Chapter 99 - Leadership and Demons

As Jien entered the lounge to see a number of plush couches, armchairs and tables that had been polished to a radiant shine he saw that everyone had gathered anew as expected. Runa entered a respectful number of steps after Jien and moved off to the side with the other staff members who were working to prepare a variety of drinks and snacks for both the adults and the children alike.The latter were gathered on the left side of the lounge conversing with each other about the different matches and what they thought of each of their children as well as the overall results of the short tournament. Meanwhile, on the right side of the lounge the children in their midday outfits were present and chatting with each other, at most of them, Barret remaining silent as always as he sat calmly and elegantly in his silver accented dark grey vest, black slacks and polished black boots.Jien had just sat when a few maids had approached presenting a tiered plate of pastries to go with the specially chosen tea for the event. Of course, each and every part of the event had been curated by Lord Losler and his staff, be it drinks, food or the very set up of the furniture in each room. Currently they were being served a well-received and highly rated red tea along with pastries that paired uniquely in terms of flavor.As the children including Jien savored the tea and complimenting treats Lord Losler stood from his seat and clapped his hands once with a deliberate amount of force to gain everyone's attentions. "Now that we have all gathered once more, I will get right into it so as not to bore our guests." he stated with a smile gracing his usual stoic face, his eyes seemed to be lit with a certain level of joy that anyone could read. "The winner of our little tourney was none other than my son and your host, Jien!" he added before clapping his hands in applause. The rest of the guests did the same given that they roughly knew the results as well. The only one who remained oddly surprised was Jien himself, since he had not actually kept track of who had won and lost other than his own matches.After his book was taken from him, he had paid enough attention to the matches to understand a bit about how these children fought, but he never actually paid attention long enough to know the results often sinking into his own thoughts while he waited his turn. In fact, he was almost positive that he would end in a tie with the silent Barret who seemed as calm as ever given the announcement. Perhaps if one paid close attention they would notice that the stoic youth actually seemed to relax a little after the announcement. Luckily his mother had not given him an earful after he had forfeited, not one match but two matches in a row to avoided tying with the birthday boy. Perhaps she thought he was giving the host the limelight, but the truth was that he wanted as little to do with leadership as possible.The other children had won an average of two to three matches while Jien had succeeded in winning four through different methods. Barret could have matched this, but he threw his last match before even entering the training field by forfeit to save himself the trouble, leaving Jien as the ultimate victor. After the short applause died down it was the slightly rambunctious Rosalind who spoke up before any other of the children could. "Congratulations, I guess we know who will be leading us, at least in the short term." she stated with a smile and a wink toward Jien who wanted to get up and hide in the library at this point. If he had known how things were going, he would have let Barret win what he considered his easiest match. He didn't want the role of leader, he just wanted to spend his days expanding his knowledge of the arcane.It was too late now; all he could do was sigh internally and put on stiff smile as he accepted the compliment, ignoring the call to leadership entirely and quickly seemingly losing himself in his cup of tea. Rosalind ignored the matter entirely after her comment regarding leadership was left behind and instead turned to a completely different topic that the other noble children had been curious about. "Say, Jien, you didn't use a demon enhancement during any of the matches that any of us could tell. Why was that?" The energetic orange haired girl tilted her head cutely as she asked this question.Jien's response caught all of the children off guard and baffled but the adults chuckling lightly in understanding. "Demon enhancement?" Jien asked with a curious expression and bright look in his eyes. The children didn't know what to say, demon summoning, and use of demon enhancement was fairly common in their generation of nobles. Their parents didn't use it because it wasn't common during their youth, though not unheard of. Jien on the other hand was very curious as this was a knew area of the arcane arts that he had not heard of or been introduced to.Jien looked at his father, Runa, Mark and Emily who responded with a bit of a bitter smile. This wasn't a common practice during their youths and unlike some of the other noble households the Losler household did not keep up with the latest trends in the arcane arts unless they were related to education at the academy. Demon summoning and contracts was not a necessity by any stretch and only those brave enough to take the risk usually did so. How were they to know that children of all people were leaning into this practice to gain an extra boost in power.