Chapter 15: Important Announcement
“Greetings, Lord Gajeel,” the voiced out in unison while standing up with a bow.
Art found this weird, but he had to do it. It was a sign of respect shown to senior members of the family and this wasn’t just done by the Silvers.
Lord Gajeel didn’t usually meddle in their personal affairs. His job was just to observe, guide and pass on information to them. He let them do anything they pleased as long as it didn’t affect the few rules put on them.
“Hahaha! Come on now, you guys don’t have to get all formal with me. You can have your seats,” he chuckled as they obediently sat down.
He walked towards a large sofa which was positioned in a place where everyone could easily see him.
After sitting down, he glanced at every one of them, coming to a stop when his gaze fell on Art.
He stared at him for some time before smiling slightly.
‘What’s with that,' Art’s eyebrow knitted slightly.
Lord Gajeel focused back on all of them with a serious but slightly excited expression as he began speaking.
“I believe the youngest among you all has turned 16?”
Their eyes drifted to a particular boy whose face turned a little red in embarrassment. He hated being the youngest but what could he do about it?
“Yes,” he nodded slightly.
“Good,” Lord Gajeel continued, drawing all of their attention. “Admissions into academies for this year would soon be open. So you all have to get prepared for the annual trainees' contest.”
According to what he could recall, the annual trainees' contest was an individual competition between the young Silvers from the three family branches which were in training for that year, and their performance would depend on the kind of academy they would be enrolled in.
They competed mostly for the first five places, as those who get it would be taken to the Royal magic academy, and in a place like that, the possible growth of a mage was very outstanding.
The Royal Academy had strict laws implemented. One of them was that the highest amount of people per year to come from a great family was five while other families had a lower number at two.
This was because the academy wanted to accept talents from all kinds of places and not just the 10 great families. Well, that’s what they said.
So only the top five best performers would be taken to the Royal Academy and according to how the rest performed, they too would be taken to other prestigious academies.
Even after listening to this, the looks on their faces still showed that they expected more news, and seeing this Lord Gajeel couldn’t help but chuckle internally as he went on to drop the most important part.
“But before the contest, since all of you are at least 16, it is time for the true weapon ceremony.”
Each one of their eyes brightened as excitement coursed through their veins. Even those like Iris who barely showed any emotions couldn’t help it this time.
The true weapon ceremony was something that also happened annually.
Even with their physical enhancement and weapon mastery, this wasn’t still enough to put them in the ten greatest families.
Just imagine a fireball about the size of a multi storey-building was thrown at a master swordsman. He would have no other choice than to evaporate.
But in this ceremony, they end up getting true weapons which weren’t like normal weapons, having magical abilities of their own, with more powerful ones even possessing self-consciousness.
These weapons were crafted by mana itself in a place called the Cave of Alchemy.
This was one of the most important possessions of the Silvers and remained the only in existence of its kind to date.
Many had tried to battle for this grand possession including some of the great families but they all failed.
Now if anyone was spotted even 100 km away from the cave of Alchemy, it would be considered an act of war. Even the Royal family had only little influence over it.
The Cave of Alchemy got opened only once in a year and this was when the young Silvers in training for that year were brought in to gain their true weapons.
The type of true weapon gained decided a big part of how far they would get in this world, so the true weapon ceremony was one of, if not the most important moment of their lives and they have been preparing for this ever since they were little.
The reason why they waited till they were 16 years old was because a place which produced such weapons won’t be easy to tread on.
Anyone entering would have to be fit mentally, magically, and physically in order to not fall unconscious immediately after entering or a little after.
Also their core needed to be strong enough to wield a weapon like that.
Art sighed internally.
If the former body owner or he two weeks ago attempted to enter such a place, they would faint right at the entrance.
But he was still worried as a decent amount of mana would be needed to resist something like that and right now he barely had any as his core was sealed.
It seems like at the end of the day, he would still fall unconscious at the entrance.
“Lord Gajeel, when would the ceremony take place?” the boy who had sparred with him the other day asked. Art already knew that his name was Charles.
“We would depart the day after tomorrow and the ceremony would happen on the same day. So be of good behavior till then.”
There was a saying that keeping yourself pure and good would increase your chances of getting a better weapon.
Unlike Art who believed this was just made up by the older ones to relieve themselves from some headaches for a few days, the others took this very seriously.
Well, at least he would experience some peace until then.
“With that said, I’ll be leaving you, youngsters, for now. Prepare yourselves until then as I’m sure you all know how important this is.”
They nodded in response with determination as he brought his gaze to Art.
“It’s a good thing you’re recovering. I’m sure your sisters would be glad to hear this. I’ll look forward to what weapons you’ll be getting,” he also looked at Iris, Charles and Frigga before walking away.
‘Why did he say such a thing to that twerp. No! Wait! I’m meant to be of good behaviour. I’ll let him off for now,' Frigga stood up, glanced towards Iris who didn’t seem to even notice his presence and he could see her staring at Art, this time her gaze held complicated thoughts.
Gritting his teeth, he walked away with Chucky and JV following shortly after before others began heading their separate ways. Art who was oblivious to all this also had where he wanted to go.
Since his exp farming had been cut short, he was going to use this time and opportunity to check out the underground training arena.
The former body owner had only gone there several times and that was when he was still motivated.
With his mind made up, he also walked away.
*********************
Inside a room,
Lord Gajeel could be seen standing in front of a window, his hand opened with a circular device about the size of a ping-pong ball having glowing blue lines hovering above it.
“Your Grace, his improvement within the past two weeks is outstanding, even I am surprised and curious, but as per your orders, I haven’t allowed anyone except the children to question him about this.”
“Good,” a calm and cold voice came from the device. It was pretty obvious that whoever this voice belonged to was no one ordinary. “Keep it as confidential as you can. I would be meeting him shortly.”
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Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone