Path to Transcendence

She cut him off, "Not you Julius." She turned to give Amelia a fierce look. "I\'m talking to you."

"Me?" Amelia asked in disbelief while pointing at herself.

"Yes, you," Lily said firmly.

"What did I do?" She asked.

"You don\'t think we didn\'t sense what you were doing with your aura to Julius?" Lily said angrily. Her eyes were glowing dangerously violet and Julius could feel the genuine anger in her aura.

Julius observed a flash of regret pass over Amelia\'s eyes, but it was gone just as quickly. "I did what someone of my status would do to another Tier 2 who would act in such a disrespectful manner," Amelia defended herself.

What? I have barely said two words to you the entire dinner, Julius thought to himself not believing the words coming out of Amelia\'s mouth.

"Disrespectful to whom? You? Because the only one who has a problem with him is you," Lily pointed out.

Yeah, you tell her Lily! He cheered silently.

"No, to Grace as well," Amelia shot back.

Lily chuckled at that. "No, she hasn\'t taken offense a single time. You are the one who got offended on her behalf. Then used that as a reason to try and push Julius around."

"I did not. The boy has been acting like some high-tiered arrogant noble to even important people like you guys the entire time."

Lily paused at that. "So you do know exactly who we are then?"

"Of course I do," Amelia said with a scoff. "How could I not know who you guys are?"

Julius watched as Lily shook her head in disbelief. "If you know who we are, then what gives you the impression that you can decide how our friend speaks to us? You think people of our standing would allow someone to speak to us like that?"

Amelia pressed her lips together and stately calmly, "He doesn\'t act as one of his Tier should act. He treats you guys like-"

"-Like we\'re equals," Lily finished for her. "He treats us like friends would. He doesn\'t bow at our feet or bathes our toes with his tongue like the other disgraceful Houses do. Is that what bothers you so much? That a first-year like him can be friends with people like us?"

"There are traditions and rules of how someone of his status should speak to someone like us," Amelia argued.

"Traditions and rules," Lily scoffed. "What a load of crap."

"It\'s not crap," Amelia shook her head. "It\'s how society stays together and how the power gap between individuals stays balanced."

Lily shook her head. "It\'s how people with power stay in power. That\'s why the so-called traditions are in place. Do you really think nobles want people to show respect for one another because someone is a single tier higher than them? No, it\'s for the rich and powerful to feel good about bossing people beneath them around like they\'re slaves."

Amelia bit her lip before replying. "You\'re the granddaughter of Count Violet, doesn\'t that mean it applies to you as well?" She argued.

"That\'s exactly how I know it happens. All children born from powerful families know how people outside of their family treat them. How even the people from their own House treat them," Lily said softly.

"They treat them with respect. That is how peace is maintained."

Lily gave a mocking laugh. "No, people treat people like us with fear, not respect. It just comes off as respect because if they don\'t then they and their families will be killed and nothing will be done about it."

Amelia didn\'t say anything to argue that point. She just stood there silently fuming. "That doesn\'t change the fact that Julius has been acting disrespectful all night to Grace," Amelia finally said.

Lily had a face of disgust on her face. "You keep on saying that he has been disrespectful this and disrespectful that. Nobody except you thinks that way."

"He speaks to her with too much familiarity and casualness for someone of his status," Amelia told her while looking at Julius who was still observing silently from the side.

"Oh? Grace is the same Tier as him, which by your reasoning means that it shouldn\'t be a problem for him to talk to her in such a manner. Not that she minds by the way," Lily said sarcastically.

"He ignored her."

"So he ignored someone? And for that reason, you want to press your aura down on him like he is some monster? You know what I think? I think you have a personal problem with him, but you are using Grace as an excuse to go after him."

Julius saw Amelia finally take the time to turn and look over at Grace. Grace had her mouth and eyes wide open in shock. It was as if she couldn\'t believe that her friend would behave in such a manner.

He smiled at the look of shame that started to bloom on Amelia\'s face as she began to realize how her actions might look to onlookers.

"He provoked me. You all saw it yourselves," Amelia argued weakly, even to his ears.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"No, we saw him provoking you after you were rude to him the entire night. Don\'t think we haven\'t been noticing."

Julius saw all of his friends nod in agreement and stare at Amelia with very unfriendly gazes. He felt touched, there was a part of him that loved the fact that they had noticed her jabs as well and had his back.

He had calmed down a lot by now. Seeing the house that killed Lukas and Edwin a few feet away from him had shaken him, but he managed to get back a semblance of control.

He also belatedly realized that he could have handled that whole situation better. If he hadn\'t had to deal with that surprise with the Greyson douchebags, he wouldn\'t have lost his cool as easily. He had to be better in the future. He wouldn\'t always have Lily there to cool him down.

That being said, he still didn\'t like the rude woman. At least Grace had been nothing but nice. However, Amelia had contributed nothing to their night. And to top it off, she had even tried to oppress him with her aura in a humiliating way.

She tried to strangle him with her aura. The only reason why Julius wasn\'t being pressed into the cold stone bricks below them was that he had several advantages.

For one, he had a much stronger soul than someone of his Tier should have. His recent reward for his soul evolution was proof of that. Another reason was that [Empowerment of Will] was a very good aura skill that didn\'t just work well at empowering his skills, but it was an amplifier for his aura abilities.

The skill made it easier to manipulate his aura and gave it a sturdiness that he didn\'t think many other Tier 2s would have.

However, the thing that did surprise him was how effective his Concept had been at thwarting Amelia\'s attempts. The Concept of Severing Will had been able to sever the girl\'s aura like it was nothing but paper in the wind.

He barely had to do anything either. His recent practice with using his Concept without the use of [Barrier of Severance] had really come in handy here. It was almost like it was instinct, one moment he was being attacked by a Tier 3 aura and the next he was infusing his aura with his Concept like it was another Thursday for him.

He even got a level out of it.

[Empowerment of Will lvl 14 -> lvl 15]

He almost wanted to thank the woman if he didn\'t still have the slight urge to punch her in the face.

He got a little distracted and lost focus on what the two girls were talking about.

"I don\'t have any reason to show deference to a Tier 2 child nor do I think he is deserving of it," Amelia said while pointing at Julius again.

Stop pointing at me, Julius thought to himself. I don\'t want anything to do with you anymore.

Before Lily could defend him again, Julius walked up to her, and just like how she did for him just a few minutes ago, he grabbed her shoulder and stopped her. She tilted her head up and looked at him with a surprised expression as if asking why he was preventing her from defending him.

"It doesn\'t matter," he said calmly. He turned to look at the still-mad Amelia just a few feet away. "Her opinion doesn\'t matter to us. She doesn\'t matter to us. Nothing she says or does will change that."

Julius heard some chuckles from others after he said that. Aubrey even said, "Damn right," proudly from the side.

Lily looked between him and the others with a slight smile on her face. "You\'re right," she said to him. Then she stared intensely at Amelia, "She doesn\'t matter to us at all."

Julius watched as Amelia clenched her fists tightly upon hearing that. However, that reaction made up for everything. If she was hoping to get closer to the others, she failed miserably, and this ostracization from the others would be a far more devastating punishment than his scolding of her.

Julius pulled Lily in the other direction. "Let\'s go. We still have some time to fool around before we need to get back," he said to her.

Lily let herself get pulled away easily before she stopped and said, "Wait. What about her assaulting you with her aura?"

He let loose a hearty laugh. "What? That aura attack? Please, it was so weak I didn\'t even feel anything. Ask her yourself, she wasn\'t even able to pressure me a single bit," he mocked her, not bothering to look in her direction.

He had a feeling that calling her weak and not even looking at her when doing so would piss her off more than anything else he could say to her. And he was correct, [Spatial Perception] was able to pick up her tense muscles and extremely furious posture. However, he knew that she wouldn\'t do anything. Not when the others had his back.

While he didn\'t need to be that petty, he still believed that he had every right to. She should be lucky that\'s all he was willing to do.

Lily smiled at Julius\'s insult of Amelia\'s aura strength and giggled before letting Julius lead her away again in the other direction.

However, when they were several feet away, he heard, "You were only able to withstand my aura because of your items. Don\'t be so smug about relying on external power," she said bitterly.

Julius gave a real genuine laugh at that. "Sure, doesn\'t matter either way… Weak is weak," he said mockingly before turning away for good, not even listening to her next words. He didn\'t deny her accusations, if anything that helped him out. He didn\'t have to explain why he had such a strong aura as a Tier 2 this way.

After they had walked away from the drama-riddled girls. Aubrey finally spoke up. "Well, I for one am glad that\'s over," she said with a relieved sigh.

Julius stopped and turned to look at her with a look of utter disbelief. "You are the one who invited them over to our table, to my celebration, nonetheless," he said in an irritated tone. "Don\'t think you are going to get away with this. You have some apologizing to do."

"What? What did I do?" Aubrey asked in genuine shock.

"What did you do? Did you not just listen to me? The only reason why we had to go through that was because you wanted to tease me," he pointed out angrily.

"That wasn\'t the only reason!" She argued.

He sarcastically tilted his head and crossed his arms. "Oh? What was the other reason?"

"You need some friends," she said matter-of-factly.

"I need some friends?" He asked incredulously.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, I thought it would be nice for you to make friends with the Grace girl," Aubrey said lamely.

"And now? Do you still think I should be friends with her now?" Julius asked with a scoff.

"Hey, in Grace\'s defense. She wasn\'t that bad. It was her bodyguard that was acting like a bitch," she said while putting her hands in the air.

"Bodyguard?" Julius asked confused. "I thought she said she was a teaching assistant."

Aubrey just shook her head. "Yeah, that was probably just some lame excuse. I\'ve never seen her and I know for a fact that other important scions have bodyguards protecting them while they go off into the city. She was too worried about keeping attention on the surroundings to not be worried about protecting the girl."

"I agree. She was definitely making it sound as if Grace was someone important," Lily commented as well.

He frowned and scratched his chin. "Even when they are on campus?" He asked.

"You saw her on campus?" Derek asked from the side. "I thought you said you only met the girl last night." Somehow the conversation had derailed again.

"I only officially met Grace but Amelia was with her too. She was just invisible, I didn\'t say anything, but she was following her around like she was her friend. I thought she was just training her stealth skill and pretended to ignore her," Julius said with a shrug. "I thought bodyguards weren\'t allowed on campus, so her being a teaching assistant made sense."

Derek looked at Julius seriously. "No, you\'re right. Bodyguards aren\'t allowed on campus. It would be a nightmare if every noble born wanted their bodyguards on campus. Not even I can have bodyguards with me, not that I would want them."

"So what are you saying?" He asked Derek.

"I don\'t know. Perhaps, she really is an assistant but also keeps an eye out for her. It\'s not uncommon for family friends to be staff at Goldencrest," Derek said with a contemplative tone.