"Kyle! Kyle! What’d he say? Was Owen mad?"

The blonde looked genuinely distressed as he asked the question. Earlier, he’d outright covered his ears while Kyle spoke to his younger brother because he was too afraid to hear Owen’s reaction in real time.

Unfortunately, not hearing it had proven just as torturous because now his imagination was free to come up with increasingly terrible possibilities.

"Kyle!"

Ollie grabbed his husband and tried shaking him for answers. The attempt was largely unsuccessful since the extremely solid man barely moved an inch, but the sentiment remained.

The adjutant considered the question for a moment before finally admitting, "I’m not quite sure."

"Huh? What do you mean you’re not sure?!" Ollie immediately asked, already biting at his nails like a man preparing for the worst.

"He didn’t exactly get the chance to react." Kyle rubbed his temple. "The only thing he managed to ask was whether we were actually married-married."

"Waaah! I knew it! I KNEW ITTTT!"

The blonde’s expression instantly crumpled as he dramatically flopped around.

"He hates me, doesn’t he?! But I swear I didn’t do it on purpose! I didn’t mean to forget to tell my siblings about it, but we’ve just been really busy!"

"Even snack time got downgraded into working snack time, so it’s not like I’m exaggerating!"

The blonde continued pacing, and by then even the silent sworn brother was concerned.

"Well, brother, I don’t think Owen would be mad at you." Luca immediately stepped in, looking surprisingly confident despite never having had biological siblings himself. "He’s such a nice kid! Besides, everything happened very suddenly. It’s not like you were trying to hide it from them."

"You think so?"

The golden-eyed only child nodded reassuringly.

Admittedly, his own experience only involved accidentally forgetting to inform his parents about life-changing developments rather than the siblings he didn’t really have, but he felt the underlying principle was similar enough.

Of course, this was also coming from someone completely oblivious to the fact that the Duke’s reaction couldn’t possibly be considered normal.

Then again, how else was anyone supposed to convince a son who could only ever see his father in the best possible light?

"..."

Meanwhile, Kyle, the person who actually spoke to the teen, finally finished explaining what had actually happened.

"He fainted."

"..."

"..."

Ollie stared.

"I called the office and asked someone to check on him, but yes, the reason I don’t know how he truly felt about it is because he tapped out before we reached that point." Kyle sighed before adding, "At the very least, he’s aware he’ll be taking time away from school to attend the licensure exam."

"HUHUHU! KYLEEEEE!"

The barnacle immediately attached itself to his husband.

Kyle accepted this development with the resignation of a man who actually legally signed up for this.

"Not just Owen, but your other siblings too. We’ll talk to them properly the soonest we can meet them," he said while patting the blonde’s head.

"Hopefully they like the apology gifts."

Unfortunately, those words nearly made Ollie choke.

See, the reason why Owen had not been made aware of the mecha that was supposed to get into his hands was due to several reasons.

Sure, there were defensive moves at play in this decision, but the biggest thing was because Ollie, the newly married mop, suddenly remembered that he needed to compensate for failing to inform his siblings about the massive change in his life.

The official ceremony would happen later, and they would all be invited to participate. He’d even thought about how nice it would be.

The problem was that he’d forgotten the step where he was supposed to tell them beforehand because this was still an important milestone.

Naturally, the realization hit him like a freight train.

And naturally, the mop immediately panicked.

That was how he ended up running to both his husband and sworn brother to ask how exactly one should apologize for accidentally forgetting to mention a massive life event.

Luca’s suggestion had been simple.

Apologize sincerely.

Bring peace offerings.

The issue was that Luca’s understanding of peace offerings and everyone else’s understanding of peace offerings appeared to be completely different concepts.

For the eldest siblings, always absorbed with work, there would be custom room furnishings crafted from the best materials gathered inside the dungeon space.

For Otis, there would be crates of rare ingredients and usable research materials that would’ve been nearly impossible to obtain otherwise.

And for Owen?

Well.

There was the mecha.

The one-of-a-kind mecha.

Initially, the suggestion shocked almost everyone present. But the more they thought about it, the more it seemed to solve multiple problems at once. Not only would it give Ollie a sincere reason for building the mecha, but it would also neatly address several concerns surrounding the licensure exam itself.

And sincere was perhaps an understatement.

Because at some point, Killian Nox happened to pass through the workshop and found the mechanics hard at work. After observing the project for a while, he eventually asked whether the mecha was being designed with a particular enemy in mind.

The reaction was immediate.

"No! Of course not!"

"This is my apology to Owen!"

"Well, not this one," Ollie hurriedly corrected. "This is the trial unit! The one I build during the exam will be the actual gift!"

Hearing that, Killian slowly turned toward the partially completed machine standing inside the workshop.

Then he very carefully reconsidered his next words.

"I see."

The Chief of Staff nodded.

"Well, if that’s the case, then I think it’s a very good representation of the sun. It’s very... unique."

"Really?!"

Both Luca and Ollie immediately looked at him with sparkling eyes.

The sort of eyes that clearly expected further elaboration.

Unfortunately, Killian was also aware of two other pairs of eyes.

Specifically, the ones attached to the towering idiots standing behind the mechanics who were currently staring at him as though his continued survival depended entirely on his next sentence.

"Yeah," Killian said after weighing his options. "Really. I can feel a lot of emotions from it."

The answer seemed acceptable.

The two short mechanics immediately brightened and began celebrating the compliment while Killian focused very hard on not looking at the two men behind them.

Honestly, he felt that had gone rather well.

At this point, he couldn’t possibly lose every battle in life, right?