All of Rio's attention was now shifted onto the tournament happening three years from now, he bought some items that would be useful in his combat such as the stealth cloak, although it wasn't a high-level one, it could be used effectively on mage masters and below which was good enough
Rio was about to get into his habit of cultivating in his mana-condensed room when he sensed a couple of people by his gate
Rio's eyebrows furrowed when he saw about 2 dozen people by his gate, with a couple of familiar faces at the front of the small crowd
"What is the meaning of this?" Rio walked halfway between his front door and his gate and said with a volume not too loud but enough for everyone to hear
"What do you mean?" a brown-haired guy with matching brown eyes said with a teasing smile on his face
Rio's eyes twitched at the phrase that came out of Luke's mouth
"We're here to celebrate your birthday," a familiar face that hasn't been seen for about half a decade said sheepishly
When he saw the person who voiced this, Rio twisted his neck and looked at the person in confusion; inwardly Rio was laughing but he didn't want it to show on his face
"Long time no see, brother," Rio said in an almost mocking tone but to others, it sounded normal, well…everyone but Sylvester
"Are you going to let us stand out here or are you going to let us in and start this party?" Daniel said whilst holding a cake
'Sigh, I guess I have been cultivating non-stop the past year, it's not bad to have a break once in a while Rio though before deactivating the barrier
"HAHA, now that's more like it, you didn't think we would celebrate your birthday, right?" Daniel said in a joyous mood
"Well, it was thanks to Sylvester that I knew and invited other people," Daniel said as he walked towards the house with the cake in hand
Rio was just about to ask them how they knew it was his birthday, Rio even forgot it was his own birthday
Rio looked at Sylvester who was just a couple of steps away from him
Sylvester looked almost the same as before except for his posture and attitude, the last Rio saw him, his back was as straight as a general on the battlefield ready to raise the Morales of his solider and face as confident as if everything he did was done with certainty
But now, his posture was one of someone who had been bruised and beaten countless times and his face was as awkward as they come, it slightly amused Rio
"Brother, long time no see, I see you have been doing well, it also seems you've changed a lot these past years," Rio said with a smile, once again the smile would only look mockingly to Sylvester but normal to others
"Ahh..lil Ri- I mean Younger brother, long time no see, I hope you don't mind me telling your friends your birthday, just wanted to surprise you a little," Sylvester said awkwardly
'He's clearly here for something, protection? Resources? '
"Let's go in brother, we don't need to be standing outside like this," Rio said as he gestured to Sylvester in and walked alongside with him
They were only outside for about 30 seconds but when they came in the whole place already looked festive, there were banners on the high ceiling and party hats
As Rio was directing Sylvester to a place to sit, a girl quickly approached him and extended both her hand toward Rio's face
Rio's leaned his face back while squinting his eyes wearily, however, seeing the party hat in the girl's hand he resisted his reflex and let her place it on his head before she bounced away off beat to the music that was playing
Rio and Sylvester got a place to sit and talk, "So, how have you been? tell me how the academy was when you arrived" Rio asked not out of concern but a story of what happened to turn the previously sanguine Sylvester into the current submissive and meek him
Sylvester thought for a second before resigning himself, the only one that could help him in the current situation he was in was his younger brother connected by blood or so were Sylvester's thoughts
"When I was on the airship, everything looked so nice and I even made a couple of friends on the ship, we arrived at the academy and went through the procedures and such to get enrolled and I was given my token and uniform, applied to some courses and such, everything was going so smoothly, the bond I had with the two friends I made on the airship got stronger and I met some of their friends, which they were very welcoming; About two year goes by and I made it in with the inner disciples, and I met this beautiful girl and we started hanging out frequently" Sylvester paused as if he was reminiscing then continued
"She one day asked me for a favor, she asked if she could borrow 10 High spirit stones and she would repay me when she got back from the mission, and be blinded by love, even though I didn't have the funds, I couldn't let her down, so I sold everything I had and went to loan from some people when I gave her the spirit stones, she took it happily and even kissed me, that was when I was sure I did the right thing, I could pay it back the loan over time, so there was no problem…"
Rio cut Sylvester off "Let me guess, you got scammed and now you're in a mountain of debt slaving away with interest piling up, I assume," Rio said stoically thinking back to the loan sharks in his old world
Sylvester nodded not daring to look into his younger brother's eyes due to sheer embarrassment
"So, you have been slaving away for them for about three years if my calculations aren't wrong" Sylvester merely nodded at Rio's statement
"So…what do they make you do to try to pay them back," Rio said curiously
However, Sylvester refused to say anything instead a tear dropped down his cheek, it could be seen that he was trying to hold it back but alas he failed
Rio internally rolled his eyes; he didn't have any family ties with Sylvester except that they were blood-related
A favorite phrase Rio liked in his past life was "Blood may be thicker than water, but mud is thicker than blood" The meaning is simple, if the situation allows it, someone close to you wouldn't mind getting their hands dirty for what they want, be that money, wealth or protection.
"So…what do you want me to do?" Rio said already knowing the answer
"Can you lend me some Spirit stones so I can pay back what is owed?" Sylvester said abashedly
"And how much is that?" Rio replied
"200 High spirit stones," he said with his head going even lower
'…'
'Is this a joke, although I have the money due to the auction, that amount was around half a year of Rio's salary due to my increase in pay when I broke through to mage master' Rio thought, he had no reason to help Sylvester if he didn't gain anything
"And what do I get in return?" Rio said wryly expecting nothing