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"Do you understand, Luomiere?"

There, in a wooden box of a room, behind a set of sliding doors sat two people—-three if the entranced man in the back could be counted. He was placing monochrome stones onto a square board, biting into a sweet bun as he did so. He paid no attention to the pair before him, nor did he appear bothered by his desk chair being taken by one of the two; it wasn't as if he ever used it, anyways.

It was the one in the chair who had made the inquiry, a bespectacled man with fox-like eyes that hardly seemed open. He sat composed with his hands clasped upon the table in front of him, but try as he might, he couldn't stop his disobedient finger from twitching from time to time, nor could he quell the racing of his heart. He knew that the woman facing him, that her answer, could change everything for the La family, and he had latched onto that hope as if it were his mother's bosom.

Everything was riding on her.

"Hm...let's see..."

Lahan felt his palms begin to sweat. Always so evasive!

The woman sat up, forgoing her formerly relaxed position. She looked to the bronze-colored ceiling as if she were searching for something. Out of curiosity, Lahan moved his eyes to match hers, but he only found the usual wooden beams that occasionally crossed each other. When he put his attention back on the woman, she was mere inches from his face, smiling as if she were seeing an old friend for the first time in years, and Lahan jerked back on instinct.

"Sister! I wish you wouldn't do that!"

Lahan gripped tightly to the surface of his father's desk, but the woman only leaned forward, her smile widening ever so slightly as she placed her hands upon the worktable.

"If I'm honest," she began, her joyous expression never faltering, "I'm not sure why you're asking me to begin with, Brother."

The two weren't actually siblings by blood, but they had been adopted by the same man. Biologically speaking, they were cousins, and their adoptive father was actually Lahan's uncle, Lakan, who happened to be the old geezer sitting on a rather exuberant sofa in the back corner of the room, munching on what was probably his third sweet bun. To Luomiere, he was her grandfather's nephew, but given the La family's circumstances, the family tree had become quite complicated within the past ten years. Trying to make sense of it gave her a headache, so Luomiere simply saw Lakan as her father, although he was more of a weird uncle whom she only occasionally enjoyed being around.

Speaking of the old geezer, he had finally decided to join the conversation.

"She has a point. If the imperial family wants her to be wed, then her opinion is irrelevant," Lakan spoke with a mouth full of food, but they'd grown accustomed to it by now.

Luomiere straightened up, pouting as she decided to give up on her usual act. She exhaled, but it turned into a mighty yawn. "Oh, man. This room is so dark that it's making me tired. Wonder if I'll make it out alive."

She rolled her shoulders before taking up the same chair she was in earlier. She crossed her legs, with the right balancing precariously on the left's knee. Waving her leg back and forth, she looked downright bored, but that wasn't what she was feeling internally.

"Our honored father is right, Lahan. I'm a daughter of a named clan, which means whoever I marry is up to dear old Dad."

Luomiere sighed, finding everything so troublesome. "In this case, if he doesn't agree to this whole marriage ordeal, then he could be called out for treason for disregarding His Majesty's wishes."

"Bah! What's the emperor thinking? How dare he try to take away my daughter!" Lakan steamed, rising to stomp his feet.

The old man continued to spew out nonsense until his personal aid finally entered the office. Fortunately, it seems he was able to calm the military strategist down by mentioning a certain someone, and that had Lakan insisting they head to the pleasure district immediately. Lahan and Luomiere both appeared bewildered, silently sending a prayer to their little sister.

Sorry, Meowy...

Once Lakan had left with his attendant, Lahan decided to get back to the matter at hand.

"Listen, Luomiere," he frowned deeply, "a request from the emperor alone is special, but this marriage proposal is unique in its own right."

Once again, Lahan folded his hands, trying his utmost to appear professional despite being in the presence of someone who was often anything but. Luomiere was special even by La clan standards, which was a rare statement indeed. Every member of the La clan had their own peculiarities, such as Lakan's inability to perceive faces as anything but Go stones and Lahan's viewing of the world through numbers, but Luomiere was different: an oddball amongst oddballs. Why was she so special?

"Ah, are you thinking about my—what did you call them—approximations, Brother? They sure are on your mind a lot," Luomiere chuckled.

Lahan gulped as a cold sweat trickled down his forehead. My sister has an intuition that is never wrong. 

-End-