I've failed you again
'Cause I let you stay
I used to pretend
That I felt okay
Just one big lie
Such a perfect illusion
I made you mine
Just to hurt you once again

Ferdinand entered the supply room, getting past the slightly dizzying change of scenery with anxiety gripping his stomach. When he reached the white, mostly empty room, Rozemyne was looking up at the magic stone floating in the middle, her back at him.

While she had been maintaining her proper archduchess persona in front of everyone, there was now a distinct slump in her shoulders, making him briefly wonder if the change in demeanor was something normal for her, or if the previous day's events -and thus him- were to blame for it.

She stood there, unmoving, for a while, and Ferdinand just stared at her. Aside from Justus' pushing, he _had_ a reason to talk to her, but now that they were alone both his determination and the need to chastise her for her carelessness had gone away, replaced only by the fear of being rejected once again. How should he approach her? What should he say? Should he first apologize for his earlier conduct, or would it be better not to say anything about it?

Even from behind, he could tell by the movements of her shoulders and her head that many things were going through her mind, making him even more aware of his own inner turmoil. Once again, he felt the need to confirm if she could sense him or not, and let his mana fluctuate a little, but she didn't seem to realize. He uncompressed it -he would be dedicating it in moments, anyway- and this time, she seemed to have a reaction.

On her part, Rozemyne was doing her best to push away the dull headache born from the lack of sleep. Just listening to Hartmut had drained her enough, she was starting to doubt she would be able to face a whole day of lectures, and that wasn't even the worst part... she would surely receive a barrage of questions, from the other students, from professor Hirschur, from Eglantine... from her entourage. Couldn't she just hole up in the library and read?

An image of Ferdinand snatching a book from under her nose crossed her mind, reminding her that reading at her leisure while Ferdinand would be doing his and her work -piled up work- in Alexandria was not fair. The responsible thing to do would be delaying her return at the Royal Academy and clearing up all the accumulated work ...but she felt too unstable to be in the same room with him at the moment.

Hurry up and finish her classes as soon as possible, that was a good compromise. And also, hurry up and fill the foundation before Ferdinand could join her. She nodded vigorously, strangely motivated, and knelt down to start the dedication.

When he saw her getting down, Ferdinand realized that she hadn't felt his mana at all, but was probably just having a conversation with herself. Seriously, it was his fault for getting his hopes up.

"I am one-"

"Rozemyne."

The girl in question stopped chanting like a record player whose power was suddenly cut. She froze, hearing the voice of the last person she wanted to see at the moment. ...No, that would be a lie. She wanted to see him, wanted to know that he was alive, that he was fine ...she just wasn't ready to interact with him. At least, not without making a fool of herself. Like she was doing at the moment, being frozen in space without saying anything.

She closed her eyes and took a few breaths, trying to calm herself. It didn't work at all, but delaying the inevitable would make her even more nervous, so she started turning around, still kneeling. Halfway during the turn, her balance started to fail, and she barely avoided falling by supporting herself on the floor.

"F-Ferdinand..." she greeted, shakily, once she was facing him.

There was an awkward silence between them, during which they only studied each other. Both of them had many things they wanted to say and even more they wanted to hide, but in the end it was Ferdinand, feeling particularly uneasy with the silence, who broke it saying the first thing that came to his mind.

"You entered the supply room without even looking at who was in the office, then you didn't even notice I came inside after you. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is?"

Her eyes went wide as he spoke, making her realize her misstep. Just the night before she had said she would defend- she had said... Weren't they in the _most compromising position_ when she had said that? It hadn't bothered her in the slightest then, but now just thinking back to his solid frame, his body warmth, his scent...

'_Why is my heart racing so fast?_'

She turned her head to the side, not wanting to look at him while she was not in control of her emotions. "But... nobody said anything, so I thought that everything was fine..."

Watching her turn to the side, Ferdinand regretted his poor choice of subject. He had been searching for ways to make her comfortable again, and yet the first thing he did was scold her. Not that it wasn't deserved, but in her trip to the past she had acted quite heroically for someone who never took the knight course... he could have let her mistake slip, just this time.

He suppressed a sigh. Now that he had started, he couldn't just pretend he hadn't said anything, he had to finish his lecture.

"No matter how loyal and skilled, people can be manipulated, blackmailed, they can change their mind and-" he wanted to say 'betray you', but caught himself just in time. He could make his point without saying things bound to destabilize her even more. "You are the Aub, the last check is always up to you, don't forget it."

Rozemyne blinked in surprise and turned her eyes to look at him. The last part had come out unexpectedly ..._bite-less_. She followed him with her eyes as he moved to his designated spot in the supply room, trying to find traces of emotions under his perfect noble facade, but the only thing she could see was tiredness. Was it a consequence of his disappearance? Was it safe to make him use a large quantity of mana straight away?

"Ferdinand, I can fill the foundation by myself. Just wait outside." As she suggested it, she realized it sounded like she wanted to send him away. "I mean, we don't know if it's safe for you to use so much mana..." She hastily added before he could scold her again for her rudeness.

Her words brought him back to his youth, to a time when he was constantly reminded of how unwelcomed his presence was, although he felt strangely numb about it. Offhandedly, he thought that she had gotten better at making up excuses on the spot, even if she wasn't still good enough to prevent her real intentions from leaking.

Regardless, he had something to give her, so even if it displeased her, he had to stay a little longer. And since he also had to gather the courage to do it -and face the possible refusal- he might as well show her he could still do his job. He had already undone his compression, after all.

"I feel nothing wrong with my mana. However, in case I were to collapse while dedicating, it would be safer for me if you, who can access the supply room, were here as well. So please endure my presence a little longer." He kneeled down where the god of darkness symbol was and looked at her. "Shall we begin?"

Rozemyne could not deny the soundness of his reasoning, but something in the way he said it felt strange. Didn't he sound too dejected? Where was the usual confidence and authority that he naturally exuded, as if it was a matter of fact that people would do what he said? That _she_ would do what he said? Before she could identify what was out of place, she found herself starting to intone the prayer, as per his simple directive.

Mana started to flow. During and after the prayer, Rozemyne kept stealing glances at him to make sure he wasn't overexerting himself. He was looking up, probably studying -ever the mad scientist- the magic circles floating around to see if everything was fine. Slowly, her focus shifted from his well being to his appearance.

He was... really handsome. She remembered briefly thinking it many years ago, when she first saw him in the high bishop's chambers, but since then she had never given his appearance a second thought, not even when Elvira or anybody else praised him ...or said she might have feelings for him.

She looked him over. While he had a slender frame and his light coloring reminded her of Angelica's, details like his Adam's apple, his wide shoulders, his hands, still gave away his masculinity. His clothes were a let-down, though. They were elegant and finely crafted, but all the extra cloth ruined the image of virility that men in her dream world would, instead, try to project. She imagined him wearing the white turtleneck from her dream, and she immediately felt her cheeks grow hot.

"-emyne. Rozemyne."

"Uh?" she blinked, realizing he was calling her.

"It's enough."

She felt utterly embarrassed for having been caught in the middle of such thoughts. He was family, and here she was, debating which clothes would better bring out his virility. He must be thinking she was a lewd girl! "Sorry!" she almost screamed, closing her eyes and putting her hands together in front of her face to beg for forgiveness.

Ferdinand raised an eyebrow at her, wondering why she was apologizing. He then paused, taking a better look at her. Weren't her cheeks quite red? "Rozemyne, do you have a fever?" He said as he stood up to give her a check-up, completely forgetting his intent of giving her space until she was comfortable again near him.

Rozemyne saw him move closer, but she couldn't have it. "I'm fine, don't worry!" She was already embarrassed enough just thinking about him, she didn't need to feel his hands on her. Her mind drifted to the night before, when they had touched much more than her wrists and her neck, making her even redder than before.

"Besides, I... I have to hurry and go to the Royal Academy to finish my classes!" she said as she stood up abruptly and started walking to the door.

Seeing her in such a hurry, Ferdinand realized she was trying to get away from him. He couldn't let her, not before he gave her the ring that controlled the magic tool around his sword. His feet moved on their own and, with few quick strides, he moved past her and turned around to grab her hand.

Rozemyne saw the scene unfold in slow motion. She saw him get in front of her and turn around like he was _prince charming_, then he grabbed her hand in his, gently lifted it, and moved his other hand in front of her ring finger. When her eyes landed on the finely crafted ring he was holding, her mind started running at lightning speed.

'_He's proposing!_' She thought in a panic. '_But I can't accept it!_' She could feel her heart thumping twice as fast as normal. '_Wh-what if he tries to kiss me after giving me the ring?_' Her vision zeroed on his hands sliding the ring on, and by the time it shrank to fit her finger, she was a complete mess of emotions.

The lightning of Verdrenna ran through the tool coiled around Ferdinand's sword as the ring reacted to Rozemyne's emotional state.

It took him everything he had not to groan at the intense pain. He was prepared for a weak shock, just like the one he had felt during the tests on his forearm, never would he have expected that the pain would be so much stronger on the sword. And to add insult to injury, instead of shrinking down as it should have, _that thing_ had decided to swell and the tool was starting to bite into his flesh.

Rozemyne's eyes were still glued to the ring, oblivious to what was happening to the man who gave it to her. Her brain finally getting over her initial bewilderment, she realized two simple yet very important things: there was no point proposing _after_ getting married, and if he wanted to do that, he would have given her a necklace, not a ring.

She looked at him hoping to get some answers, but the only thing she saw was him moving closer, slightly bending over. Her imagination went wild again, suggesting her that he was about to kiss her, throwing her feelings into disarray once more.

Ferdinand's tool gave out a second shock. Already at the limit of his resistance, he couldn't hold on anymore and lost consciousness, heavily falling forward.

Suddenly feeling his full weight on her, Rozemyne instinctively wrapped her arms around him as she did her best to keep her balance. She managed not to fall over, but he was too much taller and heavier than her, leaving her no choice but to lay him down on his side.

"Ferdinand!" She called out in a panic. She had no idea what to do, no first-aid knowledge from neither this nor her previous life that she could apply. Why did he fall over? He was fine until a moment ago, he just looked a bit tired... Could he have used too much mana? Was it her fault for not hearing him when he was telling her to stop the dedication?

As she fretted over his unconscious body, she casually saw the green stone in his ring and remembered she could use healing on him. She intoned the spell, blasting an oversized amount of mana in her ring, and stared with bated breath for any signs of him waking up.

When he regained consciousness, the first and only thing he felt was pain, making him bend even further than he already was. His hands reached for the aching part, but he immediately released it as even the slightest touch felt painful.

Rozemyne watched him curl up and assumed he must be experiencing abdominal pains. Had he been poisoned? "Ferdinand!"

Her voice made him aware of his surroundings. He recalled why his sword was aching so much, and also that they were alone in the supply room. He had to make _that thing_ get down soon, before she could realize the state he was in.

"Ferdinand! Can you hear me? Tell me where it hurts!"

Fighting hard to endure the pain, he tried to think of something that could subdue a raised sword, but even among the results of his research there was nothing he could fully trust, not after Verdrenna's lightning proved to have the opposite effect of what he was expecting. There was only a solution he could think of, but he had been refused many times before. He steadied himself both to find his voice and to receive her refusal. "Order... Give me the order... to calm down."

It took a moment for her to realize he wasn't telling her where it hurt, but asking her to do something. At first she felt reluctant at the idea of ordering him, but if doing so could make his pain stop, then she'd gladly put aside her modern-day ethics. However, she couldn't understand what he meant with 'calm down', and with the way magic worked in Yurgenschmidt, she doubted the order would have any effect if she didn't have a clear idea of what she was ordering.

"'Calm down' what? Do you have [abdominal spasms]?" She asked with urgence in her voice, and at the same time tried to make him roll over so she could take a better look at his belly.

Ferdinand tried to resist, keeping his legs folded against his torso, but he didn't have much strength. The angle between his upper and lower half widened, and it was all it took for the state he was desperately trying to hide to become painfully evident.

Rozemyne froze, her memory going back to the night before and what happened on Ferdinand's bed -every feeling, every touch.

Ferdinand's tool gave him another shock, and grunting in pain was all he could do before passing out again.

"Ferdinand!" The night before quickly forgotten, she stood up and started running to the door to call for Justus' help, only to turn around when she remembered he could not enter the supply room.

She knelt down and grabbed Ferdinand's arms in what could only be described as a clumsy hold. She started dragging him to the door, almost tripping on his cape on the first step, then after just a few meters his limbs were slipping away from her hands, so she had to release and grab him again.

Just as she was wishing for a stronger body, it occurred to her that she could use physical enhancement, finally making her journey to the door no longer painful to look at. By the time she reached it, she had managed to organize her thoughts enough to only peek her head out of it and preserve a little of Ferdinand's dignity.

"Justus! Eckhart! Help me! Everybody else, clear the room!"

Angelica, Amelie and the two older men immediately followed her instructions, whereas Hartmut and Cornelius stalled, the former speaking before the latter could "Milady, can I he-"

"OUT!" the Aub barked, unconsciously making it an order. Hartmut stared at her for a moment, looking almost as if he was experiencing some kind of epiphany, before rushing out and dragging Cornelius along.

The moment the door closed, the three occupants of the office moved as if they had already practiced for the situation. Rozemyne pulled Ferdinand into the office, Eckhart took his arms from her the moment they appeared out of the supply room's door, while Justus waited for his master's legs to come out so he could grab them and help Eckhart carry the man to lie somewhere.

He was desperate to ask Rozemyne what had happened, but refrained from asking explanations that he would then have to hear. He already had a nagging suspicion that what caused his master's unconsciousness was the torture device the man had passed off as a magic tool, and to confirm it he only needed to wait a moment longer.

"SHIT!" Justus cursed loudly when he saw the tell-tale bulge in his master's pants. Both Linkbergs froze at the unexpected usage of expletives. "Eckhart, lie him down on the ground!"

The order made the knight defrost and, with one powerful pull, he brought his master's whole body into the office, laying him down on the spot and finally noticing the more than obvious raised sword.

Justus immediately knelt and started undoing Ferdinand's trousers, earning him a questioning look from Eckhart and a yelp from Rozemyne.

"I'll wait outside!" she declared, turning around and rushing to the door.

"MILADY!" Justus called out to stop her. His hands swiftly freed his master's raised sword, also exposing the magic tool biting into the flesh. He grimaced at the sight.

"The fuck is that?" said Eckhart horrified.

Rozemyne winced at the second usage of coarse words in a few minutes. She had been barely exposed to that kind of language even in the lower city but, rudeness aside, her uneasiness was growing at the idea that the situation could be actually worse than she thought.

Justus clenched his fists in the effort of containing his anger. They were supposed to replenish the foundation, how could his master have gotten so aroused? Was she doing it on purpose, or was she simply _too blind_ to realize how much he desired her?

Regardless, with Lord Ferdinand currently unconscious and Rozemyne being the only one who could take the magic tool out, this was probably the first and last chance to actually get rid of that abomination. He was not going to waste it even if he had to chase her all the way to the Royal Academy.

"I will refrain from asking what you did to get Lord Ferdinand so hard," Justus said, and euphemisms be damned, she would misunderstand them anyway. "but you _will_ fix this before he gets permanent damage."

Rozemyne shrinked, first wanting to protest she hadn't done anything, then worrying at the prospect of permanent damage. She had to prevent it. But... to 'fix' Ferdinand's state she would have to... to...

The magic tool went off again. Justus didn't see it, as he was staring down Rozemyne, but Eckhart noticed the sparkles and how it made the sword bounce.

"Verdrenna lightning..." Eckhart murmured, between awe and dread. "Justus, forget about Rozemyne, we first need to take out this tool!"

"Verdrenna...?" Justus repeated, looking down and then clenching his fists even tighter. "Lord Ferdinand made it so that only Rozemyne's mana can undo it!"

Eckhart finally understood. Justus wasn't asking her to 'fix' their master's erection -ultimately a proof that his body was healthy- but to rectify their master's bad habit of taking upon himself all the blame and the punishment.

Rozemyne, on the other hand, was now completely at a loss. Tool? Verdrenna? What on Earth were they talking about?

She suddenly felt hands on her sides, lifting her off the ground. She yelped in surprise, trying to understand what was happening, who the hands belonged to, but before she could even vaguely regain her bearings, she was unceremoniously put down in front of the one thing she didn't want to look at.

The sight left her petrified, unable to even blink. A man's genitalia was something she had only seen in biology books in her previous life, and even then, never in an erect state. But what was truly appalling was that one wire of magic metal wrapped around it, visibly squeezing the flesh. It looked painful. Really painful. Was that the reason Ferdinand had fainted?

_Why would he hurt himself like that?_

After a while, she was able to lift her eyes to look at Justus, who apparently had been saying something to her. "Why?" She whispered, almost on the verge of tears.

Justus faltered for a moment. He had still a lot of anger that needed to get out, but he somehow regained his senses and realized she wasn't the one to blame. At the very least, blaming her while asking for her help was not a smart move.

"Lord Ferdinand devised it to prevent himself from getting ...like this." He said, visibly trying to force his anger out of his voice. "It didn't work, apparently. You need to take it off now, he won't let you do it once he wakes up."

Rozemyne lowered her eyes, forcing herself to look at Ferdinand's most private part once again. She really didn't have the courage to touch him there, but he didn't deserve to suffer like that. Balling her fists to steady herself, she prepared for what she had to do.

_I'm not so embarrassed that I'd like the pavement to open and swallow me._ she told herself over and over as she studied a way to peel the magical metal away. It was so tightly coiled that she would never be able to put her fingers between it and... his... flesh...

It was too much. After what happened the day before, after the overwhelmingly sexy version of him she had seen in her dreams... How could she touch him _there_?

"I can't do it!" she suddenly cried, covering her face with her hands.

Justus and Eckhart witnessed in horror as the magic tool went off once again. While the former was starting to connect the dots and understand how the tool worked, the latter only cared that it would get removed.

"Rozemyne! Keep your eyes closed, I'll make sure you only touch the magic tool. Just blast mana into it like only you can do." the knight said as he grabbed his sister's hands and started pulling them where they needed to be.

Realizing she only needed to use mana, Rozemyne accepted her brother's suggestion as the best possible compromise between helping Ferdinand and keeping the embarrassment to a minimum. Squeezing her already closed eyes, she let Eckhart guide her hands to the magic tool and position her fingertips one after another on the magical metal. As soon as all her fingers were touching the metal, she poured mana in the tool like her life depended on it.

It took mere moments for it to come undone, but instead of getting loose like a rope would -and like they all had assumed- the tool disappeared into thin air along with Rozemyne's new ring. The girl didn't immediately notice the tool was gone, instead she kept pouring mana, and with no tool to absorb it, it flowed straight into Ferdinand's sword -that never before had been the recipient of such an exchange.

Even though he was still unconscious, the combined relief at the tool's removal and the pleasure given by Rozemyne's mana caused a sinful moan to escape from Ferdinand's lips.

"Lord Ferdinand!" Justus called, trying to wake him up.

As Ferdinand stirred slightly, Rozemyne felt his sword rub against her fingertips. She felt the difference in texture, the softer and slightly warmer surface than before, and against her better judgment she opened her eyes to see what had caused the change.

Her fingers were touching the bare skin of his manhood. That thing moved, almost as if it was alive.

"AAAH!" She screamed, jerking her hands away so quickly that she fell on her backside. She felt the eyes of the two men on her, but she was not going to face them now. She was _especially_ not going to wait for Ferdinand to wake up and face him.

She quickly scrambled to her feet, turning around and running to the door as fast as she could. She heard Justus calling her, but deliberately chose to ignore him. She couldn't take any more embarrassment for the day.

Justus and Eckhart stared as she threw the door open and disappeared behind it. They heard Cornelius and Angelica take off after her while shouting for her to slow down.

It was nothing short of a wonder that she could move at that speed, Justus mused. But it would have been even more wondrous if she had closed the door and blocked Hartmut's astonished gaze upon his master's bare, raised sword.

This is the last of the chapters I had ready, now I'll be back to updating slowly, although I'll try to take less than one year for the next update.

Many thanks to Krymzim for helping me polishing this chapter and for sticking up despite the continuous changes I make to my docs.

The line about Hartmut having an epiphany was inspired by TheChatteringMagpi's maso-Hartmut in her "A world away" (on Archive of our own)

The quoted song isbr /
"The funeral song", The Rasmus, Dead letters (2003)

Thanks for sticking with me despite me throwing Ferdinand deep into despair. Reviews are very appreciated.