Carpenter stamped her foot and asked anxiously, "Someone dared to come looking for me, and even asked for me by name... did some idiot in my family actually turn out to be a genuine idiot?"
Russell rolled his eyes helplessly. Birds of a feather really did flock together. Carpenter's relatives were all good at hiding their true selves, habitually playing the fool in everyday life. Vanity was what drove them.
So even though Carpenter had become an apprentice, and her worst possible prospects were moving into town or marrying into some Mage Family, the higher-ups of the Hainalson Family still did not dare promote her relatives lightly.
They were treated well, but not elevated too far.
His own relatives, meanwhile, were rather thin-skinned. They could not bring themselves to behave like that, so they could only act a little aloof and haughty.
But how should he put it? Russell's talent was much better than Carpenter's. Even if he could not become a Mage while he was still young and promising, it was not beyond the realm of possibility... so the family was also very cautious in its treatment of his relatives.
With Ulrich already standing at the forefront, and clearly somewhat estranged from the family, the Hainalson patriarch and elders instead dared not create a faction capable of contending with him.
After all, Ulrich really was capable of taking his relatives straight to Gilbert and never looking back.
But it was precisely because of these vague connections that their two households had attracted little attention... the Hainalson Family was the main target.
Russell shook his head and asked thoughtfully, "Our two households don't really stand out much... do you think someone in the family has already turned against us, and is doing this because they have some connection to your