Ciel made his way inside once Pierre opened the door for him.
Meanwhile, the guards positioned themselves outside on either side of the door.
The door shut softly behind him, and Ciel attempted to calm his louder thoughts.
At the dining table, he caught sight of his adoptive mother and father, Jade and Hugo Drake, sitting together at one end.
Their faces looked grim, Hugo’s eyebrows were furrowed as he raked his fingers through his short dark brown hair.
Jade mirrored him, twisting her own curly hair in a preoccupied manner.
They seemed to have just been discussing something before he arrived, only for them to have fallen silent.
They both wore their military full dress uniforms, as if they had just rushed home from work.
Both were outfitted with an almost laughable amount of service badges and decorations they had collected throughout their careers.
They had the exact same number of them, a tribute to their constant and unrelenting rivalry.
Ciel slowly took a seat on the opposite side of the table without speaking.
The silence stretched on, and Ciel clasped his hands together under the table.
His parents glanced at each other again before finally speaking.
“Are you okay?” Jade asked in a concerned voice.
Ciel nodded but stayed quiet.
He didn’t know what else to say, what else he could say.
“Tell us everything that happened, if you can,” Hugo added.
He tried to make it seem casual, but Ciel noticed the strain in his voice.
And so Ciel did.
He started with their encounter with the fog the night before, and then the search for Aurore after finding her missing when they were supposed to be taken in for questioning.
He told them about how he split up with Leo to search, only to end up cornered by three Insighted.
Throughout the conversation, the two of them didn’t react much, but Ciel had known them for years now.
He could find those micro expressions that they tried to hide.
He noticed the way Jade’s lips tightened or the way Hugo would knit his eyebrows.
They were gone in an instant, but Ciel had gotten good at noticing them.
After he finished recounting his story, he fell silent again, expecting them to continue.
However it seemed like they were also waiting for him, so he eventually gave in.
“I thought I would die,” Ciel said unevenly, looking down at the table.
“I didn’t think it was possible for me…” Ciel stopped as he felt a hand rest on the top of his head, looking up he saw Hugo standing next to him, a gentle expression on his face.
“Yet you defied the odds. You proved that not even three enemies with supernatural abilities could beat you with none.”
Ciel let out a dry, uncomfortable chuckle.
“It was just luck they didn’t hit anywhere fatal, and I wouldn’t have lasted much longer if Aurore hadn’t been there.”
He knew they were just trying to comfort them, but he just couldn’t help it.
It was a miracle he had survived, a miracle that he was able to have this conversation with them now, telling them what had transpired.
“You are right though, Ciel,” Jade said with trepidation.
“We can’t expect you to always escape this way. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. Those people will pay for what they’ve done!” Get faster updates on g.com.
In a calmer voice, she added, “For now we ask that you stay here, within the estate.
We’ve hired guards to patrol day and night to ensure your safety…
She paused for a moment, glancing at Hugo.
“And because of this incident, we have been granted permission to bring you to the Academy early. In three days to be exact.”
Ciel’s eyes widened drastically.
Early admittance to the academy?
Was that possible?
Ciel could understand their reasoning well enough.
There was nowhere in Leichren that would be safer than the academy.
But still, just hiding away in the academy?
It seems he had underestimated his family’s power.
Ciel nodded quickly, “Okay, I can do that.”
Jade smiled, a nostalgic look appearing on her face, “Make sure to savor that moment when you first enter. It really is a magical place, and an important one too. These are the people you’ll be sharing your life with, here in Leichren. All the future captains, explorers, diplomats, and police will be there with you in those walls. Even after all these years, I’ll never forget that first day.”
Hugo chuckled softly, sitting back down.
“Of course you wouldn’t, that’s when you met me!”
Jade’s smile dimmed slightly.
“Yes, and because of you it was almost my last! I was a hair’s breadth away from expulsion.”
Curious, Ciel listened silently.
Hugo’s smile grew strained.
“Don’t act like you weren’t the one who started the duel, I was just minding my own business and–”
Jade burst out, laughing forcefully, “Now you’re the one acting all innocent, when you were the one who stole my books!
Hugo argued back with an exasperated tone, “I did not! I was just borrowing, and you couldn’t be patient for 10 seconds, and–”
“This is pointless!” Jade exclaimed suddenly, silencing Hugo and putting the topic to rest.
“That… was a hectic part of our lives, but even I’ll admit it was rather fun.”
She then turned to Ciel apologetically.
“The point is that while it is an important day, don’t be all stiff about it. Make sure to enjoy it too.”
Ciel nodded again, lost in thought.
All the possibilities present behind those walls were almost overwhelming.
Unlike the rest of his family, his parents had allowed him to decide his own future, and not follow the strict family tradition that prompted them all to go through the Leichren military.
It was something that was so uniquely his that it left him to make his own choice completely unlike anyone else.
Ciel found it… unnerving.
He was far more used to doing what he was supposed to do, meeting people’s expectations.
That was enough for him, usually.
If they were pleased with him, they would accept him, even if he didn’t necessarily belong.
This is why a choice like this filled him with dread.
He couldn’t base it off expectations, because they had refused to share them with him.
He could almost imagine them being proud or disappointed for every path ahead of him.
His parents were both generals, rivals throughout their entire careers so far.
They had shared the battlefield, their share of triumphs or defeats.
They related to each other like almost no one else could.
Aurore was also heading down that path at a blistering pace.
It was like she had been born to fill that role.
Maybe because she had been.
Ciel was not.
He just so happened to be part of this family now.
He was free from that fate, but also lost from his own.
It left Ciel feeling a little lost on what he himself should pursue.
As Ciel’s thoughts continued to spiral, Hugo and Jade looked at each other and subtly nodded.
Ciel finally looked back up as they turned to face him, their expressions serious again.
Hugo spoke first, “Ciel, regarding your Insight, we have some more things to add.”
Ciel perked up after hearing Insight, a mix of anticipation and worry began to rise within him.
“To put it simply, the method of choosing an Insight is done in two ways, an external and an internal method. The internal will be explained to you later, but the external can be thought of as an anchor. It is your anchor upon an element. In particular, the element that you will choose.”
Ciel listened earnestly, but his mind was still uneasy.
What reason could they have to tell him this now before he got to the Insight?
In all of his years spent surrounded by Insighted, they had all vehemently held all secrets about it, practically protecting it with their lives.
It was that kind of aggressive withholding of information that he had grown up with that made him learn to not peer into those kinds of secrets.
Ciel guessed intuitively that there was some force, or maybe a contract that was preventing them from speaking.
He didn’t know the boundaries, but it was clearly present.
But for his parents to mention it now… could only mean it was something more important than keeping those secrets.
Regardless, Ciel pushed those thoughts away as he kept listening.
“We’ve always said that you are not obligated to choose Fire, like the rest of our family, because we didn’t want to impose on something that wasn’t necessary…” She paused for a moment, as if hesitating to continue.
She looked to Hugo, who nodded subtly, smoothly taking over.
“We don’t want to take away that freedom from you, but we want to share something your father told us, back when you were first born.”
The words came crashing down on Ciel so quickly he barely had time to react or even prepare to understand them.
“It’s… unorthodox to say the least—”
Wait
“—We’ve been trying to find out when and how we should tell you, ever since he died—”
My father?
“—He told us, he would tell you to—”
Why is he—
“—Avoid the anchor.”