After several long minutes of quiet sobbing, Hestia finally managed to stop. Her eyelids were puffy and red, and her long white hair had become a completely disheveled mess from wiping her face.
Alexander stared at his twin for a second before a rare, genuine grin broke through his usual stoic expression.
"Pfft... Sister, what is with that appearance? Hahaha!"
Hestia glared up at him, sniffing dramatically. "Be quiet, Brother... you look like an absolute mess too."
She carefully loosened her tight grip around Fainyx, allowing the small boy to finally breathe.
Looking at Alexander, she could see that his brilliant blue eyes were just as puffy and bloodshot as her own.
"Ehem..." Hestia coughed into her fist, trying to regain some semblance of her noble dignity as she wiped away her tears and snot with a silk handkerchief.
"I am so sorry, Fainyx. We made you look upon our horrible side. I just... I see so much of someone else in you, and we are both just so incredibly happy that you are alive after all this time... I am truly sorry if we made you feel uncomfortable."
Alexander stepped forward, adjusting his ruffled collar.
"We are also deeply sorry about how we forced our way inside your room without any permission. My sister is the one who suggested it"
" Hey! It was you who opened it my dearest brother of mine~"
"Ehem..."
"..."
"..."
Once their heartfelt apologies were out of the way, a heavy, suffocating silence descended upon the bedroom.
Fainyx sat entirely still in his armchair, holding his book. He watched the two twins who was his aunt and uncle stare at each other, looking completely lost.
A moment later, they leaned their heads together and began to whisper frantically.
They clearly thought they were being subtle, but Fainyx's sharp senses picked up every single word.
"Eh... What shall we do now, Brother?"
Hestia whispered, her voice laced with panic. "I don't know what to say to him anymore! Everything is so awkward!"
"...I don't know either... Sister," Alexander murmured back, his brow furrowing. "Shall we ask him if he wants to play a game with us?"
Hestia peeked over her shoulder at the silent, blank-faced child. "Well... he doesn't exactly look like the type of kid who likes to play."
Fainyx completely agreed with her assessment. He had absolutely zero interest in playing children's games.
Suddenly, Hestia turned her full attention back to him, her expression a mix of gentle curiosity and nervousness.
"So... um, Fainyx? Why are you just hiding away in your room all by yourself? Why aren't you ever downstairs playing with your older brothers?"
Fainyx shook his head lightly. He picked up his pencil and quickly wrote down his response before turning the notebook toward them.
[ I do not want to go outside. And I promised Father and my brothers that I would remain hidden in this room because of you guys. ]
As the twins read the neat handwriting,
They looked annoyed.
"So... It's our older brother hiding this angel from us... " Hestia whispered her and also Alexander's eyes was filled with fire. Then they finally calmed down after a while.
Fainyx let out a small internal sigh, reopening his book.
'Well, even though I promised to hide from them, I still ended up meeting them anyway,'
he thought.
Alexander and Hestia stood there, completely unsure of how to make their youngest nephew happy, seeing him look so detached only made them want to spoil him more.
They put their heads together again, whispering like co-conspirators.
"Shall we give him a full onslaught of presents?" Hestia whispered, her blue eyes gleaming.
"Like we used to do for Adam and Liam! We have never actually celebrated his birth or given him a single thing!"
"Yeah," Alexander agreed, nodding firmly.
"Shall we go buy out a few stores?"
Before they could even finish scheming, Fainyx reached out from his chair and he tapped both of them lightly on their shoulders and shook his head in a firm negative.
Hestia slumped her shoulders, looking incredibly disappointed that her mind-reading nephew had caught them.
"Eh... I really wanted to gift you something grand, though..."
Alexander nodded along, his eyes practically swimming with sadness at being rejected.
Fainyx sighed deeply in his mind, feeling a headache coming on. He pulled his notebook back and scribbled another quick rule for them.
[ Just one gift per person, please. Nothing extravagant, and nothing too big. ]
"Ehh..." Hestia pouted, her eyes gleaming with a desperate need to spoil him. "But I really wanted to buy you the entire toy store..."
Fainyx immediately wrote back.
[ I do not like toys at all. I strictly prefer books over toys. ]
The twins exchanged a quick glance, their sadness instantly vanishing as they found a new mission, Hestia leaned in eagerly.
"What type of books do you like, Fainyx~ Tell us, and we will find the absolute best books in the entire continent for you!"
Alexander nodded in total agreement, waiting for his answer.
Fainyx paused, thinking it over carefully. What he truly needed was a comprehensive geographical record of the world and its continents, which would help him navigate the layout of Theria.
He also desperately wanted advanced magic grimoires, but he couldn't let his family find out about his anomalous magic status yet.
He could always just ask his masters, Yong and Ruth, to teach him about mana and spell structures later.
Deciding on a safe answer, Fainyx wrote down that he wanted detailed books concerning the geography and history of the continents and some other books about some species.
The twins smiled brightly, eagerly promising to find the rarest geographical texts and books about every species of the whole world and gift them to him the exact moment they returned from the Capital.
As they settled down, Hestia's gaze lingered on Fainyx's incredibly soft, pale cheeks, unable to restrain herself any longer, the stoic princess of the Academy spoke up.
"Fainyx... may I touch your cheek~?"
Fainyx's internal response was an immediate no, but when he looked up, he saw his aunt and also his uncle staring down at him with wide, desperately sad eyes.
Defeated by the pure emotional blackmail, Fainyx let out a quiet sigh and nodded his head.
Hestia's face instantly lit up with a brilliant smile. She knelt down beside the armchair, extending a finger to gently poke Fainyx's cheek. It was incredibly soft.
"Hehe so soft~"
"Aww... I want to touch it too... Can I, Fainyx?" Alexander quietly said, practically vibrating with jealousy.
Fainyx gave another reluctant nod, and Alexander immediately leaned in, gently poking his other cheek.
Though he absolutely despised being handled like a plush toy, Fainyx knew these two stubborn geniuses wouldn't leave his room until they got exactly what they wanted.
He just checked out mentally, sighing in the absolute silence of his mind.
Over the next few minutes, the fearsome geniuses of the North completely lost all their academic dignity. Hestia began playfully running her fingers through Fainyx's shoulder-length silver with gradient green hair. Using some spare silk ribbons she have on her own hair , she carefully tied his hair into a neat ponytail with ribbons, before undoing it to try out twin-tails.
'ugh... I shouldn't have accepted them from touching me...'
Fainyx sat perfectly still, feeling older than his combined twenty-six years... he was exhausted...
He deeply, deeply regretted agreeing to let them touch his face, because it had clearly opened the floodgates.
While Hestia was happily treating his hair like a doll's, Alexander was standing in front of the chair, contorting his handsome, stoic face into ridiculous, funny expressions in a desperate attempt to make the boy laugh.
Fainyx just stared back at his uncle, completely nonchalant and unbothered by the antics but in his mind he was actually wanted to get out of this place.
Suddenly, a loud *creak~ echoed through the room as the heavy bedroom door swung open.
"I am finally free!" Liam shouted at the top of his lungs, bursting into the room.
Right behind him, Adam walked in with a heavy sigh. "I told you to slow down, Liam. We only had to study a tiny bit of history because you kept running away from the tutor."
"Well, I couldn't help it! It was so boring- !!"
Liam's voice cut off instantly. Both brothers froze mid-step, their jaws dropping in absolute horror at the scene before them.
"Aw~ Fainyx is so cute in this style~ isn't that right Brother?"
"I agree make his hair ibto braids next."
The two terrifyingly clingy relatives they had spent the entire afternoon avoiding were currently occupying their sacred safe haven.
Their Aunt Hestia was gently brushing Fainyx's hair, while their Uncle Alexander was softly poking his cheek. Meanwhile, their little brother was just sitting there, calmly reading his book as if this was a perfectly normal Tuesday.
Internally, however, Fainyx let out a massive sigh of relief.
'Thank goodness! My saviors are finally here. Save me from this people please! '
Adam and Liam immediately panicked.
"Oh no!" Liam gasped, turning a pale face toward his older brother.
"They found our little brother! Adam, what should we do?!"
"We have to save him, of course!" Adam declared fiercely.
The two boys instantly picked up speed, sprinting across the bedroom to snatch Fainyx out of the chair.
But Hestia's reflexes as a swordmaster prodigy were far superior, with a swift, fluid motion, she effortlessly scooped Fainyx up into her arms, lifting him high into the air.
He felt incredibly light to her, which was expected of someone who train-voted with heavy broadswords.
"Hehe~ you can't take my Baby Angel from me kiddos~"
She pulled the small boy against her chest, hugging him tightly like a prize cat.
"Get off of him, Aunt Hestia!" Adam shouted, skidding to a halt and glaring at her.
"Put him down right now!"
"No way~!" Hestia cooed playfully, spinning away from them while cradling Fainyx protectively.
"This fluffy angel is coming with me!"
Fainyx frowned, thoroughly annoyed by the situation. He tried to squirm, but her physical grip was like iron, and at the very least, she had learned her lesson from earlier, while her hold was unyielding, she wasn't suffocating him like last time.
" Get off of my little brother Aunty!"
"Nuh uh don't want to~"
As Adam, Liam, and the twins began to loudly argue back and forth over and over, the bedroom door opened once more.
"Good day, Young masters I... !?"
Estrella walked into the room, stopping dead in her tracks as the sheer chaos unfolded before her eyes.
" Let Fainyx- ah..." Liam stopped in his tracks as everyone instantly stopped shouting, turning to look at the maid.
Adam cleared his throat, trying to sound authoritative. "Estrella? Why are you here?"
"Young Master Adam," Estrella stammered, her eyes darting between the bickering high nobles.
"His Grace the Duke has requested that you and Young Master Liam join him in the grand dining hall to have dinner with the guests. Uhh... he explicitly asked me to ensure that Young Master Fainyx remains behind in his room."
Estrella's voice trailed off into an awkward whisper. "The Duke said we cannot bring Young Master Fainyx down because the guests shouldn't see him, but it seems..."
Her wide eyes landed directly on Hestia, who was still holding Fainyx like a toddler.
'Yeah, it's already far too late for that...'
Fainyx thought blankly, resting his chin on Hestia's shoulder as he stared at the poor, terrified maid.
Hestia's lips curled into a brilliant, highly mischievous smirk.
"Hm~ but why shouldn't you guys include this beautiful angel too? Don't tell me our dear older brother actually went out of his way to hide him from us? Is that it~?"
"Indeed, Sister~"
Alexander added, his face remaining deadpan while his blue eyes danced with pure, unadulterated mischief.
"It seems our brother has been keeping secrets."
Watching the identical, troublemaking smirks on his aunt and uncle's faces, Fainyx rested his head back, completely checked out. It seemed there was absolutely no escaping this chaotic family dinner.