Arthur glanced at him, as he asked:
"Do you mean the final ranking?"
"Part of it, yes," Rayan admitted, as he explained, "I'm sure you are already aware of the presence of the royal clans and guilds in the academy. These clans have already had their main descendants take part of the academy since young age, but those newly discovered by them would take part in the annual competition of the academy."
Arthur silently nodded, as he already was aware of all this. Rayan then added:
"Between these royal clans and guilds, there is a form of competition going on, like factions, alliances are already established, enemies are known to each other, and friends are sought out everywhere."
"That's nice, I suppose you are part of one of these factions, right?" Arthur jumped over these minor details that he already was aware of.
"Sure," Rayan replied, "I'm part of certain faction, but my situation is kind of special," he added, before pausing as he glanced over to the minor tables in this hall, "all these individuals will take part of the competition as well," he said in a solemn tone that expressed his bad mood about this.
Arthur glanced at these mages, they numbered in hundreds, with each group formed of fifty mages at least. They were all above twenty of age, with no one so young there like Arthur's team. "Are they under the command of your clan?" Arthur asked, while he already guessed the answer.
"They are under the clan, yes," Rayan nodded, "but they aren't under my command," he added, with some hatred and hidden pain inside his words.
Arthur felt the hidden hatred in these words, and he already guessed what was going on here. However, before he could say anything, a group of mages appeared from the entrance of the hall, a group of five young mages, in the same age of Rayan, or slightly older.
The moment they entered here, all the hall ushered under complete silence. The group of five moved, heading straight towards Arthur and Rayan's table, while those sitting on the tables all stood up, and started to group themselves behind this group of five.
Arthur smelled the scent of gunpowder already, a fight was going to erupt, and it seemed it wouldn't be the first fight he would face!
"May I ask about something the esteemed grand elder said?" Arthur suddenly asked, getting the weird look on Rayan's face. He thought at this moment Arthur would distance himself away from him, or at least avoid partaking in the troubles coming here.
Rayan's place, no matter how delicate and fragile it was, was still a part of this clan, not an outsider like Arthur.
"Sure," Rayan simply replied, as there was no time to waste. The growing group of his mortal enemies was now about to reach their table, and he had to stand and keep his dignity, at the least, even if this would cause much trouble later on.
"The esteemed grand elder granted me the godatent rank of treatment, may I ask what does this mean?"
Rayan turned to glance at him, with a strange wondering look on his face. He wanted to scream at Arthur's face, as this wasn't the time to ask about this minor matter. For Rayan, this matter was nothing, but for Arthur this was everything.
And that showed to Arthur that Rayan wasn't like his great elder, not yet!
The smile Rayan had from Arthur made him more nervous, as if Arthur wasn't taking the incoming threat seriously. "It's a special kind of treatment other direct sons from equal ranked clans and guilds enjoy when they visit us here," he simply and hurriedly explained, before he turned to look at the incoming group, who just stopped in front of the table of Arthur and Rayan, with the five in the lead looking directly in their eyes.
"How can a mere border clan that we never heard of get the godatent kind of treatment?" one of those five, the one in the middle, asked, not directing his speech towards Rayan or Arthur, but to the mage who was responsible for serving them.
"Master Tenshi, these are the orders of the grand elder," the servant mage hurried to reply, as he knelt nervously on the ground.
"Have you seen the grand elder edict yourself? Have you received the grand elder sealed order for that?" Tenshi asked again, with the same arrogant face he had, with eyes glaring at Rayan, and words directed to the servant.
"N-N-No no, I didn't receive anything."
"Good, then throw this trash out of here and don't let them in until they have the sealing orders from the grand elder," Tenshi said to the servant, before finally speaking to Rayan, while his face showed faked pity emotion, "I think you need to hurry, as the grand elder is going to participate in the closed summit of our clan."
His face then returned to the arrogant vicious face he previously had, with an evil silly laugh that made Arthur feel disgusted from just hearing it.
This mage here reminded him of many cultivators, arrogant failures, who always tend to use the deeds of ancestors as a reason to live supremely.
A supreme life wasn't given, it was taken, and that was the simple rule of life!
This Tenshi here came to irritate his simple moments of peace. In fact Arthur was kind of regretting not showing off his power, at least he would know his current standing in this world. He was sure he wasn't low, but he was wondering if he was so close to the top, or not.
Plus he already had the answer he craved for, he was eyed by the grand elder as an equal friend, something he had to defend hardly for right now. his fate was tied with Rayan, if Rayan fell, then this special treatment would be lost.
Arthur didn't know if the grand elder already had foreseen all this, but he was sure he had at least anticipated part of it.
"May I ask, brother Rayan, if the elder's words are equal to his written ones or not?" Arthur jumped straight in the middle of this mess, startling everyone here, even his team.
Rayan turned, again, to look at him with his weird look for the second time, while replying:
"The grand elder's words are like an edict, immediately executed once spoken."
"Good," Arthur said, as he turned to look at the servant, totally ignoring Tenshi as he said to the servant:
"Stand up and go change these dishes for us, they are already cold."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺