Father

"Yes, young master", Marcus curtly replied.

Jophiel was immediately filled with questions. However, he couldn't utter a single one. If he did, he would immediately be exposed. Hence he nodded as he stood.

He then turned to Marcus,

"Lets go."

Marcus responded and led the way. They turned corridor after corridor.

'Gosh this manor is unnecessarily huge.'

Unaware of Jophiel's thoughts, Marcus continued moving forward. After two more turns, they finally reached a huge mahogany door. There were two guards in front of the door, and after seeing Marcus and Jophiel, they bowed, opened the doors and allowed them to go through.

Upon their entry, Jophiel made no moves and observed that he had been brought to a royally furnished room, and Marcus bowed,

"My lord"

Upon hearing his voice, the man looked up.

"Marcus," he said in acknowledgement. " You may excuse us."

Once again, Marcus bowed. He then took his leave.

Jophiel felt it as the man's gaze landed on his face. His gaze was penetrating. But for some reason, they were filled with sadness. After a while, the man gestured for Jophiel to come towards him.

Jophiel walked towards him put one hand on the chair opposite him and gazed into his eyes as if asking for permission.

The man nodded and Jophiel took his seat.

After Jophiel settled, the man who was supposedly his father began speaking

"Why did you run."

Jophiel's was confused. After all he had no memories from the body's previous owner. Hence he decided to stay quiet.

"You've changed," The man continued. "In the past you would whine about this and that. So whats wrong now? You know I've been gravely injured. If you go our family's power and fortune will fall in to the hands of the cousin and uncle who you hate so much? You know this so why did you run away?!" This time his voice was filled with grief and anger, but he calmed himself and continued softly, "You're all I have. You just have to put up with it for a little while. I l know they beat you, I know how they insult and abuse you all the time. Trust me it burns my heart. But please, just put up with it for a little while. once you come of age my title can be passed down to you."

For some reason, these words brought tears to Jophiel's eyes. There was a feeling of intense pain and grief, but strangely it did not belong to him. However, they still caused an emotional breakdown. He started crying. He felt a strong sense of injustice. Unknowingly he had stood up and walked towards his father. He hugged him and cried even more. Surprisingly, the man didn't push him away. Instead, he gave him two firm pats on his back. After a while, Jophiel took hold of his emotions. He stood and wiped his face frantically as he was embarrassed at the situation that had just played out afterwards he bowed.

"Father, I apologise," His father hummed as he replied.

"Unn just don't do it again."

"I won't," Jophiel said affirmatively,

His father nodded once again. Following this, Jophiel sat and finally noticed the tea set on the table. "Father are we having tea?"

"Unnn you had me worried sick after disappearing. You owe me your precious time"

Jophiel laughed at his comment. He was starting to see that his father was not as cold as he first appeared.

"No father, time is worth nothing if it's being spent with you"

Like that, Jophiel and his father enjoyed a nice breakfast tea. During their time together, he found out that his father was a count. This county was called Ferinheight. He gained this knowledge as his father's main topic of discussion was his beloved county. It was as big as four average-sized towns combined. So it covered quite a distance. He learned that it was the second most developed county, and they were under a dukedom. His father shared all this information as Jophiel was supposed to take over his father's position. In the process, Jophiel just nodded and gave statements of affirmation of disagreements based on the situation. That way it wouldn't look as though he didn't care or he was ignorant of Feringheight's affairs.

After their discussion, Jophiel took his leave. Upon stepping out of his father's room, he stumbled upon a problem. He couldn't navigate his way through the manor.

Sighing dejectedly, he began to trudge along the vast corridors, unable to ask any questions as it would cause suspicion. After a while, he heard a faint voice and unwittingly moved towards it.

He heard two voices speaking,

"You never get everything right."

"You've been telling me that for over thirty minutes. I'm telling you. I got rid of him!" the second voice replied in anger.

"And you've be telling me that for the past thirty minutes yet he's alive and well in his fathers room."

At this point, the conversation did not seem to Jophiel to be 100% directed to him, so he kept moving.

However, their discussion continued as the second voice sighed and stated,

"Whatever, Father, what do we do now that he's back. He might have already told his father that we are the ones who set him up and he never ran away."

Jophiel paused

"We?" The father asked. "For all he knows, you're the one who asked him to go herb gathering with him in the woods."

The second voice, who had now been identified as the son, scoffed and replied,

"Father what are you trying to say. If I go down we go down together."

"Geez, calm down. What's all this mutually assured destruction bullshit you're trying to bring up here. If you go down. As long as I your father I'm still in power I'll make sure to get rid of him and redeem you."

The son scoffed once more. The conversation was slowly coming to an end, so Jophiel immediately took his leave.

After walking a bit more, he saw Marcus standing by a door. He assumed it was his room and walked towards it, projecting a confident aura. In essence, if that wasn't his room, then he was screwed.