Chapter 3

In the dim hallways of the ducal mansion, where the twins of the household were walking together side by side, Asiel had on a usual expression as if nothing had happened and they were just taking a normal walk, while Airia kept on glaring at Asiel like he was some kind of mutated chicken.

Airia was about to ask him a mountain full of questions, when she realized there were maids in the hallway, she then quickly pulled her twin into their room.

“My dear brother, explain. Now.” The sweet smile on her face certainly did not match the tone of the words that came out of her mouth.

While not many people know about Airia’s existence, she is a very memorable figure, other than because of her striking and exotic looks, she was also memorable for her extreme sarcasm.

Extreme.

“Hohoho, rejoice, you’ll hear my master plan.” Asiel instead of feeling scared or intimidated confidently (shamelessly) praised himself.

“Wow! Amazing! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe my own twin brother would want to go to the academy instead of running away!” Airia exclaimed while rolling her eyes.

Asiel sighed and asked, “Airi… if we ran away, where would we go?”

“Wherever, you don’t remember? We were targeted even when we did nothing wrong.” Airia answered naturally.

“Oh, what. You were worried about that? I was only thinking about who would take care of the house that we will live in. Having someone to leech off is a luxury, you know?” Asiel said with a confused expression.

“... Stop kidding around.”

At first, with the help of their eldest brother Marciel they successfully escaped the house with little to no injury. However, Marciel himself did not have a happy ending, unwillingly having his life ended by the Empire’s best knight.

“And you’re going to abandon our good brother right here?” Asiel who had been all smiles became serious.

“As if.”

“So just listen to my wonderful genius plan alright? I got this planned out.” Asiel said with confidence.

“...Alright, I’ll give you one chance, if it’s nonsense then you’re dead.” Airia threatened him by fiercely slicing her finger on her throat, demonstrating that Asiel will really be in trouble.

“Calm down, just listen. I’ve thought about several methods for us to survive on the way to Father’s office just now, yet almost all of them will not end up well. There’s one main problem : The emperor and crown prince of the empire.”

“Should we get rid of them?”

“...We’d be doing treason for real this time huh?”

“You know what, no. Since Marciel couldn’t defeat him, we can’t either.”

‘Even when we grab hold of much much more power than before… It isn’t enough is it?’

“Now, how to get rid of that problem? We take away their power, legally! And how will we do that? We team up with someone from the imperial family and help him take over the throne.”

“Ah… who? An abandoned child of the royal family? That’s a cliche book plot, we don’t have that-”

“How are you so sure? Just wait until the time comes and you’ll see.” Asiel grinned.

“You...read too much...”

“There should be one?

“Sigh...you better not disappoint me.” Airia finally gave her brother and that plan of his a chance.

The atmosphere of their room was not much different from the hallways, dim, dark, and gloomy are the three words best to describe it. However there was a major difference if hygiene was taken into consideration, many normal people might think that humans- no, not even magical beasts can live here, but normal people could be wrong sometimes.

The twins are not normal people.

Imagine potato chips, mountains of books, drawings, paintings, bitten pencils, chicken drumsticks, leftover cake all gathered in one place. It’s a great example of the statement “A room similar to a trash bin”.

As a duke’s children, they were taught about hygiene. And aside from hygiene, it’s not like they can’t ask the maids to clean the room for them. But the problem is…

“Anyways, did someone touch book pile 6? I can’t find my hair tie anymore.”

“Did this happen last time?”

“As genius as I am, I shouldn’t be able to remember something from 18 years ago should I?” Airia pushed the biggest pile of books to the left.

Now imagine someone unable to find something unless it’s messy. Weird. But somehow relatable if you’re a lazy person. When your room is cleaned up by someone other than yourself, then your things wouldn’t be in the places that they were before, you wouldn’t know where your things went.

So what’s the easiest way to ensure your things are never lost? Don’t let anyone clean your room.

- and that was the twins’ mindset.

Knock.

There was a light knock on their bedroom door.

“...”

The twins stared at each other for a second.

“Oh well, if that’s what you say… I’ll trust you, although I'd probably regret it in the future.” She stood up, reaching for the doorknob.

“Heh, I’ll laugh at you if my plan succeeds splendidly. Don’t take credit for my plan.”

“As if I’d do that.”

Airia opened the door.

What she saw standing behind the door was a maid who greeted and informed them politely, “Good evening to the young master and young miss, I am here to inform you that it is time for the family meeting.”

The Calais family holds a family meeting every month for various reasons, one of them would be for Ian to check up on his kids and how they were doing.

“So sudden?” Airia was confused, their father would usually hold meetings at the end of every month, but from what she remembered it was currently the middle of the month.

“The second young master has just returned and he will be departing again soon, therefore the master decided to hold a family meeting earlier than scheduled.”

The twins glanced at each other then Asiel answered, “Alright, we’ll be there soon. You can take your leave now.”

The maid nodded her head and quietly left both of them alone.

“Sigh...Why is Kiel so annoying, he’s like an energetic dog who can’t stay in one place.” Airia heaved out a sigh.

“Actually…this is great! We can take action earlier than planned. Now Airi, listen carefully….” Asiel whispered out his plan into his sister’s ear in a small volume, just in case there was anyone else lurking around.

---

In the dining room of the Calais mansion, there was a dining table which stretched from one end of the room to the other. A weird design, with human faces and animal heads painted all over it.

“Good afternoon kids.” The proud man sitting on the head seat suddenly raised his voice, greeting the other members sitting on the table.

“...” However, unlike his expectations, none of them replied.

“Ehem.”

“...hello,” The guy in dark blue clothes with jet black hair and eyes unwillingly answered first. Marciel, the eldest son of the Calais family, the only brother the twins get along with.

“Hi.” Asiel briefly greeted.

“Good day,” Airia replied monotonically.

“Yahoo!” The guy in red clothes with pink hair and fairy-like features, along with his crystal blue eyes responded excitedly. Kiel, the second eldest son of the Calais family and the one with the most loose screws in his head among all the children.

“How are you doing father?” And here is the fourth daughter of the family, Irona. She put down her teacup with elegance, smiling slightly. Amused by who knows what.

Ian, who was ignored before, became happy after hearing their replies, “Good afternoon to you all, and I feel splendid Irona. Now, let us start the family meeting before Kiel leaves again.”