Unmotivated Deity

The last two families that had yet to approach the manor were the Knowles family and the Mason family. Currently the children of those two families were facing each other and talking in raised voices, if that could be used to describe what had quickly devolved into a yelling match that may be better suited for a pair of toddlers.

On one side was dark skinned young man with an athletic build, light brown eyes, and wavy black hair. His arms were muscular for his age and his torso was thin but seemed to be packed with power. He wore light brown full leather armor and had a bow on his back and a side quiver hanging from his belt filled with arrows. On the front of his armor was what appeared to be a painting of a black crow with its wings spread and head raised to the sky. He was currently yelling at the girl across from him with a mischievous smile on his lips, about something that Jien had not quite caught. Having just exited the carriage were a domineering looking man with broad shoulders, firm jaw and what should have been a calm and aloof demeanor. To his side was a beautiful woman of slender and well balanced proportions, blemishless dark skin, darker brown eyes and a matching curly dark brown hair that had reached to her shoulders.

On the other side of the yelling match was a girl who was shorter, had tan skin, playful dark blue eyes that almost could be mistaken for being fully black in color and long dark brown hair that reached her shoulder blades. The tips of her hair had been colored a bright yellow and Jien suspected that this was done via some alchemical formula that he did not know. She wore a light blue blouse covered by a more stylized steel breastplate that had a wolfs head smithed onto its front. Her skirt was long and of a royal blue with silver accenting and a pair of short swords hung at her hips. She would have looked quite pretty if she wasn't striking a commanding pose with her finger pointed at the boy and yelling back at him.

To the girl's back were a pair of adults, the male being tall but as thin as a rail while the woman was shorter and of a slightly broader build. Both had tan skin though it appeared to be more due to being outdoors consistently than being their natural skin color, though perhaps a bit hard to tell for sure. They wore matching light blue attire, the man wearing a simple suit and tie while the woman wore a long flowing dress.

The adults would all have looked wonderful and refined if they weren't on the verge of blushing due to their children's behavior. It almost looked like they wanted to either pick up their children and get back into their carriages to leave before things became more embarrassing. Or perhaps the look was more like they wished that they could just dig a hole and hide from the embarrassment, Jien was having a hard time reading their emotional state by watching them struggling not to cover their faces with their hands.

At a certain point the man with the domineering physique stepped forward and cleared his throat in such a loud manner that one would have thought he had a boulder stuck in it. This was enough to get the younger man's attention and after looking his father in the eyes he immediately went silent as if he understood that one more toe out of line would mean something terrifying would occur. This in turn led the young lady to laugh at the boy's misfortune until her mother walked into her view with crossed arms and a look that could kill.

It was only then that the pair of children turned from each other and looked in the direction of Jien and his father who were trying their best to look calm despite their slightly twitching lips. Jien could already feel a headache coming on when it came to these two. Rosalind had been boisterous sure, but at least she had not been raring to start an argument the moment she met the others. Out of all the children he had met so far he was most inclined toward Barret Romero due to his quiet nature. He didn't have anything against Bernard Bell either, the boy seemed polite and he was sure that he could enjoy peaceful moments in his company.

Both families made their way forward to introduce themselves at the same time. The children were Lesley Knowles and Olivia Mason. They knew each other from living in close proximity, their lands together being about the size of any of the the other noble family's alone. Unlike the others from the three other noble families, they spent much of their time training together, sparring with each other and had grown up knowing each other from birth. Their families were also very close, having been wed to each other in several instances along their family line but only in the extended family.

Though Jien almost wished to hide from the pair of his peers so as to not be dragged into whatever mess they would likely cause, he greeted both families calmly. They were then led into the manor by another set of staff, being followed by their own maids and butlers.

Shortly after they had been led inside Jien breathed a sigh of relief and his shoulders visibly slumped. This was his tenth birthday, wasn't he supposed to be enjoying himself? He didn't see how having to build these connections was supposed to be interpreted enjoying himself. He could only hope to get through this event in one piece and with his sanity intact.

Runa approached him along with Earl, Mark and Emily, all bearing smiles at seeing that he already looked more exhausted than he usually did after a day of training. Mark was the one to speak up, patting him firmly on the back. "This and the dance are the hard parts, but even the dance will be relatively easy in comparison. You'll do fine!"

With that said he steered Jien into the manor as well. There would be a break for everyone to rest before the children would be having their sparring match, something that all the parent's were looking forward to.