Jack was now at the Kronli's household. While it's not exactly large---in fact, it's a bit cramped considering that it housed four people---it was quite cozy, with all the amenities of a typical medieval household. While he was waiting for dinner to be cooked, he was playing some sort of card game with the twins to pass the time. No, it's not one of those party card games they have back in the real world like Poker, Uno, or Cards Against Humanity. It's a completely new and original card game that Jack hadn't even heard of called "Siegefort" and it had some pretty complicated rules to it---so much so that it took the entire evening for the twins just to explain it. Once he understood the rules of the game, they played several rounds of it together, having so much fun that they'd nearly lost track of time.

To learn more about the rules of this game, check out the Patreon page of this author, Cicada1317. (Woohoo! Shameless fourth-wall breaking self-promotion for the win!)

"I siege Riti's level 5 Warrior with my level 5 Mage, siege Leti's level 6 Rogue with my level 8 Rogue, and fort my level 7 Warrior," Jack said, moving the cards around according to the rules of the game.

"I sacrifice two of my cards to get a level 7 Mage from the death pile, use that to siege your level 7 Knight, and then use my level 9 Rogue to siege your level 9 Mage," Riti said as she made her move with the cards.

"And then I use my level 10 Warrior to double-edge your level 10 Warrior and claim two of your cards, leaving you with no cards left," Leti said, also making her move with the cards.

"You've lost!" the twins both cheered in unison. "Hooray for us! Better luck next time!"

"Man, this game is bullshit! You guys are totally ganging up on me," Jack complained, tossing the cards from his hand onto the table.

"This game is not actually that hard, you know," said Leti cheekily

"You're just being a sore loser," said Riti, also cheekily.

Jack sighed. "I miss in the good old days when people used to win card games by simply summoning three Blue-Eyes White Dragon at once and screwing the rules with their massive amounts of money."

"Blue-Eyes what dragon now?" said Leti.

"Silly Jack. This game doesn't have dragons in it," said Riti.

"No, it indeed it does not," said Jack. "But if it does, I would totally steamroll you two pipsqueaks. So...another game?"

In between games, lured by the fragrant aroma of food, Jack would occasionally take a peek at what Yemi was cooking. There were a bunch of food items sprawled across the kitchen, but perhaps the one that stood out the most was the large boar that was being roasted on a spit. The boar's skin was roasted to a golden-brown and the smell was absolutely amazing, intensifying Jack's already unbearable hunger.

"You want to sample a taste?" Yemi asked Jack with a gentle smile, easily noticing his mouth-watering craving towards the delicious-looking boar.

"Yes, please," Jack replied with the enthusiasm of a puppy getting fed by his owner.

The motherly enchantress used a knife to carve out a piece of pork from the boar and handed it to him. Jack took a bite of it; it was perhaps the most delicious piece of pork he had ever tasted. The skin was crispy and fatty. The meat was succulent and tender. The concept of Heaven had practically exploded in his mouth!

"Mmm...so good...," Jack savored that meat in his mouth. He didn't want it to end.

"I'm glad you liked it," Yemi said with a chuckle as she continued her cooking. "When Oren and I were dating, I used to cook boar like this for him and he would eat the entire thing in one sitting. I figured he was either being polite or had low standards when it comes to food. Glad my cooking is to your liking."

Oren stepped into the kitchen, drinking from a mug of ale in his hand. "Woman, I may love you but I would never be dishonest about my opinions in your cooking." He tore a meaty leg straight off the boar and munched on it, pork grease smearing on his thick beard. "Also, how dare you insinuate that I have low standards in food. My standards in food are equally as high as my standards in women. I did marry you, didn't I?"

"That you did." Yemi bent down to place a quick kiss on her husband's cheek. For a brief moment, the color of that dwarf's cheeks reddened to match that of his reddish beard.

"Hey, no fair! I want a piece of that boar!" Riti complained, rushing to the kitchen counter.

"Me too, me too! I want some as well!" Leti complained, quickly following her twin.

"Alright, alright. Calm down, girls," Yemi chuckled, slicing up more pieces of meat for them. "Just a small piece, alright? Try not to spoil yourselves before dinner."

When it's finally time for dinner, everyone helped set up the table, including Jack. Even though Yemi insisted that Jack shouldn't feel obligated to help as he was their guest, it just wouldn't sit right with him to eat all this great food without at least helping out a little. As they all sat and ate at the table, they talked and cheered and laughed, sharing crazy stories of their past as they enjoyed each other's company. But just when the dinner was at the peak of its excitement, Jack suddenly remembered one crucial thing that he'd been forgetting up until now.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Jack said. "Umm, I need some brushing up on my...language skills."

"Language skills?" Leti asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Riti followed.

"Umm, you know. Language skills. Like...learning how to read and stuff." Jack explained, scratching the back of his head as a sign of slight embarrassment.

"My God, Jack! You're illiterate?!" Oren exclaimed, his face already red and rosy from all the ale he drunk.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of farmers and miners don't know how to read nowadays," Yemi argued. "Does not make them less of a person as long as they work hard. Besides, it's never too late to learn and you are still quite young."

"Well yeah, so I asked Dingo about it---asking if he knew of someone who's willing to teach me---and he told me to ask you guys about it," said Jack. "Saying that you two might know of a good language teacher who could give me some lessons."

"A language teacher...?" Oren mumbled drunkenly, scratching his beard as he tried to think. "Boy, I don't know what you or Dingo are on about, but we don't know of any language teacher. We're a family of blacksmiths and craftsmen, not teachers and scholars."

As if suddenly realizing something, Yemi gasped as she covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my! Could...could he be referring to...Tobin?"

By the mere mention of that name, Oren suddenly slammed his mug onto the table, creating a loud thump that basically silenced everyone in the room. The dwarf's face bared no semblance of the jolly drunken grin from before, instead replaced with a mean disgruntled scowl. In an instant, the atmosphere of the dinner table was irrevocably transformed, with all the good humor existing mere moments ago vanishing away completely.

"Yemi, my dear...what did I tell you about mentioning his name in front of me?" Oren growled, his glare almost a subtle warning to his wife. Even the twins were scared stiff simply by proximity.

"Oh, Oren..." Yemi replied, her expression shifting from a nervous look to a firm stare. "I know you don't want to hear it but...if this is the help Jack needs, he may be the best chance of getting it."

"I will not have his name be spoken in this household! You hear me?!" Oren bellowed, getting up from his chair.

"By the gods, Oren! Calm yourself!" Yemi countered as she also got up from her chair, raising her voice to match his.

The two faced each other off, engaging in some sort of angry staring contest to try to size each other up with the intensity of their glares. Oren definitely lost in the height department---his wife was nearly twice his height---but he certainly made up for it with the aura of his animosity. Meanwhile, the twins were practically terrified, trembling timidly as they held in each others' arms. Jack could feel the tension hung heavily in the air, to the point where it's almost suffocating.

"Umm...is this a touchy subject?" Jack said softly, trying to ease the awkwardness of this situation. "I mean, we don't have to talk about it if you guys don't want to. It's perfectly fine by me."

"It's fine, Jack," Yemi said rigidly, still not breaking away her steely gaze at her husband. "We are free to talk about whatever or whomever we want around here. If someone's got a problem with it, they can simply step outside."

After much contemplation---weighing on whether the risk of pissing off his own wife was worth it---Oren finally relented and stormed out of the house, taking his mug of ale with him. "I'm not listening to this!" he grunted.

Jack watched as the dwarf hurriedly left the dinner table. Never had he seen the dwarf in such a grumpy and irritable state. He desperately wanted to know more but, at the same time, didn't want his questions to further garner Oren's wrath.

"Umm...if you don't mind me asking, who is this Tobin guy?" Jack asked Yemi, trying to be as delicate with the matter as possible. "And what's the deal with him and Oren?"

Yemi sat back down in her chair and let out a long sigh, as if the simple act of discussing this person was already beginning to bring her great distress. "Tobin is our son. Our eldest child. The older brother of Riti and Leti. We rarely ever talk about him nowadays. Oren and Tobin...they didn't exactly get along."

"It's been a long time since Papa heard us mentioning Brother Tobin," said Riti.

"Papa is real mad now. He's always mad whenever we talk about him," said Leti.

"Okay, so he's kinda like an estranged son. What exactly did Tobin do that made Oren so upset?" asked Jack.

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Yemi explained. "There had been a lot of disagreements between the two over the years. One of the major ones was Tobin's career path. Oren had always wanted Tobin to be a blacksmith just like him. Follow in his footsteps, take over the family business, and such. Tobin, however, didn't want that life for himself, instead wishing to become a loremaster."

"Wait, a loremaster? What the heck is a loremaster?"

"Oh, you don't know? A loremaster is essentially a type of scholar who specializes in the lore of various things---language, history, culture, politics, and such. Tobin has always been the bookish type, preferring the quill and paper over the hammer and anvil. He's also incredibly smart, earning much praise from teachers and classmates alike, even at a young age. Some even considered him a prodigy of sorts."

"One time, Brother Tobin had read the entire dwarven dictionary in a single day!" Leti said.

"And has memorized every single word! That dictionary probably had a gazillion bajillion pages!" Riti said.

"He's like a living encyclopedia!" the twins said excitedly in unison.

"Okay, so Oren got mad simply because his precious son chose a different career path in life? Seems like an overreaction if you ask me," Jack commented.

"Oh, it doesn't end there, believe me," Yemi continued. "At first, Oren was not at all receptive at Tobin's decision. However, over time, he eventually came around to accepting it. It was only when Tobin tried to enroll at the University of Halandril that their relationship really started going south."

"Wait a minute...University of Halandril?" Jack scratched his head as he tried to recall that name. "Why does that sound so familiar?"

"That's because it's the same university Professor Bjoran was teaching in. And also the one I went to."

"Oh yeah, now I remember. Bjoran the Firebeard, the founder of the Crimson Flame. He used to be a professor there, right?"

"Indeed, he was. In fact, that was pretty much the only reason Tobin wanted to enroll in that particular university over any other school. Tobin has always been more inspired by his great-uncle than by his father. Ever since he was little, he had heard tales of the great Firebeard overcoming adversity to become one of the best non-elven magic scholars in history. And since the University of Halandril was the place where it all started, he felt almost drawn to it in a way. Aside from that, it is also one of the best universities in Halandril---maybe even the whole continent---easily topping any school we have here in Dorencor. It is practically every aspiring scholar's dream to go to a school as prestigious as the University of Halandril."

In other words, it's basically the magical equivalent of an ivy league college like Harvard or Yale, Jack thought. "Sounds mighty impressive. Seems weird though that Oren would go against it, since he seem to look up to Bjoran a lot."

"Quite the contrary," said Yemi. "Oren disagreed with Tobin's choice to go to that school specifically because of what happened to Professor Bjoran. He was cast out of that university because of his rebel activities and uncompromising political opinions. His work was discredited and his reputation was basically ruined within that university. Oren feared that Tobin would suffer the same mistreatment if he were to enroll. Tobin didn't care, however. In fact, it only reinforced his decision to go to that school. He wanted to make a statement, to prove to the others that it doesn't matter what your political affiliations are as long as you have the intellect and tenacity of a stellar student."

"Yeah, and he probably also got massive balls to even think of enrolling in that school, all things considered," said Jack. "Though I'm guessing that's probably not the only massive hurdle he has to deal with. With a school of that caliber, I'm sure the tuition must have been crazy expensive."

"Oh, most certainly! A year's tuition alone would set you back at least a divinium coin or two. Most common folk around here can't even make that kind of money in their entire lifetimes. Our family couldn't even come close to affording it; not that Tobin would ask any of us for that kind of money. He's too prideful to do so, same as his father. Fortunately, there is one other way to handle the tuition fees and that is through a scholarship, which involves taking an exam. An incredibly difficult one, I might add. I should know; I've taken the same one when I was enrolling. Passed it by the skin of my teeth. When Tobin was prepping for the exam, I passed on all my knowledge to him to help him succeed in the exam. Not that he needed much help anyway. He's already superbly intelligent as he was."

"Mama is favoring Brother Tobin over us," the twins mewed with their puppy-dog eyes and pouty faces. "Riti and Leti feel so alone..."

"Oh please, girls, you know I'll always love you two more," Yemi said warmly as she patted their heads, which seemed to ease their petty sibling jealousy. "Your brother Tobin may win in intelligence, but you two will always win in cuteness."

"In any case, it seems like it shouldn't be that hard for Tobin to pass the exam, right?" Jack said. "I mean, if what you're saying about Tobin is true, then that means he's pretty much a genius. Getting that scholarship should have been a breeze."

"Yes, it should be...if not for the fact that Halandril was under Elrinthia's control at the time, which have led to a lot of racial tension, particularly between the elves and the non-elves."

Jack was now struck with a sudden realization. "Oh...oh, I get it now. Our poor-boy Tobin was being discriminated against, wasn't he? Is that why he couldn't pass the exam?"

"Well, it wasn't anything explicit. Tobin had taken the scholarship exam several times and had gotten a failing grade every single time. He assured me that he understood the material well enough that he shouldn't have failed and I completely believed him. It also didn't help that almost all of the passing students at the time were of the elven race and all the failing students were non-elven, leading many to speculate the possibility of prejudice and corruption in play here. Of course, the university staff had strongly denied any and all accusations of discriminatory grading, but you can't help but wonder if this is all just too much of a coincidence."

Jack shook his head, not believing just how deep this kind of discrimination could run. "I can't imagine Tobin being too happy about it."

"Of course not. Tobin have studied so hard for the exam. You can imagine how distraught and indignant he felt when there was even the slight possibility of an unfair grading. As his mother, I couldn't help but sympathize with his agony. And on top of all that, there was also the heirloom axe incident."

Jack curiously raised a brow. "The heirloom axe incident?"

Yemi paused for a while, as if hesitant to discuss any further. She pressed her fingers at her temples, almost as if experiencing a mild headache. "Oh goodness, I don't even want to bring up the heirloom axe incident again. It's too emotionally exhausting."

Suddenly, the twins hissed as they wiggle their arms in the air, acting like a pair of angry snakes.

"Thou shalt not speak of the heirloom axe incident," hissed Riti, wiggling her arms.

"It is forbidden to do so in this house," hissed Leti, also wiggling her arms.

"Forbidden!" the twins hissed together.

Yemi sighed. "Suffice to say, after that incident, Oren and Tobin had a major falling-out, leading to Tobin moving out of the house. The two of them haven't been on speaking terms ever since."

"Geez, talk about family drama," Jack said. "So, I'm guessing asking Tobin for help is off-the-table."

"Oh, not at all," Yemi said. "On the contrary, Tobin loves teaching just as much as he loves learning. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to teach you. And even if he doesn't, he can't exactly say no to his own mother, now can he? In fact, the twins and I can bring you to meet him tomorrow."

"Really? You're sure I'm not being too intrusive or anything? I mean, what if he's busy or something? I can always just find another teacher."

Yemi made a brushing-off gesture as if signifying that it's no big deal. "Oh, don't be ridiculous. It'll be fine. The twins and I would go visit him every now and again anyway, so we might as well bring you along. He's currently working at the Grumgrod Central Library so there's barely anything to do there aside from organizing books. Occasionally, he would make extra money as a tutor. You'll be no different from any of his other students."

"Yeah but...," Jack lowered his voice to make sure Oren wasn't listening from outside the house. "...what about Oren? You sure he's okay with me seeing Tobin?"

"Oh, he'll get over it after a couple of drinks; he always does. Besides, it's not like he has any right to stop me from visiting my own son or the twins from visiting their own brother. Same goes for you. And if he has any objection, I'll be there to defend you. Don't you worry."

Jack sighed, not expecting to be caught up in this tangled mess of a family dynamic from simply finding a language tutor. "Alright, if you say so."