The Manikin

Three weeks had passed since the lake incident. Now that Frank was behaving somewhat civil, classes had been resumed and Hannah now had another serious problem to deal with.

Frank was now too good at studying. Before he lost his memories, Frank tended to be timid and often struggled with the difficult tasks Hannah assigned him. Now he took nothing but a few minutes to understand a concept while memorizing it and solving any kind of problem Hannah gave him. He even surpassed Lia.

Another thing that happened was that Frank had started speaking again a week ago. He started muttering Julia's name in the middle of the night and has been communicating by speaking since then. His voice was particularly the same if some deepness was looked over, but what changed the most was the tone. He no longer used honorifics and formal language. In other words, he talked to everyone like a rude bitch.

Frank's memories were the only thing gone. Hannah was wondering why they were even worried about that brat. She regretted thinking about him as a pitiful child. And she had a valid reason to.

Frank's rudeness was at peak level with Hannah. He called her an old hag the first thing when he spoke to her. Not that he hadn't given nicknames to every person in the house. Like Lia was 'pretty girl', Raymond was 'four-eyed man', and the chef was 'food-giver'. Similarly, Hannah was named 'old-hag'.

Lia was much more surprised at Frank's sudden span of vocabulary than the fact that he used it to name people weirdly. She did read him books when he wasn't speaking to make him fall asleep at night. She had no idea it would have such a result.

One of the most significant changes that had come with Frank now was that he joined the knight's training every morning. Apparently, he had taken a fancy to it after watching the knights train. Unlike what the knight's commander feared, Frank never slacked off his training.

Marquis Shuzar's family maintained a knightage and there were four orders of knights:- Agresso knights, Shadow knights, Black knights, and lastly, those directly under Lloyd, the Reapers order of knights. They were originally called White knights but their name became more famous as Grim Reapers of the battlefield after the war. Frank trained with the Agresso knights who mainly had the job of protecting the estate and escorting.

"Ha!" Frank shouted as he swung his blade through the air at a lightning speed and pushed it right through the wooden dummy.

"Monster brat, how is that just a week's training?" Sir Yauv said as he patted hardly Frank's back.

"Five days," Frank snapped with a poker face at Sir Yauv.

"This little... Yeah, five days, isn't it?" Sir Yauv said while trying to avoid displaying his annoyance.

"Cool knight, bastard knight is angry again," Frank said looking at the Agresso knight's commander, Sir Blake. Frank's weird nomenclature had reached even the knight's order. And therefore, Sir Blake was 'cool knight' and Sir Yauv was 'bastard knight'.

"I have a name, you piece of sh...," Sir Yauv was stopped in between by Sir Blake.

"Language Yauv, see how you speak before a child," he said.

Sir Yauv pointed at Frank's shoulder, which was just two inches shorter than his, and yelled, " How is that a child? And shouldn't you be reprimanding him for naming us like that?"

"Why? He's cute. How can you reprimand him when he looks like an angel? Doesn't it weigh on your conscience?" Sir Nico said as he walked over to them.

"Hello, papa knight. How is baby knight?" Frank said turning to Sir Nico.

Sir Nico squished Frank's cheeks as he smiled widely and said," Look, isn't that cute? This is the face of an angel. And baby knight is doing very well with his pretty lady."

Sir Nico's wife had given birth to a boy a week ago when Frank joined the training. Along with everyone else, Frank also visited his wife and child and named them as such. Sir Nico was highly fond of Frank because he called his wife 'pretty lady'.

Frank struggled quietly to release himself from the squish as Sir Yauv and Sir Nico debated on whether Frank had an angel's or a devil's face. Finally getting free, he told Sir Blake that he was going back inside as the morning training had ended.

Frank's ability to see the lights now was increased tenfold and he instinctively knew what light meant which emotion. Therefore, he did name everyone according to how they actually felt to him.

Walking from the knightage to the main mansion was a thirty-minute walk. Frank usually thought about what reward to ask Julia for leaving her alone the entire morning.

The weather was sunny and a soft breeze blew through the shaded path. His mint hair waved in the breeze flickering over his forehead. It was a picturesque sight. And Frank knew full well that he looked good in eyes.

In fact, he had been observing the knights to learn how to use his charms on a lady. Now that he was less clingy to Lia, everyone believed that he was becoming normal day by day. But they were gravely mistaken.

Frank's obsession with Lia was increasing with each day passing. Every moment his thoughts were full of how to lock her up so that only he could see her. Learning swords, excelling in studies, learning to speak, and even maintaining his looks, everything was a part of his meticulous preparation to obtain Lia.

For the past three weeks, he had been observing everything in the estate. And he knew one thing, to have Lia, he had to be stronger than anyone in the estate at least.

Frank ran his hand through his hair and flipped then back away from his forehead. It was because Lia liked this look better on him.

Suddenly, he saw something through the corner of his eye. A light, a very familiar light. It disappeared into the woods behind the estate. Frank looked around to see if anyone was watching and having a path clear, he chased after the light.

Entering the woods, he raced after that flickering light and at length, caught it. It was a small manikin and it whispered something into Frank's ear. It was:

" Sylvia is calling for you. Go to the forest."