chapter 12: Destroyed  Arrogance

Ban walked to the door preparing explanations and other such things that would cause the least amount of problems. To his surprise not only was there a small crowd but also a group of guards who seemed to be handled get the situation for him. 

But he quickly realized the reason, his fourth son Valt Corvadae was here and as vice-principal of the Royal Flame Academy he had some authority with the guards. 

“Oh this is a present surprise having you come this early, luckily this time Aion is awake.” Valt had visited his father multiple times in the past two years, but always late at night. This time however he was here early and even brought along his wife and daughter. 

“Yes, but today isn’t a completely happy occasion, regardless, to offset that I've brought my family to meet you and my nephew. By the way what happened here?” 

“Come in, bring your family inside as well, and let me get a good look at my granddaughter.” Ban was happy after all he hadn’t seen this granddaughter yet and he had also herd great things about his daughter in law. 

Ban lead everyone in, the first sight the family saw was Aion finishing up the pot of food, apparently having finished his bowl. 

“So you were that hungry? Well Aion come greet your Fourth Uncle Valt, Aunt Lily, and Cousin Iris.” Ban was somewhat surprised as he had prepared enough for two grown adults and in a small amount of time Aion had completely eaten all of it. 

“Greetings Uncle, Aunt, Cousin.” The tree had known about Aion’s eyes but were still somewhat surprised, if not for Ban asking Valt previously to ignore it he would have probably asked about Aion's origins. 

“We’ll need more food to have a proper conversation, everyone if you would head to the back yard, I'll have something ready in a moment.” Ban lead everyone outside and  with a wave of his hand a large tent, a table, and some chairs appeared. 

“This should be good for some privacy and enough space for everyone, please wait inside I'll bring more food shortly we can discuss any maters after we eat.” Valt looked inside the tent and was impressed as the inside was lined with multiple arrays, they were most likely for keeping their conversation private and away from prying eyes. 

Inside the tent aside from the multiple arrays was a simple wooden table and six chairs with one chair on each end of the table and four on the sides. Valt walked forward and sat on one of the ends, his wife sat on his right, his daughter ran into his lap, and Aion sat next to the empty seat closer to the opposite end of were Valt was. 

“Daddy where are the servants?” This question came from the little girl on Valt’s lap, she had been raised with all the privileges of a noble as her mother came from a noble family and her father held a rather high position. 

She was not use to their host leaving to get them food or the children of their host not making attempts to give her things. Usually this would happen because the parents of other children wanted to have their children on the good side of the daughter of a major figure in the Royal Flame Academy, as this would increase their chances of getting in to the academy even when they didn’t possess adequately ranked spirits.

Hearing this Valt’s face sunk slightly, he had tried to raise his daughter to be more self reliant than the average nobel’s child. But she was still to young and as he was often busy with work  his wife took care of her. Being raised as a noble herself she would naturally raise their daughter in a similar fashion. 

But the real reason that he found it impossible to keep his daughter from being spoiled wasn’t anything minor like that, it was her spirit. She possessed a seventh ranked spirit, the Obsidian Dragon, in her generation the only person who would surpass her in the kingdom would be the son of the crowned prince who had inherited the royal families eighth ranked spirit. 

It would be hard to find anyone in the kingdom who wouldn’t spoil her in an attempt to win her over for her future prospects. 

“Iris this is a smaller house and doing everything on your own is normal, If you want to be a great knight like your Father you will have to learn to rely on yourself for these simple things.” This was the best answer he could give her as being a knight was her goal. 

Thinking about this Valt looked at Aion in pity, the child probably had grand dreams of being a knight or unmatched swordsman, as all boys his age did, but had no spirit making it impossible. 

“Don’t look at him that way, do you think I wouldn’t have a solution, but before that lets eat. Aion are you still hungry?” 

“Un.” 

At this moment Ban walked in and began setting down plates of various elemental beast meat, wild vegetables, and some cups filled with fruit juices. 

From the time the three arrived until now Lily had stayed silent as she was still getting use to the environment, she was after all a noble and dinning with commanders what's not something they ever did. 

She had known about Valt’s “humble” starts but when she had met him, Valt had already reached the intermediate rank of grand stage and considered someone of importance. Deciding that this would be a good time to speak up as not greeting anyone earlier was a rude thing to do she spoke. 

“Thank you Father-in-law, now iris take a seat next to Aion and remember to eat properly.” Hearing this Ban was rather happy as he knew what nobles tended to be like which was why he stayed away from them. 

While they were eating Iris spoke once more but this time directed a question to Aion who was simply devouring meat at and astonishing rate. 

“Are you also going to be a knight? I'm going to be a great knight like daddy and I’m going to go to the academy in two years!” 

Aion stopped eating, put his food down, and turned towards Iris to answer. 

“No, assassin.” Hearing this both Valt and Lily inwardly cringed they knew that Aion had no spirit but hadn’t told their daughter, and felt bad for the boy who still dreamed of being anything other that a regular person. 

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“Assassin? Why? Assassins are weak and cowardly, they hide and run away!” 

“Knights are cowardly, assassins are strong.” Aion’s thoughts were rather simple knights hid behind their mounts and legendary equipment while assassins hid and ambushed others using their own skill, if someone couldn’t detect an assassin wasn’t that lack of skill? 

The adults it the tent were however astounded by his answer, and Valt sent a glare at his father after all who else could have taught him that. 

“Don’t look at me that way I didn’t teach him that. Aion give a complete answer, why do you say that?” Aion looked at his grandpa while thinking about his answer while Iris gave him a glare, after all her father was a knight and he called knights cowards. 

“…In all famous knight stories knights rely on mounts and equipment… It wouldn’t mater who rode the legendary beast or used the ultimate sword… As long as it was there anyone could replace the knight… Assassins, even when they hide it was there own skill and abilities.” It had been a while sense Aion had to speak so much in one sentence but was able to complete his explanation flawlessly. 

Ban began to laugh when he heard this explanation, Valt on the other hand had a complex expression because what Aion said made some sense, but that was if you only thought about those legends. 

Seeing the old man who her father told her was her grandfather laugh and her father not refuting Aion Iris spoke up first. 

“Knights are not week I'll show you, let's fight and I'll show you how strong a knight is! I am Iris Corvidae third level primary rank human stage knight and I challenge you to a duel.” Iris had challenged Aion in the way she had read about how honorable knights challenge each other in the exact stories Aion was talking about. 

Sense Aion had similarly read books about knight challenges and decided that she would be a good opponent to test his new strength He decided to accept. 

“Aion Corvidae, I have written nine runes. I accept.” This is how he accepted the challenge as he thought that it he hadn’t reached the first level of the human stage with a core but he did reach the ninth rune. No one present had any idea what he meant by that except Ban who had seen the runes, Iris didn’t care and immediately walked out of the tent. 

“We’ll fight outside in the yard.” 

“Wait Aion she is a year older than you and has condense a core reaching the third level it's not a good idea to fight her.” The one to speak was Valt as he knew his daughter could not control her strength to hold back against someone who had made her mad and hadn’t even condense a core. 

“Daddy he already accepted, so we are going to fight, I'll hold back after all assassins are weak.” Aion just silently followed her outside, he had some degree of confidence after all the Soul Rune technique is suppose to be unmatched and after eating his fill Aion felt stronger than he had ever felt before. 

“Just watch over them, we’ll stop them if things get too out of hand. Plus Aion used some weird technique, he might be able to win.” Ban wasn’t worried in the slightest instead he was rather amused by his grandson’s thoughts on Knights, but he also resolved himself to sit down with Aion and learn all of the boys world views. 

“That's right I guess, now that I think about it he said he had written nine runes do you know what that's about?” 

“I have a vague idea but nothing solid, but it’s what caused the commotion earlier. What was the bad news that you had earlier?” As the father and son spoke the two kids got into position to fight standing five meters from each other. 

“You'll regret insulting knights.” 

“Fight.” Aion did not continue to speak and just took up a stance his teacher had taught him and watched his “enemy” with full attention the way he was taught. Iris hadn’t really gone through any combat training so she simply rushed Aion throwing a punch with her right hand. 

Aion thought to first test his strength against his opponent, if the book was to be believed he should be stronger that her, so he quickly put his hand forward to stop her punch. Iris saw this and smiled after all Aion didn’t say that he was at any level in his core instead said something wired. 

Receiving the punch Aion was caught by surprise as he felt pain on his palm and was pushed back, this made him quickly realized that in terms of strength he was at a large disadvantage. Quickly backing away Aion prepared to fight the way his teacher taught him, without any arrogance due to the supposed unmatched Soul Rune technique. 

Iris once again pounced at him with a similar right handed punch, it had worked perfectly once so why wouldn’t it do so again, but was greatly surprised as Aion moved to her right using his palm to change the direction of her fist making her miss. 

Once he was inside her reach and had thrown Iris slightly off balance he simply grabbed her wrist and spun slightly to completely throw her off, making her fall on her back. 

“Ahhh fight properly!” Iris was enraged as she didn’t think he would make her fall to the ground without ever throwing a punch, exchanges like this continued until they were both exhausted. 

The difference between the two however was quite noticeable as Iris was covered in dirt, as she had mainly been thrown to the ground and rarely took hits. While Aion had multiple bruises on his arms and his shirt was ripped exposing the runes on his left arm. 

Aion was currently standing vigilant as he watched Iris panting on the floor too tired to get up, he was feeling similarly tired but also hungry and began thinking that he might not be able to continue if she managed to throw another punch. 

“Hahahaha I didn’t think it would go on this long, Father how exactly did you train the boy to fight so well, and why did he rarely throw any punches?” Valt was rather surprised at how well Aion could fight noticing similarities between his Falling Stream’s Sword technique and Aion's movements.