Chapter 104: The Greatest
[Lebreton Family Estate.]
[9:45 Pm.]
At the moment, the grand Hall was filled with countless men and women from Noble families, chatting; and drinking beneath floating chandeliers. The air was thick with the subtle pressure of hundreds of high-ranking Awakened carefully restraining their auras in polite society.
"Why haven’t the party started yet?" A lady asked with a slight frown, her silk gown shimmering.
"I also don’t know, maybe they’re waiting for someone." A man added, holding a delicately carved glass of wine.
"Who is this person! We are all from powerful families, even those from other cities are present, don’t tell me someone from the ancient family is coming." A man standing beside the two murmured, glancing nervously toward the VIP tables, while the woman shook her head.
"I don’t think so, the Lebreton family is strong, but they aren’t yet qualified to invite any Ancient families over."
"True, to be able to invite those guys, you must clear a total of Ten SSS-RANK Dungeons, minimum, and also have at least Ten Divine-Tier equipments, the Lebreton family doesn’t have that many." The second man added, citing the brutal system metrics that governed their society’s absolute hierarchy.
"Alright, but did you hear the rumors? They said a family called Aetheldawn has a full set of Mythic-Tier artifacts, and the Head is just a young man still in his twenties."
"Yeah, I heard about that too, they said he has three wives, the four of them made up the whole family... Even after getting besieged by countless Awakened, none could take any of these artifacts... Some even said they’re one of the ancient families."
The three murmured amongst themselves, completely absorbed in the terrifying legend of this rising powerhouse, while the young lady listening from a few paces away sighed, and walked away, reaching her own private table.
"Huh? What happened, Elizabeth? Why the angry face?" Frederick asked, placing his glass of wine on the polished obsidian table. He was dressed in a meticulously tailored noble suit, his demeanor calm and diplomatic.
"I am so angry!" Elizabeth growled in a low voice, sitting down heavily.
"Oh?" Frederick was stunned, moving his gaze to the four people on their table, two extra guys and ladies.
"Why are you angry then?" Katherine asked, looking up from her phone, staring at Elizabeth with the detached calmness of a high-level master.
"Why shouldn’t I?! Everyone is talking about this new family with Mythic-Tier Artifacts, and his wives! What about me, I am from the Celestial Family! I am also an S-Rank, a fire attack mage... Not only that, I won the competition hosted by imperial academy, they should be talking about me, only me." She complained, her arrogance blinding her to the vast chasm between an academy student and true battlefield monsters.
"....?!"
The five on the table stared at her, speechless, and dumbfounded:
"You are only S-Rank, nothing special." Katherine said with a calm expression, effortlessly cutting through the girl’s ego before focusing back on her phone:
"Before you, S-Rank is nothing but trash, but to any of us here, reaching S-Rank at Age 21 is already something great!" She said seriously, reminding her of her place within their own generation.
Katherine exhaled, looking up at her: "The guy everyone is talking about is only 20 years old, and he is already SSS-RANK, do you think you’re in his league?" She asked, her tone laced with a heavy dose of reality.
"Yes, even my uncle got knocked down by his defense... He is simply too powerful." The third lady in their group said. She had long blonde hair, and blue eyes, and Eren; was her uncle.
"Come on! Britney, you aren’t even an Awakened." Elizabeth said with a cruel sigh, and turned to the two young men sitting on her right.
"What about you two?" She asked.
"Huh?"
The two turned to her with a confused expression, they looked at one another, then shrugged indifferently:
"I don’t actually care about all this."
"Same... I am only focused on what happened to the Warsaw family."
Hearing the second, Frederick turned towards him, and quickly changed the topic, eager to turn the wheels from Elizabeth’s tantrums before she caused a scene that would shame their houses.
"Yes, I heard no one survived, even the guards were all killed." He quickly said.
"What are you so shocked? They must have offended someone powerful, and paid the price." Elizabeth said with a callous eye roll, perfectly embodying the ruthless social Darwinism of Awakened nobility.
"That could be it, but the whole family was massacred... I heard it was horrible." Frederick said, turning to her, disturbed by the sheer scale of the slaughter.
"Yeah, forget that. The Warsaw family aren’t even that powerful, they only have one SSS-Rank." She said, staring at the extravagant food on the table as if a single SSS-Rank casualty was merely a footnote.
"Come on, Elizabeth, we shouldn’t say such things about those who are dead." Britney said in a low meek voice, staring at her food, deeply intimidated by the casual discussion of mass murder.
"TSK." Elizabeth clicked her tongue in anger, looking away.
An awkward silence fell on the table, as everyone simply ignored one another, the heavy tension of mismatched statuses driving a wedge between them. Katherine sighed, looking up from her phone:
"Elizabeth, how did the competition go?"
"It went fantastic!" Elizabeth said with a sudden bright smile, immediately forgetting her anger to bask in her own glory, turning to Katherine:
"They were a total of five academies, each from a city! The competition was intense, but with my summoning abilities, I defeated them with one strike!" She said with a prideful smile.
"Wow, how many creatures can you summon now?" Frederick obliged her, playing the polite noble.
"Hahahaha! I can’t use my powers in the hall because of the rules, but I can tell you... I could summon few creatures, but now, I can increase my summoning size by three feet." She said with a bright smile, and turned to Katherine, feigning humility:
"Of course, I am no where close to Sister Katherine, she could summon 50 feet creatures, I am no match." She said.
"I am still learning, your ability to infuse your element to your summon is every impressive." Katherine said with a polite, manufactured smile.
"Fufufu, it’s nothing to brag about, but it’s pretty good." Elizabeth said, and started mumbling non-stop, while everyone listened half-heartedly.
Katherine sighed inwardly. This was exactly why she loved being alone in the untamed wilderness zones; all these academy youngsters were simply too arrogant, entirely absorbed in their own narrow progression paths, completely ignorant of the true horrors that lurked in the dungeons. Elizabeth was a very good example... If her Father hadn’t strictly instructed her to create some diplomatic bond to maintain their familial alliances, she wouldn’t even be at this table.