Take Me Away, Dark Lord!

Alistair let out a sound that could only be described as a whimper of pure joy.

Even though he care about the stickers and his ruined hair, he felt as though he had found the Holy Grail, the ultimate, perfect, model student he had dreamed of mentoring his entire life!

For the next four hours, the library transformed into an intense, rapid-fire, high-level university seminar.

Alistair was pacing the room, his robes swirling, furiously drawing complex economic graphs and historical timelines on the chalkboard.

Seraphina was firing back counter-arguments, challenging his fiscal theories, and actively debating the logistical flaws in the Emperor’s taxation policies.

They were so absorbed in their academic sparring that they completely failed to notice the heavy oak doors of the library cracking open.

***

Standing in the hallway, peering through the gap in the doors, were Duke Kaelus, Sebastian, and Sir Lucas.

They had come to check on the situation, fully expecting to find the library in ruins, Alistair weeping in a corner, and Seraphina swinging from the chandelier.

Instead, they witnessed the flawless, beautiful Chief Aide passionately debating agricultural subsidies with a six-year-old who was currently drawing a flawless supply-and-demand curve on a piece of parchment.

”Astounding,” Sir Lucas whispered, his scarred face slack with shock. ”She has domesticated him. The scholar has been tamed.”

Kaelus crossed his arms, his chest puffing out with that familiar, overwhelmingly arrogant fatherly pride. ”My daughter does not merely learn, Lucas. She conquers. She has conquered his curriculum. The Capital scholars will surely weep when she enters the Academy.”

When the intensive, four-hour study session finally concluded, Alistair looked physically exhausted, yet spiritually glowing.

He was covered in chalk dust, his hair was messy, but his emerald eyes were shining with a profound, borderline-fanatical respect.

”I must admit, you are a marvel, Lady Seraphina,” Alistair breathed deeply as she packed away her quills. ”A true, undisputed marvel. We shall continue our analysis of the Southern trade routes tomorrow at dawn!”

”Sure thing, Auntie Alistair,” Seraphina grinned, slipping seamlessly back into her toddler persona just to keep him on his toes.

Alistair didn’t even flinch at the title.

He just nodded enthusiastically, completely willing to be called an Auntie if it meant he got to teach someone who actually understood macroeconomic theory.

With her academic duties fulfilled, Seraphina’s primary mission objective resumed: Operation Distract the Hedgehog.

For the remainder of the day, Seraphina transformed into an incredibly cheerful shadow. Wherever Duke Kaelus von Nacht went, the little Sovereign followed.

She trotted behind him like a fluffy, determined little chick following it’s mother hen.

When Kaelus went to the indoor training yards to inspect the Vanguard’s weapon drills, Seraphina sat on a padded bench, happily eating a massive bowl of sliced star-peaches, cheering loudly every time Sir Boris hit a training dummy.

When Kaelus walked through the grand estate gardens to clear his head, Seraphina was right at his heels, darting into the flowerbeds with a small net, aggressively attempting to catch the glowing, luminescent butterflies that fluttered around the rose bushes.

”Papa! Look! I caught a blue one!” Seraphina shrieked, running over to him, holding the net up.

Kaelus stopped his brooding pacing.

He looked down at the tiny, frantic butterfly trapped in the mesh, then looked at his daughter’s bright, flushed, incredibly happy face.

The heavy, dark, suffocating anxiety regarding his siblings’ letter simply... melted away.

It was impossible to drown in the trauma of the past when the present was aggressively shoving a glowing blue bug in his face.

”It is a very fine shade of blue, little Mushroom,” Kaelus murmured fondly, kneeling down to examine the insect with terrifying seriousness. ”Excellent hunting. We shall release it so it may warn the other butterflies of your dominance.”

The staff of the Capital Estate, watching from the windows and balconies, let out silent sighs of relief.

Sebastian, standing near the garden terrace, watched the Archduke help the child release the butterfly.

The veteran knight felt a deep, overwhelming wave of gratitude wash over his scarred soul. The little Lady wasn’t just a child; she was a living, breathing anchor.

She was actively, intentionally keeping the Archduke grounded, pulling him away from the precipice of his own mind with snacks, bugs, and relentless affection.

***

As the afternoon bled into evening, Seraphina deployed her ultimate distraction tactic.

They were sitting in the grand drawing room, the massive fireplace roaring to chase away the evening chill.

Kaelus was attempting to read a dispatch, but Seraphina simply marched up to him, pulled a folded, portable chessboard out from nowhere, like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, and slammed it down onto the coffee table right in front of him.

”Rematch,” Seraphina demanded, her dark eyes flashing with competitive fire.

Kaelus’s violet eyes narrowed.

The dispatch was instantly discarded.

The games that followed were a spectacle of absolute psychological warfare.

Kaelus had spent the last three nights lying awake in bed, mentally analyzing her previous games, studying her strange, asymmetrical patterns.

He was prepared. He was focused. He was the Reaper.

And he was still, inexplicably, consistently losing.

”Check,” Seraphina announced casually, taking a bite of a chocolate eclair provided by the overjoyed kitchen staff.

Kaelus stared at the board.

Sweat beaded on his pale forehead. He had opened with a flawless Imperial Phalanx formation. He had controlled the center.

But Seraphina had completely bypassed his center, by using a bizarre, yet flexible opening, an Earth-based King’s Indian Defense, allowing him to overextend his pawns before ruthlessly dismantling his overconfident structure from the flanks.

Her knights were dancing through his defenses like ghosts.

”How?” Kaelus whispered, his voice a tight, strangled rasp of pure disbelief. He moved his King, a desperate retreat.

”You push too hard, Papa,” Seraphina mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate. ”You always want to fight the big army in the middle. But if you walk around the big army, you can just squish the Emperor while they aren’t looking.”