God Of Crafting

Chapter 251 Provocateur?

"Young master, are you alright?"

Not a moment after stepping into the clan heir's private quarters, Zuko, the clan's elder of the heir's faction, spoke with great concern both in his voice and on his face.

"Why shouldn't I be okay?" Jerome, the clan's famous heir, replied with his eyes turning wide, as if he just couldn't fathom where this question was coming from. "Now that she became used goods, what good would it be for me to still vie for her hand?" he asked, rolling his eyes before looking over his shoulder to ensure the doors to his private quarters were properly closed and...

"Fuck!"

As soon as there was no more risk of anyone outside his direct circle seeing his reaction, Jerome slammed his fist into the wall with all the strength and power his physicality and awe-inspiring cultivation allowed.

The wall, however, endured the strike as if it was nothing, a courtesy of the builders whom the heir himself instructed to make this whole place into a training ground capable of withstanding not his, but his father's—the clan patriarch's—strikes.

"So you weren't alright, after all," Zuko shook his head, unbothered by Jerome's meltdown in progress.

"This fucking bitch! Dangling the opportunity right before me, only to then take it away! And she even went ahead and dared to slap my face out in public! If not for my image within the clan, I would tear her ugly head off her neck right there and then! And don't even get me started on that son of a bitch who dared to steal her away!"

At this point, Jerome's rage halted for a bit as he recalled not only the look on that guy's face… but also a certain air he had around himself.

'Bragging and boasting is one thing, but…'

"What's wrong, young master?" Zuko asked, noticing the strange look on his ward's face.

"That fucker..." Jerome muttered as he sat down on one of the many chairs in the spacious, open-concept room before pinning his eyes to the floor for a moment, only to then raise his sight and lock it on his teacher and his faction's leader. "Did you notice anything strange about him?"

"About that Tim guy?" Zuko asked to confirm, only to lower his eyes as he took a moment to recall everything he could about the man. "Besides his claims to venture deep into the third floor of the cultivation garden?" he muttered before taking another moment to think. "I guess he was... weird?" he attempted to put his impression into words. "There was something rather uncanny about him. Despite having yet to break free of the first set of chains of mortality, his strength..."

Zuko shook his head.

"If the situation escalated to the point of exchanging blows, his actual strength might prove no lesser than yours, young master. While it's nothing more than my personal guesswork, it would be best if we didn't underestimate him. The confidence in his eyes," the man hesitated yet again before taking a breath and raising his face with a now reasserted look of seriousness, "I have seen many men trying to fake their strength and determination. And he simply didn't look like one of them. Back then, at the garden's entrance," Zuko shook his head yet again, "I believe he was ready to face off with you, if that's what the situation called for."

"That little…!" Before he could utter another obscenity, Jerome took a deep breath to calm himself down before sinking deeper into his chair. "No, let's think this through rationally rather than emotionally," he stated, only to cup his hands together while resting his elbows against the side-rests of his fancy chair. "He clearly was still within the mortal realm of cultivation. He didn't produce aura around himself either, proving he wasn't just a cultivator masking his level. And yet... you claim he could have strength rivaling mine?" Jerome raised his eyes and looked at his teacher.

His eyes, however, weren't filled with anger, slighted pride, or ridicule. They were filled with...

"Why?"

They were filled with curiosity, eagerness to learn more, to figure out the truth as it was rather than imposing his own beliefs over the situation just to make everything convenient for himself.

As the child of the era of the collapse, this mindset was what allowed him to become the clan's heir, despite not even being the oldest of his family's three brothers.

"I'm sorry, kiddo, but I really can't tell you anything beyond just a stray guess," Zuko apologized while lowering his head. "It was just a feeling, not something I could actively vouch for. You could say it was a combination of the small details I've observed about him and those details mismatching the things everyone else looked at."

Zuko breathed out before raising his hands to massage his temples, his head starting to hurt from just how much he tried to crack the mystery of this strange encounter, only to fail at this task over and over again.

"Thinking about it..." Right as he was about to turn silent and let the young master do the thinking, Zuko surprised himself as he spoke again. "If I were to name the feeling this guy was giving me, it would be..." Zuko raised his eyes to his ward, only to see him leaning in his chair, clearly eager to hear what he had to say.

Momentarily stunned by the attention he had already forgotten the feeling of getting, Zuko coughed into his fist to clear his throat.

"He felt like one of those provocateurs, whose only job is to confuse the other party and, through this confusion, invite an unintentional slight of honor, only for his much stronger brothers to appear seemingly out of nowhere and pounce on the unsuspecting victim," Zuko explained, only for his face to grow darker. "A tactic you should know very well, given how that's how our clan grew to its current prominence during the turbulent era, roughly two centuries ago."

"Yeah," Jerome sank back into his chair while slightly nodding his head, "I do remember learning about that. But..." he then hesitated, only to dutifully raise his eyes back to his teacher's face, "isn't provocateuring outlawed ever since the dawn of that era? I remember hearing it was the biggest achievement of the contemporary dynasty of the time."

"Official law and practice can often greatly diverge," Zuko sighed. "And sure, power plays through provocations are outlawed. But do you really think that guy wants to take your place as the clan's heir?"

Jerome squinted his eyes a bit before lightly shaking his head.

"No, I don't think so. I don't believe he even knew who I was, only learning of my existence as I approached him. But..." the young master hesitated a little, "but that brings me over to another question. That escalation through the cold war he threatened us with," he mentioned, "do you think it was real or just an empty threat?"

"That..." Zuko squinted his eyes before shaking his head for the nth time since this covert meeting started, "I have absolutely no idea. All I can do is guess from what I could read from his face, but he doesn't look like someone who struggles to control it. And while that alone likely means he has a background of some sort, just like the fact that peasant approved his relationship with the girl, what background it is?" Zuko shrugged his shoulders. "That, I have no clue," he stated, only to then lower his arms and put on an extremely determined look on his face. "I will be sure to find it out, though."

"Yeah, you do just that," Jerome stated before raising his elbows from the armrests of his chair, only to then rest his hands down on them before pressing hard as he pulled himself out of the chair's depths. Standing up, he quickly started pacing around the room, never moving too far to hinder his ability to speak with his teacher, though.

"You do just that. And once you have him figured all out, we will decide which way we should go with him."

Hearing this, Zuko squinted his eyes.

"And what would those paths be, Jerome?" Zuko asked, rolling back the way he referred to the young master to the manner which he only ever did while actively teaching him.

This small change didn't escape Jerome's attention. Yet, after stopping for but a moment, he summed it up with a small smile before picking up his pace.

"If he is a sleeper, we will proceed along with the story I sowed the seed of back in public. If possible, we will try to recruit him to our cause or, if that's not possible, try to sic him on my brothers. If he's just a nobody who knows how to act tough, however..."

"I'm not quite sure I'm supposed... No, I'm not quite sure I even want to hear what you are going to say next," Zuko stated while rolling his eyes.

"If he's just acting tough, however," Jerome revealed his ugly smile, the one expression he kept hidden from anyone but his closest allies and supporters, "then I will rip him to pieces right where Claire will be able to see it, but not before taking her in every way imaginable, all so he can watch it and suffer!"

"Young master!" Zuko called out with clear displeasure and a slightly displeased face.

"What?" Jerome quickly countered, even going as far as to stop his pacing and look directly at his teacher, only to then raise his hand and point at his cheek. "It's their own fucking fault for slapping me in public, isn't it?!"