"A direct royal line candidate is rare so it only makes sense that the value is much higher, besides try to bear in mind that while the value of my slots are extremely high it doesn't mean that I have students in my class that are worth 13 billion credits after all they are still only ten years old, only time will tell how competent they turn to be."
Lirian words seemed to help their mood a little as Wentian decided to eat his meal, he looked down at his ramen and frowned as he noticed a few of the toppings were gone and so were three slices of the meat, he knew that he didn't touch his food yet and it was there when he checked a moment ago.
"Did someone steal my food?" he asked with a puzzled look.
Tobias laughed at the stupid question thinking it was a joke but when he looked down, he noticed a piece of his Mantril steak was missing he glanced up and looked around curiously wondering just how it vanished when he caught Edith's eye.
"Half my pot of steamed vegetables is gone too," she said with a wronged expression and Lirian would swear that he saw little tears in the corner of her eyes.
'I thought children are supposed to hate their vegetables, I thought they were supposed to do a victory dance if they got away with eating their veggies,' he thought silently and raised his fork with purple Mantril steak to his mouth.
"Yeah, me too, a piece of my brisket is gone," Lirian joined them, it wasn't a lie, a piece of his brisket was gone and sat happily in his belly. He had been sure to swipe a little from everyone except Media.
As he cut a slice from his brisket he turned to look at her and chewed on it slowly, and as they realised that she was the only one that didn't have anything missing they looked at her with strange gazes.
"W-w-wait it wasn't me," she stammered as everyone focused on her, while looking at her he slipped a piece of steamed vegetables into his mouth wondering if she'd notice.
But before anyone could do or say anything the door to the candidate's personal room slide open, and the last candidate Indra came in.
She strolled in with her head held high, with her nose pointing up as if she was too good to be in the same room as them, "It looks like all the school snobs are gathered together, and after what I heard about you, I'm not surprised that you fit right in with them," she said pointedly to Lirian.
Lirian raised his brow slightly and smiled on in amusement, "Oh, I've been called much worse," he chuckled, ", but it seems the rumors are wrong about you, I have heard that you're an imbecilic but it seems that your sheer stupidity makes such an impression that people forget to mention how dreadfully annoying you are," he spoke down to her in a mocking voice.
Her guts to walk in and pick a fight surprised him, it told him that she was either very stupid or very brave, there was also the third option, that she was so stupid it made her brave.
Media sighed in relief as everyone stopped focusing on her and watched the exchange between Lirian and Indra, she wondered how everyone lost a piece of their food but she didn't and she carefully scrutinized the room wondering where the missing food went.
After a few more exchanges Indra took her own seat and prepared to get her own meal when she frowned and looked up, "Are you guys patronizing me, I can afford my own meal." she said with self-righteous anger as she saw the deluxe meal worth 3 entire credits.
Lirian looked around at the others, and aside from rolling their eyes like they were used to it, he could tell from Ediths twitching hand that she was struggling not to facepalm.
"You know I'm terrible at being courteous but even I know that it's basic manners to pay for the meal if you want someone to join you."
Indra scoffed, "Hearing the word manners come out of your mouth is a joke, considering what you did yesterday,"
Lirian gave a half-smile, "What I did was create a spectacle the likes of which have never been seen before," he quickly added, ", if your jealous you can just say it."
"The only thing I am jealous about is that the empress chose you, if not that power of yours would belong to someone else, someone more deserving,"
Lirians calm and playful attitude vanished in all but an instance and cold fury surged through him, the air stilled, even the fires that danced in the hearth stilled as if afraid, "This power is not the creation of anyone other than my me," he said strongly and even his voice seemed to deepen and age.
There were many insults that he would tolerate but one about his power was one he would not tolerate, as much as he loved his mother, even she had absolutely no right to make any claim over his power and his quest for knowledge.
Many of the worlds he had lived in were not as advanced as his current world and knowledge was scarce, to become literate was one of his hardest tasks, when he had no one to teach him, a study of a single language could take him decades and that was only for the easy languages, the techniques of his were almost all self-developed and those that he stole were refined and polish to the realm of perfection.
There was not a being in all of creation that had any right to claim that they created him his power and skill, all of that came from excruciating mental and physical labor on his part, and he'd be damned before he allowed anyone to take credit for his ability.
He especially hated it when someone would think themselves more deserving of the power he had, it made him sick because he knew that anyone else would have given up if they were in his place.
Silver energy built on his fingertips and he pointed slowly at Indra, the pressure that descended on her made her squirm and slowly her whole body began to tremble like a leaf in the wind, and she broke out into a sweat that drenched her entire body and soaked her clothes.
"You can say what you want about me having fortune that I didn't earn, you can even say that I do not deserve to call the empress my mother and you might even have a point on those, but you have no right to even begin comparing your skill and talent to my own and the next time I hear such words leaving your mouth I wouldn't care if the emperor himself was your father you wouldn't leave my presence alive." his voice echoed in cold fury in the ears of the other candidates and even the regular students that watched the meeting through the transparent windows felt their bodies freeze up.
The candidates in the room had wanted to see the silver energy up-close, but they regretted having such a wish, even the seven-foot-tall mountain of a high-orc Tobias couldn't stop his bones from quaking, this was even more terrifying than that time when he was a child and he was brought to witness the power of a seventh-grade warlock.
He felt a killing intent in those words that could make entire worlds seem small in comparison, and it became apparent to him that despite Lirian teasing them about energy control being something easy that he thought all candidates could use, it was definitely not the case.
Before she fainted and soiled herself Lirian decide to pull back the energy and release it, and his eyes steadily took on its calm radiance again.
Indra fell face forward onto the floor and no one blamed her, she was an annoyance that was already in the school for 6 years and didn't understand the first secret of the candidates, but they still felt slightly bad for her.
They only felt the leaked energy and it scared them, while she was the main focus of the energy, they examined the room in silence and were surprised to see that everything the energy had touched had been weathered away as if it had faced a hundred storms.
When the lunch break ended Lirian remained in the room intentionally as the others left, when the room emptied out he shut the door and turned the glass opaque, "A room for the privileged candidates," he whispered softly.
"A room in which we can enjoy silence while discussing our plans,"
"You great families really know how to stroke the egos of your children and use their egos against them,"
"Because the thing about a silent room is that even if just a whisper you are easily overheard," he whispered into the hearth
"I hope that you paid very good attention to my words and I hope that you will pay even closer to my next words,"
"I will play along with your games after all you have every right to do so but I will warn you now, I will not fall in the trial and I am not your toy to be played with and maneuvered as you see fit."
"I am the one who will ascend the throne of Clovis and should the day come that I learn of your games it will not end well for any of you," he chuckled softly and paused for short while.
"Laugh at my words while you can but remember them in a few thousand years when I take my place on the throne," he said sharply, while looked up and his eyes took on their bright glow once more as he looked into a spiritual marking and he glanced to all the different markings that lined the room, "The others might be blind to your tricks but understand that energy control is not my only trick in the bag."
He smiled and strolled out of the room while tossing the last slice of meat, he had stolen from Wentian into his mouth, he knew that his last trick would be giving all the families a big scare and he secretly laughed as he imagined their stupid faces contort.
Little did they know that they had just fallen into an information loop trap that Lirian had set up.
Now that he was done with the meal, he started with dessert.