Tales Of The Mighty Dragonair

"Oh, didn't hear about it," one of the mages replied without showing any understanding to Rayan's words.

Just as he said that, one mage came hurrying from outside, grabbed that rude mage's ears and started whispering something to him. the moment he finished, the face of that rude mage changed slightly, as he nodded, saying in a forced tone of respect:

"I'm so sorry to make you wait. I just got the word our esteemed great elder just spread. Please lead them to their place."

Despite him trying to be polite, Arthur felt great insult from his words, but he was in no way interfering here. However, Rayan had all the right to say what he wanted.

"Lead the way, general servant of my clan, and prepare the best table, food, and wine for me and my esteemed guests. Go personally and supervise everything, or I will make sure our esteemed great elder gets to hear about your insult here today to his esteemed guests."

The words of Raya expressed finally his true stance towards this mage and his other colleagues, he really hated them.

Arthur knew this wasn't a stand against the rest of adopted mages here in the clan, as he saw him treat many weak mages politely from before. This mage must be an enemy to Rayan, and as the status and the strength of this bunch of mages weren't even on par with Raya, Arthur knew they were only servants to another man.

A faction that stood against Rayan, that was the most acceptable explanation here.

That mage gritted his teeth, silently not able to speak back, while his face showed how much enraged he was. "Follow me this way, esteemed sprout elder and esteemed guests," despite his stormy feelings, that mage replied with a fake respectful and calm tone, while bowing his head to Rayan, Arthur, and others.

"Humph," Rayan just harrumphed, before turning to Arthur as he respectfully said, "sorry to make you wait and see these impudent actions. Please feel free to tell the great elder any complaints you might feel when you later meet him."

Arthur knew Rayan was just stressing more on this mage and his companions, and he wouldn't meet such a great man twice in a day, but he played along with him as he replied:

"Sure, I will complain about everything that happened here to him," then he looked towards that mage before adding, "are we going to stand here forever like that?"

The face of the mage trembled faintly from fear and anger, before he hurried to give his nervous orders in an angered tone towards his helpers. In less than a minute, a big table was already prepared in the distant end of this hall, with much higher, very luxurious looking seats made of amber like ores surrounding it. The table wasn't enough to accommodate the one hundred group of Arthur, but the servants were working their best to prepare ten more tables for them, with each table able to accommodate around twenty mages.

This was the general direction of Rayan, as he reserved one table alone for him and Arthur only, while the others sat at tables around them.

As the two sat there, many dishes of food started to pile up in front of them. Arthur was, to some degree, interested in the dishes served in the clan. He knew his status was high, and the treatment he and his friends got was unique, so these dishes must be quite special.

Before he could touch anything, Rayan started to speak, finally, when everyone just disappeared from around their table.

"Sorry to bother you with these mild insignificant troubles, but some of these mages are really rude."

"They are really rude, and deserve to be treated this way," Arthur simply replied, before he took one steak of meat and started to eat it. The flavor and taste of this piece was really unique, making him realize there were ways for his cooking recipe to be improved.

"It seems brother Willy is interested in our famous meat steaks," Rayan laughed shortly, as the face of Arthur told everything about his true feelings.

"I have some personal interest in cooking," Arthur honestly said, "I have my own recipe, always trying to work and improve it," he added, while taking another bite of his steak, marveling the adequacy of cooking it, the craft of distributing seasonings equally over it, plus there was a feeling like this steak was cooked on separate cooking fire grades, not only on the low grade fire.

"Oh, that's interesting," Rayan said, before adding, "So, can you tell more about the cooking of this piece?"

Arthur just took another bite, slowly feeling the amazing mix of flavors inside it before saying:

"The piece of meat was treated from the beginning with extreme care, as these pieces all came from the same part of the monster used in cooking. The meat was then left in seasoning for quite some time, then it was put on fire for a period before taking it off again, putting another batch of seasoning, left for couple of hours to rest, before putting it again on fire," he paused, as he took another piece and chewed small piece of it, closing his eyes while feeling the taste and dexterity of this steak. "The fire in each time is different, I believe the first is high temperature, and the latter is a lower one. I can feel the taste of charcoal used in the early cooking phase, and the taste of some salty ores in the second phase. It's a unique craftsmanship from the cook, really brilliant and unique," he added, with sincere admiration for the cook who did that.

The eyes of Raya got widened as he never thought this clan leader, coming from a distant place of the world, would just decipher the secret of their long famous family recipe of this steak, simply like that!

The sharp reaction of Rayan made Arthur ascertain his guesses to be right. He just said nothing more, as he continued to eat the meat, enjoying it.

"You are really something brother Willy," Rayan expressed his surprise as he then added, "that makes me more sure about the matter I wanted to discuss with you."

Arthur knew this young mage wasn't the type to waste his time on things that didn't benefit him, and finally he was going to reveal why he saved him and his group from the beginning.

"Brother Rayan is polite, anything you want to discuss, I'm feeling excited about it," Arthur replied, while nodding his head, but his hands never ceased to grab new dishes for his mouth to taste.

"I want to discuss matters regarding the academy," Rayan said, pausing for a moment, before adding, "I'm pretty sure in your ability to cross the final line and win the competition, however this competition isn't that simple to win like that."