509 Insecurities
The figure of Rias which wasn’t at all as one would expect from a teen – tall, firm and strangely assertive – moved with a sort of rigidness that unsettled most.
This boy had a sharp presence, as if knives were exhaled with his every breath and from every one of his pores.
As Rearren had alluded to, the Houses were very secretive, mostly stuck in the tradition that they only had to show when things went wrong.
As such, nothing much was known about the Houses. Perhaps some minor details about their techniques and some of their customs which had been documented in history books but those questionable and insufficient bursts of detail left much to be desired.
The name of the EverSword House technique was known though.
The Imagining Technique.
Very few knew how it worked but everyone would imagine it transcended all the crazy stuff the Families could pull off.
Rias didn’t make an attempt to socialise as he simply poured himself a drink and strolled around, appraising everyone he saw.
A distance from him, someone else was doing the same.
Aurolio was shivering as he sat on his table, his eyes roaming about with a calm, purple glow.
Surprisingly, in his sight, everyone he could see had strands of green flowing from their bodies, some rising up to even touch the ceiling above. There were variations in amounts and even the shade of green, but pretty much the results left him cursing the cold and his dumb luck.
“Fuck, its cold! I can’t find whoever this person is supposed to be. Maybe I’m overthinking. Maybe that’s not what that old bastard meant. Could he have wanted to tell me I would meet a special, regular combatant instead?” Aurolio questioned.
“I doubt it. He isn’t exactly astute in speech but I doubt he would lead you off that badly. Gender? Maybe. But not this,” Idline said as she maintained her straight sitting posture, her eyes also appraising everyone here. “None of them have any unique traits, classes or names though. Perhaps this individual didn’t attend?”
Aurolio furrowed his brow.
The green glow he could see right now, was life energy.
Some had outrageous amounts of it, somewhat correlating to their strength while some had limited amounts of it. Curses, illnesses and sometimes even unique techniques caused such variations.
“Tsk. No Void type. Definitely no Undeath type either… I hate this.”
On the other side of clustered attendants, Skullius was looking over Yuyui as she elegantly stuffed her face. She looked very happy while eating, her face contorting in ways that made the Hybrid Luman wonder where her mind belonged exactly. Mature or childish.
“Hurry up. We’ll have to leave soon. My time is almost up for the day,” Skullius said to the green haired girl who nodded without turning her head.
Surprisingly, Silrat had already gone to start mixing and mingling with the crowd.
Apparently, this was a perfect place to gather information, as they had talked about before.
Setkh was also doing some mingling but for completely different reasons. Flirty reasons.
Skullius noted his position in the crowd, monitoring how he was behaving and turned to Stylla who was seated as he and Yuyui were, looking disinterestedly into the chatty crowds.
“What’s the deal with your brother? We haven’t gotten to talking about that,” Skullius asked.
Stylla glanced at him before twisting her lips and lazily raising a glass.
“He’s an idiot whoremonger. An entitled one who thinks the past is the past and all can easily be forgiven,” she said.
“Must’ve done something really terrible for you to hate him that much,” Skullius said.
“Terrible is an understatement. He’s the prodigal son who even when he abandoned the Family, leaving me to tend to the tragedy of father’s incident alone, was welcomed with open arms when he returned. I got no such privileges unfortunately. Apparently, running the Family from a young age in father’s stead didn’t count as deserving to inherit the Family. We still have to fight for it,” Stylla said with calm but broken tone, her eyes sinking into her wine.
“…I see,” Skullius said. He couldn’t relate unfortunately but he could see that there was a heavy burden on Stylla and a deep grudge that she didn’t bring up nearly as much as one would expect.
p、A,nd A-n、o、ve,1 “Oh my dear. I pity you,” a voice sounded from behind Stylla.
The redhead turned to see a lady who looked her age but was clearly older, her presence having a texture akin to liquid as it brushed against her.
She had pink hair and vibrant downturned purple eyes that in this moment showed pity. Her oval face with high cheekbones that made it look like she was about to smile every time anyone looked at her, made her visage addictive to gaze at but…
Her chest…
“Do you mind if I sit?” the lady asked Stylla who nodded.
After taking a seat, this lady introduced herself with a radiant, borderline comical smile.
“My name is Maxim Flatbed. Pardon me for eavesdropping but.. I have a similar history with my brothers so, you know? My mind quickly picked up on your story. Silly me,” the lady named Maxim said with a flurry of hand gestures and giggles that made Stylla smile.
“It’s no problem at all. I appreciate anyone who can understand,” the redhead said. “I’m Stylla Bryne and this is—”
Stylla was cut off as she was gesturing to Skullius across from her, Maxim’s face suddenly turning ugly with fury, a jagged, dagger-like frown appearing on her face as she pointed at the Hybrid Luman.
“THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT?! YOU OGLING MY CHEST?! YEAH? YEAH?! WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT, HUH?!”
Maxim exploded with a bunch of questions all directed at Skullius without room for answering them all save for one!
Her other hand which had been placed on the table burst with mana that rapidly covered everything over it – food, drinks, decor – and…
ZWAAAAP!
With a strange noise, the table and its contents all turned… flat.
PWA!
The table which had been standing on a single leg that branched at the base, turned into something akin to a large disk, or rather a glossy picture of a cloth-covered table with food, drinks and vases that then fell to the floor!
Skullius frowned.
He had pulled Yuyui away at the first sight of aggression.
This flow of mana caught him off guard though. It was extremely complex, culminating into something as strange as… this.
The yelling and noise drew much attention.
Frankly, it wasn’t that outlandish to find conflict at gatherings like this but people were a bit surprised nonetheless.
Maxim still glared at Skullius, looking to be completely oblivious to everything else around her.
Stylla hurriedly chimed in as she pieced what was wrong together quickly.
“Uhm, hey Maxim. It’s just a misunderstanding. Festos wasn’t ogling. He’s actually blind,” she said, making sure to choose her words carefully.
Thankfully, Maxim heeded Stylla’s words and checked Skullius’ eyes. She blinked a few times before smiling innocently as her murderous intent vanished.
“Oh! I’m so sorry about that, hahaha. I misunderstood the situation completely. That would have been soo embarrassing. Thank goodness you’re blind ahahaha,” Maxim said in a cheery voice.
‘Riiight…’ Skullius thought.
Thank goodness indeed.