"Head Guard Greg," a young, vibrant voice spoke right in the nick of ti, halting the head guard’s charging fist in place, re inches from Brock’s face.
In a mont of surprise, Greg’s face turned ashen before he quickly schooled his expression, turning sharply to the speaker. "Yound Master Riley," he bowed respectfully as a young man, whose eyes were trained solely on Althea, strode forward confidently.
The onlooking Arcanists who had been ready to butt into the escalating situation quickly scampered away, going about their business imdiately.
It seed that whoever this ’Riley’ guy was, wasn’t simple.
Finn didn’t drop his guard at all, instead, he raised it even further, ready to embody the Crimson Fist Baboon and even Syf at a mont’s notice if need be.
"You must be Althea Seneschal," the young man strode past Greg as if he wasn’t there, looking pointedly at Althea’s unique purple hair.
"And you must be Riley Amadeus. Heir of the Amadeus family," Althea said matter-of-factly. "You didn’t need to intervene. I had everything under control."
"Yes. I could tell. That was why I stopped Head guard Greg. It’s not a good thing to start off your tests with a precious Woodhaven resident losing an arm, no?" He chuckled, before stretching out a hand and clasping Althea’s. He bowed gentlemanly and placed a light kiss on the back of her hand, while she watched unimpressed, withdrawing her hand imdiately after he finished the formality.
"I had heard of your exotic beauty, but seeing it in person, I feel the rumors do not do you justice."
Bleh. Finn ntally rolled his eyes at the flowery words — the kind he was used to hearing as a noble himself. But as if Riley had actually sensed his ntal eye roll, he also glanced at Finn, acknowledging him curtly.
"Finnegan Slade," he nodded, "surprisingly you’re an Ossuarist now."
"Huh?" Finn frowned imdiately. "First, it’s Finn. No one calls Finnegan, not even my parents. And second, do I know you?"
"My apologies for not addressing you correctly," Riley pressed a hand to his chest to show his apologies. "And no, we haven’t previously t. But I have heard of you. As I should as a noble...?" He raised a brow in slight confusion as if questioning why Finn even ntioned it. "You haven’t heard of ?"
"Sorry. My knowledge of other noble families is limited only to my family’s direct neighbours," Finn shrugged. "I never paid much attention to anything beyond that."
But that was a lie. Finn knew exactly who Riley Amadeus was. Even if he didn’t know Riley himself, there was no way he was a noble couldn’t know of the Amadeus family.
They were also an Eastern region noble family, but because of the large region the east encompassed, the distance between the Amadeus family lands, and the Slade family lands was literally equivalent to countries apart. And besides this, the size difference between their lands was extrely vast.
In Aethelos, there were no classes or levels to nobles. To the Queen, all nobles were the sa: simply vassals helping to manage the affairs of Her rightful lands that would otherwise be difficult to manage alone.
But in reality, among the nobles, there were vast differences in grades. And on this unspeakable, unofficial grading tree, the Amadeus family was levels higher than the Slade family.
Finn knew that. But he didn’t want to be bothered with the subservient nonsense and excessive flowery formality that ca along with acknowledging Riley because of his family na. So he simply pretended not to have any clue whatsoever, posing as a noble who never took his studies seriously.
It wasn’t particularly far-fetched, as there truly were noble scions like those.
But pretending not to know Riley also ant he couldn’t ask a pressing question in his mind. But thankfully, Althea ca to the rescue.
"You’re a long way from your family’s domain, Young Master Riley," she said, turning her gaze to the Chaos Breach in the distance, "I’m guessing this breach must be very rewarding to draw you this far north."
Riley drew his gaze away from Finn, turning his attention to Althea with a smile. "While I concede I’m far away from the Eastern border, we are not so far north that you should be so surprised. Woodhaven is smack in the North East, no?"
Althea remained silent, waiting for Riley to actually answer the question she had posed rather than addressing the minor details.
Riley raised his hands up in mock surrender, chuckling as if caught, "But you’re right. This Chaos Breach truly is resourceful enough to draw out of my family’s jurisdiction. Case in point—" he paused and took a asured breath, before his eyes abruptly turned fierce.
He waved a hand straight at Head Guard Greg and chanted with a loud voice [Thunderbolt Lance!]
And in sync, a yellow lightning bolt streaked at the head guard in the blink of an eye, taking him by surprise. He was barely able to raise a hand in defense before he was struck backwards from the power of the bolt.
The sll of sizzling flesh spread across the open space rapidly, indicating that Greg had suffered an injury from the strike.
The passing Arcanists hushed to pin drop silence at the sudden attack at the head guard — soone they all knew very well, so even personally. But seeing who had stuck him, they dared not voice out any misgivings.
Greg’s hands dropped to his sides, and gritted his teeth at the sight of his arms. Their entire length had blackened over already, but despite that, he only hung his head low, doing nothing at all.
Riley dusted his hands then turned to Althea with a beaming smile. "See?"
If the way he had just treated his subordinate bothered Althea in any way, she didn’t show it at all. Her face was still unreadable as usual. She only narrowed her eyes slightly at the actual display Riley had wanted her to see.
"You’re a Grade 3 Adept Arcanist now..." she stated, rather than asked.
Imdiately Finn heard that, he perked up instantly. He had previously been put off by the way Riley had used Greg as a lab rat to show off his newfound power. But now those feelings beca secondary.
Grade 3 Adept?! How is that possible?!
One had to know that increasing in ranks as an Arcanist was way more difficult than it was for Ossuarists. At least within Finn’s experience. His mother and father were Arcanists, and he knew just how hard it was for them to progress.
His father, for example, had been a Grade 1 Master Arcanist for as long as he could rember. That was just one step above the Grade 3 Adept rank on the Arcanist side of progression. Though, that difference was greater than a single rank by leaps and bounds, as it was a progression from the Adept rank to the Master rank.
Many Arcanists never moved past that point. And even reaching Grade 3 Adept rank was a life goal for most. The Master rank on the other hand, was a whole other level of aspiration that many didn’t dare to dream of, let alone consider a goal.
Riley’s achievent was even crazier if Finn compared him to his mother. Finn’s mother was also a Grade 3 Adept Arcanist. Well established, yes. But still... She was a fully grown woman just past the pri of her life. The sa woman that had birthed him, and yet here was a guy not much older than he was, and he was already on the sa rank and grade as she was!
Riley smiled at Althea’s deduction from his display, basically assenting that her words were correct.
"Impressive," Althea nodded, turning her gaze straight at the Chaos Breach. "Now you’ve made curious. What kind of plane is behind that breach that could cause you to go from Grade 2 to 3 within the span of a few months?"
Riley chuckled before answering ’magnanimously,’ "Besides my natural talent and a few unique places in there, nothing else is spectacular about the plane..." he waved a hand dismissively, "In fact... I can show you into the plane for you to see for yourself."
That seed to take Althea off guard as she turned sharply to Riley in surprise.
From the look on her face, it was evident that she truly hadn’t expected Riley to offer that.
"While I would love to, I can’t go anywhere without my juniors," Althea said, watching Riley carefully.
And yet again, he surprised her.
"Well, I can extend the sa offer to them. They can all just see it as a field experience..."
Althea paused for a second again, glancing at Finn and the others as though asking if they were okay with it. But seeing the resolute, if not, eager look in their eyes, she turned to Riley and nodded curtly, "...Then, I will take you up on that offer."
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