The Flower of Soline

Aether was currently weighing his options. They had arrived back at the mansion in record time. The servants that had tried to injure him before were standing in the entryway openly gawking at his presence. And who wouldn be. From how things have been going it would be unheard of to see him standing next to Leon, and yet here they were. His brother, the word still strange on his tongue, was currently having a private conversation with the purple haired butler as he threw his coat at an unexpecting butler who flinched when the coat came in his direction.

From the looks of it, his brother had decided that he needed an audience with his father. And although that may have sounded good at first, the reality behind those words was anything but good.

Erik Frenzel was only mentioned in the novel whenever there was a war. That being said he was a famed war general that stood at the Kings side. His brutality and coldness was almost even with the Kings, which is why they seemed like friends on the surface.

Meeting his supposed father could end very badly for him. For one his father was ruthless when it came to power and not having an ability probably was internally killing him. The only thing preventing him from outright killing Aether before was probably due to a sense of strange and twisted justice. But, If he heard about this little slip up, he might actually take the time to kill him and that wasn something he wanted to experience any time soon.

On the other hand he could meet with his father and prove his worth through his intelligence, but what says that his father cares about intelligence? He was a war general not a royal scholar.

That left him standing here weighing his two options. One, he could follow his brother to his awaiting doom or two, he could sneak away and head back to his room. He highly doubted his brother had any idea where his room was and therefore would probably be safe from any pestering for at least the night while he debated his next move.

”Take me to my father. ” Leons voice broke him out of his thoughts.

An older butler was at the bottom of the stairs. His outfit pristine as he held out a small golden pocket watch. He had to be the head butler, for small golden and silver flowers lined the cuffs of his sleeves. His buttons were not the standard ones, but instead a bright gold that matched his pocket watch. His age was showing in his appearance. He had dark black hair, but silver and white strands of hair were evident in the combed back hair. His dull grey eyes were warm, but they also held a distant coldness that came with years of experience. In a sense, Aether felt like he was looking into the eyes of someone that could know everything with just a single look. He had the beginning of wrinkles underneath his eyes. A pair of glasses were sliding down his nose, but he made no motion to fix them.

Yeah, Im not dealing with this right now. Aether turned around and walked away from the two, though he didn make it very far.

”Where do you think you
e going? ” Leon gritted out as he grabbed onto the collar of Aethers shirt. Aether blinked a couple of times. Leon was angry. His nose was scrunched up in what looked like a mixture between anger and disgust and, wait, his eyes squinted, it couldn be, was that confusion?

Aether smiled internally, he could work with this.

He shrugged and took off his outer jacket that Leon was currently holding onto. ”I have things to do. ” He merely said while continuing his long walk towards his room. Once again there was another pull at his collar.

He frowned as Leon once again was holding him tight, preventing him from leaving. Aether sighed heavily and looked up at Leon whose look was now one of pure confusion.

”I asked you a question, answer me. ” His tone of voice was threatening, though his face betrayed him. Aether resisted the urge to roll his eyes, instead he mustered an innocent look and tilted his head.

”To my room. ”

”Why? ”

Aethers eye twitched at that. Is this guy an idiot? Can he see that I would die if I met with our father.

Leon did not make a big appearance in the novel, but when he did it usually ended in bloodshed. Aether had originally thought that Leon was intelligent, after all he always seemed to kill those who had heinous thoughts, but could that have been just a mere coincidence? Was Leon just throwing his sword around cause he was bored? Did he actually lack common sense?

Aether pursed his lips and gave the best confused face he could muster. ”Because you brought me home. So I have to go back to my room, right? ”

His innocent look worked. Leons mask fell even further. He was opening and closing his mouth like fish while his eyes wandered to the old butler on the stairs. It was as if he was asking for help.

The old butler sighed and made his way over to them. ”Young Master Leon, Aether. The Master will not like being kept waiting. ” His eyes drifted from Leons to Aethers.

Aether flinched under the mans gaze, Ill have to be careful in front of this man.

”You are coming with me, you have a lot of explaining to do. ” Leon did not give Aether a chance to reply before dragging him up the stairs and down the hall. The old butler walked quietly behind Aether, his eyes watching Aethers every movement. Aether frowned at the old butler. It was like his eyes were daring Aether to make a run for it, to see what would happen. But Aether wasn stupid. He knew what this world was like and he knew that this man, though old, was the head butler for a reason.

He probably is a skilled assassin. Aether thought while eyeing the mans sleeves and jacket. They were perfectly flat with no wrinkles as if he had diligently prepped them the night before. Did he prepare them for looks or because he was hiding something underneath the jacket?

They came upon a red door. Aether could have sworn that if he looked to the right he could see the faintest glow of red. He wanted to keep testing it out, but was stopped by a rough call from the other side.

”Come in. ”

Aethers body froze. A deep fear nestled in his bones and he found himself unable to move.

What is this? Aether looked at the ground, his hands were shaking and his heart was beating so loud he thought it would burst from his chest. Is this another warning from the last soul? If it was, Aether wanted nothing to do with the man behind that door.

His breathing was coming out uneven and he was struggling to catch his breath. He knew the fear of the last soul shouldn control what he does, after all he needed to change how people saw this body he now resided in, but it was too strong to control.

”Lets go. ” Leon mumbled as he dragged Aether in, ignoring the way Aether was acting. Against his better judgement Aether pulled back. Leon glanced back at him, confusion once again laced in his narrowed eyes.

”I-I don want to. ” He mumbled. The fear was too strong, overtaking him as seconds passed. He was trying his hardest to bury the feeling, to voice some type of reasoning, but all that came out was that measly excuse. Leon scoffed and pulled him forward again. Aether felt like something inside him broke. His mind went fuzzy and he couldn stop himself from freaking out.

”Stop! Let me go! I don want to go in!Leave me alone! ” He thrashed as hard as he could, hitting Leon with his hands and scratching at the wrist that was holding his collar. His nails dug into Leons skin, drawing blood. The shock was all it took for Leon to let go.

Aether wasted no time in running away. Though once again he didn make it far. Two pairs of hands held him down. One belonged to that old butler from before. His eyes were as calculating as before. The other belonged to the purple hair butler from before. Aether didn know where he had come from and at the moment he wished for nothing more than for him to disappear.

He was hoisted up by another pair of arms around his waist and led towards the opened door. He thrashed, slamming his head back, but the person behind skillfully dodged. Aether frowned and out of anger he lifted his leg and slammed it as hard as he could down onto that persons sensitive area. They groaned in pain and dropped to one knee, but their hold never let up. After a moment of recovery, the person stood up and entered the room with Aether in their arms.

Aether whimpered. His chest was stuffy and the fight in his body slowly drained away. He was hopeless and he hated this feeling.

He was placed down on a soft couch. The arms around him turned out to be Leon. He gave Aether a pissed off look before sitting down next to him. His actions were more careful as if he was placating a wild animal that could startle at any moment.

Aethers eyes roamed to Leon, to the butlers who stood guard right behind him, then to the man sitting in the chair before him.

The man lived up to his name. He had short silver hair brushed back and out of his face. His face was handsome, but rough. There were scars on his right cheek and left eye. He had a silver goatee and his red eyes were more piercing and fierce than anything he had seen before. He was wearing a white shirt with a black vest. Gold and silver accents decorated his outfit and a small emblem on his vest finished off his outfit. He screamed rich and powerful as he stared at Aether, an evident frown on his face.

This man was Erik Frenzel, his father.

”I heard you left your lesson and came all the way back to meet me. I expected that it was because of something urgent, but ” his eyes drifted over to Aether, ”I see that you wasted my time. ”

Aether flinched. It felt like a cold bucket of water had been thrown over him. The fear was still there, but now there was a mix of anger in that fear. How could a man think so little of his own son?

”He is the reason why I requested a meeting. ” Leon responded crisply.

”Oh? And what could he have done to provoke you enough to call a meeting? ” Their father said with a hint of mockery.

Aether noticed that no matter what, his father refused to even gaze at Aether after his initial statement. Even though they were talking about him, he avoided his gaze. It was like his father was too arrogant to acknowledge that he even had a second son.

The anger inside him was slowly eating up the fear.

Leon had pulled out the book he had taken from Aether earlier. Aether eyed it with a hint of worry and curiosity. He chanced a glance over to his father who was also eyeing the book with narrowed eyes.

Could he…Aether smiled as his father took the book and opened it, his eyes narrowing further as he flipped through the pages one after another, …oh, he could use this.

”I see. ” His father hummed, ”and he solved this all by himself? ”

”Yes. I witnessed Professor Rondell escorting him into my advanced mathematical theory class and handing him the book personally. ” Leon said.

”So? Anyone who studies enough would be able to solve these equations one day. ” His father leaned back, seemingly bored with the new discovery.

”If you open the book to chapter seventeen you will see why I called the meeting. ” Leon said with a serious tone.

Aether frowned as his father flipped to chapter seventeen. He watched as the mans eyes grew wide before a malicious smile bloomed on his face.

Chapter seventeen? What was in chapter seventeen? Aether was trying to desperately remember what he had solved, but to him all the problems in those books were childrens play. He had gone through them with an absent mind, not paying attention at all to what he was solving. Did he make a mistake?

”I see, who knew our youngest would have such a telnet. ” He was full on smiling now, not caring if the others in the room were growing disturbed.

”Thats not all. ” Leon suddenly stated. Aethers head snapped towards him. What else had he done?

”Professor Rondell was trying to lead Aether elsewhere after class as well. At first I was confused, but after reading the contents of that book I realized that Aether had solved part of the equation needed for that theory. ”

”What! ” His father slammed the book down and for the second time during this little meeting stared at Aether before turning to Leon.

”Did he solve it? ”

”No. I stopped the Professor before he could get Aether alone. ”

”Good. ” His father leaned back in his chair. He clasped his hands together as he gazed at the book in front of him.

While he was thinking, Aether was trying to piece together what was happening. It seemed like he had solved a part of something that was important. To top it off it looked like his father wanted to solve it first. He could use this, couldn he?

”Leon, ” Their father started, ”do you still have the equation? ”

”Yes. ”

”Write it on the board. their father gestured to a small black board that was on the left side of the room. His brother stood up and immediately started to write out an equation, part of which Aether had already seen before. The equation wasn too difficult to solve, but the strange drawings next to it were foregin to him and he wondered if solving the equation would be enough.

”Aether. ” their father called out. Leon stepped away from the board and sat down. ”Solve the equation. ”

Aether looked up at him. Meeting his eyes for the first time. He had a feeling that the last soul was never able to look this man in the eyes, but that was going to change starting today. His father pointed to the board.

”Go ahead, solve it. ”

Aether swallowed. His father was testing him. The question was whether or not he should take the test. He bit his finger. If he solved the equation it would show his father that he was in their eyes intelligent and prove that he had some worth, but what would happen afterwards? There was no guarantee that after he solved this equation that they wouldn resort to how it was before. Or worse, they could exploit him until his use is no longer needed.

He needed to go about this carefully. One wrong move and his life could be on the line. He looked at the board then back at his father. There was only one way to solve his issues while also showing his worth.

”What do I get if I solve it? ” Aether asked. The people around him all turned to him in shock and confusion, but his focus was solely on his father. His father brought a hand to his mouth, covering the sadistic smile.

Aether wasn stupid. No, he knew that in order to live in the Frenzel household he would have to become like them otherwise he would most likely be used until his death. Though, that didn mean he had to be like them entirely, but showing some backbone every now and then was a good start.

”What do you want? ” His father asked. Aether smiled.

Wasn that a million dollar question. There were many things Aether could ask for, protection, objects, but those wouldn help him in the long run. No, he needed his place secured if he were to survive in this world.

”I want to be treated like a Frenzel. ” He smiled innocently as he leaned back onto the couch.

”Oh? And do tell, what does being treated like a Frenzel mean to you? ” his father leaned forward, clearly enjoying this sudden change in attitude. Aether smiled again, this man was falling right where he wanted him.

”I want to be treated just like my siblings. A room in the main house, warm food, protection, training, all of it. ” He looked his father in the eyes, ”I am a Frenzel, I should be treated like one too. ”

The silence was deafening, but Aether kept his head held high while he waited for the verdict. His fathers laugh broke the silence.

”Fine. Ill start treating you like a Frenzel the moment you solve that equation, but thats only if you can solve it. ” He leaned forward, a smile on his lips, ”Do I make myself clear? ”

”Perfectly. ” Aether stood up and walked over to the board. Grabbing a piece of chalk he began to solve the equation with ease. When he was done he set the piece of chalk back down and turned to give his father a bright smile.

So worth it.