"....So you're our playmate from today?" Athanasia asked, still a dissatisfied expression painted on her face.

Meanwhile, Karma had an 'I-expected-this-much' expression on his face as he lazily plopped down on the couch.

"Yes." Lucas replied.

Athanasia sighed irritably.

"Since you saved us, Felix recommended you to be our playmate since your are 'our age' and I absent-mindedly agreed..?" She continued.

Lucas nodded. His fake smile was on full display.

"Yep, that's the case."

Athanasia plopped down on the couch beside Karma as she quietly grumbled about how this brat became their playmate, but didn't tell anything out loud as it looked like her brother had already accepted the fact, considering how he was leisurely spacing out.

"....Man, these are good. Ask the maid to get some more."

Lucas, who had already comfortably sat down on the couch opposite to theirs, said while holding a cookie in his hand.

"Right, when are you going?"

Karma suddenly looked up and asked.

"Hmm?"

Lucas made a questioning sound.

"The world tree."

Karma said. Athanasia, who was sitting with a bored look suddenly sat up in interest as she said,

"The world tree? You're going there? That legendary tree?"

"Of course I can go, I'm the world's most powerful and most good-looking magician."

Karma, who was watching this interaction, felt weirdly irritated at seeing his sister become so fascinated at the mention of the magician being able to visit that block of wood. (Aoi: brother senses...but lucathy..? K-karma you still ship r-right..?)

"....we can go there too, you know." He said, in a quiet voice.

"Yep I know."

"So what's with that.... nevermind."

****

"Hey, what's with the both of your attributes?" Lucas asked as it suddenly occured to him.

"What?"

"Ah, you're talking about our mana specialty?" Athanasia thought for a moment and said.

"Yeah, something like that."

"We know for one that yours is a kind of 'destruction', right?" Athanasia continued.

(Aoi: Lmao I actually wrote 'creation' since he can basically make anything appear out of nowhere but then I was reminded of the fact that he once said he would burn the whole empire if anything happened to you-know-who and so here it is. Also, Claude, Karma and even Athanasia can use the 'creation' so yeah.)

Lucas let out a small hum of affirmation. This time Karma replied,

"Mine is 'to stop,delay or cancel' whatever you call it, while noona's is to 'turn back'."

"I see." Lucas said as he went back to reading the history books which were filled with a bunch of ridiculous lies.

"What the hell is up with these history books?"

"Yeah they're full of lies." Both Karma and Athanasia, who were working on their own assignments agreed as if it was the most natural thing.

****

"..ugh, I can't do this anymore. I'm bored..." An inchoherent mumble was heard after a while.

"What do you want to do?" Lucas asked, still nitpicking the 'mistakes' of the history.

"Visit somewhere? We haven't stepped out of this palace since forever..."

"..huh? Why do I remember going to the neighbouring kingdom last week?"

"That was just for a while... Ah...I want to practice sword.."

"Let's spar then."

Athanasia swiftly looked up at her lazy brother who, for once, suggested a match.

"Yes! We'll do that!"

She snapped her fingers and her clothes changed with magic. Her once frilly sky blue dress was gone and was replaced by a pure black training outfit which beautifully contrasted with her bright blonde hair tied up in a ponytail.

"I'm done!"

"Okay, noona."

Karma got up and snapped his fingers too as his royal outfit changed to a pure black one similar to his sister's.

He aged himself and Athanasia up, until they looked like 16-ish years old.

"This will do. Let's go to the training grounds~"

"Yep~"

"Alright then. I'll be off to the tower too." Lucas said before vanishing away.

****

"Look! It's his highness, prince Emyrs and her highness, princess Athanasia!"

"Are they here to practice again?"

"Looks like his highness made himself and the princess older again."

"The prince? And the princess too? Aren't they just 8? Why are they here?"

"Don't you know? They came here to train their swordsmanship. Their highnesses come here atleast once a week. But they have come together after a long time. Looks like his highness has finally agreed to have a match with the princess."

"Our empire's little royals sure are diligent!"

"But we can't let anybody know!"

"Yeah! What if they take advantage of their strength?!"

"Yes! This is a secret that will never leak out of the palace!"

"B-but the fight with sir Felix has already become well-known..."

"Yes but think, if others know, they will also flock here and then we won't watch their highnesses practise ever again!"

"That's true!"

(Aoi: aw...look at them, so naive that I doubt they actually work for the imperial family... But I made them, so rather than naive, take them as the loving elders they are.)
.
.
.

"We're popular~" Athanasia hummed as she picked out her weapons. Twin daggers which were hidden and a regular sword.

"Hmm? You're not picking your usual one?" Karma said as he looked at her sister who didn't pick up her own sword which had a signature blue gem embedded on it and instead took one of the regular swords from the knights.

"Yes, if I lose in the first round, I'll take my own beloved sword~"

"Okay." Karma replied as he took his own weapons. The same twin daggers and his sword which was also embedded with a blue gem.

He then paused and replaced his sword with a longer one.

"You're trying something different too, brother." Athanasia deadpanned.

"Yep~"

****

"Look it's starting!" The maids and knights whispered as they gathered around the training grounds but still much out of sight of the royals.

"Place bets now!"

"I bet on the prince!"

"Princess Athanasia will win!"

"I bet on both! They are both strong!"

And the hullabaloo continued in a chaotic yet quiet manner.

"Okay then. Let's start." Athanasia said as she unsheathed her sword and threw the scabbard outside of the elevated training platform.

"Sure, noona~"

Since the signal had already been given, Karma did not waste any time as he lunged forward, aiming at his sister's weak points.

Athanasia saw this coming and quickly blocked it with her sword, bent down and used the hilt to hit Karma on the stomach. Instantly at that moment, Karma was pushed back but Athanasia could see that he deliberately moved back.

Her eyes lit up as she called out,

"Hey, use magic?"

Karma smirked and replied back,

"You'll regret that, noona."

"Yeah yeah sure." Athanasia waved.

Both the siblings' eyes were bright as their swords glowed in their respective colours. (Aoi: their eye colours. i.e for karma, it's ocean blue + blood red and Athanasia, pure ocean blue.)

And thus began the aggressive round accompanied with the pleasant sounds of their swords clashing with each other.

"My my, little brother, seems like you defeating Felix has reached Mr. White's estate~ your reputation is soaring while that white dog was planning on making cousin our playmate." Athanasia smirked as she said.

"Why did I not hear about this?"

"It was at the time we visited that kingdom. I could access my clone's senses and heard the conversation between daddy and Duke Alpheus. He was pretending to be a kind elder 'who only wishes for the best for his ward'. Bleh I cringed hard." Athanasia gagged as she continued.

"Pfft- so what did the emperor say?" Karma asked back as his sword hit Athanasia's shoulder with his hand that was dripping with his own blood as he got hit by Athanasia's sword twice at the same place. but it was continuously healing thanks to his magic.

"Ow! My shoulder will surely get dislocated, you idiot!" Athanasia hissed but cast healing magic upon herself immediately.

"You cannot say that to the enemy if you ever fight one, noona. Besides aren't you all healed already?"

"Petty brat." Athanasia muttered under her breath.

"Anyways, so, daddy just treated him as air at first, but when the Duke kept persisting, even Felix looked a bit irked. God, I've never seen him make such a distorted expression. I didn't notice that me accessing the clone's senses was temporary and then- ugh" Athanasia groaned as the blade of her sword broke into pieces due to impact of her blocking Karma's longsword.

"Ara~ looks like your weapon broke~" Karma taunted while he was panting a little as he too was pushed back due to the impact of their swords clashing.

He could hear his own sword cracking, though it hadn't broken yet.

Athanasia scoffed and took out her daggers.

"Now then, let's play it assassination style, shall we?" A pleasant smile was painted on her face which contrasted with the blood stains on her hands and the black outfit which had darkened due to the dried blood.

"You're challenging me to a game I excel in?"

"Who said I'm challenging you? I'm just trying to learn from my dear dongsaeng." Athanasia still had that smile which slowly morphed into a smirk as she gave her fake courtesy.

"Aha~ sure sure. So what happened at the end?"

Only his voice was heard as he disappeared before appearing right in front of Athanasia. He slashed one of his daggers which almost hit her if not for her fast reflexes.

"I don't know, Lucas became our playmate in the end. Wait-Teleporting?" She looked at him skeptically but disappeared too before appearing at the edge of the platform on the opposite side.

"Ah, that's how you, your clone agreed to him being our playmate."

"Yeah. Tsk, I still need to work on my magic."

"You'll regain the balance once you absorb your mana beast." Karma replied while alternating between attacking and defending against Athanasia's continuous stabs which were mostly aimed towards his vitals.

She's going all out. Oh, or maybe not-

"Noona, are you planning to kill me?!" He dramatically said.

"Although I really want to, I cannot lose my little brother who I reallllllyyy love, can I?~" Athanasia replied with an equally dramatic expression, her daggers still aiming at his weak spots.

"Pfft- but assassination is always about killing."

"Exactly."

****

"Enough! That's- haah enough sword fight for today!" Athanasia let go of her daggers and plopped down on the ground, not caring about the audience as said while panting heavily.

"Alright." Both of their weapons disappeared as Karma sat down too, tired.

A few minutes later, both the royals had disappeared.

****

"Blessings and glory upon the sun of the empire."

"Tsk, save your greetings."

"Good afternoon, daddy!"

"Your majesty, the tea is ready."

"Let's go."

***************************************
(1797 words) so hello to you all!

Woah, a longer than the current longest chapter!

Sorry if this was a bit boring since all it had was a sword fight but trust me, I wanted more lucathy+Karma interaction but nothing came to my mind! I'll try in the later chapters!

Right, [dongsaeng - little brother in korean]

I feel like I'm forgetting something....

Anyways, let's move on to the convo. But first! Guess who the guests are! (I'm sure many will guess based on my recent activity in watty-)

[Aoi: Kuro, mahiru-kun, have you finished strategizing?

Mahiru: almost, Aoi-san. Karma-san here and Lucas....-san had been giving pretty unbelievable ideas at first.

Athanasia: it's not unbelievable Mahiru-san, it's outright ridiculous for them to go to your world, tie up that 'not interesting' vamp and bring him back to obelia.

Aoi: ahaha.. well, I'm summoning more people now.

Claude: *took a break from his duties and proudly observing the strategies his son and daughter were coming up with* *looks up* how many people?

Aoi: one and a half.

Felix: ...what?

Aoi: haha...a person and a child...?

Felix, Claude: *deadpans*

Lucas: let's call them then.

Karma: *suspicious* it's a literal child and not another vamp or anything right..?

Aoi: it's not a vamp but.... ahaha~ *awkward laugh*

Karma:.....I knew it.

Aoi: shush! They're here!

???: ...huh?

???+1 : ...huh?

Aoi: hello!

???: *Still looking around* where are we?

???: Human! Human! This is strange! Where is Gramps?! How did we come here?

???'human': who are you?

Aoi: ....your powers are quite chaotic, young master 'silver sheild'.

Cale: *groans inaudibly*

???: Human! Are we here to loot them? There's so much gold here!

Cale: No, we're not. Raon, your invisibility does not work here.

Aoi: *sigh* That's because your magic is not working as it is supposed to be.

Raon: hmm? Who are you? *Has guard up*

Aoi: Cale, little raon, I've summoned you here. I'm known as Asteria. *Looks at cale and realises something* and no! There's no god of death or sealed god OR white star here. You don't need to glare at me either Little raon.

Raon: I'm the great and mighty dragon, Raon Miru. Do not call me 'little'.

Aoi: alright alright Raon.

Cale: why are we even here?

Aoi: to slack off?

Cale: *with bright eyes but still suspicious* what?

Raon: Human! That's what you always joke about!

Aoi: pfft- anyways, the time in your own world has stopped. Even the gods won't know that you're here.

Cale: *even more suspicious* and you say you aren't related to those Bastard gods at all?

Aoi: uh, yeah, I haven't met them! I just know a little about them.

Athanasia: is he the 'kim rok soo' you told us about?

Cale: you know about that?

Aoi: well, everyone here belongs here so you don't have to worry. And I spoke the truth, I just called you both here to have fun. Look at those two, *points to mahiru and kuro* they're from another world too. One is a vamp while other is a highschooler.

Raon: *in cale's mind* human, I...don't sense even a little bit of hostility... Is she telling the truth?

Cale: ...maybe? But I don't see a reason for us to stay.

Aoi: oh come on, it's for a week, no more. You can also train your ancient powers- ah sorry you hate training....wait, what if I say, I can strengthen your plate?~

Cale: huh? Why should I believe you?

Aoi: *groans* just stay here with us for a week. You're not losing anything. You're not even losing the time of your world!

Raon: human! Let's stay! You have to rest too! You cough up blood every time! Let the girl Asteria try!

Cale: .... alright.]

Ahahaha you guessed it. Its Cale Henituse and Raon Miru (little raon-) from 'The Trash Of The Count's Family'

Cale: a not-normal-at-all person transmigrating into the body of a 'trashy' (NOT AT ALL ACTUALLY!)  young master in the world of a book he once read. Possesses most of the ancient powers in this world. Always coughs up blood. Calls himself 'trash' which he is NOT!

Raon: a little cutie dragon. The great and mighty one. Saved by cale. APPLE PIES!

...

I still feel that I am forgetting something....

Well, don't forget to vote and comment.

Annyeong!