The Wolf and the Snake

Vanessa had revealed herself to the Runewalker family and they had agreed that her existence as a Greater Angel was one best kept secret, even to Kye's sisters and especially to Kye's brothers. Signus would likely attempt to woo her as she is regardless but the last thing they needed was him openly lusting after a Greater Angel in their mansion. Vanessa agreed to pose as Kye's new personal maid so she was currently under the tutelage of the head maid so that she could better blend in. Kye's ninth birthday was fast approaching and all the mansion was preparing for a grand event. This was Kye's first birthday awake so everyone was going all out. His parents had gotten the finest pastries from the capital city for his party and invited many young children from families under the Runewalker heraldry.

Among these was Frey's younger cousin, Amatiya Klein. Amatiya Klein was the head of her own house despite being a female in a kingdom where inheritance typically went to the sons of the family. The Klein family were extremely wealthy merchants and managed all trade for the Runewalker house. Because of their unique position in the territory's governance, their head of the household was decided not on birthright, but merit instead. For the most part, all branch families in the Runewalker heraldry worked this way with the main family being the only one that worked off of the same inheritance structure as the other Archduchies.

Amatiya and her two daughters, Lilly and Syliva, had arrived a few days ahead of the party to help arrange things. This was their first time meeting Kye since he had awoken so they wanted their first impression to be good. Amatiya and her daughters had their magical carriage parked outside the mansion and they disembarked to be met by Frey and his wives with the exception of Rose. Frey gave a bright smile and pulled Amatiya into a big hug which she returned eagerly.

"Ah, Amatiya! You've not changed a bit since the last time I saw you at your wedding, still as beautiful as ever."

"Fufufu, and you're every bit the blockhead I remember Frey. Have you caused any more jealousy fueled attacks from your wives?"

"Hardly, all our time is taken up with Kye recently. That kid never stops amazing us." Frey looked behind Amatiya and saw Lilly and Sylvia. He knelt and held his arms out upon which they both ran into his hug.

"And you two! You keep getting so much bigger every time I see you! You young ladies are going to be the apple of many young men's eyes in the future!" The two giggled and released themselves from Frey's grasp. Standing up and brushing some dirt from his knee, Frey gestured into the mansion with his hand.

"Shall we have some refreshments? You must be rather parched from your journey."

Amatiya gave a small curtsey and they followed the Runewalkers into the mansion. After looking around for a bit, Amatiya noticed that someone was missing.

"Where would Rose be? I thought the mansion had taken time off to prepare for this birthday?"

"Ahh, Rose is outside with Kye. Despite giving him the next few days off he still insists on training so Rose is overseeing his exercise."

"I imagine it'd be rather hard for a child that young who only recently woke up to use his body effectively after all."

Her words stopped Frey and his wives and they looked at her as if they had just realised that Kye's recovery was far quicker than one could consider normal. They then all shared a look as they realised that their perception of normal had been tainted by seeing his continual achievements. Amatiya, who had no idea what they were all thinking assumed she had brought up something taboo.

"Umm... was it something I said?"

"W-What? O-Oh no it's just... I guess we had a pretty hard dose of reality right there." Still confused, Amatiya tilted her head and looked at the Runewalkers who were acting awkward. Frey gave a slanted smile.

"Maybe I should just show you instead."

Instead of leading Amatiya and her daughters to the dining room, Frey led them to the backyard training area where the Klein's were shocked at what they were witnessing. Kye had his practice axe in hand and was having a spar with Rose. Rose was a greatsword user so she parried more than she blocked in an attempt to get a counter-attack off. Kye was nimbly dodging her strikes and attacking her blind spots, trying to slip through her impossibly tight guard. They were moving in a deadly dance where it felt like they were actively trying to take each other's lives. Kye had become a natural with the axe and was able to spar with the knights regularly. Though he'd often lose due to his size and how physically outmatched a nearly nine-year-old child is compared to a fully grown adult, he was still able to hold his own.

"Kye! Keep yourself moving! When you're against an enemy with a big weapon, mobility is your best friend!"

"Kinda hard to do that when you keep going for my legs!"

Rose swung low trying to take Kye's legs out from under him. Kye dodged by rolling to the side further and sprung up only to see the blade continue its trajectory towards him as Rose pivoted on her heel to keep the swing going. Having little time to react, Kye ducked under the blade, narrowly avoiding the upwards swing. He didn't, however, have time to react to the boot that was heading for his face. Rose's kick hit Kye square in the jaw, causing his head to jolt back and fall on the ground, arms splayed out. He let out a weak groan as the air was forced from his lungs.

"Ohhhhh... that hurt." He managed to wheeze out between sucking air. Rose stood over him with a triumphant smile.

"Being nimble is all well and good but if you're not constantly aware, you'll be caught off guard by less than orthodox attacks."

"*wheeze* Duly... *wheeze* noted... *wheeze*" Rose held her hand out for Kye and helped him up. Rose had noticed that they were being observed and turned around to see the Klein family with shocked looks on their face.

"Ah, Amatiya. I see you've arrived early as always. You might have gathered, but this little brat is Kye." Kye had finally caught his breath and raised his head to see a beautiful woman dressed in a sapphire blue dress. Her hazel eyes and strawberry blonde hair perfectly complemented her face and the two young girls behind her shared many of her striking features. Despite how beautiful they appeared, Kye kept his cool and bowed slightly.

"My name is Kye Runewalker, a pleasure to meet you." Frey smiled at his son's courteous greeting despite only having just recovered from being winded.

"Kye, this is Amatiya and her two daughters, Lilly and Sylvia. Amatiya is my cousin and we used to be very close in our childhood. She's an exceptional merchant and trader. She'll be the one helping us broker a deal with Archduke Friedhand for your Spellweave crystals." Kye nodded in understanding. Getting closer to this person would make his future plans much easier as her connections would be vast. Amatiya was taken aback.

"Wait, his Spellweave crystals?! You mean to say it was Kye who came up with this technology?!"

"Yes, it was quite a shock to the rest of us as well I have to say. He is also the one who came up with the plan to capitalise on this 'steam engine'."

Amatiya gave Kye another look over and realised that this young child was unfathomably deeper than she expected and despite his lack of worldly experience throughout life if she established a close personal connection with Kye, her personal ventures could soar as the exclusive merchant partner of the genius behind Spellweave. They met eyes as these thoughts ran through both of their heads and they both felt the electricity in the air. They were now both locked in a heated mental battle to attempt to garner favours with one another and the first battleground would be the rest of today as they tried to figure one another out.

Alicia, sensing that something was happening, decided to stay quiet and silently moved to stand behind Kye, as if silently exerting pressure on Amatiya that she would stand with Kye no matter his choices. Laya picked up on this earlier but decided that her best course of action was inaction. If Kye managed to win a mental battle with such an influential merchant as Amatiya, she would know that her hunch that Kye would be a great diplomat was right and she would start ramping up his training. Frey and Rose didn't know why but there was this intense pressure in the air emanating from Kye and Amatiya. It felt like a demon wolf was facing down a greater basilisk and were about to engage in combat with one another. Frey decided to hurry things along before they got out of hand.

"Why don't we go in for some refreshments and a nice chat hm?"

"That would be perfect, dear cousin."

"Yes father, that would be most excellent."

Frey had no idea that he had just set up the battlefield for these great pressures to finally meet and play their hands.

Kye and Amatiya sat directly opposite one another on plush leather sofas in the mansion's grand hall. Kye took large swigs from his mug of coffee while Amatiya gently sipped her tea. Kye decided to make the first move.

"So, how easy do you think it will be to convince Archduke Friedhand to purchase Spellweave crystals?"

"Hmm... it should be fairly simple as long as there is an easy way to demonstrate how much better they are than current mana crystals."

"Then your job should be fairly easy then as they just have to slot out the mana crystals for Spellweave crystals for their respective element and everything will work better."

"Out of curiosity, what is the next step for Spellweave?" There it was, her real line of inquiry. The effectiveness of Spellweave had already been proven so it was strange she would bring it up. What she was actually doing was probing for weaknesses in Kye's confidence. If he had shown any hesitation in spruiking the effectiveness of his invention, he would be on the backfoot.

"Well, these crystals are very potent and I look forward to experimenting with them to find out what else I can do with them." This was Kye's play. Keeping his cards close to his chest allowed him to try and goad her into over-extending her interest and letting something slip about a potential rival or interested party.

"Hahaha, surely you don't mean to say that you haven't come up with one other thing that harnesses this immense power. A genius such as yourself would have come up with many inventions to capitalise on this new power source."

"Well, maybe a prototype exists somewhere but it's certainly not something that could be sold just yet." With that last part, Kye had left a pretty obvious bait for the merchant. He hoped she would ignore it so that he could inquire as to who she planned to sell untested and unrecognised technology to.

"Well, that's rather a shame."

"Why, did you have a buyer in mind?" For a moment, her face slipped to a scowl realising she had been caught out but it returned to the perfect diplomatic smile she had before.

"Oh no, it's just that such a technology could sell for a lot. If it was tested first, of course."

"Well, maybe if we had proper marketing behind such inventions, word could spread quicker about these prototypes and a wider market could open up. The only problem is that you would need a name behind it that guaranteed its quality so that people trusted it."

"Ahaha, indeed. If only I had physical proof that a prototype of something existed then maybe we could discuss a deal revolving around the marketing of it with the Klein merchant house's name."

Frey was sitting next to Kye, silently sweating from his brow. The pressure he felt was immense and he desperately wanted to run away but he sat perfectly still, silently sipping his mug of coffee. He attempted to keep himself oblivious to the battle of the minds happening next to him as he watched his wives play with the two young girls accompanying his cousin. His own daughters had also come into the room to play but quickly left when they saw Kye engaged in a silent battle with Amatiya. They had all gone through Layla's diplomacy training and were not about to get themselves involved in troublesome matters like that in their downtime.

So Frey was left to deal with it, desperately he had the foresight to get up and leave before things got serious. He cursed his idiocy inwardly and tried to forget about it. It was all he could do.