In the silence that followed Lofias's departure, the atmosphere around Elder Gran seemed to solidify, thick with a weight that even the two girls could feel.
Gran stood perfectly still, his eyes fixed on William as if he were trying to peer through the boy's skin to see the soul beneath.
The information he had just received was, quite frankly, absurd. Gran wasn't particularly impressed by a Bronze-grade spirit master; in the grand hierarchy of the Long clan, such a level was merely the starting point of a long journey.
However, the manner in which William had attained that rank was enough to drive even the most stoic elder to the brink of insanity.
To have languished as a powerless porter for two years within the academy's walls, only to surge into the Bronze grade in a matter of days? It defied every established law of spiritual cultivation Gran had ever mastered.
