Damien knew the truth. He was less talented compared to the unknown boy who had rescued his family from their precarious situation. He had tried and failed to deny it but, in the end, the truth would forever remain the truth.
The plan to impress Noah had been brought up by him because he had a hunch that the youngster would ask them to fight. It was his desperate attempt at trying to convince himself that, while he was weaker than Noah, he could still cause him some harm and would one day reach his level.
That plan failed. Horribly.
As the sword drew near him, his body screamed for him to run. He was fast enough, he could escape the attack. But he couldn't do that. The fear in his body was practically screaming at him to run away. But he couldn't do that, he was the one that caused all of this to happen, he couldn't let his sister be harmed because of his selfishness.
His brows furrowed and his teeth clenched against each other so hard that his gum bled. He managed to gather as much lightning as he could within the little time that he had left and coated his arms as he attacked once more, ignoring the fact that the sword aiming towards him had the clear intent to kill.
Mona realizing the disaster about to unfold widened her eyes in shock and attempted to drag her brother backwards despite her wounded state. Unfortunately, he had already made up his mind to guard against the attack approaching them.
Seeing the event happening before him, Owen could not hold himself back any longer and jumped forward with Essence raging around his body.
At this moment the sword of Noah was only a centimeter away from Damien and then…
He appeared about 10 meters away, sheathing his sword. "Okay, you guys passed. I'll be leaving after my reward has been given to me." After speaking, the youngster turned around and walked out of the field, with the clear intention of returning to his assigned room.
The six people remaining in the field, the guards included, stood there dumb trying to understand what the hell had just happened.
***
The rest of the day moved really fast to Noah. The next morning he sat facing the Myron Family Head, Owen.
"Seeing you here, it's obvious you wish to cash in on your reward?" Owen sat calmly looking at the youngster that sat before, knowing fully that the boy possessed the power to match him. 'I pray to the gods that this kid isn't some prideful bastard that would suck my inventory dry.' Because he knew, if Noah challenged the Myron family they would probably lose.
"I gathered from the small talk in your mansion that you own an Auction House within your city?" Hearing Noah's words, Owen almost fainted.
His fists clenched as the prayers he muttered in his head intensified. 'Those damned maids!' Still, not wanting to antagonize the monster before him, the Myron family head squeezed out a smile as he nodded. "Y-Yes, this is indeed true."
"Good." Noah nodded in satisfaction, not minding Owen's forced expression. "I'd like a list of your inventory." His words caused the man's face to scrunch up even more, almost as if he was about to begin crying. "You don't need to worry Mr. Myron, I'm only going to take out a few items that catch my attention."
"Of course, of course." Owen's face eased up a bit but he dared not relax completely. He moved to his drawer to bring out a thick record book and passed it to the youngster that could potentially cause him bankruptcy.
Noah accepted the large book and opened it immediately, sifting through its content. It took several minutes for him to finally drop the book down and reveal a rare smile. "I'd like the Gravity affinity Battle Art in your inventory."
"Huh?" The man thoughts paused as he heard those words, his mind so scrambled that his next words surprised even himself. "Just that?"
Noah nodded. "Yes, nothing else within the record book is useful to me."
As someone that had experience in business conversations, Owen was quick to suppress his surprise. He smiled as he stood up, stretching out his hand for a handshake. "Your request is very easy for me to handle, the Battle Art manual had been rotting in my warehouse anyways. Would you like to follow my family and I to tonight's auction? You will receive your reward there, young one."
"Sure. And don't call me back, my name is Noah." Saying this the youngster stood up to return the handshake. Upon confirming the deal, he didn't bother wasting any more time and left the office.
Staring at his leaving figure, Owen sat back down in contemplation. 'I wonder why he would want something like the Gravity affinity manual. Can you exchange something like that for a sort of item at the Academy? He clearly does not possess any affinity close to that. Hmm?' He paused as he remembered the weights that Noah wore during his battle against Damien and Mona. 'He did mention that a friend helped him enchant the equipment. For something like that to happen, the enchanter either has to possess a high mastery of the earth affinity… Or the rare Gravity affinity.' Thinking up to this point, the man laughed wryly. "Well I'll be damned, even the friend of this kid have legendary affinities. It was indeed a good reason to get the two brats to follow this kid."
Of course the man never even considered the possibility of Noah possessing two affinities. Such things were rarer than rare and not a lot of people knew about the existence of a Battlesoul Master possessing two affinities.
Plus Noah had given out the alibi of having someone else enchant the weights. But in reality, Noah had been the one increasing the gravitational pressure on himself. Telling them that made them lower their guards and assume that the Essence flowing through the weights weren't his when they were.
As for the boy in question? He was celebrating the fact that he would get his first Gravity affinity Battle Art.