~ Chapter 41: Decision ~

[Leonidas' point of view]

 “If I am not mistaken, then these two must be Baron Drakarys' children?” Mister Dejun asked.

“Yes, the boy's name is Leonidas and the girl's name is Cassandra.” father replied to him with a smile.

“It's a pleasure to meet you both.” he smiled and bowed his head in front of us.

“The pleasure is all ours.” we replied at the same time and bowed respectfully.

Mister Dejun introduced himself without a noble's title, so we understood that he was of commoner birth, however, even if our parents had no need to bow before him, the two of us, who were children, had to. He was a man in the position of a teacher, someone whom we were supposed to look at as we would a second parent. Or at least, this was what mother taught us.

“Oh my! How respectful!” said Mister Dejun with a smile.

We already made a good impression on him.

“Pardon me, but I do believe you finished your evaluation of my child?” the piglord butted in.

“Ah, of course! The boy holds potential. Only his manners are a bit lacking, and this fact came a bit as a surprise given who his esteemed father is.” the teacher showed the Earl a wry smile.

“Manners?” he blinked surprised.

“Yes... he asked us to bow to him before we started talking. There is no problem for me, but to ask this of Sir Damascus is a bit...” he looked at the knight next to him.

I noticed that Mister Dejun didn't use the honorific of 'Koser' or 'Arman' to address the man next to him, which meant that this Damascus fellow wasn't of noble blood. The first was in general used to address a married noble man, while the latter was used to address an unmarried noble man. For a woman, it was 'Madame' and 'Rias' respectively, while for noble children it was 'Alm' for the boy and 'Lady' for the girl. Mister and Miss were polite forms of addressing anyone, while Sir sometimes denoted Knights and other times a more friendly way of addressing a man.

“The boy doesn't seem to understand what a Knight is, let alone a Royal Knight.” the scary man pointed out.

“Indeed.” the teacher nodded “Then he kept bragging about how powerful and smart he was, going so far as to claim that he didn't need my teachings or to go to the Gallyater Royal Magic Academy.” he continued to speak in a calm tone of voice.

As an adult, Mister Dejun understood that there was no reason for him to get mad over a child's behavior as most of the times it resulted from their lack of understanding of how the world around them worked.

Earl Rupert Levias of Briston paled when he heard these words. After he bragged to us about how good the young boy was, reality gave him a hard slap over the cheek.

“I will... make sure to fix that behavior of his, but does... does this mean he won't be able to enter the academy?” he asked while still trying hard to keep a composed appearance, but his anger was clearly leaking out.

That kid's going to get a beating... I thought.

“He is too young to enter, and while his manners are by far not the best, he does hold the potential for a bright future. It's just that if you won't be able to correct this little flaw of his, he may have a hard time at the academy and may even end up pushed away by the other children around him. If I were to go by talent and strength alone, I would put him in the top 500, but this just means there may be over 400 children with far more talent than him there, and as you know, Earl Rupert Levias of Briston, some of them will come from far more powerful noble families than yours. Even if he was someone with such an outstanding talent that I would be forced to accept him in the academy right away, I'm afraid that his behavior would result into him making way too many enemies for his own good.” the teacher explained.

The Earl let out a sigh of relief, but at the same time, it appeared as though he understood what dangers laid in the future for his son if he didn't change his behavior. With a high and mighty attitude and no respect for anyone in a school for young geniuses, he was bound to end up marginalized by other children. Instead of making some important connections with powerful people, he would instead turn them into enemies, which in time could lead to the ruin of his family.

The most important thing for a noble was to make allies not enemies.

“I understand, thank you!” Earl Rupert Levias of Briston bowed to the teacher.

Wait! Wait! He bowed to a commoner?! I shouted in my mind.

The act of bowing, in general, signified respect and when done in front of the King, it meant loyalty. What the lord did now was to show his respect to a commoner. No doubt about it, this was a VERY rare sight to behold, but thanks to this gesture of his, the pig lord grew in my eyes as a human being.

“I will make sure to educate him properly!” the Earl declared.

Overreacting to his unusual gesture would have been seen as rude, so everyone pretended to act as though it was normal.

“Please do, if he learns how to behave properly, then he will have a bright future ahead of him.” Mister Dejun said and then he turned his gaze towards me and my little sister.

We froze as his expression turned to a serious one.

“Who holds three Blessings?” he asked.

“My daughter, Cassandra.” replied father.

“Is that so?” he rubbed his chin.

“T-Three?!” Earl Rupert Levias of Briston blinked surprised as he looked back at her.

Well, it was sort of a secret until now, and only the higher ups in the Church knew about it. For this Earl to find out through other means would have been impossible.

“And the boy?” he turned his gaze towards me.

“Only one.” father replied.

“Such a shame, but one is good as well.” he said with a sad look in his eyes.

He ticked me off for some reason.

“Brother is strong even with one Blessings! Don't look down on him!” my sweet lovable little sister defended me.

Just knowing you have my back is enough for me, Cassandra! I thought.

“He may be now, but once you can properly use your Blessings, three will mean more than one from all points of view.” he explained.

Aunty said something similar as well, but those kids don't have a powerful telekinetic ability or regenerative ability, so it's definitely my win! I thought, but I had no desire to let them know about them... yet.

“We will confirm these three Blessings at the local church and then we will head back to the capital. Yes, in two days we should be ready to depart! This way, we will avoid the upcoming storm.” the teacher declared.

My parents were at a loss of words, and my little sister wasn't too happy about it either, but we were told this might happen. Ever since we found out about her three Blessings, we knew this day would come... and yet, I didn't like it...

No... something is off... I thought as alarms began to sound in my mind.

No one said a thing, but the knight... he was the only one smiling.

No... No... I thought and then I opened my mouth and shouted as loud as I could: “NO!”

A small wave of telekinetic power was released, and everyone's clothes fluttered as if touched by a gentle breeze.

It was accidental because if I wanted to, I could have tossed everyone around me out the window or smashed them on the floor. However, it was doubtful they took this burst of power as something of telekinetic origins, they probably saw it more as an uncontrolled wave of Magic Energy.

“Pardon?” the teacher asked after a moment of surprise.

“No! I won't let you take away my little sister with you! At least not today or in the next two days!” I retorted.

“Why, may I ask?” the knight was the one who posed the question.

I glared at him.

“Because I don't like you! I don't mind if she goes with Mister Dejun, but not you! There's something wrong about you... I don't like it... No, I definitely know you are a very bad man!” I declared glaring and pointing my finger at him.

“What?” the man looked at me with big eyes.

He definitely wasn't expecting me to say something as absurd as this. But with this declaration, I definitely caught the attention of everyone in the room.