Ascension of the elder

"Cliché just so cliché."

Kyle looked at this peacock as he mumbled out his inner thoughts, however it appeared chicken boy had good ears and although he couldn't hear what Kyle said it drew his attention.

"You there peasant, if you wish to be an array master you'll need to train for longer. Instead how about you come to my family I know some elders who would like to meet you."

A few people in the reception hall looked at Kyle with pity while the rest were confused as to why this kid was made such an offer. It looked as though the Miles family's preferences were an open secret within certain circles.

Kyle wondered however why this idiot called him a peasant but then he remembered he was wearing some of his newly made clothes which were very different than what the nobility wore. This meant this 15-16 year old kid hasn't ever really looked at anyone he considers lesser than him and had no conception of what clothes they wear.

While Kyle was musing he suddenly felt a dangerous spike of energy, looking beside him he saw his mother who was projecting a malevolent mana aimed at the peacock. Maria for all her faults was still a powerful mana user and this kid had just said he was going to give her son to some dirty old men. While she was still naive to certain things she could sense the implied threat in his words, now it would be questionable as to whether he would walk out or be carried out.

Draken sensing Maria charging her mana decided enough was enough and hurried to the peacock. As the kid saw someone hurrying over to him he drew himself up to his full and intended to show this worker from the guild his power.

"Ah good you there man take me to see your guild leader, it's time you guild learnt it's *bleugh*."

While he was in the middle of his young master speech Draken arrived in front of him and without letting him finish punched him solidly in the gut before stepping back just in case he vomited. Even though the peacock had trained using a warrior manual, he didn't take it seriously and so relied on other resources to promote his strength but without proper training he was nothing but a glass cannon.

Kyle was surprised seeing Draken's strength as array masters came from their abilities as sorcerers. How could Draken be so physically strong, as he was confused by this he heard a calm and mellow voice from beside him.

"Draken trained as a sorcerer and warrior like me being a mage and sorcerer."

Hearing his mothers words Kyle looked to her then back to Draken as out of everyone here he knew how difficult it would be to train in both those paths because there would be almost no overlap in the existing techniques so he must have trained 2 different techniques simultaneously. Back to Draken he was trying to sort out this mess as the peacock's guards were now approaching.

"YOU DARE TO ACT IMPUDENT IN THE ARRAY MASTERS GUILD. I'M TAKING THIS IDIOT TO THE CELLS, YOU TWO TELL OLD MAN MILES TO COME HERE TO DISCUSS REPARATION RIGHT NOW!"

For once Draken had let slip his apathetic look and now looked truly enraged, looking at the other people in the hall Kyle could see that some visitors and young looking masters looked worried or fearful while the older members including his mother looked as though they were enjoying the show.

"Mum what's going on how can Draken act like that?"

"Simple dear as the branch head he has the full backing of the upper management. If the Miles family chooses to press this issue the whole guild will come down on them."

Historically no one would openly attack any of the guilds as for one, they were necessary for the functioning of the empire and secondly the amount of force the guilds can muster would be almost equal to the imperial army and with their specific skills sorcerers would have no trouble eliminating a small noble house, the only weird thing was why did the idiot think he could act the way he did with no repercussions.

Speaking of the idiot he had been grabbed by a couple of the guild guards and they were dragging him away hopefully to some deep dark hole while his guards had already run out of the hall probably to report what had happened to their young master. Draken straightened his robe and calmed his expression before returning to Kyle and Maria.

"If you would follow me I'll get your credentials organised."

He headed to one of the desks nearby with a surprised Kyle following who was thinking 'I'm supposed to be the main character right so should I have beaten that guy?' Neither Maria nor Draken knew of Kyle's thoughts so they just carried on with the details and before long Kyle received a guild card which was like his mothers card so he could use this as a debit card as well.

"With this you are now an official member of the guild. If you look over to the wall there you will see available contracts, any questions?"

"I have a couple but firstly I have to ask why are you processing new members?"

Kyle was curious as to why the branch head would be dealing with this kind of thing as he surely had staff whom could do this kind of work. Draken looked at him for a moment before he responded.

"I like to keep an eye out for new and talented masters no more no less."

"Okay second question, if I find something new or develop something to do with arrays would the guild offer any kind of protection?"

"Hum interesting question, all discoveries are protected by guild confidentiality. However this would depend on what kind of discovery and who you report it to, in all honesty not all masters are truly good men and if something came along that could help them they would readily drop all pretence and do whatever they could to control it."

As Draken gave Kyle his advice his faced dropped and it was obvious he was speaking from experience, this would be an interesting story Kyle was sure but unfortunately he was on a tight schedule so he would have to try and get this info out of him at a later date.

"Okay I have no further questions, I'll have a quick peek at the board."

Kyle stood up and held out his hand for Draken to shake. Although handshakes weren't common in this world certain traders used this as a sign of a good deal so Draken wasn't taken aback and shook Kyle's hand firmly before Kyle and Maria moved over to the board to look at what was available. Draken took another look at them before he spoke to one of the staff before he headed upstairs to his office.

Kyle had a quick scan at the job postings on the wall. They were mostly standard array repairs which adepts or journeymen could complete. There was one notice which grabbed Kyle's attention.

'Black family requires master level array repair on ancient device. Price to be agreed in person, if interested contact Leonard Black family head.'

Kyle found this interested as they said they had an inoperable ancient device. From the look of the job sheet it had been here for a while so none of the other masters had been able to get it sorted, so Kyle wanted to have a look for himself but that would be a job for tomorrow for now he just made note of the name and headed out of the building while his mother took his arm with a smile before she said to him.

"Well done, but for now how about we go and have some lunch and do some shopping."

Kyle didn't think much before saying.

"Yes we can do that but can Dylan join us for lunch."

When they had entered the guild hall Dylan was left outside to watch over the horses and wait for their return. This wasn't a bad duty as he sat in one of the waiting benches and was busy watching the pretty ladies going by. When Maria and Kyle approached he jumped up and was ready to serve.

"Dylan we are going to have lunch and then do some shopping, you'll join us for lunch of course."

"But...but I'm only a guard I can't sit at a nobles table."

"Well in that case show us to a good commoner's restaurant."