There is a moment of silence as Ivour’s words soak in.
I stop holding back the excess mana constantly trying to escape my body. It floods the room carrying my anger along with it, the pacts that cover my body giving off a faint light. The air shimmers and warps around me responding to my mana. I stare at my uncle as the blood drains from his face and his knuckles turn white, his hands gripping the edge of the table. Blood drips from his lips as his body clenches itself, too afraid to even faint.
The walls and floor crack as I speak, “No one will touch him.”
My uncle can not even nod, I am not sure if he can even hear me.
“Giean.” I hear my fathers feeble voice plea.
I pull my mana back and hear my elder’s gasps as they find themselves able to breathe again. My eyes do not leave Ivour. My uncle meets my gaze his eyes filled with an intense hatred.
“Giean.” My father says again after catching his breath turning my attention back to him.
He waits silently while I meet his gaze. He wants me to apologize, to show remorse, but I will not. I can not stand by while they threaten an innocent man who should be seen as a hero. I have played along with my father charade coming here but it has gone too far.
My father’s generation and the generation before him only produced beast riders. While they were powerful in their prime, the most they would have amounted to is an A rank adventurer. I am a Beast mage and the strongest of our generation by leaps and bounds. I stand alone as the only SS rank adventurer on the continent and the first beast mage since the founder of the Beastlord family to have pacts with 4 SS rank beasts.
The only reason they sit at that table instead of me is because I wish it so. The reason they got to decide who formed a pact with the dragon is because I left the decision to them. They live in such luxury because I have not taken it from them.
My father is the first to look away, “I am sure Ivour was only bringing up our options, no one is seriously thinking of killing the boy.”
“Of course,” Olson chimes in, “after what he did standing up to the poachers and saving the egg, he is a hero.”
“and to kill an untrained tamer connected to a young mana beast. The death would surely be felt across the pact. The trauma would doubtlessly prevent the dragon from ever forming a pact again. Which would leave us at an impasse for his growth.” Meallin adds ever the realist.
Seeing the hate in Ivour’s eyes I know he meant every word, but for the other sake I let it slide.
“As long as everyone understands.” I say turning back towards my father.
“Still it begs the question of where we go from here.” Meallin says looking to the others.
My father nods, “What is the condition of this boy Ken?”
“as of this morning I have stabilized his mana vasculature at that of a C rank adventurer.”
The shock is apparent on my elder’s face.
“You said he was an ordinary hunter when you found him?” Olson questions.
“He was, I awaken his Mana the night he arrived and for the next 3 days had him focus on strengthening and expanding his mana vasculature. With the help of the Mana flowing from Chrono, the baby dragon, and using my own mana to assist in controlling his mana flow we manage to raise him to that stage in 3 days.”
There is a brief moment of surprised silence followed by Olson’s hearty laughter. Even my father and Meallin begin to chuckle as the heavy atmosphere disappears. I smile as I wait for there laughter to die down. My father looks much younger when he smiles, even if his eyebrows make it look like he is hatching an evil plot
“it is good that the boy is not in any danger.” My father says, “But what next.”
“I plan to make him my apprentice and teach him not only how to use magic, but to strengthen and grow chrono.”
Ivour bursts out of his seat again, “Are you mad why would we give such an important task to you. You failed to protect the egg in the first place, this is all your fault.”
“SILENCE!” my father shouts hitting the table. “Remember your place Ivour. You may be my older brother but at this table that means nothing. There is no one more suited to teach someone to raise a mana beast to the level of celestial than my son.”
“But-” Ivour begins to protest before my father cuts him off again.
“What? Would you do it? You could not even raise your phoenix to maturity. Maybe you want your son to do it. The boy who has not raise his phoenix past its B rank form despite being a beast mage and 6 years older than my Giean.”
At that Ivour sits down but the anger burns even brighter in his eyes. He tries looking to my uncles for support but they advert their gaze.
Satisfied my father nods before turning to me. “you have already proven yourself capable of raising mana beasts. In improving this boy Ken mana vasculature so much in such a short period of time you have proven a capable and dedicated teacher. For these reasons I put forward a vote to the heads of the four houses of the Beastlord family.”
He pauses waiting for a nod from each of the heads.
“Giean Beastlord next head of the Beastlord house will be placed as mentor and guardian for Ken Hunter and Chrono till such time that Chrono reaches maturity and no longer requires Giean’s protection. All in favour raise your hands.”
Olson, Meallin and my father raised their hands immediately. Only Ivour held out but under the gazes of his brothers he eventually crumbles. Letting out a sigh he raises his hand as well.
“The decision is unanimous, from today forward Giean Beastlord is Guardian and mentor to Ken hunter and his pact Chrono. This meeting is dismissed.”
I want to smile as I left the room but I can’t. The meeting went my way, but not how I wanted. I didn’t want to use force to get my way. I had hoped my uncles would be reasonable. Worse is how hard Ivour protested the dragon staying under my custody.
I have known for a long time just how hateful and jealous my uncle is but his behaviour today still qualifies as abnormally aggressive. The Beastlord family has always had its squabbles, I can’t count the number of times people have threatened war since I was born. Even I have a few times to get my way. Still distrusting and fighting with family does not sit well with me.
As we enter the foyer, I see the few Suntouched maids and butlers rushing to the regular maids my father employs, water and towels in hand. The maids are either propped against the wall or laying on the floor some covered in their own filth.
My heart twists, this is the reason I hold back my excess mana. In my anger I forgot that there are ordinary people nearby. I leap off the balcony casting as I fall.
“Beast magic, draw, first form: Blue Celestial Solar Phoenix.”
The gold marking that takes up the majority of my back begins to glow. It is the first pact I made, the one I made with Bu. It started off small and light blue, but as we grew stronger along with our bond the image depicting a Phoenix in flight began to grow larger and the colour changed. Now the wings extend to the outside of my shoulders, its tail feathers touching the waist of my shorts, the beak pecking at my hair line.
I split my mana flow in half, letting the solar element dominate my left side while keeping my right side attributeless. I kneel down beside one of the maids, she has stopped convulsing but her breathing is erratic. Using my right hand, I force my attributeless mana inside her, simultaneously flooding the mana channels in my eyes.
As the colours of the world fade to a dull background the maids dormant mana vasculature begins to glow white. I can see her mana, a shining white liquid like substance, running rampant in her mana vasculature. It churns pushing against her vessels occasionally forming mana spheres that further impede the flow worsening the affect. As the mana press against the vessels it spills over into her body causing real damage to her tissue along with the mana vasculature.
My first step is to stop the rampaging mana. It is not like in Ken’s case where there is more mana in the body then it can handle. Here the dormant mana has simply over reacted to the stimulus of my mana causing it to go out of control. It is similar to a fever in the way that the mana response was an attempt to protect the body from the presence of more external mana then it can handle. Also like a fever it can kill if not properly treated.
I mix my attributeless mana with theirs forcing it to flow properly through the mana vasculature, simultaneously breaking up any mana spheres that are impeding the flow. While my right hand does that my left-hand casts a soft warm light on the body. The light sinks through the flesh repairing the damage done by the rampaging mana.
While I did this Bu hops from person to person. She can’t stop the rampaging mana, but she gives me time so I can see to everyone.
It only takes a couple seconds to fully heal the maid. Once her breathing calms to that of a person in a deep peaceful sleep I move onto the next. As I heal the maids, I see Ivour walk out the door, not even sparing a glance for the people scattered across the floor.
Olson, Meallin and my father are talking with one of the Suntouched Butlers. I notice Olson and Meallin look in my direction as they leave but I can not meet their eyes. I can not blame them for leaving, they are beast riders born with an attribute. Them trying to calm the raging mana in the maids would do more harm then good. Their healing magic abilities are also elementary only capable of fixing cuts and bruises.
This is my mistake, the fault of my thoughtlessness. I have to fix it, to make up for my actions and to bare the shame of putting these lives at risk.
I finish healing another maid, Half of them done. I am about to move onto another when the girl I just healed pulls on my arm. She must have been close to naturally awakening if she is still conscious after all this.
She points at a different maid a girl a few years older them me. “Her next.”
I don’t question her. The girl is still convulsing slightly which made her less of a priority. Yet in my experience people don’t say stuff like that to a healer without reason.
I rush to her side and as I looked at her I immediately understand, She is pregnant.
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