After a year of study with Donel and Altair's two guards, Renald stopped by. On that day Donel did not show his face and her two guards were nowhere to be seen. Renald didn't show up alone as he brought his son with him. The reason he decided now was a good time to see Altair was because he was getting a little impatient. He had been receiving progress reports from Donel and wanted to see if she could provide him with the information he was after.

Altair was in the middle of stretching after a light warm up in the morning when they entered. She had woken up by herself today, which was unusual as Donel had woken her up every single day since he was assigned to her for the whole day. While she found it strange and she was hungry, she didn't know where he got her food from so she couldn't go out and get it herself. She figured he would show up eventually and decided to wake up the same way she had before she came here.

She had only seen Renald once before but seeing him next to that uncute brat caused her to frown inwardly. They were both nobles in her mind and family at that. If Joshua attacked her with his father present she would still defend herself but she had no idea how Renald would react to that. Still, she wouldn't just roll over and be anyone's sandbag.

Upon entering the room, Renald immediately moved to sit in the closest seat that was near the door while his son glared at Altair with open maliciousness.

Joshua grinned broadly at Altair and spoke in a mocking tone, "Looks like the servant girl has barely grown in this last year, father. At this rate, won't she be a midget when she's an adult?"

Renald made a disinterested sound with his mouth and merely watched from his seat.

Seeing his father not doing anything special stirred Joshua forward. He took a step forward and stuck out his check like a lion that was strutting around. She spoke in a clear, commanding tone, "Bow before your Master, servant girl."

Altair stood up and met the gaze of Joshua before replying, "No."

Joshua couldn't believe that even after a year this servant girl didn't know how to do her job. She was supposed to bow when her Master came into the room. He felt his anger quickly boil up as it had the first time he saw her disrespecting his authority. Joshua shouted angrily while pointing at Altair, "You stupid servant girl! Know your place and bow before your betters!"

Altair couldn't act like she didn't understand his words anymore. She had spent too much time learning their language and knew exactly what he meant. It didn't mean she would obey though. She would never obey someone who tried to demean her, especially when they were a Human.

Just because she had grown to like and respect Donel, Ben, and Dave didn't mean that she would just blindly do so with any Human. She had only reluctantly admitted that not all Humans were bad. She still felt that most of them were, though.

It wasn't her choice to be sold into this family nor did she want to be here. So she stood in a defiant stance as she narrowed her eyes at Joshua. It was clear that she wouldn't listen to Joshua's demands.

She knew this was risky. Renald was in the room with Joshua and could see everything that they did. If she went too far he would very likely intervene. She didn't have much Mana she could use to defend herself with and did not know how skilled or powerful Renald was. However, she still wanted to put her foot down. She had long grown past being willing to be run over by others.

She wasn't stupid though. She kept an eye on Renald to watch for any changes in his body language. He was the owner of this place, and the owner of Donel. She wouldn't be able to do much resistance if he spoke up and said the same things.

Renald saw all of this and smirked. He knew how strong his son was and how badly this girl had been beaten by him before. While Altair managed to, somehow, pop a Madroople with its weakness, it was still its weakness. All it took was a poke to the core from a stick to make them pop, so it wasn't much of a feat in terms of combat ability. He didn't judge it as being anything to special when he tested his own son on it. Since Joshua had managed the same thing, when given a stick, and without injury, there was no need to be concerned about letting them go.

He wouldn't let things go as far this time when his son lashed out but he also wouldn't stop his son from blowing off some steam. To him, fighting amongst children was normal. He lived in a militaristic society where the strong climbed stepped on the weak to get advance higher and further than others.

So he didn't see anything wrong with having the girl learn this the hard way. Just because there was an adult in the room didn't mean that they would protect the children from each other. They would usually, at most, only prevent things from going a little too far.

Due to the investigations he had run on Altair's name throughout all the nations he had contacts in, he knew that Altair wasn't from any of them. Because he knew this he also knew that this girl was from a completely different society. He had completely dismissed any and all ideas that she was a native of the world she was on. Just because she could survive in such a hostile environment without a suit didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it would be nice if he could obtain whatever let her do that as well as the teleport technology but it took a distant second in terms of how useful it and valuable it was.

If he could instantly deliver trade goods from one location to another or instantly reinforce a barrier world then that would change the entire Empire. It would elevate his family's name to be able to stand with the even the Emperors family. Its worth outweighed everything his family had done for the past twenty generations since they were granted a noble title!

Just as Renald figured, Joshua exploded in a rage at Altair's attitude. He couldn't believe this servant girl was still this disobedient after being trained for over a year. It was outrageous. He cast a look at his father to see if he planned to do anything and saw that Renald had a complacent look on his face. Since he saw this he became more confident in using violence to get his way. He strode up towards Altair while shouting, "You dare to disobey your Masters?! Was the last beating not enough for you?!" He raised his hand to strike at Altair's head.

Altair didn't move in the face of his threat or his threatening motion. Although she found it slightly annoying to have to look up at his stupid face, it couldn't be helped given their difference in growth rate. She silently wished that she would grow faster so that she could eventually look down on him in the future.

Altair continued to stare at him with a look that seemed to dare him to do it. It was the exact same look that she had given him last time as well.

This angered Joshua even further. He remembered that look and he cursed loudly as he threw his fist at Altair.

Seeing the attack coming, Altair immediately started using Magic to strengthen her body. She wouldn't let him have the upper hand this time nor would she play with him either. She ducked under his attack with a practiced motion and counterattacked with a palm at Joshua's head. Using the momentum that Joshua had put into his punch on top of her own movement and strength, the blow smashed into Joshua's nose as he had done to her before, creating a loud, crisp, and satisfying crunching noise as his nose was messily broken and he was sent flying backwards a meter before falling onto his back.

Joshua didn't know what happened until he hit the floor and he cried out in pain while clutching his nose. He was like a wailing beast that just took a seemingly fatal wound. It was a truly pathetic sight.

He loudly went on to curse Altair and her ancestors on top of claiming he would do various horrific tortures to her while writhing in pain. He had never been this humiliated before in his entire life. He was a child prodigy that was destined for greatness in the Empire. How could he possibly live down the fact that a servant girl had inured him so badly with a single attack? However, he couldn't focus enough to use his Spiritual Energy because of the pain and as a result he was unable to get up and attack Altair.

Altair wanted to follow up her attack but as soon as Joshua hit the ground she felt a mass of killing intent directed at her from the man in the chair. It wasn't the strongest killing intent she had ever felt but it was enough to stop her follow-up. It was like a hand had reached out and attempted to smother her entire body. Because of how much of it she felt she decided to keep both eyes on the man while preparing to use her threads at a moment's notice. It was just that she couldn't actually use her threads much. She was only able to control one large thread at a time or four small threads. Due to the distance between her and Renald she judged that a large thread would be the best option. If Renald made a move against her she would smash him into the table that he was sitting next to before throwing him into the wall. That should be enough to end him.

Having survived hundreds of battlefields and stealth missions in her own world, Altair was very sensitive towards killing intent. She had basically grown up surrounded by it for years and could easily identify when it was directed at her. Some of the jealous people in the Demi-Human Survival Coalition had even sent it her way before. Because she noticed it in those cases she had managed to avoid certain foul plans they had for her at the time. The amount she felt from Renald right now rivaled that of ravenous beasts she had faced before. It was such a huge amount that it actually startled her slightly. She didn't expect a Human who had been so generous to her to have such animosity towards her for one offense.

Altair had not experienced parental love in years. She had forgotten how overprotective one's parents could be.

Renald narrowed his eyes at Altair. He didn't expect such a different outcome from last time just a year ago. She had gotten a lot stronger or perhaps she had hidden her true strength. Either way, from what Renald could not tell much about her fighting style other than it was well practiced. To him, it still paled compared to military combat styles and what Joshua would be learning in a couple years but it was a surprise to see how fast she had swapped into a fighting stance. This girl he picked up appeared to be more useful than he thought.

He wouldn't let her continue to harm his son, however. That was his heir and, even though he deserved to get knocked off his high horse every now and then, it still wouldn't be too good to humiliate him too much.

Renald gave Joshua a mocking look as he said, "Perhaps you won't look down on your opponents from now on."

Joshua looked at his father while still holding his noise and noisily complained, "She's just a servant girl who caught me by surprise!"

Renald scoffed at his son, "You fool. It only takes a moment of surprise for you to die in a battle. Get that through your head and go get cleaned up. I'll talk to you about this in detail later."

Joshua was about to complain further but he saw the serious look in his father's eye and knew that it would only get him in trouble if he refused. So he staggered to his feet and walked on uneven steps towards the door. When he got there he turned around and pointed threatening at Altair while shouting, "I'll remember this!" He then turned and left the room leaving just Altair and Renald inside.

Altair watched Renald cautiously as he motioned towards the chair next to him and stated, "Sit."

Altair didn't want to get closer to Renald while he was giving off that killing intent so she stood where she was and didn't move a muscle.

Renald smiled viciously at her as he retracted his killing intent and added, "It will probably be a lengthy conversation. I do hope you'll at least adhere to this modicum of formality."