บท 23: More Company The Merrier

Sharing an annoyed expression, Isaac and Nyx stared at the boy currently holding her, Isaac nearly growling. "Would you hand her back, now?" Isaac asked, threateningly, ready to snatch her.

Grinning, the caramel-haired boy held her closer to his chest, making her a little annoyed as well. He was only a kid, sure, but did he really not know how to hold a baby? "Let your big brother hold his little sister for a bit, Einsy. Auntie Cyrille surely doesn't mind us bonding." he teased.

Her mother might be too kind but if he kept squishing her stomach she might just bite! "I apologize for him as his twin." the matching caramel-hair boy now across from Isaac said on behalf of his brother. Opening her fan, Rosalyn piped up and gave a curt apology as well.

"Why'd y'all hafta ride in 'ere! 's already crowded!" Nyx broke his polite character to be much more informal than normal, practically fuming he couldn't hold Theia and had to sit across from Rosalyn.

The boy she still didn't actually know the name of held there tiger over her head after prying it from her arms and begun dangling it like she was the animal. "tibe!" she called out, reaching for it as he kept pulling it away, laughing at her.

"Oi!" Nyx hissed as the boy only smiled wider. "We didn't want to split up, ya know?" He mocked, purposefully trying to agitate Nyx since the moment he entered.

Clapping her hands, her mother in the middle across from her smiled. "The more, the merrier. I'm delighted all of you decided to stay with us." She tried to ease the tension, or perhaps she was truly oblivious to the looks the children gave each other.

"Indeed, it is, Lady Cyrille. The other ladies didn't want to take in all of us… Yet you with three children already were most generous, we will be sure to thank you properly later." Rosalyn smiled, but her eyes were shut and her bottom half was covered, for all she knew Rosalyn could be mocking her mother for being far too kind.

"Of course! You all are practically my children." Her mother beamed, becoming happier by the second as she felt herself being taken into Nyx's arms, her tiger being returned as she clutched it for dear life while puffing her cheeks best she could at the caramel boy.

"Really! You hear that Einsy? Nixie? Even Auntie Cyrille calls us her children, maybe I should call her mama!" she heard a sharp breath as Nyx was lightly bumped into, Isaac elbowing the boy in the gut hard.

"There's no room to move my arm, i need to fix my bandage. I apologize, third brother." Isaac hissed, glaring even harder as he said the last part before going to look out the window.

Recovering, he smiled in response and elbowed Isaac's shoulder, pretending to get comfy. "No worries, Einsy! Did you forget where your bandage was? I can help you change it." the battle of passive aggressiveness continued, one smiling boy being passive aggressive, and one downright monotone boy being passive aggressive.

Neither went for the throat or face, but their ribs would break if they were ordinary. at some point, the two even begun using magic slightly as Nyx smiled, being polite and distracting her mother with the other two siblings joining in, ignoring the fighting boys.

At moments like these, they were a mostly ordinary family. A family of professional killers, but ordinary to some. She wondered how the kids were doing, a little. Their mother was just injured and not once did they mention it or feel any sorrow for her as she was taken to a nearby town.

Instead, it sounded like their third brother was excited to be able to stay with them instead, as his twin remained indifferent in response, just indulging him. She wondered if something more devious was behind their intentions, but trusted Nyx and Isaac enough that they wouldn't let them in if they intended to hurt their mother or her, in fact, they possibly wanted something with them too, it was far too convenient.

Drifting off to sleep in Nyx's arms, she knew the ride ahead of her would be a long one, and didn't bother listening to the two boys behind her talking about how they were going to rip each other's throats out, hypothetically.

Other than the two, the ride was mostly peaceful until their evening camp spot the next day, where she came to the conclusion her hypothesis was correct. The very second her mother was out of the carriage, the five had changed their attitudes.

"Ya wanna tell us why yer really here?" Nyx questioned, leg slamming against the seat her mother was just in, waking her up more than before five minutes ago. Closing the fan, Rosalyn smiled.

"Brother Nyx surely knows," she calmly said, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "I won't question anything you do, as a thank you. However, we are quite curious behind your motives. All of us are."

Taking his foot off the seat, the boss allowed her to get off first, chasing after her mother to where the other wives were, giving an excuse on why they were taking so long, she presumed. "I'm not going to deny I'm curious, but it's not my main focus. As long as they're involved, I'll be involved." The second brother said, putting his hands up in the air before sitting them back down, looking at Isaac as Nyx ended up taking her and leaving as well, excusing themselves.

"On the day of the hunt, I promised I'd entertain you all, didn't I?" Isaac spoke, out of earshot of them as his mad grin returned, from a expressionless doll to a madman. "You can keep looking at me curiously for now, but you agreed, if you truly find what I'm doing to be entertaining, you'd stay out of it."

Laughing, the caramel-haired boy clapped his hands, hitting Isaac on the shoulder as Isaac didn't even budge from the nasty hit. "You sure know how to get people excited, Einsy."

Smiling deviously, the other boy also gave a light chuckle. "To go as far as what you did, along with agreeing to help sister Rosalyn poison Marquis Myron and frame Count Loritz, we surely hope you won't disappoint at the last second."

Getting up to leave, the third brother piped up one last thing before joining his twin in exiting to leave Isaac alone. "We'll leave you alone for now if you entertain us, but after the hunt it's fair game."

Sitting alone in the carriage for a few minutes, Isaac let out a long sigh before getting out and joining them, his face back to being ordinary and expressionless. No one was going to stop him from saving his sister and mother, just as no one was going to stop him from obtaining the title of Duke of Argyris.