Supreme Magus novel Chapter 43

Aside from the gossip, life in the Count’s private quarters was really peaceful.

Count Lark took the initiative to explain everything to Lith’s parents, taking the blame entirely on himself, and giving only words of praise to their son.

Raaz and Elina were actually quite angry, and wanted to give Lith a solid piece of their mind. But after the Count apologized, even bowing to them, they were too embarrassed and flattered to say anything, at least in front of him.

The whole family could not stop staring at the house. Walls made of stone, the luxurious furniture, the carpets. Everything seemed to come out straight from a fairy tale. Until that day, they had always thought they would never see such riches.

Lith started to wonder how long would it take for them to come back down to earth, when breakfast arrived. The delicious and sweet smell of the pastries immediately caught their attention.

"Just great." Lith sighed inwardly. "I could expect my family’s reaction to the Count’s house, and luckily out hosts are overlooking their quite rude behaviour.

My only hope is that they don’t jump on the food like starving wolves. That would be too embarrassing!"

"Party pooper! Let them be happy, so maybe they’ll beat your a*s less when you get back home." Solus rebuked.

"Point taken."

As soon as the cart entered the room, Lith’s family mimicked their hosts behaviour, politely sitting around the table in an ordered manner, waiting to be served.

That was also the first time someone outside the family was treating them with such care, the girls couldn’t stop giggling.

"What the f*ck?" Lith was fairly surprised.

It wasn’t a maid pushing the cart full of delicacies, it was Hilya herself, accompanied by some kitchen personnel that Solus identified as her posse. It was the first time that Lith saw her in the flesh, and soon he understood why.

Hilya personally served the Count’s family and then his own, showering everyone with compliments and attentions.

Her followers did the same, but with more tact and less enthusiasm. When they left, there was enough food on the table to feed a battalion.

"#TeamRaaz rules, b*tch!" Solus screamed.

Count Lark was both embarrassed and flabbergasted. Hilya barely served him on his birthday, and he had no idea why his usually impeccable staff had taken such liberties with his esteemed guests.

Lith signalled him that he would explain later, before stopping everyone in their tracks, preventing them to take even a single bite.

Usually that would have garnered him a lot of nasty words, but in front of their host they had to shut up and listen.

The mention of the past poisoning attempts made them inwardly perform a 180° turn, going from demanding revenge to gratefulness in just a few words.

Lith wasn’t willing to let his guard down, he kept checking every single plate and forcing them to drink only conjured water.

It was really depressing for his family, since he was the only one having tasted hot chocolate back on Earth, but they soldiered up.

In the following days, the forced cohabitation would have been much more awkward, if the Count’s private quarters had not been bigger than their house.

The women, leaded by Keyla, took for themselves the bedroom, the biggest and most comfortable room, while the men had to settle up for the anteroom and its soft sofas.

There were no more assassination attempts, since all the gathered evidence had caused a fuss for the Countess, and by remaining stubbornly holed up in the best guarded and easily defensible part of the house, the Count left her with no openings.

Koya Lark had looked in every nook and cranny, searching for leverage, but the Count had no weakness she could exploit, and that nasty magico kid was even worse.

After a thorough background check, she discovered he had no friends and no family outside those he had brought with himself.

Killing or kidnaping his lost brother, Orpal, could be considered making him a favour at best. The only person remaining was Nerea/Nana, his mentor, but that was suicide. If the kid was so powerful, what were the limits of that old hag prowess?

The Countess could only curse herself for always ignoring his husband hobbies, she had no idea who she was, or what repercussions messing with her could have. She knew nothing about magic, except what her cousin, Genon said to her in the past.

And even then, she had only pretended to listen to him most of the times. She decided to keep that as a last resort, if everything else failed.

Meanwhile, Lith’s family was quickly getting accustomed to living in such a splendid manor, wearing only beautiful clothes and eating delicious food.

Aside from the random scare caused by a guard’s sneeze or an animal in the garden, life had turned into a fairy tale for them.

Lith, instead, was quite annoyed. Since the first day, the Count, Keyla and Jadon had showered with praises Elina, Rena and Tista for their perfect skin and luscious hair.

"I’m so envious of you, girls. I wish I could get rid of these things on my face." Keyla sighed. Over time the camaraderie between the young ladies had grown strong.

"Yeah, you are already so pretty. If only..." Tista threw Lith a meaningful look, that he pretended not to notice.

Jadon interest toward Rena was embarrassingly obvious, and while he tried looking at her stealthily, such attention in turn got him as many stone-cold glares from Lith.

"I get that he is just twenty and horny as a boar, but she is just fourteen. Back where I came from that’s bad. Plus, unless he wants to marry her, I’d rather neuter him. I won’t allow him to ruin her future, treating her like a fling! Over my dead body!"

Rena was flattered by both the young man’s attentions and his little brother care. Yet she was just dazzled by the house, not stupid. Elina had warned her many times about the young men, nobles or not, that would try to take advantage of naïve young girls.

She would accept compliments, but refuse any improper gift and avoided remaining alone with him. When Keyla and the Count noticed that if Lith’s glares could maim, Jadon could easily fit into an envelope, they had a private talk with him.

After that the air in the room became a lot lighter.

Finally, the Count received the notification via the communication amulet that the annulment was finally done. He was once again a free man.

After confirming that Koya had been notified too, hence she had no more reason to plot against him, he could finally relax and step out of his room for the first time since weeding out the traitors.

The first thing he and Lith did was to contact Nana to explain her everything.

"That’s why you were so serious." She pondered. "And why you took away my only helper. Lark, when we meet again, we have to talk about compensation, my business suffered because of your family squabble." She nagged.

"There, there, Lady Nerea. It was a matter of life and death, and the young Lith proved to be decisive in solving the matter."

"Hmm. Sorry, but I have to go. I have a business to attend. We’ll talk later, especially with you, young imp. This lack of trust wounds my old heart." She said trying to act all old and frail.

Lith bowed and asked for her forgiveness, but his thoughts were quite different.

"Do you even have a heart? I’d bet all I have that the only reason you are pouting is that you have missed such juicy gossip for so long."

Contrary to their expectations, Nana called only a few hours later, and their next conversation had an entirely different mood. Nana was laughing her a*s off the entire time, managing to speak only briefly while gasping for air.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! You can’t believe what just happened to me! Someone just tried to kidnap me. I’m serious!" A long laughing pause followed.

"It made me feel young again, like when I was still an adventurer. Guys dressed in tacky full black clothes, coming at me from all directions, it was hilarious!

You should have seen their faces when I took them down at once with a Corona Discharge!"

According to the Count’s books, it was a very strong tier five lightning spell, Nana’s true specialty was air magic, after all. Lith had no idea what it was exactly, it was mentioned, but not described.

He had already enough troubles understanding tier four spells, they were on a league of their own compared to the magic he had previously learned.

"They were so cute! They even had some minor magical items on them. I have no use for such trinkets, but I can still sell them for good money."

Lith was so envious. Magical items! He had yet to find any.

"Hey, that’s offensive!" Solus pointed. "I resent that!"