An Unwanted Lord.

Lloyd stepped down the carriage in front of the main entrance garden of the mansion in the Shuzar estate. He had quite a disturbing ride back home; his thoughts were all over the place after that talk to the emperor. He looked in front of him, only Raymond stood there by the gate.

He walked up to him and said," Sometimes I think you're my wife, Raymond."

"Welcome back, my lord. And please refrain from making unreasonable and near-impossible remarks," Raymond said with a stern voice, with a disgusted look as he took Lloyd's coat and walked behind him into the mansion.

Lloyd sighed and whined," But really, there are fifty people in this house, for god's sake, fifty. Why does it have to be only you to greet me whenever I come back?"

Raymond stayed silent and followed Lloyd, refusing to allow any reply to escape him.

"You're not denying it. Isn't your lord too pitiful, Raymond?" Lloyd kept whining as he walked towards his study.

Reaching Lloyd's study, Raymond just shoved him inside the door and went to grab the refreshments with tea. Lloyd was left there, scratching the door.

"Don't divorce me, Raymond!!" he whined as he dragged himself to the table and particularly large chair.

He looked at the papers on his table, the pending documents left over from a month. A twisted look took over his face and he bolted up from his chair. Jumping into the side garden from his window (to avoid Raymond inside the mansion) he hopped away to the back gardens. The reason was simple, the governess' room's window looked into the back gardens.

He wondered how Julia was doing, but it was almost time for her class, so he didn't want to disturb her (the person who is on his way to mess with her governess).

As he merrily walked through the gardens, he saw something. He froze in his spot and then instinctively hid behind a tree. He looked again at what he had seen and yet again, it was still the same thing. After the shock subsided, a spurge of anger took over Lloyd. Holding his sword at his waist, he was going to go there when a hand grabbed him and he disappeared from there.

From the last week, ever since meeting Sylvia, Frank had been frequenting the forest of the afterlife. Though they decided the time to be at night because Frank's absence during the day had alarmed a lot of people on the estate, especially Lia.

After recovering his memories, he acquired all the information he needed to know about his current position. Things like the orphanage and all the murders he had committed before, he did see them as nuisances but the immeasurable guilt he had faced before his powers were released had vanished. Maybe it was as Sylvia had told him, he didn't particularly feel any compassion or emotions anymore toward anything. All that was his priority was Lia.

Remembering the memories with Lia did nothing but amplify his obsession. Everything unrelated to her was just information to be used to acquire her. He didn't know why he wanted Lia so bad, her good treatment of him before or the telepathic connection they shared seemed to have little to do with it.

He thought over it for a while as he did push-ups in the morning training with the knights. He couldn't think of a reason and in a daze, beat up two of his seniors in a duel. As he absent-mindedly kept crushing every duel partner, he still couldn't reach a conclusion about what was his reason to be so obsessed with Lia.

He was released from the training earlier for the knight's safety. He walked over the thirty-minute path and mulled over what Sylvia had told him about her own obsession. She told him how the person she obsessed over was finally acquired by her. Though, she did mention something about starting a war and guilt-trapping the person, and was it swans she talked about? He didn't pay much attention when she told him because it seemed boring.

He didn't even realize it when he reached the side gardens. There was a carriage going to the stables.

'The lord was supposed to come back today, right?' Frank thought. He just heard it by passing but couldn't confirm it because he was still pretending that he didn't remember anything. It was much safer that way and Lia complied with his requests easily like that.

He looked in front of him and his eyes traced the figure of a girl collecting flowers. It was Lia. He gazed at her and he didn't realize when he became so mesmerized that he had held her hand.

Lia looked at him and smiled widely.

Frank's eyes again filled with the familiar white light as he blankly stared at her beautiful face.

"You're back, should we go to the class together? The teacher said she would tell us about mana absorption today," Lia said placing a flower in her hand in Frank's hair.

Frank stood still there, holding her hand tightly and looking at her with sharp eyes. He finally had his answer about why he wanted her so much.

'Ah, she's too beautiful,' he told himself. 'How can I make her mine, forever?'

He held her close to himself and buried his head in her neck, nuzzling. Lia flustered and mumbled, "F... Frank, we would be late for class."

Frank with a pout, raised his head and stared into her ash-grey eyes. Without another thought, he linked their lips and started kissing her. Shocked out of her wits, Lia turned red. After kissing her to his heart's content, he finally parted his lips. And again with a pout and begging eyes (learned from Sylvia with a 100% guarantee of success), he said," Stay."

'Oh my god!!' Lia's mind and heart both jumped simultaneously. 'Is he sulking right now?'

Before she could say anything to this cute reaction she had just gotten out of Frank, they heard someone near the tree. They looked back to see who it was. But nobody was to be seen there.

Frank immediately returned to nuzzling his way into Lia's lap. Too much cuteness hit Lia, so just gave in and put him to sleep. Somehow, Frank was getting more sleepy during the day.

In the end, they were both late for class.

"That little piece of shit!!!" Lloyd shouted as soon as he broke free from the hand that held him. "How can he kiss my sister like that? She is not even ten yet!!!"

Hannah stared at his face with a disgusted look and said, " Well, they have been at it for a while now. And your sister IS ten. And that brat is also a child. So it's nothing but cute in everyone's eyes. And YOU, shouldn't be complaining about forcefully kissing. At least, they had mutual consent."

Lloyd, now realizing that he was in Hannah's room (most likely teleported there) and that he almost lost his cool with the children, smiled nervously and said, "So, did you miss me?"

All he received was a disgusted scowl and few cusses that he remarked were quite nostalgic.