Rivers of the Night

Chapter 756: Drunken Talk (1)

"Little Second Miss, the burgeoning beauty and talent of the Chron, Mayahlei, guarded by her elder brothers and support—second in line Orchu Chron, third in line Benedie Chron, and fourth in line, Malicii Chron."

The group of four walked forward, the latter three enveloping the young miss of the Chron that Theron recognized all too well. At the moment, she didn’t look as though she had just had a falling out with her elder brother at all. In fact, whether it was Orchu, Benedie, or Malicii, all of them stood protectively around their sister—until she suddenly lit up and scurried her way over to the Chen’s side.

The Shonagh Clan had already long been present, but Theron made no effort to ingratiate himself with them. There was no need to. On the one hand, it would have been a waste of time because trusting another to help him right now under these circumstances would be quite foolish. And second, even if he did have a soft spot for them—which he didn’t—doing so would have just put them in danger.

No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t worth his time in the slightest. It was far better to sit back and observe.

The fact that no one had come forward or said anything about his shenanigans also went to show what sort of approach the Chron Clan was choosing to take this time.

But what made it particularly odd was the fact that they would allow someone who was effectively a Gold Mancer to have this level of leeway.

Theron didn’t seem to be thinking much about this, though. He laughed to himself and took more sips of wine, a wide grin on his face as he watched the Chron Clan enter. He seemed to find Mayahlei’s show to be quite fascinating and entertaining, even if Chen didn’t even know what to do with himself at this point. Or maybe that only made it even funnier.

He was so distracted by Mayahlei that he didn’t seem to notice when Orchu had stepped forward.

According to tradition, Orchu would naturally be sitting in the seat that Theron was in right now. He was the second eldest after their brother, and he was naturally the best man.

As for the position that Ayame was sitting in, it would normally be taken by someone from Lyla’s side of the family. Though it was a bit untraditional, her mother could have very well taken the seat. But considering how things were going right now, it would almost certainly be someone of the Chron Clan’s choosing who would sit there.

Considering how Mayahlei was acting a bit air-headed, like a little bird in love right now, that seat was almost certainly meant to be hers. Yet, instead of butting heads with Theron and Ayame directly, she chose to do this instead.

This was something Theron would also find interesting... if he was in a mental state to care, that is.

Right at this moment, he was more interested in laughing and chuckling than he was in deducing the ins and outs of what was going on around him.

"I’m feeling a bit hungry. Who made it tradition for the bride and groom to get here first?" Theron asked as a shadow fell over him.

Theron looked up. "Oh, hello. Want some wine?"

Orchu had the same head of silver hair, his eyes a piercing blue. But he had a bit of baby fat on his cheeks that made him look more adorable than he was handsome—something that Theron found himself seeing right through.

It was like he was peering into Orchu’s past with a simple glance into his eyes.

He could see how Orchu tightened his jaw and pressed his lips together in an act of feigned subtlety. He seemed to be doing his best to try and cut and chisel out his appearance, but he was failing miserably.

Well, to be fair to him, right about now he probably was legitimately angry.

Not that it made much of a difference.

"Ah, the abandoned second son complex. Your elder brother is far better than you in every aspect, hm? You were probably born, what? Days or weeks apart at best, so you don’t even really feel like he’s your elder brother at all and you believe you should be on equal footing. Unfortunately for you, the results bear out something completely different.

"Come, come. You know what they say—wine cures all ailments."

Theron tipped the broken wine bottle over another glass and handed it to Orchu without getting up.

Veins popped along Orchu’s jaw, his teeth grinding and clattering away.

"Don’t be like that," Theron said after seeing him not take the glass. "You have to actually take a sip first for things to get better. Though, this wine is a bit strong. Maybe a good sniff might be enough too, hm?"

BANG.

Theron felt his hand nearly fracture on impact as the glass was sent spiraling out of his hand.

He blinked as though slow to react to what had just happened.

Orchu even felt like he had lost his cool as well. He had been quite confident in what was about to happen just moments ago, but the moment Theron started speaking, it was as though something was whispering to his soul, digging out his deepest insecurities and putting them on display for everyone to see.

He didn’t know why, but he felt like not only did Theron mean everything he had just said, but also that he was certain in his assessment. Worse yet, Theron seemed to actually feel bad for him, as though he were an elder who wanted to guide the youth a bit better than he had.

"No need for violence. This is a special occasion. If you want to fight, we should do it for the fun and entertainment—that’s what I’m here for, after all." Theron shook his head as though he was lamenting something. "You know, you still have your whole life ahead of you. There’s no reason to let this one matter define you. Your brother seems to be a bit of a dick as far as I’m concerned. One of these days he’ll do something so bad he can’t make up for it, and then he’ll either fall at the hands of someone far more powerful than him who also couldn’t care less about your Chron Clan, or he’ll fail a Tribulation of the Heart.

"So long as you focus on yourself, when that day comes, you’ll be first in line to inherit the Chron."

Theron’s words were actually quite soothing. Maybe for someone more level-headed and calm, it would have been exactly what they needed to hear.

But to Orchu’s ears, all he could hear was that Theron was saying that unless his brother collapsed on his own, he would never be better than him.

The worst part was that his elder brother wasn’t even the best of their Clan. That was, without a doubt, Ameridia. But because of their ancestral laws, she couldn’t inherit the family.

At the end of the day, if it had been Ameridia, Orchu wouldn’t have had the slightest discontent in his heart. It was the difference between seeing someone within your sights and feeling they were so far away that they were practically a star in the sky.

Ameridia was that star in the sky. But his elder brother... that was someone that Orchu felt he could reach, if only he was given the same time and attention—if only he was given the same opportunities and resources.

The only difference between them in Orchu’s mind was that his elder brother, Alfone, was born just three days earlier than himself.

Just three days.

That was the separation between them all.

And it was something that Orchu couldn’t accept, no matter how many times people tried to convince him that he should.

He couldn’t. He refused to. He would rather die.

Rather than calming down like he should have, Orchu completely lost his cool. Silvery Mana flashed around him and he suddenly slapped out a palm right toward Theron’s head.

Space whined and groaned, compressing and collapsing. It felt as though his hand was moving in slow motion to Theron, but to all of those around him, it looked as though his head had already been compressed and thinned out to the point that nothing was left of it at all.

Reality bent and nearly collapsed in on itself as the rage pent up within Orchu’s body boiled over.

BOOM.

The table exploded and a palm print appeared between Theron’s legs, embedded perfectly into the floor without the slightest leakage of power.

However, Theron himself, who had somewhat drunkenly tipped backward, was perfectly fine. In fact, it was his burp that seemed to let everyone know of this fact.

Theron grumbled, his back having hit the ground.

"It’s not very comfortable down here..." he said as though speaking in his sleep.