Rivers of the Night
Chapter 368: Sniffling

Chapter 368: Sniffling

“Step out!” the young woman practically roared, her short white-ash hair dancing with strands of gold from her Mana.

She looked prepared, a rapier unsheathing from her hip in a flash. In an instant, it was already a fraction of an inch from Theron’s throat. However, the latter hardly flinched. The only semblance of movement was a shift of his eyes from the young woman’s eyes to the weapon that hung just below his chin.

“Apologies miss, but I’m under Scholar Mcintyre’s care as a scholar in training myself. I am no warrior.”

“I didn’t ask for your life story. I asked you to step out! Do you only know how to bully children?”

“I hardly bullied the young prince. I only trapped him for a moment after he attacked me,” Theron said calmly.

“You understand nothing. Do you not understand how to coddle a child?!”

Theron blinked. “… By the young miss’ logic, shouldn’t you be more forgiving to me?”

She paused for a moment, frowning as though not undersatnding what Theron meant, before registering what he must be referring to.

Her face went slightly red.

“You are not a child!”

“Oh…” Theron said almost a bit too calmly. His voice trailed off as though he didn’t know what to say, when in reality he could have found quite a bit to rebut with. But sometimes, silence was the best sort of medicine.

“I…”

The young woman grit her teeth, all of her momentum airing out like the wind whistling through the window she had just broken.

She found herself stuck between a rock and a hard place, all of a sudden not sure of what to do or say before she got frustrated and let out a grunt.

“You and grand uncle are the same sort of annoying, I swear! Always using your tongue instead of your fists! Are you even men?!—Don’t answer that!” she sharply snapped as though imagining Theron using his age against her again.

“Please don’t speak of my master like that,” Theron said with a frown. “He’s a very well respected man and isn’t the sort that can be boiled down into such crude words.”

The young woman seemed taken aback by Theron’s snark before she sneered.

“And so what if I do? You have no idea what the history of this family is. You can’t just stroll in and start passing judgment on people with baggage you can’t understand.”

Theron frowned. “If there’s something I should understand, then please inform me. If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t act as though I should already know.”

“You really are shameless. Speaking like an adult, then trying to hide behind the shield of your age.”

“I didn’t try to hide behind anything. I was only pointing out your own hypocrisy. If you care so much, then bring a 14 year old forward and we can spar to vent your frustrations if that’s what you really want.”

“Do you think the geniuses of my family are just around to be used by you as you please? I know where my grand uncle has been all this time, pedaling about in backwater little towns that don’t even have the right to call themselves Empires. Do you understand the kind of power of the Tyre Clan has? Do you think that you and they are even on the same level?”

“So basically what you’re saying is that I can’t trap a child that tried to attack me because he was too young, but I’m also shameless for hiding behind my own age, but also I can’t challenge those who are my age because I’m not worthy, but I also can’t use my words to defend myself either because I don’t know your family history.

“What are you suggesting, exactly, then? Do I have any rights to do anything at all?”

“You…” she found herself gritting her teeth again. “… Yes, nothing! You can do nothing! So what about it? Blame your—.”

There was a flash of cold in Theron’s eyes for a moment. His mind worked too fast and he seemed to already guess what she was going to say. But just the slightest hint of disatisfaction seemed to snap the woman back to attention with a frightening cold chill.

Her head snapped toward the broken window as though she was trying to understand when the mild weather had suddenly become so sharp, but the most important part was that she seemed to have also forgotten what she had been about to say.

After a while, she frowned and then looked back toward Theron.

“Listen, boy—,” she emphasized to what she seemed to think was great effect, “—the matters of the Tyre Clan aren’t for you to understand. All you need to know is that my grand uncle is a stubborn bastard who didn’t know his place and overstepped his bounds as someone with no real claim to the throne. The Emperor Above was a kind man who showed my grand uncle grace he never properly returned.

“He’s only here because he’s a shameless man who no one can defeat. Don’t get too comfortable, because if they can’t target him, then they’ll target you. I was going to help you a little bit by beating some sense into you, but it seems that your mouth is just as annoying, so I’ll let the others deal with you, then.”

She harrumphed and then sheathed her rapier. Sweeping a glance over the carnage she had left in her wake, she turned to leave.

Theron almost cared enough to raise an internal eyebrow. She definitely hadn’t come here just to help him, she was definitely angry. BUt it seemed she had found this moral high ground to both save herself the embarrassment of challenging someone younger than her, and get a leg up at the same time.

All things considered, her pattern of thought was still immature, but her control over her emotions was surprisingly good.

It sounded funny to say that with his door half buried somewhere in a once pristine garden, but that was Theron’s assessment nonetheless.

The young woman didn’t manage to make it very far toward the door, though, when three figures appeared in a flash, two older boys, and a familiar sniffling five year old.

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