Far from it. He actually felt quite nervous and uncertain a lot of thetime, and a feeling that he was not in his element.He seemed to be constantly aw...are of trying to make a good impression.It wasn't for motives of ambition either. He was familiar with that.There seemed to be an absence of any strong desire to dominate or havepower over anyone, or be given professional praise or recognition, andthere was no sense of competition with others. On the contrary, he wasbeing very careful to include. He was quite impressed by the professor, who he later found out was an assistant professor. He was surprisingly young, but his manner, his speech, and his eyes bespoke great intelligence and self-confidence.When Bud led Kim down to explain their situation after class, the professor had an interesting reaction. "I assume it is Miss Winthrop that you are protecting her from," he told Bud. "I also assume that there is a more interesting story here. You are more than just her brother and her. There must be growth within the Pact houses, the professions and the world, else you will have discord and strife. Your system isn’t all knowing and all powerful. If someone like Brot’k ended up in a non-smithing Pact house or Cassandra in one that would not let her be a runesmith, there would eventually be problems. When people feel they would better serve a function, but they are unable to do it due to rules and how their Pact house is run, then they will do it secretly until they are caught.. You have that many on you?" Sure, I've got about ten thousand of these back in my truck. I'll go get them for you." I turned as though to leave."Wait. These are real good. Better make it three hundred of them, okay?" Yes sir. Three hundred. I'll go get them and come right back."I went out the door of his office and took maybe ten steps towards my truck before turning right around and going back inside."Sir, I'm real sorry, but I can't sell you any of these here steak pieces. I just remembered.