Meeting the Teacher (3/3)

Seeing as how every member of the main Vanteri Family are mages with long lives, even their periodic schedules are stretched longer and further apart than a magicless person's.

A normal person would think that a "regular family meal" happens every day, or every week, at the latest. However, the Vanteri Family only gets together once every 6 months.

As such, Haalfrin had 2 full months to teach Eli before he actually had to meet anyone else in the family.

When the day finally arrives, he's given clothes that are more nice than usual, and he goes behind Eli and Palandri, who are walking side by side.

When they walk through the door, they find that only the Duke and a few other people are here. Where's the rest of the family?

Obviously, Haalfrin and the others came half an hour early, so the others haven't arrived yet... well... except for the Duke himself.

"Father!" Eli calls out, "You don't normally show up so early!?"

The Duke stands up and walks towards Haalfrin. "I thought it would be better to meet your teacher for myself."

Vanteri extends a handshake to Haalfrin. "So, Sir Haalfrin, I'm happy you decided to teach my daughter, but I'm curious about why you'd bother showing up at a drab place like this?"

"That's the thing," Haalfrin replies, "I was growing sick of my other job, and your son showed up out of nowhere – uncanny timing, really. He offered me another job, so I decided to accept. I got nothing better to do right now."

The Duke's face goes stiff, and he thinks, 'Well, yes. But what kind of motives do you have? What could you possibly want from us that we can offer you!?'

The fact that Haalfrin chose to answer this way just communicates to the Duke that this monster of a mage simply doesn't want to be honest with him.

'Wait,' Duke Vanteri thinks, 'This man is the Demon of the Pit. He's not sane, and he doesn't adhere to normal rules. He really might've come here out of boredom.'

Somehow, the idea of a bored Demon feels scarier to him than a Demon with an agenda. The Duke barely suppresses a shudder.

'Either way, even if this Demon came here with a hidden goal in mind, there's not much I could do to stop him. It's best to just duck my head and not antagonize him with annoying questions that he won't answer anyway.'

And so, the Duke smiles politely and gestures to the seat on his left side. "Come. Sit down and make yourself comfortable."

Seeing the Clan Head's overly polite and ingratiating tone towards this stranger, the other members of the family, who are walking in just now, gulp nervously and look away.

They'd all heard by now that their youngest sister had gotten herself a teacher and that this teacher was invited to introduce himself at the family gathering.

Nobody really cared enough about this to even gossip, yet suddenly, they're getting the feeling that whoever this person is, he must be really dangerous.

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As the time for the gathering draws nearer, more and more siblings, cousins, and other relatives start filing into the room. Everyone mostly ignores Haalfrin, though a few, noticing that he's sitting next to the duke, try striking up a conversation with him.

However, behind exchanging a short introduction with them, he seems unwilling to say much else to them.

Finally, Aunt Prella walks in, and she goes up to the Duke's chair. Haalfrin's back is to her, so she can't see his face as she walks in. Frankly, with so many relatives, she can't be blamed for mistaking the backside of his head for one of her nephews.

However, as she comes around the table and pulls up her chair to sit on the Duke's right side, she scooches her chair forward and looks up.

Maybe it's because Haalfrin is clean-shaven now, but Prella can't be blamed for not recognizing him. Back when he was her prisoner, he was pale white, and he had a long, unkempt beard.

Now? She doesn't know who he is. When she looks at him, all she can think is, 'I don't recognize him. He must be Eli's new teacher.'

She raises her wine glass up, which had already been filled by the servants when the table had been set more than an hour ago, and she takes a sip.

'It would be tactless to bring up his expulsion right as dinner starts. It's best to bring it up naturally later on. Given that this was all probably Palandri's idea, I won't go too hard on the fellow. I think I'll have him demonstrate his Spirit magic, then bring up the name of a better Spirit mage after dinner with Eli and her teacher. It'll be easy to replace him then…'

As Prella is pensively thinking about this, she suddenly hears a familiar voice. "Hello, Warden. It's been a long time… How are you?"

Prella suddenly dry heaves just as she took another swallow of wine, and the wine is pushed up the wrong pipe, and it bursts out her nose. Everyone looks over at her as she's coughing so violently that her face is turning red.

'That DEMON IS HERE!? WHERE!?' Prella thinks frantically as she looks around. Finally, her eyes rest on Haalfrin, and her face freezes over.

"Are you all right?" the niece sitting to her right asks in concern. "Here. You can have my napkin."

Prella takes the napkin, and instead of cleaning herself up, she clutches it so tightly that her knuckles turn white.

She suddenly stands up from her seat and gives an apologetic nod to her brother, the Duke. "I'm sorry. I'm feeling a little ill."

Without any word or explanation, she leaves the family dinner behind, and once the double doors are shut behind her and she's alone, she sprints down the hallway.

As her long memory of him became blurry, more and more about him became abstract and unknown. In the dark, unknown corner of her mind, the image of the Demon in her mind called 'Haalfrin' became more and more twisted and powerful.

Now, after a century of dreading the man, her fear of him has only become more potent. No wonder she couldn't handle being in the same room as him.

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After the family dinner is over, Eli and Palandri pull their father aside.

"What was that about?" Palandri asks with a worried look on his face.

"Is Aunt Prella ok?" Eli asks.

The Duke breathes deeply. "You guys don't know who that man is, do you?"

"Haalfrin?" Palandri asks. "Yeah, I know who he is. He's that famous arena champion that was really famous, back in the capital."

"Ugh…," the Duke rubs his temples. "Listen. Don't talk about this with anyone, since the Emperor doesn't like a lot of people to know. That man's Name is Haalfrin, yes?"

"Yes?" ~ Eli and Palandri

"Who else is named 'Haalfrin?'" the Duke says with an insistent voice.

Palandri doesn't seem to be getting what his father is hinting at, but Eli shakes her head. "No, Father. The Demon of the Pit isn't real. He's just an old myth the previous emperor invented more than a thousand years ago."

"Eli!" the Duke reprimands softly. "I know that man told you that he's a 5th Gate mage. He's more than old enough to fit the bill!" He turns to Palandri next. "You saw him during his last and greatest battle in the Arena. You know he's more than powerful enough to actually be the Demon."

The Duke then turns to the direction that his sister ran off to. "Don't follow up with your Aunt about this. She has very good reason to be scared of that man."

He then gives Eli a side glance. "You do realize that your Aunt is a stalwart person. She wouldn't be so scared of a person if she hadn't been afflicted with a Spiritual attack from a VERY powerful Spirit Mage – especially after all this time."

The Duke then turns and faces Palandri directly. "Tell me the truth. How did you get ahold of Haalfrin? You can't just bring a man like that to your house willy-nilly. Did he approach you first?"

The duke suddenly thinks of how his daughter manipulated that merchant into suggesting a deal first. 'That's right. If the Demon wanted to come here, he wouldn't approach Palandri first. He could just tug on my son's spirit until my son initiated the proposal first.'

Contrary to the Duke's expectations, Palandri leans in and casts a quick telepathy spell. 'Father? Remember that last assassination attempt on my life?'

'Yes? What does that have to do with this?' the Duke answers impatiently.

'The Crow Goddess showed herself to me and Manni…'

Palandri goes on to explain everything that happened that day.

Once he's done, everything finally clicks with the Duke. 'So you're saying, son, that the Crow Goddess wanted him to come here because she knew that Sir Haalfrin would change his mind about crossing the World Gate here?'

'How does that make any sense?' the Duke thinks. 'I'm not being expected to convince the man to go to the Threshold, right? I DO value my life…'

'Don't worry, father,' Palandri says, 'The Crow Goddess said that we don't have to do anything. She said that everything will work out on its own. Just treat him as an honored guest, and he'll leave by himself when it's time.'

'Hmm… Well… There's nothing left to say about this,' the Duke replies. 'I can't bring myself to go against a goddess's whims, so don't speak of this conversation to anyone – especially Haalfrin.'

'We can ask him about the "demon of the Pit", right?' Eli buts in and asks.

'Sure. Just don't mention that Palandri was sent by the Crow Goddess. That would be disobeying her instructions. Just mention that I told you guys about his real identity.'

Given how large of an impact the "Demon of the Pit" had on the Vanteri Family, the Duke and his sister had studied Haalfrin's earlier life down to the last detail; they'd even gathered several first-hand, written accounts and a few relics they could recover and gathered them together.

With all they know, Duke Vanteri is very aware of who King Kanus was; that man was caught between the gods' whims for Haalfrin, and he was ultimately destroyed because of it…

…and it makes the Duke VERY unhappy to realize that he resembles King Kanus a lot in this situation.

Hopefully, the Crow Goddess's plans for Haalfrin won't destroy the bystanders this time…