Chapter 24: How Does One Apologize?
Snol was just a kid when he met his master.
He didn’t spend much time with them, but he knew how great they were. People always talked about how his master was a comrade of the great Emperor Auremont, the one who united the continent with an iron fist.
They also told him how Snol himself had been saved by them during one of their adventures before his master took him in as their pet.
Naturally, he didn’t remember much.
Being a spiritual creature, he had been assigned as the guardian spirit of this treasury as soon as he hatched from his egg and it had taken him nearly a hundred years to gain proper sentience, grow into his strength, and learn the language of humans.
But not even once did he forget the soft, warm hands of his master and their grandiose voice whenever they visited the treasury with their great stories.
There was one more thing he remembered from those distant childhood memories, that sword his master always carried.
Although his master never shared their own stories, the heirs and other members of the family who passed by the treasury would sometimes tell him how that sword was said to have slain countless monsters when his master roamed the continent alongside their friends.
Ever since then, he had seen countless heirs of the family come and try their luck at wielding his master’s sword, but none succeeded...
...all of them met their ends, their bodies lost within the sword’s trial.
So, when this particular heir of the family, who was said to be a troublemaker, entered the treasury, Snol didn’t think much of it.
As its caretaker, he waited a few hours for the boy’s return as a formality and when none came, he assumed that this heir had met his end as well.
With that thought, he walked away to inform the family head of the situation through the communication artifact and to get himself a honey-flavoured spiritual elixir he was particularly fond of.
But just as he returned... the boy who he thought was dead had returned and not only that, somehow he was holding the sword of his master, its broken blade somehow floating into the air before gathering together once again.
"H-how...?" He stammered. "How is that possible?"
"How could you tame my master’s sword?"
The boy simply turned towards him and let out a wide smile.
"Your master approved of it himself and... where is the sheath of my sword? In any case, could you please ask someone to deliver it to my room later, elder."
With those words and that knowing smile, the boy walked out as if that was enough to explain this impossible situation.
Meanwhile all snol could do was nod absentmindedly.
***
Moments later, in the office of the Patriarch of Ruinbringer, Raymond frowned as his eyes drifted toward the couch where his seventh son had been seated barely a few hours ago.
Zenith.
The boy had been as unassuming as snow in winter, barely recognizable among the crowd of his talented siblings and yet, within just a few days, he had managed to amuse him thrice.
The first time was how skillfully he maneuvered within the Imperial Court to save himself from a crime he didn’t commit.
Raymond didn’t know whether it was truly the Goddess who had saved him back then or his own cunning but in either case, he had managed to surprise him nonetheless.
The second time was a few hours ago, when he had called him here and given him the opportunity to shift the blame of his crime onto someone else instead of Cedric.
Cedric was a powerful asset to the family, born with a talent far surpassing Raymond’s own, and losing him would have been catastrophic for the family’s future.
Raymond had been prepared to grant almost any wish the boy asked for, so long as it wasn’t blatantly nonsensical or something that could harm the family’s reputation.
He had expected him to ask for authority, wealth, information, martial arts or even access to the family’s restricted library.
But instead, the boy had simply asked for protection and a non-interference contract from him, along with an artifact from the restricted Ruinbringer Treasury.
That alone had amused him even further and he had begun to consider Zenith someone capable of becoming an heir to the family, perhaps even someone worth investing in solely for his cunning.
But then...
The third wish made him reconsider.
Out of all the things he could have asked for, he had requested a genuine apology, acting on some petty emotion.
Still, Raymond had agreed to grant it because everything was worth it for the name and future of the Great Ruinbringers.
And how difficult could it be to apologize?
Although he had never apologized to anyone in his life, he hadn’t doubted himself for even a second.
And then, just now, the boy had managed to amuse him for the third time.
He could still hear the shock and surprise in the voice of the family’s Great Guardian, Snol, when he informed Raymond that Zenith had somehow managed to earn the acceptance of the Founder’s Sword.
It was an unprecedented event because countless fools in the past had attempted the same thing, only to meet their end.
Even Raymond’s own brother had died for that very reason when they were young and yet, somehow, a boy with the weakest physique and lowest potential in the entire family had succeeded.
Had he awakened some talent?
Was there a mistake in the assessment of his talent?
Raymond pondered for a moment as he recalled the day Zenith had awakened.
He still remembered how the talent-measuring orb had shown no reaction whatsoever. It meant that either the boy had failed to awaken any talent at all or the rank of his awakened talent was so low that the orb couldn’t even register it.
The orb had also failed to display any awakened affinity and Raymond knew how difficult it was for someone without any affinity to grow beyond certain ranks.
"Strange."
With that thought, Raymond rang the small bell on his desk and almost immediately, the old head butler entered the office, as poised as ever.
"How may I assist you, Master?"
He bowed, his face devoid of even the slightest expression. Raymond observed him for a few moments before speaking.
"Ask the Elder Seer to perform another talent assessment on Zenith."
Within seconds, he wrote a few words onto a blank sheet of paper before stamping it with his personal seal.
The butler stepped forward and accepted the letter gracefully.
"Anything else, Master?"
Raymond stared at him in silence and a moment later, he finally asked,
"How does one apologize genuinely to someone?"
***
