Yay! 3 chapters in two days! Could wait until morning to post this one but I'm to happy about it ️

Forbidden Room

Finral sat at his usual spot at the over sized dining table in House Vaude with Langris across from him, Ledior at the head, and Lilian next to him.

"I was promoted to Fourth Class Senior Magic Knight, today," Langris announced as they ate.

"Oh, my sweet Langris! That's wonderful! At this rate you'll be made a captain of your own squad in no time!" Liliane said.

"I don't know if I'd go that far Mother. Nii-san also got promoted."

"Really? And what rank would that be?" Ledior asked, not hiding the shock in his voice.

Finral stared at this plate not wanting to answer, so Langris took it upon himself to make the announcement, "Third Class Junior."

"You've been a Magic Knight for three years and you're still only a Junior Magic Knight? Do you not realize how pathetic that is?!" Ledior said turning to Finral.

"I-I'm trying Father. Really. I've been going on a lot more missions lately... There was a town that needed evacuated because of a fire that got out of hand, and some magic items that needed safely and quickly delivered... and~"

"A bunch of transport missions that gets you one star if you're lucky."

"I-I've gotten two stars for a couple of the missions... and one for all the others. Last week, three of us took care of some bandits, and gained a new squad mate... The Wizard King gave us four stars for that one."

"Finral."

"Y-yes, Father?"

"Go get some studying done before you leave."

"Ah... Y-yes, Father," he said, looking to the floor as he stood up."

"I expect much better marks then last week."

"Yes, Father," he said opening a portal.

"Finral."

"Hmm?"

"Walk."

"Oh... O-okay," he muttered before leaving the dining room.

I don't care what they think. The fact that you've got promoted at all is amazing Finral. It doesn't matter what rank it is. The Wizard King is acknowledging someone with only one spell in his grimiore, something they do nothing but complain about. Fatry said trying to make Finral feel better and keep his own anger under control, he'd gotten better over the past couple years, but every now and then it's really hard. Having Vanessa and Henry to talk to seemed to really help even when he wasn't in the mood to and Finral had to do some convincing. Where are all the maids? This place is usually filled with them. He asked after awhile of walking.

"I don't know. This particular hall normally always has one or two keeping an eye on the place."

Why's that?

"There's a room a bit farther down it that Langris and I aren't aloud to enter... Actually only a small select for are aloud. The doors always locked but Father still has someone watching it just in case Langris got curious and decided to destroy the door, of course he knew Langris wouldn't, or if I tried..."

Finral...?

"Sorry... I just had an idea...," he replied before opening a portal and quickly stepping through it.

You're going to try to break in to the room aren't you, Fatry asked as Finral looked looked around making sure nobody was around and trying to feel for other people's mana.

"Of course not. I'm going to try to open a portal through the door. I did it once when I first joined the Black Bulls... Shouldn't had been possible because I couldn't see the other side of the door, but I did it," he answered crouching down to look through the key hole. He glanced down the hall again to make sure no one was coming before turning back to the key hole.

I got a bad feeling about this... Normally you would too.

"If someone comes, I'll just jump through a portal, to my room, real quick."

Then hurry up before you get caught.

"Alright, alright, sheesh. As long as I can see it I can get there... This key hole doesn't give me much vision range... but I think it will work," he said holding up a hand and opened a portal. "Alright! I'm kind of surprised that actually worked."

He walked through the portal and looked around the room. There was furniture covered in white cloth to protect it from dust. A king size four post bed sat in one end of the room. He turned around to face the opposite wall and froze.

"M-mother...?" He said staring at the large painting hanging on the wall of a lady with long dirty blond hair and lilac eyes (anyone else ever noticed how everyone seems to call Finral's eyes lilac or purple but they're really more pink with a very small hint of a purple tint? Just curious lol... *looks up images of lilacs just to doubled check... okay there are some that are about the color of Finral's eyes... I'll let it slide... this time lol) sitting in a chair fit for a princess and a younger Ledior Vaude standing behind her with a hand on her shoulder. Ledior wore his usual outfit with the family's usual shade of green. The girl wore a long flowing dress. It some ruffles on the ends of it's long sleeve and lacked the puffy skirt that Liliane usually wore.

He walked up to it and reached a hand up to touch the woman's face, covered in glass. "She's so beautiful."

F-Finral?

"I didn't know Father had this. Fatry...? You don't think that all this stuff was hers, do you?"

You really don't know much about her, do you?

Finral shook his head. "I didn't even know what she looked like," he chocked. "Father never talked about her."

He walked over to a tall, wide object covered in the same cloth as everything else. He pulled it off to reveal a large wardrobe. He traced the patterns of leaves and vines before pulling it open. Garment bags hung across the rail. He unzipped the one closest to him. In it was an elegant white dress.

"Her wedding dress?"

"Indeed," came a voice from behind him.

Finral jumped and spun around to face the witness, "K-Kathryn!"

"Calm down, child. I won't tell your father you're in here."

"B-but w-we're not supposed to be in here."

"I know. But I keep asking you Father to let you come in here. Sense you've managed to get in here on your own, I suppose his permission won't be necessary now. This was Lord Ledior and Lady Faya's room before she died. Lady Liliane refused to sleep in the same room as Lady Faya had. So your father had a wall removed between two rooms to make one larger room and they moved into that one.

"You have a right to know who Lady Faya was. So if you want to come in here every once in awhile, I won't stop you. But as for right now, I believe you're supposed to be studying," she said tilting her head slightly.

"Hehehe... r-right," he chuckled before zipping the garment bag back up, closing the wardrobe, and covering it back up.

"Just promise that you leave everything as you found it. If your father were to come in here and find something out of place, he will know."

Finral nodded, "thank you, Kathryn."

"Nothing to think me for, Young Lord Finral."