Drake cleared his throat and continued-
"In the meantime, Grandfather and Grandmother had 2 kids, father Gordon and uncle Rudolf. Father being the elder of the two. They both awakened at the age of 11, Father reached peak human at an age of 15 and it took him 3 years to break through to warrior ranks, his nature being lightning, on the other hand, Uncle Rudolf reached peak human at an age of 17, it took him 2 years to breakthrough to warrior ranks. Uncle's nature was fire. They both were disciples of Grandfather Solomon along with 4 other people Shakuni, Ivor, Orion, and Venora. Uncle Shakuni and Ivor were cousins, both equally talented. Uncle Shakuni was a bi-natured, fire and wind. Uncle Ivor, water nature. Ivor and Orion were average when it came to cultivation, the first one was of wind nature, and the latter being an earth nature cultivator.
King Augustus frequently requested Grandfather to take part in the tournament and sometime later he finally accepted. He went to compete in this tournament along with his disciples (Gordon, Shakuni, Rudolf, Ivor, Orion, and Venora). At that time Grandfather was at Grandmaster-4, Father was a Warrior-6, Uncle Shakuni peak Warrior-5, both uncle Rudolf and uncle Ivor Warrior-3, and both Orion and Venora peak Human rank cultivators.
Everyone did great in the competition, the audience and the Noble families were equally shocked, to see some nobody's from nowhere win one match after another. It was finally Grandfather's turn, as he was just a few steps away from the stage he collapsed. Seeing him fall King Agustus came flying down from his throne. He then with teary eyes declared his best friend dead. Grandfather's disciples were filled with horror, even the audiences were left aghast, watching someone die in such a manner. Medics were called out immediately. After examining, they told that the reason for death was the consumption of a high-grade poison, which was made by mixing 2 different poisons, both extracted from 2 different species of master-rank snake monsters. They further added it was generally used by unorthodox/evil sects from Cheung.
The tournament went on, as only 6 people participated out of 7, so according to the rules we were to be disqualified but still, we weren't. Other families were furious watching King being biased and tampering with the old traditions. Almost all families present opposed the king's decision. Finding no other way the king used his authority and made my father a Noble and his Withlock family a small Noble family. According to this power, the King could grant someone a Noble title even though they have no public or battle achievements. This authority or power had 2 shortcomings, first, it could only be used once and it can just give a title and benefits of a small Noble family."
"Father, were they able to catch the culprit ?" Nile asked with curious gaze while intercepting Drake.
"No, the killer remains at large till now" Drake replied with a sorrowful expression.
"But, king and Great Grandpa were so great friends, but sti-" Nile was in mid-sentence but he was cut short by Drake.
"Nile, King did his best searching for the killer. But these evil sects operate in secrecy. Even The Otron Empire is still unable to locate these sects." Drake said and continued with his story
"Grandmother was devastated seeing her husband's dead body, her heart collapsed and she died at the spot. When People in Withlock heard the news of their chief and chieftainess death, they moaned for years, they refused to celebrate anything in those years. Time passed by Father, Uncle Rudolf, uncle Ivor, uncle Shakuni along with Darren's father Darius who was a human rank 5 cultivator kept participating in the tournament.
Orion and Venora abandoned the path of cultivation. Later they both married each other and left the town and bought small farming land and became farmers in the deep North of Ablon.
My father met my mother and then they later married. That was the day Withlock ended their moaning and celebrated, after a few years I was born."
Drake paused, looked at the ceiling and continued with a heavy heart-
"It had only been a few years when a tragedy struck us again, we were traveling to a nearby town when our convoy was attacked by bandits. The strongest cultivator present with us was Darius, there were 10 soldiers in our convoy including Darius . We were outnumbered by 2 to 1 (20 bandits), and these odds played against us. Everyone was slaughtered including Darius and my mother, one soldier held me and managed to escape the slaughter. 9 soldiers out of 10 and 5 non-cultivators out of 6 were ruthlessly slaughtered there. There was again moaning in the Withlock town. I was just 6 when I saw my mother getting stabbed. I can never forget the eyes of that bandit that killed my mother. I was traumatized. At that time your mother helped me get over that trauma."
He paused and looked at Nile and said while smiling -"Nile, when you meet a girl, who stands up for you when you yourself don't, marry that girl. Looking at your handsome face and your intelligence , I am sure you will have many suitors, but one girl is enough when she is the right one. Well you know it is common to have many wives but that's just my suggestion and it's up to the future you. I don't even know why I am telling this to a 3-year-old " Drake said while scratching his head and smiling.
"Father, I will keep it my mind" Nile replied
Drake then further told Nile about the hardships Darren has faced and continued further " I was 29 years old when Father, Uncle Shakuni, Uncle Rudolf and uncle Ivor went missing, just a few days before the tournament. We were disqualified from the tournament, as we had already submitted the names, and 4 out of those 7 people were missing an-."
"Father, who was that last person? I thought everyone in the town was human ranked except you and uncle Darren" Nile took a pause and continued "What was the cultivation level of Grandpa and the others" Nile asked interrupting Drake
"Evan was that 3rd person, he is your maternal uncle. I know you must have never heard about him let alone see him. He is a wild-spirited person who hardly stays in one location. You will have to wait at least 10-11 years before you get to meet him. He is a strong cultivator and the last time, we met he was on the same cultivation level as me. Your GrandFather was Master 6, Uncle Rudolf Master 1, Uncle Ivor Master 3 and Uncle Shakuni Master 8." Looking at the doubtful expression on Nile's face Drake added
"I know you must be thinking how Uncle Shakuni surpassed grandfather. We don't know and can only assume he worked harder than grandfather. " Answering Nile's questions he continued on the story
" I cannot tell you much, but if we would have had participated and won, our family and town would have benefitted a lot. Not participating took on an opposite effect on us" Drake said sighing
"Then after few years, we were blessed by a handsome baby boy. Happiness again knocked on our door. Can you guess who it was ?" Drake asked while raising his left eyebrow.
Thinking for a while, with a clueless look Nile replied "I don't know the answer to this question".
"WHHHHHATTTTT, seriously" Drake almost puked blood, 'So much of a genius he is, he is a complete fool when it comes to jokes and emotions. Come on Nile I expect better than that, even a 2 year can do better. I think we should cut down the time he spends with Mia, she is having a bad influence on him.' Drake thought while staring at Nile with wide eyes.
Drake continued "Never mind, so this a gist about our family's history and how different people contributed in both positive and negative ways, so we could be here where we are right now. Any query ?" Drake asked
"Father, why didn't King Augustus aid us in all those bad times ?" Nile asked
" Son, he tried his best but you must know, many bad people are waiting for him to make mistakes so they could use that against him and take over the kingdom. There is too much ugly politics up there. I wish our family could help them." Drake sighed while replying
"Father why cannot he kill all the bad people ?" Nile asked instantly without any expression.
Drake was startled for a moment by his question, he then collected himself and replied "Son if he kills all the bad people, the kingdom will weaken, which will give other countries an opportunity to attack." Drake replied .
"Kill the country that attacks," Nile replied still without any expressions.
Drake was startled again, after a while he replied in a rushed tone. "Son how can you kill a country. King Agustus or anyone else in this kingdom cannot do that"
After analyzing the answer for a while he replied with a satisfied expression "Ohh, King Agustus is not strong enough".
Drake was speechless hearing his answer, a three year old calling the strongest cultivator of the nation weak. While he was standing there dumbstruck, the door opened and Elora entered. She kissed Nile on his forehead who was sitting on the chair and turned to face Drake and said "Drake, I am taking Nile with me, it is his supper time". Elora paused and looked at Nile who was looking tired and she further added "Whatever you were telling him you could continue tomorrow." Elora said with a stern commanding tone. She then slowly gestured Nile to hold her hand and said " Come, baby, it's your supper time", that commanding and stern voice she used earlier, was now replaced with a warm and sweet tone.
Nile held her hands while smiling and they left.
All this time Drake was standing there, still shocked by Nile's reply. After seeing Elora and Nile's departing figure he came back to his sense and thought ' What a logical child. There is never a single day he ceases to amaze me, initially it was by his actions and now by his words. I wonder what type of a man he will become.'
NOTE- In the first chapter, I have written 3 out of 4 cultivators of Withlock family was missing. I would update it to '4 out of 7 culivators were missing'.