For some reason, the surprised look on everyone's faces annoyed him a lot. Do I even need a reason? Just look at them! Who wouldn't be annoyed?
The thick book fell out of Lunive's hands with a thud while Adonis's mouth hung open as if trying to touch the ground. Lorcan didn't show much of a reaction, but he, too, had stopped writing.
All I did was arrive! Reis had only entered the room casually. He didn't cause a fuss, didn't bother anyone. Just simply walked into the room the attendants had pointed to.
"Is the end of the world nearby?" Lunive asked, turning to the younger two. "Or am I seeing things?" This wasn't even her being dramatic, she was genuinely shocked.
His newly acquired younger siblings were not much different from the existing ones back home. But they were just ten times more dramatic, and their ideas, all of them in general, were much more troublesome. Scary even.
They were practically all in favor of putting him in house arrest, in the freaking royal mansion, for a banquet. Apparently because their brother Ann had a long streak of avoiding them, and they'd even tie him to a pillar at the banquet hall this time if they had to.
Was this them threatening him? Oh no no. They were conspiring like little villains, loud enough for him to hear from outside.
If anything, he should be the one with the stupefied expression. But they beat him to it.
"Good morning to you, too," Reis said through gritted teeth. "Must you treat me like this?"
|Synchronization: 70%|
"Don't get me wrong, brother Ann, but you arriving on time for a training session this early? I bet even the servants were shocked. They probably just didn't show it on their face," the princess spoke defensively.
Thinking back, his personal attendants were acting a bit weird when he called for them at seven in the morning. Some were even repeatedly asking if he was feeling unwell.
It wasn't that he was a morning person. It's just that he hated the idea of being confined; which happened to be the next option not including the tying to pillar idea.
Perhaps noticing his annoyance, Adonis stepped in. "Sit down, brother Ann," he guided Reis to the couch beside the desk, instead of the one Lunive was sitting on. "The instructors aren't here yet, so you can rest. Do you need a blanket?"
Does this kid think I'm also one?
|He's being nice.|
Reis was more than sure that this brother of his was treating him like a child. Well, I am having a hard time adjusting to the temperature here. He just didn't care.
Autumn here seemed to be much colder than in his country. There was a constant chill down his spine along with the wind that continued to make him shiver since the moment he woke up.
Rather than suffering from the cold wind, it was better to be treated like a kid. "Sure."
Where Adonis had found the blanket in the study was a question Reis decided to avoid as he lay down, covering up to his head. The blankets and pillows here are pretty high quality.
Minutes passed, and when he was almost close to falling asleep, the door opened with a loud thud, shooing away the drowsiness.
"I told you he won't be here," Avena, the second eldest, spoke as though she'd won a bet.
"I guess so…" Ceron muttered. "I'll go bring him then. Should I take more guards—"
While the older two were busy validating their findings, the younger three were desperately gesturing for them to quiet down, but the deed was already done.
"Am I some kind of criminal?" Reis asked, more to himself than the others, as blankly stared at the ceiling.
Avena shrieked in shock, as if she'd seen a ghost. Reis threw the blanket to the other corner of the couch.
How the hell did this guy build this criminal image?
"You're actually on time?" Ceron's dumbfounded expression only made Reis's frown deeper.
"Well I'm sorry for being on time then!" Reis exasperated, throwing his hands upward for dramatic effect which didn't really work.
*knock*
Now what?!
They turned their attention to the door. "I see you are all here," a middle-aged woman was standing with a man who seemed to be in his fifties.
"Good morning, Instructor Clara, Sir Xander." The younger two princes and Princess Lunive greeted simultaneously, while the elder two nodded their heads.
Reis did nothing, cause it felt like the original wouldn't either. And he was frustrated on top of that.
|Synchronization: 71%|
But at least I should stand with them.
As soon as he moved, Clara's eyes widened. I'm not even surprised anymore.
However, she didn't say anything like the rest and instead turned to Ceron and Avena. "I'll start the lessons. Are you two going to stay?"
"Yes. Father told us to keep an eye on Ann."
"I see."
The lesson was about etiquette, something they learned at a young age. Why this lesson was even necessary was beyond him.
It was like practicing the same thing over and over again until it became muscle memory. The bows, the greeting, the dance. All of it.
For everyone else, to clarify. Ann, as in Reis, couldn't keep up. Or even start. The rest was fine, but when it came to waltzing, he had stepped on Lunive's toe so many times, she started threatening him before refusing to help at all. Avena, Clara, and even Sir Xander gave up after being stepped on too many times.
"Well, at least now we know someone isn't impersonating Ann," Avena pointed out, earning a nod of acknowledgement from the rest. "There's only one in the continent with such unparalleled talent for dancing."
|Synchronization: 75%|
Stop that, will you! Just let me know when it's a hundred!
"How do you expect me to dance in this cold?" Sure, he couldn't dance to save his life, but his hands and feet had gotten so cold, he could barely control his movements. How was that his fault?
Lunive began to laugh. "Brother Ann, even if you're embarrassed, blaming it on an imaginary cold is too much. It's barely a few weeks after summer."
Well I'm not suited to the weather here! My body— Reis' thoughts came to a standstill. It wasn't his body, at least not the original. It should be used to the weather here.
Was it because he wasn't fully synced with this character yet? Or was he catching some illness?
|The temperature outside is 30 degrees. Your body is healthy, no sign of illness.|
Thirty degrees??
He was definitely dying. That had to be it. He wasn't feeling thirty degrees. It was like his blood had grown cold from the freezing sensation that continued to brush him. It wasn't ice cold, he wouldn't have been able to function if that had been the case. It was more like someone had put him in an air-conditioned room and constantly fanned him for hours and still going.
"Since you cannot get the steps, your highness, you need to take the other option." He looked at Clara questioningly, bothered by how everyone was suddenly excited after hearing it.
"Yeah, the other option is the best!" The youngest of the six, Adonis, practically jumped from excitement.
Is it some funny thing? They aren't going to dress me as a clown right? That doesn't seem to follow royal ethics.
Everyone was suspiciously excited. So much so that they started discussing among themselves on how they should train their beloved brother Ann in the next few days, ignoring the man in question.
So no one noticed him shivering one in a while even after retrieving the previously thrown away blanket.
Correction. Someone noticed. The one responsible for the phenomenon noticed for a while now. "Facinating."
A human sensitive enough to notice his energy even higher beings sometimes failed to spot.
He didn't want to be part of this nonsense. Looking after some lower creature? How degrading. But it wasn't that bad of an idea after all. Looking at how just his distant presence, barely a gaze, made the human creature curl up into a ball, he too felt excited.
The only creature not excited about his situation, not even slightly amused, would have had a heart attack if he had known this. Luckily, he didn't have that kind of hearing ability.