“REAS?” Astrid called out, surprised.

His brother turned at the sound of his voice. Reas gave him a familiar, slightly teasing smirk. “Hey.”

Astrid walked over to him. “You just got here?” he asked. “I thought you weren’t coming back until the weekend.”

With the new school year starting next week, Reas would have to travel back from Delryria before then. Astrid had just assumed his brother would arrive over the upcoming weekend. So, seeing him now was a bit of a surprised.

“The trip back went a lot faster than I thought it would,” Reas explained with a casual shrug. “By the way, I love what you did with the place,” he added, gesturing around. “I’ve already moved my stuff into the room with the virtual pod. That one’s mine, right?”

He knew Astrid had done some renovations on their apartment, but he hadn’t expected the changes to be so extensive. Not that he was complaining. Having his own room was definitely an improvement over sharing with his brother. It wasn’t that he disliked sharing a space with Astrid, but at their age, having some privacy was better. At least now, if he invited Lauren over, there was no risk of Astrid accidentally walking in on them.

“Yeah, that one’s yours,” Astrid confirmed. “Have you eaten yet? There’s leftover food in the fridge. I can heat some up for you.”

“No, I can get it myself,” Reas replied. He gave his brother a quick once over. “You look like you just got back from work.”

“It was just a meeting,” Astrid said, not pressing the issue about the food. He took a seat on one of the kitchen bar stools and watched Reas take the leftovers from the refrigerator. “How are mom and dad?”

Reas placed the container into the auto-chef to heat it up. “They’re fine. A little stressed from dealing with the old man, but otherwise they’re good.”

The ‘old man’ Reas meant was their grandfather. Which didn’t really fit the description of the Duke. After all, their grandfather looked like he was only in his 30s. Astrid had almost forgotten the Duke was still staying with their parents in Delryria. “How is the Duke doing? Is he still helping on the farm?”

“Yeah. He surprisingly got a green thumb,” Reas said as he retrieved the hot food from the auto-chef and transferred it to a clean plate. “He’s even made friends with the other people working in the farm.”

He carried his plate to the kitchen counter and sat on the bar stool next to Astrid. He thought about how the old man interacted with the people working in the farm. They treated the Duke like any other new hire, being friendly and joking with him. Reas wondered how they would react if they ever found out this ‘new worker’ was actually one of the few Dukes in the entire Empire.

Astrid raised an eyebrow. A green thumb? Making friends? He could not connect those ideas with his memory of the stern Duke. He got up from his stool and went to prepare some tea for Reas.

“How was he with… our parents?” he asked.

Reas cut a piece of braised beef and ate it. “Surprisingly, he seems to get along pretty well with Dad. He’s still a little awkward around Mom, though.”

Astrid nodded. That actually made sense. Their mother was probably still uncomfortable around the Duke. Their father, trying to ease the tension, had likely ended up spending more time with the man.

He finished preparing the tea and poured a cup for Reas, placing it on the counter beside his brother’s plate. “That’s still progress. Do you think he’ll stay there much longer?”

“I think so,” Reas said. “He seems pretty determined to build a relationship with Mom.”

Astrid sat back down on the stool beside Reas. “Then he’s probably going to be there for a while longer.”

Reas nodded in agreement. Given how the two of them were interacting, that seemed likely.

“How about you?” Reas asked, turning the question back on him. “Did anything happen while I was gone?”

Astrid hesitated at the question. He thought about whether he should tell Reas about meeting the Emperor and Valentine Davis, and everything that had happened since. In the end, he explained it all. The two of them rarely kept secrets from each other, so it was better to just be honest.

“Well, I met the Emperor and Valentine Davis in VirtualNet,” he began, trying to sound flippant.

Reas dropped his spoon and looked at him in disbelief. “What?”

“I was meeting Wulf at his private island,” Astrid said trying to sound casual. Things happened, and he was accidentally logged out of VirtualNet. Then the Emperor and Valentine showed up. More things happened, and… well, that’s the gist of it.”

Reas narrowed his eyes, studying his brother’s face. The way Astrid said he’d met the Emperor was far too casual, like he was talking about the weather. But the fact that he was attempting to sound so nonchalant meant something serious had actually happened. Astrid might fool other people with his acting, but not him. Reas knew his brother well enough to tell when he was purposely putting on an act.

“Right,” he said in a flat voice. He didn’t pick up his spoon. “Let’s try that again. What ‘things’ happened? And don’t skip the details this time.”

Astrid sighed. It seemed that he couldn’t leave out the details, after all. “Okay, look. It wasn’t a big deal. I met them, right? And I kind of figured out they were together. That’s a secret, so don’t go telling your roommate. They were being jerks, so I might have talked back a little. Might have been a bit disrespectful. So, I have to log out. Then Wulf told me he fought with his brother right after I left. They’ve made up now. Later, I saw Valentine on a variety show. We sort of made up too, I think? That’s… that’s really everything.”

Reas continued to frown, wondering if that was really all there was to it. The look on his face made Astrid chuckle.

“I swear,” he said, holding up his hands. “That’s the entire story.”

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