Don't

"Fucking finally!" Karaza sighed loudly. The white cockroaches were gone now.

The snowman walked adorably under the bed, double checking until Karaza held it up.

"You defiantly deserve some fancy vinegar."

It fluffed its wooden hands in happiness.

In the dukedom Antonio looked at his scroll, his points decreasing. Letters that made up the logistics of his wish getting engraved on the paper with glowing purple light.

'Was it the right choice?'

'There's no way to know. Let's just use it the best I can.'

He walked in the vast marble halls of the palace, coming across a cleaning cart.

He squinted at one mop. In his eyes or rather brain he registered a dashed line on the floor, leading to another room where the mop was there before.

He rubbed his eyes, ending the effect.

'Still can't use it effectively.'

With no time to experiment he walked to his office, doing routinely checks in his accounting records.

He did the mundane calculations and reports. One marquess gave birth after a hard pregnancy and the gifts his father sent asserted their presence in the tables of numbers.

'Premium red thyme cost two mercury blocks for a twenty milligram bottle? One could make a decent business deal in the land of the unwanted with that amount.'

'Well, this is how father made it anyway. A second class noble paying his way up to the people's hearts and to the noble's favors.'

He looked at the well organized pile of paper work and contracts he made there with his pocket money. He put them in a lower secluded cabinet in.

With time the dukedom's people got less repulsed by trading goods with quote unquote sick people, but one can never be too cautious as some had their opinions.

'Still has a long way, til this place becomes the center of trades and business...'

He walked to the duke's office with a file in hand, knocking the door.

"Father, I would like to discuss one clause of this agreement with you if you have time." He walked in with a usual request, soon registering the crests on the papers the duke was reading.

"How's your tooth, Antonio?"

"Much better, Father."

"Shouldn't you be resting until the swelling is completely gone?"

"You're overestimating how long I can stay in bed, Father." He joked, putting the file on the desk before getting closer to the papers in his father's hand.

"It is already that time?" He asked.

"I suppose, we already started when you were sedated."

Antonio studied the content of the papers. Faces and names of the chosen eligibles to become the next duke.

"Looks like I made it."

The system in the dukedom was a melted shadow of plain elections and monarchy. Game of influence, push and pull between money, power, and connections between the high society of the dukedom.

A fluctuating number of eligible nobles get chosen. Then a few rounds of elimination ensue for five years until the duke gets chosen.

The rules granted the child of the current duke to have Initial eligibility and that was the catch, he was technically the duke's nephew. Born from a commoner nonetheless.

But the rules were as fixed as a dough, and the games and alliances entertained the nobles enough to push a thing or three to the back of their minds.

As far as his statues, he was the dukedom's darling, not the random nephew.

He managed to let them contemplate if he was a socialite first, businessman second or the other way around.

But he knew that the hardest part was yet to come as his eyes landed on Henry and his older brother in the eligibles list.

At a party he wore the neutral yet inviting expression like a comfy pajama. His shoulders relaxed as the topic of the next duke choosing raised.

"Our strong knight in the boarder and his scholar brother soaked in the kingdom's grace."One noble said, discussing the contestants.

"Don't forget Feronika, out little angel has so much potential!"

"Who's you're afraid of the most, Antonio?" One cheeky noble teased with an innocent tone, raising his glass to him.

Antonio swirled the liquid in his glass. His circle stayed in silent intrigue as his eyes wondered here and there, almost as he's about to spill some truth.

"You see...Who's worry me the most." He gave them a scanning look, raising their curiosity. As if he will tell honestly.

"...Is my dormant wisdom teeth." The flat serious tone took time to settle in their minds before they burst elegantly in laughter.

"Oh riotous Antonio, you got us!"

He raised his glass to them before taking a sip. Knowing full well said the truth.

'It's not Henry's statues or influence necessarily. It the fact that there's three sore spots for him in the eligibility letter.'

'The woman he loves and the rando nephew who's gonna merry her...And his brother I guess?'

As the carriage stoped in the duke's palace, he now had time for experiments.

He walked to the castle's library, vision blurred with red dashed lines pointing out of many objects in his field of vision.

'Oof, I'll go crazy if I don't control this soon.' He rubbed his eyes for a break.

The duke's library wasn't only for books. It was an archival for rare gemstones, the dukedom's highly regarded vases and centuries old bead work. A museum that included a book section as some might say.

'This is the best place to train for now.' He walked around using muscle memory as his vision turned almost red, overfilled with dashed lines.

But the existence of a person, sitting on a table and reading a book seemed to dissolve most of the dashed lines.

Rightfully so, as his focus shifted on Henry, deep in reading and unaware of his surroundings.

Antonio pulled out a book about the theory of accounting, his golden rings faintly reflecting the moonlight.

The movements finally snapped Henry from his zone. He was about to bow before Antonio gestures him not to.

"Same as usual?" Antonio asked, looking at the book about wild creatures. Voice low and tone friendly, like two coworkers working late.

"I can say the same for you, your highness." Henry eyed the accounting book.

'Can't a guy train alone with his new wish?'

The air between them wasn't thick nor tense, both were better actors than that.

Plus the book in Antonios' hands was doing a number on him.

Images flashed in his brain, at first he didn't register anything, but slowly he parsed the sequence of the images.

It was himself, carrying the book in the cloudy morning. He recognized his own steps, it was the memory of him using the book before tooth his wisdom teeth removal.

'I forgot I wrote the wish with my own hands...'

'So now I can access the memories and information of objects I hold.'

'And I can see where an object once was...'

'Aside from gaining control, it's going well so far.'

"Are you well, your highness?" The question brought him back to reality.

"I think you should rest, you are looking pale." Henry added.

"You're right.." He smiled. Between the flashing images and dashed lines something demanded his attention.

The metal pin of Henry's family crust on his chest was open and slightly inverted, threatening to bury itself in his flesh upon the wrong move.

"Whoah, careful there!" Antonio told, clipping it back with one hand in a swift motion despite its heaviness.

"Can't have you slashing monsters only to be pierced by a pin." He added with an innocent laugh.

Henry stood still for a long moment, not sure how to react. Antonio spared him the thinking, telling him goodnight to ease the parting.

He walked to his room like a clueless ghost possessed him, attributing it to his surgery when the servants asked in worry.

The images flashing in his mind were short and abrupt, potentially because of the little time he was in contact with the pin.

It made since, more time in contact, more info and memories.

But he got the gist nonetheless.

The pin was on the table when Henry's father told his right hand to manipulate the records, crowning Henry's brother a hair despite Henry being born an year before him.

'But why?' Antonio thought while removing his eye contacts, water dripping down his face.

The information introduced more questions than it answered, but it supplied him with one fact.

'He's not only a guy with sore spots, he is a cornered guy with sore spots.'

He walked to his desk, hair tips still wet.

'Was it the right choice to let someone like that near the wild and all its offerings?'

'All kinds of wishes, all kind of artifacts that can flip all kind of tables. What is guaranteeing he doesn't hold the demise of my dreams? Now that Karaza isn't here to monitor him.'

He opened a drawer. Empty of everything but a gun. Touching it flood him with his own memory.

A memory of a someone with exceeding physical strength, double axe and a refined wish tensing their shoulder upon the sight of the engraved gun in his hands.

"It's empty, you know that?" He almost soothed.

"I know..." Karaza said, still eyeing the weapon with caution like it's bomb.

"Come on, it's almost a shiny toy. It barely have five slots instead of six." He chatted, sliding it in the drawer.

He didn't toss it with other gifts in the spare room like usual. Her eyes wanted to ask nothing came out of her mouth.

"Is this gun super special or something?" He joked.

"No..."

His open expression prodded her to continue.

"It's just a gun..these can have ramifications worst than any wish."

"Really?" He was skeptical about such grand statement, but Karaza got to get away with more than any other servant. And blabbing wasn't new to her.

"Just in case." He shrugged as he placed bullets in the drawer.

"Even then, please..." She had a rare terrified expression on her face mixing with a serious plea.

"Don't."