Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Phel swallowed his saliva, as he felt the need to say something in Decatur's defense. "I don't think that Dec wanted to end up antagonizing Evin… not at first, at least…" Phel said and gauged his father's reaction. Seeing that the other was silent, Phel continued. "I think he approached Evin with curiosity at first, when he first challenged him to an Efficiency duel. I wasn't there when that happened, but I'd imagine that's what happened."

"From what I heard from one of the teachers, he was acting quite overbearing during all that."

"Well, he tends to do that when he's either nervous or angry. But that's beside the point. Despite how he might've acted towards Evin, his intentions must not have been so sinister and personal as the nobles are making it out to be. Those emotions festered because of all the times the two were pitted against each other later on," Phel explained. "I had a guess when I was speaking with Decatur just now, but him and Evin definitely do end up on opposing sides much more than the average two students."

Phel was a bit worried that his words might sound too defending of Decatur, but thankfully, his father replied with seriousness as well, "Do you think the teachers deliberately arrange things in that way?"

"Not all of them. Of course, they don't share all their classes, but in the combat class at least, the Vice-chair and the Chairman definitely tend to do that," Phel said with some hesitation.

"With what intentions?" his father asked.

"I can't tell. The northerner rarely shows any emotions, and the Chairman only looks curious most of the time."

His father went silent at the information, and Phel tactfully shut his mouth.

"But whatever the case may be, others don't look at it that way," his father shook his head.

Phel wanted to say something, but he didn't want to spout cheap, unthoughtful words.

"Since they want Decatur gone, have they mentioned who's going to be the replacement?"

"Lord Gehenne would be their prime choice, I presume."

For his father to refer to him as 'Lord', it sounded weirdly distant to Phel. Decatur's brother had always been just 'Decatur's brother' to him.

"Didn't he bring an official declaration relegating his status as heir to Decatur?"

Not many people knew about this fact, but Gehenne had already settled his family's inheritance problem after he graduated from the Arcvallen Academy. Since the reasoning for the relegation was because he wanted to become a Mage Minister, which was a much more prestigious role than a simple Earl, Countess Carew couldn't really refuse him.

"He did, and his prospects don't look so bad as a future Minister as well…"

"So are they demanding the Countess to produce another heir?" Phel asked.

"He-he, no."

"Then what?"

"Most of them spoke of putting Bellaslayn on the position, or perhaps her eldest sister, Arelyn Borna," his father shrugged.

"It's possible, but Bella's definitely not going to be happy about it. What did Viscount Borna say?"

Although the two families weren't related by blood by any means, it was easy enough for the Borna family to become the Carew family's Oathsworn vassal and receive the rights to inherit the County. And in general, the inheriting processes of the noble families were a very loose. The gender and age of the heir wasn't very important and if someone from a lesser and friendly enough family showed promise, it was possible for those promising children to become heirs of more prominent families.

"He agreed with you. He outright said that Bella isn't someone who can rule over anything, and also warned that he prepared Arelyn to be a viscountess and not a countess."

"Sounds harsh…"

"But true," his father shrugged with a smile. "Some also proposed you take the position, but I refused. It might sound like I'm finding faults with you, but your personality is not fit to be a leader. Especially in wartime. You can develop the abilities, sure… but I think you lack the cold rationale that's required of rulers sometimes."

"I agree with you. Thank you for refusing," Phel replied with a smile.

He was the sole heir of the Narke family, but the town he would be in charge of was too small and too familiar to him to cause him any serious challenges. Or Phel hoped so, at least.

"Though, there was an interesting proposition from the Hart family. You know of them, right?"

"Yes. I'm good friends with their son, Theundel."

"Ah, then you should be familiar with how militaristic they are… Anyhow, they've proposed that perhaps Evin could become the heir of the Carew family."

"What? That's preposterous!"

"Yes, I know. It's something that only the Hart family, who truly see the noble title as something one earned and not inherited, can say without worries. Obviously, the rest of the nobles condoned the idea, but the Hart family had some arguments for this case… They believe that Evin is a bastard child of a noble. After all, he's unusually well mannered, he acts above his age, he can Imagination Cast better than everyone in your class, despite you all having studied since you were children. It would be easy enough for a noble family to adopt him… After all, Evin's basically disowned his family at this point."

His father's words might've been hurtful to some, but Phel knew that he was simply stating the facts. But that wasn't what Phel was angry about. "It's not about if he's eligible or not. You can't just go up to him and ask him to rule over a County! Nor can you attach him a father just for the heck of it."

"Of course. It is as you say. The idea was shot down immediately as well. It isn't like every noble family is so open-minded like the Harts."

Phel was still angry at the nobles for even discussing such a possibility, but these talks by his father definitely made him understand how serious they were about removing Decatur.

"I shall talk to Dec when he comes to the dorms," Phel said with a sigh.

"Good. The Countess should be speaking about it to him now," his father said softly. "See how he's acting first and then decide whether you should speak with him or not."

Phel nodded gravely, but his father only shrugged. "I know you're worried about him, but I know that he's really not the fool that everyone's making him out to be. He just needs to cool his head a bit… Hmm, maybe if he finally gets beaten by Evin black and blue, it'll clear his head up," he said with a chuckle.

Phel didn't really like the joke, as he felt that it possessed too much truth to it. Evin's magical capabilities were growing at an astonishing rate and in Phel's eyes, it was only a matter of time he started to become unbeatable. Decatur could probably still overpower him with Talismans and other tools if he had the chance, but lately, it was becoming quite obvious that Evin was the better mage.

Phel shook his head and put future matters out of his head. He had to think about what he was going to say to Decatur. He discussed a few things with his father, and had a few ideas. At some point, they felt they'd talked enough and focused on more mundane topics. His father stopped talking about politics after that point, turning more cheerful and joking like he usually was.

…

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