I AM A MAGE BUT WITH MILF SYSTEM

Chapter 689: Vanessa’s suspicion

Julian looked at his father steadily.

"If I had walked past it," he said, "the story in this castle by morning would be that Kraven came back and Liam’s men tested him in the main corridor and nothing happened. That story travels to Liam before the hour is out, and it tells him everything he needs to know about how to proceed." He paused. "I made a different story."

The Duke stared at him.

The silence stretched between them, and in it Julian could see his father processing all of this.

"This affects the balance," the Duke said finally. His voice had returned to its controlled tone, but it was heavy now. "Liam will use this. I don’t know how yet, but he will find the way and use it."

"Yes," Julian said. "He will try."

Another silence.

"I’ll handle it," Julian said.

The Duke stared at him, uncertainty clearly written across his face. He wasn’t sure how to respond, and in truth, he wasn’t even certain what was happening anymore. The events unfolding before him seemed to slip beyond his control.

He sat down at his desk and looked at the closed ledger on its surface.

Julian waited.

"Go," the Duke said quietly.

Julian turned and walked to the door.

He opened it, stepped outside, and pulled it closed behind him without hurrying.

**

Vanessa’s chambers were in the western wing, three corridors from Julian’s room.

She was standing at the window when the maid returned, her gaze fixed on the horizon as the sun slowly began setting for the night. The city took on a different character at night. It felt cold and distanced.

"You’ve heard," she said, her voice calm and without turning from the window.

"Yes, my lady," the maid replied.

Her name was Sera. She was in her mid-twenties and had served Vanessa faithfully for three years.

"By now, the whole castle has heard," she added quietly.

Vanessa turned from the window.

She walked over to the chair beside the small writing desk and settled into it. Her eyes fell on the candle burning steadily in its holder, the soft, flickering light casting shadows across the surface.

"Tell me what they’re saying," she said.

Sera recounted the whole story.

Vanessa listened to all of it without interrupting. The confrontation in the corridor, the man, the soldier, the outcome. The reactions of the men present. The way Julian had spoken afterward—one witness had described it as calm, another had used the word "cold."

When Sera finished speaking, Vanessa was quiet for a moment.

Her mind drifted back to the time she had first met Kraven outside his room—the way he answered her questions, the way he looked at her without the hidden motives that the Kraven she knew in the past always carried.

She thought of the party, of her brother’s behavior afterward.

Whoever had returned from Ezakael was not the same person who had been sent there. The exile had not merely changed Kraven; something far deeper was at work. And the thought of being unable to fully evaluate a presence that was sleeping just three corridors away from her—of not knowing what force she might be facing—was a reality Vanessa was not ready to accept.

She looked at Sera

"I need you to get close to him," she said.

Sera met her eyes and waited. She had been with Vanessa long enough to know that "close" rarely meant what it meant in conversation with her.

"How close, my lady," she said.

"As close as it takes," Vanessa said. Her voice carried no hesitation and no apology. "I need eyes on him when his guard is down and there is exactly one reliable way to get a man’s guard completely down. You know that as well as I do."

Sera was quiet for a moment.

"You want me in his bed," she said.

"I want you wherever he is most unguarded," Vanessa said. "If that’s his bed, then yes." She looked at the candle. "I need to see what’s underneath his mask."

"And if he doesn’t respond to the approach."

Vanessa’s expression didn’t shift. "He will."

"My lady, if he’s changed as fundamentally as—"

"He has changed," Vanessa said, cutting through it cleanly. "I’m not disputing that. But change doesn’t mean rebuilding from nothing. It means the same foundation with different walls. And Kraven’s foundation includes wanting women."

She looked at Sera directly.

"Every man operates from the same basic logic. No matter how strong their exterior is, they are the same within. When the approach is measured correctly and the person making it is attractive enough, the door opens. Every time."

Sera absorbed this.

"What am I listening for?" she said.

"Everything," Vanessa said. "But specifically—how he speaks about mother. Whether the obsession is still present or genuinely gone. "She paused. And I need to know how he speaks about me. When my name comes up, see what his body does. Whether it tightens or loosens. Whether his breathing changes. You will notice these things because you are good at noticing them."

"And if he doesn’t want to talk," Sera said.

Vanessa almost smiled.

"He will want to do other things first," she said. "The talking comes after. It always comes after. Give a man exactly what he wants and then lie in the dark beside him and say nothing and wait. They will speak."

Sera looked at her with the expression of someone deciding whether to say the thing they were thinking.

She said it. "And if what comes out is something you don’t want to hear."

Vanessa met her eyes.

"Then I want to hear it even more," she said flatly. "I am not doing this to confirm what I already believe. I am doing this because I do not know what he is, and I cannot afford not to know. The king arrives in days. Whatever Kraven has become, he will be in that room. He will be near the Crown Prince."

Sera absorbed the full weight of this.

"He may realize what I’m doing," she said.