(General POV)
The orange flame in Riveria's hand spluttered for a bit before it died out. Riveria breathed heavily as she leant back a little bit, a slight sheen of sweat shining on her forehead.
"Are you okay my Lady?" asked one of the elves.
"Yes. I'm fine." She breathed. "Using that technique however requires a lot of mental focus and I'm afraid that I'm not quite at a level where I can conjure them wordlessly and as effortlessly like Lyze." She smiled at the boy.
Lyze stared at her in shock.
"Wait...you actually kept on trying out my theory?" He asked.
"Well of course. It is always fun to learn a new method of casting, no matter how difficult it is." Riveria smiled at him.
"As expected of Lady Riveria." Said one elf, who was rubbing his hands together in pleasure. "Only she could ever grasp such an impossible concept and make it a reality."
The other elves around him murmured and muttered while nodding their heads in agreement. One simply had to look at Lyze to see the indignation rolling off of him in waves. He cleared his throat, catching all of their attention.
"Erm...you lot do realize that I'm the one who introduced this 'impossible concept', right?" He said while looking over the faces in the room.
"And what of it?" Asked the same elf from before.
"Well, should credit not be given where it is due?"
The elf smirked at him.
"Oh, I didn't take you to be the type to fish for compliments, Mr Keele. I would have thought given the praise that our Lady gave you, that you would be quite the exceptional mage. We do not go around seeking praise for every little thing we do." The elf sniffed before turning his head away. "But what else could be expected of a human? They have a little talent in magic, and all of a sudden they should be treated with absolute importance."
A few seconds passed by before a vein appeared on Lyze's forehead throbbing violently. Riveria noticed that the blue flame which was still alight in Lyze's palm subtly began to take a darker hue.
"You filthy little animal." Lyze muttered darkly.
The gathering of elderly elves all bristled in anger at this. Some of them stood up, and if Lyze was in a different state of mind, he would have laughed at how much drama they were trying to make out of this.
"Why you! Just who do you thin-" The elf tried to say but was quickly silenced.
"Shut up when the grown ups are talking boy!" Lyze said in the same dark voice.
The elf suddenly found himself frozen, his body unable to move and his lips drawn tight, rendering him incapable of speech.
"I don't know where you get off addressing your betters like that, human!" Said Kalos darkly. "Just who do you think you are?"
"An existence far above your own." Lyze said.
Everybody gave him a questioning look. Lyze then directed his gaze toward Riveria.
"I do not understand why you surround yourself with such braindead fools, much less allow them to remain in the Familia, Riveria."
"I'll admit some among us cannot let go of certain predispositions." Riveria sighed as she directed a glare at the frozen elf. "I certainly do not appreciate the continued attempts to ingratiate themselves with me either, nor their constant bias towards other races." She turned back to Lyze. "That being said, you are not being any better by being the first to act with your powers. And disrespecting the elderly certainly does not elevate you above their derogatory behaviour either Lyze."
Lyze scoffed.
"Oh, please. We both know that me being here has just been turning me into a ticking timebomb. The self righteous gits have constantly been sending me snide looks like petulant little children raised under their prostitute mothers' beds. I'd say they lowered themselves beneath me the moment I walked into this room."
"As I said before..." Riveria said firmly. "...insults do not make you better than them. Indeed credit must be given to you for teaching me this method. But you must not let your anger at the foolishness of old men control your actions." She narrowed her eyes at Lyze in a chastising way. "If you wish to prove that you're better than them, release your anger and let him go."
The stare-off continued between the two before Riveria's eyes caught Lyze's other hand which had been clenched release its fingers. The palm holding the fireball was also closed, extinguishing the flame. The elf was released from the telekinetic hold and he stumbled back into his seat. The younger elves sat by with baited breaths, waiting for whatever would proceed next.
"I think that's enough for today everyone." Riveria concluded as she cast her eyes all around the room. "It would seem that I'll have to make adjustments to the study plans if everyone is to continue behaving as childishly as they have today. I expected better."
The elves bowed to her words. She was their princess after all and did not dare to talk back if she was displeased with them. It went without saying that her scholarly standing stood far above their own as well. With a round of silent apologies sounding, Riveria waved her hand for people to clear the room.
"Lyze." She called out. He paused at the door. "Stay behind please."
He nodded and waited for everyone to leave the room before he approached her table. Riveria folded her hands on the table as she gave him a disapproving look.
"I honestly expected better from you Lyze" She said with a shake of her head. "I can understand why you would be angered. Their behaviour did not go amiss by me. But I trusted that you retained that sense of maturity enough to not lash out and that is exactly what you did. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed in you."
"What did you expect?" Lyze asked. "For weeks now these little pissants have been giving me dirty looks and throughout the entirety of this 'lesson', they've either been snickering at me or just giving me complete death glares altogether. I'd understand if it was just the stupid kids but wrinkled old farts like that? Do not expect me to keep my cool when I'm just itching to make them put their other foot fully in the grave!"
Riveria sighed. "Again with the bad language. How many times have I told you to kick that habit?"
"Enough that I've stopped caring to listen."
"You know, you've been very childish yourself lately. You keep throwing these little tantrums whenever something is not going your way. Was that first impression you gave us the day you joined a façade?"
"What do you mean?"
"When you first came to us, you acted very mature and during battle you expressed the ability to think with a calm mind and choose your options carefully. But lately that has not been the case. It's come to a point where you are deliberately hurting others with your powers. Last night it was some members of a different Familia, and now it is a member of our own. You've only been here about a month and you've already fallen this far. As an executive, I'm finding it difficult to find a reason to trust that you are not a detriment instead of an investment anymore."
"You are the one who kept pestering me to join." Lyze said. "I knew just as well as you did how it would go down and how I'd be received. Just Kalos's attitude was enough of an indication yet YOU chose to ignore the obvious signs and persist to involve me in this study group which brought me little benefit anyway!" He tossed a few books and papers across the table her way.
"What do you mean little benefit?"
"Let me rephrase that...NO benefit. These magic circles, they're useless for me. I have not been taught anything I do not already know!"
"This class was simply meant to introduce you into our ways of magic Lyze. Of course it would be beginner level stuff. Just like any education system, the new and much harder things to learn come with time."
"Well I have no interest." Lyze slammed his palm down on the table. "Our agreement was that if I didn't like this class, I would not come anymore. And seeing as I don't like it and it certainly does not like me, I will not be coming anymore."
"I'm afraid that decision lies with me now. After your assault on those three men last night, the rest of us do not have much confidence in your decision making."
"Well you're not my mother!" Lyze spat before turning his back on her. "You got what you wished. Now stop wasting my time and distracting me from my goals." He briskly walked out of the room.
Riveria stared after him before placing a hand over her heart. A confused expression came over her face.
'Why...did those words hurt like that?'
---
"Are you serious?!" Lyze asked the healer who nodded their head.
"I'm afraid so master Lyze. Miss Lili has unexpectedly come down with a fever. I suppose it was the sudden transition of sleeping in the cold streets to sleeping in a warm bed that triggered it. Plenty of rest will do the trick but I'm afraid she will not be accompanying you to the dungeon."
"Damn it!" Lyze muttered. "She looked perfectly fine yesterday!"
"I'm sorry sir." The healer bowed. "I'm afraid I must be on my way. Have a good day."
Lyze walked in the direction opposite to the one the healer was taking, trying to re-evaluate his plans. He'd been hoping on going on another dungeon run with Lili by his side. Lately his very efficient killing of monsters proved that it lowered the efficiency of being able to find and store all the cores and drop items. Especially Papillo wings which could not be found sometimes in the dark.
He needed to clear his head. And that was best done by gong on another rampage down to the 18th floor. He picked up the red greatsword he'd placed on his shelf which he'd been anticipating the use of. He watched in delight as blue flames licked cross the surface of the blade.
"Not a sacred treasure, but certainly a weapon worthy of a name. Let's see." he examined the blade and hilt which was a rich red, wreathed in supernatural flames. "How about Grigor? Sounds brutish as Greatswords generally tend to look, and is a name that goes well with the colour red in my opinion. yes, Grigor it will be."
Content with with the new name, he slipped it into its sheath which hung on his back. Picking up the usual essentials he would take with him into the dungeon, he walked out of his room and locked the door. On his way out of the manor, he met up with Ais.
"Hey." he said to her.
She gave him a blank look before returning his greeting silently. He sighed and scratched the back of his head.
"Look, about last night. I'm sorry." She gave him a surprised look. "A lot of things were happening and I took it out on you. I shouldn't have done that. Will you forgive me?" He said, looking at her hopefully.
She nodded. "Sure." She said with a small smile. For some reason, Lyze found that he didn't want any bad feelings between him and this girl if he could help it. And surprisingly, her acceptance of his apology seemed to take a weight off of his shoulders.
She looked at his gear. "Are you going in the dungeon today?"
"Yes, I am. Wanna come?"
"No, I've already been." She shook her head as she held up a small bag of Valis. "I'll come next time."
"Oh...well see you soon I guess."
"Yeah."
They both bid farewell to each other before going their separate ways. Right before they could lose sight of each other however, Ais turned around and yelled something to him.
"By the way, I heard something in the guild."
He turned around to look at her. "You did?"
"Yes. They say that Ottar has been seen in the dungeon."
"Has he?" Lyze narrowed his eyes. "I'll be sure to look out for him."
"I don't think you'll come across him." She smiled at him. "He's the top adventurer. He'll be in the Deep Floors most likely."
"I'm sure. Thanks all the same." Lyze said as he waved goodbye to her before they both disappeared out of each others view and Lyze turned onto the main road.
This news would have been something that Lyze would have brushed off as it was common for lesser adventurers to talk about the higher ones whenever they entered the dungeon. So it would have been easily forgotten...
...if he did not feel a cold gaze lock on to him from the direction of Babel tower. Lifting his head in that direction, he locked eyes with the perpetrator.
"Just what are you planning, woman?"
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