Hello! Author here. This bonus chapter is for your huge support and getting this novel to 20 power stones, I'm really blessed to have readers like you and I sincerely hope that you are enjoying the novel up to this point. I know that Arthur shouldn't be like this when he was a completely different person in his past life, but in his past life he was the same like this, close to persons who were close to him like his family and cold and indifferent to others. Just wait a few chapters and you will understand. Anyways, please enjoy this chapter and thank you for your cooperation till now :) :>
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Arthur opened his room and saw Sophia and Aaron -who was fully healed-standing outside. He extended a hand inside and told them to come inside,
"Come in."
Sophia and Aaron entered and sat on the couch of his bed and watched him as he closed the door, and came to sit by the bed again. Silence and tension was present in the room, but before it could become awkward Arthur quickly apologized,
"I'm really sorry."
Aaron saw Arthur's ashamed face and tried to cut in,
"It's o-"
"It isn't, I beat you up very badly and I had no right to do that when you had not done a thing, when I gave into my emotions and was unable to control them. I apologize for my lack of control and hope you can forgive me." Arthur stopped him and apologized deeply for his lack of control, while keeping his head down.
Aaron and Sophia looked at each other awkwardly, not sure what to say but Aaron finally spoke up,
"I understand. I accept your apology."
Arthur finally looked up at them and nodded with a light smile, but Aaron wasn't finished,
"We'll still be friends though right"
He had a red face, like he was going to start crying at any moment right. Looking at him, Arthur couldn't hold himself back and started laughing heartily, he couldn't understand that it was him who had beaten up Aaron so bad and apologized so why was he asking him for his friendship when it should be him doing the thing. He stopped and then with the same light smile replied,
"Sure, we'll still be friends."
Aaron released a big sigh like a huge weight had been on his shoulder and had just been lifted off. After that, the trio forgot the incident like it never happened and started chatting like before again, until it was finally time for them to go.
******
"I hope we can meet again Arthur!" Aaron shouted before stepping into his carriage.
Arthur's parent had to hold back a chuckle, they were acting like the incident before had never happened in the first place. Sophia also raised her hand and called out to Arthur, and then she stepped into the carriage as well,
"Let's meet again someday."
Natasha smiled at Arthur and raised her hand from a distance to say goodbye, not bothering to call out to him. She was just like before but for Arthur it was apparent that she was now distant from him, she still couldn't get over her son's beating and even though he had sorted it out with Arthur, she was still not all over with it.
'I couldn't care less about what she thinks, I only cared about the twins and I sorted it out with them. It's her problem now.' Arthur thought coldly and headed inside with his parents.
******
[1 Year Later]
Arthur had ranked up from [Novice] to [Novice+]. In addition to this, he kept training his swordsmanship with his father, close combat with his mother and stigmata training with both of them. During this time, he had not used [Assassin's Apathy] even once for two reasons.
One, he felt like the skill wouldn't work until he had a concrete goal that he wanted to achieve like at the time during his fight with Aaron, he had a goal in his mind, the goal to brutally beat him up and kill him, and he would have if not for Nolan's intervention. So like this, he felt that the skill would not work perfectly until he had a concrete and set goal in his mind to achieve.
And second, was his safety, he felt that when he would use the skill he would completely disregard his safety for the accomplishment of his goal. He could not trust the skill to keep his body in one-shape which would not only be detrimental to him but also it would also make his parents worry unnecessarily for his safety.
Right now he was standing in the training grounds, sweating profusely with a sword in hand. He had just completed his training with his father, who had left after 5 minutes because of some urgent call to him. All of a sudden, a call came to him in his mind,
[You are improving rapidly, Arty. I can sense the profound change in you everyday.]
Well the Greek god wasn't actually wrong, he could sense his body and mana capacity improving at a remarkable pace. As for his nickname 'Arty', Arthur could only shrug as Hades suddenly started calling him by the name instead of the usual word he used, 'kid'.
When he asked him about it, Hades retorted in a hurt voice,
[What? I'm tired of calling you kid all the time, all right. And Arthur sounds too formal so I'm going with Arty, if you have a problem then keep it to yourself princess.]
Arthur sighed remembering his reply at that time and from that day forward, the god started calling him 'Arty', even his parents started calling him 'Art' rather than his name or 'honey' or 'son' like they used to call him.
But snapping out of his thoughts, he focused on the thing he was going to do, which was checking out his [Status],
'[Status]'
Right on cue, a blue window appeared in front of him displaying his status. He had gotten used to it now such that it seemed like a boring transition which was a wide contrast to his interest in it the first time he saw the screen
_____________________
Name: Arthur Blade
Class: [Swordsman]
Title: -
Age: 8 years
Stigmata: Darkness, Death (unmanifested)
Stigmata Affinities: Darkness(Deity) Death(Deity)
Stigmata Talent: Empyreal
Stigmata Rank: Novice (N) >>> Novice+ (N+)
Guardianus: Hades
Weapon Art: [Blade Sword Art: Proficiency 0.1%] >>> [Blade Sword Art: Proficiency 5.2%]
Stigmatical Skills: [Abyssal Shroud] [Umbral Veil] [Spectral Steps] [Obsidian Screen] [Nightfall Blind]
Skills: [Assassin's Apathy]
Pandemonium of the Olympians: [4 Years]
_____________________
For sure he had improved a lot in his proficiency of the art but as his eyes fell upon the time left for the descent of the gods, he knew that this was not enough right now and he had to train more.
Although, one could say that when the gods would descend on the world, they would not have a good and mutual relationship from the start like Hades and Arthur had now after so much time, but when he asked Hades, the god gave him a straight reply, that he wasn't able to refute
[You really think that the gods wouldn't have planned for that. Listen, if there's are two sins that are common in every human being then those are: greed and envy. Weak humans envy the strong and want to do anything to become like them, they don't care what it takes or what they lose. That feeling of getting fame and having people respect you overpowers your rational thinking and you become lost in your jealousy. For the strong humans, it's just the same but they are a victim to the sin of greed. For them, it's never enough no matter what, not even when they sit on the pinnacle of the world, there's always a desire for more that's just how mortals are. But who am I to say about this, we gods are no different from you. We have experienced these emotions in a far greater degree than yours and know what it's like to fall in the depth of these sins. So believe me when I say this, no one, no being in this whole universe knows how to manipulate these emotions of humans better than us. Cause we've just experienced them in a far greater degree than yours and recovered from the bottomless pit. For humans this will never change because only when you are content with yourself, you are rich beyond measure.]
Snapping him out of his thoughts was the arrival of a maid in the grounds. She bowed deeply and conveyed the message,
"Young master, the Patriarch is calling for you in his office after you get refreshed."
Arthur nodded at her and then the maid left. Arthur put the sword back in the stands, before taking a cold shower and putting on some casual clothes. Then he went to his father's office, where his mother and he were waiting for him already. Nolan had a smile on his face and informed Arthur of the happy news,
"Father is coming back."
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I just wanted to thank the top 3 supporters of my book for their generous support for this novel till now. Thank you! :) :>
1.ImaginarySnow
2.Fallen_Angel_26
3.CassidyWolf