“Mathias!” The current lord of house Storm winced as his wife clearly enunciated his name as she stormed into his office. He knew from long experience that he was in trouble for something, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Hello my beautiful angel, how are you today?”

Unfortunately, his wife was not going to be distracted today, her ice-white hair fluttering as she paced back and forth. “Shut it, do you have any idea what you have done?” Angela finally stopped pacing to stand right in front of him tapping her foot on the floor and looking furious.

Very carefully Mathias stood up and walked over like he was approaching a wild animal. “Did I forget to authorize a trade deal again?” He had done that once and trade had all but ground to a halt in the city, it had been a disaster.

“No.”

“I didn’t accidentally blow up any buildings did I?” That had only happened once, but his family had found the incident intensely hilarious.

“No.” Angela thumped her fist against his chest refusing to look up at him.

He winced in mock pain and thought hard about what he might have done. “Did I flood your garden? If I did I’m sorry I try not to practice on that side of the castle.” That had never actually happened before, but he had been threatened with dire consequences several times if he ever disturbed his wife’s favorite reading spot.

“No, you didn’t.” Angela looked up with catering eyes and sniffed loudly. “You sent our son to the middle of nowhere by himself.”

Mathias spluttered in surprise, that was what this was about? “But it was good training…”

“Shut up, he almost got assassinated and you didn’t even send him with anyone.” Mathias’ face turned hard as he embraced his wife who clutched him tightly as well.

“Is he alright? Is he hurt?” If something had happened to him, he would destroy whoever was responsible, fellow noble or not. The clouds above them began to boil as flashes of lightning and fire churned above them. “He’s fine thankfully. That old mage Silas was around and apparently, he was smart enough to leave Vance with a tier four-guard.”

He let out a deep sigh of relief as the tension drained out of him. “Well that’s good then I’m glad Vance is fine but who attacked him?” The clouds above raged again as he thought about what he would like to do to the assassins.

“It was one of the scions of house Bancroft.”

Taking a step back Mathias paced around the room thinking hard. Finally, he gave up. “Who are they again?”

Angel sighed in exasperation before smiling slightly. “They’re one of the older houses in the region that have been on the decline recently. Apparently, they thought that if they killed Vance in that new dungeon then they could lay claim to the dungeon and become a lord house again.”

Mathias snorted in consternation. “Not likely, I doubt a declining house has the strength to hold a dungeon, much less a promising dungeon. It looks like it’ll turn into one of the best training grounds in the kingdom.”

He winced as Angela’s eyes widened in anger, he did not like that look one bit. “You sent our son halfway across the duchy, right after he got his class? Do you even understand how he feels about not being able to have a mana class like the rest of us?”

“What does it matter what class he has? It's not like it affects anything, he’ll just have to work a little harder because we don’t have many knights of our own to train him.” He wasn’t sure why she was making such a big deal out of nothing.

“Do you and your brothers really have no idea of the impact you have on the younger generation? All four of you chose mana classes and our house is synonymous with the storm magic that we use. It's become an unofficial rule that using storm magic is required to be considered in the running to be house heir. I’ve even heard rumors that some don’t even consider Vance a part of our house anymore since he cannot use mana at all.”

Mathias starred dumbstruck. “What in the world is that about? We never said anything about needing to use storm magic, and why haven’t I heard anything about this.”

“Please dear, I love you but you’re a little oblivious, and no one is going to come out and say that you should banish our son. However, you have not been helping things at all. I was not expecting this large of a mess right after returning from my dungeon delve.” Mathias winced again, she had been gone for several months and it would be an unpleasant return for anyone to have all this dropped on them at once.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Well I’ll put a stop to this idiocy right away, I’ll get father involved if I have to, but I and my brothers will make it perfectly clear to the rest of the family that we won’t tolerate this sort of nonsense. Honestly, this is what I expect from other noble families but not from us.”

Angela nodded firmly, and then looked at him expectantly. Mathias shifted uncomfortably under her gaze and the growing silence. He was getting increasingly confused as his wife’s expression got frostier and frostier. “Well?”

“Well, what?” He answered, still a little confused.

“What are you going to do about Vance? I think we should go there in person and invite him home at once.”

“Wait what? But a new dungeon is a great training ground for Vance, he’s still low tier and I don’t want to have to babysit him in our dungeon. The stupid thing still has its stronger bosses wandering around the upper floors.”

He thought steam was coming out of his wife’s ears for a moment before realizing it was pure white clouds gathering around her. He might have underestimated just how angry she was. “What did we just talk about Mathias? To Vance, it must seem like you banished him in all but name. He’s been miserable lately even though I’ve tried to tell him that his class means nothing to us, and seriously you sent him away because you were lazy?”

Mathias backtracked desperately trying to put his back to the room’s door. “It wasn’t like that, it just seemed like he would get more experience and confidence from fighting without a safety net there. Besides, everything turned out fine, but you’re right, we should probably go visit him.” He didn’t think it was as important as Angela seemed to think, but it would be best not to argue about it.

“Good I’m glad you agree, just so you know I told your mother about what happened and she went ahead to see Vance. I got the feeling that she was going to hang around that area for a while after, just to be sure nothing happens.” Mathias nodded, and silently wished his son luck, and then gulped when he remembered his promise to go visit as well.

“That sounds like a fantastic idea, so when do you think we should leave?”

“I’m glad you see sense now dear husband, and I was thinking we might leave in a day or two.”

Immediately Mathias was suspicious, why didn’t she want to leave at once? “Any reason why we're not leaving now?”

“I thought I’d be generous and give you a little time to recover from your injuries before we leave.” Angela’s smile was just as cold as the clouds that were gathering around her.

He not too subtly opened the door behind him and started edging out of the room. “Really? That’s very generous of you, but I don’t recall having any injuries right now.”

“Not yet you don’t.”

A bolt of lightning raced past his nose, freezing his clothes as it sailed by. Mathias gulped and started running in earnest, as more lightning sailed his way. Those bolts weren’t strong enough to actually injure him no matter what she said Angela didn’t hate him, but they still wouldn’t feel good if he got hit. “I’m the head of our house you know, I could order you to stop.” He called over his shoulder as he raced around a corner.

“Oh give me a break, I’m higher level than you and all of your idiot brothers.” It started to hail, which was a little trickier to dodge, and threatened to slow him down enough for him to eat lightning.

“You’re not born into the family though, you can’t be the head.”

Angela laughed as the storm forming around her built with power. “I’m sure they’d all come to see it my way after a few challenges. It’s not like your father would interfere, he’s too busy spending every waking moment down in the dungeon.”

“Dad would…” Mathias paused to consider and paid for his inaction as one of the lightning bolts hit him dead on. He shuddered as cold raced through his entire body, he barely managed to avoid the follow-up strikes by diving out of the way into an empty room. “You know what, Dad would probably think it was funny.”

He pulled on his mana driving away the cold and leaving warming himself up pleasantly as Angela stalked across the room. “Can’t we talk about this?” Mathias frantically looked around the room searching for an exit.

“We have been talking but I find this a more immediate way to communicate my displeasure and get it through your thick skull. Come on Mathias you could have at least waited until I came back to send Vance away. Then I could have told you how bad of an idea it was and at least cleared things up to Vance.”

Okay maybe he had jumped the gun a little bit, but it was such a good opportunity. “I’m sorry but it was just so perfect. Vance was just finishing up his basic training and right when he’s ready to start leveling, boom new dungeon. You know how rare those are, much less a new dungeon with lots of monsters and zero traps. It doesn’t even seem like this dungeon is all that concerned with killing people, to be honest. Also, it was Vance’s idea to go alone, that’s why he didn’t have any guards, I did tell Silas to keep an eye on him though.”

Angela paused looking thoughtful, He took the opportunity to glance over his shoulder at the only other exit to the room, the window. “You still should have sent some guards, you’re the parent you should know better. It’s obvious the area is dangerous with rampaging monsters, and assassination attempts.”

Mathias spread his hands in supplication. “How was I supposed to know about that? Until recently it seemed perfectly safe, especially with someone like Silas around.” For a shining second, he almost believed he had talked her down, but then the clouds around her deepened concealing her face as lightning flashed between her fingers.

“You still should have talked to me first.” Probably true but it didn’t seem like such an important decision at the time. Mathias dove out of the window before she could start attacking again. He wrapped himself in his mana rapidly descending as quickly as possible, glancing back he gulped.

Angela was now hovering outside the window, white clouds boiling around her making her look like a furious goddess. Mathias slapped himself as he put more effort into running away faster, now was not the time to get distracted. More lighting fell around him, and he sighed in annoyance. She’d cool off eventually but for someone whose powers were so focused around cold, she got mad quite easily. Oh well, he still loved her, even if it wasn’t fun to be on the receiving end of her cold lighting.