A full moon hung high in the sky, illuminating a blood-soaked courtyard and revealing numerous corpses dressed in thick black cloaks, their faces held red markings and fearful expressions. At the centre of the courtyard stood a young child no older than six, grasping a dagger drenched with red, matching his scarlet irises that calmly looked up at the shining moon.
"Mission accomplished father."
The boy said with a cold and distant voice that struggled to be heard over the howling wind.
"t-thank you f-for saving me"
A young girl wearing torn rags made her presence known by coming out from her hiding spot in the shrubbery, her clumsy words, although polite, held an unconcealed fear towards the boy in front of her.
"I didn't come here to save you… just kill enemies of the kingdom."
The boy said plainly, pausing afterwards to wonder why he was even bothering to talk to someone irrelevant to his mission.
"s-still if it w-wasn't for you I'd be dea-"
The girls stuttering came to an abrupt end as a rough hand grabbed her from behind and a steel blade hovered dangerously close to her exposed neck. The man responsible for this glared at the boy with crazed eyes.
"So, there was still one of you left."
The boy sighed, wondering what hole this man had crawled out from.
"Silence heretic, this girl was meant to be a sacrifice to the Tainted One… but you… you"
The man yelled manically amidst the girls struggles, the boy simply shook his head and took a step forward, brandishing his dagger whilst his cold eyes locked onto the cloaked man, sending shivers down his spine.
"Come n-no c-closer, I w-will kill this girl if you t-take one m-more s-step"
The man yelled at Ren but his threat held no effect on the boy, who calmly walked closer.
"My orders were to eliminate the cult of Tai Un, not to rescue anyone."
The boy said icily, his words made the man stagger backwards almost stumbling to the ground, he realised that his hostage held no worth so he pushed her towards the boy in hopes of slowing him down while he turned his back and started to flee.
The boy dodged the incoming girl with a swift side step letting her fall to the ground behind him, he held his dagger high, throwing it with a surgical precision.
THUD.
The man crashed into the ground a few meters away, with the addition of a dagger planted directly into the back of his neck. The boy walked over and retrieved his dagger, glancing back at the girl who was trying her hardest to stand back up.
"No witnesses… I'll make it painless."
The boy spoke coldly, making the girls face fill with dread, she felt a suffocating pressure fall over her as his gaze swept over her, her knees became weak and she once again fell to the ground.
"That's enough Ren, the missions already complete."
A sweet but lonely voice made the boy named Ren turn his head where he saw a young teenage girl that he shared a striking resemblance with, like Ren, her clothes and face was splattered with blood.
"Sis… but father said to elimin-"
"I don't give a shit what that ice sculpture said, right now you take orders from me."
The girl said harshly but she never raised her voice, Ren didn't need to be told twice and immediately put his dagger away but just this wasn't enough to satisfy his sister
"What are you standing around for, help her up."
She glared at Ren but unlike the man before, it was clear to see that her harshness came from a place of warmth. Ren quickly outstretched his hand towards the girl on the floor but she didn't take it and cowered in fear.
"Hurry up."
Ren said impatiently causing the girl to reluctantly grab her hand and let herself be pulled up.
"Sorry about that, it must have been tough on you… I'm Emily and this is my brother Ren, what's your name."
The girl named Emily asked with a warm and comforting voice that made the young girl who had been lost in fear just moments ago, ease up somewhat.
"Reti... m-my names Reti"
Reti replied causing Emily's face to bloom with a beautiful smile.
"Well Reti, my advice is that you forget about what happened tonight and get on with your life, do you live close by?"
Emily asked kindly causing Reti to shake her head.
"No my home is far away but gramps is close by"
"Then you should probably go find him, can you do that for me."
Emily spoke sincerely, placing a warm hand on Reti's shoulder, causing Reti to nod her head.
"Good, please leave here quickly then… oh one more thing, please don't hate my foolish brother, he's a good person deep down."
Reti glanced at the emotionless boy who was standing next her and wondered if that really was the case. She bowed towards Emily and quickly walked off, disappearing into the darkness.
"Why did you let her go?"
Ren asked his sister curiously, his father had clearly stated to leave no witnesses alive. Emily looked up at the starry sky with distant eyes and started speaking softly.
"Ren, why do you think our father makes us do these things."
She asked, Ren didn't even need to think, the answer to this question had been instilled in him from since he could remember.
"To protect the kingdom from the shadows by eliminating threats and ensure a better future for the citizens."
"Then was that girl a threat or was she a citizen of this kingdom."
"She was a citizen… but father sai-"
"Ren don't bring that man up, think for yourself and not with your mind but your heart, you might be too young to understand now but don't forget these words, I don't want to see you become like our father"
"I understand."
Ren said but his face suddenly dropped and he buried his head into his hands. A dark aura seemed to wrap around his body, pushing Emily away and sending shivers down her spine.
"Ren, what's wrong?"
Emily asked, startled by the developments but her body was frozen in place as the surrounding temperature began to plumet.
"Actually, there's one thing I don't understand."
Ren spoke slowly his voice was filled with pain and suffering, the dark aura began to fade away but Emily was still shivering uncontrollably and a suffocating feeling welled up from within her. Ren raised his head and blood began to pour out of his eyes which now had become completely black and empty, devoid of any signs of life.
"When you killed me… where you thinking with your mind or your heart."
Emily felt her surroundings darken to black, she woke up in her bedroom at the Linheart mansion, her bead was soaked with sweat and her pillows with tears, sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains letting in just enough light to see her dull eyes that had long since lost their lustre.
"Oh, that's right… I killed him."
She said, her voice was all chocked up, she glanced at a small dagger underneath her pillow before picking it up and playing with it in her hands.
"Time to make the pain go away."
***
A few days later, Ren had mostly recovered from his injuries. He was currently lying down on a bed while Roxy sat on a wooden stool by the bedside, with her palms placed firmly on his chest.
There was an almost ethereal white radiance surrounding her hands as Ren felt a warm and comforting sensation spread throughout his chest. A short while later, the white glow slowly faded, completely vanishing. Roxy got up from her wooden stool, removing her hands from Ren's chest.
"You really are lucky brat, even though healing isn't my strong point, I doubt you will ever receive treatment better than this."
Ren ignored the undisguised arrogance in her words, over these past few days he had gotten to know her better. Although Roxy was quite egotistical, while Ren was bedridden, she never once forgot to bring him three meals a day.
She would also spend a lot of time sitting with him, neither of them was any good at small talk, so they would often pass the time in silence, reading the various books Roxy owned but he never once felt lonely.
From the times they did talk, Ren learned a lot about the reasons why she was staying in the village as well as the mysteries of Aether, the energy of the universe. Roxy didn't lie to him, she said she was going to take him under her wing, and that was exactly what she did.
***
Yesterday night,
"Listen closely brat. This world contains many mysteries, the most obscure of them is Aether. No one knows for sure what its origin is but what we do know is its everywhere. In the air, within living creatures, or even in the empty void of space, no matter where you go, aether will be present."
Roxy said lighting her pipe, Ren eagerly listened to her explanation, he already knew most of what she was telling him but was drawn in by her charisma, hanging onto every word that came out of her mouth. After exhaling a puff of smoke, she carried on with her explanation.
"People like me and you have the rare ability to manipulate the Aether stored in their bodies to perform what is commonly referred to as magic. These individuals are collectively known as breakers. There are many ranks that divide the strength of breakers but I'll explain that later, what's important now, is to get the basics down. Before I continue do you have any questions."
She asked Ren, he immediately shook his head, although he did indeed have a few things he wanted to clarify, he thought it would be best if he waited for her to finish her explanation.
"All breakers are born with a thing called mental strength, simply put it's the power of the mind. Using mental strength, we can give Aether attributes, transforming it from an intangible energy source, into something that can interact with the physical world."
Roxy placed her index finger in front of him, without warning a beautiful golden flame flickered into existence, dancing on top of her finger.
"There are countless attributes but the ones you will see most commonly are based of the seven elements, fire, water, wind, earth, light, shadow and metal. Non elemental attributes are harder to learn but an example of one is the life attribute that I used to heal you."
This was something Ren didn't know about, he initially thought that magic only consisted of the seven elements but when he thought back to Roxy's healing sessions, her words seemed more plausible.
"That's it for the basics we can go into detail once your fully recovered but first I will need to assess your current capabilities to see if your worthy to be my assistant. I hope you don't disappoint me."
After saying that, she left the room to carry on with her research, leaving Ren to digest what she had just told him. Ren was thinking about how she would test him after he recovered. He desperately needed to impress her otherwise he would lose her protection, also he felt if he followed Roxy, he would be able to get stronger, something that was essential if he wanted to get his revenge.
***
Back to the present, Ren had fully recovered. Despite him being exhausted mentally, his body was full of energy. Wanting to confirm he was truly healed. Ren leapt out of his bed and jumped around the room. His body was fully responsive and acted as normal, causing his mood to improve.
"Hold still brat, although your body is recovered, my healing takes a toll on your vitality. If you move around too much, you might permanently damage your vitality."
Roxy reprimanded him, causing Ren to stop jumping around, he noticed that even though he had only been moving around for a short while, he already felt out of breath. Roxy took a deep sigh before continuing to speak.
"Just get some sleep, it's already night and you have a busy day ahead of you. This is your room from now on but if you can keep it depends on tomorrow. When you wake up, I will be gone, so clean the house up while you wait."
She said walking out of the room, causing Ren to feel nervous when he thought about the assessment he faced tomorrow, his last one didn't go like he hoped, but at least this test would be based of his capabilities and not something obscure like fate. At this point he realised that Roxy still hadn't left the room, but she was standing in the doorway. A moment later she turned around, so she was facing him.
"Good night."
Roxy said in an awkward voice that showed how unfamiliar she was at using the phrase. Not waiting for Ren's reply, she left the room, closing the door behind her.
"Good night Miss Roxy"
Ren replied even though she had already left the room. He got into bed, quickly falling asleep due to the after effects of the healing process.
The night passed peacefully for Ren and he only woke up due the bright sunlight streaming in to the room through the window.
Ren rolled himself out of bed and stretched his arms, after yawning loudly, he rubbed his eyes and his vision cleared. After washing up he headed downstairs to start cleaning the house.
The building he and Roxy was staying in was a stone structure used by the villagers to store wheat for the coming winter. With it being late summer, the village elder decided to let Roxy stay there. When Roxy moved in, she completely remodelled the building, turning the interior into something habitable.
The downstairs of the building was one large open room enclosed with tall cobble walls, Roxy had turned the back of the room into a crudely improvised kitchen, with various ingredients stacked on top of each other. Pots and pans were scattered haphazardly on the floor and there was a small stone furnace in the backed up against the wall, it was full of scrapes and had definitely seen better days.
In the middle of the room there was a small, wooden table with four chairs around it, this table was t probably the dining table but at the moment it was completely covered with documents and articles, suggesting that no one had eaten a meal on it recently.
The floor of the room seemed to be made of rectangular wooden planks but it was hard to tell because the flooring was covered in a thick layer of dust that was thrown into the air when you walked over it.
Seeing the terrible state, the room was in, Ren got to work with his chores. Taking a broom that was randomly placed against the wall, he started thoroughly sweeping the room. Ren was relatively inexperienced when it came to cleaning, in fact this was the first time he had ever held a broom but back at the mansion he had often seen the staff at work so after imitating their actions, he quickly got the hang of it.
Around the time he was halfway done with the sweeping, Ren felt a pair of eyes staring at him through the window but he paid it no mind, it was probably just a curious onlooker. Despite knowing this, Ren kept his guard up, on the off chance it was someone with malicious intentions, it was probably best to be prepared. With his vigilance high, Ren continued to sweep the floors.
A few minutes later the eyes were still staring at him, causing Ren to finally look up and see who was there. The culprit was a girl that looked around to be around sixteen, she was chewing a strand of wheat and staring at him through the window. The girl was wearing a straw hat that covered her brown hair which was tied into twin-tails, her olive skin and gentle features made her look extremely kind and outgoing.
The girl saw Ren staring at her and realised that she had been found out, she came around to the front door knocking the door loudly three times. Ren walked up to the door and opened it halfway. He had no idea about the girl's motivations in coming here but he decided he should at least find out her identity.
"Who are you and what do you want."
Ren asked coldly, the permanent glare on his face and the tone of voice seemed to scare the girl, causing her to take a step back. After seeing Ren's tiny frame, she wondered why she was so afraid of a child, she quickly regained her composure and answered him in a light cheerful voice.
"I'm Olivia one of the villagers here, nice to meet you. I just finished baking some bread when I bumped into Miss Roxy, who told me you were healed so I decided to pay you a visit and give you some of the bread to congratulate you on your recovery.
Ren patiently waited for her to finish. She seemed friendly enough but Ren still wasn't convinced, Emily's betrayal had taught him that appearances could be deceitful. As nice as the girl seemed, it could just be an act to lull him into a false sense of security.
Olivia who just introduced herself, was shocked at just how cute the kid was in front of him was. Despite the scary look in his eyes, Ren had a mysterious charm to him that made him seem almost like a doll.
Entranced by his cuteness, Olivia reached out to pat his head. In the next few moments Olivia abruptly felt a dull pain in her stomach. She felt the strength in her legs vanish as her vision slowly faded into black.
Ren who had just punched Olivia in the gut was surprised at how easily she went down, when she reached out her hand just now Ren assumed that she was going to attack him so he took the initiative and struck her first.
As it stood, it was highly unlikely she came here with bad intentions but Ren couldn't be certain. He knelt by her body and began searching her clothing for any clues that would confirm her identity.
Roxy who had just arrived at the scene, saw something that made her raise an eyebrow. She saw her assistant to be, kneeling over the unconscious body of a girl she recognised, taking of her clothes in broad daylight. The spectacle before her caused her eye to begin twitching.
"Brat, I'm glad that you have taken interest in the fairer sex… but please remember consent is extremely important."
Roxy said walking over to Olivia's unconscious body.
***
"I'll consider forgiving you if you let me pat your head."
Olivia who had just woken up was harassing Ren. While she was unconscious Roxy had brought her inside, laying her down on the couch. After facepalming and explaining to Ren that Olivia wasn't a threat, Roxy tapped Olivia's forehead, rousing her from her slumber.
Ren felt bad for jumping to conclusions but he wasn't willing to let himself be taken advantage of by a stranger he had just met.
"Why do I need your forgiveness, you can keep it. I acted out of self-defence, you may have not been trying to attack me but how was I meant to know that."
Olivia was stunned by Ren's frigid personality. She was a curious person by nature and seeing a little kid who acted like an adult piqued her interest. Not willing to back down before getting what she wanted, Olivia quickly fired back.
"No matter what you say, your actions were way out of line. What if I got seriously hurt… but since I'm a nice person I'm willing to forget all of that if you just let me pat your head."
Now it was Ren's turn to be stunned. He had no idea why Olivia was so obsessed with his head but after thinking about it for a while, maybe he could use her scalp obsession to his advantage. He had only been cleaning the house for a short while but already found it quite tedious. Ren decided to take a shot in the dark and try bargaining with her.
"I can consider it, if you do me a little favour, don't worry it's nothing too hard."
Ren said innocently, purposely using a voice that made him seem more child-like. Olivia who didn't know what Ren's goal was, decided to play along.
"And what would that favour be."
Seeing that Olivia had taken the bait he used his finger to point around the room, she followed his finger with her eyes and saw the terrible state the room was in, she got the feeling she knew what he was hinting at but his next words confirmed her suspicions.
"Today I was meant to clean this place but the task is a lot harder than I thought, just by sweeping the floor, I'm already exhausted. If you can finish the cleaning for me, I would be happy to let you pat my head."
"That's fine by me."
Olivia's reply came almost instantly, she was quite good at housework and cleaning such a mess seemed to be a pretty heavy workload for a young child. In truth she was quite fond of children, especially one as cute as Ren. She happily took the broom off Ren and started skilfully sweeping the floor, humming cheerfully.
Roxy who had remained silent throughout their interaction was now shaking her head. She didn't really mind who did the chores as long as they were finished but she couldn't help but feel slightly pissed off when she saw the faint smirk on Ren's face. Roxy decided to ignore what she felt since it meant she could save time. Sighing deeply, she turned to Olivia who was sweeping the floor.
"As long as your happy… Me and the brat have something to do but it shouldn't take that long. We will probably be back before you finish."
Roxy said while walking towards the door with Ren following behind her. Olivia simply waved goodbye and got on with the cleaning.
Roxy led Ren into the forest that surrounded the village. He noticed the scenery was quite similar to the forest that hugged the Linheart mansion. After walking for a while Roxy started speaking to him.
"Brat I've mentioned demonic beasts to you before right."
Ren nodded his head. He knew about them even before meeting Roxy. Demonic beasts where highly aggressive creatures that could be found everywhere on the continent. They lacked intelligence but had extremely high physical strength and actively attacked human settlements unprovoked.
Roxy had mentioned to him previously that they were the focus of her investigation, more specifically she was trying to find out the reason why they didn't attack the village even though they infested these forests surrounding it.
"Good, your task today is to hunt one of them."
Ren's jaw dropped at her words. Even though demonic beasts couldn't use magic, their physical prowess was off the charts. With Ren's current abilities, fighting a demonic beast would be like begging to be killed. Roxy sensed Ren's surprise, so she cleared up his misunderstanding.
"Don't be scared, since you're just a brat, the beast you will be hunting down will also be as young as you."
Roxy's words made Ren breathe a sigh of relief, the offspring were significantly weaker than adult demonic beasts, so it was a reasonable request. Though he had never fought one before, it didn't seem like something hard to pull off. Roxy stopped suddenly and placed her hand in front of Ren to prevent him from walking any further.
"We're here."
She said casually, causing Ren to look up and see that they were approaching a large grass field which was sparsely populated with a few trees. In the distance Ren could see a large sloping valley that had a clear stream running through it.
"Your task is to kill that young Scaled Rhino"
Roxy pointed in the general vicinity of the valley. Ren's gaze followed in the direction Roxy was pointing, his eyes falling on the demonic beast in the distance that was drinking from the stream, when he finally realised what he was looking at, he felt shocked. He looked back at his master with disbelief.
"You… You want me to fight that."
His stupor wasn't unwarranted. Although the beast was quite far away, Ren could still tell that the Scaled Rhino was absolutely gigantic, just its height alone seemed to exceed his own by a huge margin. Its grey body had reddish hues, and its snout sported two massive, curved horns that ended in dangerously sharp points.
Only one phrase sprung to Ren's mind and it seemed to perfectly encapsulate his current situation.
"Child abuse."