Chapter 48: Heart-To-Heart

"Amelia, Michael." Troye speaks up and the siblings look toward him immediately.

"You should know by now that an important banquet will be hosted soon. Amelia, your job is to make yourself look presentable and to send out invitations to certain families. Michael, you're coming with me to get ready. I'll take care of your clothes and make us look our best." Troye explains.

Michael points at himself dumbly.

"Me? Your grace, I don't deserve such honor." Michael tries to stealthily decline his offer.

"The whole house will be too busy to accompany you. I can assure you my style in dressing is immaculate. Everything about me is immaculate." Troye reassures him.

Michael turns to Amelia for help, but Amelia has her head turned, trying her best to not notice his stares for help. Knowing that his only ally decided to NOT help him, Michael reluctantly complies with the duke. 

Troye dismissed them and they all left. After the room was cleared, Troye dug out a few papers from his drawers. 

"Aegis Lindot" The face on the papers was a familiar hazel-eyed man, undoubtedly Michael, but the name was different.

Aegis Lindot, the only son of the Lindot Family. A family that once held great power among the capital but disappeared many years ago suddenly. It was rumored that his father had illegal dealings with a powerful demon, strengthened by the red circles and demonic imagery found in a hidden compartment of his mansion when it was demolished. 

"Aegis Lindot…how are you alive?" Troye murmurs. He needed answers and he would do whatever it's takes to get them.

Meanwhile, Selina was walking with Michael back to his room…with Reinhart following closely behind.

"Miss commander, shouldn't you be like…with your knights and whatnot." Michael casually brings up.

"They can handle themselves. I'm not some sort of babysitter." Reinhart answers calmly,

Selina noticed the obvious tension between those two. She had thought that their relationship would've improved slightly with all the "coincidental" hangouts but guess not. 

"Look like we're here. Reinhart, you can go back to whatever you were doing, I'm going to stay here with Michael for a bit" 

Alone, with him? Absolutely not.

"I didn't consent to th-" 

"I don't have anything to be doing. I'll stay with you. It's not safe nor appropriate to be alone with him." Reinhart quickly answered, interrupting Michael. 

"Didn't you say you weren't a babysitter? I don't need to be taken care of." Selina comments.

"I don't really car–"

"Michael's a good guy; he wouldn't try to harm me. Why don't you get that already?" Selina interrupts Michael, defending her brother protectively.

"But–" 

"CAN YOU GUYS LISTEN TO ME FOR ONCE!" Michael finally snaps.

"..." The two individuals shut up instantly, blankly staring at the fuming chipmunk.

"Finally! First of all, Amelia, you can't just barge into my room whenever you want. I need my own privacy! And secondly, miss knight over here, I don't give a damn if you don't trust me. Just stop using me as an excuse to spend time with Amelia. If you like her so much, just ask her to hangout with you! All this jealousy shit is pissing me off. Quite frankly, I have zero, absolutely ZERO inappropriate thoughts revolving around Amelia. I'm being DEAD SERIOUS." Michael spits out, his face flushed with red. He takes a deep breath, cooling himself down.

"Got it?" He crosses his arm, his brows furrowed.

Reinhart mumbles out an apology before rushing off out of embarrassment. 

Selina watches her run off before turning back to her brother.

"Dude, I'm sorry. It's just…I haven't seen you for so long; I wanted to catch up on all the time we missed." Selina was sincere with her words.

"I get that but I'm not some child that needs your protection. For the past week, you've been by my side for 24/7, do you know how many rumors that caused within the people in this manor? We're not known as siblings in this life, we need to have at least a tiny bit of space." Michael explains. 

Selina has her head down, like a child getting scolded by their parents.

"Sel, I missed you too and I want to spend time with you as well. I know you always saw me as a person who could hardly handle themselves…You took the stab for me even though I was the older brother; I was the one who needed to protect you. I feel like such a failure. If only I had stood up for myself earlier, we wouldn't been in this situation." Michael spoke in a self-deprecating way. 

"Don't say that about yourself! You shouldn't blame yourself over the actions of shitty people." Selina tightly grips his shoulders.

"And I'm sorry for constantly monitoring you. I already lost you once…I don't want to go through that again. I've been lazing around this past week, creating a false sense of stability, but I'm scared! I'm scared, I'm tired, and I'm mad. I-I don't know what to do anymore!" Selina breaks down, bending her knees and crying. The hands gripping her brother's shoulders loosen, falling down pathetically.

"Woah, what's wrong?" Michael kneels down, comforting her.

"I-I'll explain everything to you, but it'll take a while." Selina replies through sniffles.

"Don't worry, I got all the time in the world."