The Magician of Sound

Tasha dragged Kai outside.

They saw Ayaka with an old man in a butler suit. The old man seemed harmless, but it couldn't escape Kai's and Tasha's eyes. The old man was strong as his kind eyes were strict yet ferocious.

They could tell that this old man had experienced countless battles outside.

After talking with Ayaka, the old man then looked at them. Kai and Tasha only nodded their heads solemnly.

He made the most amiable smile possible to them, "I have heard so much about you, Miss Tasha. To drive for an S-rank magician, it is my honor."

Then he turned to Kai, "This must be your younger brother, Kai Carter. You have truly good eyes. As expected of the man who defeated Young Miss. Hoho..."

"Uncle Rio!" Ayaka shouted while blushing.

Maybe it was because the butler just teased her, but Ayaka didn't have any hostility against Kai anymore. At first, she was frustrated that she lost, but in just an instant, she accepted her loss as though it was something trivial. 

"This is my grandfather's butler. His name is Rio Ferdian. He was my grandfather's comrade before he became my grandfather's butler. You can also say he's my grandfather's second-in-command."

"Hoho, you are overpraising me, Young Miss. I am just a worn-out butler."

"I've told him and my grandfather about the weapon. My grandfather wanted to invite you to our home so that he can give the weapon personally. He said that he was curious about you. How about it?"

Kai and Tasha looked at each other before Tasha nodded her head. "All right. We accept."

Surprisingly, the one he was interested in was Kai, not Tasha, as Ayaka said 'you' to Kai. It was certainly surprising for someone to be more interested in Kai rather than Tasha, an S-rank magician.

Tasha agreed because of that. She was happy that Kai got the recognition he deserved. He wanted to see if Ayaka's grandfather was serious about it or if it was only a scam so he could see her.

"Then, please." Butler Rio opened the car door for them.

The car was a limousine, as one would expect from a wealthy family. But instead of moving with tires, it was floating twenty centimeters above the ground, like the bus from before.

As it didn't need an engine, it didn't pollute the air. Every source of energy had been changed to magic energy. Every magical beast had a core inside them, and the higher their rank, the bigger and more powerful their core would be. These cores were called magical cores.

After finding out that the cores could store magic energy, humans stopped relying on other energy sources such as oil, gas, and others. It was far more powerful and efficient than those outdated sources of energy. 

Ayaka got in first and invited them to enter the car, and Kai and Tasha then entered the car in response.

After a twenty-minute ride, they finally arrived at a grand mansion. To pass the garden alone, they needed a one-minute ride to arrive at the villa.

But what made the situation awkward was that no one spoke a single word during this whole ride. Kai wasn't interested in the ride and the mansion. He closed his eyes, trying to relax this entire time.

As for Tasha, her eyes were glued to the window, looking at various things outside, especially the luxurious ones.

On the other hand, Ayaka didn't take her eyes away from Kai. She recalled the fight in her mind while looking at him. She was thinking, 'Why did I lose? Why could he defeat me?' all the time.

After continuously recalling those images, she slowly realized her mistakes. She clenched her fist, wishing to restart that fight. If she were able to restart the battle, she would come up with a better fight than that.

As soon as they arrived, Butler Rio opened the car door and said, "We have arrived."

Ayaka and Tasha finally looked away while Kai slowly opened his eyes. Ayaka came out first, followed by Tasha and Kai.

It was truly an enormous mansion. From the width alone, it was similar to the length of a football field. As one would expect from a wealthy family. In comparison, Kai and Tasha's house was the size of their security post.

"My lady, your grandfather wants to meet you. I will lead the guests from here. You should meet your grandfather first."

"Alright." Ayaka nodded her head and went on her way.

"This way, please," Rio Ferdian started leading Tasha and Kai to a big meeting room. "You can consider it as your home."

The room only had sofas and a big table in the middle. The decoration was luxurious.

"Please wait in this room for a bit. I will bring you something to drink."

Kai sat on the soft sofa while Tasha looked around.

Not long after, the butler came back with two cups of tea. The tea was aromatic. The butler had yet to put the tea on the table, but the rich aroma had penetrated their nose.

"Please," he said, after putting the tea on the table.

...

After around five minutes, there were two people's footsteps coming toward this room.

A muscular older man appeared from the door, accompanied by Ayaka. According to the information, the older man should be around eighty, but his appearance said otherwise.

Although his hair had become white, his body didn't lose its strength, his pride didn't disappear from his face, and his eyes didn't lose their sharpness.

Kai and Tasha immediately stood up.

"Hoho, such a fine young man and young lady. My name is Kudo Taro, Ayaka's grandfather."

He stretched his hand to Tasha for a handshake and Tasha accepted it. Then, he turned to Kai and stretched his hand.

But when Kai stretched his hand and tried to shake his hand, Kudo Taro suddenly spun his body and sent a fist toward him.

"Grandfather?" Ayaka was confused with his sudden action.

Kai furrowed his eyebrows and ducked to dodge the fist. Kai didn't stop there. As soon as he ducked, he tried to kick Kudo Taro's feet.

Taro jumped a little bit and tried to attack Kai's foot with his weight.

Of course, with this, Tasha managed to react. Before he managed to step on Kai's foot, she sent a kick toward Taro's head.

Kudo Taro immediately used one of his hands to block this kick.

Bzzt—

"Lightning?" When he grabbed Tasha's foot, he instantly felt a spark from it. Tasha's kick was actually reinforced by her lightning.

He would have been able to block Tasha's kick if she had done it normally. Unfortunately, she reinforced it with her magic. It threw his balance a bit.

Kai didn't let this chance go. He used his hands to stabilize his balance and sent a horse kick to him.

Of course, he concentrated his magic power into his feet to give more power to his kick.

It blew Taro away. He crashed onto the wall. Tasha didn't let him go. She made a pistol hand gesture as a purple magic circle appeared in front of her hand.

In the middle of the magic circle, there was a lightning symbol, signifying her magician mark. The lightning she shot was like a laser.

Boom! 

The lightning exploded like a direct hit as smoke came out because of the collision.

"Grandfather!" Ayaka shouted as she didn't manage to react this entire time. She was surprised to see her grandfather suddenly attack Kai. But the most surprising thing was when she saw Kai blow her grandfather away.

She immediately ran toward her grandfather before she heard her grandfather's voice behind the smoke.

"Aiya, you two are truly ruthless to this old bone."

The smoke started to clear, and they could see a blue magic circle containing a frozen crystal on it. He released it at the last moment to block Tasha's lightning attack.

He came out from the smoke slowly, walking toward Ayaka and patted her head. He then turned to Kai and Tasha, "This old man was just curious about the boy that defeated my dearest princess. Do forgive this old man."

"If someone attacked you just because of their curiosity, will you accept their apology?" Tasha said while narrowing her eyes.

"Haha, definitely not. That's why this old man will give you compensation. Since Ayaka promised you a weapon, then this old man will provide another weapon for you."

Kai and Tasha looked at him but didn't say anything. They didn't trust him as he just attacked them out of nowhere.

"You don't need to look at me like that. I'm sincere about that. I was just curious about my soon-to-be grandson-in-law, so I couldn't help but to want to see it with my own eyes."

"What?" Tasha immediately shouted when she heard that while Ayaka was bewildered, "Grandfather?"

Even Kai widened his eyes slightly.

"Haha, don't you know the tradition... Hmm, I can't say it's a tradition, it's the fate of this family. Whoever defeats a Kudo will certainly marry them. Since you defeated Ayaka, then you are bound to marry her sooner or later.

"Even if I stopped you or you didn't do anything at all, you two will get together. Or even if her father or mother didn't do anything, you two will still get together."

"Grandfather? What do you mean?" Ayaka was shocked. She just heard the most shocking thing in her life.

"Haha, don't you know I'm the same? Back then, your grandmother defeated me. Not long after that, we got married. Even your mother also defeated your father.

"I remember. Back then, they had a match to see who was stronger. Because he took pity on your mother, he purposely lost to her.

"But, it only made her mad at him. She hated him from the bottom of her heart. Fate sure worked like magic. A few years after that, with various encounters, they became a couple and gave birth to you.

"It was the same for the generations before me. So that was the reason why I was curious and wanted to test you. Don't worry, I won't do anything. I won't stop you or encourage you.

"There won't be an engagement or anything like that. I just want to see whether you can escape from something like this."

"Hell no—!" A deep high-pitched sound was heard.

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