He woke up and looked at his red eyes. They looked menacing due to the sharp shape of his eyes. When he went into the shower, he could see his body full of fresh scars. Some of the injuries still do not fully heal yet.
The cold water from the water head didn't faze him but he still flinched when he felt an aching pain from the injuries.
"Hoi bastard, how long are you going to take a shower huh? Who do you think you're? A prince? Get out quick, we have a lot more work to do," an adult woman's voice could be heard calling for him from outside the shower.
He quickly turn off the water head and dried himself with an old towel that he had been using since he could take care of himself. He wasn't sure how old he is but he knew he wasn't that old to do those jobs that they forced him to do.
But if he didn't do it, they would beat him and starve him. So he had no choice.
"Hey, where's that bastard?!" The same woman was yelling and the boy knew she was talking about him.
He wanted to call the woman but he couldn't since he was mute. He couldn't even scream. It was as if something blocking his vocal cord from making any sound.
*(A/N: ordinary mute people still can scream)
"Relax, you gonna get wrinkles if you keep on yelling and get angry like that. Oh, there he is. Come on brat come here," a guy seemingly younger than the woman gestured his hand to the boy.
He walked towards the guy and looked at them with a stoic face. All the people there were already used to the boy's emotionless face.
No matter what they did, the boy's expression didn't change much and he never once utter any weird sound. His pale skin was not pleasing to the eyes along with his dark dark red eyes which looked ominous.
"Ehem, brat. Today you need to help us in the mine. It's the cave mine, not the river that you usually went to," the guy explains before giving an Axe and a huge leather backpack to the boy.
"The mine is a Mythril mine. The metal colour is pale grey so collect as much metal as you can dig and we will give your food by dinner time. Now go and don't die," the guy said one last time before walking away.
The boy started to follow the other adult men who were also on their way to the mine. None of them wants to talk to him.
The boy was only around the waist height of the tallest man. He was too small but none of them forbid him from following them to the mine after seeing how easily the boy pick up the axe that was almost half his height and the backpack that was almost the same size as his body.
"Told you, he's a demon. Which human child could do that?"
"Tsk, there are also normal humans with red eyes so that doesn't mean he's a demon right?"
"Maybe half demon?"
"Why don't they sell him? Isn't meeting a demon rarer than meeting an elf?"
"Dude, which crazy fucker will want to buy a demon? If the authority knew, won't the guy get caught?"
"So what is he doing here?"
"Even though he's small, his strength is comparable to a normal adult so just think of him as an extra worker"
The boy could hear what the men were talking about but he didn't pay any heed. He just need to find some type of metal and bring them back before he could have his dinner, the only meal he would have for the day.
As soon as they arrived in the mining cave, the boy was assigned to the most dangerous place because that place could only be accessed by someone with small stature.
Crack, thud, crush
Using the axe, the boy continue digging for the metals until his name was called, signalling the end of today's work.
The boy never had a watch or learned about time. He just knew morning, afternoon, evening and night.
His bag was half full. In order not to get beaten up, he also clean the dirt from the metals before putting them in the bag. His work is meticulous.
A few of the men kept observing the boy. Even when they were eating lunch, the boy continue working like an emotionless robot that didn't know how to rest if not instructed to do so.
The supervisor of that day's mining was a new worker so he was worried about the boy. He checked the list and found the boy's name.
He went to the boy's area and call for him, "Hey boy, why not you take a rest first and eat or drink something. You didn't seem to bring anything with you so take this bread and mineral water, and rest for 15 minutes before you continue."
The boy looked at him before taking the offer. He just nodded his head before walking away.
"Huh, he's not even thanked me," the supervisor was dumbfounded.
The boy sat didn't far away from them thus with his sharp bearing, he could hear everything.
Suddenly the boy felt someone behind him and before he could turn his head, his back was kicked.
"Hey, who's food you stole huh? Didn't that guy this morning told you can eat dinner after you finish the work. So why are you eating now huh," the woman who came from nowhere scolded?
She even kicked and smashed the bread the boy just managed to take one bite. The boy remained silent on the ground and let the woman kick him like he was a sandbag.
"If you don't do your job properly, I will ask my father to beat you to death," she said before walking away.
Some of the men saw the commotion but acted like they didn't see anything. The woman's father was someone they don't want to get involved with.
The boy could feel his head hurt. It seems he hit his head on the ground first when the woman was kicking his back.
Suddenly the boy felt his throat hurt. He vomited blood.
"Oh my, the poison didn't seem as potent on you huh," the supervisor said with an unreadable expression.
"Damn Sir, you can't test him like that?"
The boy could see someone flashed a weapon in front of his face, "I want to see what a demon's organs looked like"
"Hahaha he's gonna die"
Other men's voices could be heard. Their voices overlapped with each other and it made the boy's headache worst as if his head going to split into two.
His consciousness started to go away.
"Hey, are you ok? Hey Ares! Ares!"
The boy could hear someone calling his name.
He tried to open his eyes.
GASP
Ares woke up on his bed. He was sweating and when he glanced around, the first person he saw was his Grand.
"Ares! Finally, you wake up. What's wrong?" She asked.
"I just have a dream," Ares answered before he drank the holy water given to him.
"Can you tell me what's the dream is about"
Seeing that his great-grandmother looked genuinely worried, Ares's erratic heartbeat finally calmed down.
He told her what the dream was about without leaving any details, "It's weird, that boy wasn't me but I felt he was me. He looked different than me"
"How different?"
"Both his eyes are red and he had black hair"
"What about his face?" Grand asked.
Ares was quiet for a moment because the boy's face didn't look clear except his eyes.
"You said he was mute right?" Seeing Ares's silence, she asked another question.
"Yes"
"Do you perhaps know where the boy lived?"
"Err, I saw something that looked like an old dilapidated orphanage. He seems to be living there," Ares's mind was currently blank.
He went to the Kazigare mansion because when he slept in his villa, he kept on having nightmares about his past life due to the curse inside the villa.
Feeling annoyed that his sleep quality was decreased, Ares thought if he slept in another house, he could sleep more peacefully but he was wrong. He suddenly got a dream about someone he doesn't know or remember knowing.
"Sigh, I will call the doctor to check on you after breakfast," Grand sighed as if she knew something.
"No, it's fine. Maybe because I'm just too tired with school and other kinds of stuff," Ares declined because he already planned to see how Tuah was training Aaron and Ravi with their newfound abilities.
"No, I'm not asking you. This is an order. You stay here and let the doctor check ok. Jax, tell this brat's butler that his young master aren't allow to go out until the doctor said he was fine"
Ares was dumbfounded but he didn't argue anymore and let the old lady do what she thinks is the best.
'This worrywart family. Whatever I can just rest for today
**************************
POV: Zandra Zanuki (Ares's great grandmother/Grand)
"Mom, is there anything wrong? Why are you video calling us this early in the morning," Zanuki's current matriarch, Anith Zanuki asked.
Beside Anith was her husband who was currently drinking a cup of coffee leisurely. There was also another video beside Anith's screen which was Zerisa.
"Grand, is there something wrong with Ares? I knew he was staying in your mansion," Eris asked directly.
"Eris, why do you think I call you and your grandparents because something wrong with Ares? It might be something involving the clan and not Ares since you're the clan's future matriarch," Zandra could sense Eris knew something.
"You know right, that I keep in touch with my mother. She told me in her latest letter that something might happen to Ares and it will implicate others. She warned me to be careful and restrict Ares as much as I could"
"What?! That brat Zeshna said that?" Zen was furious.
Her daughter cut contact with them but then still try to meddle with his grandson's matter.
"Calm down Zen. There must be a reason why Zesh said that to Eris. Is there anything else?" Anith asked.
"She said to tell Grand to seal Ares completely in an isolation chamber if he suddenly became weird as if he's going berserk or something," Eris answered honestly.
Despite her face's expression remained calm, everyone could see her eyes started to tear up. Everyone in the Zanuki knew what complete sealing in the isolation meant.
It meant that person would become like a soulless doll waiting for death. Based on the clan's old records, those who had been sealed using that method will slowly die after a year.
"Preposterous!! Who does she think to ask me to do that huh? I won't do it even if Ares loses control and kill me," this time Zandra was angry.
"Oh my Goddess, what is Zesh thinking? Why should we do that?" Anith was worried while Zen remained quiet.
"That's what was written in the letter. It is the first time mother mentioned Ares but she didn't write down his name but refer him as 'your brother' or 'that brother of yours. I think she still couldn't accept Ares. So Grand, what is the reason you call us?" Eris asked.
"Sigh, that brat seems to slowly remember his memory," Zandra told them directly.
"Will he lose control if he got all the memories back? I don't want to seal him again," Anith was worried.
"Relax my love. Before this when he still remembers everything, did anything happen?" Zen who previously was quiet started to interrupt.
"No-"
"His first losing control was after our mother had a private talk with him five years ago," Eris interrupted.
"Yes, that's my granddaughter. You quickly realize the real problem here isn't Ares's memory but what Zeshna probably had done or said to him. Zeshna is my daughter and I knew how brash and impulsive she could be. Ares on the other hand just minds his own business most of the time. He never seem to care much about anything," Zen said in his conjuncture.
"So what could Zeshna say to him that made him lose control of his power and later went into a coma after we sealed his power into a dormant state?" Anith became more confused.
"Maybe she said something about Ares's father?" Eris gave a wild guess.
"Eris, even though both you and Ares have different fathers, why do you think that was the case. Your mother was adamant to marry that guy when she was already pregnant with Ares. We allow them to get married but then, Zeshna, Ares and his father all went missing for years until we accidentally met with Ares who knew nothing about his parents his whole life. Now Zeshna suggested we do something that obviously will kill Ares. Zeshna is no better than Azazel. At least Azazel never try to harm Ares," Anith started to get emotional.
"That man's name still sounded ominous to me," Zandra commented.
16 years ago when Zeshna said she wanted to get divorced from her current husband to marry a commoner named Azazel, Zandra already felt uneasy. They couldn't find anything about Azazel's background and past.
It was as if he just exist out of thin air. They even thought Azazel was a demon but that guy could use holy power and he was even baptized in front of them.
After they confirmed he wasn't a demon, they just let the two of them get married. Zeshna's former husband, Grisham Yoseve agreed to the divorce since he knew both he and Zeshna weren't meant together since their marriage was just an arranged marriage proposed by their family.
Grisham is a good father since he always came to Eris's parents and teachers meetings. However, he couldn't take Ares as his own and Ares knew that man didn't like him since the first time they met thus Ares voluntarily avoid him every time he saw Grisham visiting Eris.
"Should we tell Ares about everything?" Eris suggested.
"But we never knew how Ares grew up before we found him at the age of eight," Anith was reluctant.
Before Ares went into a coma, he never told them about his childhood but everyone knew it wasn't a pleasant memories seeing the horrendous scars all over his body. Thus no one forced him to tell them either.
"I think Ares started to remember his childhood before he met us. He said something about an orphanage, a boy being beaten and starve daily but weird enough he said that boy wasn't him," Zandra started to recount what Ares told her.
"Let us just observe him for the time being," Zen decided.
After that call ended, Zandra summoned Ares's personal doctor to see if anything was wrong.
"You don't have to worry former matriarch, nothing is wrong with young master Ares. He was just exhausted. Regular rest is needed along with a proper meal," the doctor reported.
"You know that's not what I want to hear. Why is he not acting like the 'others'? It's weird"
The doctor knew what the 'others' meant.
"Ma'am if you asked me why he only lose control once unlike the 'others' that were the same as him, the only answer is because young master Ares is somewhat special. The power seemingly not fully manifest yet so I can't say for sure why."
Even though she still feels dissatisfied, Zandra just dismissed the doctor and continue her work to search for a certain bastard that might know about Ares's condition.
Azazel D.
A man without a proper last name and clear background. The man that most probably turned Ares into who he is today.