"I wonder what is written inside." Faust opens the paper with curiosity filled eyes.
'Never Give Up.
Love, Caitlyn.'
The head of Faust which is filled with all kinds of thoughts and helpless feelings have been eased by that one line of letter.
She still believes in me is the thought running in his head. *"Yosh! I'll be positive no matter what happens and I will keep practicing and I will become the strongest."* He says to himself as his palms kisses his cheeks with a jolt of pain.
The next day, he wakes up on his routine before the sun is out to take a lap around his villagers along with the guards.
"Yo Michael, everyone! Are you all ready to do laps?" Faust greets the village guards who have been doing the laps with Faust since he started training.
Michael heaves a sigh as he ties the laces of his shoes. His face displays the expression of a burden. "Fausto! I think you should stop these exercises from now on. Y-you won't even be taken into village guards. Your spiritual power is literally zero, you know?" Michael shows his concerns.
"And all the guards are laughing at you right now, I suggest you to not do this talk with them." He advises Faust who is shocked at this point of time.
"B-But what? We all used to train together, you are just worrying about me, Michael. It will be perfectly okay, let me go talk to our buddies right now." Refusing to believe the words of Michael, Faust moves forward to group of 20 guards who train with Faust.
"Hi! G-guys, shall we start the laps now? And I messed up in the test but I will get better ok? I hope you guys are not taking it seriously." Faust says to the guards who are stretching and warming up their bodies with multiple exercises.
All the guards stop what they are doing and gaze at Faust. "Go home Faust, you don't fit to be with us." Michael utters from behind with a cold voice.
Faust turns his face around while being annoyed with what he said. "No matter what you do, you cannot be strong. We don't want to run with a wimp." Michael concludes as he walks past Faust and joins the group.
He is standing tall and full of pride in his posture and the way he walks. Faust does not believe his ears. None of the guards talk to him. "Gu-guys! We were so close till yesterday! Even though you all are 18 and I'm 10, you called me your brother. Why this sudden change?"
Faust does not understand what changed them so much, he cannot convince them nor go on to do his laps so he heads back home with embarrassment and sadness taken over him.
"Oh! You're not going to train now?" Gus, who just woke up to take care of his housing needs, asks Faust. His eyebrows curves and raises up and this eyes filled with suspicions.
Faust goes back into his room without even saying anything. He sits in front of his window with a long face and just stares at the guards who are doing their laps from the full height glass walls.
"What did I do? I would understand if I harm them or something, but to banish me from them without any reason is just..." He balls his fist tight, the nail of his thumbs digs into the skin of his index finger with blood.
.
.
.
Later that day, he gets the same treatment in school, and worse in his class with Ahito. Faust lost to his older brother, Barkha, in the test in front of the whole village.
He with the whole class including his homeroom teacher are laughing at Faust for his nonsensical spouts from the last two years that he will be the top one among the ones that are chosen to go to the mainland.
He comes home with the same feelings while feeling down, he goes on to see the piece of paper that Caitlyn gave him. He changes his clothes, wraps his hands in bandages around his fingers and wrists like the tapes that boxers put on. He also ties an axe on to his back and get ready to sweat blood.
"Faust, let me come with you today." Gus tags along with Faust just as Faust is about to head out.
Faust without replying anything, heads into the woods with Gus following behind him. He reaches deep into his self-built training ground.
The grass have been cleanly cut in a twenty feet space like a ground of oval shape, a heavy three feet stone is placed in the middle which is rectangular in shape.
Another boulder like stone is placed a few feet away from that which is 5 feet tall and 4 feet thick. It seems like Faust has been using it as a punching bag.
There are wooden dummies with stones wrapped in soft cloth have been placed. There are also stones of different kilograms. Starting from 5-8-10-12-14-16 according to their shape and size are placed in the middle.
*"He is training really hard huh, I wonder if his bones are withstanding practice on rocks, that is the most risky training to go against the hardness of a rock with the hardness of our human bones. Unless we have good bone density, it is impossible for a person. But Faust! His bone structure and density are built to make him a fighter."*
*"Even his smaller blows could do much damage if it lands perfectly."* Gus thinks as he sees Faust practice.
Faust on the other hand is searching for a bad infected tree to practice his skills. Gus notices and realises what he was about to do.
"Oh Faust! Try to practice your tree falling without the axe." Gus utters to Faust, who is about to go look for a tree.
*"Huh? What is this old geezer saying? Has he lost his mind?"* The thoughts of Faust when he first heard Gus.
"Watch me and learn" Gus says as he approaches a tree. "Hmmmmm!" He gently, yet carefully observes the trunk of the tree by touch it slowly at every inch.
*"This is good "* he thinks, landing a barrage of three punches on three sides of the trunk of the tree.