As Rían settled into the spot in the centre of the office, Faye caught the glare he sent around the room. Despite appearing somewhat cowed, what with being accompanied by Guilders with grim expressions on their faces, Rían’s arrogant sneer was fixed seemingly permanently on his face.

The Administrator lifted a hand and gestured out of the room. The guards nodded and swept back out through the doorway, ensuring it was securely closed behind them.

Rían spoke first, which caused Faye to suck in a quiet breath.

“Administrator, I trust you have a very good reason for having me paraded in here like this.”

Faye grimaced, on someone older it might have come across the way it was intended. Unfortunately for Rían, he was not in a strong position with the Administrator, and she did not take his words the way he had meant her to.

She glanced up from the information she had in front of her, though Faye was half certain what they said was irrelevant.

“Master Ríoghnán An Bradáin, thank you for coming when asked. I have the unfortunate task of asking you some questions, questions that—”

The Administrator’s words were cut off as the door opened again. One of the guards stepped through smartly and straightened.

“I beg your pardon, Administrator, but he insisted…”

“Who insisted?”

A man that Faye easily recognised stepped past the guard at the door. His face was smooth and expressionless, a stark contrast to that of his master. It was the manservant, Muir.

“Muir, what are you doing here?” Rían demanded.

“I brought you the report you asked for.”

The teen waited a beat before snapping out, “Well?”

“Things progress smoothly.”

The Administrator’s mouth thinned. “If you are finished.”

“Oh yes, please continue,” the manservant said, with a bow of his head. “My apologies.”

Faye narrowed her eyes. The man was acting strangely. This was not how he had been the last few times she had seen him. He was almost… flippant.

“As I was saying,” the Administrator continued, ignoring the servant, “I have questions for you that will determine your future.”

The young swordfighter shifted, his hands going to his belt, where his sword would normally rest. Finding nothing to rest his hands on, he crossed his arms instead.

“I am not certain what you mean by ‘determine my future’, Administrator, but please, go ahead.”

Flicking a glance down at the writing tablets and pieces of thin paper before her, the Administrator’s gaze drew down to a slight scowl.

“First, I have yet to hear a report from you regarding your recent actions. Do so now.”

Rían shrugged. “I imagine much the same as the others. I have roamed the town, seeking the enemy, and I put them down wherever I came across them like the mangy animals they are. I was successful in my hunt, having taken down at least a half-dozen of the enemy in combat.”

Faye frowned.

Was that all?

“Of course, there were countless monsters destroyed, as well.”

Faye looked to Arran and the others, rolling her eyes. They returned her look with exasperation. The young swordfighter was hardly unique in that. All of them had taken down hundreds of the monsters, particularly the lesser briars that were more than capable of swarming and smothering lower-levelled folk.

As Faye turned her eyes back to the spectacle, she caught the Administrator’s brief struggle with her own emotions.

“Indeed.”

“Enemies ranged from just crested to mid-crested,” Rían continued. “Other than the final enemy, I did not notice anyone of higher crested nor adept status.”

Doing the mental translation in her head, Faye noted that he had fought enemies from levels ten to fifteen but saw none higher than that. She shrugged. Seemed like a fair assessment of the Primalist’s strength.

The Administrator nodded. “Adequate report. You performed lower than average, but that can be put down to your lack of experience.”

Rían narrowed his eyes. He looked askance at the rest of the adventurers in the room. Faye grinned as he looked at her, causing his scowl to deepen.

I probably shouldn’t taunt him, poor guy.

“I have more experience than some in the room,” Rían stated, loudly, “but I don’t see them standing here.”

“No,” the Administrator replied, “they are not. Secondly, what connections exist between you or your family and the Black Rose group.”

Rían immediately opened his mouth to retort but paused and started again. “With who? The Black Rose group? Never heard of them.”

A frown marred the Administrator’s face. Faye grimaced though. If Rían had been working with the group, that question alone blew the Administrator’s hand out of the water.

What is she thinking?

“You have never heard of the Black Rose group?” the Administrator repeated. “You have never heard their name in passing?”

“Never, save for when you uttered it a moment ago,” Rían answered, his scowl fixed in place. Even with all the animosity between him and Faye, she believed him. His annoyance was not feigned. “What does this group have to do with the Primalists? Is that what they were called, the Black Rose?”

The Administrator shook her head.

“Have you had any contact with a person, or people, outside of this town within the last month?”

Rían’s face contorted in confusion, and his arms unfolded almost of their own accord to gesture as he spoke, “Yes, of course I have, who has not? There are caravans to organise, matters of personal importance, wider trade, or manufacturing matters to deal with…”

Faye sighed quietly, shaking her head.

Rían stiffened and turned to face her.

“Does my apprentice have something to add?” he asked through barely constrained anger.

Faye blinked, looking at the Administrator for a moment and then back to Rían.

“Apprentice? Has no one told you?” she said.

Clenching his hands, he glared daggers at her. “Told me what?”

Faye laughed. “I am no longer a Swordfighter. You no longer hold authority over my training.”

The teen’s face burned red. “Outrageous.”

His mouth had barely opened, the word came out forcefully. He took a step toward her.

“Why do you insist upon lies? I don’t believe a word out of your mouth, girl!”

Faye shrugged and stood up from the seat she had taken. “I don’t care whether you believe me or not. I am no longer a swordfighter, and as such you are not fit to train me. Isn’t that the case, Administrator?”

“Indeed. Ríoghnán, you have been absent for too long. If you had returned to the Guild immediately upon cessation of hostilities, you might have learned this already.”

The teen looked between Faye and the others in the room. His hands spasmed open and closed over and over.

“Why do you mock me?”

“Not mocking you, little lordling,” Ailith interjected, “telling you the truth.”

“Impossible!” he shouted. “It is impossible! She claims to have risen from the depths of her uncrested state to that of cresting in mere weeks!”

Faye shook her head. She had always had a problem with people that could not accept something before their very eyes. It happened in tournaments, sometimes. People refusing to accept defeat.

Happened at school, too. Boys too hopped up on hormones to realise that taunting a girl shorter and younger than you was not a smart move when she told you repeatedly to stop.

The hot fury that ignited in her chest from the memories flared when the young master of the An Bradáin family before her spat out a curse at her, then he turned and tried to stalk from the room.

“Seize him,” the Administrator called out.

Faye acted without thinking. She stepped forward, grabbing the teen’s arm. The moment her hand closed on his arm, he twisted.

His other palm shot forward, arcing around to hit her in the face. She dodged the blow with a sway, but he came close.

She surged forward and got into his personal space, pushing him away from the door. The empty space within the office was limited, but that hardly mattered.

Rían danced backward easily enough, out of her immediate reach, and with an angry shout pushed into Faye’s space. He lashed out with a hand.

He was fast, but not superhumanly quick like Arran had always seemed. Faye hunched her shoulder and took the glancing blow, stepping in and jabbing Rían in the belly. He let out a breath of air, but barely seemed fazed.

He was frowning, now, and he came in again with fast hands, darting forward with multiple jabs.

Faye slapped some away, dodged others, and ploughed through the rest, then sensing her moment, hooked a foot around his heel and gave him a sharp push in the centre of his chest.

The teen fell backward and landed on his rump.

He was staring with open mouth at Faye, standing above him.

“The Administrator said you were to stay,” Faye said, through the deep breaths she was taking. “Now, sit down and shut up.”

Faye felt something fluttering against her, a strange sensation of power that swept over her. Only, it was nothing like that of the Primalist leader, or Eanraigh. The sense of their power had a weighty feel to it. This was fluttering. She might not have felt it in some circumstances.

Rían’s eyes widened.

“How?” he whispered.

“Ríoghnán, are you willing to answer my questions?”

He flinched at the Administrator’s tone, then settled back into his habitual scowl. “As you command.”

“Good.” She stood up and circled the large desk she normally sat behind. She came to a standstill above the teen, who was still sitting on his backside in the middle of the room. “Now, tell me where your parents are.”

The first real moment of vulnerability Faye had seen flashed across his face.

“They are my parents, not my children. Why should I note everywhere they go?”

“You are saying you don’t know where they are,” the Administrator translated. “A pity.”

The way that she said it seemed to indicate that she did not quite believe him. The teen sensed it as well because his mouth twisted into a half smile.

“Muir, tell the Administrator where my parents have gone.”

“I cannot, young master,” the manservant replied.

This was not the answer the teen had been expecting, Faye realised, because he paused for a second too long.

“And, why not?” he asked, instead.

“Because I follow my orders, young master.”

Silence fell in the office. Even the Administrator was looking at the manservant with new eyes. The man was standing alone, across the room from everyone else. Faye had not thought it was a conscious choice, but perhaps it had been.

Rían stared up at the man from the floor, mouth agape. “What did you say?”

“I said that I follow the orders given me, young master.”

“And I say to tell the Administrator where they went!”

“I cannot.”

A vein bulged in the teen’s temple.

“You just said that you follow orders, you simpleton.”

The servant bowed his head a fraction of an inch. “Yes, sir. In this case, I follow orders that supersede your own.”

Rían’s mouth clicked shut. Faye assumed that the only person whose orders came above his were his parents. Which meant that this manservant was not as loyal to the little brat as it often seemed.

On a whim, Faye activated [Mana Sense]. She wanted to see what the people in the room looked like under the ability.

She started with Rían, as she was already looking at him, and saw with fascination that mana did float around him too, despite the lack of magical ability in his chosen class. It was the light grey of metal. She should have expected that.

She brought her gaze up to look at the Administrator, but something in the corner of her eye arrested her attention.

The manservant. Muir. His aura was writhing. Spikes of energy rose out of him in a pattern, falling back under the surface of his skin once again. The spikes were not high, did not protrude more than an inch from the skin, but now that one had caught her eye it was impossible not to see more.

The conversation was still ongoing in the background. Faye only heard a couple of sentences.

Muir was speaking, his flat tone strange. “Young master, may I remind you that family business is private.”

“My family, Muir, my name, not yours.”

Faye looked closer at the manservant. The mana that the man was engulfed with had been pulled so close to his skin that it was hard to make out against the background of the Guild’s mana. But it was there.

With a jolt, she realised that she had been staring at the man for a few moments without saying anything.

She looked up and caught his gaze.

He no longer looked placid.

“He—,” she started to say, but he vanished.

At first, Faye thought he had turned invisible. One moment he was standing still, the next he was not. However, the [Mana Sense] ability followed the minute flows of Muir’s mana as he moved with incredible speed.

Something smashed into Faye’s face, the impact knocking her senseless. [Mana Sense] tried to tell her that it was something Muir had done. Maybe it was his fist, or an elbow, but his mana was flowing around the room. Avoiding most of the others, it moved toward Rían.

She was still reeling from the hit in the face. She no longer saw stars, but a salty warmth spread down her chin from her nose. Blood.

“Enough!”

The shout was loud in the office. Faye’s [Mana Sense] shut off automatically. She was not sure how, but as she tried to activate it again, it would not respond to her.

“Get after him! Find out where he goes!” the Administrator was shouting orders.

Muir had vanished.