The young master was charming in his own right, but not in comparison to Shui. His expensive robes were completely white so they were now stained in brown and black, further decreasing his prestige. Furthermore, his carriage had been broken by the girly looking man in front of him, so how could he not be furious?
He stood up and pointed at Shui with the veins at his forehead ready to pop.
"You sissy, you broke my carriage! That was a special-rank artifact you know, how are you going to pay me back for this?!"
"Maybe it wouldn't have broken if you hired a better driver."
Shui's aloof response swooned the hearts of the girls watching and made the young master even angrier.
"Damn you! Francis! Hurry up and break his limbs."
The coachman was frightened when he was called and hesitated for a moment, but the glare that the young master directed at him made him quickly get up. Francis didn't know how Shui was unharmed after being rammed by the carriage, but he hoped that he wouldn't die by listening to the orders of his young master.
'Damn it! Why didn't I just avoid him?'
Francis knew now more than ever that there was no medicine for regret as he equipped his spirit-rank artifacts that came in the form of gauntlets and carefully approached Shui.
Francis acted as a coachman, but he was at early Earth Realm while his young master was at late Soul Realm. Seeing someone as strong as this about to attack Shui, those who thought he would be fine once again doubted his chances of survival. Of course there were several girls who bit their handkerchiefs and hoped that this angel would come out fine once again, most thought that Shui was too arrogant and should have run away when he had the chance.
Shui sighed once more as Francis came closer to him. He didn't want to cause another incident so soon after returning, but since they were the ones that started it, he was going to be the one that ended it.
Instead of Francis, Shui turned his eyes to the young master and snapped his fingers.
"Ahhh!!! Ahh!!"
Out of nowhere, Francis heard his young master's ugly screams and hurriedly went to his side. He didn't know how, but both of his legs had been broken and he quickly went delirious from the pain.
'How the hell did this happen?!'
Everyone else had the same question as him since no one here was perceptive enough to sense that Shui had used mental control to break his legs.
Now that his young master had gotten injured like this while he was on duty, Francis feared for his life as he picked him up and quickly went to find a doctor. With this trouble over with, Shui was about to head to Fairies' Wardrobe, but something else came to mind.
'I wonder if that place hasn't changed either.'
While Shui was in front of Nikolai's mansion, Sia and her two brothers were heading into a deserted part of the martial academy while being led by a group of boys. They knew that this was a trap, but they had no choice. The few children who were willing to be friends with them were captured so they had to obey these guys. The twins kept their fists gripped tightly as they anticipated the fierce battle that would happen, but Sia had more negative thoughts.
The boys leading them were all lackies of Shane, who was the son of the current head of the Wright family, and this wasn't the first time he sent people to mess with them. Within the academy, Sia and her brothers weren't considered true geniuses like Matt, but they were still seen as talented even among the core students. Even before it was known that their apparent 'father' had a connection to the Wright family, Shane would always butt heads with them because he saw them as eyesores. Back then it wasn't too much of a hassle, but once the old head of the Wright family, Anders, declared that he was considering adopting them, the situation became drastically worse.
Shane got the tacit approval of his mother to mess with them so even the bit of restraint he had because they were at the academy was gone. If it stayed as a battle between children then Sia would be able to keep her calm, but judging from the trouble they experienced the day before, it wouldn't be long until adults became fully involved.
Sia gripped the talisman in her pocket and anxiously watched her surroundings. She couldn't thank him properly, but just like the rest of her family, she also believed in him.
"You're finally here. I almost got tired of waiting."
"Cut the crap Shane. Where are our friends?"
The three siblings were brought before a boy who dressed like an elegant scholar despite sitting on his classmate's back. Like always, although he was cute, the arrogant smirk on his face ruined that impression.
"Aren't you too rude? Shouldn't you three be on your knees before asking me anything?"
"Shane!"
Right as Ross and Josh both took a step forward with their fists raised, Sia held them back.
"Step back you two."
"But Sia-"
"Do you want to get our friends hurt?!"
"..."
Despite being the youngest and shortest one here, Sia easily restrained her older brothers and faced Shane.
"Shane, what do you want?"
"Ah, much better than your stupid brothers at least. Personally, I would be fine with just humiliating you siblings, but my parents would rather have you dead. But maybe I'll try to convince them to let you off if you beg me for your lives."
Even knowing that Shane was being serious about killing them, Sia didn't falter. With a strong will in her eyes that displeased him, Sia stood firm against Shane.
"What did you do with our friends?"
"Hey, I'm no villian. Since I got you three here I properly let them go. After breaking a few limbs of course. They did dare to become friends with my enemies after all."
"You!!!!"
"Shane!"
Ross and Josh were going to pounce on Shane but once again, Sia raised her arm to stop them. Ross was about to ask why but then he noticed the line of blood that ran from her trembling clenched fist. Seeing her like this, Shane finally got a taste of satisfaction.
"Don't worry, as long as you don't run, I won't do anything else to them."
With the details out of the way, Shane clapped his hands and ten boys came out and surrounded the siblings. Everyone here was only at late Mortal Realm, with just Sia and Shane close to reaching Soul Realm, so it seemed like the victor was already decided. However, none of them underestimated the siblings. Maybe they weren't monsters, but once they got taught by a monster they couldn't be ordinary.
"You two, hold these guys back. I'll take care of Shane."
"Make sure to save a piece for us." said Ross as he and Josh got ready to fight.
Shane didn't like how confident Sia was acting, but he knew that it would likely go exactly as she said it would. The ten boys attacked them all at once, certain that they wouldn't lose miserably. Without waiting for them to get too close, Sia ran towards one of the boys. He was frightened for a moment, but then quickly got a fist ready for her. However, Sia effortlessly jumped over him and his fist and landed behind him. He tried to turn around but before he could, she kicked him to her brothers.
"Ahh!!"
Ross caught the boy and swung him at the ones incoming. Barely ten seconds in and Sia was already closing in on Shane.
"Worthless!"
Shane got off his human chair and kicked it.
"You, get her."
"Oh, okay."
His posture and movement were off due to being a chair for too long, but he still managed to stumble towards Sia. It would be easy to throw him to the ground, but Sia purposefully slammed her palm on his chest and exerted her nature energy to knock his back to a sturdy tree. Just as she planned, barely dodging the boy as he was flung back was Shane.
"Tch, useless."
Shane planned on using the pawn to distract her so he could land a solid hit, but that strategy was easily countered by Sia.
"Fine, I don't need tricks to beat you!!"
"You done talking yet?"
Both of their fists collided with a clean sound.
"Guh!"
Sia grunted and retracted her hand while Shane snickered at her pain.
"What? Already too much for you?"
"You, that's an artifact isn't it?!"
"Oh, you mean this?"
Shane rolled down his sleeve and showed off his golden gauntlet. He couldn't bring out the full potential of this special-rank artifact, but it could boost his strength enough to dominate Sia.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. No one forced you not to bring your own artifact. Well, I guess you probably can't afford one anyways."
Despite the pain in her hand, Sia wanted nothing more than to smash his arrogant face in. Her mind went to the talisman in her pocket but she stopped herself.
'Not yet.'
She was definitely at a disadvantage, but not to the level where she had to rely on Shui's talisman.