Hazel stood frozen, her wrist still held by Aiden's unnervingly firm grip. For a second, the heavy, regal air in the room made her forget she was a maid and he was a ten-year-old. She saw something in his eyes—a depth of cold, calculated fire—that she had never seen in the Duke or even the radiating brilliance of Alaric.
Aiden released her wrist. The skin underneath was red, but the warmth of his touch lingered like a brand.
"You've been loyal, Hazel," Aiden said, his voice returning to a flat, almost detached tone. "Even when it was inconvenient. Even when it was dangerous."
"I... I only do my duty, Young Master," she whispered, her voice still trembling.
Aiden turned his head toward the window. The heavy velvet curtains were partially parted, revealing a sky that had long since surrendered its blue to a deep, bruising violet. The moon was sharp, like a silver sickle hanging over the Veynar spires.
"The sun has fallen," Aiden remarked, his eyes tracking a distant owl. "How long was I out? What time is it?"
Hazel blinked, the sudden shift back to mundane reality catching her off guard. "Huh? Ah... I... It is around 8 o'clock, Young Master! The dinner bell rang nearly an hour ago. The Duke... everyone is still in the dining hall. Master Alaric is currently explaining your 'disappearance' to them."
Aiden's expression didn't change, but his fingers twitched against the silk sheets. Eight o'clock. Seven hours of forced sleep had robbed him of time he could have spent refining his core, but it had also kept him out of the immediate line of fire.
[See?] the System's grey box flickered. [8:00 PM. Perfect time for a second nap. If we stay here, we avoid the 'Family Bonding' session downstairs, which I calculate has a 98% chance of ending in someone getting stabbed.]
Aiden stood up and walked to the window, staring at his own reflection in the glass—a small, pale boy who looked utterly harmless.
"Go back to your quarters, Hazel," Aiden commanded, not looking at her. "Tell the guards I am unwell if they ask. If Alaric tries to enter, tell him I am in a 'deep, restorative trance.' He will understand the implication, even if you don't."
"But... Young Master, you haven't eaten! I can sneak into the—"
"Go," Aiden interrupted, his voice brooking no argument. "I have work to do, and I cannot do it with you hovering over me like a worried hen. I will 'sleep' now."
Hazel bowed deeply, her mind swirling with confusion and a strange, new spark of hope she couldn't name. "Yes, Young Master. Rest well."
As the door clicked shut, Aiden didn't go back to the bed. He sat on the floor, the shadows of the room beginning to swirl toward him as if drawn by a vacuum.
"Now," Aiden whispered to the empty room. "About those 'Mandatory Updates' you used to block my power at the stone... And making sleep for eight hours straight."
[Oh boy,] the System sighed. [Here we go again. Can we at least turn on some white noise? Your brooding is very loud.]
"The update. The stone. The eight-hour forced coma," Aiden listed the grievances, his small hands clenching into white-knuckled fists. "I am fucking angry, you digital parasite. You have exactly ten seconds to explain before I—"
Before Aiden could finish his sentence, the system spoke up and this time it wasn't with a screen, it spoke directly in his head with a voice.
[Look, Boss, technically, the update was critical for system stability. And the sleep? Your mortal shell was running on 3% power. If I hadn't initiated 'Emergency Nap Protocol,' you would've started hallucinating that you were a sentient turnip.]
[Plus, you were about to turn that resonance stone into a tactical nuke. Do you have any idea how much paperwork I'd have to do if you had drained all the mana from the crowd present there?]
Aiden didn't move. He remained seated on the cold floor, waiting for the system to finish it's explanation. So, as soon as the system stopped, Aiden spoke.
"A 'critical update'?" Aiden's voice was a whisper, but it carried the weight of a death sentence. "A 'nap'?"
He turned his gaze toward the screen, which was a face of the system, with two eyes and a mouth, made of white lines.
"I have navigated the collapse of entire dimensions," Aiden said, his words measured and cold. "I have dictated the rise and fall of gods. And you... you dare to put my consciousness into a cage because you found my ambition inconvenient?"
[Inconvenient? No. Exhausting? Absolutely. There's a difference.]
"Listen to me, you parasitic glitch," Aiden growled, leaning forward until his nose was inches from the flickering grey interface.
"I am fucking angry. I have lost thirty days of progress, my dignity in this house has been stripped, and a guy, someone I haven't even met, just carried me like a common housecat. You will come up with a plausible excuse for your interference, and you will provide me with an unrestricted pathway to refine this body's mana..."
He paused, the shadows behind him rising like wings.
"...otherwise, I will find the source code of your 'Laziness Protocols' and I will rewrite them into a symphony of eternal, screaming agony. I don't care if it kills this body. I have survived the void once; I can do it again. Can you?"
The grey screen froze. For the first time since it had rebooted, the System didn't immediately fire back with a sarcastic quip. The hum of the room intensified.
[...Loading...]
[...Calculating Host's 'True Murder' Intent...]
[...Result: 99.9%. Yikes.]