The morning sun cast long, lazy rays across the polished marble floors of the Draven estate, illuminating a household in motion. The massive double doors of the grand entrance were propped wide open, and dozens of servants practically sprinted back and forth, loading heavy, silver-trimmed trunks into a sleek black carriage parked on the gravel driveway.
It had been three days since the birthday banquet. Three days since the political maneuvering in the Duke's study, and exactly seventy-two hours since Neo's life had gone completely off the rails.
He had acquired a permanent shadow.
"Nora, please," Neo sighed, his five-year-old voice cracking with sheer exasperation.
"I literally just need to use the bathroom."
Standing exactly two feet behind him, looking like a hauntingly beautiful porcelain doll in a pristine white morning dress, was the Final Villainess.
Nora didn't blink. Her glacial violet eyes were locked dead onto his face, entirely devoid of any understanding of basic social boundaries. Reaching out, her small pale hand shot forward like a striking snake, clamping firmly onto the hem of his dark blue tunic.
She gave it a gentle, insistent tug.
Neo's eyebrow twitched. He looked down at her hand, and then back up at her blank face.
"You can't come in here," Neo tried to explain, using his absolute best, most patient adult-reasoning voice. He pointed a chubby finger at the heavy oak door of the washroom.
"This is a solo mission. Highly classified. You have to wait out here."
Nora tilted her head a fraction of an inch to the right. She glanced at the door, then back at him.
Tightening her grip on his tunic, she took a stubborn half-step forward, practically pressing herself against his side.
"I am going to lose my mind," Neo muttered under his breath, rubbing his temples.
Ever since that afternoon in the library, when he had stupidly decided to act as her personal glowing mana-pacifier to prevent a sensory meltdown, Nora had become impossibly attached. 'Attached' was an understatement. She was superglued to him.
To her overwhelmingly sensitive, untrained magical senses, the Draven estate was a deafening nightmare of ambient mana and overlapping auras. But Neo, with his perfectly refined Sapphire Core, was the only quiet, soothing anchor in her entire world.
So, she followed him. Everywhere.
If he went to the kitchens to sneak a cookie, she was two feet behind him. If he sat in the sunroom to read, she sat on the cushion right next to him, holding his sleeve. She barely spoke a few raspy words a day, but her actions spoke volumes.
To the outside observer, it looked sickeningly adorable.
"Oh, just look at them," Sylvia's melodic voice echoed from down the hallway.
Neo turned his head to see his mother and Elara walking toward them arm-in-arm, blissfully oblivious to his internal suffering.
"They haven't been apart for a single second," Elara cooed, pressing a hand to her heart. Her eyes shone with maternal joy.
"It's like they've known each other in a past life. The engagement was the best decision we ever made."
'You literally threw me to the wolves,' Neo thought, offering his mother a forced, twitchy smile.
'I am being held hostage in my own home.'
"Well, Elara, the carriages are nearly packed," Sylvia sighed, a genuine hint of sadness coloring her tone.
"I wish you and Valerius could stay longer, but I know the Crescent Moon territory needs its Marquis."
"We will be back for the winter festival, I promise," Elara smiled, pulling Sylvia into a tight hug. She crouched down, her silver hair cascading over her shoulders, and looked at Nora.
"Alright, my little star. It's time to go home. Papa is waiting in the carriage."
Nora's violet eyes finally snapped away from Neo. She looked at her mother.
Very slowly, Nora stepped entirely behind Neo, using his tiny body as a human shield. Her hands shot out, wrapping tightly around his waist from behind as she buried her face into his back.
Neo let out a small, breathless grunt as the air was forcefully squeezed out of his lungs.
Elara blinked, completely stunned, while Sylvia covered her mouth to stifle a delighted giggle.
"Oh dear," Elara laughed softly, clearly not expecting resistance from her usually emotionless daughter.
"Nora, sweetheart, we have to go. You'll see Neo again very soon."
Nora didn't move. Her small fingers dug deeper into his tunic. A faint, icy chill began to leak into the air around them as the chaotic mana inside her reacted to a sudden, intense spike of separation anxiety.
Neo felt the temperature drop. His survival instincts flared.
'Okay, abort. Defuse the bomb,' he panicked internally.
Reaching back, he gently pried one of her freezing hands off his waist and turned around. He flared his Dantian just a fraction, sending a warm pulse of his refined sapphire mana down his arm and wrapping it around her hand.
Nora gasped softly. Her violet eyes widened as the chaotic noise in her head was instantly drowned out by his stable energy.
"Hey," Neo said, keeping his voice incredibly steady, channeling every ounce of big-brother energy he could muster. "You have to go with your mom. But I promise, I'm not going anywhere. We're... engaged, remember?"
The word still felt like ash in his mouth, but he forced it out.
"That means we'll see each other all the time."
Nora stared at him, her glacial eyes searching his face for any hint of a lie.
She looked down at his hand, currently glowing with an almost imperceptible blue light. She squeezed his fingers once, tightly, as if trying to memorize the feeling of his mana.
Then, she let go.
Stepping out from behind him, her face instantly returned to that beautiful, emotionless mask. She walked over to Elara and silently took her mother's hand.
"What a good boy you are, Neo," Elara praised, amazed by his ability to calm her daughter without a single tantrum. "We will see you in the winter, Little Lord."
Neo offered a polite, incredibly relieved bow.
"Safe travels, Auntie Elara."
He watched as Elara led Nora down the hallway. Just before they turned the corner toward the grand entrance, Nora stopped. She turned her head, her silver hair whipping around her shoulders, and locked her violet eyes onto him one last time.
She didn't wave or smile. She just stared at him with an intensity that promised she would be back, and she would expect her glowing blue pacifier to be ready.
Then, she was gone.
The moment the heavy wheels of the Marquis's carriage crunched out of the driveway, the Draven estate seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief. The frantic energy dissipated, leaving behind the quiet, methodical hum of the household.
Neo stood in the center of his bedroom, the heavy oak door locked securely behind him.
He was alone. Truly, finally alone.
Walking over to his massive bed, he dropped to his knees and reached under the heavy velvet mattress. He pulled out a small, unadorned wooden box.
Flipping the lid open, the Frost-Vein Core rested inside. Its jagged obsidian surface pulsed with an intoxicating, pale blue light.
A wicked grin spread across Neo's face.
"Alright," Neo whispered, excitement bubbling in his chest like carbonated water.
"The Calamity is gone. The parents are busy running the Dukedom. It's time to actually see what I can do."
He carefully picked up the icy stone. The moment his skin made contact with the core, an electrifying jolt of raw energy shot up his arm, connecting directly to his Dantian. His massive mana capacity flared, reacting to the dense catalyst.
He didn't need a fancy, sentient System to tell him how to use it; his adult intellect processed the world's lore instantly. The Frost-Vein Core wasn't a battery—it was an amplifier. It was designed to take whatever mana you pushed into it and multiply the output exponentially.
Neo closed his eyes, settling into his Inner Sanctum meditation stance.
He visualized a simple, basic spell. The lowest tier of offensive magic known to the Empire: Mana Bullet. Normally used by Apprentices to hunt small game, it was supposed to be a condensed sphere of kinetic energy roughly the size of a marble that hit with the force of a solid punch.
Neo pushed a microscopic fraction of his massive mana pool through his arm, channeling it directly into the Frost-Vein Core resting in his palm.
The black stone vibrated violently in his hand. The pale blue veins glowed so bright they practically blinded him through his closed eyelids. The amplifier took his tiny input and hungrily devoured it, multiplying the energy in a fraction of a second.
Neo opened his eyes, pointing his empty left hand toward the far wall of his bedroom.
"Fire," he commanded softly.
The explosion was deafening. It sounded like a cannon firing inside a tin can.
A blinding sphere of concentrated, kinetic energy—easily the size of a bowling ball of Pure Mana—erupted from his palm. The sheer recoil physically lifted Neo's chubby body off the floor, throwing him backward through the air.
He hit the velvet mattress of his bed, bouncing twice before rolling to a stop, completely dazed.
Across the room, the 'Mana Bullet' slammed into the reinforced stone wall.
*BOOOOOM!!*
The entire western wing of the Draven mansion violently shuddered. Pulverized plaster exploded into the air, filling the bedroom with a thick, choking white cloud. The resulting shockwave shattered the massive glass windows, sending a shower of crystal shards raining down onto the manicured lawns below.
Neo laid on his back, staring up at the painted ceiling through the settling dust. His ears rang with a high-pitched whine.
Slowly, he rolled over and peered over the edge of his mattress.
Where the solid, foot-thick stone wall of his bedroom had been just five seconds ago, there was now a massive, smoldering crater. The wall had been atomized, revealing a perfect view of the bright blue afternoon sky outside.
He stared at the destruction. He stared at his tiny, pudgy left hand. He stared at the glowing Frost-Vein Core still clutched tightly in his right.
"Oops," Neo squeaked, his voice barely audible over the ringing in his ears.
Downstairs, the frantic sound of heavy boots tearing up the marble staircase began to echo through the mansion.
"NEO!"
Cassian's voice roared, filled with primal panic, shaking the chandeliers in the hallway.
'Oh, crap,' Neo panicked. He quickly shoved the Frost-Vein Core back into its wooden box and kicked it under the bed.
He scrambled to the center of the room, intentionally smudging some white plaster dust on his cheek, and sat down hard on the carpet. Widening his deep blue eyes, he practiced his best, most terrified toddler tremble, and waited for his parents to burst through the door.
'Secret training,' Neo thought frantically, trying to figure out how he was going to explain away a second missing wall in less than a week.
'I am going to need to find a better place for secret training.'