“Eh?” the clamour onboard the boat stopped all at once as everyone looked at Randuman in unison.

“Father, do you want our house the be the first to lose our noble title before even ten cycles pass?!” Romero groaned exasperatedly, a thick vein bulging in his temples.

As the son of Randuman, he was the heir to inherit the next Haragol title.

And as the father of Ruba, the button-nosed little girl who sat on his lap with her feet dangling out of the boat’s edge, he did not want his house executed before she even grew up!

Romero, who looked about Bromwyn’s age, glared at his father. But the old man simply inclined his head in confusion.

“Why would they remove our title?”

“Let me count. First, you scared young Lady Ysbail until she peed her tunic.”

“I didn’t!” Ysbail protested.

“-Then you, as his host, proposed to let the intellectually challenged Royal scion fight gheist far above his level!”

Cadfael let out his trademark snort.

“And finally, we should also mention you beating up Reanakt Caelusius yesterday over a measly Halpig gheist! How many times is that this month? Onthoakt Ursan, Onthoakt Logison, and Reanakt Olbert from three villages over! Since when did Earthloch permit us to be so damn audacious?”

Elrhain nodded, agreeing with the man’s claims even though he felt the last point Romero mentioned had nothing to do with the current situation.

Ever since this morning, he, too, noticed that Randuman was beyond audacious compared to the other blue bloods he had met.

‘But, mister Romero.’ The boy looked at the Haragol heir as Romero told off his father. It was as if some floodgate deep inside him had flushed, releasing a weeks’ worth of pent-up vitriol.

‘Aren’t you the most audacious one?!!!’

Agwyn sensed his emotions and giggled while looking up at Romero as though he were a wonder.

「Well, like father like son. Right?」

「Yup!」 Elrhain vehemently agreed with her observation.

Even if Randuman was the more nonchalant type, and Romero the type to nag his guts out just like Vesiphis, they were both idiots with lips too loose for their own good!

Then there was Ruba, who tried to eat Alleigh as if he wasn’t a mid-oceanic realm gheistrum.

…. Something was seriously wrong with the upbringing of this family.

Elrhain scratched his nose, bringing his awareness to the matter at hand. He considered it over for a moment and decided he wasn’t too worried about Randuman’s absurd proposal.

It was hard to find many adults as out of touch with common sense as this claw-handed grandpa. Also, no matter how over-confident Cadfael was, Vesiphis at least had an excellent head on his neck. No way would someone sensible like him ever agree to-

“Let’s do it!” The winged boy exclaimed with enough passion to light the boat on fire, replying to Randuman’s offer with a pumped fist.

“What?!”

“Though I won’t be needing Cadfael. He will just be a nuisance!”

“Hah, let’s see how you can use your measly sand magic in water.”

“A’ight. Finally, me time has come to show ya’ll my superior fish spearing moves!”

“Wait, wait. Calm down.” Elrhain said with a dumbfounded expression.

“Vesiphis, Howell! Are you out of your mind? Even uncle Rister, who is my dad’s age, had trouble. He even got injured! What the hell are you going to do without being in the Earthen realm?”

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“Busyfish! Don’t go.” Ysbail grabbed onto Vesiphis’s kilt with a worry laden voice.

“My lord.” The winged boy looked moved. “I am honoured that you think about our safety. But worry not! Us nobles differ from normal folks. I am certain that this hunt will be but a cinch.”

“…. Uncle Rister is also a noble, dumbass.”

Randuman didn’t come to his younger son’s defence. “Prince Elrhain. While your praise of that weak brat pleases me- “

“No, that wasn’t a praise.”

“Ahem. Anyway, you must understand that we Haragols were only recently ennobled, just like the Siaglas. I, obviously, and even my two sons and most other cultivators in our village, were already in the Earthen realm before I was conferred with an Onthoakty.

My house only started cultivating the [Claw-Crimson Cultivation Technique] barely ten cycles ago. In fact, my Totem has nothing to do with the [Claw-Crimson Cultivation Technique]. It is based on a different cultivation scripture altogether. A mediocre one collected by my forefathers ages ago.

Unlike methods used by nobles, it couldn’t form Nascent Totem before the Earthen realm, significantly hampering our potential.

Hence, though it pains me to admit, overall, our strength is yet weaker than the more established houses. The difference in the foundation, compared to a high noble Siorrakty like the Earthloch’s, is not something we new-bloods can overcome in just a single decade.”

The old man sighed, then looked affectionately at his granddaughter, who was drooling whilst watching Rister haul the dead Rockfin Crocofish onboard the boat.

The young man looked quite peeved when no one helped him.

“Little Ruba will be different.” Randuman didn’t pay his son any heed and continued, “Unlike her elders, who could only start the [Claw-Crimson Cultivation Technique] after already augmenting their totemic souls with unsuitable ichors, she will get to experience the full might of it. From her generation, the name of Haragol will only go forward and not back! Hahaha!”

His own words seemed to have cheered Randuman up as the old man thumped his chest with pride.

Elrhain tilted his head to ponder. Tudor, too, had spoken of something similar before when expounding the various cultivation roots.

How lesser nobles were leagues above servants and freemen, while high nobles were so far up it was despair-inducing.

Earthloch’s main house could accomplish what others needed Earthen realm cultivation to do while only being mortal. And the lesser nobles, while having workable cultivation methods, had far fewer material resources.

Basically, lesser nobles only got the left-overs Earthloch handed out after having their own fill, while everyone else got the crumbs.

And even the left-over techniques were of such a high level that Haragol defined them as fate changing. Then, what of the methods the main house themselves use?

This was a fact Vesiphis was also well aware of. Hence Elrhain decided he really had no reason to object so much.

He turned towards the winged boy in question, who was having a hard time freeing himself from Ysbail’s clingy hug.

“You have protection talismans on you given by Uncle Cadwell, right?”

“I do! No gheist under mid-oceanic can wound me. So you can rest assured, my lord.”

“Weaklings do think alike. How effective can training be if you constantly rely on charms and talismans?” Cadfael threw a comment no one wanted to hear.

“Me lord. Don’tcha worries so much.” Howell chimed, perfectly ignoring the shadow boy’s denunciation. “Besides, it’ll be a waste if we don’t get to fish after coming all the way here.”

“That’s right.” Elrhain glared at Cadfael, “You’ll be fishing.”

Cadfael didn’t find it necessary to reply.

Elrhain grunted, then thought back on the dangerous magical combat Rister just had with the Rockfin Crocofish. His confusion came back to him.

「Annie. Tell me, how the hell is that fishing?」

The little girl giggled. 「Silly boy. To the tribal brutes here, fishing is simply hunting gheists in water. And the only way to hunt these monsters is by going in and getting their hands dirty. I have seen nothing like fishing poles and nets either. 」

Elrhain exhaled before saying, “Whatever. As long as you guys have fun, I guess.”

““Yay!”” Vesiphis and Howell cheered while Cadfael spat at the lake as if it owed him gheist cores.

““No!”” Ysbail and Cati, who were at the moment quite scared after witnessing the ugly Rockfin Crocofish trying to bite Rister’s head off even after being thoroughly dead, held onto the two even tighter. The automatic nerve response of the corpse was honestly quite freaky.

It would take a few more minutes of cooing and a promise to find pretty shells and rocks from the lake bed that the two girls finally relented.

With green lights given from all directions, Romero just shrugged his shoulders helplessly and beaconed another of their boats fishing nearby.

“Come back safe!” Little Ysbail waved her tiny hands at the three brutes as they moved to the other boat. Much to little Ruba's discontent, Romero and Randuman went along with them. The two middle-aged cultivators on that boat moved to theirs, switching places.

“Worry not, young lady Ysbail! For even if the Earthloch scions have their limbs broken and ears bitten off, the magic spells of my son will guarantee that they will come back alive!” As the other boat rowed away ahead of them towards another section of the lake, Randuman waved back with a loud guffaw.

“….”

“Hmm? Is something the matter, young lady Ysbail? Your mouth moves, but your voice does not reach me!” Randuman’s voice was still booming from that distance.

““Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!””

“Ah? Something must be wrong with my ears. I can’t hear you over the wind!”

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH WU WU!!! Howie, Busyfish, come back!”

Cati and Ysbail cried with tears the size of soybeans pearling out of their glossy eyes, and Elrhain had to stop himself from sniggering.

「Audacious. Really audacious. 」

「Yup.」 Agwyn nodded, then ran off and held her two playmates in a tight hug.

They stopped their wailing only when she told them that their boat would follow right behind to spectate the battle.