Chapter 67- The pig Duke and the food

Ray

Ray looked at the rows upon rows of weapons, staring at them. The Treasury still seemed the same as before, no sudden extra images, no emotion. The Dean was standing beside him, but he couldn't sense anything from him. A consequence of the high Tier? The telepathy thing was confusing.

Taking a deep breath in, he prodded the pink mana with his mind, asking the stone for information. The connection was clearer, crisper, and gave more information. Ray could see the data now, held in a little pouch of…memory? Ray had no idea what it was, but he knew he could access it now. Or at least, the Fae stone could do it and tell him.

Hmm, was there anything that could help him write - yes, a Phoenix quill that wrote down whatever came into his head. Yes, that would help in noting things down.

"Can you get some paper?" Ray asked, "I am going to use the Phoenix quill to note things down."

The Dean nodded, making a stack of papers appears. Ray tapped into the Fae stone, letting the information flow through him and into the Phoenix quill. The process was still slow, the Dean had thousands of weapons, all with their own history.

The Fae stone gave pages of information on each item, and he had to write them down. Perhaps it was the potion, but Ray felt unsettled, like he needed to do something. At least the quill was cheap mana-wise.

Ray wasn't sure he could sustain it if it was much more. Ten mana per page was just enough for him to sustain. Ray absorbed the information coming in, letting it pass to the quill. The sword on the table was a Tier 7 weapon that was built by a young dwarf using his feet. A great test of skill, he'd made the sword to prove that he could forge.

The random bow was the first bow of a little Elf girl. The spear was the weapon used by a commoner in a rebellion against the Empire centuries ago. The Dean must have had some way of measuring the weapon's worth, each one had at least some history.

Ray got it all, over the next couple of hours, he got to hear the stories of hundreds of weapons. The weapons didn't come close to giving him a decent idea of history, but who knew, they could be useful someday. But it was also incredibly boring. At first, Ray was a little interested, but the stories started melding in.

But as time went on, he felt unease creeping in. Not to mention tapping into two different artifacts was stretching a mental muscle he didn't even know he had. Hmm, the potion had strengthened it, right? What if he tried to absorb more at once?

Ray reached out, asking the Fae stone to send information faster. The stone obeyed, flooding Ray's mind with information. Ray passed the information on, pushing the Phoenix quill to write faster.

The quill obeyed, making Ray push the Fae stone even more. The quill sped up even more, writing a page a second to meet Ray's demands. But the process was still not fast enough to finish in one go. Ray was up to the Tier 10s now, and boy, oh boy, did they have history.

A single weapon took up to ten pages to fill out its history, entire paragraphs worth of information on which scion of which house used them. What monsters they'd killed, a lot of useless information. Ray wished he could filter it out, but the Fae stone had no such function, so he pushed it harder, pulling on it more.

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A little more, a little more, he made it his inner mantra, pushing and pushing until the quill was pushing ten pages a second, practically tearing the pages to reach his demands. Ray didn't know why he wanted to finish it so quickly, but something told him that he should get this over with quickly. Perhaps it was the Xnarthan, he had an uneasy feeling about them. The lot of them were out to get him and his friends. Ray would be foolish not to be wary.

But he didn't have time to think anymore, the transfer of information took up all of his mind, get information, instruct quill t right. Do it again, and then again. Ray felt his mind reach its limits, like a river was pushing against his skull from the inside, but he kept pushing. And pushing, until someone tapped him on his shoulder.

Ray stopped for a second, turning to find the Dean standing there, holding up a reflective sword. The sword showed him, staring at it with bright green eyes and veins that glowed green. As he watched, the veins faded back in, as a massive headache flooded in, blacking Ray out.

Ariana looked at herself in the mirror, making sure that her dress was ready. The Duke might have lost a lot of status, but it wouldn't do to go to his party with a torn dress. Not to mention that the Xnarthan brat would be there too.

Trevor was still angry at her, not that she cared. Why was he here anyway? Trevor taking a vacation was rarer, but taking one at this time?

"Are you ready?" Trevor said, knocking on the door. Ariana levitated the door open, turning around to look at a frowning Trevor.

"Oh, come on, smile." Anita said, smiling brightly. "The Duke expects it,'' she said awkwardly while forcing her mouth into the widest smile she could muster. Trevor scoffed at her, but resumed that smile of his. Now they were a genius couple, totally in love with each other and not at all fighting. The nobility didn't have weaknesses, after all.

Anita emerged from her room wearing a black dress. Hmm, she'd grown again, a trip to the tailors was in order. Trevor shook his head, as if shaking off his anger, as he took on that smile of his. Ariana followed suit, putting on her daily mask of noble grace as they teleported to the banquet. The Ducal hall was as grand as before. The tacky gold-plated decor, too bright curtains, posh chairs and jewel encrusted throne at the head of the table.

The two of them walked with practiced grace, nodding to the people around them as they headed towards the Duke.

The two of them gave a little bow, not breaking a single step. Ariana knew that the routine scared the nobility, and was the only thing that kept their marriage from becoming the stuff of rumors. How could two people that coordinated so well not be able to stand each other?

The answer was simple: they were very, very good at showing the nobility only what they wanted them to see. A little acting went a long way in the Empire.

"General Trevor, Marchioness Ariana, how nice that you could come." the Duke said. "Come, we were just about to start dinner."

The Duke led them to their seats at the lower end of the table. A banquet table was built sloped so that the people on the higher side could look down at the people on the other side. The Duke wanted to insult them, huh? Ariana wondered if that pesky Emperor's disciple had anything to do with it.

The crowd filled in, acting like they were too important to pay attention to them. But Ariana could see the hesitance in their step, the nervous short breaths as they sat down. The Xnarthan had scared them yesterday, a lot of them hadn't been there the last time the Xnarthan put down a rebellion.

Ariana hadn't even been born back then. But if the stories were anything to go by, they had much worse coming for them. The Xnarthan weren't just ruthless, they were thorough. But the rebellion wasn't as weak as the last one, the Rebel Queen was a force to reckon with.

Ariana wondered where she had come from, a woman who no one seemed to know anything about, but was one of the most powerful people in the world.

A clicking sound emerged as the Duke clicked his glass. "The banquet has begun." he said as he began eating, not even pausing for a reply. Ariana stared at his huge stomach that pressed against the table as he ate his dish of lobster. The pig Duke was showing himself. Ariana thought the nickname was very insulting...to the pigs.

The food for the rest of them seemed to have gone missing however, the Duke hadn't even bothered to call for it.

"Duke Sensart, I thought you were going to wait for us." the Xnarthan lieutenant said, teleporting in, sporting a fake smile. The Duke just looked up and said, "Hmm, you can just take a seat somewhere.". Ariana wondered if it was just her imagination, but this seemed a bit...planned.

The lieutenant looked around awkwardly, finally taking a seat on the lower side of the table with a massive frown on his face. Ariana just gave him a smile, raising her empty glass as if to toast him.

An uncomfortable silence followed as the prestigious nobles of Afrieal, not one less than a Marquess, awkwardly waited to be served. The College Dean looked like he had a smile stuck on his face. The Academy Dean was openly frowning at the people there, the Duke most of all.

Faret finally arrived, breaking the silence for a moment, before looking awkwardly at the dozen hungry Tier 20s stared at him. Gulping nervously, the guest of honor took a seat at the bottom of the table. The Academy Dean finally lost his patience, tapping the Duke with his staff as he said, in a grave tone. "The food."

The image was so comical that Ariana had to use the entirety of her training to not start laughing on the spot. And yet so horribly contrite at the same time.