Uncouth Issue

Sitting around a small table under the shade of a tree, sipping on orange juice with ice cubes... Two young women were enjoying their day.

Summer was beginning to peek around the corner. The sun seemed to be getting brighter, and the rays of light it cast were getting warmer…

“I wonder if we should pay a visit. I would like to meet his parents. It would make things even more official, don’t you think?"

“You are just thinking about helping him warm his bed, aren’t you?”

“Shhh! Servants might hear you, Tylia! Keep some decorum, please!”

“Heheheh… Am I right, though?”

Jania sighed audibly, slightly moving her cup, making the cubes of ice clink against one another.

“Of course, but don’t act like you aren’t thinking the same thing! Also… There is something that I noticed which I would like to speak face-to-face with him about. Have you been paying attention to what has been going on in and around Oie lately?”

“Not much, why?”

The eldest Alrinir took a sip of cold orange juice.

“You see… The vast majority of cultivation clans are tied to the great clans, right? But below the clans are high-ranking families like us who have noble status, but keep our cultivation matters to ourselves. Further below us, there is basically the equivalent of the little bourgeoisie, but for cultivators”

“Those are usually called ‘lesser clans’, since they tend to want to start their own thing. As in creating a sect and all that business… If they are interesting, they are scooped up by a great clan or the crown, but if not? Then they just continue on and usually never make a name for themselves. They live in their own bubbles–Miniature worlds of sorts… This is especially true since they tend to form their communities away from other people”

“Right… What does this have to do with what you want to say, exactly?”

“I am getting to it… There is a small pocket of those near Oie. They live in plains no one really cares about, secluded between two small peaks lacking in natural resources. They are considered inconsequential, but as the future ruler of Oie, it is my duty to monitor even what appears to be nothing but background noise”

“Huhuh…”

“Tylia, it is going to get interesting, I promise. Anyway, they often come to Oie to try and buy some cultivation resources on the markets, and since the community involves several lesser clans who cohabit together, they compete, right? But for some reason, they tend to do their stupidities in or near Oie”

“As you can guess, this is not acceptable behaviour, so they’ve gotten punished on several occasions… Especially their younger generations. Those fellows seem unable to go a full week without stirring pots brimming with faeces… Anyway, since they are no big deal, and even our typical city guards can punch out their elders, Father has been letting me practice lordship by taking care of the problems they cause. Therefore, I am quite aware of what they are up to, and what idiotic reasons they have to mess with each other”

Jania marked a pause, putting her glass down.

“Do you remember how Edrick told us to pay attention to uncommon occurrences and atypical people?”

“Of course, he whispered it in my ear… It still gives me the shivers–The good kind!”

“Well, I think I found one. There is this young man who is technically a part of the ‘strongest’ of those lesser clans, but who is deeply untalented, so everyone else walks all over him. The usual stuff... But in the past week or so, he has seen a drastic rise in strength and has been getting back at everyone, doing so in public. I think he views it as humiliation, but he really is just disrupting public order”

“I mean… Who cares that a wretch gets back at other wretches, right? I would rather watch a war between chimpanzees than this. Anyway, I think he stumbled upon some sort of treasure. I don’t know what, but he has clearly seen a surge in cultivation level despite being supposedly untalented to the bone”

“Ooh… Do you think Edrick would be interested in this?”

“I think so, but it’s also because I heard a rumour that I do not like in the least, and that I doubt Edrick would like either…”

Tylia tilted her head to the side.

“What rumour?”

“I guess you can imagine how Oie is basically the brightest, richest place those lesser clans can imagine… Well, the wretch who has been growing in power apparently decided to claim that he was going to become lord of Oie by marrying me”

The youngest Alrinir stopped moving, her whimsicalness blinking out of existence.

“What the hell? Why hasn’t he been publicly flayed for this?”

“Because it’s still just a rumour. But I have the feeling that someone like him would actually spout such nonsense with confidence. The main reason I want to mention him to Edrick is still his sudden growth in strength, though… I get the feeling that there is something valuable to be plundered here”

“I mean… We could just beat the crap out of him, throw him into a small cell, and keep him there until he spits his secrets, no?”

Jania scratched her chin.

“You are quite cruel despite being such a cute girl, you know? You are definitely right, though. I have already sent the word to the city guards to be on the lookout, but he hasn’t shown up in several days”

“Is he hiding?”

“I would guess that he has isolated himself to cultivate. Where he went, I have no idea. Probably somewhere in the mountains around where the lesser clans are gathered… He might indeed be hiding, considering what he has been doing. His reputation with the majority of the lesser clans is probably in the negatives at the moment”

Jania and Tylia drank their orange juice in silence for a few moments, until Tylia tapped her glass lightly.

“I honestly can’t get over the fact that he probably did say he was going to become lord of Oie by marrying you… There are several layers of utter mental inacuity in that single statement”

The youngest of the two was indeed correct. Firstly, it showed that this young man had no grasp of how the leadership of Oie was decided. A prerequisite was to be of the Oie Bloodline. The lord could only be a direct descendant of the Oie Family. Someone marrying into the family could never claim the title. They could only be like Milerva, take care of small matters, and help their partner–But never actually rule.

The only exception would be if the lord passed away, and the heir was still too young to govern, but considering that they were a noble family of cultivators, they were unlikely to suddenly die.

Also, it showed that he either wasn’t aware that Jania was already a married woman, or that he believed he could marry her despite that. The former showed a lack of knowledge and general ineptitude in gathering basic, easily accessible information, and the latter demonstrated low-brain activity altogether.

...Especially since Jania’s husband was the direct scion of a great clan. Not to mention that Edrick wasn’t going to let go of an idiot like this with a slap on the wrist… The fool would be extremely lucky to leave with only half of their limbs bent the wrong way.

In the end, after discussing the subject, Jania decided to send a letter. Hopefully, her husband would arrive swiftly to enact rightful violence.