Years passed as little Ryle was growing up in the village. Because there was no school, Ryle would only play with children or help his parents with their work. By now, Ryle was 5 years old.
"Ryle, mama said to come eat!" a little girl ran to Ryles side, who was now doing some basic workout he learned by mimicking his father, Ter.
"Oke let's go," Ryle said as he jumped to his feet, patting the dust of his clothes as they walked back.
"Ryle, play with me more, you always only practice or work!" the little girl said as she pouted.
"Lyn, I need to be strong to protect you later, don't you know that?" Ryle said as he smiled at her, although he was only five, for some reason he was much more mature than his peers and he could see the greater picture. He was just like every other child, but that all changed when a caravan passed by, there he learned of their status. just villagers, no one will even bat an eye if they are killed.
The merchant sold the most basic of houseware for prices so high that made the villages bleed, but because he was the only merchant coming here, they had to comply with his demands. although expensive, it is better than being robbed or without them. A kid was beaten half to death just for touching a spoon, even then, their parents and the village head himself apologized for the kid's actions. Ever since then, Ryle knew. He is either the hunter or the hunted. there is no in-between.
"Really?" Lyn said as she looked at him with sparkling eyes.
"Have I ever lied to you?" Ryle instead gave a slight laugh as he patted her on the head which made her smile as she happily skipped back home. Seeing that Ryle could only helplessly shake his head.
"Wait for me!" Ryle then ran after her.
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"Ter, are you sure?" Lily said as she looked at her husband with somewhat pleading with her eyes.
"Yes, he needs to know, we can't keep him in the dark forever." Ter shook his head at her pleading eyes.
"But he is only 5, can't we wait for him to grow up a bit more!" Lily once more tried to persuade him.
If they told Ryle the news, it might change him.
"Listen, Lily, this matter is very important for his future, the earlier he knows the more he will prepare himself." Ter took out a gold card from his pocket and put it on the table. On it were the words 'Admittance Exam, Lion Academy'
"ugh, if you tell him now then he will spend even less time with me, you and Lyn already have most of his time and now I will have even less!" Lily angrily walked to a corner, then she went all depressed as she drew circles with her finger on the wall.
"You know he is not like that, I'll tell him to spend more time with you alright?" Ter said as he got up to comfort her, just to be frozen in place as he heard her speak.
"You promised, I want 4 hours of alone time or with Lyn, nothing less!" She said her eyes shining as she showed a very beautiful smile, which was the real reason Ter was frozen in place.
'Damit, how come she is getting more beautiful the more children we have, while I get uglier by the day' what he was not aware though was that her features were also optimized by the healing stone, making her more beautiful than she already was. the change in genes was then later passed on to Lyn who was like a little angel, Ryle himself was already very cute and will be very handsome once he grows up, leaving Tar as the black sheep of the family, which depressed him very much.
"Mom, Dad, we're back." Ryle said as he opened the door when he saw Ter's depressed face and Lily's beaming smile he could not help but shake his head 'Poor Ter, once I have money I will buy him a beautification stone' Ryle thought to himself as he went to sit in his chair.
"Mama, why is daddy sad again?" Lyn, who saw both of them was confused, smiling while the other was sad.
"Oh don't worry little angel, daddy is sad because he has a gift only for Ryle, but later we will give you one as well," Lily spoke as she patted Lyn's head while she showed a beaming smile to Ter.
"Daddy gave me no gift?" Lyn was depressed when she heard that, so she looked at her Ter with her puppy eyes.
"Yes, daddy, did you give our angle no gift" Lily spoke as she kept her smile, her emphasis on the word 'daddy' made Ter instantly turned serious with a tinge of light flashing in his eyes as he spoke.
"Of course daddy has something for your little angel, I will give it to you for your birthday, I will also gift your mother a special gift tonight," Ter spoke as he looked smugly at Lily, who in turn had kept her smile all the way, Ryle, on the other hand, who was drinking water, spewed it out as he coughed.
"Ryle, are you oke?" Lily ran up to him as she patted his back.
"Am fine, just some water went into my lungs."
"Be careful, what if you drowned!" Lily spoke as she rebutted him, but inwardly she was cursing Ter, it was obvious that Ryle understood their conversation.
"'cough' Let's go eat, come." Ter also reminded himself to be careful near the children from now on.
While they were eating, Ryle saw a golden card on the table, when he saw what was written on it, he could not help but spew the food in his mouth back on his plate.
"Ryle, what is with you today? did you learn something from the pigs today?" Ter spoke sternly as he looked at Ryle, who in turn just pointed at the card.
"Later. eat first, well. in your case, clean first then eat, then we'll talk." Ter spoke before taking the card into his pocket.
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While Ryle was enjoying the food with his family, in another city, in an unground room 5 men and 3 women were holding a meeting. All of them wearing black capes to hide their features.
"Halard, how is the situation in Lumen City?" the man in the biggest chair spoke, a mask was planted on his face, pure black with red lines going from the corner of the mouth to the eyes like a magnetic field. A catlike beast resting in his lap as he slowly brushed its fur with a comb.
"Lord, Lumen City is under control, with house Zinan and house Leo out of the picture, everyone gave up resisting, now we have full control of Lumen City if no mishaps happen I will be elected as city lord next year." The man to his right spoke as he showed some papers.
"Good, give those under you a tier 2 absorption technique, we do not want to alert the Empire of our existence yet."
"As you command my lord" Halard spoke as he bowed a bit.
"the rest?" The man spoke a bit irritated after a moment of silence, 'do they expect me to call each one out?'
"My lord, Ultis City has no trouble" a woman spoke then handed some papers down.
"My lord, Ellis City has slight resistance from House Redrick, but we can deal with that ourselves." The man to his right spoke, followed by many others showing their results, most of which were good.
"My lord, Feather City is under control, but the wife of Lucas Grimor has not been found, she is causing trouble every time she is here, but we found traces of the Head Maid, Rafaela, we will use her to draw Rena Grimor out and then deal with both at once." a Busty woman spoke, while the man next to her nodded her head.
"As long as even a Maid of house Grimor is alive, the core of city will never be up for grab, unlike other cities, every Major City is controlled by one of the Major Families that fought side by side with Empress Reyla, although we can destroy the core, the Empire will find out about it, so we need to use their rules to conquer Feather City." the man in the middle spoke as he furrowed his brows, Feather City was the only Major City they worked in, and for that, they needed to get rid of the family bloodline, even the Maid can be considered Family if the Family head had done the ritual, and if one of the descendants later came, all the needed to do is put a drop of blood on it to make their work useless, because the empress at the time made it so that the cores of the major cities each were unique, so for the core to become ownerless, every single one from the family needs to be killed. If anyone later with Grimor blood came forward they would lose their right to rule and if a message was sent to the Empire, their plans would be found. Now they are still in the shadows, once they step into the light, they won't be able to back out again.
"My lord, we can deal with her with our forces" the man spoke as he slightly furrowed his brows.
"Just about how you did before? I even gave you the time and place to ambush Lucas, yet you still failed to kill him, not only that, you failed to kill his wife AND a maid, the worst part is that both of you were fighting her alone, yet she escaped!?" the man's tone went slightly cold as a hint of mana was released from him, making the others instinctively fear him.
'Bloodline!' was the only thing in their heads.
"Subordinates that make mistakes I can tolerate, but subordinates that make mistakes and then try to deny them is something I can not stand. Halard, Selena. The two of you are to assist Jess and Jame"
"Yes my lord!" both of them spoke at the same time.
"Now go, and do your tasks, we will meet again in 5 years, at that time, I want to hear good news, dismissed!" The man in the lead spoke again as his eyes changed to a slight shade of blue.