Path to Transcendence

Several days passed, and before he knew it, the end of the semester had arrived. The graduation ceremony was much more extravagant than he would have expected. Almost every student had their noble families come to the event, which meant there was a lot of stuffiness and tension amongst the students and their families.

Luckily, since the venue was so huge, there was plenty of space for them to avoid each other if they wanted. Some families were also good friends. Apparently, a significant number of parents had gone to Goldencrest with the other parents.

After the ceremony, Julius was walking around looking for his friends. They were all probably with their parents and celebrating with them. He did want to go over and congratulate them, though. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do as a friend. He even had Reinera with him, however she had her disguise on for the time being. It was just so that she wouldn't be overwhelmed by the nobles.

He admitted he was a little nervous to meet his friends' families. The only ones he knew were Lily's parents, but he had yet to meet the other ones. According to Lily, they were all acquainted with one another already.

He was quite surprised to hear that Aubrey's mother was also coming. As a Tier 6, Julius half expected the woman to be too busy to show up for the ceremony. Thus, he was taken aback when Aubrey told him that her mother was coming, and was even more surprised when he heard that she wanted to meet him.

As fate would have it, Aubrey was the first one he found in the throng of people. He sensed her with [Absolute Spatial Perception] and noticed the woman standing right next to her. However, what he noticed right away was the sheer weight of this person. Whether it was mana, aura, or just the woman's physical presence, Julius felt his heart beat a little faster.

This woman felt much different than even other Tier 6s he had met. Dante and Alice were strong, no doubt about that, but there was something different about Aubrey's mother. The only time he felt this way was when he met Elder Han.

He also didn't know if his new perception skill influenced his senses. It was very possible with how the skill integrated his aura and mana senses.

With that said, there was no doubt in his mind that this was Aubrey's mother. The woman was absolutely stunning, looking very similar to Aubrey. She was tall and brunette, but she had this beautiful luster that had everyone in the vicinity, including him, staring in awe.

However, since she was a Tier 6, Julius couldn't say he could blame anyone for staring. However, since her aura was restrained heavily, it probably had to do more with her looks than her power. He didn't know if this was a byproduct of being Tier 6 or if she was naturally like this.

He did recognize that people were giving Aubrey and her mother plenty of space. They weren't crowding them like Julius kind of expected, given the circumstances. However, it also made sense that swarming a Tier 6 during her daughter's celebration was a bad idea and nobody wanted to piss off a Tier 6. Or maybe Aubrey's mother was using some kind of technique to keep them away. He really didn't know.

He wasn't that alarmed when Aubrey's mother somehow sensed that he was there and turned around to look at him with a confident smile. The woman's attention on him made him feel uneasy for some reason. Normally, he didn't feel like that in front of strong people. It wasn't even like she was exuding any of her aura toward him either. He would think she was just a normal Tier 3 individual if he didn't know any better.

However, he chuckled to himself when he was forced to use [Sage of Savagery] to help keep him relaxed.

When he and Reinera eventually approached them, Aubrey's mother immediately looked at him meaningfully.

"So you're the one that my daughter has found such interest in," she said to him, giving him a once-over with her iridescent eyes.

"Um, yes?" Julius said carefully.

"Mom, don't be weird. He's just a friend," Aubrey scolded her mother.

"Don't worry, Aubrey, I just want to meet him. Is there anything wrong with that?" He spotted right away how similar the two of them were. Just from their tone, he could tell they were related.

"You can do that without looking at him like he's some kind of unique monster on display," Aubrey said before turning her attention to Julius. "Sorry about her, she can be nosy. Anyways, have you seen the others yet?"

Julius looked over at her mother, who was surprisingly fine with Aubrey's attitude and was still smiling at her daughter gently. "No, you are the first one I have seen. I think we might have to just meet up with them afterward. There are just too many people around."

"Why don't we just head out now and meet up with them later, Aubrey?" Her mother said while looking at the huge crowd.

Aubrey and Julius looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders. They were both fine with that. He didn't enjoy crowds that much anyway, especially with his new skill. The feedback was still something he needed to get used to. The extended distance was already hard enough, but since he was receiving information about the mana and aura around him, that made it really challenging.

It was only when they walked away from all the other families that Aubrey's mother formally introduced herself to him.

"It's nice to meet you, Julius. As you might have already noticed, I am Aubrey's mother, but you can call me Fiona," she said to him with a warm smile.

"It's nice to meet you as well. Aubrey always talks about you proudly," he admitted to her.

"Aw, she does?" Fiona asked with a grin toward her daughter, who was rolling her eyes at the two of them.

"All the time."

Julius chuckled and gestured toward Reinera. "And before I forget, this is my friend, Grace."

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"It's an honor to meet you, Lady Crysalia," Reinera said politely and bowed.

"Grace, huh?" Fiona said with an inquisitive look at her, even going so far as to lean down toward the smaller girl. Her face was only a foot away from Reinera's when she tilted her head and finally chuckled after a moment.

"Almost got me there, girly," Aubrey's mother said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Reinera asked, confused at the woman's actions.

"You might be able to fool other people, but not me, little princess."

Reinera froze. "Sorry?"

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Honestly, I almost didn't sense anything wrong until I got a closer look. That is one hell of an item. Whoever made that is quite the gifted crafter," Fiona complemented.

Reinera gave a strained smile in return. "Thanks."

Fiona stepped back, pleased by the reaction, and looked back at Julius. She was about to say something, but they both noticed a group of people walking toward them.

It wasn't any of his friends like he expected. It wasn't even someone he knew. But from the way they dressed, he would assume they were influential people. Likely a Noble House.

Actually, on second thought, he did recognize someone. Trailing behind this group was someone he was acquainted with. At least somewhat acquainted. After all, they had fought recently.

Irene had her head down as she followed, whom he assumed were her parents, looking like she would rather be anywhere other than there at the moment.

"Lady Crysalia! What a coincidence seeing you here. Congratulations on Aubrey's impressive performance, you must be very proud of her!" The woman said with an overly large smile. One that felt fake even from where Julius was standing.

To her credit, Aubrey's mother didn't waver and simply stared at the woman and her husband blankly.

"Who are you?" The loving mother who doted on her daughter was nowhere to be seen. She suddenly seemed taller than she already was, and Julius was able to feel a small amount of aura leaking from the woman now. He knew full well that this was on purpose, though he wondered if they knew it.

The wife smiled awkwardly, as did the husband.

"You might not remember, but we met at House Quincy's annual ball last year. My name is Koplan Graves, and this is my wife, Sia," the husband said with an embarrassed grin.

Aubrey's mother nodded slightly. "That's right, House Graves. Don't you have a daughter who attends Goldencrest? Irene, right?"

Julius watched as Irene's parents flinched when their daughter was named. He didn't know if they were annoyed that Fiona didn't recognize them while knowing who their daughter was, or if it was something else, but he happened to see Irene hide a small grin.

"Yes, our darling Irene," the lady said proudly while pointing at her daughter, conveniently forgetting that they hadn't introduced her at the beginning.

Aubrey's mother actually gave the young woman a gentle smile. "Congratulations, making it to the top eight is quite the accomplishment considering the competition this year."

Irene grinned bashfully. "Thank you Lady Crysalia, it is an honor to hear you give me praise, I don't deserve it."

"Yes, you do," Fiona said, leaving no room for arguing.

"I agree. You fought very well," Julius added. However, he saw that Irene's parents looked over at him with a weird look. They likely could see that he was with Aubrey and her mother, but it appeared they didn't know who he was, which was odd because he had just fought their daughter recently. He would have thought they knew who she had paired up against.

"Not well enough to win," Irene said bitterly.

"He's right, dear, you did your best. There is no shame in losing. Look at the Abram's scion. He didn't even make it past the top sixteen despite all of the rumors lauding his strength," her father consoled her, but Julius noticed there was a slight disappointed edge to his voice.

"Yeah, you can't blame yourself for losing to Julius. He's not someone you should compare yourself to. I don't even think he is human sometimes," Aubrey said in a rare case of her attempting to comfort someone else, but still somehow managed to insult Julius at the same time.

"Ah, yes, the first year," Sia Graves said with a sour look on her face. "I heard that he didn't even have the guts to show up for the finals, deciding to forfeit instead of taking the risk of losing to Derek Zenith in front of everyone."

Irene winced at her mother's poor choice of words. Aubrey, on the other hand, frowned deeply at the parents. Clearly not liking how they talked about Julius.

"He didn't forfeit because he was scared," she said with gritted teeth.

The mom waved her hand. "Of course not," she said, but didn't sound like she was genuine at all.

Aubrey was going to say something more, but Julius smirked at her and shook his head, letting her know that it wasn't worth the trouble.

"Mother," Irene murmured warningly.

"Yes?" Her mother asked, confused.

"He's right there."

"Who's right there?" Irene's father asked with a tilt of his head.

Irene gave Julius an apologetic wince and pointed at him. "That's Julius. He's the one who beat me."

Sia Graves looked like she had just swallowed a pinecone and smiled painfully at him. "Oh, my apologies. I didn't mean it like that," she said quickly, but looked at Aubrey's mother in concern. It appeared like she was more worried that she had offended the Tier 6 rather than Julius. Fiona didn't show any outward reaction, merely looking toward Julius to see how he would react.

Julius, on the other hand, didn't really care about the woman's words. It didn't bother him and he had been expecting to hear something like that from many people who knew he didn't show up for the final match.

Still, he had already decided that he didn't like Irene's parents all that much. Apparently, Lily's statement that House Graves had some good people in it wasn't completely true. However, that should have been expected. Not everyone in the House could be nice. At least, Irene seemed like the good sort.

On the bright side, the mother's faux pas cut off any more of their attempts to kiss up to Aubrey's mother. They smartly realized that their presence was no longer welcome and made themselves scarce before they could say anything more offensive.

"You should have roughed them up a bit, Mom," Aubrey complained.

"You can't beat up everyone who offends you, Aubrey. Otherwise, you will find yourself constantly punching someone in the face," her mother said with a sigh.

"I wouldn't mind that," Aubrey said with a bright smile.

"And that's kind of the problem," Julius commented.

"I don't want to hear it from you, Mr. Pushover," Aubrey said while wagging her finger at him.

"Hey, just because I don't punch them in the face doesn't mean I am a pushover," he argued.

"Yeah, but they literally insulted you and called you a coward right in your face while you did nothing."

He shrugged. "Why should I care about their opinions? They obviously are not very nice people and only came over to ingratiate themselves with your mother. I have already forgotten them."

Fiona nodded along with him. "Well said. It's just a shame my daughter can't be as cool-headed as you. I fear her temper will be the end of her."

"Don't worry, we make sure to rein it in for her. Lily is really good at it," Julius said proudly, dutifully ignoring Aubrey's kick to his shin while they waited for the others to meet up with them.