The carriage arrived at the gates to the Zogarth estate and was immediately let in. This surprised Clay quite a bit since they hadn't even given him a second look or asked who he was.
'There must be something about the carriage that shows its owned by the family.' Clay thought.
He stopped the carriage near the main entrance and climbed down from the driver's seat. There were servants that appeared from seemingly nowhere that started tending to the horses and opening the carriage doors.
Nila stepped out the carriage first, followed the by the little girl Marie. She seemed to be quite frightened as she looked at her surroundings and Clay could imagine why.
She was a commoner like him and as such she had most likely never seen such a large building before in her life. She would have heard stories about them from merchants that had visited nobles before and it was because of this that most commoners recognize a large house as being owned by a noble.
"Are you alright?" Clay asked as he bent down beside Marie. Her voice was soft as she replied and Clay almost struggled to hear her
"I shouldn't be here... My mommy always said that I must never go near a nobles house..." She looked truly frightened and couldn't stop shaking.
"You don't have to worry about that. The lady that's been in the carriage with you, Nila, well this is her house." Clay replied while pointing at Nila, just to make sure she knew who he was talking about.
"R-Really...?" Marie looked at Nila talking to the servants a few meters away with a surprised expression on her face.
"Yeah. I know you were probably told that nobles were scary and you should avoid them, but Nila isn't so scary right?" Clay smiled softly in an attempt to calm her down.
Marie didn't answer and just shook her head.
"See, not all nobles are bad. Nila and her family are good people, so let's go inside, okay?" Clay stood up straight and held out his hand for Marie to hold.
"Okay..." She held onto Clay's hand and stayed very close to his body as they walked through the front door with Nila.
"Ohh... What do we have here. I heard you had run away with some random commoner, yet here you are." A girl around the same age as Clay and Nila walked up to the group from the side.
She had long blonde hair that curled at the tips, her eyes were a deep green colour and she was about the same height as Nila. There was a boy standing right beside her, he was slightly shorter than Clay, making him quite tall himself.
He had spiky black hair and blue eyes. Both of them were wearing clothes of the highest quality, with the girl being in a green dress to match her eyes and the boy wearing a black suit with a white shirt.
"Why are you here?" Nila asked with her usual aloofness and blunt way of speaking. "Well that's rude of you, we're guests in your house after all, you should really be more polite. "The boy said with snobby smirk on his face.
"You're right, it is my house. As far as I'm concerned, that means you're the one's that should be polite." Nila responded with a cold glare at the boy.
His smirk disappeared and was replaced with a distainful glare "Why would we lower ourselves to your level. You should be grateful we're even talking to you." The girl said with a pompous tone.
"What gives you the right to talk to her that way in her own home!?" Clay was extremely irritated by the way these two were speaking to Nila and couldn't help himself but step in.
"I have every right, but you? What right do you have to address a noble in such a manner you filthy commoner!" The girl furiously shouted back at Clay.
"Being a noble doesn't give you the right to do jack shit! Why don't you take your large ego and go cry to daddy, we all know you have no power and are only leeching off your family names." Clay instantly retorted without a moments hesitation, matching her anger.
The girl was taken aback that Clay had called her out the way he had and she was stunned into silence. The boy beside her stepped forward and brought his face right in front of Clay's.
"What exactly makes you think that we have no power? I could snap my fingers and have a dozen soldiers rush into this room and kill you, that's power!" The boy was unable to contain his fury.
"Without your fathers name behind yours, none of those soldiers would bat an eye at your request. You are nothing without your name." Clay replied with a calm voice, but the anger behind his words was still present.
Nila had been watching the interaction with an expression she had never quite made before on her face. She was dumbfounded.
The boy took a step back from Clay "Prove it then. If you truly believe I hold no power without my families name then prove it. Fight me in an official bout!"
"What...?" Clay was thoroughly confused "What's an official bout?" He had no choice but to ask. He couldn't accept without knowing the details first.
"Of course a commoner wouldn't know what it is." The boy smirked and shook his head "It's a duel between two people where they both wager something on their victory."
That was enough information to satisfy Clay
"I accept. When do we have the duel then?" He asked.
"I'm ready right now." The boy confidently declared. Clay showed a smile of confidence as well "Alright then let's g..."
"That won't be possible." Nila suddenly interrupted. Nila gave Clay a look that told him to back down.
"Why is that? You scared your commoner is going to lose?" The boy taunted with a chuckle.
"We have something more important to do right now. You can have the duel tonight at the battle arena." Nila answered without hesitation.
"Tch! Fine then. I'd prefer to win with an audience anyways. You better not run away from this or I'll hunt you down." The boy turned and started walking away. "Let's go, Carmen."
The girl was brought out of her daze and turned to follow the boy after a brief glare in Clay's direction. After the pair of nobles had left, Clay turned to Nila "Who were those two?"
"Remember the friend I told you about, the one I don't speak to anymore? Well her name was Carmen and that was her." Nila replied.
"Wait what!? That's someone you used to be friends with? Why does she treat you that way if you used to be friends?" Clay was very confused. He had never seen anyone act that way towards someone they once considered a friend.
"Her family was a lower rank of noble than mine and as such they always treated us with respect. We were friends during that time and I enjoyed it but it changed when her elder sister got married. Their family joined with that of the Duke, making them higher than my family in terms of nobility. Her attitude changed very quickly and she started to act like she was better than me, claiming I should treat her with more respect. Our friendship didn't last after I told her I wouldn't change my treatment of her."
"That's... Ridiculous. To change her attitude that quickly just shows how superficial she is. You did the right thing cutting ties with her." Clay was annoyed and shook his head at how the girl treated Nila after they had been friends previously. "What about the guy?"
"He's Nathan Zemor, Trents older brother. He acts superior because his mother is the sister of the Dukes wife, meaning he's technically related to royalty. His family is actually the same rank of noble as my family." Nila explained.
"No wonder I disliked him so much, he's related to Trent. Their entire family must be filled with scumbags." Clay couldn't say he was surprised. Looking back on it it makes perfect sense why Nathan infuriated him so easily.
The more Nila revealed about the complicated ties of the noble families, the happier Clay was with being born a commoner.
The doors to the main hall at the top of the stairs opened and three men walked through the door. Two of them were well dressed and the third was the Zogarth head butler.
The butler lead the other two down the stairs and out the front door. Nila and Clay moved to the side with Marie and avoided the group as they left.
The butler returned shortly after and stood in front of Nila "Welcome back, Lady Nila. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"We've come to speak with my father about something urgent." Nila said with an aloof expression.
"Very well, please follow me to the throne room." The butler replied and began leading the way.
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