Chapter 3: A chance

Lira hovered nearby as Jun pulled out another scroll from his personal records. Since finding out about Mei, he determined to have her avoid being influenced by the Matriarch, and so she was at his estate a lot. Lira never missed a chance to fantasize about a budding romance, which he always shut down. He would never, NEVER marry his daughter from his past life.

With his left hand, he placed the scroll on a specialized table and pulled the corners open and tapped them down. Unfurling it, he set a weight to keep it open and picked up a brush. Checking it over, he began to write the days events. He wasn’t stupid in keeping a journal—making sure to only write in his earthly language. He chronicled the new things he had learned.

In the past six years, they played the betrothal well, at least according to the Matriarch’s faction. Reality and records told a different story.

Their marriage would come when they were both nineteen, in another three years, and he still had no way to prevent it. Yet. He hadn’t given up hope.

The Silver Flame had taught them as well, whispering in his ear about their latent powers she had bestowed. There were two main requisites to the power—faith and prayer.

Faith was straightforward. No matter how much prayer you accumulated, if you didn’t believe in the Silver Flame, you couldn’t cast whatever kind of magic this was. And prayer was needed to make the magic activate. Jun figured it was like skills and mana, similar to his son’s video games.

As for abilities, Mei’s burned eyes could see heat, infrared. It wasn’t always active. She could turn it off and be blind. He corrected that thought. Except for a very blurred vision that could distinguish color, she was truly blind.

But that is where prayer was vital. Her faith was not lacking. But if she didn’t have enough prayers accumulated, she couldn’t ‘turn on’ her infrared vision.

As for himself, he couldn’t hear the voice of the flame if he didn’t have some minor prayer accumulated. That was simple, just think about her and slowly he could accumulate prayer. But his hand, that is where he took pride in his past life. He had been a hobby biologist, fascinated by how the human body worked. With that knowledge, he could control the heat in people’s body, helping burn off toxins, illness, poisons, and stimulating the right temperatures to regrow cells and so on. It functioned like a heal spell, though nothing grand like regrowing missing limbs and such. As such, he and Mei hadn’t gotten sick since, and he had detected poison quite early, saving their lives numerous times.

With that in mind, he was grateful that these were his abilities. It was as if the Flame knew where he would end up and with whom. Mei was good at night patrols—claiming she could live her ninja dream—and during the day she rested, putting on a persona of a useless, blind fiancé.

As for his other worries, he still had no idea where the other two members of his former family were. It wasn’t like he could travel much, but what information he could gather, he hadn’t heard anything promising.

Lira inched towards him as he wrote about his recent studies.

“Lord Jun. What do you think of Mei?” Her sweet tone indicated yet another attempt to change his mind.

He paused and set the brush down, looking thoughtfully outside.

“… She’s more like a daughter.” He answered truthfully.

“You don’t dote on her with fatherly love.”

Jun scoffed. “She doesn’t want that. And she treats me more like I’m her old man. A marriage would be a terrible idea.”

“Aw.” Lira chided, ready to launch into her tirade.

“That’s final, Lira. Besides, I won’t roll over and do whatever the Matriarch wants. So this marriage—I’ll figure out how to end it.”

“Fine.”

Her quick giving up meant she had some comeback in store. Her next words proved him right.

“Still, I feel sorry for the poor girl. Blind and ripped from her family, only to be engaged to a stick-in-the-mud.”

“I am not a stick-in-the-mud.” He refuted, turning with a scowl.

“You’re boring,” she reiterated, a sly smile forming.

“What part of my life is boring?!”

“Well, you won’t even entertain that this arrangement, this betrothal could work, my lord.”

‘You romanticizing freak.’ He cursed in his mind. But he was the adult here. He leaned back and took a deep breath before settling a stern glare.

“Look, if I somehow became the family head, like those supports are trying to set me up for, then having her as a first wife is a terrible idea.”

Her eyes sparkled at his words.

“Oh, then maybe as second-“

“NO! She would be better in a Vassal family.”

Lira pouted, but with a teasing raised brow.

“See? A stick-in-the-mud.”

Jun blustered. “Pragmatic. Realistic. Any of those words would describe me better.”

“BORING.” Lira’s loud voice chimed. If not that she was so loyal and able to keep secretive, he would have dismissed her long ago.

“You’re a crazy romantic!” he thundered back.

A firm knock on wood announced that Mei had come for one of her routine visits. Jun sent Lira a warning, glance.

Then, when her guide left, Mei titled her head to listen better.

“What’s going on, Jun? Lira?” Mei asked sweetly. Lira pounced on the question.

“My lady, tell me. What do you think of our young lord?”

Mei grinned. No doubt she heard some of the conversation earlier. “He’s an old man trapped in a young body.”

“A stick-in-the-mud,” Lira suggested and Jun sent her a withering glare.

“Pretty much.”

Lira indicated to Mei with a supported grin. Jun grumbled.

“I’ve work to do, and you, Lira, are not helping.”

With that, he excused her and grabbed a cushion for Mei to sit on. She guided herself to it, likely using her infrared vision and then pulled out a hidden dagger and played with it while he worked.

At noon, Lira returned with food. Mei was fast asleep.

Instead of Lira’s teasing, she fidgeted, her hands slipping while she laid out the food nearby.

“What did you find out?” Jun asked, noting her habit. Mei suddenly sat up, alert.

“I… I was just informed by one of our merchants that the…” she hesitated, her words weighing heavy. “School of the Chosen is going to be scouting for students this year.”

Jun’s eyes narrowed. It wasn’t what Lira had said, but what the Silver Flame said, that caught his attention.

‘Go there.’

“Tell me more,” Jun commanded. Rarely did he take this tone, not relishing a master-servant relation.

Lira responded in kind.

The School of the Chosen, an organization recognized the world over for its high education, but only to those who bore the sacred burns of the silver flames. A place that stood outside of politics where family prestige held no sway. However, the power bestowed on its students could allow you to change your fate.

Jun pondered on this. The fact a school existed, meant there were many people who had the sacred burns. Would they all be from other worlds? It didn’t seem reasonable with how archaic this world seemed. But, it could also be a place where he could find his family—a literal gathering of people like them.

The problem? He doubted the Matriarch would let the both of them leave. They would be outside the reach of her influence. And, he could maneuver himself or Mei, into a position where they could annul this betrothal.

He sent Lira out to spread word of his and Mei’s burned condition—something the Matriarch had kept hidden from the world. His hope was that the school had some influence to remove them from this rotting house.