Chapter 69: Just?
"Woah! Where did you get that?"
"That's the genuine deal, right?"
In the middle of the mansion was a man with long golden hair down to his shoulders. He was standing on the table in the living room so that everyone could see what he was holding.
Everyone watched as he brandished a black short sword with intricate designs of dragons carved onto the very blade itself. Even from afar, everyone could see the quality and value of this weapon. It must have been created by a maestro of the smith, with hands that could turn coal into diamonds.
But this wasn't the only treasure that the young master had. His whole battle suit was clad in different armor and accessories that others would have considered excessive. Even his ears were protected by custom-made earrings.
Atlan, with his enhanced eyesight, saw a familiar mark of a hammer on the hilt of the short sword.
It was the mark of the Masamune family.
"Of course, this is real. Who do you think I am? Don't you know who threw this party?"
The young master then turned and looked Atlan in the eyes. Both of them made eye contact.
This wasn't a coincidence. The young master focused his gaze on Atlan, who was on the outskirts of the crowd gathering around him. He could have noticed somebody else, but he didn't.
"Hey you!" he gestured at Atlan. "Do you think just anybody can have this? This is a 2nd removed Masamune Original!"
"I wish I had that!"
"I heard that there's a 500-year waitlist to get a weapon like that."
Everyone was awed when they heard that. A 5th removed Masamune Original was already considered quite a treasure. But the young master had a 2nd removed Masamune Original! This meant that the blacksmith who forged that weapon was a dwarf who was related to the main Masamune family by only two degrees!
The further removed a dwarf was from the main family, the more diluted their skills were. Being only two degrees away from the main family meant that the famous Masamune blacksmith skills were preserved.
The young master must have had a good connection with the Masamune family to be able to request a custom-made weapon from a 2nd-degree Masamune dwarf.
Atlan tilted his head. Do I know him?
He didn't know why the blond-haired guy was targeting him when they didn't even know each other. He was starting to think he was really bad at first impressions. First Yasmine bolted away from him, and now he was being targeted by some guy he didn't even talk to.
In truth, the young master saw Yasmine come out of the balcony with Atlan. He even saw that the two of them were bonding and flirting away with each other for a few minutes. This was infuriating for the young master.
He tried to court Yasmine, the most beautiful girl by far, but she only ended up ignoring him. When he tried to talk to her, she would only answer with one-line responses and a face full of indifference.
He accepted that she simply didn't want to be bothered. That would have been fine. However, imagine his surprise when she suddenly saw him talking and laughing with an unknown guy at his party!
Why did she choose a random, run-of-the-mill, second-rate guy instead of a genius young master like him? He was born into a good family that could give her all the benefits that she'd need to nurture her talents, yet she instead chose to spend her time with a nobody.
It didn't make sense.
"Who are you even? Why are you at this party?" asked the Young Master.
Atlan pointed at himself. "Me? I'm a porter."
The young master snickered. "You're just a porter?" He shook his head. "Ugh. What are those guards doing? Why did they let a mere Porter into this place? I told them not to let just anybody in.
This was supposed to be an exclusive party for geniuses and stars like me, not some insignificant ant like you."
He looked at everybody and saw that they were all looking at Atlan. "What do you think, everyone? He's bringing down the party, right? I think we should throw–"
Before he could finish his sentence, some of the people erupted towards Atlan.
"Oh my god! You're that porter?"
"Dude! I thought they were all just kidding about you. But you're real?!"
"You were so brave and heroic! Weren't you afraid about that Sapient Canzer hunting you down?"
Everyone started to crowd Atlan. The Young Master was stupefied to see that everyone turned away from him and now crowded Atlan like he was the star of the party.
Almost everybody at the party heard the stories about the new heroic porter. And those that didn't know, were quickly thrown into the loop.
When they heard about this story, they were all horrified to learn that the beginner mission had multiple Deiztruphia Canzers and even a dangerous Sapient Canzer. The difficulty jumped from a 1st stage to a 3rd stage student difficulty.
If they were in the same position, they didn't know what they would have done. They definitely wouldn't have returned to the Remedium to save their teammates. The fact that Atlan was only a Porter with no fighting ability made this story even more impressive.
"Why did you go back to save them?"
Atlan was overwhelmed with everyone's eyes on him, but they were all anticipating his answer. So, he just told the truth.
"I didn't want my team to suffer."
Everyone was silent for a moment to take it all in.
"Woah…"
"You're so brave. Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Hey! You think that he's going to go for you? I saw him first!"
The Young Master couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everybody was throwing themselves to that nobody, to that Porter.
He didn't know why everyone seemed to think that the guy was so impressive. He was only a porter! He didn't kill any Canzers and was only a burden to the rest of the team.
"I don't see why he's so impressive," the Young Master clicked his tongue.
One of the guys looked back at him and answered. "He's also a genius, you know. He advanced to the 2nd stage Student after that one mission! They said that it had only been a week since he was drafted!"
The Young Master's jaws dropped.