Eliza introduced Dylan to the rest of the children. Some of them kept their distance and others tried to curry favour with him due to his status. The twins were displeased but knew it wasn't appropriate to throw a tantrum right now, so they snorted before mingling with their own clique.
By the end of the party, Dylan made one friend and a few acquaintances, it was a pretty good achievement. However, throughout the party, he had to constantly put up a false mask of nobility and it wore him out. When he got back to his room later that night, he flopped on his bed and very quickly snoozed off.
The next few years of Dylan's life was spent refining his craft and also learning how to handle a sword. Dylan fell in love with swordsmanship at first sight and very quickly took it up. He was a genius and a hard worker who poured sweat and tears into his blade, allowing his swings to be powerful and fast.
Whenever Dylan encountered any hardships, he would pour his emotions into his sword and swing them away. He practiced and practiced until there was also calm and endless serenity left inside him. If not, Dylan was afraid that he might have gone insane from the indifference of the Kaiser household and abuse from his half-siblings.
Dylan also started to attend academy the year he joined the Kaiser house. It was an open secret that Dylan was an illegitimate child, so despite his status of the heir of a marquis, many others liked to make fun of him behind his back and call him names. They never did it to his face in fear of retribution but hiding behind the masses, they weren't afraid to mock and degrade Dylan. It was mentally exhausting and spiritually damaging.
Eliza also wasn't by his side due to the academy being an all-boys school. They did exchange letters from time to time though.
Instead, Dylan had Matthias. He was a supporting friend for Dylan who wouldn't hesitate to yell at the people whispering behind Dylan's back and provided unconditional love and support. The two developed a mutual bond and would leave their backs to one another. If Dylan had travelled back in time to meet his academy self and told him about everything that happened, he wouldn't have believed it. That was how much Dylan relied and trusted on Matthias.
"You sure did have a tough childhood." Janine commented after very briefly hearing about Dylan's childhood. He didn't go into depth and only told her about how people looked down upon him, but she could already tell how hard it would have been for him. Yet Dylan spoke about it so nonchalantly as if it were a plot of a movie.
"I didn't let it get to me." Dylan said with a smile.
Janine didn't know what to say, so she just stayed silent. The two of them quietly watched Charlotte go crazy over Dylan's military uniform and just waited for the heavy mood to pass.
"Lyn!" Fir came chirping. He glided towards Dylan and landed cleanly on his shoulder. Fir rubbed his head against Dylan's chin and reported to him about his trip. "I met Sherry, she is very, very pretty! I like her a lot, but she said she fought with her parents, so she can't see you for a while."
"She fought with her parents?" Dylan repeated, saying it out loud.
"Who fought with their parents? Sherry?" Janine asked.
Dylan nodded.
"That's strange. Sherry's never gotten into a fight with Aunty and Uncle before. Did something happen?"
Fir chirped some more and Dylan conveyed his message to Janine. "Fir says that Sherry was angry because they were too controlling of her life."
"Well, it's true that they are a little overprotective, but she's never complained about it before." Janine said. They've been like that basically all her life, why would she fight back now?
"Should I ask her about it?"
Janine thought for a bit before shaking her head. "If she needs to rant, she would have called me by now. She probably needs some time to herself."
Dylan thought back to the times Sherry got angry at people she couldn't afford to offend, and took her anger out on the monsters. Dylan had to admit, that was the first time he had ever felt sorry for monsters. The magic flung around that day, it was too frightening.
"Ahahahahahaha! The inspiration! It's flowing into me! I'm going to create a masterpiece!" Charlotte burst into fanatic laughter. She threw aside Dylan's clothes and rushed into her room, locking the door behind her. The sound of a scratchy mechanical pencil against paper was all that was heard from her that day, along with the occasional muttering and weird sounds that came out of her mouth.
Janine and Dylan looked at each other, surprise in their eyes. Next thing they knew, they were laughing uncontrollably out of sheer bewilderment.
When they were calm again, Dylan neatly folded his clothes and casually popped them into his storage. By now, Janine was pretty accustomed to his magic wacky whatever it was, so she wasn't so surprised anymore.
"She's going to be fine right?" Dylan suddenly asked.
"Hmm? She'll be out when she's done or hungry. Don't worry about it." Janine replied. When silence was her only response, Janine realised that Dylan was talking about Sherry. "Sherry will be fine. Aunty and Uncle may be strict but they love her. And Sherry also can't stay angry for very long. They'll very quickly make up."
"…You don't think it's my fault again, do you?"
"What? What do you mean?"
"She got grounded last time because she rushed out to help me. What if she fought with her parents again because of me?" Dylan asked, downcast.
Janine waved her hand in dismissal. "You're overthinking it. No matter what her reason is, the ultimate cause of her fights is herself. No one else is to be blamed. That's why we can only wait until they calm down and sort it out themselves."
Dylan didn't have much of an experience when it came to fighting with family like this. His family mostly hid everything under the surface and even the twins learned to hide their emotions once they grew older. They got better at cursing whilst disguising them as praises and masked their emotions very thickly. So, Dylan was quite inexperienced when it came to fights fuelled by raw emotions, baring everything out for the world to see.