To Live Again, For the First Time!

"I say, Grand Aunt, are you not curious as to why that grandson of yours hasn't been sleeping and eating well? It's quite the interesting story." 

Elijah's question instantly caught the elder's attention.

Lady Charlotte's gaze shifted to her Grand nephew, pointing her chin in order to signal him to start talking.

Moulan, who had still been embracing his grandmother's arm up to this point was instantly shocked into sitting up straight.

"What are you even suggesting Elijah! You shouldn't be worrying grandma with such vague words. Grandmother knows how hardworking I am, very, very hard working! She wouldn't believe your slandero---… misleading words!"

Moulan quickly changed the wording of his phrase after realizing that his future pride as a genius grandson that his grandmother could be proud of was on the line.

The secret message that was successfully delivered to Elijah from Moulan: [I will work very, very hard, so pretty please don't tell grandma about the video. (  ´ ∆｀)]

"Very hard huh?" Elijah bemusedly threw his words right back at him.

  Message: [How hard are you willing to work to keep this between us?]

"Yes, of course. Hardworking is my middle name!" Moulan jumped right in the hole he dug himself and he didn't forget to fill the hole back in, just in case he wasn't doing enough work for this younger cousin of his.

"Since when did those two freeloaders give you such a middle name and how come I did not hear of it until now?" Madame Charlotte suddenly interjected.

She was talking about Moulan's parents, who were constantly traveling, leaving their children to fend for themselves.

Charlotte greatly cared for her grandchildren, not sparing any reprimanding words on her son and daughter-in-law, Moulan's parents.

I guess it is a universal law that love tends to skip a generation.

"Madame Charlotte, they have done no such thing. The Lady and the Sir are still traveling, I believe they are currently in M Continent, they wouldn't have the registers to change the young master's name, even if they wanted to," Edwin, Charlotte's right-hand man informed from behind her in a serious tone.

"Oh Edwin, there's this thing called a rhetorical question these days. It's really trending and everything. I checked. You should check it out too when you have some free time."

Charlotte spoke so confidently that the others really couldn't tell if she was jesting or not, but to be safe, none of them commented.

"Oh is that so? Then it seems like I spoke too much and out of place too," Edwin gave her a light bow and went back to his previous position, no longer opening his mouth.

"Elijah dear, won't you tell me what can make this grandson of mine work oh so hard?" Charlotte asked, putting emphasis on those last 3 words.

"What do you mean grandmother? Don't I always work this hard?" Moulan was very clear of his position in his cousin's heart.

Elijah would sell him out in less than a heartbeat whenever a chance presented itself.

After all, this was the same cousin who had just forced, no, threatened, blackmailed even, him just days ago. Coercing him to sign a 5-year slave contract. 

"Oh dear me! Of course, I know my grandson best, how could I not know that this level of enthusiasm when speaking of all things favorable to that kid Elijah is anything but normal. Don't I know my two juniors quite well?"

Charlotte chuckled at this ditzy grandson of hers.

"Grand Aunt, I'd be happy to show you," Elijah said with a grin plastered on his face, he didn't take his Grand Aunt's previous words to heart.

It was just as Moulan had thought.

Sold out in less time than it would take one to snap one's fingers.

"You see, it's like this," Elijah tapped his fingers as he thought of his wording.

Moulan could only sulk when he realized that there was no more getting out of this, his grandmother was in too deep.

"Moulan here was hypnotizing this girl that Dios, Calim, and the others brought in around 2 days ago and he just couldn't get over it even after having let her go, figuring that she had nothing to do with the others."

Moulan couldn't help but frown when Elijah's words dropped.

Though there were clearly many words emitted from Elijah's explanation, it wasn't anything that Charlotte couldn't figure out herself.

She nodded lightly as she thought about it.

Charlotte didn't know why, but at that moment, she thought about that young lass she had met back in the mountains.

Charlotte had warned the young lass Emilin to get out of this area as soon as possible since she didn't want her to get into any of the mess here.

Even if the chances were low, she couldn't help but worry a little when she heard that the person brought in by Dios's team was a young lady.

"My, what kind of charms does this young lady have, to still linger on my grandson's mind even after having left for so long."

Charlotte wanted to check that it wasn't the young lass Emilin, just to bring some peace of heart.

Who knew she would come to care for a young lass she had only met days prior and only once too. 

Was this what they meant by fated allies?

Elijah had already pulled the video up by the time Charlotte finished her thoughts.

"This one's the one," Elijah pulled up the video and displayed a shot where they could more or less make out Emilin's face.

Charlotte couldn't help but let out a soft sigh, one barely audible, one that no one but Edwin, who stood right behind Charlotte's seat and was constantly paying attention to her every action as her butler, noticed.

He also didn't fail to notice that this young lady in the film was the very same one who he had seen from a distance, the one who spoke to Madame Charlotte a few days back.

"Madame Charlotte, is she not the one?" Edwin spoke under his breath so that only Charlotte could hear him.

"Indeed! She's quite a beauty, but her age doesn't quite seem to fit you Moulan."

Charlotte spoke with a small frown, talking to the two boys in front of her while also discreetly, well, not so discreetly, responding to Edwin's questioning.

Seeing as his grandmother had misunderstood to some degree, he really had to explain himself before this misinformation got to his parent's side.

If that were to happen… he wasn't going to get another peaceful day in his life. 

His parents were really a strange species of parents. They both loved their children, but it seemed like it wasn't more than they loved each other since they were constantly traveling together without them. Even from a young age, Moulan recalled his parents constantly leaving to go travel and sightsee.

Yet whenever they took the time to come back, Moulan always felt like his parents loved him the most in the world, second to no one, but perhaps tied with his sister.

He had never been able to figure this point out.

Anyways, he had to clean himself of the image of someone who would like an underaged girl.

"It's not like that grandma, don't listen to Elijah's blabbering. It just that..."

Moulan hesitated to continue.

He didn't want to lose face, admitting that this young lady had one-upped him. More like 20-upped him, but that was beside the point.

Moulan could openly say that she was better than him when it came to his studies to anyone but his grandmother.

He could admit it to Elijah, or to anyone else for that matter without feeling embarrassed after having watched the videos over a dozen times, and processed everything that needed to be processed.

It was a fact that she was better, there was really just no need to be embarrassed.

But his Grandma Charlotte had pretty much raised him, having seen him as he went through his various growth phases, including his 8th-grade syndrome as well as the narcissistic phase that followed being officially recognized as a Master hypnotist, as well as the...

Well, the point is there were a lot of embarrassing phases which he would like to think were past him.

He knew that his grandmother wouldn't disdain him at all, perhaps even comforting him, but he just couldn't help it, wanting to keep a strong front in front of his grandmother.

"It's complicated, but you can rest assured, you should know that I have a preference for older women," Moulan weakly argued.

Aiyo, the stage was set against him, and the world was too, he could only hope that his grandmother wasn't.

"Is that so? Well since you have already determined that she is not a threat and she seems like a nice girl too, there will be no more point in thinking of it any longer, right?"

Charlotte confirmed.

She took another sip of her now lukewarm tea.

"Well…" Moulan thought about it for a second before deciding that it was not worth it to talk about it any longer.

"Sure grandmother, there's really nothing special about her, I don't know why, but I just found something off about it at the time. It must have been my mistake," Moulan showed his original smile as if forgetting everything else that had just transpired a few minutes ago.

What he didn't know was that this further solidified Madame Charlotte's image of Emilin.

A simple, mature, honest, and kind girl, nothing to hide, nothing to learn, and definitely nothing too noteworthy when it came to societal value, which didn't affect her impression of Emilin.

In the end, they didn't go on to watch the video and Elijah didn't pursue it any longer.

He was just displaying his leverage to his cousin, plus, it was better if he didn't show the clips. Like this, he could hold his elder cousin up on the promise of working hard.