by Cloe D Frost
The pale argel who didn’t look much older than Kiel snorted derisively again. “Yes. It would be helpful if you got lost from my sight. Your face is disturbing my studying. And besides, if you think that last minute studying would let you ace the written exams, you are dreaming.”
A surge of anger rolled through Kiel’s veins, he wasn’t in the good mood to begin with. He simply didn’t have the patience to deal with this! He often complained how his face was more trouble than it is worth, but this was simply ridiculous! I did nothing to provoke you, and you have the gall to tell me to get lost?! Who do you think you are?!
Judging from blond’s arrogant behavior and stiff demeanor, it was likely that he had a high social position. Although his clothes weren’t flashy and eye-grabbing, they were obviously expensive. Since it wasn’t strange for nobles to choose a discrete outfit when trying to keep a low profile, it wouldn’t be strange if this man was a noble.
Even if you are a noble, what do you think of me as?! Chopped liver?
Yet, even though Kiel was fuming inside, besides the slight chill permeating his aura, his face was still as blank as before. He blinked twice as if trying to make sense of the situation before replying:
“If you find my face unpleasant to the eye, that is your problem, and you should solve it by yourself. There are plenty of vacant seats at other tables. Also, thank you for your concern. However, my exam performance has nothing to do with you.” In other words: why don’t you mind your own business and take your stuck up mug elsewhere?
The man snarled, glaring icy daggers at Kiel. “I was here first and was enjoying a relaxing read before you showed up. Naturally, you should be the one to move.
As for your exam performance…” The man chuckled darkly. “I am taking the exams too, and I find your behavior insulting. Thinking that you are guaranteed a spot? That you are the most talented person who doesn’t need to work hard? Muni isn’t a place that welcomes slackers! Don’t think lightly of thousands of people who shed sweat and blood for a chance to enter Muni!”
Slacker? Doesn’t work hard? Idiot! I am obviously in the category of those shedding sweat and blood! You think you can just take a glance at someone and know what kind of person they are?!
Under the hateful barrage of words, Kiel showed no sign of agitation. However, deep under his skin, his blood started to boil. What he hated the most was when people thought they knew him, that they understood his true self.
His pale blue eyes met the dark eyes of the argel. In an amiable voice, Kiel spoke out: “This library isn’t your private property where you can decide who gets lost. Everyone has an equal right to be here. If something or someone in this place irks you, just go elsewhere.
Also, I am revising the needed knowledge for the exams, while you are reading a completely unrelated book. Aren’t you the one who is taking it lightly?”
Boom! Take that buttcracker! You think I am a little meep you can bully as you please? Dream on!
The man stared at Kiel dumbfounded for a few seconds before he regained his composure, his face turning unsightlier by the second. “What a treacherous tongue of a zissk! Too bad your mouth can’t be used to ace the exam! Morally deprived people like you will sooner or later get divine retribution!”
Invisible sparks were flying everywhere. The tension in the air was thick causing a chill in the surroundings. People around them stopped reading and turned their eyes towards the two.
Kiel stared at the blond for several seconds before letting a chuckle escape him. You can’t win with reason so you are spouting out baseless accusations? With so little firepower you dare to pick a fight with me? You think my name as a Rroda is just for show? Funny, you are just too funny!
The argel’s face darkened, through gritted teeth, he spoke: “Do you find my words funny?”
Kiel smiled politely yet the next words he said were anything but polite. “Everything you said since opening your mouth has been humorous. Could it be that you weren’t trying to be funny?”
blond’s eyes widened and in a fit of rage he got up from his seat, making his chair cause a loud scraping noise that attracted the gazes of everyone in the reading section of the library. “You!”
Kiel didn’t even let him regain his composure before opening his smiling mouth once again to land another hit. “Is this your first time in a public library?”
The man snorted in anger, not realizing that that question was a trap. “Of course not, unlike some slackers, I am diligent in my studies!”
Kiel’s eyes flashed with mirth for a moment, before he feigned innocent confusion. “Oh. I assumed it was your first time since you don’t know the basic rules of conduct in a public library.” With his thumb, he pointed backward, to the large sign: “No loud noises. Keep quiet.”
The blond’s previously pale face reddened, his eyes narrowed into slits. If a look could kill, Kiel would have been dead 10 times over. His body shook with fury, finding it difficult to speak. He chuckled sarcastically. “Good! Very good! You Rrodas sure know how to flap your mouth!”
Kiel’s eyes slightly narrowed. So you know I am a Rroda? And yet you are picking a fight?
He quickly inspected the clothes of the man once again, not noticing any family crests that could explain his origins. The colors of his hair and eyes were common so he couldn’t use it to guess his origins either. However, clearly, since he dared to offend a Rroda, he had someone powerful backing him up.
Before inciting an all-out war, it would be better to find out who he’s offending. “Did my family somehow offend you?”
The blond ground his teeth, his eyes flashing dangerously. “Offend?” He chuckled angrily again. “Tell me, is there anyone who Rhur Rroda didn’t offend?!”
Kiel’s face blanked, and his body froze as if struck by lightning.
Rhur Rroda. The future head of Rroda family. The number one heartthrob of the noble ladies. The famous ladies’ man of the younger generation. The bane of Kiel’s existence. His older brother.
Kiel lamented internally. If Rhur pissed him off previously it is no wonder he got angry seeing my face. Me and Rhur look too much alike.
Perhaps he had jumped on the warmount too quickly?
After several seconds of silence, Kiel sighed dejectedly. “What did he do this time? Don’t tell me he stole your girlfriend?”
The fury flickering in the argel’s eyes erupted as he heard the question. The blood rushed to his face, dying his cheeks completely pink. The pink blush made the handsome blond appear somewhat cute, his cold countenance nowhere to be seen.
“No!!” The man defended himself, his glasses slipping down to the base of his nose, almost falling off.
Your beet red face says otherwise. Kiel scratched the back of his head. No wonder he is so pissed. He must have come to read in peace and quiet when suddenly, a Rhur Rroda lookalike appeared to haunt him and remind him of his greatest humiliation.
The anger and annoyance Kiel felt towards the unknown blond, transferred to Rhur. First, there were Rhur’s friends, and now even his enemies are going out of their way to bother Kiel! Freaking Rhur! It is always you. Future successor or not, one day I’ll have my revenge! Just you wait.
Meanwhile, the pressure spread to envelop the entire seating area, people who weren’t mages found it hard to breathe. Kiel’s eyebrow twitched. An enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? I should try to salvage the situation. If he finds out that I am not like Rhur and in fact are not on good terms with him, there is a chance that this enemy before me would turn into an ally.
Kiel exhaled and tried to remove any signs of hostility, looking apologetic and amiable. “I apologize for the inappropriate behavior of Rhur Rroda. I hope you won’t blame the entire Rroda family for the hot-blooded actions of a family junior. We in no way approve of his behavior.”
Kiel noticed that the tension in the air was starting to dissipate, the rage of the blond slowly simmering down. Success! Pleased with himself, Kiel continued with his di
plomatic approach:
“I implore you to show the dignity and grace of a noble and view the uncomfortable situation from a higher vantage point:
Many unfortunate individuals don’t even know that their girlfriend has been unfaithful. A fickle woman easily swayed by my brother’s sweet words isn’t worthy of your affection. Such women don’t make a good wife or girlfriend material.”
As Kiel finished with his sweet worded attempt to salvage the situation he was surprised to find the face of the blond suddenly turn completely red and entirely livid. The man’s hands were shaking in fury, steam almost coming out of his ears. His tidily combed hair wasn’t as neat as initially, strands started curling with sweat and sticking out. He suddenly erupted with mana, the sudden increase of density causing his glasses to crack.
“It was my sister you nincompoop!!!” The blond let out a quivering shriek that caused everyone in the reading section of the library to look towards them.
Keil’s mouth twitched, and his eyes widened. Is this “shooting oneself in the foot with an arrow”? No! What arrow? This was clearly a cannonball! There was simply nothing of the foot left to walk away on!
* * *
Author Note:
This episode is dedicated to another hero to join Aethernea’s hall of fame: Dominik Scharf
Dominik, thank you so much for supporting Aethernea!
P.S. I know exactly what you guys are thinking: I wanna meet Rhur soooo bad!
Don’t worry. It’ll happen. ;) And it will be so glorious. So glorious that I can barely wait to share it with you.
Coming up in the next episode:
The sudden ear-splitting wail startled the cloaked figure, and they almost lost the balance, but he quickly stabilized himself.
He clutched his heart, breathing in deep heavy breaths. His eyes were still wide as if he had just seen a ghost.
“Good thing the room is sound proofed…” The cloaked figure murmured.
The fatty inspected the ring, his eyes glittering as he saw the black layer under the platinum. “Is this kirine?”
Episode 50 – Weaving Guide for Dummies
Episode 50 – Weaving Guide for Dummies
Previously:
Elaru leaves Kiel to attend to her own matters. Kiel has a conflict with a blonde noble who has something against Kiel’s older brother Rhur.
* * *
The center district of Ashar was full of cafes, shops and public institutions, such as the Ashar Public Library. It had very few residential houses which weren’t too large. However, their prices were exorbitant.
Among those residential houses was an odd one with luxurious insides that could even be called tacky. Inside the house, a peculiar looking elibu waddled down the gaudy corridor illuminated by the glow of crystals.
The man was almost wider than he was tall, making him look like a giant multicolored ball. His exact age was difficult to determine because his inflated face had no wrinkles to be seen. From his attire and attitude, he would appear to be middle-aged, but his plump round face made him look childishly cute.
His garments were vividly colored, even the countless jewelry he wore had multicolored gems, seemingly without any kind of color coordination.
The man took slow steps and sighed tiredly several times before he finally reached the door to his bedchamber.
He was finally done with his work. Now he could relax and get some well-deserved rest. He would read a few books, order something good to eat, and perhaps even take a hot bath filled with sweet smelling bubbles.
The thought of food…and bubbles…but mostly food…made his mouth reveal a satisfied smile that stayed on his face for some time.
When he opened the door to his bedchamber, what greeted him inside was a complete and utter darkness. The night had already fallen, and there were no lit lamps in his room.
His house might not look like much from the outside, but it was actually pretty high class, with many enchantments and magical arrays. Thus he didn’t need mundane lamps, all he had to do was rotate a switch next to the door and the entire room would be enveloped in crystal light.
The man proceeded to do just that, after entering his room and closing the door, his meaty fingers found the switch and he quickly rotated it, aligning the magical array and activating the illumination spell.
When the crystals shined down from the ceiling, bathing every corner of the room in bright light, his gaze instantly landed on a black figure that stood out like a sore thumb in the vividly colored room.
The figure, dressed in a black cloak, was balancing on a chair with their feet up on the small coffee table. While balancing, the figure was whirling a small dagger like a toy, tossing it up and down, and catching it by the handle each time without exception.
When the fatty’s eyes landed on the figure, they almost popped out of their sockets. The shock gave his heart a jolt, and he let out a high pitched scream that sounded more like a shriek of a porkling getting slaughtered than a scream of a man.
The sudden ear-splitting wail startled the cloaked figure, and they almost lost their balance. After quickly stabilizing themselves, with all chair legs on the ground, they caught the dagger flawlessly and let out an exclamation of surprise: “What the…?! Why are you screaming??”
Dressed as an assassin! Concealing your presence! Twirling the murder weapon in your hand! Waiting for me in my bedroom to slit my throat in the darkness of a night! What do you mean why?! Who wouldn’t scream!?
The fat man recognized the voice, but he didn’t respond right away. He clutched his heart, breathing in deep heavy breaths. His eyes were still as wide as if he had just seen a ghost.
“Good thing the room is sound proofed…” The cloaked figure murmured. Otherwise, the scream would attract every servant in the house…
The fatty finally regained his wits and spoke out with raspy breaths. “Stop…doing…that! Do you want to give me a heart attack?!”
The cloaked person shook their head in exasperation and sighed. “Goddas…you are so feeble…”
The fatty, whose name seemed to be Goddas, finally calmed down enough to wobble towards the cloaked person, slumping down on the chair opposite of them dispiritedly.
“What do you want this time?” The fatty whined. The gaze of the cloaked figure caused his hair to stand on end. The hood of the cloak cast shadows over the person’s face so the fatty couldn’t actually see the cloaked man’s eyes.
Not just the eyes, his other facial features couldn’t be seen clearly either. The pudgy man didn’t even know if the cloaked person was an argel or an elibu. The only reason why he thought the person to be a man was because of the deep, husky voice and tall stature.
After staring at Goddas for several seconds, the figure produced an elegant looking platinum ring and tossed it towards him. Goddas caught the ring with some difficulty and then inspected it on the palm of his hand.
“I need you to enchant this ring for me.” The cloaked man elaborated.
The fatty’s eyes glittered as he saw the black layer under the platinum. “Is this kirine?”
Kirine was an extremely precious mineral with strange mana resistance properties. As long as the mana inside kirine didn’t reach a set threshold, kirine acted as if it didn’t have any mana resistance, allowing all mana to pass through it unimpeded. However, once the amount of mana inside of it reached the threshold, its properties would suddenly shift.
Kirine would become extremely resistant to all outside mana making it near impossible for mana to enter. However, mana already inside kirine would still enjoy zero resistance and could move in and out of kirine unimpeded.
This “selective mana resistance” of kirine had far too many wonderful applications such as protecting enchantments from attempts of breaking them. Once an enchantment was cast on kirine and the flip threshold was reached, no one would be able to cause damage to the enchantment without breaking the chunk of kirine. And of course, enchanters would include a strengthening spell
inside the enchantment that would make it exceedingly difficult to break the chunk of kirine.
Unfortunately, the sparse quantities of kirine available made it so it couldn’t be used in large artifacts such as weapons and armor, for even a small pearl of kirine was considered an incredible fortune.
The cloaked figure nodded, confirming the fatty’s speculation.
“Damn, you are always so extravagant.” Goddas whistled with a mix of thrill and envy.
The cloaked figure snorted and motioned his hands towards their lavishly decorated surroundings. “You are calling me extravagant?”
The fatty ignored the statement and instead extended his palm towards the cloaked figure. “What spell do you want me to enchant it with?”
Without further ado, the cloaked figure produced a long and thick scroll.
When the fatty unraveled the scroll, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
The longer he stared at the pattern, the darker his face became.
“Are you joking?!” Goddas slammed his fat hand filled with rings down on the coffee table. “This…this is…simply absurd!!”
The cloaked person didn’t respond.
“This pattern is too dense, too complicated, too long! It’ll take ages to figure out how to cast it!”
Fatty glared at the cloaked person. Sure. He owed the cloaked man a favor. But that favor would definitely not cover a long research on how to successfully weave such a leviathan.
The cloaked person was unperturbed. He suddenly produced a stack of papers which were morphed together at the corner. “That’s why I brought you my tips and tricks on how to cast it successfully.”
Goddas stared at the man dumbfounded for several seconds, before lowering his gaze to the stack of papers.
As he read the title written on the first paper, his mouth started twitching, his face falling.