Chapter 82 - Mistakes (Patreon)

The next few hours passed in a blur. Once the adrenaline began to fade, Arien felt completely drained. His legs felt like lead, and he kept falling several steps behind the others on the way back to the manor.

Greg and Harik supported Matt under the shoulders. He had regained consciousness after a few minutes without any major injuries, though he was clearly weakened. As for Ellie and Missy, neither seemed particularly interested in helping Arien, so he simply gritted his teeth and trudged along at the back of the group.

A hot shower and the dinner delivered to his rooms finally helped him recover some of his strength.

Having been lodged in the guest wing of the manor three days earlier, he had finally realized why the estate had to be so enormous. Despite being merely one of Reyna's classmates, he had been given an apartment consisting of a spacious bedroom, a small entrance hall, a sitting room furnished with sofas, armchairs, and a surprisingly well-stocked bookshelf, as well as a bathroom with magnificent heated marble floors. He wondered what the chambers reserved for truly prestigious guests looked like.

Now that he could think calmly, the entire affair seemed even stranger.

His earlier conclusion that Ramsy was simply insane no longer made much sense. Reyna probably would have warned them if her brother were genuinely unstable, and more importantly, Arien had never actually been in mortal danger.

That did not make him forgive Ramsy, but the pattern was difficult to ignore. If the man had wanted him dead, Arien would have been ashes before he managed to raise his first Shield. Instead, every attack had given him enough time to react without carrying enough force to overwhelm his defenses.

Ramsy had been testing him. 

Arien still had no idea why, or whether Matt had been part of the same test. He remembered Matt’s reaction after they explained what had happened while he was unconscious. The initial anger had quickly given way to humiliation once he realized how easily Ramsy had dealt with him. Arien knew him well enough to understand how badly that would sting.

Looking back, the fight seemed far more controlled than it had felt at the time. Ramsy had barely moved, used only one spell at a time, and repeatedly given Arien enough time to respond. At moments, it almost seemed as though he had wanted Arien to fight back.

Was it connected to Arien rejecting Reyna’s offer? Did she know?

Probably not. Her fury in the clearing had looked real, and Arien doubted even Reyna was that good an actress.

Perhaps it was some conflict within the Voltorey family, an attempt to frighten away her friends or potential allies. That still did not explain the testing.

A soft knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.

Wrapped in a bathrobe, Arien was lying on a sofa buried beneath soft cushions. If he had not been determined to make sense of the day, he probably would have fallen asleep already.

“Come in,” he called without moving. He was technically injured after a difficult battle. Resting seemed entirely justified.

“Hey, Arien.”

Reyna stood uncertainly in the doorway, pale and exhausted, with dark circles beneath reddened eyes. More unsettling than any of that was the hesitation in her expression. Reyna was rarely hesitant about anything.

“Hey, Rey, come in. Why are you just standing there?” he asked, sitting up.

“I don’t know if you even want to see me.”

“As long as I don’t see a Fiery Whip wrapped around you, I don’t see a problem.”

A faint smile appeared on her face. “I’m glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor.” She walked over and sat beside him. “I came to apologize. I’m—”

“Did you tell your brother to attack me?”

“Of course not!” She jumped to her feet.

“Then you have nothing to apologize for.” Arien motioned for her to sit again.

After a moment, she did.

“Rey, I’ve had some time to think about everything. Earlier, it felt like I was fighting for my life, but now...” He studied her. “Your brother was testing me, wasn’t he?”

“Yes. I don’t know why. Truly. Naturally, he won’t admit it. He claims he was peacefully meditating when you barged in without showing proper respect. Then you supposedly reached for magic, and he merely gave you a gentle reprimand because you were guests of our House.”

“That... what the...” Arien stared at her. “That isn’t what happened at all.”

“I know. I’ve already spoken with Matt and Ellie.”

“How’s Matt?”

Reyna took a moment before answering. “Furious. He understands what happened, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to repair my friendship with him after what my brother did.”

She fell silent, then looked at Arien with the same uncertainty she had shown when she entered the room.

“If you mean us, nothing has changed,” Arien said. “Well, maybe one thing. Next time you invite me somewhere, make sure your brother isn’t nearby. He’s exhausting.”

Reyna snorted with laughter, and some color finally returned to her face. “Thank you, Arien. For everything.”

She stayed for nearly another hour. They talked about the fight until neither of them had much more to say, then moved on to lighter subjects. By the time Arien’s eyes began closing on their own, Reyna laughed, escorted him to the bedroom, and ordered him to sleep.

He drifted off the moment his head touched the mattress.

Reyna lay awake late into the night, going over the day again and again.

She had spent years at the Academy accounting for people who might interfere with her plans, yet on her own family’s estate she had failed to consider the most obvious threat of all: her family. Ramsy had probably cost her Matt’s trust, and he could easily have cost her Arien as well.

What stupidity. What naivety. And she had thought herself so intelligent.

She should have realized something was wrong the moment her father appeared at the estate without warning, followed shortly afterward by Ramsy.

Damn it, Ramsy!

She still could not decide why he had done it. Perhaps he wanted to prove that he could reach her even here, or remind her that she should never assume she was safe simply because she was on familiar ground.

His expression afterward bothered her most. While she shouted at him, he had simply stood there smiling, perfectly aware of how angry he was making her.

She had wanted to strangle him.

Unfortunately, Ramsy was nearly thirty, an accomplished mage, and a veteran of missions Reyna knew almost nothing about. He disappeared for months at a time on Portal raids, conflicts with rival Factions, and assignments abroad, usually returning even stronger than before.

Arien had been right that Ramsy had controlled the fight from beginning to end. He had also been wrong to think that meant he was safe. Ramsy could have killed him and suffered little more than political inconvenience. House Voltorey would have called it a training accident, paid the appropriate fines and compensation, and moved on.

Even killing Matt would not have been enough to seriously endanger their House. He was the son of a general, but the Stonewalls lacked the political backing to challenge a family like the Voltoreys.

Thankfully, killing them had never seemed to be the point.

The question was what Ramsy had actually wanted, and whether the idea had been his at all. Her older brother rarely did anything significant without her father’s approval or direct orders.

That was what kept Reyna awake.

They were gathered in the family hall of the manor, a room whose size and decoration reflected the wealth of House Voltorey despite how rarely it was used. Her father preferred his personal study, protected against eavesdropping, divination, and nearly every other form of espionage imaginable.

He sat on a velvet-cushioned chair atop a shallow dais. Behind him hung enormous green-and-burgundy banners bearing the fox of House Voltorey surrounded by hunting eagles. Their family history stretched back to the Empire of Three Suns, granting them the status of an Old House, something no amount of wealth or influence could ever buy for newer nobility.

It also ensured they would never lack enemies.

Ramsy stood beside their father, dressed as always in black. At least the mocking smile was gone.

“Father,” Reyna began cautiously. “I wanted to—”

“Rey, Rey, Rey...” Serig said. “Whatever am I going to do with you? I let you play your little games, hoping you’d learn something, yet you remain the same naive little girl.”

“Father—”

“Silence.”

The word wiped away half the arguments she had prepared.

“Today I will teach you a lesson that Sammy unfortunately failed to understand.”

At the sound of her older brother’s name, Reyna’s stomach tightened. She glanced toward Ramsy and saw his fists clench.

Five years later, Sammy’s betrayal still shaped almost everything their family did.

“I allowed you to recruit several people from the Academy whom you considered useful. Yet even in that, you failed. However, the fact that you continued your acquaintance with those boys forced us to take more radical measures. Ramsy?”

“The first boy, Matthew Stonewall, son of Reiherd Stonewall,” her brother began. “Two Aspects, currently fifteenth in the year. As far as magical talent is concerned, average. When I attacked him, he managed to block my spell, but the impact from the shattered Shield threw him into a tree and rendered him unconscious, preventing further testing. Nevertheless, judging by the Academy reports, he shows promise as a combat mage, especially if he joins the army. As for connections: minor nobility, and an influential father known as a brilliant strategist. Worth recruiting. However, Reyna never made him an offer.”

“I was waiting for the right moment,” she interjected, barely containing her anger. Now, Matt would probably never agree to enter the service of their House.

“We do not wait for the right moments. We create them,” her brother said coldly. “The second boy. Arien Terryson, son of Terry Lowson. Three Aspects, including Life. Currently fifth in the year. In terms of magical talent, high. After witnessing the attack on Matt, he was better prepared. He managed to stop successive attacks as I gradually increased their strength. Furthermore, despite the sudden violence of the situation, he did not break down and devised a plan, which he then proceeded to implement.”

“A plan?” she asked in surprise. When Arien had spoken about the fight, he claimed he had barely managed to defend himself.

“Yes. Of course, it was rather naive, but against an enemy several levels lower, it might have worked. He tried to set the forest around himself on fire while making it appear accidental, so that he could later withdraw under its cover, probably together with Matt. I suspect that if your bodyguard had not intervened, he would have cast a fairly large Earth Wall and attempted to escape at that moment. As I said, a naive plan, but executed under unfavorable circumstances and using simple spells.”

Ramsy paused before continuing, which was unusual enough to make Reyna pay closer attention.

“There is one more thing, Father. I did not include it in yesterday’s report, as I was not certain.”

“Yes?” Serig asked, giving his son a curious look.

“I think he is hiding his level. I am not accustomed to fighting opponents that weak, but I ran the calculations this morning, and it seems to me that he had between one and a half to two times more mana than would be normal for someone his age. The number of spells he cast and the cost of maintaining Mana Shield... Yes. Either he has put all his points into Intellect, or his level is much higher”

Reyna stared at her brother in disbelief. Was this another trick? Or had he truly discovered something she had failed to notice for all these years?

“That is interesting. If it is true, then all the more reason we must destroy him,” her father said in the same tone one might use to comment on the weather.

“Yes. It’s obvious,” Ramsy agreed. “He shows promise as a mage. He has no significant connections, but in this case, that is even better, it means we would have to provide him with fewer resources. However, Reyna failed in this regard as well, and he rejected the contract offer. If we cannot have him, it would be safer to arrange for his expulsion from the Academy... or his death.”

“No!” Reyna shouted. “Arien is my project, and I will not let you take him away from me!”

He was also her friend, though she would never admit that here. She had barely admitted it to herself. Trusting people had already cost their family enough.

“Of course, my dear daughter,” her father said sweetly. “But we shall see whether you say the same thing after I meet him myself.”

Reyna finally understood what he intended.

“I have heard that Arien enjoys comfort, and judging by the amount of food he has consumed while staying with us, I suspect he would not turn down a small gift to help him begin his life in the capital.”

Serig’s eyes gleamed with amusement.

“What do you think? Will he choose you... or the fortune and advancement that money can buy?”

Hey! Thanks so much for all your support here. Because of you, I’ve been able to take on less work lately, which means I’m now spending around 10 hours a day writing new chapters and editing the end of Arc 3.