Mid Evening - Early Winter : Myles Kalfas' Estate, Northeastern Bahamut

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*Vwowowooom* The huge mass of aura in the room made an easily audible noise as it slammed into mine. -An aura that rivals mine.. and...-

Looking down at his body, I felt a slight chill. -What a monster...-

There was a short moment of silence while Grandmother walked further into the room and picked up a human-sized barrel with a slightly stressed expression. "Your aura is just as oppressive as ever. Don't you remember how many times it made me feel sick?" *Crunch* Casually biting off the top of the barrel, she exposed the bright red liquid in it.

It looked like an elixir, but I couldn't confirm it.

"You handled it well this time. I told you that you would eventually get used to it." He kept his eye on me while he spoke with Grandmother.

"That's not because of you." *Crunch* Another crunch echoed through the room as she chewed and swallowed the rest of the barrel and its contents.

"In any case, how are your grandchildren doing?" Slowly sitting up, he lifted his head just enough to be above mine and turned to Grandmother. "I haven't heard about them for quite some time."

"Haah..." Grandmother let out a deep sigh as her aura slowly calmed. "Krystallo is doing well. She is the academy's top student and is quickly establishing herself as the greatest genius of the next generation among the teachers and students."

"Hoh? That's quite a feat, but I remember you saying that Vasilias was the one to keep my eye on. Since Krystallo is at the top of her class, that must mean he has fallen behind."

"Hah-" Her slightly stressed look turned faintly smug as she chucked and looked at him.

"Hm? Did I say something funny?"

"With the way I described him to you, I expected you to recognize him." She quickly motioned in my direction. "Myles, please meet Vasilias. Vasilias, this is Myles Kalfas, my Father's closest friend, and the one who controls nearly all the knights all around Bahamut."

Immediately picking up on what she wanted me to do, I turned to him and lowered my head slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir Kalfas." It was a tense introduction, but I managed to hide my anxiousness for the most part. "My name is Vasilias Ragnarok."

His aura immediately started probing mine even more than before, causing my body to instinctively stiffen up. "And here I was thinking you were simply exaggerating your praises of him..."

*creaaak* The flooring around the stone pad he laid on creaked as he carefully stood up.

"'Scales as dark as the void'." *creak* "'Enough mana to suffocate a dragon ten times his age'." *creak* "'And an unparalleled magic genius'." *creak* With only a few steps, he closed the distance between us and loomed over me. "In the 2,000 years I have lived, I don't believe I have met a single dragon worthy of any one of those descriptors..." Slowly lowering his head next to mine, he looked me in the eye with a cold expression that slowly turned angered. "And for the cold and heartless Asimi to be the one spouting high praises... It makes me wonder if you're the reason she-"

"Myles." Grandmother's voice echoed through the room with a horrifically threatening tone. "You know what I said about that."

My whole body immediately tensed up as I looked over to see a look in her eyes I had never seen before. -W..what...-

But before I could even think though, Myles pulled his gaze off me. "So he really is Vasilias..." He sounded incredibly disappointed as if dissatisfied with me. "In that case, kid. The Ragnarok name isn't something you can simply inherit." He continued as he turned back toward the stone pad he had been laying on. "Even with the loss of your brother, you will have to earn it, just like your ancestors have." *creaaak-thump* As he laid back down, he gave me a cold look. "If you are not capable of handling the responsibility that comes with that name, I will personally make sure you cannot use it."

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A sour taste immediately came to my mouth, but as I looked toward Grandmother, she simply let out an annoyed sigh. -She's not gonna say anything?-

"In any case, what brings you two here."

"Haah, right..." Quickly letting out an annoyed sigh, she looked up at Myles with a dark expression. "I assume you are aware of the recent developments with the Aetos family, correct?"

"I know a few things."

"Alright, then I'll skip the basics. Several hours ago, Vasilias came by my estate and..." Grandmother then went into quite a thorough explanation, very similar to what she had told me as we flew, but only discussing the most recent developments. It was only about a minute of explanations in total, but eventually, she got to the real reason we were there. "Then, after grabbing all the information I could, we left for the space rune. As I mentioned earlier, we ran into assassins right at the rune, but..."

"'But', what. I doubt you would come to me if-"

"The assassins had a City Killer... Thankfully it misfired, so we managed to get out fairly unscathed, but it completely destroyed the space rune." She spoke anxiously as if recalling the moment itself.

-So she's making a story...- Although I knew she was just trying to protect me, I couldn't help but wish she'd be honest.

But it didn't matter. "That's not possible, Asimi." He didn't even consider it.

"Now isn't the time to be difficult, Myles. I saw a mountain get reduced to ash! What else could it have been?!"

"Asimi." He sounded like he was starting to get annoyed as well. "We looked through every nook and cranny of that empire, and we found nothing. Leander even told us to search the entire mountain range, including that ancient wreckage, in case they had found them somewhere, but we came out empty-handed."

-Ancient wreckage?- My annoyance was almost instantly balanced out by curiosity.

"And to make things worse, the research the kingdom was conducting was laughable. They wouldn't have been able to replicate the runes on the outer layer, let alone the thousands of layers inside it."

"Do you think they came out of thin air?! They had to of gotten them from somewhere!"

"Haah..." He let out a sigh before continuing in a sarcastic tone. "Even if we missed one, do you really think dragons would cooperate with the Holy Kingdom to get it?"

*CLUNK-creaaaak* Hearing the door suddenly swing open, I quickly looked over to see an elder in full metal armor breathing heavily. "Hah.. hah... Sir Myles!"

Myles' expression immediately turned sour. "You know you aren't allowed to-"

"Sir Leander and Sir Kerato are fighting at the Elder Hall!"

Everyone immediately went wide-eyed as the room fell into silence.

*Crunch* Hearing stone shatter, I looked over to see Myles standing up and pulling several jewelry-like artifacts off a nearby shelf.

"Haah... Sorry to end our discussion here, Asimi, but it seems an urgent matter has arisen."

Recognizing his stance on the situation, she was quick to try and stop him. "No! I'm certain Megalos didn't pick a fight for no reason! He must be a part of this!"

But he just gave her a heartless glance. "Asimi." His cold and stern voice immediately sent a chill down my spine. "If anyone made a deal with the Holy Kingdom or secretly kept around an artifact from back then, it'd be Leander, but if I've learned anything in my life, it'd be to never assume anything." He continued as he put on several rings and bands laced with artifacts. "Either of us could be right, or we could both be wrong, but I will find out in a moment regardless."

Looking over at Grandmother, I saw her gritting her teeth, completely unable to refute.

-So this is how things are landing...- I already knew Grandmother would get mad at me for what I was about to do, but I needed the information he had. "Since this is an urgent matter, let me fly you there."

Grandmother immediately froze in place, but Myles gave me a simple glance. "You? Fly me?" A look of scrutiny immediately appeared in his eyes. "Kid, you can't be seri-"

"I can get you there in three minutes." -I can't take him through the void, but I don't need to hold back on my thruster magic if I don't have Grandmother with me...-

"I sure hope you didn't mean to say thirty." Before I knew it, a subtle, sly smile had crept onto his face. "How about we make a bet?"

-He's confident...- "Alright, what are the stakes?"

"If I win, you will be my subordinate for the next five years... and if you win, I will personally recognize you as a Ragnarok, and will give you my complete backing and support." His smile had quickly become greedy. "So, how about it?"

Although I wasn't sure what he was planning to get out of having me as a subordinate, the chance of losing the bet didn't even cross my mind. -Does he really think my confidence is childish?- Rousing my competitive spirit, a smile crept onto my face as well. "Deal."