Chapter 441: Hard and Soft Tactics [Bonus]
Elara's reaction made Sylas smile a little bit. But it was less for the reaction and more for the fact that she was alright.
"Okay, okay, don't make too much noise."
Elara seemed to realize something and eventually nodded.
"What did you do, Sylas? You know, I've been telling you to get a girlfriend. I hoped it would help you mellow out, but here you are causing me all this trouble."
Sylas' gaze flickered. He could hear Elara speaking clearly in his head, but her lips weren't moving. In fact, she wasn't even looking at him anymore, as though she was focused on something else.
The projection only showed him his sister's face floating in space. There was no projection of the background or anything of the sort, but if he had to guess, she likely wasn't in private quarters.
As expected, the little munchkin was sharp. Even when she called out his name earlier, it was with her intention.
'Professor Fembroise was right, I need to treat the system more like a new technology to learn and explore, not much unlike how I would do with a phone. Elara seems to have already gotten the hang of it.'
His little sister had already grown up a lot in the last half year or so. He could practically see the childishness receding from her face.
He had missed her 14th birthday and he was pretty sure he'd get an earful for that very soon. "Trouble? What happened?" Sylas asked with his intention as well.
"Not much. We're fine. But this school sucks."
"School?"
"We're being taught by the Grimblades."
"Is that so? You're not leveling? What are you learning?"
"No leveling. There's this Grimblade with a Teaching Profession or something like that. They have an ability called Lecture where they can help people awaken their 'natural' Professions or whatever by humming out throat-song nonsense."
"And it sounds like you don't like that?"
"It's stupid. I can feel it. If I accept their Profession I'll be locked into trash so I've been stalling. Though I guess they think I'm pretty useless by now."
Though his sister didn't explain much, Sylas got the gist of it.
In all likelihood, there were limits to this Teaching Profession. It wasn't like it could help everyone awaken a Legendary Path or something like that.
It was more likely that the cap for the awakened Profession was dependent on how good this "Teaching Profession" was in the first place.
"Did it help you figure out what you would be best at?" Sylas asked.
"I can vaguely feel it. But I don't wanna believe it."
Elara pouted somewhat, feeling a bit irritated.
Sylas couldn't help but smile again. He knew that face. It appeared whenever she saw something that she didn't like. But it was also likely to be something that was her fault to begin with.
"What did you do this time?"
"It wasn't my fault!"
"Mhm."
"Forget it! I'm definitely not introducing you to Sophie! Stay single forever!"
Sylas' lip twitched. He had no interest in little girls; why did this little munchkin keep bringing that girl up?
"Really, what is it?"
"Don't laugh!"
"I won't."
"You're lying!"
"I really won't."
Elara huffed. "I could only see it vaguely so it might be wrong. No! It's definitely wrong, I don't want to believe it. If I had gotten any closer I could feel that my body would subconsciously accept it.
"The stupid thing is called Barbed Bard."
Sylas blinked, confused for a moment before he rolled his thin lips over themselves.
Barbed Bard? Was that a profession for little girls with sharp tongues?
A slight snort came from him before he cleared his throat, looking off into the distance as though he was focusing on something else.
"YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T LAUGH!"
"I didn't." Sylas coughed lightly before he spoke seriously.
Inwardly, though, he was thinking. This Profession sounded amusing, but it also sounded similar to something else he had seen...
[Spellbound Ventriloquist]
[Your words give life. Infuse your Will and project with your Charisma, giving your voice power others couldn't fathom.]
This Unique Gene had been among the three he had before he ended up choosing Enchanted Scribe. And now, it sounded eerily similar to this.
"I'm such an innocent soul. This stupid system is broken."
Sylas smiled lightly and thought of something.
This was just a communication method, but there was no reason he shouldn't be able to send something directly to his sister through it.
After some finagling, he figured it out and sent the introduction to Rune Mastery item he had exchanged for months ago to her. It cost over 20 Aether Stones, but he felt that it was worth it.
"You're right not to accept a useless Profession. For now, study this and see how far you make it. I'll contact you once every day.
"How are mother and father? What about grandfather?"
"They're fine, but..."
Sylas frowned, seeing his sister's mood dim a bit.
"What is it?"
"Grandpa and dad's position in the family is a bit odd right now because dad is technically an heir and grandpa is, well... he's supposed to be part of the big wigs.
"I'm the only one who's getting any sort of training and it's the worst kind. Mom, dad, and grandpa just spend all day in the villa and don't get to do much of anything."
Sylas' eyes narrowed. "I see... Okay, I will keep this in mind. Go back to school and only use what I sent you when you're alone at night. Don't tell mom, dad, and the others about it for
now."
"Okay." Elara replied but managed to refrain from nodding.
After that, Sylas closed off the communication, his eyes flickering.
They were in an odd in-between state now. The situation was still stable for now, but unless
The grew powerful enough to suppress this entire family, he wouldn't feel at ease.
Their ability to use both hard and soft tactics to control them was... impressive. 'In that case, let's start by pressing Lucius beneath my thumb.'