Chapter 183: Playing Ball

She snatched the tray from the table and stormed toward the doors.

Before leaving, she looked back at Seraphina.

The little girl waved back at her with enthusiasm.

"Bye-bye, fake lady."

Genevieve left.

The doors slammed shut.

Seraphina looked up at Sebastian.

"She really is annoying."

Sebastian looked down at her.

"Indeed."

"And she smells bad."

"Also true."

Seraphina nodded.

"I think she needs a bath."

"I believe that would be wise."

She smiled.

"Mr. Sebastian?"

"Yes?"

"Can we go somewhere without spies?"

Sebastian considered.

"Yes."

"Where?"

"The indoor training yard."

Seraphina’s eyes lit up.

"Adventure!"

Sebastian sighed.

"Of course."

***

The indoor training pavilion occupied the western wing of the estate.

It was enormous and filled wIth vaulted ceilings, high clerestory windows, padded floors, weapon racks, and practice dummies.

Enough open space for a small army to train without bumping into one another.

Seraphina immediately decided it was magnificent.

She ran.

She sprinted across the padded floor with her arms stretched out.

"I’m a bird!"

Then she changed direction.

"I’m a wolf!"

Then she ran faster.

"I’m a dragon!"

The spectral hunting hound raced beside her.

"You’re my puppy!"

The hound barked silently.

Seraphina laughed.

She threw herself onto a crash mat and rolled across it.

"Again!"

Sebastian stood near the entrance.

He watched.

At first, there was only amusement in his eye.

Then something changed.

He looked around the training hall.

The sound of Seraphina’s laughter echoed beneath the vaulted ceiling.

And suddenly—

He was no longer seeing her.

He was seeing the past.

Fifteen years ago.

A younger Kaelus stood in this very room.

His raven hair was messy with sweat. A wooden practice sword was clenched tightly in his hands.

He was stubborn.

Serious.

Determined.

And too young.

Sebastian remembered another boy.

Caspian.

He had been sitting on one of the training mats, laughing as he threw a padded training ball at his brother’s head.

Kaelus had shouted at him. Caspian had laughed harder. And then there was Elara.

A little girl with bright eyes and a laugh that could fill an entire room.

She had chased the family’s hunting hound around the pavilion.

Three siblings.

A family.

Happy.

Alive.

Then came the Glacial Abyss.

The former Duke fell when Kaelus was barely seventeen, and the weight of an entire duchy crashed onto his shoulders.

The laughter disappeared.

The siblings fractured.

Caspian left.

Elara also left.

And Kaelus remained.

Fifteen years.

Fifteen years of silence.

Every visit to the Capital Estate had been the same.

Kaelus would retreat into his study.

The halls would remain empty, the training pavilion would gather dust.

The mansion became a tomb.

Sebastian had watched it happen.

He had watched the boy he had sworn to protect become colder.

Harder.

Lonelier.

He had watched Kaelus turn himself into a weapon because being a person hurt too much.

And now—

"Mr. Sebastian!"

Sebastian blinked.

The past disappeared.

Seraphina was standing on top of a training block.

Her little hands were planted proudly on her hips.

"I am the Queen of the Mats!"

Sebastian stared at her.

A tiny smile touched his face.

The training hall was no longer silent.

A child’s laughter echoed beneath the vaulted ceiling. The darkness that had clung to the mansion for fifteen years was beginning to loosen.

Not because someone had fought it or someone had conquered it. Simply because a little girl had walked into the house and started being a child.

Sebastian’s throat tightened.

He’s healing.

The realization struck him with unexpected force.

The Archduke is healing.

Kaelus had found something.

Someone.

A tiny, stubborn, warm-hearted little creature who had somehow crawled into the coldest corner of his soul and started lighting fires there.

Seraphina jumped off the training block.

She landed badly.

Sebastian immediately moved forward.

But she regained her balance.

"I’m okay!"

She looked proud.

Then she spotted something in a nearby equipment bin.

A soft padded training ball.

Her eyes lit up.

She picked it up and ran toward him.

"Mr. Sebastian!"

"Yes, My Lady?"

She held up the ball.

"Do you want to play catch?"

Sebastian stared at it.

Then at her.

"Papa Duke is always busy reading papers."

She frowned.

"And Sir Boris throws too hard."

She rubbed her shoulder dramatically.

"He made me fall over."

Sebastian’s expression softened.

"You look like you’d be good at catch."

The veteran knight looked at the tiny ball.

His hands were enormous.

Scarred.

Calloused.

Hands that had wielded swords.

Hands that had killed.

Hands that had protected.

Slowly, carefully, Sebastian reached out.

He took the ball from her.

Then he crouched until they were closer to the same height.

"I would be honored."

Seraphina beamed.

"Really?"

"Really."

He tossed the ball gently.

Seraphina caught it against her chest.

"I caught it!"

"You did."

She threw it back.

Sebastian caught it effortlessly.

"Again!"

He tossed it.

She caught it.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Soon, Seraphina’s laughter filled the pavilion.

And Sebastian laughed too.

Not loudly.

Not dramatically.

Just a warm, quiet laugh that had perhaps not been heard inside these walls in many years.

The ghosts watched from the corners.

The old maid smiled.

The headless knight finally found his helmet.

The spectral hound curled up happily beside the wall.

And for the first time in fifteen years, the Capital Estate did not feel like a tomb.

It felt like a home.

Somewhere far across the city, Kaelus was probably sitting in the Imperial Palace, arguing over budgets and threatening bureaucrats with perfectly polite words.

He had no idea that, in his absence, his daughter had already conquered another part of his estate.

Not with magic, power, or any political influence.

She had conquered it with a padded ball, a loud laugh, and absolutely no understanding whatsoever of personal space.

And Sebastian?

The old lion had already surrendered.

Completely and utterly, without a fight.

As they stood in the sunlit training pavilion, tossing the soft ball back and forth, the ghosts of the past quietly faded away.