The two rode the Cloud Stepping Horse back to the clan attracting a lot of attentions along the way
As soon as the guards saw Kence and Calter, they immediately opened the Clan's gate while bowing respectfully for the two. The scene of them riding such an expensive horse stunned the guards. One of the guards walked to them and bowed before talking. "Young Master, the Patriarch and the Madame are waiting for the both of you in the dining room for the dinner"
This time the guards are even more respectful to the two. There's a rumor inside the Clan that they were favored by the City Lord. Being favored by the Patriarch was already enough to treat them with utmost respect, even more if it was the City Lord that favored them
The two then jumped down from the horse with Calter helping Kence and started walking on the dinner room while letting the servants take care of the horse. Calter was already starving as he was inside the Thousand Beasts Forest the whole day. Kence was also hungry as he spent his day studying magic
Brrrr
Calter looked at Kence whose face turned red from embarrassment while holding his stomach. Who would have thought that his stomach will make a hungry sound like that in front of his master?
Calter narrowed his eyes "Have you eaten anything today?" Kence slowly shook his head as an answer while not daring to look at his master. He always forced Calter to eat on time yet here he was, doing the same thing that he dislikes for his master to do
"We'll talk about this later. Let's hurry and eat" Kence nodded his head pitifully and they sped up their pace and entered the dining room
Entering the room, they can see rows of foods laid on the table. There were all sorts of food there as if someone has a birthday today. In the front seat was the patriarch and on his side was his wife
"Calter, Kence have a seat. You two must be starving now" the patriarch motioned for the two to sit with a friendly smile on his face. Calter nodded his head and guided Kence on the seats
He pulled one of the chairs for Kence to sit. He always does something like this. In normal times it was okay to Kence when Calter do that but he felt embarrassed whenever Calter's parents were present
Calter sat next to Kence and started filling the latter's plate with foods. This time Kence's plate was full of vegetables with almost zero meat
"That's your punishment for not eating anything today" Calter stated while looking at Kence sternly. Kence pouted as for him this kind of punishment is really cruel! His master knew that he doesn't like eating vegetables yet here he was filling his plate with the food he doesn't like
"Son, how was your day?" Narry started opening up with a small talk but Calter's reply was kind of cold. "It's okay" the patriarch nodded as he was already used to his son being unenthusiastic to other people. The only exception was Kence
"How about you Kence, how's your day?" Emily asked and looked at Kence as if she was eager to know the details of his day
Kence doesn't know why Emily was interested on him but nonetheless replied respectfully at her. "I-I..uh... spent the day studying with the City Lord" he doesn't want to irritate them with the details and only stated the general information
Emily nodded her head "That's good. You should study hard and make the City Lord proud"
"Yes Madame" Emily laughed a bit before talking again "You are too formal. You can just call us Father and Mother. We are a family"
"M-Mother?" Kence blinked his eyes a few times while pinching his cheeks to see if it was a dream. The Madame wants her to be called by Kence as Mother? How can Kence not be stunned? This is something that Kence would never think to do
"Why are you pinching your cheeks? Silly haha" Looking at the kid pinching his cheeks made Emily laughed again. This time, it was a genuine laugh as she thought that Kence was loveable
The Patriarch smiled as for a long time he doesn't saw his wife laughing genuinely like this. The pressure of making their Clan retained their Nobility status was always weighing on the shoulder. But now all that worries vanished, they can finally have a chance to relax
"Mother, Kence is already working too hard to the point that he didn't eat anything today" Calter joined the talk. His parents were really good. If they tried to make it up for him by treating him better, he won't feel much. But now, they were actually treating Kence this good. Of course, the main reason was because he was the City Lord's student. However, anyone who treated his Kence good will be on his good side. He's already feeling a bit better towards his parents
"Oh? Kence you should work hard but you shouldn't neglect your health. Training madly often has a bad effect on one's body" Emily reprimanded and Kence can only look down in embarrassment
"Yes... M-Mother" Kence said unsurely but Emily just smiled at him
Mother... it was a foreign word for Kence... he was just a toddler when he became an orphan and the Sternix Clan took him. Young Masters of Nobility Clans often have a servant from their age since they were young. With them growing side by side the two would have a good relationship and be loyal with each other. Kence's situation was the same.
As Kence was an orphan since young, he can't even remember anything on his youngest days from before he became a servant of the Sternix Clan
He doesn't know if he was with his mother and father before. That's why calling someone as mother made him to feel a foreign feeling and a smile unknowingly blossomed on him
Calter saw this and he was happy that his Kence was happy. "Father, Mother what's the occasion? Why do we have so many foods tonight?" Calter asked
Him initiating the talking means that he's already starting to forgive his parents. Before, no matter what happened it was always his parents starting the talk but now he took the initiative
"This is just a small celebration, Earl John sold to us a property for a small price. While Marquees Tem offered to supply us with clothes. We are opening a new Clothing Shop in a week"
A week might seem a short amount of time for the preparation of opening a new business but to Nobles it was easy to do that! Just their Nobility Title was enough to gather a lot of patrons and their money can speed up things. Not to mention an Earl and Marquees was helping them. This was why having a Nobility Title was important!
For normal people, it was the symbol of power and prosperity! Anytime that the beasts attack the City the Nobles, powerful organizations and the City Lord were the ones defending the masses!
"If you two are free, join the Banquet a week from now. The Earl and the Marquees wished to meet the both of you" Calter had a realization. No wonder, they are having a feast tonight. It seems that the City Lord favoring them was already spreading among the upper-echelons of the Soaring Magic City. The Patriarch was wooing them to attend the banquet
"We'll attend, Father" Narry broke into a smile. He was really worrying if his son doesn't attend the banquet. It was them who made this situation possible. If not for the two how can the Early and Marquees treat them this well? Those powerful Nobles wants to establish good relationship not with the Sternix Clan itself but to Kence and Calter. Especially Kence, although the rumor of him being the City Lord's student wasn't confirmed by the City Lord yet but the scene of a mage riding a Knight Rank Cloud Stepping Horse picking them up was already spread
That's a Knight Rank horse! Weak Nobles won't be able to afford even one of it!
"We hope that you can invite the City Lord over. Of course, if he was busy, we won't dare bother him" if it was before, Calter would be irritated at how his parents were trying to use his connections. But now he almost didn't feel any dissatisfaction because of their attitude to Kence tonight
"We'll try Father but we can't guarantee anything" Narry nodded his head as he knew even with his disciple asking for him, the City Lord might not come
The City Lord was known to be eccentric. The more you try to please him and put him in the pedestal the more he will become dissatisfied. He dislikes gatherings like this that's why the chance of him coming in the banquet was low. But it won't hurt to try
"Inviting him is already good"
The four continued eating while making smalls talk here and there. Although it was mostly Kence and Emily talking. Kence without him knowing it but he's gradually opening up a bit on Emily as if they were really a pair of Mother and Child
The two other men just watched their love ones forming a good relationship like that and they were genuinely happy
After the dinner, the four went on two separate ways to head back on their bedroom and rest. "Big Brother, the Madame is really kind. I love the Sternix Clan, all of the people here are good"
Kence has a dreamy smile on his face as he really loves his life. Calter can only shake his head at that but he can't blame Kence for thinking like that. Even when Calter was still a trash no servants in the Clan offended him directly. Although the servants are looking down at Kence for being the trash's servant but no one dared to harm him
Everyone knew that Calter and Kence has a close relationship and no servants will antagonize them. Calter is still a Noble descendant and Kence was the person closest to him. There were also no power struggles inside the Clan making it peaceful
Calter's grandfather only has one child and that is Narry, while Narry also has Calter as his child. The position of patriarch was not something the descendants would need to fight for. This always puzzled Calter, where are their other relatives?
As the Nobles that killed Kence has a higher Nobility status, when Calter finally killed him, he went to other cities and lived there. Even when he became a Rank 3 Mage, he didn't come back in the Soaring Magic City. With his dissatisfaction on his parents for not loving him when he was still a trash, he didn't even think of coming back
He never learned about his other relatives but he didn't care about them, it was just pure curiosity
"You know who is not kind? Someone who always nagged at you for not eating on time yet did the same thing " Calter said as he was still angry at Kence for not eating anything
Kence pouted. "I'm sorry, Big Brother. I promised, I will not do it again!"
Calter smirked "Don't worry, I'm going to make sure that you won't do it again. If not heh.... you can only eat vegetables for the rest of your life" Calter was like a demon for Kence. Those words were too cruel for him. Only eating vegetables for the rest of his life? That's something that Kence cannot take!
"Big Brother, don't do that please!" Kence immediately pleaded. He can't take a life of only eating vegetables
Calter ignored Kence until they arrived at their room. As more time passed the more anxious Kence become. Although he promised not to do it again but there was the possibility of him not knowing what time it was because of training.
"Just go take a bath first" Calter continued ignoring Kence and laid down on his bed while smirking evilly at his lover
"Big Brother...." Kence almost break into tears as he stared at Calter. He doesn't like his master's smirk...although he has to admit that Calter was devilishly handsome doing that
"Why are you scared? You promised not to do that again, why are you worrying about it?"