Born From A Divine Gamble

She found him fidgety but did not let him leave sooner for it. Aside from that, things got along just as usual. She got depressed, or rather dejected when he told her about his grandfather but that was the worst he got from her.

He had told her that it went well since Aminui didn"t remove his head from his shoulders right away and he even managed to not tell him about his mother. Those were all good things, he didn"t understand why Blackbull reacted so negatively to them.

At least the temperature had cooled down since the previous day so the meeting was more bearable.

Finally, the talk came to an end after Blackbull went through everything in minute detail and encouraged him to follow the old man"s wants and give a serious chance to the knight Kaisla.

"There is absolutely nothing for you to loose in this apart from his help if you don"t at least try to hear him out. I feel like I should not have to tell you this but he"s the elder of your house, usually, family members listen to what their elders say."

Emp only gave some vague answer and left as soon as he was set free.
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He didn"t have anything against Kaisla but he didn"t have anything for her either. He just didn"t know her. From what he saw the other day, she was talented but awkward with other people, she seemed to be friendly but at the same time, she was a sore looser. That was everything he could say about her. He thought his grandfather was being way too hasty, he didn"t even know Emp properly yet either but already wanted to tie him to someone else.

In any case, whatever the old man said, Emp could not comply to his request because of his promise to Mable. For once he was glad that the promise existed, that way he had a valid excuse to put everything off to later. All those things were too bothersome and time consuming anyway, he wanted to focus on his studies and training instead.

The time for training finally came later and Emp eagerly walked onto the field to join up with Aminui and Kaisla. He carried Celtine on his shoulder because after the other day, he judged that there should be no big problem doing so. He received a confused frown from them both and put her down delicately at his grandfather side. She gave the two of them a respectful bow right away, placing a foot far forward to stop herself from falling over and brought her attention back to Emp in case he needed her for anything. She did her very best to not feel intimidated by the old man who made at least twice her height. She didn"t want to recoil embarra.s.singly like yesterday, she wanted to show her own strength.

"Do you always carry her around like that?" Aminui asked.

"I do, she might be the person that knows me best, I like to keep her close. She"s with me almost all the time and because of her condition, it"s easier to carry her around on my shoulder."

"Her condition?" Asked Kaisla, puzzled while she scanned Celtine thoroughly once more with her emerald eyes.

Her intense study resembled how most people stared at their opponent before a spar.

"She"s from the winged tribe. She"s maimed." Aminui put it bluntly.

"Oh..." Kaisla immediately lost all trace of animosity and returned to normal.

"I"m deeply sorry. I jumped to conclusion too early. I hope that we can get along and that you might help me figure out what sort of person my, I mean lord Muracier"s grandson is."

She tripped at the end of her sentence there but did as if nothing happened.

Celtine decided to spare her for now and simply nodded in agreement.

"So you want her to stay with us while I teach you?" Aminui asked.

"It"s fine isn"t it? Kaisla is here too."

"Yeah but she"s part of the family."

"That"s something you decided on your own, I don"t know her. If she"s part of your family then Celtine is part of mine." Emp answered casually.

While he talked, he s.h.i.+elded his eyes from the sun and looked up at the high walls of the school and the many balconies he could see from down there. On one of them far up, he saw the figure of the lovely Mable with a piece of cake waving her arm towards him. He did the same with a smile, he felt soothed by that simple action of hers.

Kaisla didn"t say a thing about his comment herself and just kept her lips tightly sealed. Emp had no idea what was going on in her head. She was clearly troubled but he didn"t know whether it was him, his grandfather or both that unsettled her.

Aminui just let out a short sigh and turned his eyes upward to see what he was waving at.

"Her again, do you know her name?"

"If you mean her family name then no." Emp answered.

"What"s your relations.h.i.+p with her, you seemed very close yesterday and she"s been persistent about you."

Emp decided to answer clearly, that way he"d be able to talk about the promise he made to her without it sounding too awkwardly out of place.

"The glowing hair ornament she wore yesterday, it"s the confirmation I gave her."

Kaisla was the first to react, almost jumping a good foot in the air from the surprise.

"What! That girl is your wife!"

"Of course not Kaisla. First of all, its impossible and second of all, he"d have said so instead of speaking about a confirmation." His grandfather calmed her down with his usual face. He didn"t even flinch when Emp said that.

"You"re right." Emp confirmed. "I really love her but her father seems to be a difficult person and since she doesn"t know my name either we"re stuck. Then I got married with Calla and she got really upset that someone cut in front of her and had me promise a bunch of things to her including giving her the confirmation before she made the offering of Holia and promising to not accept any other offering before hers."

That last one had the brows of the old man sink.

"You shouldn"t have promised that, it"s not right and immoral. What if she dies or simply never gives it to you? You"ll be barred from receiving anymore for the rest of your life."

"Why would you go so far young lord? You don"t even know the name of each other!" Kaisla asked in a fl.u.s.ter.

"We love each other, it has nothing to do with our names at all."

"It has nothing to do with your names but you"re not willing to tell her? That seems contradictory to me."

The eyes of the old man bore holes into Emp who made an embarra.s.sed smile.

"She seemed to really want to keep that name secret. I didn"t want her to feel pressured to tell me because I shared mine, so I didn"t."

"That"s not a full truth and also a flimsy reason. You should tell your name in full to young miss Mable, that"s a strong advice from your elder. You"re all going to end up in trouble if you don"t say anything. You might regret it later on."

Emp made a grimace of unwillingness. Celtine was used to that sort of struggle from Emp so when Kaisla took a look at her for more information, she just shrugged in a way that said "It can"t be helped". Everyone kept waiting in silence until Emp finally agreed to give a proper answer.

"She dislike that name so much, to be honest, I"m afraid of how she might react when she hears it. I"d like to postpone that reaction as much as possible."

That answer seemed to amuse Kaisla just like how a kitten or Mable would amuse Aglaya. In reverse, Aminui was very displeased. Emp couldn"t see it on his face but he could feel it.

"That"s just a lie by omission."

Emp groaned in complaint.

"I understand it"s bad and I do feel bad about hiding things but I"d still rather wait for her to tell me hers. Our name is just too big, whenever someone learns my name, they start acting weird."

His grandfather placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. It was a gesture that only Marcy gave him usually.

"Not everyone. That"s why people like us need women with thick heads and strong hearts." The old man said while poking his forehead and chest with a finger. "People like Kaisla here or that girl Brenia I met yesterday, that sort doesn"t care and keep b.u.t.ting heads with us no matter what. That"s why I said that delicate is no good at first. I do admit however that the one up there probably does have a thick head and a strong heart in her own way, even if that promise bothers me a lot."

Emp understood that from his point of view, that promise was terrible. Being cursed to never lie, a Muracier promising something like that was thereafter at the complete mercy of the other party. That promise had not been made with a way out in mind, If Mable simply changed her mind, Emp would be forever stuck with only Calla as wife. That in itself wasn"t bad because he obviously loved Calla for a world"s worth but it would mean that he"d be unable to ever accept Harriett"s love for example.

Emp wasn"t nervous in the least about it however.

"Don"t be worried over that promise, all I have to do now is to kill a bunch of big crabs and take the t.i.tle of great general. I"m sure it will be enough to convince her father I"m good enough for her."

"Is that why you want the t.i.tle of great general?"

"No, I want it because I"m unwilling to trust anyone else with the lives of everyone I know." Emp answered flatly. "It just so happen to have this other advantage too."

"That"s a better answer." Aminui nodded before changing the subject again. "Before we start, is there really no one here who knows who you are? None of them guessed your name?"

"Two of them did." Emp admitted. "Aglaya who"s always with Mable is the first, she promised to not say anything. I believe she also knows Mable"s name."

"I see... Who"s the second one?"

"Juniper, the girl who tried to sell you gla.s.s yesterday."

"Really? That makes her actions much more interesting. I thought she was just a bit too bold but it turns out that she just believed you"d help her if she got in trouble. I wonder what she really wanted to achieve.

In any case, training first. We"ll do the same exercises as yesterday and then we"ll start for real. Do them faster this time, the rest aren"t here to slow the process down this time. Kaisla too."

Emp did what he was told and after a while, he was back again in front of his grandfather. It did take less time than the previous day but the amount of exercises was still enough to consume a sizable part of his day. While he was doing that, Aminui held a lengthy conversation with Celtine who remained neutral throughout. He didn"t feel overly curious about what Cetline was writing for the old man and didn"t ask about it after he was done with the exercises because he wanted to quickly move on to the next part.

He was more than happy to finally be done and ready to hear his grandfather talk about what secrets the Muraciers kept. Kaisla sat down in the dirt next to them to take a breather after the series of exhausting exercises while Emp ignored his own fatigue.

What followed was very instructive for him. Aminui explained in detail what their family traditions were all about. Where houses like the Hastings relied on a single powerful technique or self magic like the royal sword dance to impose themselves, the Muraciers instead used a wide collection of them.

"The point isn"t to have the strongest most perfect technique possible, the goal is to know as many of them as possible and be able to apply them each at the right time. The Muraciers are strong because of our instinct and our understanding of battle, we know when to use what to be effective and we have all the tools at the ready."

It turned out that Emp wasn"t the only one to carry around dozens of weapons of all types, Aminui had his own bottomless bag filled with tools of war. His bag was not a truly bottomless one, it just had a twenty meters cube s.p.a.ce inside, but it was still serving the same purpose.

Going back to martial techniques and self-magic, the Muraciers had for goal to learn them all and absorb them all in a unified fighting style merging all of it as seamlessly as possible. Every small or simple technique had its place and it was only once combined with the whole that it found its true use and power. That was how the Muraciers worked since the start. Over the lifespan of the empire, they combined and collected tricks from more houses and warriors than there were n.o.bles currently living in it.

Like the elder circle of mage in Thronewoods for magic, the Muraciers collected any and all self-magics and techniques in order to store them for studies and for the benefit of future generations. Everything was recorded neatly in books, studied and improved for the benefit of the house and the empire as a whole.

Over the years, the Muraciers would bring in strong deserving warriors and teach them appropriate techniques from the library. The whole was the strength of their house but the individual parts were meant to be spread for the greater good and hopefully come back a few generations later with some improvements or additions.

The task of learning each of them was simply colossal but no Muracier from the main house ever s.h.i.+ed away from the duty. Emp was no different, in fact, he couldn"t help but smile in eagerness once presented with this.

Learning every technique individually wasn"t the hard part however, the Muraciers were usually pretty quick to learn martial arts. The hard part was to juggle each of those into a coherent whole and use them effectively in battle. Like spell casters, they could know hundreds of techniques or movements but only talented people would manage to use more than a handful regularly. Most would be tempted to pick one or two and stick with them as they matched their idea of strong.

The true Muracier style required extreme talent, memory skills and speed to take on any situation, see every possible outcome and apply the most effective ability on the spot. Obviously, that was true of any fighting style but this one was different by the sheer volume of possibility. The pool from which they chose their every action and reaction was far too vast for most to be able to make an effective use of it.

Every Muracier mastered hundreds of attacks, defenses and styles but each came to their own conclusion on what could be used when. It was an ever changing way of fighting with no other ceiling than the ability of the user to a.s.similate new moves and when to properly use them. With that said, some were much more effective than others in this endless pursuit.

The more talented they were, the less often you"d see the same movement twice in a fight. From his words, Aminui had not used the same move in a real fight twice in thirty years. In comparison, Chijou, before his death, usually cycled through all his moves in about two fights and started repeating them afterwards.

The major advantage of this whole thing was that their opponents could never get used to how they moved because it changed all the time. It was impossible for them to predict what could come next because the possibilities were almost endless. Setting a trap for a parry became unwise, waiting for a precise opening nonsensical and even setting their own pace practically undoable.

This could get really powerful in a very different way than something like the royal sword dance. The dance was all encompa.s.sing and very powerful on its own while the Muracier combined everything meticulously to create something greater. The sword dance might be unbeatable at a certain stage when compared to any other single ability but it was uncertain which might come on top when opposed to everything at once. In addition, in the future, the sword dance itself might become a part of the Muracier"s collection.

To reach a level able to contend against something as strong as the sword dance, one had to start from a much more simple beginning. One needed to start learning all those techniques one at a time and spend countless hours to master them and fuse them all in his mind.

"Lets start with a defensive one like the unimpacted wall." Aminui told him after his long explanation. "After you master that one, I"ll add an offensive one and then a self magic and we"ll return with a defensive one. The defensive ones should always have higher learning priority, first because they keep you alive and second, because if you get in trouble, they"ll buy you some precious seconds to think about what comes next."

Emp nodded in understanding. That seemed like a sound argument to him. Anyway, the end goal was to help and protect those around him so learning more about protecting made a lot of sense.

Aminui kept talking as he took position a bit further away. He took a stance were he dug his feet deeply into the ground and leaned forward as if he was to receive an impact. However, he made a point of keeping his arms to the side rather than bringing them in front of him to protect his torso.

"I"ll show you what the unimpacted wall is all about. This one was made by someone from a branch of ours a long time ago. Pick up one of those big sandbags and throw it towards me as strongly as you can please."

That was one of the training exercises but Emp still narrowed his eyes questioningly. Even though he didn"t seem muscular, he knew that he was rather strong. He wondered if he might injure his grandfather with that.

"I know you"re strong already, trust me, just do as you"re told." The old man insisted.

Since both him and Kaisla didn"t seem to think this was dangerous, he picked up one of the sandbags. Those things weighted about fifteen kilo each, they weren"t that heavy, at least for Emp. They had a good size however and it was hard to get a good grip on them. He balanced it into his hand and prepared to throw it like a big ball.

The old man gave him the signal and the bag was thrown at high speed with a full motion of his body. It flew in a straight line and impacted the unprotected chest of the old man to produce a sound like iron hitting a buried rock.

The bag wasn"t ruptured by the impact and the old man didn"t move at all, he wasn"t forced back and didn"t dig new trenches in the field with his feet. If not for that one special thing, Emp would have been convinced he didn"t hit the old man at all. The only effect was that the dirt behind the heels of Aminui burst out as if it had been blasted away by a powerful explosive talisman. It flew out in every direction and rained everywhere in crumbling patches and tiny pieces leaving large holes just behind each feet of the old man. It was as if Emp had decided to strike the earth with his hammer, he did not understand what had just happened.

"That was one good throw, look at all that dirt." The old man commented, clearly unaffected by the impact.

Seeing his confused face, Kaisla started laughing reservedly, hiding her mouth with a hand.

"You see, the trick of that technique is to let the impact go through you and into the ground instead. I didn"t feel it much because I sent it to the ground instead. The strength of every impact will just pa.s.s me through without damage with this ability. A blade would still cut into me but hammers like yours would be almost useless against this, if taken from the front and not in the air of course."

"What? But how does that even work?"

Emp was pretty sure that such a thing should be impossible without the use of magic.

"Come here, I"ll show you how it happens and how to do it yourself. The unimpacted wall is always a good beginning choice, it opens up your mind."

After that, not only did the old man teach Emp about that crazy unimpacted wall but he also showed him much more. The old man knew the whole history of that technique, who used it first, how he found it, how it works, what it was intended for, how it was improved over the years, how to practice and master it, when to use it effectively and so on.

Aminui then proceeded to show him some attack technique called "the honest feint", created by the fifth great general himself. That one was so ridiculously simple and crazy sounding that Emp had no doubt that it must have worked much more often than it should have. To put it simply, it was a simple attack pretending to be a feint. Every sign pointed towards it being a feint were it truly was an honest and straightforward attack. It took him around fifteen minutes to replicate it perfectly because of how simplistic it was.

Not everything was so simple though, he knew that some insanely complex techniques would come later, offensive or otherwise. For starters, just the self-magic Aminui decided to teach him first was leagues apart from the one he usually used. Contrary to its effects, the name was simple, "war blood". They had called it "war blood" because it was meant to put its user in a perfect state for war, that was it.

The thing had a complex mess of precise steps to go through in order to be activated, even Emp failed to make it work. He was sure he"d make it work eventually but it would take him much more than a day. Its effects were more than worth the efforts however.

The war blood would have his internal magu circulate through his veins and supercharge him with its power. It would make him faster, stronger, give him more endurance, improve his hearing and sight, dull the pain, make him more resistant to spells directed at him, ignore fatigue and increase the volume of his voice.

"No I"m not constantly using it. I have a naturally loud voice." Aminui answered his silent question.

According to the old man, the self magic had too many drawbacks to be activated for long periods of time. It would cause a monstrous hunger, high fevers, dehydration, intense muscular pain, sometimes it ruptured old scars again, gave dizziness, headaches and a momentary loss of voice. The severity of all those drawbacks would increase with the use time but even if they were willing to go through all that, usually, the internal magu ran out before it could become too extreme.

For the smaller self-magic Emp knew about, they consumed so little of the users magu that it would get regenerated as quickly as it was used and thus, could be used indefinitely. This one had an extreme consumption rate. According to the old man, even though he practiced its use for his whole life, he still could not use it for more than an hour.

Emp believed he"d do much worse that that. Like anything else, the proficiency in its use influenced many things about the technique. With practice, the benefit would be accentuated, the used magu would lessen and so the duration of that self magic would increase as well. Sadly, the strength of the drawbacks couldn"t be diminished and scaled upwards with the strength of the benefits instead.

Emp was still excited about it however. He was eager to see how much of an improvement it would be over his usual self. He wanted to know if the speed part would be as valuable as the common speed self magic. That was the most important part for him since the elixir covered the rest pretty well. Since it was such an impressive self-magic, he hoped it would be better but since it covered such a wide array of things, it might end up slightly weaker than more specialized self-magic. At the very least, he was certain there was no way it would be as good as the one the mouse used.

He worked hard that day and then the following days and weeks as well. whether it was sunny or raining he"d come out to meet his grandfather and Kaisla to learn new strange techniques like "Midi"s step", "The mountains false gambit", "Seal the lie" and the "Touch of the ancestors". Some were much harder than others to understand and reproduce, way more than anything he had learned so far. Some didn"t even make any sense like "Overturning truths" which turned defeat into victory with complex magic and a perfectly timed and insanely risky counter.

Kaisla would remain close as he was taught and practice along with him. Some techniques she already knew and some were brand new for her as well. The reason was simply that the old man liked to teach whatever he felt like in no clear or logical order.

She remained very polite with him and mostly focused on training like him. She took this whole thing very seriously and was proud of her own progress. From what Emp understood, she was mostly working hard to please Aminui instead of herself. She was a bit shy with him however because of what his grandfather was pus.h.i.+ng for and didn"t really know how to interact with him without embarra.s.sing herself.

She would speak very politely and as little as possible until something would catch her curiosity. Then, she"d start asking questions over questions on that and then other subjects his answers might bring. She was the most curious person Emp ever met. Even the small Leo who kept spying on everything wasn"t so curious. Kaisla needed to see and know everything to feel satisfied.

She asked a whole lot from Celtine too and was surprised to find that she got along very well with that cursed-blood. She had been biased against Celtine because of where she was raised but it didn"t take her long to start liking how diligent Celtine was.

Kaisla was the sort to like when everything was in order, properly organized and planned. Celtine was the perfect example of that as she kept track of everything Emp did, took notes on everything she heard and kept a proper schedule for him.

On top of that, even if Celtine was wary of her at first, she was a great source of information on Emp and was able to sate her curiosity more often than not.

Emp wasn"t surprised at all by how this turned out, Celtine was really hard to dislike after all. She was so careful with her words and had a kind core to her, the only reason to dislike her would be to hate her race or Emp.

Even though Celtine usually distrusted strong female warriors because of her past, Kaisla managed to slowly diminish Celtine"s wariness around her by applying the honest ways proper in Highsteel.

While all this was happening on Emp"s turn to train with Aminui, he wasn"t the only one to work hard.

Brenia was being taught a proper advanced axe wielding style called the "Fangs of dawn and dusk". Emp didn"t hear about all the specifics but he knew it had two major layers to it. The first was a set of techniques and movements designed to effectively wield two war axe at once. The second and much more complicated layer needed to make use of soul magic. The user would revert to using a single larger axe but each of his movements would be mirrored by a "ghost" version of the user.

If one struck downward, the ghost would strike upward in a perfect reflection, creating the illusion of a jaw closing in on the opponent. The same would happen from any other swing from any direction. The movements and techniques would be the same but the strength applied far greater because the whole body could be placed behind a single axe swing.

On top of that, Aminui also showed her some more tricks to get rid of an opponent sticking too close and what to do when an enemy reached inside the blind zone where the axe couldn"t be wielded properly and much more. Brenia didn"t manage to grasp the "Fangs of dawn and dusk" in full but she still got a whole lot of other tricks to work with. Emp was sure she"d one day be able to use the style in full but learning a soul magic was no joke, it took years of efforts for most knights according to Aminui.

The old man also taught some things to the boys who managed to finish the training routine, Noirantel managed to complete it in a month.

Cyril too worked hard. He had felt inspired by the speech the old man gave at the end of that trial on the day he arrived and since then, he did the imperial knights workout every single day. At first, he was far from the only one but over the days and weeks, Emp and many others saw from their balcony or the field itself that the amount of student diminished. Even though they had all felt motivated, most gave up because it wasn"t useful if they weren"t aiming to become an imperial knight. They all wanted Aminui"s teaching but most lacked the motivation to do this whole routine everyday. It took so much time after all, they had other studies and training to do and couldn"t spend all that precious time on this disproportionate amount of physical exercise.

Cyril did it anyway. He didn"t give up and it impressed Aminui. One day, he even came to see Cyril after he ran out of stamina and stopped for the day.

"Young man, I can see you improved. Keep this up." He told a beaming Cyril.

Cyril felt good to be recognized like that, proud that his efforts were acknowledged. It reinforced his conviction that he was on the right track. What Aminui said was true, even though the student still could not do all the exercises, he was improving slowly, reaching just a bit further every day. If anything, Cyril was determined to make his village proud, he"d do anything and go all out to perfect himself and show them that they had not paid this school in vain.

It was through all this intense training that yet another new year dawned upon them. This meant that they were already halfway through their third year of School.

Since the last time, he had married Calla, brought her to visit Bêtéclair and the school, met the Porter sisters, saved Galana, killed Sophus, turned blind for a while, made a second confirmation gift for Mable and trained harder than ever. He had not seen the time fly at all.

It was the third new year Emp lived since he came to the school and once more, he was dragged into some dances, only when approved by Mable of course.

Last time, he had to because she wanted to punish him but this time around, she just let a few of her friends have a turn whenever she felt tired of dancing. She let Brenia dance with him once because like last time, she had to even if she hated it, once with Nessa who danced with almost everyone and reluctantly, once with Kaisla.

She wasn"t a student but the old man insisted that she should dance too since she was of a similar age. He even asked Blackbull if she would like a dance with him for which he was glared at.

Blackbull liked to teach and watch dances but she didn"t feel like embarra.s.sing herself with her cane in front of the whole school.

Kaisla wasn"t the best dancer either and shared the thoughts of Brenia on the subject in many ways. She wasn"t as bad as her but still had to put all her mind into the dance and remained silent for the whole thing.

Emp danced a lot with Mable like last time and shared a very good time feasting with everyone.

Heida wasn"t as nagging since Aminui stepped into the school, she didn"t feel like the most important person here anymore and kept her behavior in check to not insult that high ranked visitor.

Gervaise kept being extremely frustrating for everyone however, convinced that she was right on everything she said, she didn"t fear Aminui at all. At the new year feast, she snickered and talked down on Josseline who was almost crying, not knowing what to do about finding herself a future husband. Apparently, her meetings with boys from other cla.s.ses didn"t work out well. She was starting to get desperate, Emp hoped she wouldn"t do anything crazy.

The rest were all in pretty good moods and many could see the end of their school years getting ever closer. Two and a third year at most before the cycle came to an end. The talks about what they"d do once they were done were getting more and more common. Emp didn"t answer to any of those talk properly but listened with interest to the others and shared their joy.

On the other hand, Mable flat out refused to talk about what would happen after the school cycle was over and complained that now was the time to have fun and enjoy themselves instead of talking about boring things.

He cheered her up with some pastry and she returned to her usual upbeat mood right away.

*-*-*-*

Two days after the arrival of Aminui at the n.o.ble imperial school.

"Hey old mud-trap, isn"t my grandson a bit strange?"

The two old man were talking in the office of the duke, the tone of the conversation was pretty casual. The old Jazay was munching on some crunchy salted meat as he talked.

"A bit strange how?"

"Well, he seems to like to keep secrets. That"s unusual, no? His taste in women is a bit off too"

"I be seein what ye spittin."

The old man scrunched up his face as he thought about his friend"s question properly.

"I be not sure but I think it may be cause of that soul thingy. The lad had two, scared me a whole lot, almost died."

"What? How is that even possible?"

Aminui was showing a rare surprised expression, so the duke took the time to enjoy it even though he knew he had just frightened his old friend.

"I dunno, ask the lad or the mage, Heinrich, he be the one who fixed yer lad."

"Right, I"ll do that right away then."

The duke giggled as he saw his friend get up and walk straight out of the room with his face returned to stone. He enjoyed watching junior panic and so he didn"t stop him as he left and simply waved with a slice of meat.

He was sure there was nothing wrong with the lad though. He had been a bit strange just after the events but he had returned to the usual calm of a Muracier. It was fine to have some different tastes than junior, it didn"t change who he was. As for the secret, it was probably just for the fact he had not been raised in Highsteel and suffered from the inexperience of youth. Aminui would understand soon enough, he too suffered from the inexperience of youth.

That thought made him laugh all the more, he really was old.