中文字幕亚洲综合小综合

However, being a part of this year’s graduating class, he and the boys of their grade had been asked to stay behind for longer.

Dean Aramis Brodie, the head of the Royal Academy, wished to say a few words of farewell to the boys who would not be returning to the academy for the coming year.

Therefore, everyone in their grade had stayed behind to hear what the Dean had to say.

Along with the usual farewell speech, the youngsters had the fortune of gaining valuable pieces of advice from the elderly man who had experienced a lot throughout his long lifetime.

Therefore, the young boys, who would soon be joining the noble society as full-fledged adults once their coming-of-age ceremony was held, paid close attention to what was being said.

The Dean invited his graduating batch of pupils each year and gave them a similar speech before sending them away.

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This interaction would be kept a secret from the younger boys who, if they had the ability, would gain the opportunity to hear the same words when it was their turn to graduate.

Thus this year’s graduates, through their hard work and determination, had earned themselves the chance of standing before the Dean who wished them well for their future endeavors.

Once this was done, Topher tried to make them stay behind for a while longer as many of their fellow pupils would soon be returning to their fiefs directly after today.

The chances of meeting them would be rare in the future as each of their responsibilities would be increasing henceforth.

However, a simple logical statement from his best friend thwarted all of his plans.

“You will get to see them all at your coming-of-age ceremony soon.” Damien retorted while rejecting the idea of spending any more time in the academy.

He had already been delayed due to this unexpected meeting with the Dean so he was in a hurry to rush back to the Capital, Amarthea, where his family awaited his return.

As always, he would be traveling back with his best friend, Topher, whose family had sent over a carriage for their pleasant journey so he rejected the plan of staying for a while longer.

Reluctantly, his best friend agreed to listen to him, and thus they began their much-awaited journey back to the Capital.

They were only five minutes into their peaceful journey when Topher heard someone’s voice in his head.

The words ‘pleasant and peaceful’ lost their meaning when Topher revealed that it was his younger brother who was asking for help as they were stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Tanner and Howard had set off from the academy soon after the closing ceremony, not waiting for Topher and Damien who were about to meet the Dean at that time.

Hence they had a head start before the others but failed to make use of it due to their rotten luck.

The younger boys had journeyed a quarter of the distance back to Amarthea before their vehicle broke down and they had no option but to reach out to the ones who must have been somewhere along the way, moving in the same direction as them.

The younger boys were especially in a hurry to reach home in order to meet their little sister but failed midway due to the wheel of their carriage which had come undone.

It was a blessing that no accidents took place so when they asked the older boys to help them out of this difficult situation, Topher could not reject them.

The heir of the Tanner family then instructed their driver to hurry and in the next twenty minutes, they rushed until they finally found the other carriage sent by the Tanner household to fetch their second son.

Howard and Taylor who were seated inside hurried to climb into their carriage, cramping up the earlier cozy area.

Topher then had given further instructions to the servants who were in charge of the broken carriage on what needed to be done before they resumed their journey back to Amarthea.

Though congested, Damien simply stared out of the open window to distract himself from the uncomfortable atmosphere inside their carriage once it began moving.

As they entered the Capital’s territory, he rejoiced as he would get to leave this stuffy vehicle soon enough and waited with bated breath for them to reach the Tanner estate where he could alight.

However, to his surprise, Topher had ordered his driver to halt at the St. Claire mansion instead.

Thus Damien could only watch as they passed the Tanner estate and moved along in the same direction as the St. Claire’s estate was nearby.

At first, he could not grasp what his friend was trying to achieve but soon, upon sensing the scheming smile on his face, realized that Topher was up to no good.

However, none of these were related to him so he did not interfere and sat in silence as the two younger boys got excited as they neared the St. Claire estate.

As they entered the gates of the estate, Damien observed the landscape to see if anything had changed during the time that they had spent in the academy but found none.

Just as the carriage was about to halt at the entrance of the St. Claire mansion, his gaze fell on a discreet carriage that had been parked at a distance.

This sight made him narrow his eyes but before he could focus on it any further, the door of their carriage was pulled open from the outside.

With his attention now diverted to the old butler who had come to greet them, Damien pushed away the absurd thought that had just come to his mind and got down from their carriage.

The four boys alighted one after another and soon stood in a straight line as they stared at the mansion before them.

He remained silent while listening to the conversation between the butler and the young master of this household, feeling more and more doubtful about what he had just seen and now was hearing from them.

However, in the next second, all of those doubts vanished when he heard the loud cry of the young boy who had traveled to the Capital with them.

“Vonny!” Howard’s howl echoed in his ears but rather than glaring at him, Damien’s attention had been snatched away by a whole different sight.

Coming through the entrance of the mansion was a little girl whom he had last seen many months ago.

Not only her hair but her height had also grown in the time that he had been away from the Capital.

She could be seen wearing a pure white dress but upon making further inspection, a deep frown formed on Damien’s lips.

‘She’s coming out wearing just that?’ He was baffled at her inadequate sense of propriety.

The young girl who was never one to be naive or ignorant in his opinion was now stepping outside her house wearing a dress that shouldn’t be shown to any outsider.

Home clothes, as the name suggests, were meant to be worn only within the confines of one’s room.

It was inappropriate to entertain guests in these clothes and worse to even step outside of one’s home while wearing them.

However, Yvonne St. Claire was never one to abide by these rules of their society, and today she had once again proved that she did not care about these regulations set by their previous generations.

Though Damien had already known that she was an odd one, this sight was still baffling to him.

To make matters even worse, she was stepping out of the mansion wearing home clothes while holding someone else’s hand.

Damien’s forest green eyes had landed on this other person the moment he appeared but had soon shifted to the younger girl earlier.

Now that he had assessed her unexpected appearance, his gaze moved toward the person standing next to her.

‘Why is he here?’ He frowned while narrowing his eyes, trying to figure out what was happening here.

He wasn’t the only one with this question in his mind as the other three boys standing next to him seemed to share the same doubt.

Thus their narrowed eyes alternated between the young boy whom they never expected to find here and the pair of hands that were in contact with each other.

However, even among those leering forward, there was one pair of eyes filled with endless amusement and astonishment.

‘This only keeps getting better!’ Topher was trying hard to conceal the grin that was forcing its way out.

On the other hand, the two figures who appeared at the entrance of the mansion froze upon taking in the sight before them.