116 Chapter 116: Rival (1/2)
”That's correct.” I bowed politely as Shawn Franklin stared at me haughtily, scorn dripping off his eyes. I cocked my head as I studied him back, and tried not to smirk. ”…so, you are Shawn Franklin, huh?”
Franklin's expression darkened when he realized I was making fun of him by mimicking him. However, he couldn't just blow up in front of Stuart, so he held his rage in. Instead, he decided to look for another way to undermine me.
”You don't look like much,” he commented. ”I was expecting someone…more impressive.”
I shrugged. ”Sorry to disappoint you. But you are correct. I'm not anyone impressive. I'm just a regular guy you can find anywhere.”
”…huh?” Franklin stared at me, caught off guard by my humility. If he was trying to provoke a furious response out of me, he had certainly failed.
”Richard is a very modest person,” Stuart explained to him, thoroughly amused.
”As he should be,” Franklin replied, trying to recover from his shock. He stared at me, his eyes full of disdain. ”You're not from any clan, are you?”
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”No.”
”There you go.” Franklin shrugged flippantly. ”Without a proper bloodline, or powerful family to back you up, there are limits to how high you can go. The blood of elite mages must be kept pure. Only a noble mage can marry another noble mage. It's admirable that you know your place.”
”…noble?” I repeated incredulously. What was he, someone from the medieval period? I was pretty sure the whole noble thing died out long ago.
”Shawn is referring to the great families,” Stuart explained helpfully. ”The rich and the powerful. The upper class.” he shook his head. ”Many among the great families think that the purity of a mage's bloodline is of utmost importance, but unfortunately, I don't subscribe to that school of thought.”
Franklin looked a little chastened. ”I didn't mean anything by it, Lord Stuart.”
”No, I'm sure you didn't.” Stuart didn't sound offended at all. In fact, he was amused by the whole conversation. ”You don't have to worry. Richard is not your rival. He is already engaged to Miss Alicia here.”
Franklin tilted his head in puzzlement as he turned toward Alicia, evidently not recognizing her. She bowed her head politely, nonetheless.
”I am Alicia Violet.”
”Ah…the young lady of the Violet family.” Franklin's lip curled into a sneer. ”One of the smaller clans.” He then smirked at me. ”You do indeed know your place. Marrying into a smaller clan suits you far more than trying to break into the top nobility.”
”Uh huh.” I wasn't even going to try and argue with him. In fact, I was relieved he wasn't scolding me for not kneeling before his superior status. Not that he could, right in front of Stuart and all that.
”My family doesn't factor into this,” Alicia said gently, the dangerous sweet smile still on her face. However, it was lost on Franklin, who paid her no heed. ”I like Richard, and regardless of his background, I will still choose to be with him.”
”How admirable. However, you'll regret marrying someone from the lower class one day.”
”Who cares about class?” I grumbled. ”What does class have to do with anything?”
”Purity of bloodline,” Franklin replied arrogantly. ”Only the best mages will produce the most talented children. By diluting the mage bloodline, we'll only breed inferior magicians incapable of surpassing their predecessors…”
”Richard has already proven himself to be a superior mage to me in a number of occasions. Not only has he bested me in combat, he has saved me from several high-ranking monsters.” Alicia's smile was growing more dangerous.
”Exactly,” Stuart agreed. ”I do not believe that the quality of a mage has anything to do with one's bloodline. In fact, prior to you, Richard was the first young man of your generation to defeat Cecilia.”
”…right. I've heard about that.” Franklin was muttering under his breath. He couldn't openly contradict Stuart, not when he was banking of having the latter be his future father-in-law. He might be arrogant, but he certainly wasn't a fool. Instead, he shifted the goalposts. ”A fluke, no doubt.”
”That's what I've been telling them,” I agreed, to his surprise. ”I just got lucky that one time. I have no confidence in repeating that again.”
”Yet you've consistently saved me from powerful monsters again and again.”
Alicia was looking at me, a little annoyed. I shook my head, wishing she would back me up instead of putting me on a pedestal.
”That's right! Brother Richard saved me too!” Adrian piped up. I had almost forgotten that he was still here. He had been so quiet the entire time I thought he had disappeared off to somewhere because he was disinterested in the conversation. He bristled visibly. ”I bet he's stronger than you!”
”Oh, really?” Franklin's tone grew ominous.
”No, not really. I guarantee that you're definitely stronger than me.” I hastily tried to defuse the situation before it blew up in my face, while glaring at Adrian for pouring fuel on the fire. I wished he had stayed silent.
Now Franklin was pissed off at me instead of Adrian, and I was going to have to suffer the consequences. I honestly couldn't care less if he trash-talked me, and would be fine after receiving some insults because I knew he would just leave later once Stuart stopped paying attention to me, and we would never have to cross paths again.
But the moment I earned his ire, I was willing to bet that, following the cliché template of arrogant young masters, he would either hire killers to assassinate me for no reason other than I ”offended” him or send his entire clan after me to teach me a lesson through violence. And since I wasn't a wuxia protagonist, there was no well in hell I would be able to exterminate his entire clan – especially when it was one of the ten great families of the Global Federation. I didn't have plot armor or some supreme master's spirit secretly teaching me overpowered skills.
By the way, can anyone tell me why people bothered sending assassins after Wang Zhong in Battle Frenzy? That never made any sense to me.
Fortunately, reality wasn't that stupid, and as petty as Franklin was, even an arrogant young master such as him wasn't so free as to bother going to extreme lengths to assassinate somebody he had written off as a nobody. Instead, he was more interested in disproving Adrian's claim.
”Ho…regardless of whatever the person in question says, it seems that the people around him have quite a lot of faith in his abilities.” Franklin regarded me, his eyes full of scorn. But this time, I could read some measure of wariness in his sky-blue pupils. ”I really am interested to see which of us is stronger.”