Chapter 126: Be my guinea pigs

"If capitalized correctly, just Lady Elara's presence is enough for Young Master Vaan to create the strongest faction to support him.

Of course, I could be wrong since this is merely an observation made from an outsider's perspective, I am sure there would be many inner factors at play here, so it may not be as grand as I might have imagined in my mind.

However, I will still stand by my words and say having Lady Elara on your side is a huge advantage for Young Master Vaan.

Of course, adding Young Master's own talent would only increase your chances even further.

This is why I believe that Young Master Vaan's chances of becoming the next Head are the highest compared to any other Prospective Heirs."

Seraphina voiced out her thoughts, of course, she also made sure she didn't highlight Elara so much that Vaan might get a feeling of being overshadowed by his fiancé.

Seraphina knew people like Vaan who were born in strong families have strong egos, it is to the point they might even feel insecure and overshadowed by their own fiancé. Seraphina knew better than to offend Vaan with something as foolish as this, so she played on the safe side.

Vaan, on the other hand, didn't care much about that. His mind was thinking about a completely different thing.

"Seraphina." He called out.

"Yes Young Master."

"What if... one of the Prospective Heirs is being... oddly nice to Elara...?

Being there for her when she is bullied by others, visiting her from time to time to check in on her, taking care of her,

What do you make out of this?"

"..." Seraphina stared at Vaan for a while, then, with a strange look on her face, she questioned,

"Can I know who that Prospective Heir is?"

"It is just a random thought, not a real thing."

"..." Seraphina stared at Vaan with a deadpan look on her face.

Both of them knew what the other was thinking so in the end, Vaan stopped playing this game and decided to go for it.

"It is Elric Vesta."

"Lord Elric huh..." Seraphina noted.

"From what I know, he is a 43-year-old 4th Circle Mage, correct?"

"You are well informed."

"Small families like us have no choice but to keep ourselves updated about the Vesta Prospective Heirs."

Vaan nodded in understanding, then, he questioned, "Anyways, what do you think about him, Elric Vesta?"

"He is using Elara or at least that is what he is trying to do."

Seraphina spoke and this time, there was no trace of doubt in her tone.

"..." Vaan narrowed his eyes, Seraphina got her cue and started explaining her reasoning.

"As I said before, having Lady Elara on their side would be a huge advantage for any of the Prospective Heirs. As the Family Head, Lady Astra must have predicted this ever since she recognized her talent and took Lady Elara in as her Pupil.

So in order to protect her pupil from being fooled and taken advantage of by other Vesta children and being the mother she is, she took a decisive step by arranging Lady Elara's engagement to Young Master Vaan. This public commitment discouraged other heirs from pursuing Lady Elara.

Lord Elric, however, didn't seem to have given up.

He must have come up with another plan.

A plan to win Elara's heart. If he manages to do that and then the two of them reveal their love for each other in front of Lady Astra, adding onto the Young Master Vaan's... well, less than ideal treatment of Lady Elara, it is highly likely that for her pupil's happiness, Lady Astra might agree to break off the engagement between Young Master Vaan and Lady Elara.

Lord Elric must be playing on that possibility to get Lady Elara on his side and strengthen his position in the Battle of Heirs."

Seraphina hypothyzed.

"Actually, I would even take a step ahead and say that the bullying Lady Elara faced, it must have been arranged by Lord Elric, just so he could isolate Lady Elara from others and appear next to her, becoming the only 'friend' Lady Elara could turn to and eventually getting her to rely on her before confessing his 'love' for him.

Lady Elara has a vulnerable personality, so in fear of losing her only friend, it wouldn't be a surprise that she would actually give into Lord Elric's demands and try to break off her engagement with Young Master Vaan.

Of course, all of this is just my hypothesis and I have no proof to back up my claims, however, I am confident that all this is true. I refuse to believe that a Prospective Heir with immense influence in the Young Mages of the Family couldn't solve a single problem of a Young Girl being bullied by her peers.

That makes no sense, especially considering it is Lord Elric we are talking about, he is known for his good leadership skills and has a way to get others to work for him."

Seraphina pointed out.

Hearing her words, Vaan narrowed his eyes.

Actually, Seraphina's theory wasn't a shock to him, he was thinking of something along the same lines as well. His theory, however, was more based on his bias towards Elric and how Vaan didn't like him approaching his fiancé.

This was the reason Vaan discarded his own theory and wanted Seraphina's input in it, now, however, things were much clearer in his head.

Seraphina's words made complete sense, that bastard, he was planning to take his Elara away from him.

Thinking about it, Vaan narrowed his eyes. Seraphina, who noticed his expression thought that she had gone too far, therefore, to calm Vaan down, she spoke up,

"Of course, that plan of his is torn to shambles now. I have seen Young Master Vaan together with Lady Elara a few times now, and every time I see the two of you together, Lady Elara always has a bright smile on her face, she seems genuinely happy around you, so I doubt she would have any reason to accept Lord Elric."

Vaan nodded.

"Thank you for your input, Seraphina. You can take your leave now." He ordered.

Seeing the sudden shift in his attitude, Seraphina found it strange, however, knowing that Vaan was not in his best state, Seraphina decided to leave before she accidentally offended him.

However, just as she was about to leave, Vaan informed.

"Right, that Simp Gene- I mean Roland, he would be appearing in the Vesta Court for consuming Dreamweave and badly influencing the people around him. As you already know, the Vesta Family is taking it quite seriously, there is a high chance he will be imprisoned for at least a decade."

Seraphina momentarily paused.

Then, she turned her head towards Vaan and,

"It was Young Master Ronald's fault for consuming a drug that could potentially destroy not only his but his family's foundation. If he is now caught, then he has no one but himself to blame." She commented with an expressionless look on her face.

"You are quite cold. He is the same man who helped you and your family without expecting anything in return." Vaan spoke with a slight smile on his face.

"I wish him and his family well, however, there is nothing I can do in this situation, thinking about it more when you are powerless to change anything is pointless."

Seraphina replied. "Then I will be excusing myself, Young Master Vaan.

I hope you have a fruitful day."

Then, she finally left.

"..."

Vaan turned silent. His mind still thinking about how there was a bastard who was eyeing his Elara.

'I will kill him.'

Vaan clenched his fists in anger.

Then, he walked out of his room and walked towards Elara's. It was still early and not time for their training yet, however, Vaan wanted to spend some time with his fiancé.

"Oh? If it isn't Young Master Vaan~"

However, as if today's day was just not on his side, he was blocked by an annoying voice.

Vaan turned around, wanting to see from what ugly mouth did this annoying voice come from, and saw 3 Young Mages approaching him with big smiles on their faces.

"Hahaha~ It has been a while, hasn't it, Young Master? How have you been?"

Soon, some streams of memories rushed into Vaan's mind and he realized that these 3 were from some indirect family, and as it was already clear from their tone, they didn't have a good relationship with Vaan.

"What is it? Make it quick, do not annoy me and if I deem this worthless, be prepared for the consequences." Vaan, who was in no mood to play around spoke with in a hurried tone.

"Huh?"

The three Mages were clearly taken aback, they had just returned from the Academy and didn't attend the meeting because their status wasn't high enough to be there.

Yes, these people were completely clueless about what was about to happen to them.

"Heeh? Why are you being so rude, Young Master Vaan? Did you forget about us already? Do you want us to remind you a li-Ugghhhh!"

"Fuck it.

I needed to get some practice in as well.

Be my guinea pigs,

Your face already suits one as is, I'll help you find more similarities."

Vaan spoke and then,

He jumped onto the three Mages and started thrashing.