SYSTEM ASCENSION

"Who gave you the permission to look me in the eye?"

The young man dropped to his knees, clutching his wrist against his chest.

"You—!"

The second rushed forward, energy gathering around his arm, but Elias caught his fist before it reached him, and there was another crack. His face emptied of colour.

Elias released him, allowing him to stumble backward while holding his ruined hand.

The courtyard erupted into panic.

Guards reached for their weapons, servants fled toward the walls, and the remaining children shouted over one another, demanding that Elias be restrained.

The girl in green pointed at him. "Have you lost your mind?! Do you know who we are?"

Elias looked at her finger.

"And do you know who I am?"

Her face twisted.

"Useless trash parading—"

Elias appeared in front of her.

She barely had time to gasp before he took the hand she was pointing with and bent it backward.

A third crack rang across the courtyard.

The girl screamed and collapsed, cradling her wrist as tears sprang to her eyes.

"Mother! Save me!"

For the first time, the others became completely silent.

Elias looked around at them.

There were still two left. One of them stepped backward.

"We didn’t touch the children. We only stood here."

"I don’t actually care,"

He seized his hand, and snapped it.

The last woman turned to run, but Elias caught her wrist before she had taken more than two steps.

She stared at him in horror. "I didn’t say anything!"

"I’m just disgusted. Blame it on your luck."

Her scream joined the others.

When Elias finally released her, all five children were scattered across the courtyard, each clutching one broken hand.

Some were crying, some were cursing, and the eldest was loudly demanding that the guards kill him, although none of the guards seemed eager to move.

Elias turned away from them and crouched in front of Dan.

"Does that count?"

Dan stared at him with wide eyes.

"W-What?"

"I found you."

Cyya looked at her siblings, then back at Elias. "Run away. Father will be furious when he finds out."

Elias stood and glanced toward the half-open window above.

"Will he though?"

A furious voice rose behind him.

"You lunatic! Father will have your head for this!"

Elias paused.

He looked back at the five children, considered their words, and then tilted his head.

"You insulted two children, threw one of them onto the ground, and insulted their mother."

His eyes moved across them one after another.

"I only broke one hand each."

The eldest stared at him in disbelief.

Elias frowned slightly.

"Was I supposed to break both?"

They flinched visibly.

"The patriarch really raised trash."

At the same time, the patriarch stomped out with Zeal walking beside him with both hands tucked into his sleeves and the relaxed posture of someone who had already heard everything and was now only present to enjoy the show.

"What happened here?"

"Father!" The girl in the green robe cried. "Look at this lunatic! He ruined my hand! Stand up for us!"

Five minutes later, the courtyard looked nothing like it had before.

The five nobles who had been standing proudly moments ago were now kneeling in a row, each clutching one hand against their chest, their faces twisted between pain, humiliation, and outrage.

They had expected their father to order a guard against Elias, and have him thrown in a dungeon, but they were kneeling instead?

Cyya and Dan knelt several steps away from them with their heads lowered, although neither child seemed to understand why they had been dragged into the punishment when they had been the ones crying before everything started.

Several guards stood around the courtyard in tense silence, while the servants remained near the walls, pretending not to stare at the family drama.

Elias, surprisingly to them, was not kneeling.

Someone had brought out a chair for him. He sat beneath the shade with one leg crossed over the other, a cup of tea resting in his hand, while a servant stood beside him holding a tray of small pastries.

He took one.

Dan glanced at him from where he knelt.

Elias noticed the stare. He quietly took a second pastry and held it out.

Dan looked toward the guards and the patriarch who was ignoring the scene, then toward the siblings, before slowly reaching for it. He split it with his sister.

The courtyard doors opened.

The matriarch entered first, her expression calm and collected, while the patriarch’s other wives followed. Three of them.

The moment they saw their children kneeling, the courtyard erupted into chaos.

"My son!"

One of the women rushed forward, only to stop when the patriarch raised a hand.

Another stared at her daughter’s swollen wrist and immediately began to cry.

"How could this happen inside your own manor?"

"He attacked them without warning!"

"He is an outsider!"

"He entered our home, injured our children, and now he is sitting there as though he owns the household!"

The voices piled over one another so quickly that it became impossible to tell who was saying what.

Zeal snickered. "How do they talk that much? Strange gender."

Elias continued drinking his tea.

The matriarch watched silently. She was trying very hard not to smile, but it was not working. Especially watching her children split the snack mid-punishment.

The patriarch’s second wife pointed at Elias.

"Look at him! He has no shame at all!"

Elias looked down at himself. He did not appear to find anything wrong so he just shrugged.

The woman continued.

"Our children have been humiliated in front of servants because of some wandering outsider, and instead of being restrained, he is being served tea!"

The patriarch slowly turned toward the servant beside Elias.

"Who brought him the chair?"

The servant stepped forward. The same girl who had reported the scene to them earlier.

"I did, Patriarch."

"And the tea?"

"I did, Patriarch."

"And the pastries?"

"I did, Patriarch." Her voice didn’t waver.

A brief silence passed and he raised a brow.

"Good."

"You flatter me, patriarch."

"You deserve a raise for working diligently."

The masses: "Eeeehhhhh?!"

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