"Seriously... and I only just got here!" an obnoxiously loud voice filled the space, as the owner of said voice yelled at the person in front of him. He was patting down his chest as the employee, one of the servers working at the party tonight, who anxiously scrambled to try and help. But as the server brought a towel to the man's chest, he just swatted them away, "Don't touch me!"

"I-I'm sorry, sir, I will-"

"You'll do what? Just go get me your manager, I swear to the gods..."

Ryan was already feeling annoyed just hearing him say that. Douches like that came to the café in droves, but they never got less annoying to deal with.

"Yo, dude, calm down, will you?" Ryan stepped up to the two, almost pushing himself in-between them, "What's the issue?"

"What's it to you?" taken aback, the yelling guy stared down Ryan, looking him up and down. His brows were furrowed into such a deep frown that Ryan was surprised this guy was able to keep his eyes open at all.

"I'm just askin', man. I saw something was wrong, and figured I'd come and help out."

"... This absolute- She spilled some drinks on me."

Ryan glanced down at the guy's shirt, seeing a large wet spot. But beside being wet, there didn't seem to be anything there; neither was there any discolouration, nor was there the smell of alcohol. And before Ryan could even ask about it, the server stuttered something out.

"I-It was just water, I promise! And I'm so sorry, I promise I'll try to-"

"What are you still doing here, huh? I told you to get me your manager!"

Ryan saw the jarringly angry expression on the young man's face and was completely taken aback when he saw a flash of blue pop up in his eyes, "Oi, hold up! The fuck do you think you're doing? Are you trying to use a fucking skill right now because a guy spilled some water on you?"

Instinctively, Ryan built himself up, straightening his back and pushing back his shoulders, making his own eyes flash red as he accessed Maximus' domain. Of course, he had no intention of pulling him out, but just accessing the domain was enough to make his eyes flash. The red of Ryan's eyes was reflected in the eyes of the man in front of him. Usually, people would at least pull back in surprise when Ryan acted like this, but the man in front of him did anything but. He seemed happy to oblige, and the light in his eyes returned, even stronger than before.

"Do you even know how expensive this suit was? But now it's ruined! Do you even know how important tonight is? I look like a complete idiot!"

"Cool it. It's water. And to be honest, I feel like you're looking much more like an idiot because you're yelling at someone over literally nothing," Ryan pointed out, glancing over into the open room while trying not to get too annoyed at the 'cheap suit' comment. While the room was fairly empty right now, there were still some people moving to and from the main hall. All of which were, of course, able to hear the commotion. That was a pretty easy way to get people like this to cool it. Making them realize that they were not, in fact, the centre of the universe and that other people actually existed tended to at least pull them out of the situation a bit.

The blue of the young man's eyes faded just a moment later as he realized that others were staring at him, "... Whatever. Just be careful next time."

He tore the towel out of the server's hand and started patting down the wet spot on his shirt as he turned around and left. Ryan rolled his eyes and looked back at the server, "You alright?"

"I... I'm fine," the server nodded their head, "I'm so sorry, and thank you so much for the help..."

"Don't worry about it, shit happens. I work at a café, and I once tripped and dropped a full, large chocolate Frappuccino and a slice of cherry cake on this girl in a white summer dress. And that wasn't something that could be fixed by just letting it dry," Ryan laughed a bit, "Now, just... take a breather, and then keep working. Don't let one asshole mess you up."

The server quickly nodded their head, "Y-Yeah... thank you, really. I appreciate the help."

"No worries, man. Just doing what felt right. Sorry for meddling, though," Ryan smiled, turning around to head into the main hall of the party while the server hurried back to work. Of course, as he was walking, Ryan could now feel the stares of the people around him himself. It was pretty annoying, and certainly not the best introduction he could have imagined, but it was better than being the other guy.

As Ryan stepped into the main hall for the party, he looked around the room. Some music was playing, there was a bar set up, and plenty of food along the wall on the other side of the space. It was a lot of food, really. Ryan could already feel his stomach rumbling just at the sight of it.

"... Might as well," he beelined to the tables and grabbed himself a plate. He hadn't even heard of most of these things, but he figured that it didn't matter too much. The Awakened Centre could surely afford some good food. After filling the plate to the point that it was hard to walk without it spilling over the side. Though, the food wouldn't stay on the plate particularly long anyway, so it didn't really matter.

"Mister Aglecard! How wonderful to see you here," Aurora Carlyle, the person in charge of Ryan here at the Awakened Centre, quickly came walking over to him. Ryan hadn't seen her since the day he went to the dungeon.

"Well, I figured I might as well try to be social," he pointed out with a smile, glancing down at his plate, "The free food helps too."

"That is always a nice bonus," Aurora agreed, nodding her head. As she did, the thin metallic strands that she had woven into her plumage waved around a bit. Once more, Ryan realized just how out of place he felt here. Just the fact he was wearing this clearly far-too-expensive suit was making him feel weird.

"There's more people here than I thought," Ryan looked around the room, "And everyone here awakened recently?"

"In the past three months, yes. But it's not only people from New Riverside, we also invite those from surrounding towns," Aurora explained, also taking a quick glance around her, "But it is true that there are a lot of promising individuals."

"Hmm... that so?"

"We even have a special guest today. We always try to reach out to them, and a few members may show up to fraternize with the newly Awakened, but today we have someone particularly special from the Magic Tower here! She should be arriving quite soon."

The moment Ryan heard Aurora's words, shivers ran down his spine. He had a bad feeling about this. With his luck, it was going to be-

"Miss Boreard!" someone yelled out, almost screeching the name of the Magic Tower's mistress in excitement as Ryan's stomach dropped.

"Oh gods," Ryan almost choked on his food, hitting his chest a few times to help himself swallow. Concerned, Aurora looked at him, holding her wings in front of her body anxiously.

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"Mister Aglecard, are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine..." nervously looking around, Ryan looked toward the other side of the room, where Alicia Ethel Boreard stood, greeting the people of the crowd that had formed around her, "So... it's the mistress of the tower? I guess you could call that a 'special guest'..."

With an almost smug nod, Aurora peeked over at the elf, "I don't quite understand why she suddenly chose to attend, but the whims of powerful mages are hard to grasp in the first place."

As Ryan stared at Alicia, he noticed her glance in his direction as well. But after a quick wink toward him, she quickly turned back to the people directly around her.

"Yeah... I sure do wonder..." Ryan replied, though he hoped that he was wrong. He had no interest in getting involved with that woman. Sure, she did help out Modak a ton, and would literally change the course of his life completely by having him work at the magic tower, and she also helped find the last of Gaia's fragments... With a loud groan, Ryan stuffed some food into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. Before he could do anything, he noticed that Alicia had stepped through the crowd, and began to approach him.

Sighing loudly, Ryan looked at Aurora, "Sorry, I guess I gotta say 'hi' or something..."

With a dejected expression that clearly confused Aurora, as she was expecting something more like excitement or at least disinterest rather than how Ryan was reacting right now, he wiped the corners of his mouth.

As she stepped up in front of Ryan, a smile formed on Alicia's face. Not the fake kind that she's been wearing since she entered the room, but a genuine one.

"Ryan, what a surprise to see you here!"

"Likewise," Ryan replied, putting on a blatantly fake smile. It was hard to keep up a proper one while so many people were staring at him.

"How are you doing? I hope everything was resolved properly," Alicia pointed out, and Ryan slowly nodded. He started tapping the index finger of his left hand on the stuffed plate of food he was holding, and Alicia quickly glanced down. Seeing the pattern on his hand, plus the amount of food he was carrying, she probably figured it out by now.

And as Alicia glanced back up at Ryan's face, he closed his eyes and smiled a bit more strongly, this time trying to access Gaia's domain, though still without pulling her out of it. For a brief moment before his eyes closed fully, Ryan's eyes began to glow in a deep green, which he hoped Alicia would understand as a sign that they properly got the last fragment as well.

"It all worked out in the end," Ryan replied, opening his eyes again with the glow now gone, and Alicia's smile grew even larger.

"That is truly wonderful to hear!" she replied, and Ryan was a bit taken aback by how genuine she sounded. Considering that she chose not to help out, Ryan thought she was more calculating and cold than this behind that constant smile of hers.

Letting out a slightly annoyed groan, realizing that he maybe overreacted last week, Ryan slightly looked away from the elven mage, "I also wanted to thank you for your help."

"Don't mention it!"

Aurora looked at Ryan a bit taken aback, "Do you two happen to know each other?"

"Ah... yeah, I guess so. She's a... family friend, or something?"

Alicia smiled and nodded, "I've been working with his family quite closely for a while now."

Looking at the young man standing next to him, Aurora instinctively tilted her head to the side, "So you were related to the-"

Interrupted by a gratingly annoying voice that Ryan was hoping to have heard enough of already, Aurora turned her head toward the young man that approached.

"Miss Boreard, it is an honour to make your acquaintance!" he exclaimed loudly, giving a courteous bow to Alicia, "My name is Michael Rivers, a newly awakened Hydromancer!"

Alicia looked over at him, raising her brow curiously as she looked him up and down, "Oh? Is that so?"

Michael almost flinched as Alicia spoke, but Ryan mostly just noticed that he had started frowning immediately. That same deep frown from earlier, like he was exaggeratedly angry. Even Ryan didn't react that strongly, and all of his therapists said he had 'severe anger issues'. Was it alright to let this guy just walk around like this?

"We were in the middle of a conversation," Ryan pointed out, trying to get Michael to bug off. Though, it didn't seem to work.

"I wasn't talking to you."

"Yeah, but I'm talking to you, so... how about you just take it easy?"

"I-I'm just trying to introduce myself! That's what this is for, isn't it?"

"Sure, but there's a right and a wrong way to do that. You seem to regularly choose the wrong way to act."

Clearly taken aback a bit, Michael flinched a bit and his frown only turned deeper, almost like he was trying to look at Ryan through his eyelashes, "Wh-What do you know? I didn't do anything!"

Ryan stared back at Michael, really starting to get annoyed by this guy, but before the situation could escalate further, Alicia clapped her hands together.

"Now, now, don't be like that, you two! I'm sure everyone here wants to show off a bit and look cool in front of the others, so he's definitely not the only one," she pointed out, placing her palm onto her cheek, "Though, that does give me a pretty fun idea. It was Carlyle, correct?"

Alicia looked at Aurora, who hesitantly nodded her head, "Yes, Miss Boreard. I just also want to say, it is a pleasure to finally meet you."

"I can only say the same in turn," Alicia laughed slightly, "Well, would you mind if I hijacked tonight's entertainment for a bit?"

Though she asked, it was clear that Alicia only did so out of very surface-level politeness, as before Aurora was able to respond, the elf had snapped her fingers. Bubbles immediately rose up into the air, gathering in the top of the room. And then, as Alicia spoke, her voice was strengthened considerably and filled the whole room, getting the attention of every single person here.

"Welcome, young Awakened! Sorry to interrupt your conversations, but I had a suggestion to make," Alicia explained, her smile growing broader, "I'm sure you are all excited to see what your compatriots can do! To see the magic, and aura, and abilities of those that awakened with you. So, I would love to call upon anyone that wants to show off a bit to present us with a quick display!"

Aurora, in a panic, stepped up right next to Alicia, "Miss Boreard, please, that is not-"

"Don't worry, it has already been discussed with your supervisors," Alicia winked at the strigan, who quickly grew relieved, "Not to mention, if anything goes wrong, I'll be here to take care of it."

Ryan mentally cursed at his uncle for making him come here, "Are you serious?"

With a curious smile, Alicia replied, "Very serious. Now, would you mind going first? I would love to see that new skill of yours in action."

Taken aback, Aurora turned toward Ryan, "New skill? Have you already reached level 10?"

Already annoyed, Ryan clicked his tongue, trying not to directly answer Aurora's question, instead looking back at Alicia, "Isn't it pretty bad manners to talk about other people's business?"

"Now, don't be like that."

Ryan frowned, annoyed. What the hell was her deal all of a sudden? Rather, how did she even know about Ryan's new skill..? Did Runar tell her? If so, then she should have known that they got Gaia's last fragment and that Ryan bonded with a symbiote. But he doubted that Runar would have just told her, so... how did she know? She was at Modak's place while everything was going down in the Channel, so she couldn't have seen Ryan use the skill either.

"I-If he doesn't want to start... Then I can!" Michael spoke up, practically shaking. But... Ryan was a bit confused. Michael seemed almost desperate. He was shaking, clenching his fist, and still keeping up that deep frown.

Alicia quickly shook her head, "I don't think that's a good idea. I will set up a barrier later, you can show off a bit then, alright? If I remember right... you had quite little control over your own magic, correct?"

Turning around, the mistress of the magic tower looked back at the crowd that had gathered, "Now, would anyone else like to start, then? You, girl with that pink ribbon... you were a magic archer, correct?"

Quickly, the focus turned away from both Ryan and Michael, as that girl was called on first. With a wave of her hand, Alicia seemed to create some targets, and even somehow procured a bow that the girl could use.

Ryan let out a sigh of relief that he wasn't forced to show off his skill, after all. It was one thing for a common class to show off, and another for Ryan to show a completely unique skill for a class that publicly has never existed before. He didn't know who else could be here, or if there was someone from Bluesky or the White Shadow Society watching, so he would prefer to keep those abilities hidden as much as he could. Though, Ryan did feel a bit bad for Michael, being shot down like that. Being told that he had no control over his magic by someone of Alicia's stature must have hurt.

Though, what Ryan didn't expect was to turn toward Michael and see a literal flood of tears stream out of his eyes. Rather, calling those 'tears' was wrong. An impossible amount of liquid poured out of Michael's eyes as if he had two faucets in his eyes, as he was desperately trying to stop it.

"No, no, not again... H-He said my suit would be ruined if it got wet, I..." Michael cried quietly, trying to press his hands against his eyes.

"... Huh?"