Chapter 69: Answers
"Shall I play your game and call that two questions?" Grandmaster Oswald chuckled before turning serious in the blink of an eye. He kept silent for a second with a vacant gaze in his eyes like he was arranging his thoughts.
"Both your questions still fall under one blanket... how power is defined in your world," he started. "You obviously know the early tier classifications—simply called Tiers 1 to 3. Titles are only given from Tier 4—Adept, though according to journal entries of ancient Exalted we have in our records, some do not consider Tier 4 as a titled tier."
Dale and a few others frowned at the latter part of Grandmaster Oswald’s statement. They had never heard of any such records. Veronica had, but from Grandmaster Oswald’s earlier words, she knew there was more, and he was about to reveal things she wasn’t aware of. Perhaps she’d only gotten access to a part of the records.
"The true titled rank of your world begins at Tier 5—Master, after that is Tier 6—GrandMaster—"
Zephyr frowned. He remembered Guide Rita’s earlier words about most people of this world fully adopting the classifications from his world, but he didn’t think someone of the caliber of Oswald, the head of a governing council of people in direct opposition to the foreign rule of his world, would still adopt the classification standard.
Grandmaster Oswald saw Zephyr’s expression and laughed, "If it’s not broken, we don’t need to fix it just for the sake of it," he answered Zephyr’s unspoken question. "I don’t bother myself with petty technicalities like that," he waved a hand in dismissal, looking towards Veronica, who was one of those particular about the title they were called by.
Her lips were set in a thin line as she looked on, unperturbed.
"And after that are Lawbearers?" Zephyr asked, drawing Grandmaster Oswald’s attention back to him.
The old man nodded solemnly. "They are described as walking embodiments of chaos. Wielding the ability to bend reality around them to their will like the world is their playground."
"Doesn’t that make them Gods?... Just like the Exalted make people believe?" Dale asked hesitantly, stealing a wary glance at the suave gentleman seated calmly at the end of the table. He was one of the three Half-Exalted in the council, and unlike the other two, he seemed to already know everything Grandmaster Oswald was talking about.