I feel kind of bad for leaving you guys hanging for so long. D: but now it's summer and here's the next part. Surprisingly enough, this is one of the few stories where I actually know where I'm going with this.

I know. Strange huh?

I felt more confused now than ever before. In the beginning I was always so sure of myself, and I always knew what I was doing. But this new feeling of not quite understanding what was going on and not really being in the loop was starting to freak me out a little. It was log after midnight and I was sitting at my workplace in my room trying to sort out all these thoughts. Gash was my identical twin brother. Koruru seemed to be backing me out of brother territory and into potential love candidacy. And Cherish seemed to be doing the exact same thing. Was it because she hated to see that a servant could possibly have something that she herself couldn't have? Or did she truly want to have me all to herself? What was she planning? What was Eduron planning?

I was sixteen now, and I was unsure of what to do next. Up until now it seemed like Eduron and I were playing a rather complex game of chess on an oversized board, and I had slyly maneuvered out of her every trap. But I wasn't even sure what this next trap was supposed to be, so of course I didn't know how to worm my way out of it. I just had to relax and clear my mind. If I did that then I should be okay. Once that was out of the way, thinking became a lot easier. Okay. This was an easy enough trap.

Cherish would act raunchy towards me, get me drunk, and then, after several months, would report in a panicked manner that she was pregnant. Frightened Cherish would tell her mother and his father that he had forced himself upon her and ruin his relationship with Koruru, who would believe him to be the same brand of jackass as Hyde.

But Gash. What about him? He seemed to be the loose end. Where did he fit in in this whole plan? Where was he? I massaged my temples and looked up into the clear night sky into the half moon, the receding face of my mother looking down at me with a prideful face, knowing that I would figure this out if it took all night. Yes. I would. I would make her proud. And even if my father had forgotten all that mother had meant to us, I still remembered.

'My big, strong, smart boy,' She would say to me after I had solved one of her notorious riddles. 'One day you'll make a woman very happy. My handsome boy.'

I was Zeon Bell, god dammit, and I was not one to be outsmarted or outfoxed. Eduron and Cherish were outmatched. I let a smile curl onto my features. Yes. I would outsmart them, and get them out of my house.

The next morning at breakfast, Cherish sat beside me for a change. My father seemed happy to know that I was getting along with my stepsister. Little did he know that it was nothing like that. Cherish was eating carefully, chewing her food with thoughtful slowness. Meanwhile her hands graced my thighs, uncomfortably close to my groin. I knew this would happen, but I still wasn't sure what to do about it. I still felt incredibly awkward, incredibly violated, and I had no idea that she was willing to go so far. A shudder went up my body. It was a shudder of sheer disgust, but for some reason Cherish smiled and moved her hand up further, probably misinterpreting my shudder as one of pleasure and thinking it to be the 'go ahead' to continue touching me.

From the corner of my eye I could see Eduron watching me with a smile that barely reached her eyes. This was the first time that I could clearly see that she was manipulating Cherish along with my father. I suddenly felt bad for the girl that was molesting me. And boy was that a strange feeling. My hand reached down with sudden quickness and grabbed Cherish's hand, pushing it over to her and picking at my breakfast, nibbling the toast and eggs gratefully. I wasn't sure why, but I felt suddenly uneasy with my breakfast. I was afraid that there was some kind of drug on the toast that would make me drunk if I ingested too much. The strange thing was that I was actually worried about this. If my hunch was right then Cherish would lure me in if I was drunk. And who knew what would happen then.

Her plan was flawed if Cherish didn't actually get pregnant from the encounter. If she lied about being pregnant with my child and it could be proved we never even had sex, then my father would know that Eduron and Cherish were bad people. However, if she did get pregnant (for real) and had the baby which was successfully pinned on me, my father would be ashamed of me. He would give me the baby and banish me from the castle. But then Eduron would have to deal with Gash. Hopefully father understood the importance of keeping the castle in the lineage and not letting conniving wenches snatch it from under our boots.

I could trust Gash to keep the kingdom safe. He wasn't as strong as me, but he was a good fighter and a good person. He wouldn't be manipulated like my father was. It was unlike him. With a heavy sigh I pushed my breakfast away and went out into the garden. At first I wasn't followed. But then I heard the sound of the heavy doors opening and closing again, and knew that someone was behind me. Who it was, I didn't know, but they weren't trying too hard to be sneaky. Originally I was headed towards the bench, but if whoever this was wasn't Gash or Koruru, they would follow me nonetheless. It was my way of weeding out the trustworthy ones from those who only want to hurt me.

Near the edge of the garden was a natural spring where we integrated all kinds of small pet fish. It was like a large and natural fish tank, only you couldn't enjoy staring at them and tapping the glass quite as much. That was where I was headed right now, and the person followed dutifully, thinking nothing of my change of course. Suddenly, when I was a few steps from the spring and I could see the shimmery bodies of the fish, I whipped around at my pursuer, who was too surprised to think to hide.

Behind me was Tsao-lon, one of my father's old friends. He didn't look too old, in fact, he had been one of the demons that was encased in stone during the last battle. Dressed as always in his battle-ready gear, Tsao-lon quickly got over his shock at being discovered and sighed, walking up to me. He had helped me train after Father aided in releasing him from his stone prison. It took him a long time to get used to being in a world where very few people still know his name, but I took a liking to him early on, and aside from being my current mentor he is also a close friend who comes to visit from time to time.

Our eyes met and I brought my hands together for a respectful bow. Tsao-lon returned it and walked over to me.

"Hello Zeon... I see things aren't going well."

That was the alarming thing about Tsao-lon... he was insanely perceptive when he wasn't going off. He had a short temper and could be annoyingly arrogant. Rightfully so. I still had yet to best him, and part of me dreaded the day when I could. Once I could best him, Father would send for another, more powerful tutor and dismiss my current one. All of my mentors had always been cool and calculating. Tsao-lon was the only one who was more hot-headed than me. He was interesting, and I liked having him around.

"Right again... I feel like everything is going crazy and slipping through my fingers... I never felt so out of power... out of control... like everything is trying to defeat me," I said, as my hands started to shake. "Shīfu Tsao-lon, I don't know what to do... don't you have some archaic words of wisdom for me?"

Tsao-lon looked up into the sky as though he was thinking deeply about my request. It wouldn't be the first time that I had asked the elder demon for his aid. After a few moments he looked down, and said, with an annoyingly goofy look on his face, "Man with glass house should change in basement?"

For perhaps a half second a pondered this before realizing that he had just made something up on the spot to appease me, and that those words probably held very little meaning if any at all. I reached over to try and hit him for giving me useless advice, but his reflexes were faster, and he slapped my hand hard with his staff. My hand was retracted and I rubbed it angrily.

"Some REAL advice, please!"

Tsao-Lon sighed and rubbed his spiky white hair down, and I watched in amusement as it sprang back up to it's former shape. "Fine. Then listen closely. You know I'm not the type that goes spouting off in infinite wisdom. I'm a kid too."

That was true. Time had not affected Tsao-Lon whilst he was in the stone, so he was still very young. I forgot a lot that despite his strength and age that he was still a kid too.

"If I had a formula for bypassing trouble," Tsao- Lon began, not looking at me but instead over his shoulder into the pond, watching the shimmering backs of the fish as though they were the most interesting thing around at that moment. "I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it."

Looking serious, he raised his staff and rapped me on my shoulder and then my head. I managed to ignore the pain. "There is one lesson you have failed to completely grasp Zeon: Every generation reaps what the prior has sown, yet everyone must grow on their own, no matter how tall their predecessors were. Do you understand?"

I furrowed my brows and tried to process what he was saying. I realized that he was saying that although we inherit good and bad things from our parents, we have to get by on our own merits and not on theirs. Thanks to my sheltered upbringing, I had seen less trouble than the average teen my age. But it was a natural part of growing up, and I should rise to meet this trouble no matter what. "I understand Tsao-Lon."

The ancient demon gave me a big smile. "Great! Listen, you can come by my place anytime, you're always welcome. If you need advice or anything I'm always around."

I smiled and nodded. Tsao-Lon was a regular guy. Not royalty and not a servant. He was just a normal working class guy who happened to know the king. He had definitely seen trials and tribulations, and he definitely rose to the challenge. I could do it too. Zeon Bell never backed down from a challenge.

"I'll make sure to do that."