Book 1: Chapter 79: Lots of Bite and Not a Lot of Bark
"So, uh, Duke Malik. What's he like?" Lone asked. "I've only read about him and know that he's incredibly nationalistic."
"He's a speciesist to the core, a bigot, an egotistical maniac, oh, and a bloodthirsty demon when it comes to mages not affiliated with Milindo's nobility or royalty," Gilbert answered with a frown before he turned and smiled. "So a pretty nice guy, in all honesty."
His sarcasm wasn't lost on Lone. "Surely that can't be allowed, right? Killing mages indiscriminately? Especially ones from The Adventurer's Guild."
Gilbert sighed. "Look, Son. Nothing's black and white. I can't protect every mage with a plate if they just disappear in the dead of night. I have power, but not enough to start breathing down the neck of one of the kingdom's four dukes. Need I remind you that all of the dukes are, like me, SS-rankers?"
That upset Lone surprisingly more than he thought it would have. "I see... If he tries anything with me or Sophie, I'm going to try my best to melt his brains out of his ears, eyes, nose and mouth."
Gilbert's feet stopped moving as he turned to stare at Lone. A massive sigh escaped his lips. "I swear on the Primals, this racial ability to detect all lies? Worthless piece of junk I wish I was never born with."
He put a hand on Lone's shoulder and said, "Son, if that grumpy old git tries to pressure either of you, I'll stake my job on stopping him. Gravity magic isn't as directly powerful as lightning magic - what he has mastery over - but I can just as easily use it from here to flatten his entire estate. He won't try anything, not with me around. He doesn't have a lie detector either, so feel free to talk circles around him if you can. I don't want to help him with his investigation into the magical disturbance you caused just as much as you."
Lone smiled softly. "Haha, thanks. It's, uh, it's good to know you have my back."
Gilbert chuckled. "That's what old people who have reached the apex of their potential are meant for, right? Guiding the young and helping them stumble onto their own paths?"
Lone squinted his eyes. 'But... you're a beastkin. Beastkin are immune to ageing, aren't they? In the face of an eternity, a few hundred years old is pretty young... I mean, look at Soph...'
The two quickly found the kitchen and Sophie who had just started making some soup for Lone. She wasn't best pleased about having to meet a powerful noble, but she agreed nonetheless.
Not a few minutes later they were all sat behind a table in one of the guild's soundproof inspection rooms, simply waiting for Duke Malik to enter.
"Is there anything we should expect?" Lone asked Gilbert.
The White Dragonkin stroked his goatee in thought. "I've only met Duke Malik a handful of times. I suppose expect extreme prejudice, anger, demands, and maybe even death threats. Don't worry, I will protect you both. Don't give in to his pressure."
Sophie crossed her arms over her chest. "As if a petty man with little-to-no justification can frighten us."
Lone nodded. "I agree with you, but let's try to stay civil, yeah? This guy is specifically the reason we aren't skipping town right this second. I'd rather play the game by his rules and get him out of our hair for good."
Sophie shrugged. "You are the one with Persuasion, not us. However, if he presses us for anything, we will not lie down and accept it like a coward."
Gilbert smiled wryly. "Sophie, do you mind pretending to be blind again? It isn't public knowledge that you can see now, and honestly, I'd rather not leave any clues for Duke Malik to piece together Lone's excessive usage of MP from a few days ago."
"We do not mind, no. If it will help, fine. We shall keep our eyes closed," Sophie answered.
"Great. He's here, by the way. I can feel him walking over the wood of the guild's front lobby," Gilbert casually announced.
"You can... feel him?" Lone asked in awe.
Gilbert nodded a bit smugly. "Yes, I can. It's a nature magic thing. A passive skill that took me four decades to master."
Sophie frowned. "We can sense him too. His mana is very... chaotic and crackly. It's a deep and dark shade of blue, though there are currents of green hidden deep within him."
"Lightning magic, maybe?" Lone theorised.
Gilbert sighed. "Of course. She can see magic and determine what kind, exactly, a person can use by what she sees. Why am I not surprised?"
Lone looked a bit sheepish at that comment but Sophie was exuding a sense of pride more than anything else.
Gilbert shook his head and rubbed his glabella. "Well, let me start things off. He's brought two of his retainers. A shame, neither seems to be his daughter. She's a reasonable girl. I'd have liked to have her here for this unofficial hearing."
Another sigh escaped the dragonkin's lips as the door to the room was opened and three ornately dressed men entered.
Each one exuded a certain magnificence that made one want to bow their head and act humbly in front of them. The centremost figure cast his cold eyes over Lone briefly, only stopping to note his usually large amount of tails before settling his sight on Sophie.
"Ah, the criminal is present to answer for her crimes. Very good," the duke stated as the ends of his lips curled up in both mirth and anger.
Suddenly, an explosive aura burst forth from Gilbert. It didn't directly touch nor affect Lone and Sophie but the two of them felt it and it - combined with Duke Malik and his retainers' domineering auras - made them pale and break out into a light sweat.
"Henry, I would appreciate it if you showed me some respect. This is my home and it is official property of The Adventurer's Guild, not the Kingdom of Milindo. Rescind your aura. You're an SS-ranker, for Primal's sake. It's childish to use your power to suppress two E-rankers," Gilbert said in a very professional yet threatening tone.
Henry Malik didn't back off, in fact, if anything, he made his aura even more volatile.
Lone knew that auras of strength couldn't actually hurt people, even mortals that had yet to advance past I-rank, but what they did do was a damn good job of scaring the shit out of someone or making all of their skin crawl and cover them in a bath of their own sweat.
'Crackly and fierce, unrelenting, even. Gilbert's is soft and stern, durable and unbreaking... This is crazy! Is that what Soph sees with her Mana Sensing 24-7?' Lone was beyond curious about such a mystical occurrence.
Unlike Lone who was awestruck with fascination or Sophie who looked peeved but unsurprised, Gilbert was furious. 'Don't want to show me respect? Fine, Human! Two can play that game!'
"I didn't know that the king openly allowed traitors to the crown to mascarade as dukes," Gilbert said in a very unimpressed tone. "To so openly show hostility to the leader and representative of the local branch of The Adventurer's Guild is akin to spitting in Divine Persistence's face. Now, of course, since you represent His Majesty, he surely knows about your attitude today. I assume you're fine with me issuing an official complaint to the crown as well as giving a full report of this to Divine Persistence herself, no?"
'Divine Persistence?' Lone thought questioningly. 'Is that Grand Guildmaster Sarah's title? Divines have titles? That's news to me... Wonder who gives them and what they mean?'
Duke Malik narrowed his eyes dangerously but Gilbert didn't back down for even a second. Sighing deeply, the large and intimidating man rescinded his aura. "Very well. Consider your false threat successful."
Gilbert grinned smugly. It was rare to get a leg up over the dukes since they were, like him, all SS-rankers. "Lovely. With that out of the way," he said as he reined in his own aura, "feel free to start your interview."
He made sure to note that it was, indeed, an interview, not an interrogation.
Not wasting any time since he abhorred being in the presence of a free demi who was also a free mage to boot, Duke Malik cast his gaze on Sophie.
"You have some gall to threaten my daughter's life. What country are you from? I've heard of your claim to nobility and let the Primals be damned if I won't get an official apology from your family," Duke Malik said in a very powerful and unamused tone.
Gilbert raised an eyebrow. 'Oho? Interesting. I thought he'd demand she mutilate herself or something similar since he's such a brute. This is unexpectedly tactful.'
Sophie, still with her eyes closed, moved her head to have it directly facing Duke Malik's. "Inform a lowly duke from a backwater kingdom of our origin while performing the traditional coming of age ceremony where relying on one's family bar our slave is forbidden? You think highly of yourself, Fool."
Rage was visibly surfacing on the duke and his attendants' faces, but Sophie didn't give him pause to speak. "No, we think we shall not tell you anything. Your daughter was associating with the dregs of your little noble society, an arrogant boy by the name of Bastion Griffset. He had so rudely participated in an illegal dealing involving our slave who had been kidnapped. Must you seek someone out for justice, seek out that ingrate or perhaps his failure of a parent, Margrave Griffset, not us."
Gilbert both wanted to laugh and cry. Laugh because she'd made a fool out of Henry Malik, cry because she'd, well, made a fool out of Henry Malik, the kingdom's most powerful duke and military general.
'What's Sophie playing at?' Lone wondered. 'Making this prick our enemy ruins the whole point of me not running away early, doesn't it? For all we know he could put us on some hitlist and kill us the second we leave the city when the tournament's over...'
Lone knew Sophie, and if she was one thing, it wasn't stupid. He figured that she must have some sort of reasoning behind antagonising the duke, so he didn't bother stepping in, letting her handle the mess she had so willingly created herself.
"How dare you speak to me like th-"
"No, how dare you speak to us like that!" Sophie stood up and scowled at the man while keeping her eyes closed. "A measly SS-ranker thinks he has the weight of a Primal, does he? Temper yourself before you get yourself killed. If you have nothing constructive to say, then leave us. I feel tainted just by being near your presence."
Duke Malik had never been so insulted in all of his life before. Him being belittled like this was equivalent to Sophie belittling the kingdom in his eyes.
He calmed his seething anger to see the bigger picture. Enraged he was, a fool he was not. 'She very well may have the backing to speak like that to me. Such confidence can't be born from thin air... With The Academy's new radical political movements we can't afford even more enemies breathing down our necks... Emma is alive and if anything, perhaps the threat to her life helped even out her willful personality.'
He took another deep breath then put a hand on his neck to hold himself back. "An apology will suffice given that you're but a child."
Sophie scoffed. "We apologise for not being a hypocrite like yourself."
"I beg your pardon?" The duke had just tried his best to smooth things over which was beyond rare for him only for the girl to proverbially spit in his face. Were it not for Gilbert's presence he might have just killed her on the spot, damned be the consequences.
"Begging? An apt action for one such as yourself." Sophie sat down again and folded her arms over her lacking chest very gracefully then said, "Swear an oath to the Primals right now that had your daughter been kidnapped and about to be purchased by a foolish nobody noble, that you would not kill him where he stood."
Swearing by the Primals wasn't something to be done lightly. Many people used the Primals lightly as an expression, of course, but an official declaration in their name would immediately be detected by the church and punishment would be meted out to those lying in the name of their gods.
Sophie saw Henry Malik's silence and laughed in his face. "Hypocrisy, as we said. Admonish us for our behaviour when, and only when, you truly stand on the high ground of justice."
Gilbert was struggling to not cackle up a storm in amusement. It was the best that he could do to secretly hold his stomach under the table to avoid his whole body trembling like a leaf from his deep desire to laugh like a madman.
Lone smiled internally. 'Ah, I get it now. Sophie, you're a lot more vicious than you look, which is fuckin' tougher than it sounds. At least we have important information now...'
Whatever that 'important information' may be, Lone would surely discuss it with Sophie after this interview was over. After all, it could be critical to ensuring their safe departure from Milindo after the tourney's end.
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