The sun rose over the village, its gentle light waking the inhabitants, letting them know it was time to start the day. Ren had instead woken up due to the sounds of two people arguing loudly downstairs, he had slept like a log last night because of how exhausted the previous day had left him and he probably would have slept longer if not for the commotion downstairs. Now that he was already up, he decided to make his way downstairs and find out what was going on.
"YOUR'E COMING BACK HOME WITH ME RIGHT NOW"
A middle-aged man shouted angrily he was wearing simple attire and a large straw hat he looked fairly well built, standing behind him there was a small pink-haired girl, who looked to be the same age as Ren.
"I'm not going dad, there are certain reasons why I have to stay here. Nothing you can say will change my mind."
Olivia replied stubbornly, her cheerful voice was filled with resolve. It was during this point of the conversation that Ren made his entrance, when the man saw the tiny Ren, he immediately understood why his daughter was acting up.
Olivia had behaved strangely from the time she was young. She was overly obsessed with whatever she deemed to be cute, this was not a huge problem in itself but what the village elder took issue with, was the fact that her passion was a bit too… extreme.
Once they had taken in an injured rabbit, a young Olivia had tended to it thoroughly, not leaving its side for even a second, especially when sleeping. This had resulted in the rabbit's untimely demise when she rolled over in her sleep and flattened the poor animal.
This event seemed to repeat itself in different ways with every new pet she took in. With each death Olivia would be depressed for the following months. These mood swings of hers were well known throughout the village, making it impossible for him to find her a husband.
When Olivia saw Ren she immediately jumped to his side and opened her arms, trying to hug him. This was easily evaded by Ren, causing her to crash into the wall and fall down. Olivia was dazed for a second but got back up and acted as if nothing had happened.
"Good morning Ren, did we wake you up, this evil man is trying to keep me away from you but you'll protect me right."
Ren ignored her, choosing to focus on their guests instead, from the parts of the conversation he had heard, he had inferred what was going on. The man in front of him was Olivia's father, the village elder.
"Greetings village elder, my name is Ren, thank you for letting me and my master stay in your village."
Ren formally introduced himself, though he had never met him before, the village elder had been kind enough to let them stay here, despite knowing nothing about their backgrounds.
The village elder was seemingly pleased with Ren's conduct, when he inspected him closely, he quickly realised that the boy in front of him was the same kid that Roxy had brought back that day.
"Ah, Ren was it. Roxy mentioned you. I'm glad to see you have recovered, it was quite shocking seeing such a young kid injured like that. You're quite the polite one isn't you, not at all like Roxy."
The village elder said, although his eyes seemed quite scary, the boy seemed pleasant enough. Ren's gaze fell on the young girl peeking out from behind the elder. The girl had light pink hair that reached her shoulders, which matched her vibrant pink irises. She had a cute babyish face and her appearance almost screamed out "protect me" to anyone that laid eyes on her. The village elder saw Ren looking at his daughter and introduced her to him.
"Oh, this is Cherry, my youngest. She's a bit shy so don't mind her too much."
When Ren heard this, he quickly lost interest in her. Ren looked around the room and noticed his master wasn't present, he was going to ask about her but was interrupted by Olivia, who decided that now was the best time to speak.
"Ren why aren't you saving me from this evil man, he's going to take me away and do evil things to me."
Ren could tell that Olivia's accusation wasn't truthful but decided to confirm it anyway.
"Are you evil."
"No, not particularly."
"Okay then, take her with you."
When Olivia heard the exchange between Ren and her father, she started to tear up and promptly let loose the water works.
"sob… What happened to your sob… trust issues sob…"
Ren didn't feel the least bit guilty, he had already fallen for that trick last time. Since he wanted to get rid of Olivia as soon as possible, this situation was perfect for him.
The door swung open, interrupting their discussion. Roxy walked into the room, when she saw the village elder as well as the emotionally distraught Olivia, she could guess what was happening.
"Welcome back master."
Ren greeted her, now that Roxy was back, he could finally start his training. Roxy gave him a curt nod, acknowledging his greeting before turning to the elder.
"Elder can I speak to you alone for a second."
Roxy pointed outside, after the two of them exited, Ren was left all alone with a crying Olivia and the overly shy Cherry, who after losing the shelter that the elder provided, ran up to Olivia hiding behind her instead. Olivia realised that her act was not affecting Ren, so she wiped the tears on her face and began to pout at him.
"Ren why didn't you stand up for me. I even went through the effort of making you a huge breakfast, well, you can forget about that now."
Olivia said, it was only now that Ren somewhat regretted his actions. His training schedule seemed like it would be quite intense and an empty stomach would make it a lot harder. He stared at Olivia, making his eyes as wide as possible.
"I'm sorry Miss Olivia I was mistaken, please forgive me."
Being from a family of assassins, Ren was taught how to control his expressions from a young age. His face right now could move the hearts of almost anyone, especially someone as naïve as Olivia, who quickly crumbled under Ren's cute performance. She couldn't stay mad at something so adorable.
"No worries, everyone makes mistakes. Wait here, I'll go get your breakfast."
Olivia happily left to go to the kitchen humming a merry tune. As soon as Olivia left Ren's face turned back to normal, it seemed like this tactic was quite effective, he would have to remember that for the future.
Cherry, who had lost her final defence against Ren's scary gaze, looked visibly nervous. Ren took the elders advice and ignored her. he sat down at the table and took out the book his master had given him.
Ren had gone through the first chapter already and found it quite interesting, cultivation was nothing new to Ren but the book was easy to read whilst remaining very detailed, this enhanced his understanding quite a bit. Cultivation was the term used to describe getting stronger by following a proven path. Deviating from this path at all may result in your progress completely stagnating or worse.
Much too Cherry's pleasure, Ren continued to read his book in silence without talking to her. Although Ren had done nothing wrong, his cold and distant eyes scared her a great deal.
Olivia came back carrying a plate of food and placed it in front of him, Ren wasted no time in placing his book down, shovelling the food down his throat.
His breakfast consisted of toasted bread, scrambled eggs, and jerky. Although Ren was used to luxurious food prepared by chefs, he only saw food as a necessity, so he was quite happy with the simple food of the villagers.
By the time that Ren was halfway done with his meal, the door opened and Roxy entered the room, followed by the village elder.
"Olivia, I'll let you stay here but on one condition, within the year you have to find a husband, if you promise me this, then I will let you do what you want."
The village elder said, causing Olivia to fall into deep thought. She wasn't averse to getting hitched, it was actually something that had been on the back of her mind for quite a while. Olivia felt like she just hadn't met the right person just yet. Still, a lot of things could happen in a year so she was willing to agree with her father's condition.
"Fine by me."
Olivia said, resuming her humming. Ren on the other hand had a downcast expression on his face. The village elder had raised up his hopes only two shatter them a moment later. Ren could only find comfort in his food as he began to rapidly devour the contents of the plate in front of him.
"Elder, there was one more thing. The brat's about to begin his training so you might as well make use of him. I noticed there's a few holes in the fences that need patching up, he could give you a hand."
Roxy said, wanting to get started with the day, her research had hit a dead end, leaving her rather bored, she could only invest all that free time into Ren.
"I can take him to work on the fields, we could always do with an extra pair of hands but the building of the fences is a sacred ritual for our village, I'm afraid I can't allow anyone who was born outside of the village to assist with the repairs."
The elder replied, Roxy looked like she was about to say something but quickly stopped herself. She realised that the village elder had mentioned something extremely interesting just now.
"Tell me a bit more about those fences."
Roxy asked the village elder, he was a little confused by why Roxy was so interested with the village traditions but since it wasn't exactly a secret, he was more than happy to indulge her.
"The fences are made from the fallen branches of the rosewood tree in the centre of our village, once they are processed by the village craftsman, tradition dictates that the elected representative be the one to carry out the repairs. Its been this way since the village was founded."
When the village elder finished with his explanation, Roxy's eyes lit up, this could be the breakthrough her research desperately needed.
"Brat, I'll be back in time for your afternoon lessons, I need to follow this up."
Roxy said sprinting out of the door. Ren who had just finished with his food waved goodbye, before turning to the elder who was left speechless by Roxy's abrupt exit.
"I guess I'm in your care, Elder."
***
A few hours later, Ren had finished with his workload. He was drenched head to toe in sweat due to dealing with the golden ring, this caused him to name the ring Roxy had given him, the Suffer-Ring. Despite the burden of the Suffer-Ring, Ren managed to complete every task given to him efficiently, not complaining once.
This led to him being a hit with the other field workers. For some reason they didn't approach him like they usually would, instead choosing to admire him from afar.
Ren who had finally finished his fieldwork headed back to the stone building, considering the events of yesterday, working on the field could barely be considered a challenge. Once Ren entered the building, he was greeted by his master, who seemed to be tinkering with a plain wooden band the size of a ring.
"Oh, brat you're back, how was the work"
Roxy asked, before Ren had the chance to reply, he was interrupted by a familiar figure started to run towards him at high speeds
"Ren welcome back"
Oliva cried out joyfully trying to hug Ren while still running, making it seem like a tackle. Ren reacted by simply moved out of the way, which causing her momentum to carry her out of the house. Ren closed the door and locked it behind him like nothing had happened before finally replying to his master.
"It's hard work but it's manageable, unlike Miss Olivia who's just hard work."
Roxy chuckled. It seemed that even though Ren wouldn't admit it himself, he had come to terms with Olivia's residence in the building.
"Oh, but you seem to manage her quite well. Anyway, its afternoon so it's time for your theory less-"
Roxy was interrupted by three soft knocks on the door followed by some sobbing. Ren opened the door and Olivia entered, this time she hadn't even bothered with tears and just made the noises.
"Olivia leave us alone for a bit, I need to teach the brat and don't want to be distracted."
Olivia nodded, she was a bit upset with their neglect and left to go upstairs. Roxy, now free of any potential distractions, gestured for Ren to take the seat next to her and began with her lessons.
"By now, unless your seeking death, you should have gone over the first chapter of the book I gave you. The first chapter covers all the information relevant to your cultivation rank, use your own words to describe the stages of your current Rank."
Roxy said, which made Ren go through all his recent memories to come up with a good answer. After a moments silence Ren responded.
"Rank One Breakers can be split up into three stages, the first stage is Aether sensing, this is when you first come into contact with aether and can manipulate it to some extent. The next stage is Aether accumulation, which is the stage I'm currently in. For this stage you have to continuously accumulate Aether until you reach your bodies natural limit, after you've done this you enter the condensation stage which is where you condense your Aether with the final goal of a solid core, at that point you break into Rank two"
Roxy nodded in approval, this feat may not seem that impressive but Ren was a seven-year-old kid after all, his response just now showed he thoroughly understood the information in the chapter.
"Good, that's all you need to know right now brat, in fact it's more than enough, even the most talented mages take years to advance stages. You should know this you've been at the Aether accumulation stage for almost a year now."
Roxy said, Ren didn't bother to ask how she knew how long he had been in his stage for, Roxy seemed to have many mysterious methods at her disposal and it probably wouldn't do him any good to ask. Ren's eyes fell on to the wooden band Roxy was tinkering with, she noticed his curious gaze and decided to explain.
"Oh this, it's a ring made from a branch that fell of that pink tree in the centre of the village, I asked the village craftsman to make it in exchange for a bottle of whisky, interestingly enough this wooden ring seems to actually repel the demonic beasts, anyway enough with that, its time I teach you about spells."
Roxy said, getting up from her chair and led Ren outside.