"About that… actually. I had just been through an injury a few weeks back. The doctor asked me not to exert too much force on my arms and legs," I pressed my lips as I made up that lie, following him behind. His excited shoulders dropped slowly as he looked at me with a rather disappointed look.
"Well. I guess we can't do that, huh? But still promise me to fight when you get better."
Why are you so hell bent on fighting? I screamed internally but did not say anything.
He bounced back pretty quickly though. And as we walked through the manor, we passed by more than a dozen maids, each of them looking at Niel with a shy look before moving to their own work.
On our way to the dojo, Niel explained a bit more about the Rothrak Family.
There wasn't much that he told but with the little he babbled, I could make out three particular people that I have to be careful with.
One was the Gramps that I met at the entrance. But as long as I could hear his random riddles, I should be fine. I guess, I won't exactly need to worry about it unless some stupid unfamiliar riddle comes up.
Still better to avoid him totally.
The other was named Gilbert Rothrak. He was the son of the youngest daughter of Armeas and was the biggest troublemaker of the family, the black sheep. Interestingly, the main reason why I needed to be careful of him was because he hates Daniel for some reason, and might target me given that I am his best friend.
Lastly, there was Alaric Rothrak, Dainel's father and the youngest Son of Armeas.
Being the youngest son, he was competitive by nature and usually hated failures. I honestly had no idea how he would look at me, a lower-class boy from nowhere, being his son's friend. Though, as long as I do not meet him, I think it should be fine?
I looked at the watch and I still had about 2 hours to kill before returning home. Takes about 40 minutes to reach back home, so let's try to spend the extra hour being productive and find out more about the Rothrak's.
"And this is our Dojo! It's the biggest in the entire state!"
A proud expression appeared on Niel's face as he shouted out loud, attracting the attention of those around.
"I will be going to have a bit of warm-up now, Mikael. You can ask the butler if you need anything," Niel added before dashing from here, leaving me by myself as I decided to choose a discreet corner where no one would find me.
From a distance, I saw many students practising their moves. Interestingly enough, as Neil moved closer to them, most of them began running away, and one of them even cried.
I guess Niel must be that good. I noticed as I saw the refined footwork that Niel was using. It was polished enough for him to beat even the greatest of martial artists of his age. Quite promising, truly.
There were a few more children of Rothrak there, practising, but compared to Niel, they lacked a bit too much. Or perhaps it was Niel who excelled more than the others.
They sure get an A for effort though.
I turned to the butler who had been assigned to assist me. And then with a pondering expression, I asked,
"I can't meet Daniel, can I?"
The butler shook his head before answering," Master Daniel is currently busy with some important family work."
"Marie?" I asked again.
"Miss Marie is also-" he was about to repeat the whole thing but I raised my hand, gesturing him to stop.
I then sighed before observing Niel fighting with his best capabilities. Honestly, it gave me an itch to fight as well, wondering how much I can go against him right now, but in hindsight, I guess I can't show myself too much either.
The rest of the time I had here, I began asking a few questions that were normal-curious-teenager to ask while trying to find out more about the family without delving too much into it. Though it wasn't much, I found a few key points from the butler.
Some regarding the Emperial Guild that the Rothrak family was building in Arcadia, and the others regarding the situation of my best friend, Daniel, in the family.
Wasn't the Emperial one of the early startup guilds that went against the Deviant Guild and lost completely? If I remember correctly, they were devoured by the Deviant Guild.
It was something worth looking into later on.
As for the situation of Daniel, it was pretty much normal given the expectations of his father. He has to prove himself to his father within the game if he wants to earn a piece of the heritage from his father. The same goes for Marie if she wants to marry Daniel and get Daniel's Father, Alaric Rothrak's approval.
With that said and done, most of my work was finished here. I had collected the necessary data I could within the 2 hours, made some small connections, understood the family structure of my best friend and had a rough plan on how to handle the situation regarding them later on.
Standing up, I asked the butler to show me the way out, which he did without any questions asked. And then without really meeting anyone again, I kept going until I reached outside the gate, to the bus station, and finally back to my own house.
"Truly! Nothing feels like home!!"
I finally relaxed before falling on the bed and picking up the headset from the side table. And then I decided to log into the game once more.
"I wonder if someone took over me in the leaderboard," I mumbled with a slight smile as I was hoping for at least some competition.
[Logging into Arcadia Online!]
[Welcome Player Ezekiel!]