in the room grew instantly heavier as Luscious's Alpha presence flared but not enough to crush, but enough to demand absolute obedience.
"Kaelen, understand that our family never steps on someone innocent," Luscious said, his voice dangerously low. "I never taught you that kind of language, nor did our father. You are acting like a spoiled child, not a noble of the Noctis Duchy." He turned his piercing silver gaze back to the staff. "Butler, drag him out. And do not let him out of his room, not until he calms down and remembers his manners."
The head butler gave a deep, respectful nod. "Right away, My Lord."
With a subtle gesture from the butler, three sturdy maids quickly stepped forward. Kaelen shrieked and thrashed, his expensive silk coat wrinkling as he fought against their grip. The maids, perfectly trained to handle the volatile young Omega, managed to hook their arms under his and drag him backward toward the hallway without leaving a single bruise on his delicate skin.
"Let go of me! Luscious! You can't do this! I'm your bother!" Kaelen's hysterical cries echoed down the grand corridors, growing fainter and fainter until the heavy mahogany doors of the west wing sealed the noise away entirely.
Silence, thick and uncomfortable, settled back over the conservatory.
Luan sat perfectly still in his chair, his hands folded neatly in his lap. He kept his muddy brown eyes fixed on the intricate floral pattern of his teacup, making sure his face remained an unreadable, placid mask. Inside, however, his heart was hammering against his ribs. He had just witnessed the complete humiliation of the Duchy's most prized child, all because of his mere presence.
Luscious slowly sank back into his armchair. He raised a hand to his face, his long fingers massaging his temples as if trying to ward off a sudden, sharp headache.
"I apologize that you had to experience that, Luan," Luscious said, his voice stripped of its earlier commanding edge, leaving behind only the tired exhaustion of an older sibling. "He is just... incredibly emotional."
Luan offered a small, polite nod, though he remained silent, unsure if speaking would overstep his bounds.
Luscious opened his eyes and looked across the table. His gaze inevitably landed right back on Luan's hair. The silver locks shimmered brilliantly in the afternoon sun, looking almost impossibly soft.
A pang of sympathetic guilt washed over the older Alpha. He was acutely aware of the deep, festering root of Kaelen's jealousy. For years, the Noctis family had watched their youngest brother weep in front of mirrors, cursing his dull, ashen gray hair. Luscious and Victor had spared no expense, importing the finest alchemical dyes, rare floral oils from the southern continents, and expensive magical elixirs, all desperately trying to coax a true, metallic shine out of Kaelen's strands.
Nothing had ever worked. Kaelen's hair remained flat and lifeless.
Yet here sat Luan, a boy from the soot-stained slums who washed his hair with cheap dormitory soap, effortlessly possessing the pure, radiant crown of a highborn Noctis.
It is a cruel irony of the bloodline, Luscious thought softly, his eyes lingering on Luan's serene face. The heavens gave the beauty of our ancestors to the son of a maid, and left the true heir grasping for shadows.