Chapter 217: Meddlesome Old Man Indeed

Casidus Easten POV

The boy in front of him was quite an interesting case.

His usual analysis skill wasn’t working on the boy, which wasn’t exactly unusual, a lot of people had skills or items that could shield them from skills such as his [Eyes of Zephyr]. In any case, being able to prevent his skill from working said a lot in itself.

That was why he ended up using his domain on them. It was a bit overbearing on his part, but he wanted to know why these two were found with his grandson or if this was some kind of plot.

Just as the boy was interesting, the girl was interesting too. She clearly had some good training. Her mana control, aura control, and overall power of her soul for a Tier 2 was quite impressive. There would be very few people her age who could say they were her equal.

At least that was what his brief examination of his domain showed.

The boy, on the other hand, he wasn’t able to get a clear sense of. When he had tried to investigate with his domain, it had met an obstruction.

He was somehow able to resist his domain, something that didn’t happen often. Not from anyone below Tier 5 and certainly not from someone at Tier 2.

That was why the first thing he checked was to see if the boy was in fact only a Tier 2. Casidus had seen many people try and fake their tiers. Whether that was because of an item or a special skill, it didn’t matter.

Despite this, he did not detect any skills and he didn’t detect any items either. From everything he could see, this boy was a legitimate Tier 2.

Does it have to do with the same reason why I can’t use [Eyes of Zephyr] on him?

Usually, he wouldn’t do this, but he cranked up his domain a bit. If he couldn’t slip through the boy’s defenses he would just overpower them.

However, as he did, he felt a pulse from the storage ring on the boy’s finger. It wasn’t just a normal pulse either, it was something that he was familiar with. It felt exactly the same as the thing he gave an old friend a while back.

I see he’s still up to his old tricks, he thought to himself amusingly.

Even though he had already made up his mind about what he was going to do with the boy, he let Arthur continue his usual shenanigans. Letting him try to get some answers out of the boy. He was even using that silly aura trick to try and scare the boy into talking. The one where he would flare his aura while acting relaxed.

Casidus didn’t blame Arthur for this trick, he was always surprised at how well it worked on people.

He was more curious as to how this boy would react.

Why would that meddlesome old man give him that item? There had to be a reason. The old man did things for specific reasons. Reasons that Casidus didn’t always agree with, but there was always an explainable purpose behind his actions. And he wanted to see if Arthur could get the boy to demonstrate that for him.

So he sat by and watched as Arthur tried to bully the poor boy and then inwardly smiled as the boy stood his ground against one of the more scary elders of House Easten.

It was only when he noticed that Arthur was about to take things a little too far than he was comfortable with that he stepped in.

“I want everyone but these two children to leave the room,” he commanded suddenly.

“…”

He saw the others all look at him with skeptical faces and didn’t immediately follow his orders.

“You want us to leave, Casidus?” Beth asked as if she could understand why he was asking that of them.

“I want to speak to the two of them alone,” he instructed, making sure there wasn’t any room for them to argue.

Arthur who had been pressuring the boy stopped and gave Casidus a look like ‘What the hell? I almost got the answers out of the boy’.

Casidus sent him a quick message with his aura. Don’t worry. I don’t think they are our enemies and the boy might be more willing to say something if it’s just the three of us in the room.

Arthur thankfully understood immediately and didn’t argue with him.

Understood Lord Patriarch, the man replied. Then he stood up and left the room without another word.

It was a reason why Casidus loved Arthur, the man was loyal and adept, two traits that were honestly hard to find nowadays. There were too many people who worried about lining their own pockets and increasing their influence over doing what was best for the House or for the region.

After Arthur got up, it sent a signal to the others to follow suit. The others, including the representative from the Adventurer’s Guild all promptly left the room and shut the door behind them. The only people remaining were the two children and his daughter who had remained.

“Becca, I would like to talk to these two alone,” he said to her.

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“I have some questions for them myself, father. I won’t budge on this,” she said stubbornly.

For a second he was going to insist but when he saw that trademark look on her face, he ultimately decided not to. He knew when to pick his battles with his daughter, and this wasn’t something he felt he was going to win.

“Okay, but you won’t speak a word of what is said to anyone outside of the room, got it? I am serious about this,” he said giving her a stern look.

Thankfully, she seemed to understand his seriousness and nodded firmly.

“And also try to be a bit more polite if possible. By all signs, they saved Cory. Therefore, showing some restraint, no matter how skeptical you are, would be appropriate.”

This time she hesitated, but eventually nodded her head and did her best to relax.

He finally turned to the two children who were waiting in front of him. The boy was strangely calm considering the situation he found himself in. While the girl was also pretty calm, she was obviously a little annoyed at how they were being treated, but she maintained her poise with confidence.

There’s no way she isn’t some high-born. Her demeanor is exactly how I would expect someone trained in etiquette would behave. The boy on the other hand, I don’t know. His manners say he is a commoner, but it’s too soon to say. Commoners don’t typically have indicators of such impressive training.

“Why did he give you the token?” he asked the boy, who for the first time this entire time, looked confused.