"Dad, dad please tell me about the plant wizard again."
The old man smiled.
"Sure, sweetie, but don't you want to hear another story?
I've read that one for you a lot of times."
The child nodded energetically and said:
"Yes, dad, I want to hear the plant wizard story again."
The old man got up from an old wooden chair. The chair started to squeak as he did, and he walked toward a large bookshelf next to a window that was covered by tree leaves.
He stretched out his hand, picked a book that didn't have a cover or a title, and started to walk back toward his chair, looking at his daughter, who was jumping around in excitement. The bed was making cracking noises with each jump.
He tried to make a stern face and said,
"But you need to be lying down while I read the plant wizard story, so you can sleep right after."
The girl hurriedly tucked herself in and shouted,
"I am ready!"
He sat down on the chair next to a candle that was the sole source of flickering light in the room. He started reading that unassuming book.
"Once upon a time, a mad sorcerer believed that if a child was hit with magic, their strength as they grew older would be extraordinary compared to those who started to learn magic later on in their years. Since no one wanted to work with the mad sorcerer to do his experiment, the sorcerer decided to use his own son as the experiment subject. Additionally, the sorcerer would be able to monitor the changes in his son's flow of Roh.
Without caring about the consequences, the sorcerer told his wife that he would be taking their son to play in his magic hut. The wife was worried, as she knew about his research and that no one in the magic community agreed with his theories. Fearing for their child, she faked a smile and said,
'How about I join you?'
The sorcerer answered,
'Sure, why not?'
The wife was shocked by his response, as he usually didn't allow her to come. But maybe he understood her worries and agreed to it.
She picked up her sleeping child, and all of them started heading toward the hut in the magic district.
Soon they reached a hut made from piles of wood and hay.
The sorcerer invited his wife inside, but as soon as she stepped inside the hut, she fell unconscious.
When she regained consciousness, she felt terrified, nauseous, and worried. She raised her head, feeling dizzy from the movement, and started looking around to find her child, hoping he was safe.
Soon enough, she found the child being cradled by his father.
She did not know what to say or how to feel, and she didn't know why or how she had fallen asleep. Was she just tired?
'Honey, you're up. What happened to you? As soon as we walked in, you fell on the ground.'
The sorcerer said in a calm tone.
The wife was in a dilemma: if he was the one who had caused her to fall asleep, he would not confess. And if he wasn't, she'd be perceived as a paranoid woman.
She shook her head and thought that she needed to calm down and trust her husband.
"I don't know. I think I was just tired from looking after the boy the past few days with no rest."
The sorcerer smiled and said,
"You're right. The supplies I've stockpiled should sustain us for a while. How about I stop working for a few weeks, so you can get your fair share of rest?"
Surprised by his proposal, the wife said,
"Sure. I also think it'll be better for our boy if you're around the house more."
A few years went by, and the boy had shown great potential in magic. He was being sought after by many accomplished sorcerers to be their pupil. One of these sorcerers was named by the association as the Rising Blade. He was one of the people who studied with the boy's father. The mad sorcerer agreed to entrust his child to his former classmate, Rising Blade. Since the father had been inducing Roh energy into the boy since he was young, the father was sure that his kid's energy would far exceed that of everyone else. If he showed that energy after the help of somebody else, no one would suspect how the boy came to such an amount of Roh.
Rising Blade was elated to be chosen as the boy's master, since the boy seemed to have the chance to break through the wall of managing more than six cores.
Rising Blade took the boy under his wing, and as his master, he had to bestow upon him his new nickname:
"Boy, from today and going forward, you will be known as Wind Crusher. I will train you to the best of my abilities, and you will crush the wind of nature and of your enemies' attacks."
The boy, who seemed timid and uninterested in what was happening, nodded slightly.
The boy was strange. He showed so little emotion for a kid his age. He never questioned anything, didn't show curiosity toward anything, didn't react when he saw new magic, and didn't react if he saw a new animal.
He didn't show any emotion as his mother hugged him tightly and cried while he was going with Rising Blade. The boy seemed to be crushed by something. The mother thought it was because of his father's influence, while the father thought it was the best thing that could happen, since a child with no emotion shows no ambition and will follow orders.