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Tears sprang down Zen\'s cheeks as he nodded his head fervently.

"Y-Yes, Rupert! It\'s me!"

The knights broke into an uproar, as some began cheering loudly, not caring if any nearby beast heard them.

They had finally found their young master. The same boy who went missing weeks ago.

After spending so much time and energy they couldn\'t find any leads on his current whereabouts, but while they all had their various suspicions, they had no concrete leads on his whereabouts.

Who would have thought he would just randomly appear before them completely fine.

Wait… Was he really fine?

\'They didn\'t do anything to him while he was captured right?... More importantly, how did he get back?\'

He turned to Arvell who was watching the entire scene play out with visible disbelief.

\'Was he the reason Zen got back home?\'

Lykos was equally as disbelieved as Arvell.

\'He\'s Zenos Silvercolt? I heard about him in the past but I never saw him in person.\'

Arvell nodded.

\'I was almost certain that Zen was a simple alias, but it\'s just his real name abbreviated,\' Arvell sighed, \'he needs to pick a better name. It\'s too unoriginal.\'

Lykos looked at Arvell with a deadpan expression.

\'Look who\'s talking.\'

Suddenly realized that since he took his original name in its entirety, he was no better off.

It was worse even.

\'He might have given that name in the spur of the moment, like me.\'

Lykos nodded.

\'That might have been the case.\'

Rupert\'s next words interrupted their mental conversation.

"Young master did this young bo- I mean Arvell bring you back home?"

Zen nodded.

"Yes. I was kidnapped by a group of slave traders and taken to Vispia. I assume one of the nobles there was behind this. Arvell here killed the bandits and rescued me."

Rupert\'s eyes went wide.

"Your bodyguards were slaughtered by them… Even if they were weak, they would still have a couple of third circle mages. You\'re telling me this boy rescued you?"

Zen nodded his head again.

"Yes. He managed to poison them and kill them when they were weakened."

Zenos\'s words completely through the entire group into an uproar once more.

"This kid single-handedly took down a bandit squad?"

"He looks no younger than the young master!"

"If he beat them in a beauty pageant I would completely understand, but in a fight? That is mind-blowing!"

The knights murmured to themselves.

Rupert raised his hand, and they immediately fell silent.

This was proof of their discipline and the respect they had for Rupert.

"We can talk more about this after returning to the dukedom. You said some girls were being kidnapped and transported? If you wouldn\'t mind could you please lead us there?"

Knowing he was his young master\'s benefactor, Rupert changed his attitude towards Arvell.

Treating him as a man worthy of respect.

It wasn\'t every day you could find a thirteen-year-old kid who could eradicate an entire bandit group on his own.

Especially one that shortened your workload significantly.

Since they got back their young master, he might be able to finally have that honeymoon his wife had been patiently anticipating.

\'Wait for me, honey! Just a little more work and we can finally get a break!\'

With renewed vigour, Rupert began following Arvell and Zenos\'s lead back to the now-not-so-secret tunnel.

While they were walking, Arvell turned to Zenos who was giving Arvell glances from time to time.

He seemed to be quite guilty of hiding his identity. Especially to the man who saved him on numerous occasions.

Arvell sighed.

"Zen… I mean Zenos, it\'s fine. I don\'t blame you for hiding the truth from me. I would have done the same in your situation. If it were someone else, they might have just kidnapped you and held you as a ransom for money."

"B-but I still kept such a thing secret from you even after you risked your life to save me."

Arvell held back an awkward cough.

Technically he hadn\'t done anything with the intention of sacrificing his own life to save Zenos\'s.

Strictly speaking, he wouldn\'t give up his life just to save someone else\'s. Especially, someone, he met not too long ago.

He still had too many things to do in this life… And too many people to get back at.

There was no way he was going to die before doing all of that.

So sadly there wasn\'t any chance he would risk his life to save Zen.

But that was Arvell\'s secret.

Well… Lykos was in on it as well.

\'HAHAHAHA! You of all people risking your life? I pity this poor kid\'s naivety! But… You should capitalize on this! I\'m going to give you my first lesson on how to manipulate people\'s emotions.\'

\'Here and now? Can\'t we do it later?\'

\'Trust me. You can apply it right now. As they say… Practice makes perfect. Why not practise right now?\'

Arvell nodded at Zen\'s analogy.

Only by practising could one get better.

\'Ok, so what\'s lesson number one?\'

Lykos had a mischievous smile etched on his face.

\'Lesson Number One: Fake it to you make it!\'

\'Fake it to you make it?\'

\'Yes. For example… You can take credit by claiming you risked your life to help Zen. Not only will that make Zen more friendly towards you, but it will also make him indebted to you. More than he already is. Having his debt means having the debt of a duke. Think about it like that.\'

Arvell nodded.

It didn\'t take a genius to realize just how useful gaining Zenos\'s favour was.

If he was able to gain Zenos\'s favour he could also get the favour of the duke of Silvercolt.

If Arvell had the protection of a duke\'s house, his new life in Elantrya would be far easier.

While he didn\'t want to get involved with nobles and mind-numbing politics so soon, he would still have to at some point.

He might as well take the initiative when he already had an advantage.

Rescuing and escorting Zenos, being said advantage.

Arvell took a deep breath and pulled out the most handsome smile he could muster.

"It\'s nothing! For the sake of my friend, I would gladly risk my life."

At this point, he was just upright lying through his teeth.

He felt kind of bad lying to Zen, but if he wanted to learn Lykos\'s techniques he had to become more shameless.

Something like this would soon be nothing to him.

Unfortunately, Arvell\'s natural charm with his current smile was simply too dazzling for those around.

The nearby knights looked at him in awe.

\'Is he an angel?\'

Some of the female knights even started thinking of trying their luck with him.

They might be 6 years older than him… but age was just a number, right?

They would all live much longer than normal due to being mages.

An age difference of 6-10 years was nothing.

Arvell knew he had a face and physique that women would find very attractive, if it wasn\'t for Lykos\'s narcissistic comments, he could also just look at his reflection.

However, he vastly underestimated said the effect would be on women.

Rupert realizing their intentions shot them a glare.

He was a friend of their young master. Harassing him was out of the question.

The girls looked defeated.

If only they had been born a few years younger, they may have had a chance with him.

His appearance, his aloof personality, his manner and that smile… He was like a heaven-send for all women.

The men that courted them throughout their years couldn\'t even hold a candle to a kid who looked no older than thirteen.

Sadly the man himself had no interest in these kinds of things.

He was too preoccupied with his personal agenda, which consisted of only four things:

1. Don\'t die

2. Get stronger

3. Get revenge

4. Spend more time with the people he actually cared about.

Unfortunately, his agenda had no space for flirting with women who were almost a decade older than him.

\'No woman can resist my Charms!\' Lykos boasted.

Arvell noticed their gazes too but decided to ignore them.

\'You do realize that they fell for my charms right?\' Arvell countered.

\'Which you got from me. Therefore they really fell for my charms!\'

\'Yeah, yeah.\'

Arvell was too tired to argue with Lykos right now.

He just needed to gain Zen\'s favour.

Luckily this didn\'t prove too hard as even Zenos was swayed by the combined power of Arvell\'s words and charming smile.

\'He values me that much… He\'s the best friend I could ask for!\'

Zenos put his hand on Arvell\'s shoulder.

"Arvell… Would you like to form a pact of brotherhood with me?"

"Sure thing… Wait wha-"

"Good! From today onwards the two of us are brothers! You can still call me Zen though. It\'s a nickname that my family calls me by."

Arvell was caught off guard by Zen\'s sudden question and responded to it without thinking.

\'Lykos… What did I just do?\'

Lykos who was beaming at this development responded with a smile.

\'You just became Zenos\'s sworn brother.\'

Arvell\'s smile twitched and threatened to break.

\'Fuck.\'

He wanted to get closer to Zenos, by increasing Zenos\'s favourability of him.

But not this close…

He\'d have to stick out his neck for him even more in the future?

Arvell sighed inwardly.

Would he ever get a break?

***

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