There was a one downside to having intelligence. It made you believe your decisions were right. Even if they weren’t. I made mistakes all the time, and not everything I did was centred around a single endpoint.

William didn’t have that issue.

[Wisdom] made sure of that. I’d asked my dad what the wisdom stat did. It filled the gaps that intelligence avoided. First and foremost was granting an enhanced sense of good reasoning.

William had made a lot of decisions leading to this party. Prematurely forcing his body to grow, inviting Gerial and the headmaster to his birthday, and challenging me to a duel. I didn’t know how, but each one was the optimal choice for his final goal.

I thought over his statement.

“Not all situations end with a winner and a loser.” I spoke. “You want to display both of our talents to the headmaster.”

William smiled. “I knew you would understand.”

Master Wilhelm’s warning about overshadowing his son flashed in my mind. This was William’s birthday and many of the guests were important people. Defeating him in a fight would only lead to humiliation and insult the one faction I had a good relationship with.

“This sounds like a lose-lose deal for me.” My arms crossed. “Let’s give it some more thought first, I heard there’s crabcakes.”

“Wise.” William nodded. “Allow me to provide a tour. For the both of you.”

There was a tug on my shoulder, and I nodded. “That sounds good.”

I’d been distracted by the young boy in a robot suit, but the room was stunning. Lines of gold and red swirled in patterns on the floor. Stone statues of immaculate design depicted several battles that Master Wilhelm had participated in.

As we walked past the statues, and up a flight of stairs, I noticed Gerial’s footsteps disappearing.

Had he stopped?

“Why do you call Gerial, ‘Marked one’?” I frowned. “It’s a bit cold, isn’t it? I know you guys don’t know each other, but it’s your birthday.”

To my surprise William vehemently shook his head.

“What else would you call a living divine?” William peered at the surroundings. “You should avoid letting others hear you use his name. Even for future talents such as us he is above our station.”

Living divine.

I’d done some research over the year that didn’t involve training. My main focus was the divines and the Marked ones. The divines had surprisingly little information on them. Nobody knew what they looked like or could quote a direct source on their existence.

They had come to most in dreams and provided aid to those in need. That was the mantra of the churches.

The Marked ones were different. They were living proof that the divines were real. To some people they were the divines themselves. A divine given human form, or a person that was destined to host a divine, depending on who you asked.

It sounded like a painful destiny to me.

I didn’t know that William, the embodiment of wisdom, was a subscriber to those beliefs. Or maybe he was just being pragmatic. If it turned out to be true, then it was smarter to be on the divine's good side.

“I’m surprised you two are acquainted.” William led us into a new room. “It was my understanding that Marked ones are almost impossible to meet outside of their churches or the academies.”

I paused as I saw the room housed a single bed, and swords, lots and lots of swords.

“This must be your room.” I breezed past him and examined the collection of weaponry.

Scimitars, katanas, daggers and even an axe. This was the kind of stuff I’d expected to see in this world. Knight’s swords were all uniform and boring. Examine five hundred of them and you’ve got an idea of what they should look like.

Scimitars? That’s a whole different ball game.

“Also, Gerial and I met by accident. I was reading and he was talking to me during my relaxation time. Classic mismatch. He’s a nonstop chatterbox.”

I heard a grunt of indignation from my side.

“If he wants to dispute my version of events then he would definitely do it out loud and in an elegant fashion.” I called out in his direction.

I received a shove for my troubles.

“Being an intermediary between you two is tough.” I looked at William. “You should be paying me a gold coin for every sentence.”

William looked at the empty air and then back at me. “Gladly.”

I turned around and found myself looking at a stone-faced William.

“Really?” I spoke. “A gold coin for each sentence? William, my good man-baby, I think you need to learn the value of money.”

William smirked. “I know the value of money. I believe you need to learn the value of a relationship with a Marked one. There are people up there in the main hall that would spend a mountain of gold and sacrifice their first-born for a chance at friendship with him.”

“You’re never going to be friends with Gerial like that.” I dismissed his words immediately. “You can’t even say his name. And you’re talking about him like he’s not even here.”

I flung my hand into the air and felt it press against his cheek. “There he is.”

I poked it again. “See, right there. Flesh and blood. Probably.”

“Okay, okay, I’m here.” Gerial’s laughter filled the room. “Stop doing that.”

I pulled back and gestured at William. He put down the bright blue rectangle he’d been carrying and took a step towards us.

“It’s hard making friends with someone I can’t see.” He hesitated.

“Gerial, we’re in a safe space.” I looked at his blurry outline with mana sense. “But if you’re not comfortable then you don’t have to do anything.”

“No, it’s fine.” There was a shift in the air and Gerial was there.

There was no transition between not existing and existing. My eyes could see it happening, but my brain got a headache from the images they provided.

“Hello. I’m Gerial. Eight years old.” Gerial held his hand out. “Please know that any association with me is not going to give you powers and my body parts are not edible concoctions, despite what rumours might say.”

“He really has a way with words.” My tone was dry.

William looked at Gerial’s hand like it was a snake with wings. Slowly, he moved his own hand out to shake it. Then he kept shaking. And kept shaking.

“You’re doing that way too long.” I remarked.

William pulled his hand away and a blush came over his face. “I don’t know, it’s super weird. This is the second friend I’ve made that’s even vaguely around my level.”

His pompous wording had disappeared. I didn’t realise it was something he did consciously.

“Level this, talent that.” I shook my head. “A friend is a friend. There’s no need for so much formality.”

“You sound like my dad.” “My dad says the same.”

Gerial and William spoke at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed. I stepped back and gave them time to become adjusted to each other.

Neither of them was good at small talk. Being isolated as a living divine and child genius respectively didn’t lead to good social skills.

Who would have guessed?

A bump jolted us out of our conversation. It sounded like a table had been flipped over upstairs.

“That’d be the first person to challenge my dad.” William smiled. “Want to go watch the show? There’s going to be a line of people wanting to be a part of the action.”

I stared up at the ceiling, an intricate mosaic in the shape of a pair of wings and frowned as another bump resounded through the room.

“People are challenging him at his own home. Isn’t that a bit insulting?”

“Nonsense. It’s tradition. All his best friends do it at least once every party.” William smiled. “They wouldn’t be his best friends otherwise.”

I looked at Gerial and he shrugged. It seemed he was used to this kind of thing.

“Okay. Let’s go.” William picked up his onze. “You’d want to catch up with your cousins anyway.”

My what?

William was out the door before I could stop him. Hey. No. I chased after him and saw Gerial’s body disappear mid-step.

“Thanks.” He whispered.

“No problem. I’m interested in that mountain of gold thing he said. Let me know if you want to make some serious cas- ow.” He’d poked me in my ribs.

That was a sensitive spot after the way I’d died.

“It’s fine, you’re invisible. I’ll just tell them your voice is invisible too. Then you don’t even have to be there.”

I heard a chuckle in response. We quickly caught up to William and made our way up another flight of stairs.

“How are you carrying that thing?” The blue rectangle looked like it weighed a lot.

“High strength. That’s how we grew, no? You should test your own sometime.” William patted the onze affectionately. “My birthday present from my dad. My old one was too small for my new body.”

“Those are some crazy things you’re saying there, buddy.” I shook my head. “So, about these cousins you mentione-”

The ground around us shook, and a bright light cascaded around us. Something had exploded.

The doors above us flung open and the sight of a man flying over the stairwell killed our conversation. I stared as a person in full knight's garb fell towards the ground.

Then I reacted.

I gestured with my hand and a geyser of dirt erupted out of my suit pocket and towards the man. It enveloped his body, and I brought him down gently, making sure to avoid covering his mouth and nose.

The ball of dirt touched the ground and I released its hold on the knight.

“Thank you for the save, young man. We got a little too enthusiastic up there.” The knight lifted his helmet up to reveal a grinning old man.

“I didn’t save you.” I frowned.

Something blocked my dirt from touching the man. It was an air bubble. It had inserted itself around the knight before I’d reacted.

“Nonetheless, I must get back into the fray.” The knight stood up, brushed himself off and bounded up the stairs.

I watched him leave with wide eyes. William looked like it was another average day.

“Where did all that dirt come from?” Gerial’s voice asked from beside me.

I waved my hand in the air and the dirt flew back into my suit pocket. The man-sized pile disappeared in an instant.

“An inventory. I was told it was smart to carry some earth around me at all times.” I took my box out of my pocket.

Jackson and the others had made sure the suit was designed so that the bulge of the box wouldn’t be noticeable. Then they showed me how to release the contents. It was a lot more organised inside the inventory than I thought it’d be.

“Wise.” William nodded. “Do not worry too much. These old fogies can take more than a little damage. Most of them are veterans.”

Veterans?

What wars had they fought in? I don’t know if I wanted to know the answer.

“Think of it as an example of what we’ll be doing.”

I frowned. He still intended to fight me?

William strode through the open doors. “Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the finery our chefs have to offer.”

His fancy accent was back. He rushed forward and I got a glimpse of a room full of people in robes and suits. Tables of food were laid out and there was a viewing area that ran across the next floor up and allowed people to look at the proceedings below.

I walked through the doors and stopped as Gerial’s hand clamped down around my arm.

His voice whispered into my ear.

“You need to lose this match.”