she's gone now

#23

In the room ijekiel couldn't make up anything inside that room at all, it was a mess. Piles of books has been knocked down from the shelf, the vase was shattered on the ground, he can only focus on one thing in the room, Roger Alpheus.

His father's was sitting on his desk, his hair was like a bush, and ink was splashed to the wallpaper. Ijekiel assumed it was because the famous wealthy Alpheus resident, that is now tainted and is struggling with financials. Surely moving out wouldn't be a problem, since Lucas is there. But knowing who Roger Alpheus is, he would probably rely on ijekiel's marriage with the princess.

Ijekiel stepped forward while shutting the door behind him quietly, "father?" He called, but there was no response.

But ijekiel only wanted answers why Roger didn't inform him about the mine being sold. "Father." He raised his voice.

Finally, Roger looked up at him, and set down the quill he was holding.
"Yes, my son?", ijekiel honestly expected Roger to snap at his face again, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

"Why didn't you tell me our mine was sold." Ijekiel asked straight to the point, as if the maids and guards were forced to keep their mouth shut, "sold? Nonsense." Roger said with a bitter tone.

Ijekiel rolled his eyes, "then tell my why, old man." He thought to himself, "may I ask what actually happen?"

"Duke altera has tricked us." Roger snapped without hesitation whatsoever, he put a hand on his forehead, "they fled away to another country with all our earnings from the past 7 years." He described, Roger placed a hand on ijekiel's shoulder, "you're our only hope, ijekiel. You must marry the princess!"

Ijekiel didn't tolerate that, he swiped away from Roger, "calm down, father. Give me a few more da-"

"I'm not giving you any more breaks, ijekiel!" Roger snapped again. Ijekiel was disgusted, he felt like being held against his own will.

Roger turned around, "every young man has dreamed to someday marry the princess, you should feel ashamed of yourself."

"This isn't fair, father. I'm getting held away from my freedom just because of your actions." Ijekiel got irritated, he wished that Roger would kick him out for that sentence.
"I know what I did was foolish enough, but for once you must help your father out." It was clear Roger didn't want to lose on the debate, ijekiel just wanna leave at that point.

"I've obeyed you for 18 years, father. You're just too blinded by your greed, forgetting that I'm still human too." Ijekiel turns around and walked to the door immediately, "ijekiel wait!!" Roger yelled out again.

Now ijekiel was out off that room, he looked around now seeing literally no maid around, he reckon most of them quit and moved to another estate. He walked inside the smaller library of the estate, only passing one maid cleaning the window on the way.

He locked the doors for privacy, and stretched, "gyahh that was stressful!" He sighed, "you can come out now, whitey."

Suddenly a fog formed behind him, "well played, lucas." The real ijekiel came behind what we thought was ijekiel arguing with Roger.

"Good acting right? I know!" Lucas removed his ijekiel glamour spell off. ijekiel chuckled, "then what about my invisibility spell? Was it good?" He asked.

"I guess. I didn't see a speck of mana at all there, phew that office smells dreadful" Lucas described the odor of roger's office.

A couple of minutes before that, Lucas and ijekiel already set up a plan to switch places. It wasn't much of a bother to both of them, so ijekiel can perfect his invisibility spell, while Lucas just wants to annoy everyone else.
Though rogers response of him being scammed by the altera's was unpredictable, Lucas didn't really care. He never once argued with his parents back when they were still alive and well, even if they did argue it was mainly because of a minor disagreement.
So it was a new experience for Lucas nonetheless. Ijekiel in the other hand almost mastered half of the handwritten spell book, he also learned what other types of mana looks like. Ijekiel also bought a semi similar robe like Lucas has, only it was slightly lighter then lucas's robe.

"You might wanna copy my style, but trust me whitey, I look more good!"
".. Lucas I was one one who picked out your robe"
"And I still look better in it!"

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A/N: I admit this chapter was only about how Roger was scammed by the altera's-