"Cenric… Are you alright?" rang the overly-concerned voice of Eldric in Cenric's ears. He ever so slowly drew close to check up on him, hoping that things were alright.
To both Eldric and Epine, Cenric's expression turned uglier and uglier by the second. His eyes reddened, and his small neck veins bulged as he hatefully looked down at the little bastard that stood in front of him. Eldric was genuinely worried that he would pop a blood vessel or two. His face's colour came too close to his hair's; it couldn't possibly get any redder.
That worried expression seemed to infuriate Cenric even further. Eldric was the source of all his suffering. So seeing that person show such concern ignited some memories for the young boy.
He grabbed his head with both hands.
Scenes of his mother's scolding and indifference overlapped and glitched with Eldric's current 'concerned' face.
That little show of madness only served to supply a steady stream of concern to Eldric. "Cenric... Talk to m—." requested Eldric again.
"SHUT UP!! YOU KNOW NOTHING!!" Finally, Cenric exploded under sheer pressure.
Eldric put his hands in front of his face to counter the sudden light that nearly blinded his eyes. He fell on his butt from the evident surprise that befell him.
He didn't expect Cenric to react that way.
Cenric had unconsciously used his blessing to output a big flame around him. Luckily, he wasn't caught in its radius. That wasn't the case for the wool clothes he had on; the wool strings only charred at the tips. It was a miracle that he wasn't hurt— a man-made one, at least.
Likewise, there was now an ashy black ring surrounding Cenric. The heat was so high that it managed to melt off the snow and effortlessly burn the grass laying underneath all of it in one moment.
'Is this the Apprentice stage Aldora talked about?' thought Eldric.
That was the stage when mages of the Elementary stage could influence the outside world by utilising the ambient mana in the air.
One needs to understand that while a ten-year-old reaching that stage didn't necessarily scream genius, it was still impressive nonetheless.
The feeling Cenric's mana gave was oppressive, but nothing too extreme. He already had experience interacting with Aldora's magic power— an amount Cenric couldn't even imagine surpassing in three lifetimes.
Needless to say, Aldora was indeed holding back when giving Eldric instructions. She stopped at the level of a proper mage.
It was true that Aldora had seen the massive potential within Eldric, but there were limits. She was already going too far by using an average mage's output. Had she gone any further, the possibility of little Eldric going mad was not insignificant— it was assured.
"Young master!"
Epine rapidly and thoroughly checked every inch of Eldric's body for bruises or wounds. Luckily, she had intervened at the right moment. Otherwise...
Epine looked at Cenric for a moment. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, like a hawk catching its prey. A completive expression riddled her face for a moment, but it went away at the next.
Cenric couldn't help but take a step back from that gaze. Only to widen his eyes upon realising what he had done.
He let a simple maid intimidate him. Such disrespect was unforgivable; his image mustn't be ruined.
"You l-lowly maid… You dare look at me with those eyes!" hissed Cenric, venom practically dripping from his voice. He somehow appeared to be infinitely more infuriated than before.
This time. He intentfully hurled a fireball toward the sitting Eldric and Epine, that was still kneeling next to her young master and checking upon him.
*Swoosh*
Cenric widened his eyes when the fire he invoked extinguished just as easily as he lit it up.
'That must have been a fluke...' he assuredly muttered in his mind. 'A lowly maid cannot rise to the level of the Blackburne blessing!' Furious, he took another shot at her. He focused a lot more magic power on it this time around.
'That won't happen again!' he vowed.
With his ego kindled, he seemed to disregard every other detail. Eldric's demise would be imminent should the fired projectile hit him.
*Swoosh*
Yet, the same thing happened again. Cenric couldn't even see anything besides Epine shooing his fireballs away with a casual wave of her hand. The supposed invulnerable fire of the Blackburne household all but easily retreated into the winds as shaky cinders. Never to be seen again.
"Impossible!" shouted Cenric.
Epine's flat-lined expression served as a stark contrast to Cenric's unbelieving one. They couldn't have been more different.
He had all the reason for his surprise. Other than the Captiosus household, there was only one other Ducal household in the Alabax Kingdom. The Blackburnes just happened to be the one.
Besides, the Captiosus were nothing more than weaklings.
They were only known for their intelligence— or so did Cenric's little mind thought.
But the fact was that the Captiosus household produced as many as three-fold more royal advisers than the entire nobility combined. They were indeed a household of nefarious geniuses of stunning intellect and ingenuity. Likewise, the current royal adviser, Beothric Captiosus, was the head of the Captiosus house.
Pride was already too engraved into his psyche. There was no option for him to accept the ridiculous notion of a maid stopping his flames.
Contrary to his fiery thoughts, Epine gracefully got up and slowly walked closer and closer to Cenric.
*Clack* *Clack*
For some reason, Cenric could strangely hear the sound of her crisp footsteps despite it being on snow as she drew nearer and nearer to him.
Epine made sure to take her sweet time —inflicting as much terror as possible on Cenric's little heart. Such an act towards her young master was unforgivable, no matter what.
Cenric tried as much as he could to output as much magic as possible, tried making the fire thicker, he even made an effort to make it faster. Yet, it never worked.
The way Epine's reflection got icier and icier the further he increased his output didn't help him calm down.
*Thud*
Cenric looked back only to the large black metal bars of the iron gates. His back had hit them— there was no more tracing back now. He had to confront the demon in front of him.
He could see those whirl like dark abyss eyes deeply gazing into his soul.
*Clack* *Clack*
The sensation got stronger the closer she got to him. Eventually, he couldn't bear the pressure; his knees started shaking.
Cenric's heartbeat rapidly quickened when she fully closed on him. Her face drew all too close to him.
He started feeling nauseous.
"I-.... st-..." the only sounds that came out were choked words and swallowed saliva. No words dared to make their escape from the safety of his mouth.
Epine, not caring for Cenric's state, bowed." I apologise for my rudeness, young lord Cenric. As the personal maid of the master…" she paused for a moment.
"I need to make sure his safety is assured. At all times." Epine nonchalantly smiled at the end of her statement.
There was an underlying threat behind that otherwise simple statement to be comprehended. It is not certain if Cenric truly understood the meaning that lay between the said lines. However, the frantic head nodding and the sweat rolling down his forehead would surely indicate that he did indeed understand something.
Epine's white-gloved hand slowly headed to Cenric's sides.
'She wouldn't dare.' thought Cenric. But a look at her frankly creepy eyes made him think otherwise. He quickly got out of her hand's reach in fear.
*Creak*
"Here you go, young lord Cenric." she sweetly said.
Her smiling face only unnerved him further.
'Who hired this insane maid!' he screamed in his mind.
Epine would have been severely pained had she heard the hurtful words directed at her.
She gestured to the now open iron gates as she professionally bowed. Sadly, Cenric wasn't fortunate enough to witness her show of obedience.
Cenric didn't dare to look any further and scurried like a rabbit. His feet going as quick as they possibly could. He nearly fell a couple of times.
Only after sufficiently getting out of range did he look back at the pair of Eldric and Epine.
'You will pay for this humiliation. I will make sure of it...' he vowed. Unfortunately, such a resolute statement sounded rather funny with the sweat running down his face.
Eldric got up and dusted his pants off the snow that stuck to them. Epine turned around when she heard those noises.
"Are you experiencing any pain, young master?" she worriedly asked.
"You sure scared him off…" joshed Eldric as he took in Cenric's back that slowly disappeared into the Armsworth mansion.
"This is not the time for jokes, young master." scrutinised Epine. Her expression was hardy.
Eldric sighed." I know, Epine, I know…" he paused to look at his charred clothes. "That could have gone very differently…"
"Thank you, Epine," he said after a while.
She shook her head. "It is my duty, young master."