Chapter 53: Meeting The Patriarch

"I've been waiting for you, Auguste. Now, take a seat," Yule said, his coldness emanating from his body as he sat behind his desk while resting his head on his hand.

Frostine sat down in front of the patriarch and then sat me on top of her lap. I deadpanned, having no will to stay here any longer.

"Daughter, can you at least let go of him? I see that he's really uncomfortable right now," The patriarch said, and I immediately looked at him as if he was my hero. This woman has been too touchy since the time we got here, and it's freaking me out!

"No, father. Besides, this action of mine won't interfere with our discussion," She firmly said, which is when I fell to despair, knowing that I can't get out of this monstrous woman's arms and even thinking that I would be forever stuck with her.

"If you say so…" He just dropped it there, seeing as his daughter holds me firmly… a bit too firmly.

"Anyway, I asked for you here today because of your recent encounter with the undead. I know that the previous incident had given you trauma but I sincerely ask for your help in this investigation as this might lead us to a problem that we have to solve soon," The patriarch said.

Forgetting about his woman for a bit, I contemplated whether to help or not. Honestly, I am worried that that guy might come for me soon since his last words were, "AAHH! YOU PATHETICALLY WORTHLESS BRAT!! I'M GONNA MURDER YOU FOR THIS!" And as you can assume, anyone who had someone says that to them can get a little bit paranoid.

So, I replied with, "Hmm, I want to but I have no clue of what's even going on. But I did hear the grand elder say that the one who made that undead was the so-called 'ancient terror'. And the undead was boosted by my fire magic, to which I was surprised and quite frankly, at the time, scared. I know you want information but I have none to give you that you already know," I said, trying to be as respectful as possible.

The patriarch nodded, and sighed, "I guess it's understandable that even you didn't know about that. But there is another reason I invited you here."

I raised an eyebrow, thinking of no other reasons as to why he would call me here.

He took out a very shiny ring. It had a very interesting blue gemstone attached to it; it was radiating huge amounts of mana.

"Father, do you mean to…?" Frostine gasped, shocked to see that ring for some reason.

The patriarch nodded, and said, "Yes, I plan to take you as my disciple, Auguste. With this ring as proof of the disciple and master relation between us, I will give this to you if you accept my offer. And if you accept, you will instantly become an S-Class disciple and will have the same authority as the grand elder himself. And monthly, you will receive lots of resources to keep up with your cultivation. What do you say, Auguste?"

Even though I felt like I was shocked by a thunderbolt, I remained calm, and said, "But I don't have cultivation, patriarch. Though I don't know if you can see that since many people seem to discard checking other people's cultivation, most of the time."

Confused, the patriarch took a look at my cultivation and only found nothing but huge amounts of mana with dense qualities.

"B-But how are you this strong already? You're just a human toddler!" Frostine said, amazed and baffled by me.

The patriarch nodded in agreement, "Yes, Frostine is right. It is strange that you are already this powerful, yet you are so young. But this does not obstruct me from taking you in as my disciple. I've seen a lot of beings in my life that didn't have any cultivation at all and still managed to become one of the strongest in the world! And besides, cultivation isn't that important anyway for those that can already grow stronger without it!" He took a deep breath, and continued, "Then, let me repeat my offer; would you like to become my disciple or not?"

"Is it alright if I say that I have another master? He teaches me about magic," I said to clear things up right away.

"Hmm, not a problem. It's not rare for a talented disciple to have two or three masters, I, myself, had 10 masters. They all taught me different things, so it is alright. But I'll have to meet him someday," He said, completely understanding me.

I brightly smiled, and said, "Then, I'll become your disciple! But I don't want any of those stupid privileges. I want to rise the ranks like a normal disciple, and besides, I already have my team. I can't just leave them."

"That's understandable," He put the shiny ring on my side of the table, "If you want, in a decade, the disciples that want my position will have a tournament for my replacement. My daughter here would've been a fine replacement but she doesn't want the position of the patriarch because she is lazy."

"Hey! I'm not lazy, father, I just don't want to waste my time managing things," She protested.

He looked at her, and said, "That's what I call laziness, honey. Anyway, would you also want to participate in that tournament a decade from now?"

I thought about it for a little, and said, "Sure! But once I reach C-Class next month, I won't be climbing up the ranks for a while. I'll probably start 2 years before that patriarch selection tournament, and I'd like to see if I can, indeed, rise with my own strength."

I don't want to be arrogant and overconfident anymore, that was my main flaw back then. I underestimated my opponents way too much, and that leads to some unexpected things. So, I'll fight numerous enemies in the rank battles to see how naïve I really am.

He nodded, "Mhm, good. Since you already have a master who teaches you magic, I'll be teaching you martial arts. Our learning session starts tomorrow, be sure to show up at 9 AM sharp."

"Okay, master," I said as I took the ring.

(Later…)

After some time, I was finally able to return to my house safe and sound. I was not that tired, so I decided to make myself some bacon and omelet.

I was not as good as a cook as Vane, so I almost burnt them but they were still delicious and edible to eat.

After that, I made some snacks. Cereals are my favorite, so I made a whole bowl of it.

As I was binge eating, I remembered Alexander and where he went.

It's been a few months since he came back and I am really worried that he might've died somewhere. I don't know what mission the sect sent him to complete but it might be dangerous.

Maybe I should ask my new teacher/master about it tomorrow, to see if I could gain information about my father-figure's location.