The young disciple in front of him didn't move even after being slapped in the face, but, just as one would expect from a teenager with his pride injured, he had a furious expression yet also a trail of silent tears flowing from his eyes, the only thing holding his sobs back was pride.

“You are prideful.” The First Elder spoke in a melancholic voice as he shook his head, seemingly trying to dispel the ghosts of distant memories.”Being prideful is a luxury reserved for the fated… and you aren’t this world’s protagonist, there’s always someone better than you.”

Taking one step closer to the youth he spoke in a voice that demanded respect. “That’s your first lesson.”

…

Aegon found himself once again wandering aimlessly through the winding paths.

One hand rested on his cheek, covering the red handprint that was now starting to fade from his visage. The other was busy balancing the blade, he was doing it without much difficulty, it only wobbled a bit given that he was walking and not standing still.

“Prideful? How can I be prideful in a Martial House packed full of narcissists?…the one who lectured me one of them…” He mumbled softly under his breath.

He went through those scenes in his memory a few times by now and it was frustrating him to no end.

Thinking back on his illusions of grandeur about placing an Elder in his place and his attitude as he waltzed his way through the bar he wished he could bury himself and stay there.

“Sigh”

“Tsk…I was prideful.” He shook his head, trying to shake the uncomfortable feeling arising from deep in his being and looked at Kuro, searching for validation.

The wolf in question merely glanced at his owner with no particular expression before proceeding to ignore him.

With another, more emotional, shake of his head to attenuate the heartbreak caused by this betrayal he kept marching forward while balancing the sword on his finger tip, still thinking about the incident yet now leaving the slap behind and paying more attention to the latter part of his conversation with the First Elder.

...

The First Elder bypassed the stunned youth and made his way towards the stairway, looking back at the youth with a troubled expression.

His face twisted, his eyebrows jumped, his lip twitched, all in silence, not a single word left his mouth as he looked back at the back of that youth.

With a sigh of defeat he finally spoke.

“Kid, what I showed you, from now on do it all the time, everywhere with everyone but only with one hand at a time. I'm going to repeat myself, with one hand until you can maintain perfect balance even while moving. Only once you reach that point can you start trying with both hands….Stay humble.”

And with those parting words the middle aged man left the prideful youth alone and disappeared into the stairway, immersed in his own thoughts.

“I gave in to my own pride…” He mumbled to himself as he made his way down the stairs.

…

Meanwhile, Roy was lazing around during the Basis of Cultivation Class, looking at Richard with his unreadable expression which to other people looked like he was paying attention, but he really wasn't, the mentor was explaining the intricacies of some of the meditation techniques students were struggling with but his technique had not been brought up and he hadn't found any problems during his own cultivation so he had no reason to ask himself.

His gaze wandered around the room, recognizing a few faces here and there, like the famous, always smiling Harris, the girl who he knew was Aegon’s partner, and well, not much more, he knew their faces but not their names.

Thinking further on it, he realised he really only had one friend in his class and only talked to two others, one of them he only talked to once and the other was one of the main reasons he got humiliated.

[My social status is pretty shit.]

Right then he felt a tap on his shoulder and an all too familiar figure slowly bent his knees to sit down on a chair while balancing a sword on his fingertips, the class was fully focused on the two and the curious scene unfolding in stunned silence.

While Roy looked around and pondered about his frankly lacking social achievements, a consequence of his lack of social skills, Aegon had finally found his way into the amphitheatre and walked in mid class with a sword on top of his finger, a hand hiding half his face which had clearly been beaten and the all too familiar wolf wagging his tail behind his owner.

Richard saw this scene from start to finish with a frown born from recognition.

[It's too late now, he’s too far gone.] He had seen this scene before, well, except the beaten face, that was new.

[Nah, it wasn't that old cot, he never hit a student, especially not his protégé.]

He wondered if he should reprimand him for derailing his class and for being late, or for not giving any reason for his tardiness or even for just ‘playing around’ with weapons during class.

The reasons weren’t few.

But thinking about the headache he would get once the kid ran back to that devil and started complaining he couldn't help but instinctively massage his forehead.

[There is no reasoning with the unreasonable.]

So in the end he chose to stay quiet and just proceeded with the class.

“So…where was I?... Ah yes, explaining that to guide water energy through one’s body it's better if the body is submerged in water, it’s a…” The mentor’s voice trailed off in Aegon’s ears once he heard it was about water energy.

“What are you doing?” Looking to the side, Roy was still looking at his finger balancing the sword with a curious expression.

“I'm balancing the sword on my fingertip of course.”

Roy’s reply was succinct. “Cut the crap, for what?”

Aegon smiled and felt that telling his friend wasn’t bad so he told him the story. From losing himself and ending up at the Battle Tower to then challenging it once again, describing the experience with an ambiguous “marginal improvement”, to how after he left he talked and was mostly rebuked by the First Elder and how in the end he had told him to do this.

“He didn't tell me why but I doubt he would say something that would be bad for me so I’m trying it out.”

His friend was now scratching his chin in deep thought, a few moments later he seemed to have made a decision and pulled his own sword from its scabbard, starting to balance it on his own finger.

Richard, who had noticed the change, couldn't hold back the twitch of his eyelid such was the annoyance, but he continued explaining, pretending he hadn't seen anything.