- "That's why the King is so hell-bent on changing the system." She thought. "Over time, us nobles are isolating ourselves from the masses. If it keeps up like this, soon the status of noble will be like having a bounty on your head." –
"And her hard-working nature." Yurial continued. "In my family, the less you do, the farther you get from the line of succession. Some of my profligate siblings are as good as disowned, with no money or authority of their own.
The reason why I am the heir is because of my talent and efforts, and I could lose the title anytime if I start to slack off. When I asked my father to teach me the secrets of the academy, do you know how he replied?"
Yurial made a stern face, speaking with a low, harsh voice, mimicking archmage Deirus demeanour.
"Son, your grandfather was just a noble, not even a mage. My foundations and resources for magic where nothing compared to what I gave you. If you cannot achieve as much as I did despite all that, teaching you is pointless.
For our Kraston family to prosper, you need to be able to walk with your own legs. Getting unfair advantages make you lazy and reliant on other's help. There are no shortcuts in life to achieve what really matters. Now go back to work!"
The whole table giggled, Yurial had got so immersed in his persona to yell the last part, drawing on him the looks of their neighbours. Realizing his slip-up, Yurial had become red, so Lith asked Friya about her tutor, to cut him some slack.
"I asked her countless times." She sighed.
"But she always replied that our money was buying her services, not her loyalty. And that she had no intention of taking the smallest risk with the Mage Association for such a little sum." Friya scoffed.
"With the amount we paid her, we could have probably built a fortress. What about you, Quylla?"
Quylla was wolfing down her second serving of lasagna, looking at Lith's steak like a hungry tiger. The mouthful she had taken was too big for her to talk, so they had to wait for her to be able to swallow.
"I had no tutor." She explained, while trying to wipe the sauce off her face.
"The healer of our village had been killed by some bandits, so his books were available for everyone. I was an orphan, too weak to work in the fields, so I began studying them.
Once I understood magic, I became the next healer, until the Duke that was managing the rebuilt of the village heard about me. He built a house for me, and when I became old enough, he recommended me to the academy. You know the rest."
She returned to give her meal all the care she could.
"That story is really impressing." Yurial said. "But at the moment I am so amazed by the amount of food you are eating that I cannot think about anything else."
"I swear, she wasn't like this yesterday." Friya said.
"It must be Vastor's tonic." Lith said. "She is shorter then me by a good head, yet she is eating more than me. I guess she needs a lot of food to catch up. Mind if I touch your head?"
Quylla violently blushed, tried to say something, but her mouth was full again, so she just nodded, lowering her head. Lith pretended to cast a spell while actually activating Invigoration.
"Your muscles are severely undeveloped, and your bone density is terrible. You need to drink more milk, for your skeleton."
"It's the first time I hear this." Yurial asked with a curious look in his eyes.
"Mind to explain?"
- "Yeah, sure! How can I possible explain the concepts of vitamins, proteins and calcium when your language lacks even the words necessary to describe them?" – Lith thought.
"It's an old saying from my village. Meat for the muscles, milk for the bones. How do you think I got so big at twelve?" Was what he actually said.
Despite being three years older than him, Yurial was just a few centimetres taller than Lith, while Friya was five centimetres (2 inches) shorter than him. To Lith's amazement, the three of them ordered a bottle of milk each, starting to drink it instead of water.