46 Family

"Where have you been gallivanting around again today? Don't you look away when I am talking to you, young man!" said Thoralv in a harsh voice.

As soon as Teo had made it through the entrance, he had found the old Butler, James, already waiting to escort him to his uncle's office. Teo's grandfather and Uncle Thoralv were seated around an imposing wooden table in the small room and wasted no time in tearing the boy apart like ravenous animals.

"We got a letter from your school today, informing us of the recent decline in your academic performance. Inattentiveness in class, clear disinterest in every subject, being late for classes or skipping them entirely, disobedience towards the staff... The list goes on and on, that was not even half of it. Do you have anything to say in your defense?" Uncle Thoralv came right to the point and put Teo on a knife's edge.

"No," the boy responded while averting the stabbing gaze of his mentor.

"Just what is going on? Talk to us! I know something is wrong, I can feel it in my old bones!" his Uncle tried to put on a slightly gentler tone, but still pressured him into revealing whatever was the reason for his sudden change in attitude.

"It's nothing. School is just a little stressful lately," Teo tried to lie his way out of the conversation but failed to deceive the sharp intuition of his relatives.

Thoralv originally wanted to continue his ranting, but Teo's grandfather, Troy, patted him on the shoulder and exchanged a brief glance with him. Thoralv took a deep breath and let the air escape from his lungs in a long sigh; then he continued in a less forceful fashion:

"Look, we know this year has not exactly been... easy on you... Umm... If there is anything that you want to talk about... Well..." the gray elder fidgeted around, visibly uneasy — clearly, he was not very skilled when it came to approaching sensible topics.

Before he could mess up too badly though, Troy intervened and saved his senior's dignity:

"What your Uncle wants to say is that we are family, and we always stick together. We may be unable to keep you out of harm's way forever, and we can't know what is going on in your life unless you tell us, but we will always cover your back and support you, however necessary. If you want to talk or if you need anything, we are here for you."

It came all too suddenly, Teo had no time to prepare before these words hit him like a rogue wave. He had expected to be lectured, disciplined, or punished even, but not this.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

For the first time in moons, he allowed himself to cry, like the child that he still was deep inside — and not even Goliath dared to make fun of him now.

Troy embraced his grandson supportingly after getting up from his chair and Teo just vented all of the emotions which he had tried so desperately to hold back all this time — Thoralv, on the other hand, was still seated behind his desk, stiff as a stick and noticeably unsure of how he should behave in a situation like this.

It did not take too long for Teo to calm down and wipe the tears from his eyes. He murmured an almost inaudible "Thank you" towards his grandfather and sat down on the stool in the middle of the room again. He re-gathered his composure and finally spoke up for himself:

"Thank you! I think I have to handle this myself, but I will ask for your help if it turns out I can't. And about school... I will take care of it somehow. I won't skip classes anymore, I promise!"

Thoralv just looked at him, unable to comprehend what he had just heard, while Troy simply smiled. Who could have known that it would be so easy to get some sense into the boy again?

Thoralv had thought about a lot of ways to get his young apprentice back on track, including but not limited to scolding, punishing, and lecturing him. 'I should tell him how hard it was back in my days'. 'A long day of hard, physical labor will get his mind off things'. 'A week of survival training in the forest will make him forget his troubles, right?'

Maybe he should invest some time to get into this new way of parenting that Troy preached about lately... Or he could just leave it to his nephew and focus on his crafting — that had worked so far, hadn't it?

What followed was just a comparatively light conversation on various topics, the main objective for today had already been met, and Teo had managed to profit from it a lot.

He really had withdrawn himself into solitude too much lately. His family, his teachers... his friends. He had tried to shoulder everything by himself without burdening anyone else. Of course, he still could not just tell everyone about his new friend, who happened to be a literal monstrosity, but he was not alone nonetheless and could count on support as soon as he asked for it. This little detail made it a lot easier for him and took a lot of pressure off his mind.

Even the food on his plate tasted different today, and the fading rays of sunshine seemed to be so much brighter. For the first time in days, he managed to relax again and even picked up his old training routine in the evening.

Tomorrow after school, he would go to the best Alchemist in town and take care of the matter once and for all. There was bound to be something useful available, and he was determined to acquire it, whatever it took.