Sylvia

After the eventful night, the sunrise at the Shuzar mansion was quite gloomy. Everyone was very tired and sleepy. Raymond, who had to manage everything in the estate because of what happened the day before, looked especially zombified.

Frank was maybe the only one in the entire place who wasn't dying to sleep. Julia skipped the morning classes as she was still presumed to be sick by Lloyd. Frank was serving her the morning, so she wasn't that disappointed about missing her magic classes.

The gardens at the Shuzar estate were the only places that Hannah found to be 'not annoying'. As she walked through a vineyard, she gritted her teeth and mumbled random curses for someone. The night before, she had decided with Lloyd to talk about what happened yesterday in detail. She even took the risk of asking if he knew she was a witch in the heat of the moment. She would have found the answer already by now, only if Lloyd had shown up at the time, he was supposed to meet her in the gardens.

She overlooked it at that time because she understood how busy the job of a Marquis is. She willingly waited for him, for about five hours. That was her patience in God mode. The longest time she had ever waited for someone before this was, as long as she could remember, only ten minutes. And that too, only to ridicule the audacity of that person for making her wait.

The day passed without Lloyd meeting Hannah, which obviously left Hannah more bitter. The next few days passed so fast that it never occurred to her that she was waiting actually.

Julia's studies started taking place at full strength. And Frank who had been sticking to her like glue for some reason for the past few days, was also ordered to attend the classes along with Julia by Raymond. Lloyd had happily agreed to it, because it made Raymond cheerful (and life easier for Lloyd) for a few days.

Hannah too never opposed it. She was even delighted as she used Frank's lack of knowledge an excuse to assign him thrice the work as Julia. The look on Frank's face after that had been exhilarating, Hannah forgot for some time about the disappointment Lloyd had been putting her through. However, Julia helping him do it all was a pity, but she left them alone in that area cause she herself had told them to help each other on the first day Frank joined in with Julia. She regrated it later for playing a good teacher role too hard.

It wasn't until near the weekend of her first week at Shuzar estate, that Hannah noticed Lloyd's abnormal behavior. By the impression that he had made on her the very first day, she had been sure as hell that he would pester her every free chance he got out of his busy schedule. But it had been surprisingly quiet. Too quiet, in fact.

At this point, no matter how she looked at it, Lloyd was avoiding her. He wasn't even trying to hide it, which especially pissed Hannah off. For example, the day after the garden plans being cancelled, Hannah decided to pay Lloyd a visit in his study by herself and to give him an earful, of course. But instead of letting her in, he locked himself up in his study for the next two days under the pretense of having too much work. Even Raymond's gothic and traumatizing smile couldn't drag him outside his study. It was to the point that if you camped outside the Marquis' study, then you might have had the chance to catch a glimpse of his face.

'Does he even shit?' Hannah wondered often as she taught the children.

Now that the weekend had come, Hannah had completely thrown out the idea of meeting with Lloyd. That much ignoring was enough to make someone realize that the other person didn't want to talk. And why would she muster up calm things by being assertive? Wasn't that completely stupid. Lloyd didn't fire her nor he posed any threat to her. He was just ignoring her, and wasn't that perfect for Hannah, anyway? She just wanted to live quietly at the capital from the beginning. So, she accepted the facts and thanked her luck that things turned out great for her.

Julia and Frank had sweet-talked Raymond into getting a permission from Lloyd for them to visit the Brooklyn Library. Though it wasn't easy at first, as Raymond and Lloyd, both were skeptical. But they acted cute to them and got the permission anyway in the end. After they had left, Hannah was going to spend the entire day resting in her room, when she heard a knock at the door of her room.

The Shuzar estate was safe and secure, so Hannah had let down her guard considerably.

'It must be Raymond,' she thought as she walked over to the door.

Before opening it, she had this eerie hunch that some thing wasn't right, but she opened it anyway. And there, finally making his appearance after a week of hiding, stood Lloyd.

He smiled as he looked at her shocked face and that made her even more annoyed.

"Quite shameless of you to show up here after all this time," Hannah said. It had been a long time since she had dropped honorifics with Lloyd.

"Such feisty eyes, looks like you missed me quite a lot, hmm?" Lloyd said leaning in towards Hannah.

"Don't flatter yourself," Hannah snapped at him.

"Don't be so angry yet. There are going to be a lot of things which I would need to apologize for. Like this right now," Lloyd said.

"What….," Hannah was going to ask something but before she could finish her line, Lloyd sprayed some powder over her. It wasn't even a strong one, but the tranquilizer worked immediately on Hannah. She felt her consciousness fade as she fainted right into Lloyd's arms.

"Y… You bas … ard," Hannah mumbled one last time before she lost her senses completely.

"I am one, aren't I?" Lloyd whispered as he carried Hannah back into her room and laid her on the bed. Lloyd took out a small red candy from his pocket and stared at Hannah's lips for some time.

He smirked and put the candy in his mouth.

"Well, it's not like it is the first time we are kissing," saying that Lloyd gently put his lips on Hannah's. Opening her mouth with his tongue, he pushed the candy into her mouth and pushed it further, for her to swallow it. He pressed down on her tongue with his own to get the candy down her throat. A few minutes later, after getting her swallow it, he parted his lips from her. A faint glow of redness was clear on his face. He crouched down against the bed and pressed his face into Hannah's hand. Looking at her endearingly, he admitted, "Sorry, I just took my own sweet time to feed it to you."

Hannah was snoring peacefully in her sleep. Lloyd fondled with her hair and said, "Just stay here like this for today. After that bastard tells me how to break Oblivion, I will throw him right out this place. But until then, you need to stay hidden from him."

He stood up, kisses Hannah's hair strands he had been playing with and went outside, locking the door behind him.

Karnov was supposed to come at that day. As a sorcerer, as Karnov was, he could feel the presence of a mana core in the house immediately. So, Lloyd fed Hannah the same red candy he always fed Julia, to erase her magical presence and hide her mana core. Though Hannah's magic was much stronger, but the candy still worked well for a short period of time. And that was all Lloyd needed.

There was a large lake glimmering with the sunset lights that had filled the sky with a pinkish-yellow glow. As the lake reflected the lights in the sky, several animals on its shores and birds over its air, returned to their abodes in the dimness of the day. The breeze blew as if to softly kiss the trees and the grass on the shores.

As the sun disappeared into the lake's horizon, several little fireflies like glimmering stars buzzed over the grass at the lake's shore. Walking through these tiny fireflies, was the figure of an old woman. Though she looked over fifty years of age, her presence was no joke. Her violet eyes reflected the lights from the tiny fireflies flying around her, creating an illusion as if her eyes shone.

The woman walked to the brink of the lake, followed by those fireflies. Sitting down slowly near the brink, she stared into the reflection the lake showed her. There were the lights from the fireflies flying around her, the remaining light from the fading sun and the faint lights from the slowly brightening stars in the sky. The trees from the forest surrounding the lake also encircled the lake with their shadows. But there was no reflection of herself.

"Ayia, the joys of being dead, can't even look at my own face," she said as she stood up and shooed the fireflies away. "Always following me around for free energy, can't you feed yourselves on your own, you shiny leeches."

As she walked away from the lake, a mysterious light followed her.

"I wish Vincent was here. He would've complimented me even if I look like an old hag right now," the woman whined as she stopped to let the mysterious light following her, reach her.

The light circled around her for some time and then finally taking up the form of a little manikin flying around the woman, it said, "Sylvia."

"Yes, my little one. What did you find this time that you came here in such a hurry?" Sylvia said as she started walking again.

The little manikin whispered in Sylvia's ears and then flew around her like those fireflies.

"What?" Sylvia said in some surprise. "You saw someone like me?"

The little manikin nodded and then flew up high into the night sky, disappearing among the countless stars.

Sylvia smiled and said, "Shall I pay this someone a visit, hmm?"

And walking into the forest surrounding the lake, she disappeared.