Morning of his third day of training, Penta was closing in on the location of the relay point indicated on his map.
"Man what an exhausting trip. I can't wait to take a nap when I get back. Though... I feel an ominous feeling whenever I think of the Inn. They couldn't be that mad... could they?" Penta shivered again for some reason before shaking his head and looking ahead.
He was standing on top of a rather tall tree looking down onto a path in the forest. From what he understood of his map, this path is one of the many that would lead him to the relay point.
"Hehe, found it! Gotta hurry,"
*BANG*
Penta looked down at the sudden noise and saw three people.
One had fiery orange hair with red eyes, he was wearing a white robe embroidered with red lines making him seem as though he came from a rather rich family.
The second was a blond-haired browned eyed youngster who was wearing a green robe with some earthen colors and from his stance, looked to be a lackey of the former.
Finally, there was a young boy who had a simple grey robe but what really stuck out was his white hair.
Oddly enough to Penta, the unique looking little boy with white hair was on the ground while the other two were yelling at him.
-On the ground-
"Karu, you little shit. Can't you walk straight?" Griss, the fiery orange-haired boy, said as he looked down with disdain.
"Oh come on now Griss, Karu is an idiot, you really can't expect much from an orphan idiot like him." Faren said while also sneering at the fallen white-haired boy.
"Shut up Faren, if it wasn't for him acting as a porter, you think I wouldn't have already beat his ass? Tsk, now get up before I make sure you never can." Griss said in a threatening voice.
"Y-yes." Karu the timid looking white-haired boy replied before standing up and picking up a very large bag. He looked at the two before him and couldn't help but be slightly angry inside.
'Faren you disgusting pig, if you hadn't tripped me, why would I fall?' Karu thought to himself but kept his thoughts to himself for fear of offending these two.
Karu had been forced to come along these two as they so "kindly" invited him to be their third party member when all they wanted was a porter who they could mock while finishing their respective tasks.
"U-Uhm Griss, c-could I take a moment to go finish my task, there are some azanis flowers in the area that I need to get." Karu brought out the courage to ask as he also had a task to hand in and didn't want to return only to fail.
His monthly remuneration was barely able to help his practice as it was and he really couldn't afford to waste moments like these.
"You dare call master Griss by his first name?" Faren seeing an opportunity immediately took it to bring the young Karu down even more.
Griss seeing this was about to agree as the grass was right there but seeing what Faren said, he also got angry.
"Karu it seems you think you and me are of the same standing." Griss said with a dark tone with slightly fiery sparks emerging on his arms.
"N-NO! I-I was simply asking if I could finish m-my task..." Karu didn't know how it turned out like this and started hating Faren even more for instigating this. Karu noticed the embers emerging on Griss and was started to get worried.
Griss was from a prominent family and his skill was the real thing. He was an advanced apprentice at the age of 17 and he could definitely beat Karu down to an inch of his life and no one would care.
Faren his lackey was a close second at the intermediate apprentice realm and Karu already didn't like his chances seeing Griss getting angry.
"It seems I need to remind you of your place." Griss said with a frown and raised his arm that started turning red hot.
Faren was snickering by the side fueling the flames at what was bout to become of the timid Karu.
Karu not knowing what to do started panicking as he knew he couldn't defend against this move. The heat was already starting to emit heat into the environment and Karu's face was heating up.
He was just a beginner grade apprentice, he had been forced into this position for some reason by Faren when he was looking for a task this month.
Griss's hand swung full force at Karu.
However, unexpectedly, Karu who had closed his eyes didn't feel the onslaught of heat.
Karu looked in front of him and a large dark mass stood there.
"Sigh. This is probably one of the more pathetic displays i've seen since arriving."
"W-Who are you!?" Faren regained his bearing when he saw a young man standing in front of Griss and his hand.
Griss was even more shocked as he knew he definitely swung his hand full force and it hit with close to 50% of his strength while his fire was used. Had this been used on Karu, the boy would have had scorch marks all over his face and that too for a long time until, and if ever Karu found a way to heal it.
"Hehe, so little Griss, feels good flaunting your strength against those weaker than you?" Penta said with a slightly wicked smile appearing on his face.
"W-who are you!?" Griss repeated Faren's question.
"Hehe, who am I? Simple Little Griss, I'm the one and only "Honorable Brother" didn't ya know?" Penta said with some smugness.
Karu was still flabbergasted at the whole scene that just transpired. He stood still with shock apparent in his eyes.
"Alright now boys, I need you three to be this honorable brother's porters for the day. Hehe." Penta said with an even more sadistic looking smile.
"W-WHAT? Do you know who we are!? I'm Faren Lorr of the Lorr clan and this is Griss Briskflame of the great Briskflame clan!?" Faren who understood what Penta was asking started shouting.
Penta was using his pinky to pick at his ear as his face looked annoyed at the yelling Faren.
"SHUT UP!!"
Penta shouted for the first time in a while and the sheer force of power that was directed at Faren from his voice made the boy fall onto the floor with sweat appearing around his face. Cutting his speech off before Faren could continue his introduction.
"That was a nice introduction little Faren but you should keep your voice down when you're talking to this honorable brother," Penta said a little irritated.
Penta had seen, read, and witnessed far too many things in both his lives to let this kind of crap about sons and daughters of great families abusing the respect that trickled down from their ancestors' achievements.
While ignoring the shocked Faren, and the apprehensive Griss. Penta turned around to the still Karu and poked at his face.
"Little Karu, aren't you going to introduce yourself as well?" Penta asked while smiling, though his smile didn't really show much gentleness compared to the other two, his eyes did show a little less irritation.
"U-Uhm, I'm Karu..." Karu stutterred out.
"Just Karu? No big family name like the other two?" Penta asked curiously.
"N-No... I'm an orphan." Karu replied while lowering his head a little.
"Ah, I get ya. No worries there. Anyways back to the matter at hand. Karu go stand next to the other two." Penta pointed and turned back to the trio after Karu found himself next to Griss and Faren.
"Great catch I got. Haha, alright little one's you're going to be my porters for the day! Any questions?" Penta said with a smile while thinking about all the crap he had to leave behind and figuring with these three he might be able to haul back some extra materials. They could also act as a guide since he felt that they should be heading to the relay point as well.
"What do you mean porters? You think someone from the Briskflame family would be reduced to such a shameful position?" Griss retorted as he realized the other man wasn't trying to save Karu but find some porters. He couldn't tarnish his name or pride on such a thing.
Griss realized the man should be quite strong since he took the full brunt of his attack at 50% but Griss wouldn't take this sort of thing lying down.
"Oh?" Penta smiled at the defiant Griss.
"Hahahaha, this is going to be fun but unfortunately little Griss. I don't have much time and I need some Porters today. Follow my orders or get a spanking. Choose." Penta would have loved to play around with another human who had actually trained past intermediate apprentice and he knew from the energy coming off Griss that he was one. However, he had to get accepted into the Storm tribe and this was his last day off.
"W-What? You dare!?" Griss lost it and immediately launched an attack with a flaming punch.
The punch started spiraling into a drill-like shape as it neared Penta's chest. Penta noticed the change and was quite impressed as he had only been able to make a little toaster like fire.
Nonetheless, Penta had something Griss didn't and that was the power that came to those of the emperor line.
Penta stepped to the side in a fluid motion and grabbed Griss by his right wrist and guided him forward forcefully. Forcing Griss to fall face first towards the ground.
Griss had wanted to stop this action but the force behind that pull was immense for a normal body of an apprentice to handle.
Penta looked around and broke a branch off a tree before sitting on the Little Griss's back.
"Now listen you two, I can be a kind and honorable brother or I can be a strict and honorable brother. Be porters for the day or suffer from my stick!" Penta said as he looked dead in the eyes of both Faren and Karu before reinforcing the stick with some of his astral energy.
"Now, now Griss. This is what happens when you attack someone unjustly over something stupid like your little pride."
*SNAP*
*ARGHHHH*
Penta started whipping the branch over poor little Griss's bottom with quite a bit of force.
Faren and Karu who were watching could not believe their eyes. Especially Faren as he knew exactly who Griss and his family were.
Karu was just as shocked to see someone so unrestrained in front of a Briskflame member.
The beating had continued for a good minute as Griss was crying in pain with tears in his eyes.
"Now apologize!" Penta said while still holding the stick and sitting on the boy's back.
"I-I'm S-s-sorrry!" Griss said between snot and tears.
"See, that wasn't so hard now was it? Good, Little Griss, now let's get going, you guys need to help me carry some things." Penta said with a smile as he was slowly getting up.
"I-I will n-never be a porter!" Griss squeezed out through tear-stained cheeks.
"Sigh, you didn't learn." Penta said regretfully before plopping right back down.
*SNAP*
*ARRGHHHH*
A few minutes later, a swollen-eyed, fiery orange hair holding boy was carrying a bag with a look of being wronged from the deepest part of his soul.
"Alright see? Wasn't too hard now was it?" Penta said as he smiled.
"Now about you two... what I just saw was very unbecoming of you two." Penta said while looking slightly stern.
"W-what do you mean?" Karu asked as he was surprised that this man had said they were unbecoming when they hadn't done anything at all.
"Your friend here was getting the spanking of a lifetime and both of you of neither prompted me to stop or tried to mediate. For people who will be my porters, how could I allow such acts of betrayal to go unpunished?" Penta said while shaking his head.
"Sigh, this is good for you two as well." He said while smiling and holding up the stick to which both Karu and Faren lost all color to their faces.
*SNAP* *SNAP*
*ARGHHHH*