"What?" Alice asked, aghast. "I have been nothing but courteous to you, Lady Onia."
"Yet you hang around this insolent fool who insists on addressing me so casually, ignoring all status between us. I gave you a chance to rectify that error, but you valued your acquaintance with him more than mine." Onia shook her head. "Don’t mistake my gratitude for something else, Adrian. At the end of the day, you are still a commoner, and I will become a Duchess once my father passes his title to me. I know you are from the Rem Republic where the aristocracy is weak and holds less than a third of the power of government, but we’re not in the Rem Republic. This is the Holy Xan Empire, and if you want to survive here, you need to play by our rules, and not make up your own."
Adrian wanted to snap back. He wanted to argue. But he realized she was telling the truth. From her perspective, Adrian had been nothing but rude from the first day, refusing to use titles for any of the nobles in Xander’s Academy. The boy thought he would give respect to those who deserved it, but that was not enough. Not when he was casually disrespecting them from the very first day. He took a deep breath, and thinking of Alice, he spoke out.
"Onia— no, Lady Onia. If I were to use your preferred title from now on, you’ll have to stop treating Alice and I as outsiders," Adrian said, gesturing at the blonde girl next to him. "Perhaps you may think I did not earn my place in the Academy because Saint Theron pulled some strings to get me in, but Alice certainly has. And have I not proven from my time here that I am very much qualified to be a student here? Or are you disputing the veracity of my grades?"
"I am doing no such thing, and I would rather you not make presumptions on my behalf in the future," the noble girl sighed, but pressed that issue no longer. Instead, she brought out a hand. "I have considered your offer, and I accept your terms. I sincerely doubt you would be willing to bow your head to me despite your reluctant use of my title, so we shall shake on it, only to simplify this issue." She waited, her hand opened for him to take.
Adrian hesitated, eyeing the outstretched palm for a moment. "What about Faizan? Are you going to stop calling him a half breed and acknowledge him? He is a Baron’s son, after all."
"I…" Onia trailed off as Adrian raised an eyebrow. Then, after some internal conflict where her good sense won, she responded, "Very well. But only because he helped in saving me by calling Sir Nero."
The boy nodded, deciding that was the best he could get out of this. "So I guess we have a deal then?"
"Indeed."
Adrian and Onia shook hands as Alice watched, mouth agape. With that, the pink haired girl turned around and took her leave.
"Adrian!" Alice said excitedly. "You just made us friends with Lady Onia! Do you understand what that means?"
Adrian frowned. "I don’t really think we’re friends, and I don’t know— what does it mean?"
"It means you have access to one of the highest social circles in all of the Holy Xan Empire! These types of relationships go a long way, Adrian!" the girl chattered, waving her arms about. "Networking, getting to know the upper nobles. These are all things I thought would take me years to do once I got accepted to Xander’s Academy— in fact, I thought I’d spend the first three years talking only to the lesser nobles. But now that Lady Onia is properly acknowledging us, that’s not going to be necessary anymore!"
The boy looked at the girl skeptically. "I really don’t think it’s as big of a deal as you’re making it, Alice."
She sighed. "I’ll have to teach you a lot more things about how the nobility and the Holy Xan Empire works, don’t I? You’re still oblivious to so many things even after being here for half a year!" Then she laughed, smiling brightly at Adrian. "But don’t worry, once I’m done with you, I’ll make sure Xanderia feels like a second home!"
Adrian paused, catching a glimpse of Nero in the background. He saw the man’s sable black hair hanging freely without a helmet in place, and thought of someone else.
Sorry Alice, he thought to himself. But that’s never going to happen.
Because even if Onia was actually a good person, even if Faizan was an interesting new friend, and even if Adrian liked Alice’s company, it still did not change the fact that he believed the Holy Xan Empire was evil.
Chapter 21: Scenic View
For the next few days of travel, I spent every waking moment while not on the road practicing my drawing skills. I tried jumping straight to carving the runes on mana crystals, but that ended up being a waste of resources because of how imprecise I was at it; I went through three Lesser mana crystals— despite filing away the surface when I made a mistake— before learning my lesson and transitioning to paper.
Now, I worked with a pen, gripping it in the same way I would a carving needle; it was not an exact simulation of working with mana crystals, but it was as close as I could get to it. I continued drawing the four basic symbols of fire, water, earth, and air in repetition, focusing solely on learning the fundamentals of tinkering before I actually started work on creating proper mana tools.
I stayed up sleepless nights working on this, and spent the hours Gennady and I were on the road on the back of his mana powered bike, resting my head against his massive
