Before the Phoenix

"Theo!" Ellen exclaimed, running into the Lawrence residence.

The young maid, with brown hair and round glasses, grabbed her white dress with green details to run around the house.

"Theo!"

Ellen stretched out through a glass window that overlooked the front garden of the residence, thinking that the Young Master might be helping Lady Camille with the plants.

But the duchess was alone.

Taking advantage of the fact that his maid was distracted and had her back turned, Young Master Lawrence snuck under a piece of wooden furniture and crawled into the corridors outside.

When he reached the terrace, Theo ran awkwardly across the cloister while looking at the lawn to his right.

His beautiful amber eyes shone with the divinity that emanated in front of him.

Sitting cross"legged on the lawn, completely relaxing his body and mind, Ethan Augustus Caesar, or, Ethan Augustus De Lawrence, was meditating with an ethereal vibration.

The third son Colonel Leon Caesar, the second brother of the Emperor of Romerian, had an unparalleled presence.

The self"disowned successor to the Caesar family, now the owner of the title of Duke Lawrence, exuded an aura of flaming energy that affected the very climate.

Wings of fire were forming on the floor at the same time as his conscience was finding ways to leave scorch marks on the walls of the house.

Ethan's white hair levitated with the atmospheric pressure.

Standing between the pillars and admiring his father from afar, Young Master Theo was dumbfounded and unable to blink.

Unable to process the situation, Theo found it beautiful...

But the reality was different.

It was a feeling of pure oppression. No one should go near Ethan in that state thanks to the Duke's Imponence, as well as the core's flame property.

Anyone who got too close had the chance of being cremated alive, or leaving with some serious burns.

The training wing of the Lawrence residence is locked from all sides, and when the Duke decides to meditate, all the windows and doors of the house are locked to prevent a fire.

But the head butler had made a mistake that day.

A single door was left open, and Young Theo, only two years and ten months old, found his way through.

On the second floor, sitting by the window and watching his brother meditate, Edward De Lawrence was dumbfounded and speechless.

"It's beautiful…" murmured Edward.

The head butler, Etrian, was tidying up a desk while he accompanied Edward.

"A year away, but it's impossible to forget that feeling... Even protected by these walls."

"Haven't you been with Elijah and Leon Caesar in recent months?" Etrian asked.

"Ahem…"

"And none of them made you feel anything like that?"

Edward nodded.

"Are you kidding? Elijah doesn't even reach that level. Dad may be a colonel... But it's lame to compare him to Ethan. I don't think anyone I know is even close to him…"

Etrian frowned.

"I don't know much about power levels and the system of energies and chakras, so I won't be able to give an opinion. But indeed... The feeling that Lord Ethan emanates is pure and divine."

The strands of Edward's white hair took over his dark brown eyes as the wind blew in through Ethan's office door.

"The Phoenix bird is easily overshadowed by its brother's brilliance... It doesn't even seem to be his source of power."

Edward chuckled.

"The Phoenix is just a method of channeling Ethan's power…"

He remained silent for a while, falling even more in awe of his brother.

Then, in an instant, his mind flashed with a reminder.

"Ah! Take a letter from my bag, please... It's from Sir Amiah to Ethan."

"Sir Amiah? The Chaotic Serpent?"

"Yes. He couldn't come for Te's birth, so he gave me a letter to give to Ethan when I saw him…"

Etrian quickly understood what it was all about.

Rummaging through a backpack Edward had brought, he searched for the letter.

"Theo!" Ellen shouted through the house again.

That scream was loud enough to reach the second floor.

Edward was surprised by the scream and listened carefully.

"Young Master! Where are you?"

His tension was broken and he quickly burst into laughter.

"Is Te giving you too much trouble?" asked Etrian.

"Children... They're always getting up to mischief. Ellen doesn't want to restrain him, unlike Marta... So she's always pampering him."

"What a mistake…"

"That's right."

The two of them laughed a little until they noticed Ellen's frequent screams. She seemed more desperate than usual...

Edward wondered if everything was all right, but he couldn't take his eyes off his older brother. Sitting on the left"hand side at the base of the window, he watched his brother... but tense and worried by the maid's sudden silence.

Until, sitting at that angle, he could see Theo in the cloister, between the pillars and on the edge of the lawn.

He suddenly jumped back.

"Tê!" she exclaimed nervously.

On instinct, Edward opened the window and shouted for Theo again.

Due to the sudden aggression, Ethan's aura flowed and climbed the walls of the house until it reached the second floor, where the possible threat was.

Reflexively, Edward punched the air and, before the flames could attack him, the pressure of the blow knocked back the duke's aura.

A punch too strong for a twelve"year"old human.

"Ethan!" Edward shouted.

Awakening from his state of meditation, Duke Lawrence's blue eyes met directly with those of his youngest son; he was paralyzed, but not by fear, but by admiration for the beauty.

With one swift, extreme movement, Ethan became just a figure in Edward and Etrian's eyes.

Like a flash of light, Ethan appeared, embracing his little son and protecting him from the uncontrollable flames; Ethan's aura always protected him from what he considered a threat.

While Ethan was meditating and practically unconscious of the physical world, anything that moved was a threat to the Duke.

Using his body as a shield, Duke Lawrence protected his son while fending off the flames with his right arm.

He displaced his own aura from his consciousness for an instant.

Desperate, Ethan grabbed Theo by the head and shook his son's blond hair back, trying to see his eyes...

But the child was simply overwhelmed with joy.

"Te…" muttered Ethan, but was cut off by his own son.

"How nice!" he said, failing badly.

Ethan's eyes widened.

His son was emanating the same sensation as a deviant: a layer of pure energy was embracing him.

'A core... He awakened a core with no cons, and still at that age?'

Ethan quickly thought through what had happened.

'The Phoenix synchronized with you...'

"Young Master!" Ellen shouted breathlessly, hurrying out the door. " How did he get here...

"Son!" Camille came up right behind Ellen, holding her dress soiled by the fertilizer from the plants.

Even though she was a Duchess who could hire a thousand gardeners, Camille loved looking after her own plants. She was tending the garden when she found Ellen running after Theo, so she decided to help.

She was pleased, though worried, when she saw Theo with Ethan. Knowing what her husband was doing at the time, her concern for the child's burns was notorious.

"Te…"

Ethan took Theo in his arms.

"Lord Ethan... I beg your pardon for my mistake…" said Ellen, holding back her tears.

"No. I'm the one who let an open door go unnoticed..." Etrian appeared accompanied by Edward, who ran down the stairs.

The two looked for reasons to take the blame, but Duke Lawrence wouldn't accept it.

"Relax. It's okay now," said Ethan, making Theo lie down on his shoulder. "Ellen, if I'm right... Theo will have his first day of school today, right?"

Ellen straightened up to answer the Duke.

"Yes, I said, stammering." That's why I was running desperately after him... He was going to be late...

"Is he still giving you a hard time about taking a shower?" Ethan asked as he walked into the house.

"Ahem. No offense, but that little guy is a pig!"

Theo, lying on his father's shoulder, looked at Ellen, who was following him. Clenching his eyes at the maid, Theo stuck out his tongue at his nanny.

Camille jumped back when she saw it.

"Hey, hey! Who did you learn that from?!" His mother corrected.

"What's that?" Ethan asked without being able to see.

Theo played dumb, looking up and rolling his eyes... But Camille had the answer in store.

"Edward, isn't it?" Camille complained to her brother-in-law.

For his part, Edward pointed to his own heart and complained.

"Me? I came back today and didn't even see him... How could I teach him something like that?!"

"Who's to say you haven't seen him?"

"And how can you say those words when you didn't even see me arrive?! Huh?!"

"You…"

Camille snorted and sighed heavily, bending her back to face Edward closely, reducing the height difference between them " Camille was considered a very tall woman, even by the standards of the nobility.

The two of them clenched their eyes and stared into the depths of their souls.

"Will you stop it? Come on, Camille. Te's going to be late…"

Edward couldn't hold back his laughter as he faced his sister"in"law and collapsed. While they were still staring at each other, he showed the duchess his tongue.

"I knew it!"

Ethan's younger brother rushed to the Duke's side, standing next to Theo.

"Ah, Ethan... Sir Amiah sent you this letter," said Edward, handing the letter to his brother.

"Really? Master Amiah? Have you seen him?"

"Ahem. It was over after he came back from the southern border…"

After handing over the letter, Edward looked at his nephew and gave him a cuddle.

With their nephew and uncle staring at each other, they smiled reciprocally.

From a distance, Etrian watched them enter the Lawrence residence.

'They don't have the slightest bit of manners...' he commented to himself, seeing the behavior of one of the Empire's most influential noble families. 'Well, that's a real family. Respect doesn't die, even then.'