"Checkmate!"
Flynn looked around him as he got up from the floor to see the confused faces of the adults and young nobles, especially Lucas, Amelia and Ben who were now at the entrance of the hall along with the worried look of his parents.
They all had an even more confused look on their faces as they surveyed around Flynn and saw the various knocked out masked people.
He paid none of them any heed and slowly walked over to his parents and Sebastian.
He winced a bit as he did so, clutching onto his side that was still bleeding but far slower than when the metal ball originally pierced through.
"Flynn!" Anna said worriedly as she rushed over to him to support him.
"Hey mum… Sorry for worrying you…" Flynn said, his voice filled with a hint of tiredness.
"It's okay sweetie. As long as you're safe" she replied softly with a relieved smile.
"Aren't you being too lenient on me mum?"
"Scolding can come later… For now, let's treat your wounds"
"You did good son" Leopold said with a slight nod of his head, a slight smile present on his lips.
"Really! You're just as crazy as your Dad!" exclaimed Sebastian with a chuckle.
Flynn nodded his head approvingly with a weak smile.
Both of them had now walked over to him as Anna sat him down on one of this broken pillars and began to heal him.
The Royal Family along with the Dukes and Duchess of the other big families also began to walk over along with their children.
They had all been very confused when they had first entered the hall and saw Flynn getting up from the ground.
However, after piecing one and two together, they had realized that Flynn had been battling the culprits of the explosion alone even as the rest of them were still gathering their wits together.
'Impressive… Very impressive…' King Arthur thought to himself.
Flynn may have been dealt a wrong hand with his mana core but it seemed like he had gotten stronger even with the limitations that he had. It's only a shame that he would probably grow at a much slower pace compared to his peers.
Those were the thoughts he and the other Dukes were having as they moved towards Anna who was about to cast a spell.
'[Luminescence Series: Dhalion's Grace]' Anna inwardly chanted.
A soft golden glow enveloped her hands which were placed on Flynn's injury and began to heal at a rapid pace visible to the eye.
'I haven't seen my mum's spells in the longest time…' Flynn thought to himself.
'Almost as fast as Ivelia and Ivar's potion' he inwardly said to himself.
As he kept staring at the beautiful golden glow that was rapidly healing his wounds, he heard a familiar voice that was directed towards him.
"Oh… I'd expected you to come out unscathed but turns out, you still need to train more!"
Flynn would recognize that haughty voice anywhere and without waiting, immediately replied.
"Oh can it Aiden!"
"I have to say though, that must've been one hell of a destructive explosion for the hall to be this wrecked…"
"What about you? How'd it go on your end?"
Aiden along with Frank who had now also arrived at the hall, moved towards Flynn as people cleared a path for him, his hands dragging the two guards behind him.
His usually perfectly styled hair now scattered around his face, giving his hair a messy feel.
"I ran into a minor complication…" Aiden responded.
"They almost got away didn't they?" Flynn retorted.
"It was just one. Besides, I caught him didn't I?"
"Well as long as you did…"
Aiden had now reached Flynn, his parents and the other noble members but instead, he moved past them, dropped the two guards close to where Flynn had knocked out the last two masked obelisk members and then walked back towards them.
"Hey mum… Dad… Uncle Baz…"
"Sweetie… We'll talk later, but for now, I think the both of you owe everyone here an explanation" Anna replied.
In agreement with Anna's response, everyone looked to both Flynn and Aiden for an explanation on how exactly they had prevented a situation that could've caused a major devastation for all of Arcadia.
"Son, why did you drag those guards in?" Leopold asked.
"And where did you learn how to drive a motorcycle?" Sebastian followed up.
'That's what you're curious about?!' Flynn thought to himself while staring at Sebastian with a slight confusion on his face.
Aiden glanced over to Flynn and after seeing him nod in approval, took a deep breath and began to explain how it had all happened and how they had realized that they were all in danger.
He ensured to tweak the story and explain it based on one he and Flynn had agreed upon previously in case they were asked about it.
He started his explanations with how both he and Flynn noticed the weird movement of a suspicious noble after setting up the invisible barrier with mana sense, to how they'd both immediately suspected that the guards must've been in on it, which eventually turned out to be right.
Flynn picked up from there and also explained that he spotted the bombs with mana sense which caused him to react immediately and set up the [Force Field] spell.
After they were done explaining, Aiden had expected the nobles to have a look of understanding on their faces but instead, to his own confusion, he had not expected them to have even more confused and skeptic faces.
Flynn also had a similarly confused look on his face and he was also wondering why they looked even more confused instead of having understanding looks on their faces.
"What?" Aiden asked, confusion evident on his face.
'I didn't say anything wrong did I?' he inwardly asked himself.
Aiden and Flynn looked over to their parents, Sebastian and Frank and all four of them had looks of understanding on their faces.
'Weird…' Aiden thought to himself but soon enough, he understood just why they were shocked as Caroline spoke up.
"Aiden… Flynn… I don't know if you both know this, but mana sense is something only S-rankers are able to use proficiently..."
"Huh?!" Aiden and Flynn said in unison, their expressions contorting into one of even deeper confusion.
"Even some S-rankers struggle to use it proficiently…" Adrian continued, his face still very much surprised by what he had just heard from Aiden.
Aiden and Flynn looked at each other again in confusion after which they both then looked at their parents, Frank and Sebastian with questioning looks on their faces.
"It's true young masters"
Frank was the one who answered their questioning look.
"I'd originally wanted to tell you but I refrained from doing so. I wanted to see how far you could push your mastery. The Duke also told me to hold off on telling you when I informed him"
"You did?" Aiden asked his dad.
"Yeah. All in good faith though. I also informed Anna and Sebastian and they also suggested the same thing" Leopold responded calmly.
"Huh… This is most curious…" Flynn muttered out loud.
Upon hearing this, the nobles who were rankers among them and were originally doubting the authenticity of their story realized that both brothers weren't joking about how they really could use mana sense proficiently.
This caused all of them to be even more confused as it had never been heard of for someone in lower ranks to use mana sense that proficiently.
'Is this another effect of mana veins? It's the only thing I can think of…' Flynn thought to himself
'Considering how mana sense was explained in the novel from Aiden's perspective, it seemed like something almost anyone could master after training it consistently…' Aiden mused to himself.
'Guess that was just an Aiden thing…' Aiden continued with his thoughts.
'Come to think of it though, he only really did start using mana sense in the second half of the novel and its concept was never really explained…' Aiden inwardly said to himself.
"Hahaha! You boys really are oddities" Sebastian laughed, his boisterous voice booming and echoing through the entirety of the hall.
"That aside though, you still haven't told me where you learnt how to drive a motorcycle" he asked Aiden curiously.
'You're still wondering about that?!' Flynn inwardly exclaimed to himself again.
"Ah that… Just had a feel for it…" Aiden replied while rubbing the back of his hair, a wry smile adorning his face.
"You just had a feel for it?" Sebastian prodded on with a questioning gaze.
"I did. Weird right?" Aiden responded once again.
"…"
"Leave him be Uncle Baz. He did learn how to drive a car by himself so I wouldn't put it past him" Flynn said in an attempt to save his brother from the situation he was in.
"Really?" Sebastian said, an even more questioning look on his face as he turned to look at Leopold and Anna for confirmation.
Both of them nodded their heads casually in response to his questioning gaze.
Sebastian just shook his head at this in resignation. His friend's sons were always surprising him at every turn and it felt like there was no end to the things they kept doing.
"All in all, thanks to both of you, our competence won't be called to question by the citizens of Arcadia" King Arthur began.
"Flynn and Aiden Belmont, thanks to your bravery, selflessness and quick thinking, you have saved so many lives from danger today and even caught the culprits in the process, ensuring that our annual banquet doesn't end in tragedy."
"For that, I am eternally grateful" he concluded, his voice resonating with genuine appreciation.