The argument ended in a weird atmosphere as the patriarch kept deflecting the issue to money.
Sir Rosen looked at the satisfied patriarch speechlessly. "You really hate those elders."
The patriarch snorted. "Why are they acting like court ministers? Scheming there, scheming everywhere. What do they want from this family? We are basically just a hollow shell." Then he sighed. "Most aristocratic families are now hollow shells."
"Now with the new era, the Void Regulation Authority (VRA) was becoming particularly strict with void users." The old man shook his head. "Meeting with their chairman is a hassle. That stoic old guy's face always haunts my nightmares."
"That's probably because the Hollow Accord is now becoming more active." Mr Rosen said as he sipped the tea.
"Those shit heads are really causing trouble everywhere." The patriarch murmured. "I don't know what's going on, but it seems to have been getting worse these days."
Mr Rosen remembered something. "Wasn't the heir of the Vexley family attacked just a while ago?"
The patriarch thought about it. "Yeah, it was a fortunate accident. Their son managed to awaken void energy. They are now eligible to access the other world."
Thinking about the recent events, Mr Rosen felt that something was brewing. "A lot of ordinary people are now encountering void users. I don't know if this is a signal for some kind of chaos, or just the wheel of life evolving."
"If something bad is happening then let it happen." The patriarch didn't care. "Let's find a way to solve that problem when the problem is already there."
"A lot of ordinary elites have now gained interest in the void." Thinking about the mess that was happening, Mr Rosen felt headache.
Hearing that, the patriarch remember, "Wasn't there a talented lad that came from the Eldreth family? What was his name again?"
Mr Rosen was also quite impressed. "Saeb Eldreth. That's his name. For someone who had ordinary parents, he is really talented that he could compete with those from the eclipse section."
"Very talented indeed. That kid had the potential. His affinity is also quite rare." The patriarch approved of that kid. "Oh, how much I hope my descendants were like that."
"You have a lot of grandchildren." Mr Rosen noted.
"Probably the reason why those elders felt like court ministers is because that trash kept collecting women as if he were a emperor." Trash was referring to his son.
He remembered Neris's mother. "Such a good child. Sometimes I regretted agreeing to their marriage."
Sometimes, he can't help but wish for a daughter. All his son's are headaches.
"I remembered Blue Beard's daughter..." He sighed in melancholy.
"The kid that went missing years ago?" Mr Rosen remembered that.
The patriarch went silent. Not wanting to speak any more of that topic.
Feeling that the patriarch seemed to be a bit down, the professor asked something to distract him. "About the Arcane Brooch. What are gonna do with it?"
"Try to find someone to fix it?" The patriarch wasn't optimistic. "I think that already gone for good."
Mr Rosen mouth twitched. "So you think the trade was useless?"
"Not really, at least Neris got that dusty coin out of that house." He old man waved bus hand. "No matter how special it is, if we can't use it, then it's useless."
"You have such a broad perspective about the coin." Other people would have hoard it.
"Yeah yeah yeah. But who's that dealer that gave the brooch? Can you give me his details? It's pretty rare for dealer now to be this honest." Then the old man had a shady look on his face.
Mr Rosen was speechless looking at the old man concocting some plan. "You want to recruit him? What happened to the— oh, I remember. You killed your previous contracted dealer."
Remember what happened, the old man smirked. "That guy was testing my patience."
This old man was off his rocker, once something pissed him off, he'll do everything that he can to remove the sand in his eyes.
"That was an instructor at the academy." Mr Rosen said.
The old man searched hard in his memory but was confused. "Is he new? I have never heard of a dealer instructor before."
Mr Rosen also haven't heard of it either. Actually, there had been time where they were a bit suspicious about this instructor, but when the asked the principal about it, that instructor's void energy that was left behind at the plaza after the artifact briefing match with one if their staffs on their record.
Just to be sure, they even found the file. It was strange but there was the legal signature of the academy, meaning that it was a legal document.
"He seemed to be a outside instructor. According to the file, he had been a academy staff for almost 500 years now..." After seeing that numbers, everyone was in disbelief.
500 years? That is equivalent to those ascendants lifespan! This instructor must be someone very powerful.
The patriarch was also agape. Almost 500 years means that instructor saw the peak era of void users.
The old man was curious. "Any more information about him?"
Mr Rosen was helpless. "No. The picture was blurry and the name was unreadable."
500 years is a long time even for void users. But strange people exist and there are a lot of outside instructors in their files that surpassed the 200 year mark. The longest was 1000+ years but they all kinda assumed that man is probably dead. There had been no contact of him.
"I thought the oldest living outside instructor was Indri. Now this guy is breaking the record."
Could it be that a good chunk of those instructors are still alive?
"That man had to be at least Ascendants level!" The old man concluded. "But aren't most Ascendants now either dead or missing? How did that man survived?"
"No idea." Why would you ask me that? Mr Rosen thought.
"That generational habit of your academy of accepting strange people as long as they are strong, when will that change?" What the patriarch meant is that, most staffs at the academy are weirdos with strange tempers.
But Mr Rosen misunderstood. "We aren't accepting outside instructors now, but that dealer was already on the list before the policy was implement, so we couldn't do anything. His status will remain valid until he breached the contract."
The old man averted his eyes and did not clear the misunderstanding. "That guy must be a 'good' dealer."
But patriarch was still curious. "What does the man looked like? Blurry pictures doesn't mean it's not visible. At least tell me what guy can make out of it!"
Looking at the childish old man, Mr Rosen spilled the beans.
"I couldn't see the features clearly, but it's a man with a golden-rimmed glasses wearing a fashionable white vintage suit."