The door was shut quickly, and Ryan took a brief look around himself. There were five people in here. The girl that opened the door for him, the hybrid, and three more of their friends. Ryan had seen one of them before. He was in the robotics club, and was even there the day everything went down with Gaia's fragment.

  "What did you say? Ryan Aglecard?" the hybrid asked, and that was answered with a short nod.

  "Yup. You guys are also-"

  "Aren't you blacklisted or something?" one of the other three, the one that was in the robotics club, asked. It seemed after hearing Ryan's full name, he looked into him a bit more. That was before Ryan was told about all of this, so they might not know he isn't blacklisted anymore.

  With a sigh, he shook his head, "Not anymore. My uncle undid that a couple weeks ago."

  Scoffing, four of them laughed. The hybrid was the only one that didn't, "Your uncle? And who's that supposed to be?"

  Slightly confused, Ryan stared at the hybrid, "I... Wait, do you all not know? My uncle is Runar Aglecard. I'm Hayden Aglecard's son."

  The moment he mentioned those two names, everyone in the room beside Ryan himself tensed up, "You're- Holy shit, you're actually from the main family? And not just that... you're direct lineage?"

  "Mhm," Ryan said with a smile on his face, trying to be nice before he explained why exactly he was here, "So-"

  The hybrid interrupted Ryan with a scoff. He had a broad grin on his face, showing off his small tusks, "You're the traitor's son, huh? So what are you here for?"

  Of course, Ryan knew that he was right. His dad was basically a 'traitor', and that's why he was excised from the family, "... First of all, how about some introductions. I told you my name, so tell me yours."

  With a slight sigh, the hybrid nodded, "Sure, whatever," he pointed at the girl with the buzzcut next to him, "Macy Garling," and then pointed at a young man with bright dyed green hair, "Her twin brother, James Garling."

  Ryan nodded at each of them, looking over at the elf in the corner, "I already know Mark, from the robotics club."

  "Mhm. Then right next to him is Jasmin Stier. And I'm Kim Aglecard," the hybrid said, and Ryan looked at him, a little taken aback. This was Kim? That was the name that Harrier had told him, but somehow, Ryan didn't expect this to be him. And it was clear that Kim himself noticed that.

  He sighed, "What, confused why I look how I look? Did you think that there were only humans in the main family? My father was adopted by your great-grandfather. Basically, I'm Runar's cousin."

  "... Seriously?" Ryan's smile immediately dropped. The air in the room changed quickly.

  "Hold on, are you serious? You're upset that you have someone that's not a human share your precious last-" Macy glared at Ryan, clearly angry, but she flinched back when she saw the expression that Ryan was giving off.

  "Why would I give a shit about something like that? What I am upset about is that someone in his position would act as he does," Ryan said, locking eyes with Kim, "What the fuck is wrong with you? You're going around, abusing your position instead of doing something helpful with your time?"

  Kim stared down at Ryan, "And what would you know? You've been a part of the family for a couple weeks, and you already think you're an expert? Do you even know about what we do in the family? Have you even met one of the hidden folk?"

  Even more confused, Ryan nodded his head, "Of course I have. I hang out with them all the time. I literally spent all of Spirit Week trying to liven up one of the havens."

  "Oh, really?" James laughed out from his seat, "Then tell us one thing about them that you-"

  "Sprites like to play pranks, but the best way to get them away from you is by giving them something to play around with and copy, so I usually carry some small figurines with me to distract them. Dryads are similar, but they more do it because they're bored. From what I can tell, they really like music, so I brought them a speaker and an MP3 player and they warmed up to me afterward. Geodes are still a little tough for me, but I'm trying to learn their language, but you know, looking at their light pulses for too long kind of hurts my eyes. Vampires are-"

  "Okay, fine, we get it," Kim interrupted Ryan with a sigh. It was clear that none of them expected Ryan to actually be able to tell them anything about this, "But still, what are you talking about, 'abusing my position'? I'm not doing anything like that."

  "Harry told me that you guys are using the fact you're part of the family to get special treatment, and are holding the support of the 'hidden' students attending the school over his head."

  With a long groan, Kim shook his head, "That's not technically what happened. We just... you know, suggested that it's in Harrier's own interest to... make sure we're happy and relaxed, so we can take proper care of those students. You get it, right? If you're worried about failing or stressed about extracurriculars, you just don't have the time for... other things."

  Kim placed a hand onto Ryan's shoulder, putting some pressure onto him. He was... strong. And of course, considering his height and stature, Ryan expected him to be strong, but it was more than just that. This was an effect of the strength stat. But... it didn't seem like it was particularly high just yet. He spent enough time with Yanna and some of the other guys at the university's gym to know what it felt like when someone had high strength.

  This wasn't an innate stat, it was one that was awakened later on. Kim wasn't a physical awakened. Ryan glanced around the room. One of the two empty seats had books in front of it. Some sort of chemistry stuff, but it didn't look like a book that the university used as teaching material. Kim also had a slight medicinal smell to him. It was similar to the room that Rose made everything for the animals in the haven in. Kim was an expertise class. He was trying to act strong, but clearly he wasn't a fighter.

  With a sigh, Ryan swatted Kim's hand away, "Get off your high horse. Why would you do any of that? You're part of the Aglecard family. You're set no matter how you do in school, so just-"

  Before Ryan could finish speaking, the others in the room started to laugh. It was a mixture of finding genuine humour in what Ryan was saying and absolute disbelief that someone would say something so ridiculous.

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  Kim stared at Ryan, "Do you seriously think that? That we're 'set no matter how we do'? I guess you really have only been a part of the family for a few weeks. Do you have any idea what life in this family is like?"

  Ryan didn't answer. Because of course he didn't. He had no answer to that question. He knew that things weren't as easy as they were for him, of course. He was the Spirit Keeper; he would be fine no matter what. Rather, he didn't have to do anything at all, and the Aglecard family would finance his entire life, most likely. Maybe that was also why they supported Modak and Silvia as much as they did... or it could also just be the type of person that Runar was and how he liked to do things.

  "I guess you don't. Listen, I guess your uncle is protecting you or something, but life in our family is fucking hell, alright? If we don't do well enough, if we're not good enough, we're out. Either, we're thrown out of the family altogether, or we're put into some dead-end position that we can't escape from for the rest of our lives, unless we choose to leave the family on our own. And you know what it means to leave the family," Kim seemed to grow more upset as he spoke. He was very clearly getting angry at what Ryan had just said. At the fact that Ryan acted like everyone would have the same experience that he did.

  "... Okay, fine. I'm very privileged to be in the position I'm in, I get it. But even so, why are you taking it out on the fucking 'hidden' students. Don't they already have it hard enough?"

  "Hard enough? Those guys are getting handouts from the family. They get apartments sponsored, their tuition is fully paid, they even get job referrals, and what do we get? Jack shit," with a scoff, Kim crossed his arms, "And all they have to do is lie a little bit. It's unfair."

  Ryan frowned, "Lie a little- dude, what the hell are you talking about? Vampires can't eat normally, succubi have to be scared to get assaulted wherever they go. Pixies are sold like fucking pets. Do you even know what their lives are like?"

  "Okay, don't fucking talk like that. Sure, you might have met them, but what do you even know? Sheltered little prince," Kim laughed, and so did the others. The hybrid quickly rolled up his sleeve, revealing a scar covering his forearm, "Want to know what this is? I got it from a psycho pyromancer while I was trying to defend one of those vampires during my training after I awakened."

  "So? Looks like it healed well," Ryan pointed out. Sure, getting burned hurts like hell, but he didn't understand why that was a reason to hate vampires.

  Mark, the one from the robotics club, sighed, "Kim, just don't bother with him. He just likes playing with toys, he doesn't understand what a real fight is like."

  This time, it was Ryan's turn to laugh, "Dude, seriously? How far are you guys stuck up your own ass. Especially you, Mark, I know that everyone in the robotics club was scared of me because of the stories about me."

  "Stories can be exaggerated. I doubt you got into anything more than a little kerfuffle every once in a while," Mark sighed. Ryan raised a brow. With how often he was walking around with his scars visible these days, he totally forgot that people at university hadn't seen them yet. His left arm was revealed, but that was just because Ryan didn't want Tiar to get too hot under his clothes. His right arm was still covered by a sleeve.

  Rolling his eyes, Ryan dropped his bag and his helmet, and quickly grabbed the bottom of his shirt. While everyone in the room was confused about what he was doing, Ryan pulled his shirt off, particularly showing his back, "I know what getting burned feels like, man. Got these when I was a kid. After my dad died, my mom was trying to provide for us as much as she could, and ended up with a freak that thought it was fine to throw kids onto hot coals. Meanwhile, my uncle just let it all happen until it was too late," he explained, pulling his shirt back down, only leaving it pulled up enough to show the scars of the bullet-wound he got a few weeks ago, "This one? I got shot by some psychos working for the White Shadow Society. So you don't get to fucking tell me that I don't know what it's like to be hurt, or that I don't know what's at stake, or that I'm not a real part of the family."

  The room was silent as Ryan fixed up his clothes again, "Again, I get it. I hate parts of the family as well, but what the fuck does that have to do with people who have to be scared for their lives with people like the Shadows running around?"

  Kim was silent for a few moments, unsure about what to say. Instead of him, Macy said something, "Well, again, what'd you want us to do? Kim is gonna be fine, but we don't have any hope of awakening or anything. Mark got the robotics stuff going for him-"

  "Thanks again for ruining that, by the way," Mark groaned, and Macy continued.

  "... right, and even then, when people go around fucking with everything, there's no real hope of us standing out. We have to be exemplary to get anywhere in the family. So what if we use some tricks to get to where we need to be? Who are you to tell us that we're wrong, running around with a fucking symbiote on your arm. Sure, you got hurt a bit, but so what? Doesn't mean you should get to live out the rest of our life lazing around while the rest of us have to work our asses off to get anywhere in life."

  Ryan stared at Macy. What the hell were they talking about? Lazing around? Ryan never even thought about lazing around, what the hell were they talking about? He was literally losing so much sleep because of how much he studied up on the hidden folk and spirits and the Aglecard family in general, not to mention how much training he did to get to level 10 and awaken some physical stats.

  "Alright. Tell me, what do you want to do for the family?" Ryan asked, locking eyes with Macy.

  "Huh?"

  "You say you're working your ass off, so I doubt you're not aiming for anything in particular. So, what are your plans? What division do you want to get into? What have you been doing to make that happen?" Ryan asked, glancing around the room. The only one that was really studying up on anything was Kim, the others were just here to relax and have fun.

  But before Macy, or any of the others, could say anything, Kim stood back up from his seat, "Get the fuck out."

  "Not until you promise to stop using your position to get what you want."

  "Fuck no, we'll do what we can to get ahead. Again, just get out before I make you," Kim said. He pushed his hand under his jacket, and Ryan could hear the slight ringing of glass hitting glass.

  "Try your worst," Ryan replied. Maybe his increased sociability made it easier for him to act as though he wasn't, but frankly, Ryan was pissed off. So, so pissed off. He was just itching for a fight.

  Kim pulled a small bottle out from under his jacket, pouring out the contents toward Ryan with a quick motion. Ryan had no idea what it was, but it was green and opaque, almost sludge-like. He covered his face with his right hand, pulling Tiar away from whatever was thrown at the two of them. The green liquid hit Ryan, and immediately, a heat started emanating from it. Not a painful heat; just warmth that showed that something was happening.

  Before he could react, the liquid that stuck to him like glue started bubbling and foaming, growing in size and enveloping Ryan's whole arm. But it didn't stop there, growing to cover the entire right side of his body. Even when Ryan tried to get rid of it, it was so sticky that he had no hope at all. When it finally stopped growing, the sludge began to harden rapidly, locking Ryan in.

  "... Huh," Ryan let out, while the others in the room were chuckling.

  "Seriously, Kim, that one? Isn't that a bit unfair?" James laughed, but the hybrid shrugged with a grin.

  "He had it coming. Come on, guys, classes are starting soon. Let's check up on our little friend... at the end of the day?"

  Ryan looked at the hardened foam, grinning lightly, "You're an alchemist?"

  Kim looked at Ryan, taken aback, "Yeah, so?"

  "You made a big mistake."

  "Yeah, yeah, you're gonna beat me up when you get out if this? Sure, just try," Kim sighed, getting his books together while everyone was getting up from their seats. But really, Ryan didn't even have to try. Gaia quickly stepped out of her domain, her size doubled. With just a few quick motions, she swiped the hardened foam away to the point that Ryan was able to move again, while the five 'Aglecard Brats' stood there, stunned at what just happened.

  The four beside Kim tried to block the way around the table in the centre of the room, but Ryan just jumped onto the table. The startled Kim pushed his back against the wall, trying to grab another bottle from his jacket, but Ryan just squatted at the table, staring at Kim with a broad grin. He grabbed the Horn of Shapeless water, making it turn into an icy baseball bat that he held toward Kim's face, making him freeze up.

  "First, I'm going to make sure we all know where we stand. And then... I've got a small proposal for you."