Thwack!
The doors of the Marlowe family's main estate flung open, as if a storm had arrived.
Which… wasn't completely inaccurate to say.
"Morris, Eve, Jenny!" A pleasant, yet loud, feminine voice resounded in the main hall. "I heard Raven's awake. Where is he?"
The entire manor went silent, and the workers froze.
The most eccentric person in the house was here.
Jennifer came out first, a smile tugging on her lips.
'Another chance!' She thought, excitedly, as she ran towards the main hall.
As she reached the hall, a woman with the same pristine white hair as Eve was standing, looking in her general direction.
Her complexion was pale like a ghost, but she was beautiful regardless.
Her face was beautiful and soft, and her skin rosy and clear, which made her look a lot younger than she actually was.
Her hazel eyes had a glow in them that made it clear that she was beyond excited to be here.
And her figure made her alluring to anyone with working eyes.
Dorothy Marlowe.
"Mom, Raven is in prison, and Eve went to fetch her," Jennifer yelled everything in a single breath, her face that of a winner.
"Whaaat?"
…
Morris, who was walking towards the main hall, sighed in defeat, hearing his daughter spill the beans immediately.
"Charles," He called out to his butler, who was following him right behind, "What reason are they fighting for, again?"
…
Inside an opulent room was a massive rectangular dining table, stretching around 5 meters in length.
Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, chiming in a pleasant rhythm that promoted one's desire for food.
And around the dining table, jam-packed with mouth-watering dishes of all sorts, sat five people.
Raven, who sat in the middle of the table, Jennifer and Eve, who sat on the right next to Morris, who sat on one end of the table, and finally, his stepmother, on the other end of the table.
"Are you alright, Rae?" Dorothy asked, her voice laced with concern for Raven.
She mostly lived separately from Morris for over 15 years now, due to a messy fight with him back then.
Only coming here for the three children.
She lived in a village close to Shelburg, which was why it took her a day to receive the letter about Raven and another to come here rushing down.
"I'm fine, Miss Dory," Raven replied with a smile.
Miss Dory was almost instinctive for Raven, due to the memories of this body.
He wasn't Dorothy's biological child, unlike Eve and Jennifer.
That was why he addressed her rather formally.
But since Raven was really young when they took him in, he got in the habit of calling Dory because it was easier to spell.
"Tell me about everything that happened, son." She spoke, her voice soft as always when she talked to her children.
Despite him not calling her mom, she always called him 'son'.
It wasn't his fault what happened all those years ago.
Raven recited the made-up story that he told Eve.
He actually came clean about some parts of it.
Simply because he wanted to get into trouble.
That was the whole point of this entire setup.
As he finished narrating the entire story, every person present there had a different expression on their face.
Except for Eve, they were all bewildered.
Some parts because of how elaborate and risky this was.
But mainly because they couldn't believe the wimp Raven pulled something like this.
Was the trauma of the kidnapping really that… life-changing?
"Do you even understand the gravity of the situation you caused, Raven?" His father scolded him.
Everyone stayed silent, and Raven turned his head down to make it seem like he was sorry for it.
He wasn't.
But regardless, he knew what was coming.
A punishment.
"You are grounded for a month, son." Dorothy delivered her verdict.
"..."
"Huh!?" Morris exclaimed.
He usually didn't speak much in front of Dorothy because of their awkward relationship, but this was simply unacceptable.
"Grounded? That's all?" He rebuked. "He'd just be a lazy bum all his life this way."
"What more do you want me to do, then?" Dorothy asked flatly.
"For him to finally be an adult." He chided. "He couldn't always be sitting at home, surviving off me."
"It's time he learned responsibilities."
Eve, who was 27 this year, was already a Cardinal in the Church of Solis.
And Jennifer herself, 23 years old, worked as a professor at the Imperial College of Leville, the most prestigious institute for magic prospects.
Dorothy clicked her tongue, since Morris was definitely the correct one here.
Meanwhile, Raven's happiness immediately vanished upon hearing his father.
Being grounded already implied he could skip the funeral, but this was an unpleasant twist he expected but hoped it won't come true.
An uncertainty.
Finally, Dorothy opened her mouth to put her opinion, "Jenny, see if you can do something."
Being in the Imperial College, right in the heart of the Ivory Kingdom, was definitely not a bad idea.
"No!" But Morris immediately rejected this idea.
"Why not?" Dorothy asked, her voice more annoyed this time.
"Because he is a college dropout." He provided her with the reason, "A College dropout in the most prestigious institute?"
The dining table went silent again.
'I had a Master's degree in Systems Engineering in my last life, if that helps.' He wanted to voice out loud, but he couldn't.
From the original Raven's memories, he knew the level of the theory of this world.
He was way overqualified for colleges here, but not for others who knew him as a college dropout.
This slight personality change after the trauma was already suspicious to many, but if he suddenly came out as a genius, too, it'd be bad.
It'd be a secret he had to die with.
"Eve!" Morris called out with a serious tone.
Eve looked at him hesitantly.
"He has decent talent with combat and magic," He started, "See if you can make him a knight in the Church or something."
"No!" Dorothy slammed the table, her face having a mix of anger and concern, "It'd be too dangerous for him."
"He is 21 years old, Dorothy." He didn't back down. "Let him grow up."
Dorothy bit her lip in frustration.
It would be unfair to them, since she did allow Eve to go out into the real world for herself.
She would seem biased if she didn't let Raven do the same.
Seeing that Dorothy no longer wanted to intervene, he looked back at Eve and asked, "Can you?"
Hearing this, Eve contemplated for a while.
She appeared uncertain here, as if she had an answer, but didn't want to utter those words.
"Eve," Morris's tone was as serious as it could be, something they rarely ever heard, "How long do you plan to pamper him?"
"Can you, or can you not do something here?"
Eve sighed, realizing that her father was completely right here, "I do have something, but I'd need him to get a bit stronger for it… mentally."