Owari and Noel got off the train with Lance and Morgana early in the morning. The group all split up to deal with their own business. Owari went to his silk business to deal with finances. The spiders had grown pretty big by this point. They were about the size of a person, much bigger if you include the legs. As for the finances, he balanced the budget, gave a raise to the workers for their good work, and then grabbed the crystal bank card with his leftover profits on it.

After that Owari visited the Orion Tradecenter to check up on any changes to the mines and hot spring. After that he went to his home to check the mail for all the notices on changes with the music disk reader. As it turned out there were some significant changes. One was that they were soon to become commercially available. The other was that they intended to work on recorders so people could create their own recorded disks. This would allow people to send long-distance messages with their voices. On top of that crystal disks are able to be erased easily allowing for messages back and forth to only require one disk.

After all of that Owari went inside and began reading up on driving tips. He had been doing some research into this before vacation and he was hoping to get his license soon. He wanted to be able to travel further out from town without needing help to do so. By the time that he had spent an hour studying he went to bed, meditating instead of actually sleeping. He had grown a little too used to sleeping with Noel to be comfortable sleeping on his own.

When he got up the next morning Owari went straight back to studying. He wouldn’t be doing much today so he decided to visit Rebecca later. It had been a while since the two talked and he felt bad that she was left out of the battle from before, she had probably only been a scout. Though he knew she would be relieved, it also meant she hadn’t had the chance to spend time together with everyone. Owari felt like it was unfortunate she had slowly been outclassed by the other three. He really hoped she would catch up soon so they could all go out on a hunt together.

When he got there Rebecca answered the door and let him in. He noticed a distinct lack of children when he got inside. It was funny how she was only supposed to watch them temporarily but ends up watching them so often. The two of them sat down and Rebecca was the first to talk.

“I’ve been practicing those exercises you told me about. They’re quite effective.” She seemed to be in a good mood.

“Is that so? How much have they helped?” Even Owari wasn’t sure how much progress she could make in this time.

“My draw strength is up by about 50%.” She was quite proud of this.

“I told you it would help. Just keep practicing.” Owari was quite glad she was improving.

“I plan to. I also found a new way to add penetration power to my shots. I can use my mystic art to give the arrow rotation. It was my first addition to the mystic arts I use.” Rebecca had essentially created her own technique was what she was trying to say.

“Good job. Even Lance hasn’t added to his mystic art.” Though he said that both he and Noel created all of their techniques themselves.

“I can’t wait to brag about it.” She smiled triumphantly.

“I bet that’ll get him to kick up the difficulty of his training.” Owari chuckled.

“Hopefully he won’t leave me too far behind. I’m barely mid gold rank now.” She had thankfully caught up to Lance, but she was still a bit behind Noel, and very far from Owari.

“Congratulations. By the way are you planning to attend the party for geniuses coming up?” He asked curiously. This was her last opportunity before reaching 20.

“I plan to. What’s it like?” Rebecca was a bit nervous about it. She never saw herself as a genius after all. Her fear of combat gave her poor self-esteem.

“There isn’t much to worry about. Just treat it as a chance to make some friends. No need to overthink the occasion.” Owari saw her nervousness clearly. “It’s mostly just people talking about this or that. Sometimes people brag about their achievements, but I just ignored those. If you listen to all the braggarts you would never be able to enjoy the party.”

“I see. I’ll keep that in mind.” She smiled awkwardly. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to ignore them as easily as Owari who was naturally aloof.

“Other than that there isn’t much to say. It’s just a chance to meet new people of your skill level and to humble those who are full of themselves.” Owari felt the latter aspect was more important for the sake of the future. The last thing people wanted was to have powerful egotistical bastards running around doing whatever they pleased.

“What’s the ranking of people like? How in line with my age am I?” She couldn’t help but ask.

Owari thought for a few moments. “People your age were mid gold for the most part with the occasional high gold rank. However there was even a platinum rank last year, though he admitted he barely achieved it. As for the younger ages, 18-year-olds were mid gold, and 17-year-olds were low gold. There were some outliers though. But it wasn’t anything major.” Owari went over what he learned during the last party. He even acquainted himself with the platinum rank, though they hadn’t seen each other since.

“A platinum rank?” Rebecca was surprised. Most people are in their early twenties before they break through that barrier. People like Noel and Owari were freaks of nature.

“Yeah, he was pretty humble. But he was a good guy. He didn’t treat anyone as below him. If I recall he was part of the Onyx Agency. Which was a surprise since usually their members are on the average side.” Owari remembered the important information just in case.

“Impressive. The Onyx Agency doesn’t usually have high ranking members because the mystic arts they have available to them are average. They must have seen his talent and helped cultivate him.” Rebecca reasoned.

“Probably.” Owari shrugged, he hadn’t asked.

“So what about you? Did you rank up again?” Rebecca chuckled.

“Not yet. Honestly the main problem I have is finding sparring partners. I also don’t think I’m ready. The last time I fought a mid platinum I would have died if not for the circumstances.” Owari admitted. He may have beaten the ethereal fairly easily, but that was because it had underestimated his destructive potential. Most low platinums wouldn’t be so quick to write him off like that. It showed how little experience it had in actual combat.

“Sounds scary.” Rebecca gave her honest opinion.

“Sorta. I like the feeling of danger, but certain death isn’t pleasant. I wouldn’t say I was afraid though. Just depressed.” Owari had felt his mood dampen after that fight. He had been powerless in the face of a mid platinum. He only lasted as long as he did because his enemy wasn’t experienced in actual combat. Thinking about it this was the opposite of the ethereal. One was unable to win because of inexperience, and for the other a trivial matter such as that didn’t matter.

“Is that so?” Rebecca couldn’t understand the feelings Owari had. They were too different. However they got along well enough. They talked for a short period more before Owari excused himself and went home to meditate.

Time seemed to slip by as Owari continued his usual schedule. He would visit Noel, go out to hunt for a while, train his tamed beasts and feed them, and go back home to study. Sometimes he would visit Lance to hang out, or Rebecca to talk about mystic arts, and he even trained Erica a bit. Soon a little over a month had passed with nothing of note happening. Owari hadn’t even seen a whiff of a platinum rank, even when he ventured deeper into the woods.

The good news was that he had slowly been acclimating to his phantom affinity. He figured he’d be fully acclimated by the time appreciation day was over. Hebi also went into a torpor towards the end of the month and was soon to evolve. Garm had even ranked up to high gold. It apparently had a bloodline that it could evolve into. Owari wasn’t sure what it was yet, but it was probably a pretty good one. Fang on the other hand was lagging behind. It was currently working on evolving its body to have tougher hide, its current defenses were too little. However this required a lot of time to evolve causing its power to lag behind.

Hebi would soon gain its next head and gain a new affinity. Owari was curious what it would be. However he didn’t get his hopes up. It would be even more disappointing if it turned out to be something he couldn’t use in his mystic art. After checking on all his magical beasts, Owari paid the fees to have them looked after and cared for and made his way to Noel’s house. It was about time for them to make good on their promise and go visit her family for appreciation day.

They rode the train without much hassle as always. Unlike normal people who might have an annoying neighbor try to talk to them, Owari was clearly armed and Noel was sitting next to a maid which intimidated the other passengers. Not to mention that Noel and Owari were meditating, completely ignoring the outside world.

They arrived within a few weeks as usual. Along the way Hebi finished its evolution and Owari was both surprised and excited to see that it had the metal affinity. Even though it wasn’t a new affinity, having more of an affinity never hurt. It had doubled his overall metal affinity. He used his meditation time to contemplate the metal affinity and its properties. He hadn’t done so with his affinities in a long time and so he decided it was time to think of new ways to use his resources.

Owari and Noel went straight to the Silverblood compound to claim a guest house. Once they got settled in they made their way around looking curiously at everything despite having seen it all before. What they were really curious about were the people. There were plenty of them, both members of the family and servants running to and fro. It was still 10 days until appreciation day so it wasn’t like people were preparing for it.

As they walked they were suddenly approached by a pair of people. “Aunt Rin, Uncle Zach.” Noel greeted them as they approached. It was Lucke’s parents who approached them. They were some of only a few people who didn’t help Noel’s mother back when the family tried to pressure Owari.

“Nice to see you again.” Zach said somewhat awkwardly.

“No need to be so stiff.” Noel shook her head.

“Alright.” He nodded and did his best to relax.

“Straightforward as always.” His wife chuckled.

“She said it wasn’t a big deal.” Zach argued back.

“I never said it wasn’t a big deal. Just that you don’t need to be awkward about it. After all, you didn’t do it.” Noel denied him immediately.

“Oh, alright.” He nodded once again eliciting a sigh from Rin.

“So what’s up?” Owari asked casually.

“Nothing specific, we saw you walking by and decided to see how you were doing.” Rin answered.

“We’ve been good. We took a vacation a while back and had quite a lot of fun.” Noel had already began looking back on those memories fondly.

“I see. What kinds of stuff did you do?” Rin asked curiously.

“Well we hunted a bit. But then we found this kid who was just starting out as a hunter and decided to teach him.” Noel started.

“Then we beat some lessons into him and now he’s strong.” Owari finished.

“Beat some lessons into him?” She asked with some surprise. It wasn’t too shocking to people of the Silverblood family. But she wondered whether they would take it too far being so young.

“Yeah. We managed to raise his rank to gold. He had some talent.” Owari nodded.

“Right.” She decided not to ask any more.

“What rank was he before?” Her husband was not so tactful.

“Low silver.” Noel answered.

“How long did it take?” He was quite surprised. However neither Noel nor Owari answered. “Alright, my bad.” He smiled carefreely.

“Right. So how have you been?” Noel asked back.

“Good. Luke is doing well too. He grew to mid gold rank and is close to high gold.” His mother seemed proud.

“Not bad for his age.” Noel complimented, Luke was currently 18 years old. At this rate he would be peak gold by next year. It wasn’t phenomenal, but it was impressive.

“Right? But I suppose boasting to you two wouldn’t gain much in terms of praise.” She chuckled.

“No, it’s definitely impressive. We’re just freaks.” Noel knew she and Owari had grown rapidly for their age. It was very rare, though not unheard of, to be their rank by their age.

“Well I’m grateful you think so.” She smiled widely.

The group continued to talk for about 10 minutes before separating to go do their own things. With them as a precedent people started to come out and talk to them. Owari did his best to mend his relationship with those who participated back then. This impressed everyone and caused them to grow to respect him. Not because of his kindness or anything, he had a right to dislike them. However he was clearly doing his best for the sake of Noel, and that dedication to her was what caused them to accept him.

Owari didn’t feel one way or the other about it, but he was doing this for Noel. Why would he want to be on bad terms with what will be his future family? It was best to befriend them. Soon enough he had done just that and almost everyone who wronged him back then was back in his good books as far as they thought. This event was also known to everyone around the compound within the day.

After that first day Owari and Noel spent less time outside wandering and more time inside. Owari did a lot of studying, while Noel did a lot of reading, though she made sure to sit on Owari’s lap the whole time forcing him to position his arms around her and look over her shoulder to read properly. He didn’t care about that and simply enjoyed the intimacy.

After a few days of this someone stopped by. It was currently the 27th of the month when they came. When Owari answered the door he found a woman in her twenties there. He didn’t recognize her, so he waited for her to speak.

After a moment she finally decided to talk seeing as Owari was just standing there. “Ahem, I am here to tell you that the head of the house may see you now for celebrations.” She said respectfully.

“Really? He couldn’t have sent word before so we could be ready?” Owari sighed causing the woman to sweat. She didn’t think he would indirectly insult the head of the Silverblood family so casually.

“Sorry sir, but his schedule was busy…” She tried to give an excuse only for Owari to wave it off.

“It’s fine. Luckily it’s before lunch. Has he eaten yet?” Owari asked curiously.

“Not that I know of, his lunch isn’t scheduled for another hour.” She answered on reflex.

“Good. You can go do whatever it is you need to now, I won’t keep you from your duties. We know the way.” Owari went back inside to get Noel.

The two of them prepared to get changed to meet him. Owari planned to wear his haori as always but he at least was wearing some nice clothes under it. As for Noel, she wore a simple sundress like she usually does on dates with Owari. The two made their way over to Francis’ home. As expected by the time they arrived someone else a little older than them exited. It was clear he was receiving his grandchildren one by one over this time.

When they walked in Francis’ eye twitched. “So he’s here too?” He asked with a sigh.

“We did say ‘we’ were coming after all.” Noel answered with a smile.

“I suppose you did.” He chuckled. “So how have you two been?”

“Good so far. We went on vacation a while back.” Noel repeated for the millionth time since arriving here.

“What was that like?” He asked curiously, and again Noel told the story, this time she could go into more detail given the time they had.

“So that was a bunch of fun. Really relaxing.” Owari finished up saying this.

“Ah I see.” He couldn’t think of what else to say.

“Right, so how have you been?” Owari asked as Noel stood up.

“What are you doing?” He ignored Owari.

“Do you have some cooking ingredients around here?” She asked while looking at Owari with fake pity.

“Of course, why?” He was slightly confused.

“I wanted to give you your present. I was going to cook you a homemade lunch.” Noel said with a wide smile.

“Make me lunch?” He was surprised to say the least. Thinking for a moment he nodded. “Alright, show me what you can do.”

“I’ll surprise you for sure.” Noel said confidently and got to work.

When Francis looked back he saw Owari smiling calmly as if he hadn’t been ignored just now. “So how have you been?” He asked more intensely.

“I’ve been well. Busy, but well.” Francis answered unperturbed.

“That’s good.” Owari relaxed after hearing him say that. He was no longer being ignored after all.

“You sure switch gears quickly.” Francis said with a laugh.

“Of course, I do what I want. If what I want is to feel some other way then I will.” Owari smiled calmly.

“I wish I could change my mood so easily.” Francis sighed. It would help a lot during negotiations if he had been in a bad mood that day.

“Just take a deep breath and clear your mind. Then fill your head with thoughts that make you feel a certain way and then boom. You feel how you want. It’s like specialized meditation. After all the point of meditating is to clear the mind and that also dispels one’s mood with it.” Owari explained how he did it.

Francis nodded. “I do something similar to calm down. But it isn’t as effective as how you describe it.”

“Well you see…” Owari began to explain some things he learned about meditation and Francis did the same. Noel came back in about ten minutes with lunch.

“I’m done.” She placed down a large steak with mashed potatoes and gravy.

“Looks good.” The steak was massive, and Francis could smell how good it was. He quickly dug in and finished within a few minutes. “That was delicious, but really filling. I may have to cancel lunch and tone down dinner.” He chuckled.

“She’s been practicing a lot.” Owari thought back on all of the times Noel made breakfast, lunch, and dinner for them.

“It was great.” Francis praised again. “Thank you for the meal, and the present. I have something for you as well.” He reached under the table and pulled out a box which he handed over to her.

When she opened the box, inside was a necklace with a crystal clear gem. “What’s this?” She felt an odd feeling coming from it.

“It’s a resonance gem. It’s filled with kinetic affinity energy. It will resonate with your own affinity and raise it over time until it loses all of its kinetic affinity mana. After that it will just be a normal diamond necklace.” Francis explained.

“Diamond?” Noel smiled. It wasn’t because of the diamond. It was because she could raise her affinity.

“Yes, it was hard to find one that was uncharged, and even harder to charge it.” Francis chuckled.

“Thank you for the gift.” After Noel said that the two of them reminisced on her time as a child while Owari calmly watched from the side, allowing them to enjoy their time together.

After a short time they ended up leaving and allowing him to move on to the next person. However Noel was satisfied with just this. It was what she was used to after all. After they had finished they went back to the guest house. The holiday would be spent with her father this year, her mother was obviously a no show. Apparently her brother would be there this year as well according to her grandfather. The next day Noel went to ask her father about it and started planning for his gift. She even dragged Owari around to look until she found the perfect gift. She rarely saw her brother. While they weren’t close they also didn’t hate one another so she wanted to give him something nice.

When they finished with finding the gift the next day was actually the day of so they didn’t get any rest days before it. Owari thought of complaining for the sake of it but decided against it when he saw her so happy. He just laughed it off. It was natural for her to want to get her brother something nice, so why complain about such a thing? In the end they went to sleep and woke up early to head to her father’s home. Her mother had already vacated the home before Owari even got there, not that she spent holidays with her family anyway. She was married to her work.

“Hello, It’s nice to see you.” The first one they saw after knocking on the door was Dustin, Noel’s father. He was obviously talking to Noel when he said that. “And you.” He said somewhat sarcastically to Owari.

“It’s nice to see you as well.” Noel said happily.

“Hey.” Owari said, somewhat bored.

Hearing Owari’s reply made Dustin’s mouth twitch. He was hoping to annoy him but he seemed to ignore it completely. “Come on in.” Dustin just sighed and invited them in. He was an adult, he wouldn’t argue with a child.

Noel entered as if it were her own home, while Owari entered at a respectable pace before catching up to Noel in a few steps. He was a lot taller than her so it was easy to do. “So I heard my brother would be here.” Noel spoke after entering the house.

“He’ll be here in a bit. So how have you been?” Just like with her grandfather Noel explained her recent vacation in detail.

“So overall it was pretty fun.” Owari finished with this again.

“Sounds like it.” He smiled forcefully, he had hoped his daughter would go on an actual vacation when she said she wanted one.

“So how have you been?” Noel asked curiously.

“I’ve been good for the most part. Your mother finally got out of her slump after everything that happened. Though she still only thinks about work these days. It’s exhausting.” Her father sighed.

“I don’t know why you’re still with her.” Noel said clearly unhappily.

“I do love her you know. You just never see it.” He said with offense.

“Because she isn’t here. For you or me.” Noel said with equal offence.

“No more talking about this in front of guests.” Her father scolded her.

“So now that you need me you call me a guest?” Owari smiled with amusement.

“You were always a guest. Just not one I wanted.” He sighed again.

“Why do so many people sigh?” Owari was still amused. “Well anyway, it’s good that you’re still doing good.”

“Well thanks. But if there is any one thing to complain about, it would be how much trouble you’ve been giving the family lately.” He looked at Owari seriously.