Edited by: dragonsam656
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Arnette's POV
My name is Arnette Von Enstar; I was supposed to succeed the Enstar House after my father, Earl Burleigh Von Enstar. But I refused to succeed as the family head and I'm now working under Duke of Rinsburg, Reind Von Kelis, as his close subordinate and right hand man.
Since Reind's twins were born my workload has been increasing significantly day after day. He has been neglecting his work way too much to play with them and because of that he even earned the wrath of his wife.
He is always on about how beautiful, cute and smart his sons are all day long which is making the atmosphere in the office unbearable sometimes. I can sympathize with him wanting to spend more time with the boys but his non-stop chanting about them is going out of hands for some time now.
But since last week he has been working hard and to his full capacity to complete the work as soon as possible. The reason for this is that the birthday of the twins is approaching. I'm sure he plans to take a break on that day to spend time with them on their first birthday.
But seeing him work so seriously for the first time is quite surprising even to others.
When I first met this man I was at loss of words, the man I admired, who was known as the strongest in the whole kingdom of Felicia, was not what I imagined him to be at all. I imagined he would have a huge build as a mountain and a serious nature as he was not only renowned here but in other kingdoms too. But, on the contrary, what I found was a man with a slender build with a little muscle similar to mine and a carefree attitude. Not to mention if one were to compare them (Melisa and Reind) they would find Melinda as a more responsible and smarter one from the two. To this day I'm curious how he got such an elegant and smart woman as his wife.
But I'm right now serving this man because I know how brave and kind hearted he is. If it weren't for him I definitely would not have known what trust is.
..................
As usual the documents which piled up on the desk were as huge as a mountain. One would just get dejected at seeing this huge a pile but Reind was doing his work like an obsessed man. After a few hours when he took a break, he suggested that we go out and take a look at the village nearby to assess the place.
I willfully accepted the idea as it does not do him any good to sit behind the desk all day, in addition to that, all the work which needed his authority were already completed. The documents which were left were the ones that which could be taken care of by me.
While we were on our way to inspect the village the look on Reind's face told that how happy he was to finally be out of the room and away from the mountain of documents.
"Ah......how much I would like to have Ray and Allen in that office."
"Don't ask for the impossible. If we were to let you bring them there then I don't think any of the work would ever be completed. Because of your selfish actions my workload is just increasing."
"You don't have to say it in such a mean way."
"Huh??!......mean?! I'm just stating the facts here."
"......"
"Oh, I nearly forgot, Arnette, are you free on the evening the day after tomorrow?"
"Yes, but why are you asking me that?"
"Why do you think I'm asking you that? I'm inviting you to Ray's & Allen's birthday celebration"
"Oh....but is it really ok for me to come there?"
"Huh? why wouldn't it be ok?!"
As I heard that I let out a heavy sigh.
"Did you already forget what everyone calls me? Being there would only help to dampen the mood of the party."
"Yes, I did. I do not care what everyone calls you. Through working with you these many years I have come to understand you. I do not intend to let go of such an important friend who is no different than a family of mine because of what some people, who do not try to look at the whole picture and are contend with what is presented to them say."
"So, Arnette I haven't received your answer to my invitation yet."
"Then, I will gladly accept your invitation Duke Kelis." I answered to Reind with smile.
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In the evening of the birthday I went to the Kelis' house. There I was greeted by guards who seemed to be really happy about the twins' birthday. As I entered the hall I was greeted by Reind who welcomed me with a smile. The party was not a big one with many nobles and aristocrats but with only a select few people but, still, the count reached to 20-25 people.
I realized that I may have been a little late to arrive at the event as everyone was already wishing them already. Reind took me to the twins' and introduced me them too.
When I looked at them I really was surprised by how cute they looked. They looked like a pair of porcelain dolls. Because of this I noticed it a little bit later but both of them are standing on their own.
As they looked towards me I kneeled down as to match their heights a little and wished them happy birthday with a smile.
"Thank you" mister replied the twins.
I was quite surprised how fluent the twins were when they talked, and they were supposed to turn one today.
"Just Arnette would suffice" I said with a smile.
Allen started to blush on that comment because of which I started to blush.
'It is really scary how cute they can be, no wonder Reind always keep talking about them in the office. Their smile is quite cute and refreshing' I thought.
After that a maid took the boys to sit somewhere as they were tired from greetings and standing. Suddenly, all the lights in the hall went out and people started to talk and whisper.
Suddenly a woman screamed "somebody took Ray-sama and Allen-sama away."
This caused a huge commotion in the hall. I decided to go to the balcony as to ascertain the location of the kidnappers because the lights did not went out that long ago they couldn't have gone far.
As I made my way to the balcony I found Reind was already there and the look on his eyes said that those kidnappers were doomed for sure. Later some guards reached the balcony too.
Reind had the same assumption as I did but the main concern at that moment was how many people were there.
Reind was ready to go alone to hunt those people down but he will certainly kill the people there, no question asked. Thus, I tried to persuade him to let me go instead to which he firmly refused.
He was not ready to listen to anything but at that time Melinda interfered and persuaded him.
I went on the pursuit alone but the biggest problem at hand now was it will be significantly harder to locate the kidnappers if they entered the forest which was not that far away from the manor.
In order to move faster I used enhancement magic to increase my speed, luckily I catch up with the kidnappers before they entered the forest.
I went near them and from behind I whispered "leave the boys and surrender if you don't have a death wish" to the two men who were carrying Ray and Allen in their hands and jumped up to the tree branches so they don't notice where I am. It will help to ambush them later.
It seems that because of me they were startled and stopped to check where I am. I can't believe how stupid they are, if it was me I would double my pace if something like this happened to me.
They are started to taunt me by asking me to come out and calling me coward.
So I jumped from the tree and let them know where I am because I think Allen saw me and he could have given my position away by mistake so I went out of my own accord.
But what I saw was truly amazing; none of the boys were scared or even intimidated by their current situation. I guess they don't understand what kind of situation they are in.
"Who are the real cowards here? But it seems you are not the cowards as you dared to kidnap those boys. Or you are just stupid enough to think that you will get out of this ordeal without a scratch?"
Both the man took out their daggers as they saw me coming down from the tree. They placed the daggers on throats of the twins in order to intimidate me and warned me to stay away from them.
At this point I think I got a little angry because of their actions. Taking those little kids as hostages and kidnapping them.
Using the enhanced speed I got behind one of the kidnappers and grabbed the hand by which he's holding the knife. And slowly started to twist it and pull it backwards causing it to break. The screams of the man was really loud and I don't think he will be able to move so much now as I made sure that he'll still be in pain for quite some more time.
So I turned my attention towards Ray and I inquired whether he was injured or not to which he replied by nodding his head. I asked him to stand near a tree which was a little big away from the man who was screaming in pain on the ground.
Now that I made sure Ray was safe it was time to rescue Allen. The guy who held hostage had a terrified expression on his face. It was looked like all the blood had drained from his face as it was all pale.
As I closed the distance between us he got more cautious and held the knife more closely to Allen's neck. The knife was touching his skin. He started to back up one little step after another, and warned me to stay away from them.
But it was not like he would return him if I backed off. So I continued to move forward anyway. As I was moving forward I noticed that blood was flowing from his neck. Seeing Allen's blood made me angry to the point where I was ready to kill the man on this very spot. I don't know why I got this angry by seeing him injured but it made me really angry.
I closed the distance between us in what it look like a flash to the man holding Allen.
In order to protect himself he covered himself in flames.
It was almost laughable to think that he thought those weak flames could even harm me but Allen was another matter so I tore open those flames with my hands. And I grabbed the man's head my hand and used another hand to free Allen from him.
I putted Allen down and asked him whether he can stand on his own and walk to where Ray was. He obediently did what I asked of him.
Now I focus solely on the man as I didn't have my sword with me. Given the situation the man started to tremble. I started to punch the man to the point where he lost his conscious and was in a near death condition.
After that I went to fetch Ray and Allen and didn't bother about the two men.
I picked up both of them and apologized to them for my behavior while I dealt with the kidnappers.
"Arnette did what he did to protect us" Said Allen with an angelic smile on his face and Ray nodding his head in agreement to Allen's word.
At moment I thought that they were definitely the sons of that Duke. As I thought about what they said that means they were able to assess that they were in danger.
Laughter burst out of me as I said "Reind did tell me you both are smart I guess what he was saying was true."
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As we arrived at the manor a worried Melinda and Reind hugged the boys. The maid who told us about the kidnapping was crying her eyes out as she apologized to the boys.
Reind took notice of the wound on Allen's neck and was clearly not happy with it.
He asked everyone to return inside the manor and asked me to come to his study after instructing the maid to tend to the wound that Allen had in the nursery.
As I entered the room I saw Reind standing beside Melinda who was sitting on the sofa. Melinda upon seeing me expressed her gratitude for rescuing the boys and so did Reind.
"So, may I ask you where those scoundrels are and which one of them injured Allen?" asked Reind.
"Near the entrance of the forest on the east, the half dead guy injured Allen" answered Arnette.
"Half dead?" asked Reind a little confused.
"I lost my temper" said Arnette.
"Ok.....so do you think they were connected to syndicate or anything?" asked Reind.
"I don't think they are related to one. For one, their magic was too weak, and two they are far too inexperienced in kidnapping it seems. The way they acted, their actions seemed like it was their first time kidnapping someone" answered Arnette.
"I see, but I would like you to investigate them a bit more, thank you again for rescuing them today Arnette" said Reind.
"No need to thank me, it was my duty to protect them also didn't you said that we are family, I have got two really cute brothers it seems" answered Arnette.
"So you agree that they are cute huh?" said Reind as if he were taunting me.
"I guess but that doesn't mean you get to neglect your work, also can I meet them sometimes?" answered Arnette.
"Of course you can. You are their big brother after all" Said Melinda with a smile as I was exiting the room.