Keith kept walking towards the shed near his house. This house had a shed, three rooms, one for sleeping and the second one for storing axes and other items and the third one was used as a kitchen.
The house wasn't too small nor was it too big.
"I'm home." Keith said a little loudly, putting the wood in the nearby shed and entering.
He saw a man with a frail body as soon as he entered. This was his father. He had black hair and black eyes, his skin was pale white and he looked much older than his age.
"Hm, did you get the wood." His father asked with a solemn expression.
"Yes, I did, father." Keith replied as he neared the man and asked, "How are you feeling now?"
"What can happen to me in just a few hours? Of course I'm fine *cough* *cough*" The man said with a wry smile on his face.
"Keith, he is lying. Now don't pester him." A girl who looked to be around 13 years of age walked in with a bowl full of warm water. This girl was Nessa, his older sister. She had deep black eyes with a dusky complexion and was as skinny as her brother.
"Oh, okay." Keith said while helping his father get up.
After slowly drinking from the bowl, Gerrad's face showed a hint of relief. He looked at Keith and asked with a serious expression, "Keith, you have turned 12 already, right?"
"Yes."
"Then, its time for the inheritance."
"Nessa, you too, will get an inheirtance."Gerrad said with a wry smile on his face.
"..." Keith's sister, Nessa, had a confused expression, but chose not to say anything. There were a lot of things about which her father didn't want to talk about, especially when it came to his past, and so she didn't know much about his life before he came to the village. But she never forced him to talk about anything so as to not hurt his feelings.
Now, the scene of him bringing up a topic such as an inheritance to both of them was quite surprising for her.
"Mm, okay, so what about the inehritance, father?" Keith asked, a bit confused as to what he should say in such a situation.
"...Meet me in the storeroom after the dinner. Go eat." Gerrad said, lying down on his bed once again.
"Keith, come." Nessa got up and soon left the room with Keith.
A cold gleam appeared in Gerrad's eyes as soon as they both exited, '...I've always wished to see you dead, Aron, now your days are numbered."
...
On a table, a boy was wolfing down his dinner as if there was no tommorow.
"Eat slowly, Keith." Nessa said with a hint of worry, but in return, the kid only looked at her, said, "Don't worry." And didn't heed her advice at all.
'This boy.' Nessa didn't know what to say, she knew that Keith was excited as his father had never brought up such a topic before.
...
After eating his dinner, Keith and Nessa ran straight towards the storeroom where they saw their father sitting in a cross-legged with his eyes closed.
Thinking something, they started walking slowly while trying to make no sound.
"Close the door." He said without even looking at him. This caught Keith and Nessa a little off guard but soon obeyed.
After closing the door, they sat in front of their father silently.
"Haah..." Gerrad let out a sigh and took out a shabby looking booklet.
"What is this?" Keith asked, a little confused. Shouldn't an inheritance be some kind of weapon or some jewel?
"This is a technique, but before I give this to you, you have to know something." Gerrad said, his face showing a grimmer expression with each word he said.
"I come from a place which was much more developed and much bigger than this village, it was a properous kingdom." Gerrad continued, "In a kingdom, there are peasants with the lower social status and the aristocracy with high social status and political influence.
I was originally from a noble family as well. The nobles are allowed to have surnames, unlike the peasants. So, my son, you also have a surname, that makes you Keith Lox and Nessa Lox."
"Eh?" The pair of siblings could only show a confused expression at all this and could only listen.
"My family was framed and slaughtered by the royal family as our power was increasing at a very fast rate. I was somehow able to survive and flee."
However, I was gravely injured, poisoned and now I can't make any further progress in my cultivation."
'My lifespan has decreased by a lot. Maybe in three to four years, I will die.' Gerrad didn't say the last sentence out loud, of course.
"Before you ask, I want to clarify that I wish for you to seek revenge. For that I want you both to become strong...and if you think that its too difficult to take revenge, then just live your life in a way you see fit."
"But aren't we all living happily here?" Nessa asked, a little overwhelmed.
"I won't be here forver and this place won't always be safe. What if someone from the empire comes, finds us and kills us? No matter what you do, you must first leave this place." She was only given a straight forward answer in a melancholic tone.
Silence descended in the room but soon Gerrad broke the silence at once and started explaining the technique.
"This warrior tactic is named the "Crystal body" technique, the speed of cultivation is fast in the first layer then quite slow in the next ones, but its all to give the practitioner an unshakble foundation.
To cultivate this, there are certain basic requirements, a boy must start cultivating this technique after he turns 12 and a girl has to start preparing from the age of 13 so that she can start cultivating it from the age of 14.
Although the requirements are quite harsh, the cultivation speed of this technique in the first layer far surpasses any other warrior cultivation technique and also, it's extremely difficult to find a warrior tactic which has a total of 4 well developed layers for cultivation." He said with a bit of pride.
Creating one's own warrior tactic wasn't an easy task, it took the efforts, accumulation and research of several generations put together.
Most genuises of this world who chose to tread the path of warrior couldn't advance further even when they had enough talent.
Why?
The answer was simple, the warrior tactics. The warrior tactics changed the basic structure of the practitioner's physique, so if someone cultivated a
low grade warrior tactic like 'Soft bone art' till the 2nd layer and then wanted to switch to a better tactic like the 'Hollow bone art', then it would be akin to ruining their bodies on their own as it would make the already soft bones in the body hollow from the inside.
"B-But father, why must we cultivate?" Nessa asked meekly. All of this was simply too much for her to take at once.
"Cultivation gives you strength, strength give syou power, power gives you authority. If you're strong, then you can do whatever you want." Gerrad said as a matter of fact. He knew this answer wouldn't satisfy his daughter's curiousity, but he did this on purpose as he knew that one day, both of his children would find out the reason.
"Then, can I ask a question?" This time, Keith spoke up.
"What is it?"
"Why is the condition so harsh for the female practitioners? Keith asked innocently.
"Because if a woman were to cultivate this technique to a certain level, then she would be able to pass on a special physique to her descendants in the future.
For example, Keith, Nessa, your mother was an ordinary villager and hadn't cultivated this technique, and so, none of you possess the physique which would be perfectly suitable for this technique, however, since you have my blood in you, your body is still stronger than ordinary kids your age."
He explained, and soon added, "But don't worry, not having that special physique dosen't mean the end of the world, after all, the founder of this technique didn't have that physique as well."
He said, trying to pacify the duo, but on the inside, he knew that he was simply convincing himself.
Although this technique did come from his noble family and he had also cultivated this technique in the past, but he knew that this technique wasn't as great when compared to other high grade warrior tactics, but he had to give himself hope that his children would become strong, at least enough to protect themselves.
...
Far above in the sky, a man covered in a dark shroud was looking into the distance with a slight smile.
"This is it. They are perfect for my plans." Tirus murmured.
After he broke through to rank 6, the power of his prophetic dark heart grew exponentially. By relying on it, he was able to find the one who was the most suitable for his future plans.
"I hope you don't disppoint me."