Young Swordmaster's Journey

Three and a Half Months since joining Dragon-Scale Academy

"Alright, well done!" The receptionist at the Zenik Adventurer's Guild congratulated both Alec and Olivia with a pleasant smile on her face.

They'd been met with the same response so many times that Alec was pretty certain they were obligated, either by contract or by their superiors, to do so for some reason. There was no other reason he could think of for them to congratulate the both of them every time they completed a quest.

Maybe it was done to try and help bolster lower-rank adventurers' confidence, or it could just be a case of the Guild trying to stay as polite and jovial as possible. Alec quite simply didn't know and, in all honesty, didn't really care all that much about finding out. It was just that thinking about it gave him something to do while he zoned out the rest of the receptionist's platitudes, based on the way that Olivia was gently tapping her foot on the ground, she was just as spaced out as he was.

Not that she showed it in the slightest, however. The benefits of coming from a recognized adventuring bloodline and the nobility-like training that came with it, he figured.

"Here is your pay. Please do come by again and take another quest!" The receptionist chirped with a bright grin, handing the both of them small pouches of coins that they both emptied into their own pouches and handed back politely.

That was another good 20 Silver to his name, a respectable pay out but still nothing even close to approaching the pay that he'd received from the [Gold-rank] quest from hell that he'd gone along with.

"Are you going to grab this month's copy of World Quest?" Olivia asked once the both of them walked away from the desk so that others could officially accept or complete their own quests.

"Yeah," He nodded, his gaze already lazily sliding to try and find the telltale kiosk that would have the magazine copies he was looking for.

It had started about two weeks ago, when he realized that he hadn't really been keeping track of what Blessed Catalysts, of what his friends, had been up to and had done the only thing, the only logical thing he could think to do, see what the guild reporters had been writing about them. See if they had done anything of great prestige or note or, in the worst-case scenario that he didn't really want to think about, at least gone out with a bang.

There was always the option of sending them a letter through the Intercountry Courier System, or the ICS for short, but in all honesty, that just felt….weird to Alec. Call him vain, or egotistic, but the teen wanted to have actually made some kind of progress before he contacted his friends, wanted to at least be closer to where they were than he had been when he had left.

Based on what he had read from the various editions of World Quest that he had managed to get his hands on, that was a quest that was going to take a while before he could gain any purchase.

Article after article, page after page. Blessed Catalyst could do no wrong and could not falter even if they stepped backwards over a cliff with a blindfold on. He could see it in the way that their highlights, all written by the same reporter he noticed, continually inched closer and closer to the front of the magazine with each passing edition, even if one wouldn't really notice when reading from month to month. They were the new darling party of the Adventurer's Guild, their generation's Blazing Sun or Titan, the up-and-coming superstars that seemed to only rocket in popularity and achievements the moment that they had shed the deadweight that was Alec.

Did reading each new issue and hearing more and more about his friends' exploits without him there make him a little bit depressed? Yes, yes it did. However, it meant that Olivia didn't have to try all that hard to force him out into the training yard whenever he started trying to coast, and so she was quite happy to remind him to grab the new monthly issue when it came out.

Though despite that, she also didn't actually want to make Alec sad by getting him to read the magazine and so made sure to always distract him as much as possible right after he finished going through it. So far just bringing him to the tea house, training, or looking for their next quest had managed to do the job, but she kept the nuclear option of bringing Callum into a three-way free-for-all spar in her back pocket just in case something got to him one day that she couldn't help him with by herself.

A small smile settled across Alec's expression as he finally found the kiosk that he was looking for, walking over to it without a word to his companion, who only silently followed after him. She may not have any particular reason to read the magazine, unlike Alec, but she did still ask to read every issue after him just to see what had changed or what was new in the world of adventuring.

Besides, if she managed to catch something about some of her family without having to talk to them, and thus deal with their blatant biases, then that was just a nice little bonus.

"So, how are your friends?" She asked, crossing her arms and leaning against a structurally supporting pillar as the two of them walked a short distance from the kiosk amidst Alec's distracted reading.

"There's only a footnote here and there about them this time. Looks like they've just been taking some ordinary quests this month, nothing for the reporter to sensationalize."

"A reporter unable to dramatize something? You clearly underestimate them." She snorted with a small roll of her eyes.

"Yeah, I know. Give them a drop of water and they'll make a flood of it." Alec responded with a small huff, "But based on the footnotes it's just been small-time escorts and a couple resupply quests for some businesses around Kret."

"I can see what you mean now. Based on what I've read before, they definitely sounded more like the kind of group to continually go for the biggest and best thing available."

"They are, honestly, it was a bit of a hassle at times. I can guess why they've suddenly switched gears, though."

"Oh? And why do you think that might be?"

"Someone in the party probably got a bit too injured, likely Peter, and Felicia decided that they'd been a little too expecting of her healing and has cut them off for the time being."

"Felicia was the [High-Sorceress], was she not?"

"No, that's Angelica. Felicia was the [Saintess]." He responded easily, flicking the page of the magazine and raising an eyebrow silently.

"Ah, right. I remember now. So, you reckon that she's just withheld healing from them both for the moment because one, or both, of them got a bit too reckless?"

"It's the only guess I can make at the moment. Obviously some third party could have influenced it, but I'd have no way of knowing about them, so no point in dwelling over pure hypotheticals." He shrugged, holding the magazine out to her and pointing at a particular section right afterwards.

With a silent look of curious amusement, she leant forward a bit to read the passage that he was pointing at, her eyebrows rising further and further as she did so.

[-and would you believe it or not, but one of the great Saints of Zveil finally spoke out about their sudden six-day departure from the Grand Cathedral of Aegian. By the follower of Aegian's own admissions, the Saint left without so much as a word nor forewarning to their devout followers and tried to keep the party travelling with them as low as possible. Word on which of the Seven Saints of Aegian it was, exactly, that left the Grand Cathedral is still unclear, but their reported reason for leaving was-]

"One of the Aegian Saints actually left their cathedral?" Olivia parroted, blinking owlishly, "I never thought that the day would come. They almost never leave their cathedral, much less in such a panic."

"It's easier to find a Kronethian Saint out and about, isn't it?" Alec asked for confirmation, getting it in the small nod she gave him in return.

"Being entirely honest, it's easier to simply just organize a meeting with a Kronethian Saint than it is just to catch a glimpse of any of the Aegian Saints. It got so bad that my grandfather actually reckons there was a good sixty-three-year gap between the aegian church having any saints at all where they swore up down and sideways that they had one but mysteriously no one could meet them."

"Why all the grand-standing and mystery? It's a pretty common thing for churches to go a couple decades without any [Saint]'s dedicated to specifically their cause." The blue-haired teen questioned, only to get a shrug of her shoulders in return.

"Hell, if I know. If I was in charge, you certainly wouldn't find me hiding them away like the world would end if they so much as touched sunlight."

"If you were in charge, I think the church would have a lot more violence involved in their curriculum."

"Are you trying to imply something, Dius?"

"No, not at all."

"Good. That's what I thought!"

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That Night

A soft rapping sound echoed soothingly through the well-maintained wooden hallways of the large, overly decorated and traditional manor. A faint hum leaving the lips of Noelle Kio as she made her way through the twisting and winding hallways that made up the Kio family estate.

As she passed down the hallway her eyes automatically caught the small scratches and scuffs along the floor and walls. As small and natural as they all were with a house as old as this one, nearing the better part of two centuries, there were certain marks that she couldn't help but zero in on with fondness.

A scorch mark from the first time she got a fire-type construct and brought it inside. Some scratches from where her older sister, Veronessa, had lost her balance while playing around with some items using her telekinesis. A painting to cover the rushed patch job that her, Veronessa, and their only brother, Argram, had done after one of Argram's creations had gone flying by accident and dented the wall quite heavily.

Those kinds of marks littered the house if one knew where to look. Marks from her, from Veronessa, from Argram, their parents, grandparents, and every member of their family dating back to the house's origin. Yet she took this particular hallway, one of the more meandering and convoluted, to go between her room and the dining room for one reason and one reason only.

This hallway was the only place outside of Olivia's room where one could even find proof that she had once lived in this manor.

Of course, paintings and illusory moments captured in time featured Olivia, not even her and her famed death glare could get her out of such obligations, and could be found around the house. Yet they were proof that she was part of the family, not that she had ever lived here. Not that she had spent seventeen years of her life here with all the goods and bads that that would entail, not that she had poured her blood, sweat and tears into her talents here –as much as Noelle still believed that focusing on martial talent over arcane talent was still a waste of her sisters skills, she couldn't deny the work that she had put into it.

There, almost entirely hidden behind the leg of a small table that she knew some of their maids and butlers used to hold spare equipment, and the occasional weapon, was the one and only mark left behind on the house by Olivia; A near paper-thin cut on the polished wood of the abode about 13cm from edge-to-edge.

Again and again, Noelle found herself traversing this hallway just so that she could take a look at that marking. Remind herself that Olivia too was a valued member of their family, one that had left her mark behind just as all other Kio's had.

Hopefully, once Noelle got it through her sister's head that magic was the true way to go, her sister could leave many more marks on these floors and walls. Proof of her existence, and her importance.

With one final, fleeting, look back at the small desk, the pearlescent haired young woman pushed open the larger double doors to the dining room and grinned cheerfully as a cacophony of complaints bombarded her all at once.

"Took you long enough." Argram scoffed while brushing some hair out of one of his eyes with a small, fond, grin, his straight pearlescent white hair held mostly out of his face by a small red band at the base of his neck.

"Did you really go on a leisure stroll down that hallway again, Noelle?" Veronessa questioned with a raised eyebrow, resting her elbow on the table and her cheek on her fist, twirling a fork lazily in the air above her other hand, her own pearlescent silver hair cut short and painstakingly straightened to perfection.

"Well, well, Noelle. I didn't expect you of all people to be the one to hold us up. Usually, you're in more of a rush than anyone else in the house to do something with family." The man that spoke was clearly a more mature gentleman than Argram, a thick but short pearlescent white beard spiking out along his jawline and above his lips to coat his entire lower face.

An equally thick mane of pearlescent white hair combed back but allowed just enough freedom to curl and spike slightly at the back and edges covered his head with a couple hints of almost steely blue peppered around his temples and at the base of his neck. Unlike the frilled spectacle that was Noelle's outfit, the simplistic and efficient black leather pants and mid-riff showing shirt of Veronessa's, or the rough, canvas-looking material that coated Argram head to toe, this man sat in clothes decided upon by a healthy mixture of both aesthetics and experience.

From her position at the entrance, Noelle couldn't see what adorned his feet but could absolutely see the thick, expensive-looking silken pants that held his legs and the simplistic navy-blue shirt with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves on both arms rolled up above his elbows. Choices that left his quite large, and heavily muscled, frame in clear view of anyone that even looked in his vague direction, let alone right at him.

"Grandfather!?" Noelle gasped in both surprise and elation, rushing forward to her own seat eagerly and grasping the back of it so that she could lean forward, over both it and the table.

"You sound so surprised to see me here. Have I truly been that busy recently?" Noelle's grandfather, Kerrius Kio, questioned with a small, teasing grin as he rested a large, heavy arm on the end of the table where he sat.

"A little bit, yeah." Veronessa responded simply with a small nod.

"Don't listen to her!" Noelle cried quickly, shooting her sister a small glare and just getting a lazy smirk in return.

"It's fine, Noelle. I'm aware that I've been busy. There's a reason that it's only me here tonight, after all."

"Ah. So, grandmother, mother, and father are still busy, then?" Argram questioned, getting a nod from Kerrius.

"They are, though your grandmother told me to say hello to all of you and make sure that you're all eating well." Kerrius responded with a small grin, only getting a small smirk from Argram as he rolled his eyes.

"Well, we will be once Noelle actually sits down so that we can start eating."

"Oh! My bad." Noelle smiled sheepishly and quickly sat in her seat, only giving Argram a demure grin and finger wave as he shot an unimpressed look at her.

"Now we can begin!" Kerrius declared enthusiastically, the four of them all beginning to dig into the meals so perfectly placed in front of them by the staff employed by their family.

For a few minutes it was silent, save for the scrapes of their cutlery and plates and the occasional sound from a glass being lifted or placed back down. Then, with a satisfied gasp as the man finished downing the rest of his glass –once filled with a suspicious brown liquid that Noelle was about 99% sure was one of their stronger alcohols– the silence was shattered as Kerrius looked between the three of his grandchildren, and then to one of the empty chairs on Argram's side of the table.

"So, how has Olivia been since she's joined that 'sword school' of hers?" Kerrius questioned, the mockery clear in his tone.

"She honestly seems quite happy there." Noelle responded with an easy grin.

She didn't quite understand what there was to enjoy about a place that taught such simple, lagging concepts but she did know that Olivia clearly preferred it, and was at least enjoying it on some level, and so was quite happy to relay such facts.

Kerrius merely hummed, a small gleam in his eyes that was quickly smothered as he turned to look at Argram as he began to speak as well.

"I hardly see why she would. Swinging a sword around isn't exactly something that requires much skill, nor engages in any kind of intellectual pursuit."

A muscle in Kerrius' cheek twitched and his expression twisted ever so minutely at the words of his only grandson; the look gone as fast as it had appeared as Noelle replied to her brother.

"Maybe not but I am slowly getting through to her, I think. I think she's just having too much fun messing with Alec, more than anything." She sighed and rested against the back of her chair, stiffening up as three sets of eyes snapped onto her with all the heat and force of a thousand suns.

"And pray tell, who might this 'Alec' be, hm? A boyfriend?" Kerrius asked, a wide grin curving his moustache and a teasing twinkle dancing in his eyes like fairy lights.

"I can't believe you never told me that Olivia has a boyfriend now!" Veronessa exclaimed in shock and just the tiniest bit of betrayal.

Their youngest sister getting a boyfriend before either of them? A mockery! A scandal! She had to know how she had done it and why.

"Are you seriously telling me that she's purposefully throwing away her life as a mage just to impress some boy?" Argram questioned flatly, arms crossed and eyebrow raised in disappointment and disbelief.

"Woah woah! Give me a moment." Noelle raised her hand to make a 'back up' motion to all of them before sighing quietly, "No, Olivia doesn't have a boyfriend. Or if he is her boyfriend, they certainly don't act like it or show it."

There was a small slump of Kerrius' shoulders and a saddened whine from her sister at that.

"As for Alec himself, he's a pretty cute thing, I can't lie." She grinned, one which only grew a little sharper at the unimpressed look that her brother shot her.

What can she say? Annoying him was not only fun, but a skill that she had been honing since she had been in the crib, and she would be damned if she didn't make use of it whenever and wherever possible.

"I wasn't able to talk to them, but I know that they've formed a party somewhat recently. They're always going in and out of the Guild together and I've heard a couple people bringing them up in passing, but nothing incredibly impressive or surprising."

"Huh. Your sister has a new comrade now, does she…?" Their grandfather leant back in his chair and stroked his beard, his expression pensive and his gaze somewhere in the distance, seeing something that none of them could possibly hope to see.

"I worry about what kind of quests they can even successfully take and complete with a party composed of only two martial combatants like them." Argram grumbled, clearly still annoyed at the idea that his sister was forgoing the clearly more superior route of thaumaturgy over that of swords and shields just for some boy, whether they were actually in a relationship or not.

"Nothing super impressive, like I said. But enough for them, apparently." Noelle shrugged.

"Well, if he truly is a new comrade of Olivia, then there's only one thing to be done. Regardless of how 'well' he follows the path of the blade, we still value family and brothers in arms in the Kio family, and this will be no different." There was a short look shot at each of Kerrius' grandkids as he said that, getting three affronted looks in return.

Good, he didn't need to start smacking heads around to make them remember that core tenant, he had gotten worried for a moment.

"How about in a week and a half we have another family dinner? And this time-"

Kerrius picked up a chicken leg and took a large bite of it, chewing the meat and swallowing in about a second flat. A large grin crossing his features and his eyes practically glowing in a fire of determination.

"-This time we'll have all you grandkids here, and that Alec boy too."