"I wanted to apologize."
I repeated the words, and my father only shook his head, looking far less impressed or shocked than I had hoped by my sudden change of heart.
"Apologize for what? The harassment of the maids? The damages to Lord Arthur’s estate? The—"
He continued on, listing offense after offense. Clearly, this wasn’t Reyn’s first time apologizing. I didn’t need to inherit this body’s memories to understand that much.
Luckily for me, I had prepared beforehand.
"I want to apologize for everything. And as proof, Father, I want to show you my progress."
I interrupted him before he could go on another tangent about my many past misdeeds. Then, without hesitation, I cast ward magic, covering myself in a translucent sphere of protective light.
"Ward magic...?"
My father’s expression shifted.
"That’s beyond what any of your tutors or professors reported you were capable of."
For the first time since I entered the room, Cain Brimstone was paying attention.
"I had help from Lady Anna Rose while I was hospitalized."
My father’s eyes widened at the name. House Rose was known for producing beauties and Adonises, but he clearly hadn’t expected his disappointing son to mention one of them.
His face immediately hardened as he went into damage-control mode.
"Reyn, I swear to God, if you touched one of House Rose’s daughters—"
"She helped me willingly."
I said quickly.
"Lady Anna was the one who saved me. Because of her, I realized the error of my ways, and before long, we became friends. If you’d like, I can even introduce you to her."
My father narrowed his eyes, but eventually accepted my answer.
It was logical enough to make him back off for now, though I had no doubt he would have his spymasters confirm it later.
"Friends with a daughter of House Rose... and producing a Ward..."
He muttered the words as he reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a pouch heavy with coin.
The drawer, as I knew from Reyn’s memories, was filled with identical pouches, prepared for the sole purpose of tossing allowances at his children whenever they came knocking.
After fathering dozens of heirs, he’d had it installed not long after realizing just how often they interrupted his work asking for money.
To be fair, it was partly his fault for having that many children in the first place.
Not that I would ever say that out loud...
"Fine. You’ll have double."
He said, pulling out another pouch.
"But on the condition that if I discover you’ve lied to me, or that your magical progress stalls, I won’t just revoke the increase. I’ll halve what you had before."
Cain Brimstone was impatient when it came to his children’s allowances. But when it came to parenting itself? The man was far from negligent.
"Last chance to back out."
He warned, two pouches already in hand.
"I accept your condition, Father."
He sighed and tossed them to me, already turning back to his ledgers. But before I could reach the door, his voice caught me one final time.
"And Reyn."
I paused.
"Don’t even think about spending it in the pleasure district."
"O-Of course, Father."
The pleasure district.
Now those were memories I preferred to keep buried. Unlike the letter incident, which I’d been foolish enough to dig up earlier, this one I’d leave to rot where it belonged.
I was about to surround myself with villainesses, brilliant, dangerous, and utterly devoted. A few rented women from the pleasure district couldn’t compare.
And knowing the previous Reyn’s tastes?
It was definitely going to be something I never wanted to remember.
✧ ✦ ✧
I stepped out of the study with two heavy pouches in my coat and a father who, for the first time in years, hadn’t dismissed me on sight.
’I guess that’s progress.’
The hallway stretched before me, lined with portraits of Brimstone ancestors who had likely never been caught sniffing a noblewoman’s letter. Their painted eyes seemed to judge me as I passed.
"Brother."
Gavian’s voice stopped me before I reached the main stairwell. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, clearly waiting.
"I believe I told you not to trouble Father, and to only leave the letter outside."
"I only wanted to ask for double allowance, and I got it. No harm was done"
Gavian’s eyebrow twitched.
"Excuse me?"
"I apologized, showed him my magical progress, and mentioned I’d befriended Lady Anna Rose. It seemed to be enough to work."
I jingled one of the pouches for emphasis. Gavian stared at the coins like they might suddenly explain themselves.
"Lady Annabele...?"
He pushed himself off the wall and walked toward me, stopping just close enough that I could see the faint lines of stress around his eyes. He was only a few years older than this body, but the weight of being the heir had aged him faster.
"I don’t know what game you’re playing, Reyn. Maybe you really did hit your head hard enough to knock something loose. Maybe this is just another scheme that’ll blow up in your face."
He jabbed a finger at my chest.
"But if you do anything to embarrass this family again, especially now that you’ve dragged House Rose’s name into it, I’ll make that head injury look like a warm-up. Understood?"
I met his eyes. There was no reason to be afraid when I wasn’t lying. And my motivations were my own business.
As long as I improved and stopped being an embarrassment, my new romantic goals were none of their concern.
"Understood."
Gavian held my gaze for a long moment, then stepped back with a grunt that could have meant anything from grudging acceptance to complete disbelief.
"You smell less like a brothel than usual. I’ll take that as a positive sign."
He walked off without another word.
I waited until his footsteps faded, then exhaled slowly. Two family members down. Neither of them trusted me yet, but both had been willing to give me just enough rope.
Whether I climbed with it or hanged myself was apparently up to me.
Now, according to my physician’s note, I was expected back at the academy by afternoon. That left me with a few hours to myself.
And I knew exactly how to spend them...
The academy library wasn’t the grandest in the kingdom, not compared to the Royal Archives or the Tower of Magi’s private collection. But it had one thing those places didn’t: unrestricted access to any student who bothered to show up.
As for old Reyn, he had only been there once, during the mandatory tour on the first day of classes.