The dining room took a moment of silence before both Aaron and Morgan began laughing heartily.
"Little Kai. Of course, there are. In fact, the Bluestone Sect is divided into two parts; the Knight school and the Mage School. You can choose which one you want to go to, and as long as you can pass the entrance exam, you will become a disciple in that school. Although your father was a knight, I strongly suggest you become a Mage if you can."
"You knew Father?" Kai questioned with slight joy in his voice.
The room fell silence for a few seconds once more, only this time, it was clearly not a comic one. Instead, the atmosphere slowly turned suffocating as the second passed by in silence.
"You father… Was by sworn brother, the same as Morgan here, who was also the sworn brother of your father, despite being his brother by blood as well." Aaron threw the joke in at the end in hopes of repairing the broken mood, but all it did was make the slight smirk on Morgan's face slip away as a melancholic emotion overcame him.
"Your father; Owen Dread, was a great man. He was an Intermediate knight, a very strong one at that, capable of taking on two knights of the same rank. In his name, I ask you Kai, what do you wish to become in the future? A Knight who fights for honour, or a Mage who fights for themselves."
Kai's gaze became unfocused for a moment before he replied in a confused tone, "Can't Magi fight for honour? I mean Mr. Aaron seems pretty honourable. He took us in for no payment at all?"
His question caused Morgan to begin a fit of coughing, while Aaron smiled bitterly.
"It seems as though I won't be needing to give it to you after all." Morgan finally said as he collected himself and got back to his seat.
"Now, now Kai. You are absolutely right. Magi can also be honourable, so there is no need to feel any doubt. We will take you for the Talent Testing for Magi as soon as the sect opens up in 2 years' time. You are 8 right?"
"Yes."
"Good. Then we will begin training your Spiritual energy from now on for the next two years."
"No! He will enrol into the Knights School and become a knight like his father. Right, Kai?" Pops asked as his bald head wrinkled while he raised his eyebrows towards Kai.
"Uhm… How long does the knight's training take per day Pops?"
"6 hours at a minimum"
"And how long would the Mage training take per day?"
Aaron frowned upon hearing this and spoke out, "Little Kai. Remember this. One cannot walk down two separate paths if they wish to reach the peak. You must focus on only one way; or else you might be led into the wrong path. To answer your question, a mage will never stop learning. However, I cannot teach you anything from the sect due to some reasons, so I will only be able to teach a few tricks. It should not take longer than an hour per day."
"Then why can't I do both? At least for now. Once I reach the Bluestone Sect I can decide then." Kai questioned back, almost ignoring Aaron, while still answering him at the same time.
"I guess that settles that" Morgan grumbled slightly, but also agreed to it since Kai was not rejecting his opinion after meeting Aaron, who also begrudgingly agreed. Aaron wanted Kai, who he treated as his own nephew despite just having met him, to be as strong as possible, and for that, being a mage was definitely the path to move forward.
As far as he knew, a knight needed to constantly go through repetitive bodily training to slowly increase their mana, as well as an understanding of attacks. And the worst aspect was that you simply would not be able to advance after becoming an Advanced knight, you would need to face countless life-and death-situations before getting 'enlightened' on the path forward.
On the other hand, a mage only needed to increase their spiritual powers and alter spells to better suit them in order to advance through the ranks. Furthermore, a mage might be weaker than a knight at the beginning stages, but as the mage progresses through the ranks, and with time, they would be able to gain powers far stronger than knights.
Lastly, a knight had a fixed lifespan; that of a normal human, while Magi had variable lifespans depending on their Rank.
"Father!" A childish voice echoed from the other side of the door as they were pushed open all of a sudden; revealing a small 6-year-old cute in a bright blue dress. Her black straight hair was tied into two ponytails and her black eyes stared at Aaron Drake.
"Hessel! Did I not tell you to stay in your room? Why are you out here?" Aaron frowned while admonishing who Kai could only assume was his daughter based on their conversation.
"Ho? You have such a cute little daughter and you wanted to hide her from us?" Morgan said as he raised his eyebrows in mild astonishment.
"No-"
"Yes! Father told me to stay quiet and remain in my room for the entire day! He even put guards outside my room." The little girl names Hessel huffed in anger.
"Oh? Such a thing happened?" Morgan smirked while staring at Aaron.
"So how did you escape then?" Kai asked the little girl who was a few years younger than himself.
"Hmph, of course, a person such as myself would have her methods," Hessel responded as she puffed her cheeks and looked away from Kai.
"But what might those methods be?" Kai pressed on, more and more interested to know how she managed to escape. Somehow, it felt like he was in one of the novels he had read back on earth about a young detective finding clues about a suspect just by picking up on small things from people.
He noticed that her dress was slightly soiled and her hair, despite being in a ponytail, seemed to have been frazzled a bit, most likely by the wind.
"Did you perhaps leave the manor somehow and then return back?" Kai threw out the possibility.
"You-!!" Hessel immediately turned to face Kai with an angry yet afraid expression on her red face, causing Kai to chuckle slightly.
Morgan ignored the conflict of interests between the children and instead turned his attention to Aaron with a wide grin.
"Looks like Owen lucked out in the end. I hope you remember the promise." Morgan stated, causing Aaron's expressions to contort into various shapes until finally settling on a resigned one.
"Alright. For the sake of Owen, I will keep to my part of the promise, since my firstborn was Hessel. However, I will move on to make a new promise as well. The next female born in the Dread family, whoever be their parents, must marry into the Drake family in exchange for this."
"Alright!" Morgan nodded as he raised his cup of wine in the air, "To a successful future."
"To a successful future," Aaron also raised his glass.
Kai noticed this and picked up a glass of water for himself, and also handed one to little Hessel, ensuring that the water in hers was a lot less to allow her to pick it up without issues. Hessel herself also hastily tried to put away her anger and thanked Kai.
"Cheers!"