Intermission. . .
{I.} Holy Prodigy {I.}
Enjoy!
I never had much as a child. I was born into a modest family of 3 - in the countryside, within a village whose name is now long forgotten among the ashes. My father was a hunter and my mother was a retired adventurer, who decided to pursue carpenty after falling in love with my father.
I grew up alongside with my older brother Luke - who is around 5 Years older than me. Growing up in the countryside meant that - like I've said before - I didn't have much. I only had the toys my mother would create for me and whenever I got bored, I'd play with my brother and the other village children.
....Or that's what you'd expect me to say.
The truth was - from the very beginning, I was different. An outsider. Someone - who didn't quite fit in with the other children in the village.
The adults and elders of the village often told me that I am unusually mature for my age and that I needed to focus more on enjoying my childhood.
However, all I could ever think about, is how these adults are trying to limit me. Trying to hold me back from doing what I wanted.
So I ignored their wishes for me to enjoy and spend my childhood like 'a normal' child.
Instead, while all other children played all day and what not - I remained indoors, reading books as well as studying the different aspects of this world. This type of dedication to not doing anything else other than learning, led me to awaken my magical abilities very early - at the age of only 8.
The magical power at the beginning wasn't anything that impressive - I could barely make a flower bloom using it. However, the adults around me were surprised that I even could utilise magic at such an early age.
And it wasn't only the adults in the village.
One day, a passing through Holy Knight had seemingly noticed my difference from the other kids. While everyone else wanted to know about his heroic deeds as a Holy Knight and what not, I wasn't very interested in him.
...Which is why I suppose he approached me and talked to me. Apparently he could also sense that I had a talent for using Holy Magic - something not many people that aren't part of the church can do.
Because of this fact and other factors, he offered to me and my parents to take me in as a squire - as his apprentice. My parents were very sceptical about it at first, however I had managed to convince them to allow me to go with the knight.
Mainly because I knew, that I was destined for much more than I was going to accomplish here in my village. And I mean, much - much more.
So I left with the Holy Knight and trained under him as his squire, in none other than the Holy Capital. Thanks to his teachings and my own studies, I managed to accelerate my own strength growth so much, that I managed to enter the Academy for Knight Training in the Holy Capital at the age of 11 - when usually, the lowest they would allow would be 15.
I excelled in all my studies at the academy - from the theoretical tests all the way to the practical fighting tests. My Magic Abilities and control over magic itself was also grand - being able to easily outmatch all of my classmates who were older than me, while also managing to outclass a couple of older students.
All and all, my quick and accelerated improvement didn't stop there, as I managed to easily burst through the academy and graduate it at only the age of 16, while everyone else graduating with me were already past 21.
I was being praised as a 'prodigy' - a 1 in a Million rare specimen of all humanoid kind. Someone who would bring big, big changes to the entire world.
Everyone would always tell me that I was destined for greatness and how they had big hopes for me and my future exploits. It honestly became a bit repetitive and annoying.
Everyones praise about me being an absolute holy Prodigy felt empty and meaningless. After all - I already myself knew that I was greater than most people of my age. That I was born differently from others.
But I didn't let that cloud my mind and get to my head. I didn't allow my ego to be my leading factor in life. Instead - I joined the ranks of the Holy Night Order as an 'official' squire of the Holy Knight who had taken me under his wing.
I took the Holy Oath and swore to always hold my blade up high, in the name of justice and protecting those who could not protect themselves. This was my vow when I joined the Order and this is the vow that I've stuck to ever since.
As a surprise to no one - I excelled above all other squires and began to climb the ranks of the Holy Night Order only a year after joining.
And before I knew it, at the measley age of 19 - I had been promoted to a Holy Knight within the order, giving me the same type of authority as my Master.
Being the youngest individual in history to become a Holy Knight, the praise about me being a 'prodigy' and 'Man destined for Greatness' only doubled down. However - at the same time...
Looks of jealousy and envy, began to be thrown at me. Mainly from individuals, who thought that my entire ascendence through the ranks was a fluke and that I was 'buying' my way into power.
However, these envious views never bothered me, as they were nothing more but baseless rumors. After all, no one who had seen me in action, would ever dare to doubt me or my power.
I continued to serve in the Holy Night Order for years, doing what I - or more accurately, the Order - deemed as the right thing to do. However - at the same time, in the back of my mind — there was a thought that sat.
A thought, which had been with me ever since the beginning. Ever since my years as a small child.
A thought...
Which I was never able to part with.
I am able to go even higher.
This singular thought - this singular thought, continued to rest in my mind - to haunt my entire being. It felt like the ghosts of my pasts - the expectations of all the people around me had manifested themselves as a feeling within me, which would now remain here to forever follow me.
This thought - despite me not making it obvious from the outside look - destroyed me slowly from in the inside.
It caused me my mental state to demolish - to slowly go down and down, and down, and down... It wasn't allowing me to live normally, whenever I wasn't out in public.
Whenever I tried to take a rest to take a break from everything - the thought would strike into my mind and almost shriek in my head with a blood curling sound...
It made me feel like, every second I wasn't doing my job as a Holy Knight - I was wasting valuable time, which I could have instead spent living up to all the expectations and praise I was given by everyone around me. It genuinely ate away at me on the inside.
.....Which I suppose is why - I felt a strange feeling that night - when I met face to face with the leader of the Hand Sons of Tritery — a criminal 'cult' organisation, that was caught many times doing rituals, messed up experiments and even partaking in criminal acts.
I was immediately doing what was right to do - trying to subjugate the leader of a massive criminal organisation-like cult that has been one of Holy Night Orders greatest targets for a long time now. However... The leader - he did not fight back. No, he just kept dodging and blocking — but not once did he throw a punch back at me.
Almost like he was holding back when he came face to face with me in a fight. Almost like... He was underestimating me. That made me boil a little inside - I had spent my whole life training and becoming stronger and stronger, and yet... This single enemy — this single leader of a cult... He was managing to stand his ground against... No, he was even able to overpower me.
While he kept dodging and staying on the defensive, I kept going in for an attack after an attack - all the while he kept on going on about 'Not being my enemy' and 'He brings news of a threat greater than even the cult'.
It all sounded like nonsense - I mean, for starters, why should I believe a word that was coming out from his mouth? He was known as the leader of a massive cult, so none of his words could be trusted on the base level.
....And yet - as he kept on talking — I felt myself slowly.. trusting him. I found myself slowly... Wanting to at least hear what he had to say. Even if the chances of him speaking the truth were 0, at least I would learn some information.
That mainly being how strong he was.
So - I put my blade down and sheathed it, agreeing to hear out what the leader of the Hand Sons had to say. And what he told me.....
Made me conflicted.
A Monster - supposedly growing stronger with every second, had managed to infiltrate the everyday lives of normal individuals and hide among them. A beast, whose intentions were unknown, but most likely nefarious - disguised as a human among the commonfolk.
...This was intriguing bit of news to learn. However, I did still have my doubts about the information.
I demanded him to show some evidence - and to my surprise - not only did the leader show me full blown evidence of this monster truly existing using replay spell, but he also hinted that the monster may be linked to the death of the Guardian of the Southern Monster Heart - as the monster had at one point held the title of 'Southern Guardian'.
This all... Like I said - made me feel conflicted. But at the same time... Gave me an idea. This - this was an opportunity. A golden opportunity at that. If I could eliminate this monstrous threat, I could live up to the expectations. I could finally get rid of that stupid thought that has been haunting me all this time.
I could finally....
Commit fully to being the powerful and brave knight, that everyone around me knows me as.
While I knew I could potentially violated the Codex of a Holy Knight as well as 'break' the vow I made by pursuing this monster on my own and not informing the higher ups of it first — In that moment, I cared more about freeing myself of burden.
So - I let the leader go free that time, while promising to myself to take care of the monster that had infiltrated the commonfolk.
According to the Hand Sons leader the monster was currently in Yiinao - the City of Merchants. Which meant, that Yiinao would be my destination.
And with the morning sun — I left.
I took my horse and rode off towards Yiinao - aiming to get there as fast as possible and take down this hidden monster before it could grow any more powerful.
While the Higher ups won't approve of my actions, I'm sure they'll be thankful to me, for eliminating a threat to this entire world.
And with that -
A grueling journey, which would take over 2 Months to complete, began.
Harold was on his way to Yiinao to slay the monster who had infiltrated the commonfolk - which unknown to anyone at the time, was Faofa himself.
• | C h a p t e r - E n d | •
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| Next time : (24.) |
| 'Questing & Departure'. |