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Chapter 165

“Do you mind if I call you brother?” Asked Ronald casually.

“As long as I’m the big brother,” I responded, winking at a young girl who was traveling with her friend as we passed.

She let out a giggle and then whispered something to her friend, but that was fine with me. I hadn’t meant anything by it. I wasn’t the type to flirt with underaged women, after all.

“I see you’re a man of substance.” Ronald noticed and grinned. “In that case, we should talk about the most important part of this academy.”

“Most important?” I asked, glancing his way.

“Girls!” He grinned, nudging me with his elbow. “This school currently contains five beauties.”

“Uh… I don’t mean any disrespect, but I’m not the kind of guy who chases children…”

“They are all eighteen or older! As someone who just reached adulthood myself, what kind of man do you take me for!”

“Ahem… I’m listening then.”

In the mortal world, the ages of adulthood were several years younger. They were even discussing fifteen-year-olds potentially marrying. I recalled Tanner being strictly against this when it came to housewives targeting his daughter for their sons. At first, I thought it was just him being a strict father, but it turned out most paragon families saw eighteen as the proper age of an adult. Marriages might be set up when they were younger, but they wouldn’t be executed until they were at least eighteen.

“Alright, so you’ve already met the first beauty, that’s the headmistress herself.”

“Isn’t she a bit old for you?” I asked.

She looked to be in her mid-twenties, but that seemed to be where aging stopped for most paragons. She could easily be in her forties or fifties.

“She’s only twenty-six!” He responded as if reading my mind. “Besides, a paragon’s life is long… who knows what the future will bring.”

I rolled my eyes at his attempt to be philosophical, and he at least had the good sense to blush. “Continue…”

“Well, there is the beauty Destiny Lou…”

“I thought you said girls eighteen and up!” I snapped.

“What are you saying?” He laughed. “Destiny is eighteen, I swear! She just had her birthday.”

I let out a sigh and backed away. I suppose Destiny might have been eighteen, especially given her paragon level. I didn’t have enough experience to truly be able to tell people’s ages with a glance. I wanted to know how this so-called bone age worked. Did it work by detecting certain minerals in the bones or did it read something like rings on a tree? Even in my world, people could figure out someone’s rough age based on the state of their bones, but it couldn’t be done instantly like that and it wasn’t necessarily accurate either.

“The third beauty is Elizabeth Frankford. She is the only daughter of the Frankford family. I know what you’re thinking, a blacksmithing family daughter? She must be very… fit. However, Elizabeth is shockingly dainty. You’d never believe she was related if you compared her with her siblings.”

“The fourth beauty is a teacher, Alliona. She’s an academic.”

“The last is…”

“You!” A voice shouted. “I finally found you! Were you trying to sneak away again?”

“Where would I be sneaking off to?” I rolled my eyes as Fate approached me with an angry expression on her face.

“You two know each other?” Ronald asked in shock.

I had a feeling by the look he was giving that Fate was the final beauty of the school. She was beautiful if a bit on the muscular side. She was a soldier through and through though, just as one would expect from the Lou family.

“She’s close friends with my fiancé,” I reminded him.

“Ah, right… she’s close friends with Lady Capala.”

“Who are you talking with?” Fate stopped in front of me, looking at Ronald, but when he opened his mouth, she continued. “Not likely anyone proper. I suppose I’m going to have to take properly show you the school.”

Ronald’s expression turned bitter at her words, but it was clear that their status in the school was different and he couldn’t say anything. Before I could come up with a response, a bell suddenly tolled. It rang three times before coming to a stop. Ronald’s mood brightened.

“That’s an arena challenge!”

“A martial battle?”

“That’s right.” Fate declared. “I was planning on showing you the arena anyway. If you can’t excel in battle, is there any point in even coming here?”

A gave a soft sigh. “You paragons love to battle.”

Ever since entering the paragon world, it had been battle this, martial that. I was beginning to think that every rich person was a warmonger in this world.

“Of course, battle is important.” She gave me a strange look. “It’s not only the fastest way to induce an evolution, but it’s the only way to claim resources for yourself. If a family can’t fight for wealth, how will you become wealthy?”

“Capitalism?”

“If you’re going to make up words, come up with more convincing ones.” She huffed and turned.

I glanced over at Ronald, and even he gave a nod. “This is the world of the strong. You either become strong, or you work under someone who is.”

“I take it you’re aiming for the second?”

He winced. “My family is merely a retainer family. We watch over some assets for the Stride family. I watched my big brother before me. He strived to be the strongest, yet it was pointless for him. Every step he took only served to help put a spotlight on the young masters of the main families. He was in that martial competition too, but do you even catch his name? He made the top 20, but all that did was make him subservient to someone else. He’s been promoted as their guard dog. That’s why I realized it was better to not try.”

The young masters of the major families each must have seen themselves as the protagonist in their own story. It must be tough when you realize you were never meant to be one of those shining in the spotlight. It was even crueler to learn you only existed as a stepping stone to help someone else reach a greater height.

“I see…” I replied. “However, if you evolve, and you mutate, perhaps one day it will be your family in charge and some other family serving your descendants”

He chuckled. “What’s the point if I’m not around to see it?”

“Hmph… that’s what separates the great families from the smaller paragon families. We always have our sights on the future.” Fate declared, apparently listening to us even as she led the way.

He made a face. “Yeah… maybe so…”

It all sounded rather complicated. I was glad that I didn’t have to worry about it. My situation was completely different than the rest of these humans.

The pair of us continued to follow fate toward a large open stage surrounded by seating. It was familiar to the stage set up during the martial competition, but it seemed somehow sturdier and longer lasting. There was a steady flow of disciples who were coming after hearing the bell ring. There were two people already on stage, but they remained on either side waiting for more witnesses to arrive.

They were both people I recognized. The first was Huntington Frankford and the other was Jordan Stride.

“I think it’s about time we set the record on which of us is truly stronger,” Huntington spoke, an angry expression on his face.

“Was our respective ranks not sufficient?” Jordan tilted his head with a smirk on his face.

“You and I both know that the ranking system this latest year was disrupted. I belonged in the top three, and it was robbed from me! Now, I’m going to prove that first place belonged to me.”

“Hmph… I was merely second place.” Jordan made an unpleasant expression as he said that. “We both lost to that disruption. Besides, even if you beat me, you still would have lost to Brandon, and possibly Sammuel as well.”

“That usurper doesn’t count!” Huntington growled. “I’m willing to admit that Brandon is stronger than me, and if Sammuel was able to defeat him, then so was he. However, even if we include them, that means you sit in the third-place position. Once I beat you, I can prove that I belonged in the top three.”

What kind of logic was that? If I defeated them directly, and they admitted two others were better than them, then the highest position they could ever reach was 4^th. However, as the source of this so-called disruption, I realized I probably shouldn’t speak up or I might also get dragged into this quarrel. At the moment, the two had not noticed me among the spectators, although as they spoke a few eyes certainly glanced my way with amusement.

If any of them thought I was going to get involved here though, they were completely mistaken.