บท 24: Not The Look of A Weakling

Facing Gilbert's tall stature, Sebastian felt his entire body tense up. Even when he had faced Gilbert before, he didn't feel this sort of pressure. That only meant one thing, Gilbert had become an Apprentice and he wasn't trying to conceal it at all.

The level of pressure he gave off was even stronger than the goblin lord. Sebastian couldn't breathe properly with pupils in a cycle of contracting and expanding.

It didn't take long for Amy to notice Sebastian's state and put herself between the two and eased the pressure on Sebastian. Shockingly, the pressure she gave off was by no means weaker than Gilbert's—it could only be stronger.

"What's the meaning of this, Gilbert?" Amy's voice wasn't the carefree voice filled with warmth that she used on Sebastian. It was cold and the anger hidden in her words could be felt. It was as if she was facing her mortal enemy with no chance of reconciliation.

"You tell me," Gilbert pointed at his suit that had been stained by the food that was now on the floor, "I was the one bumped into."

Amy snapped back, "you clearly blocked his path on your own!"

At that point, the people attending the party turned their eyes towards the two who were quarreling. Although the two of them were strong, there were plenty in the room who could outmatch them. The result was that many of the people watched the two with expectations of watching a good show instead of panicking.

"Amy—"

Sebastian noticed the attention being focused on them and tried to hold Amy back but she didn't listen to Sebastian at all and continued to raise her energy emission. It was the same for Gilbert, be refused to listen to his surroundings and the people pleading him to stop.

Before it got out of hand, Christine was about to go and atop them but just as she was going to approach them, someone grabbed her arm.

"Leonard, what are you doing?!" she turned around and tried to wrestle her arm out of his grip.

"Don't make a fuss. Let's watch how things play out for a bit. It won't be too late if we stop them just before they start fighting," although the two of them weren't Apprentices, it wasn't like the other party was going all-out against them.

"Still, this is my party. If anything happens, I'd be held responsible by the Golden Rabbit."

"I'll take half the blame if that happens. Don't you want to see what he does? You invited him to check him out after all. This would help you understand him better." Leonard's eyes sharpened.

"..."

Although neither of them spoke a name, the person they were talking about was clear.

Convinced, Christine stopped pulling on her arm and began watching Sebastian.

...

—They are both exceptional for their age. Though I've lived long, seldom do I encounter youth with talent like them. If they knew the proper way to train themselves, perhaps they'd be even stronger by now.

Compared to the panicked Sebastian, Balanos was as calm as could be.

—As the way you are now, you aren't a match for him. I thought that by the time of the duel, you'd have surpassed him completely but... now I'm not so sure.

Balanos is his guardian but she isn't his friend. What she said was the truth and she didn't feel the need to sugarcoat it. It was her honest assessment of the gap between Sebastian and Gilbert.

A goblin lord isn't smart and Sebastian, with the help of several people, managed to barely kill it. But, Gilbert is even stronger than the goblin lord and had no pattern to exploit like a monster.

Sebastian's sudden growth made him feel like the original impossibility seemed possible but now that he was stronger, he could feel the disparity between them even more clearly than before.

Gilbert had a derisive smile on his face, "I'm benevolent so I'll forgive you for staining my 50,000 Aur suit. In exchange, tell me about this 'goblin subjugation' that ended up with you killing a goblin lord."

Some of the surrounding people began chattering. At first, they were watching the quarrel without talking but the people who knew of Sebastian and his talentless disposition couldn't hold themselves back.

Even if ten normal people were to fight a goblin lord, they wouldn't necessarily be able to severely injure it. Perhaps if they used poison and traps, it'd be doable to even kill it but it was still quite the feat no matter the methods.

The people who had no idea who Sebastian was began to show interest but when they found out from the others that he was actually a 『Inheritor』 without an ability, most of them lost interest in recruiting him or forming some connections with him.

Although his background and the feat of slaying the goblin lord were immensely tempting, he was someone being targeted by the Walt House.

"He doesn't need to tell you something like that," Amy tried to block Gilbert's gaze on Sebastian but she wasn't taller than either of them. It actually looked comical—if the threatening atmosphere permeating through the air and the energy emissions having an effect on the surroundings were ignored that is.

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Sebastian, "do you feel proud hiding behind a woman?"

"Well, this 'woman' is way stronger than you. Do you have anything to say about that?" responded Amy while glaring at Gilbert.

Sebastian bit his lower lip and mustered all the courage in his body to place his hand on Amy's shoulder. She turned to face him and Sebastian shook his head with a wry smile.

He walked forward and lightly pulled Amy to the side then hid her behind him and met Gilbert's eyes.

"Are you happy now?"

Gilbert's eyebrows were raised in surprise and the smile on his face was replaced by a frown. He continued to emit energy and Amy tried to counter it with her own but the proximity between Sebastian and Gilbert wasn't large, he'd have to be at least half-affected by the pressure. For a normal person, half the pressure from an Apprentice would cause them to feel nauseous.

After still failing to make Sebastian back down after a few seconds, he released his energy and turned to walk away in a foul mood. A few of his entourage began following him out of the venue.

Once they left, Sebastian collapsed on his knees and began breathing heavily. Amy quickly began stroking his face. "Why did you push yourself? I could've handled him on my own..."

"Haha... I wouldn't be able to take care of you in the future if I can't even do this much. Besides, I don't think this is a good place for two heirs of rivaling major houses to duke it out. And, it's true that I was the one who spilled food on his clothes."

"Idiot," Amy exclaimed with a giggle. She wouldn't admit it but... it did feel kind of good to be protected like that occasionally.

...

Gilbert briskly walked out of the Golden Rabbit with an expression on his face that looked like he had just swallowed a fly. His entourage tried to keep up with his large strides and they only got to rest once his pace returned back to normal.

"Young master, you don't need to mind him. He was just hiding behind the heiress from the House of Luna. If she wasn't there, he wouldn't be able to hold a candle to you!" one of the people in his entourage began comforting him.

Gilbert shot the man a glance and clicked his tongue. The others in the entourage saw that and began berating the man.

"That's a given! The young master doesn't need your words to know that!"

"That's right! He's inept, what would he be able to do to our great young master?!"

"It makes me wonder if he's sane to accept the duel."

As much as Gilbert wanted to hear those words, his mood didn't lighten at all. In fact, he only felt greater irritation.

Didn't that mean that he—an Apprentice—was unable to make a mere inept bow down?

He had made contact with Sebastian out of pure curiosity about the goblin lord but now, he had to investigate it clearly.

"Investigate that goblin subjugation for me. I want testimonies, evidence, everything! I'll reward the ones who give me the greatest information about that inept's contributions!" he told the quarreling entourage of his.

"Leave it to us, young master! That weakling probably didn't do anything anyway!"

"Weakling, huh?" Gilbert repeated the man's words and looked up at the sky. For some reason, he saw Sebastian's gaze looking down on him. The same one from earlier.

It wasn't the look of a weakling at all. Something definitely happened during that goblin subjugation and he had to get to the bottom of it.

...

"I didn't expect to see that," Leonard muttered.

"I doubt we're the only ones that noticed. Amy would've noticed too but she's too focused on his health. The inept managed to withstand an Apprentice's pressure," Christine worded with surprise.

Although she didn't like calling Sebastian an inept, there was no better way to call him. He managed to resist without emitting a single iota of energy outside of his body and only walking away with cold sweat.

"He sure is interesting, makes me want to open his body and see what's going on in there," although Leonard muttered something disturbing, Christine was used to his way of speaking and focused his gaze on Amy and Sebastian who were practically showing off their affection in full display.

If she looked around, she would be able to see that several of the important guests and powerful people in the room had their gazes on Sebastian as well—likely interested in how he was able to do such a thing. The normal people who couldn't sense the energy in the air didn't have much of a reaction but everyone else did.

They looked at Sebastian as if they were wolves eyeing their prey.

That night, Sebastian had gathered the attention of many powerful people in the capital and it was also the start of his bigger troubles.