Meanwhile, unaware of the heated discussion about her, Kedra had entered the Deslandes family's library.
The room was grand both in size and decor; each wall was lined with books, with multiple aisles composed of shorter shelves in the middle of the room. Any space that did not hold a bookshelf was made into a study or resting area complete with velvet-lined seats.
To the right side of the entrance stood a wooden counter; behind it was a short, plump woman with long graying brown hair and small round glasses adorning a pair of hazel eyes.
'That looks like the librarian. I should probably ask her about what I'm looking for.'
Kedra slowly approached the woman, her servants following close behind her.
"Excuse me, are there any books here that cover the basics of magic?" She asked quietly.
"Hmm? No." The librarian responded in a cold, uninterested tone.
'Ah, I forgot; some people will look down on me. I had been treated decently so far, so I had forgotten that this is how these bastards really are.'
'Alright then, it seems like I'll have to shake this one up a bit.'
Kedra sighed deeply, then suddenly shifted her gaze, looking deep into the woman's eyes.
"What is with your tone? Have you forgotten that I too am a Deslandes?"
Though she didn't raise her voice, Kedra's tone had drastically shifted; her words brought with them an overwhelming pressure, and her firm gaze reminded the librarian of the Duke himself.
"Let us try again, shall we? Take care to answer me correctly this time, and I might forgive your transgression. Should you refuse to correct yourself? Well..." Kedra added, placing her hand on the hilt of her sabre.
The librarian was baffled; she had difficulty breathing, as if faced with a wild animal.
'How could such a young child be so terrifying?'
The woman quickly bowed her head, nearly slamming it into the counter.
"Please forgive me, my lady; I have committed a grave error!"
"Sure, sure, just answer me correctly this time. Are there any books covering basic magic in this library?"
"I'm afraid such books are all held within Lord Rae's quarters; you would need to converse with him if you wished to acquire any, my lady."
"Very well. Alright, you three, you're free for today. Lionel, come with me."
"Yes, my lady." The four said in unison.
Soon after, Kedra stepped out of the room along with Lionel and began making her way through the mansion's long hallways.
"Wait, I just realized..." Kedra said, suddenly coming to a stop.
"You don't know where Lord Rae's room is, do you?" Lionel jokingly remarked.
"I'll just ask a random maid."
Kedra began looking around for any signs of a servant but did not see a single one. Continuing down the halls in hopes of finding someone, a moment of distraction led to her looking out of the window.
Peering down at the garden, Kedra spotted the soldier's training grounds. Curious about their level, she took a break from her search to observe their training.
Scanning through the ranks, her eyes stopped on a pair of thin gray horns. As she looked more attentively, she saw the owner of the two horns, a shorter-than-average, spindly boy who was swinging a wooden sword away from the rest of the soldiers.
The boy had shoulder-length burgundy hair that he tied into a ponytail, and his skin looked surprisingly healthy despite his frail body.
"Say, Lionel, you've been to the soldier's barracks. Who's that red-haired kid down there?"
"Ah, that's Naoya; he's a hornfolk from a country further east. Caught your eye, did he?"
"You can say that; I've never seen a 'hornfolk' before... What's so special about them?"
"Well, for one, they have horns and sharp fangs; their skin and bones are much tougher than a human's; and they usually have exotic eye and hair colors."
"It sounds like they'd make good soldiers." Kedra leaned against the windowsill, analyzing the hornfolk's movements.
"Sure, they would, if people didn't hate them so much."
"Huh? Why?!" Kedra exclaimed, turning to look at Lionel in confusion.
"Well, hornfolk are the result of a particularly nasty habit that some humanoid monsters had some hundreds of years ago. And even though those monsters are long gone, it seems that the discrimination hasn't really gone away."
"Ah, I probably should not have said that to a child."
"It's fine; I think I get the gist of it. So this Naoya guy, do the other soldiers discriminate against him?"
"Well, it's nothing serious, but they do exclude him from group training. Then there's the little things, like giving him less food during lunch, tripping him up, and insulting him frequently."
"Hey, that is serious, you idiot!"
"Maybe to you, but I assure you I've seen much worse done to Hornfolk; honestly, he's getting off easy."
"Well, maybe, but I don't like it." Kedra leaned onto the windowsill once more, deep in thought.
'He sucks at swinging that sword... It feels like he wants his arms to be further apart; maybe a polearm would suit him better.'
"Hey Lionel, shouldn't he be practicing with a polearm instead of a sword?"
"Hmm? I don't know; I've never really paid much attention to him."
Lionel began peering out of the window along with Kedra, closely analyzing Naoya's movements.
"Now that you mention it, yes, he should. Everything from his stance to his footwork suggests that he's more used to using polearms."
"Then why don't they give him one?"
"The soldiers here are trained in the Imperial swordsmanship style; it doesn't have any chapters on using polearms since the people that employ it never really go to war."
"That's the only reason? They're letting his potential rot just because they don't want to adapt their style."
"Well, I doubt they'd want to cater to a single hornfolk's needs; remember, they really don't care for him."
"I really don't like this..." Kedra muttered to herself, her brow furrowing.
'This is just like when I found Lionel; he's a bundle of potential that's being completely wasted on these dumbasses! I can't just sit by... But unlike Lionel, he's not some random vagrant; he's a soldier belonging to the Duke. I can't just swoop in and make him mine, can I?
Kedra sighed. She tried her best to think of a way to get the other soldiers to allow him to use a polearm, but all of her ideas fell apart.
Eventually, her frustration was too much to bear.
"Argh whatever! I'm the daughter of a duke, right?! I'll just do whatever I want!"
"Alright, we'll go get those books from Rae later; I'm going to go deal with that." Kedra said, pointing outside to the horn-folk.
Lionel smirked as a low chuckle left his mouth.
"Just what I expected from you, little lady."