The afternoon stretched on with a quiet and comfortable slowness, and the bedroom was filled only with the soft, rhythmic sound of turning pages and the faint ticking of the grand clock in the hallway.
Adam was sitting in the high-backed chair near the window with a thick history volume resting on his knees, and Liam was sitting cross-legged on the thick carpet at the foot of the bed with a picture book of magical beasts, perfectly honoring the rule of "quiet reading time" that Fainyx had established earlier that morning.
Fainyx was leaning back against his mountain of soft pillows and he was holding a book about basic herbology, enjoying the rare and uninterrupted peace that had finally settled over the room.
The sunlight filtering through the curtains was warm and golden, and for a long while, the heavy tension that had been suffocating the household seemed to simply fade away into the quiet air.
And then, Fainyx felt a sudden and strange sensation.
It started as a thick, metallic taste blooming at the very back of his tongue, followed immediately by a heavy, unnatural pressure rising up from his chest, he simply felt that something warm and thick was rushing up his windpipe and was about to come out of his mouth whether he wanted it to or not.
He had only a fraction of a second to react.
Fainyx clamped his mouth shut and quickly raised his hand, tapping into his deep and bottomless mana core without moving a single muscle in his face.
A violent cough racked his small frame and his lips parted, and a bright, crimson splatter of blood erupted outward, completely staining the white wool blanket covering his lap.
At the exact same moment, Liam looked up from his picture book, his eyes widening as he heard the sudden, wet sound of the cough.
"Fainyx?" Liam asked, his voice instantly dropping the quiet reading tone and filling with a sudden spike of alarm. "Are you alright?"
Adam's head snapped up from his history book, his blue eyes immediately darting toward the bed with high alert. "What is it? Are you in pain?"
Before their eyes could even fully register the terrible red stain on the white fabric, Fainyx flawlessly executed the highly advanced, chantless vanishing spell that Master Yong had taught him the night before.
He gathered a hyper-compressed bead of wind and water magic at the tip of his finger and flicked it downward with a precise and invisible motion.
The miniature vortex hit the blanket silently, completely breaking down the physical structure of the blood and erasing it from existence in less than the blink of an eye.
By the time Adam had stood up from his chair and Liam had leaned over the edge of the bed, the white wool blanket was absolutely spotless and pristine.
Fainyx quickly swallowed the lingering metallic taste in his mouth and reached for his notebook, keeping his hand perfectly steady as he wrote.
[ I am fine. I just had a sudden tickle in my throat from the dry air. ]
Liam stared at the notebook and then looked at the perfectly clean blanket, letting out a long, shaky breath of relief that ruffled his own hair. "You scared me," Liam murmured, reaching out to gently pat Fainyx's leg. "I thought something bad was happening again."
"Do you need some water?" Adam asked, walking over to the silver tray on the table. "You should drink something if your throat is dry. I will pour it for you."
"I can hold the cup for him!" Liam offered quickly, instantly jumping to his feet.
[ I can hold my own cup. Thank you. ] Fainyx wrote quickly, giving them a perfectly flat look until Adam handed him the glass of water.
He took a slow sip, washing away the last traces of the blood, and he thought to himself that Yong's spell was truly a good thing.
The rest of the day passed without any further incidents, and when the midnight bells finally chimed across the estate, Adam and Liam closed their books and went to their own rooms to sleep.
Fainyx waited in the dark until the mansion was completely silent, and then he pulled the fabric of space apart and stepped into the Aetherium.
The pure, rich mana of his private dimension washed over him, and he took a deep breath of the incredibly clean air. He walked past the glowing Kalmia flowers and the rapidly growing apple sapling, making his way toward the edge of the river where the dark-leaved coffee plants were thriving.
He crouched down in the soft grass and carefully plucked a large handful of the red, ripe berries from the stems, breaking them open to extract the raw, white coffee beans hidden inside.
He walked over to a flat, smooth stone near his small cottage and placed the white beans in a neat pile. He did not need a pan or an oven, because his control over magic was absolute.
He raised his hand and summoned a small, highly concentrated sphere of fire magic, holding it suspended in the air just above the stone. He carefully controlled the temperature, keeping the heat perfectly even and steady as he slowly moved the sphere over the white beans.
A few minutes later, the beans began to crackle softly under the magical heat, their color shifting from white to a deep, rich brown, and then to a glossy black.
A thick and wonderfully familiar aroma began to rise from the stone, filling the air of the Aetherium with the dark, roasted scent of actual coffee.
Fainyx closed his eyes and breathed in the smell, and for the first time since he had reincarnated into this strange and dangerous fantasy world, he felt a genuine and profound sense of comfort.
The scent reminded him of the quiet mornings in his past life on Earth, of the small and simple things he had used to endure his difficult days as an orphan. He sat there on the grass and simply enjoyed the peacefulness of his private world, grateful that he finally had a small piece of comfort that belonged entirely to him.
He stored the perfectly roasted beans in a small wooden box inside his cottage and stepped back through the portal, returning to his bed just as the first light of dawn began to paint the sky outside his window.
When the morning arrived, the heavy oak door to his bedroom opened, but it was not just Adam and Liam who walked in.
The Duke entered the room behind them, and the atmosphere in the bedroom instantly changed.
The Duke looked incredibly exhausted, with dark shadows sitting heavily under his eyes, but his posture was straight and his gaze carried a sharp, dangerous edge that made the air feel thin and cold. He walked over to the foot of the bed, and Adam and Liam stood quietly by his side, sensing the serious shift in their father's mood.
"Adam, Liam," the Duke said, his deep voice carrying a particular weight that commanded absolute attention. "Listen to me carefully."
"Yes, Father," Adam replied, straightening his back immediately.
"I have ordered the captain of the guard to double the perimeter security around this entire wing of the mansion," the Duke informed them, his cold eyes scanning the window and the shadows of the room. "From this moment forward, no one enters or leaves this corridor without my direct, explicit approval. The maids and servants who attend to this room have been strictly limited, and Estrella is the only one permitted to handle Fainyx's meals."
Liam looked up at his father with wide, uncertain eyes. "Did something happen, Father? Are there bad people trying to come inside?"
"There are always people who wish to look into the affairs of our household, Liam," the Duke answered, and although he did not mentioned the spreading rumors directly, the ruthless undertone in his voice was unmistakable. "They look for weaknesses to exploit, and they spread whispers in the dark to cause unrest."
Adam clenched his fists, his green eyes flashing with a sudden and protective anger. "Are they trying to use Fainyx's condition against us?"
The Duke looked down at Fainyx, and the cold, dangerous edge in his eyes melted into something fiercely protective and entirely unyielding.
"They are trying," the Duke said quietly, his voice like grinding stones. "But whoever is trying to look into our home will find nothing but steel waiting for them. I made a promise to protect this family, and I will tear apart anyone who dares to threaten your brother's safety. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Father," Adam said, his voice hard and resolute.
"We understand," Liam nodded quickly, moving closer to the bed as if to shield Fainyx with his own small body.
Fainyx sat against his pillows and watched the exchange with his usual neutral mask, but his mind was moving quickly. He realized that the Duke had absolutely noticed the unnatural spread of the rumors and was actively, secretly hunting down the eavesdroppers in the capital.
His father was quietly turning the estate into an impenetrable fortress just so Fainyx could rest in peace.
Fainyx reached for his notebook and his charcoal pencil, the soft scratching sound drawing the Duke's attention.
[ Thank you, Father. Please do not overwork yourself. ]
The Duke read the words, and the heavy tension in his shoulders dropped slightly. He stepped forward and leaned down, wrapping his large arms around Fainyx in a tight, desperate hug that spoke volumes of his underlying fear.
"I will never let anything happen to you," the Duke whispered into Fainyx's ear, his voice rough with emotion. "Just focus on getting better, my son. I will handle the rest."
Fainyx felt the trembling strength in his father's arms, and he raised his small hand to gently pat the Duke's back, realizing that his quiet life was now being guarded by the most powerful and ruthless man in the entire territory.