Arsen, Aeneas, and the knights with them placed their right hand on their chests and bowed towards the Chiliarch of Gold.
Nireus did the same. He looked to his right where two young ladies were sitting. Both have the same features as him. Golden hair and eyes, and pale skin. The older one among the two, who was of the age of twenty, wore a white gown that fit with her perfect figure. A lady of elegance. She bowed by placing her right hand on her chest, pinched her gown with the other hand, her right foot behind the left, and bent her knee a little. The way how Panteran ladies bow.
Beside her is a much younger girl. She wore a yellow gown and bowed the same way as the knights and men.
When Nireus saw how his youngest daughter greeted Arsen and the others, he cleared his throat to catch her attention, "Tiri," he said with his soft voice.
The girl stared at his father, "What?" she asked, "But, I am already bowing,"
"Look at your sister," Nireus said.
Tiriara looked at her older sister, who showed a smile in her direction.
"That's lame. For the thousand time father, I am not bowing like that. I'm a knight, not a lady."
"Thousandth," whispered her older sister, "And, I'm also a knight, yet I'm a lady."
Tiriara corrected herself and told her sister to stop kidding. Then, the girl looked at Rhene, "She bowed like I did," she said. Rhene had a weird smile as she didn't know how to react. Theresa explained that, unlike Rhene, she's acting as a lady from the house Chronis and not as a knight since she's not wearing armor. To which Tiriara replied, "With or without armor, I'm a knight!"
Defeated, Nireus didn't press on the matter as they were in front of guests. Instead, he asked her daughters to introduce themselves.
"I am Theresa Chronis, the eldest daughter of the lord of Arsida."
Everyone was staring at Theresa as she introduced herself. Her soft voice soothed all of their ears.
"Greetings men, my name is Tiriara Chronis, father's daughter. I will be a knight like him when I'm older!" The girl said with enthusiasm.
Aeneas wanted to laugh aloud, same as Haemon. But, both of them managed to hold it in as they did not want to embarrass the Chiliarch.
After that, Arsen introduced himself. He also made a brief introduction of the knights with him by saying their names. For Aeneas, Arsen asked him to do it himself. Although the young Caspius felt nervous, he felt like there was no way he would botch his introduction.
"Greetings, I am Aeneas Caspius, Sir Arsen's younger brother," he said paired with another bow.
"Please take a seat," said Nireus. He asked his servants for snacks and some drinks.
Arsen and Nireus were facing each other, talking about the increasing cases of beasts going mad, politics, and other stuff. Aeneas on the other hand was eating his snacks in silence. He glimpsed forward to see the girl, Tiriara, sticking out her tongue and pulling it back seconds after Aeneas saw her. Then, she would act as if nothing happened. This occurred a couple of times, but Aeneas decided to ignore her.
With a stern tone, "Tiri," Nireus whispered.
"What?" Tiriara replied.
"Stop what you're doing."
"But I'm not doing anything."
Nireus turned to Aeneas, "Forgive her young Aeneas, my youngest is still a bit childish," he said.
"It's nothing, my lord," Aeneas replied.
Tiriara jumped behind her father, she wrapped her arms around Nireus's neck, "Who're you calling childish, huh father?"
Nireus began chuckling as he looked at Arsen and the others. But, behind his smile was a great embarrassment. Theresa tried to pull her younger sister from his father, but she gripped harder and wouldn't let go.
Theresa looked at their guests with a smile, "It's just their way of affection," she said.
In the background, "Tiri, please stop, I'll give you money, go play outside," Nireus whispered to his daughter.
With a smile, Tiriara showed her palm to his father. Nireus placed a silver coin on it.
"Thanks, father! Love you," the girl said. Then, she kissed her father on the cheeks before running outside the manor.
As if nothing happened, Nireus took a sip of his tea, "Apologies my dear guests," he said.
Arsen didn't know what to say and decided to come up with something, "It's nothing my lord, I wish my brother was as cute as your daughter," he said. His words made Aeneas's face shriveled in embarrassment. He stared at his brother, who just remembered his promise.
"Ah, Chiliarch, my younger brother has matters to attend to," Arsen continued to ask permission to excuse Aeneas.
Nireus agreed. He said that his daughter rushed out of the place without saying anything, how could he not allow someone polite to be excused? He also expressed how he wanted Aeneas to be friends with his daughter.
Donos volunteered to escort Aeneas home. When Aeneas and Donos went to the stables to get their steeds, Tiriara appeared in front of them.
"Wow, where'd you get that black harion?" she asked.
Aeneas didn't want to speak with the rude girl, but, he felt the need to since she's the daughter of the lord of his region.
"My father brought it from one of his travels."
"Your father's a traveler?"
"A merchant."
Donos went ahead and waited in front of the gate for Aeneas.
"What does your father sell? A sword? Books? Oh, it must be clothes, right? Or maybe he trained harions and sold them. But, aren't those what stable masters do? Is your father a stable master?"
Aeneas felt exhausted. He didn't know how to answer, "He's dead," he replied.
Tiriara paused, "Oh, sorry," she said.
"Then—" Aeneas was about to tell the girl about his departure, but Tiriara bombarded him with another set of questions.
"Then how did you get that harion? Did you get it many years ago? What magic can it do?"
At this point, Aeneas was done. He bowed to her without saying anything, "I'll be heading home, young lady."
"Don't call me a lady, I'm a knight."
"But there are knights who are also a lady," Aeneas argued.
Tiriara laughed, "Look at you trying to fool me. I'm twelve, you think I'm a child? What are you, my sister?"
Although he was telling the truth, Aeneas didn't want to create a pointless argument, "Yeah, yeah, anyway, we'll be heading home, thank you for your hospitality" he said. In his head, Aeneas thought how dumb Tiriara was when her sister was a knight. He couldn't believe that the girl was twelve. But to the stubborn Tiriara, girls can only be a knight or a lady. And since Theresa's gesture was serene and the definition of 'ladylike', she doesn't view her yet as a knight.
Without looking back, Aeneas went to Donos.
"Did you make a new friend?"
The boy shrugged, "I hope not," he replied.
Donos laughed and patted Aeneas on the back. Then, they mounted and left. Aeneas sped up the moment they were out of the gate.
Back at the Caspius residence, Eluard saw Aeneas riding Orion with speed. Donos followed behind him.
"You're early," said Eluard. It wasn't noon yet and the servants and some of the knights had just started preparing their lunch.
"Brother kept his promise," Aeneas said as he unmounts from Orion. "Where did you go? I thought you'd come with us," he asked.
Eluard said that he also wanted to meet the guardian of Arsida. But he needed to buy some firestones at dawn, and when he arrived, they were already gone.
"Too bad, we could have exchanged places," Aeneas said.
"You wish. Your brother wouldn't go without you."
Aeneas chuckled, "Right."
Eluard greeted Donos when he arrived. At the same time, Aeneas passed Orion's reins to Eluard before rushing back to the manor. The young Caspius passed by Yri and Issa who were peeling some vegetables in the kitchen.
"Aenie," said Yri, "Where are you off to?"
Aeneas stopped, he turned to them, "Training," he said.
"Okay, be sure to be back for lunch," Yri replied.
Aeneas nods, and he runs to his room on the second floor. Then, he changed his clothes and brought with him three wooden swords. He went into the woods to the south of their manor. It was his place of training. Everyone in the manor knew the place since Arsen's knights helped chop some of the trees to create a good space for the young Aeneas to train.
In his training space, a blackwood stood tall at the center. Aeneas uses it as his target dummy. Most trees that have lived for hundreds of years turn to dark brown as they absorb mana. Their leaves would be the same, but the fruits become more nutritious as these trees also become harder. When they reach five hundred years, their insides start to turn black, making them harder. And as more time passed, the entire three would become black. People call it blackwood, one of the hardest materials in all of Nusterra.
The boy placed two of the wooden swords on a table. He brought one with him and walked towards the blackwood at the center of the area. Aeneas closed his eyes, imagining Alistair in front of him. He tried to remember how their match went.
Then, he dashed. The young Caspius redid how their last exchange went. He tried to do a diagonal slash, leaped, and then spun. After that, Aeneas pretended that his sword broke, he dropped it and went for a dodge and uppercut.
When Aeneas stopped, he heard someone walking towards him and heard a familiar voice coming from a girl, "Why're you training in the middle of a forest? Your manor was big, why not train there?" she asked.