Aries witnessed the smiling faces of his parents shift into worry as they saw the current state of his clothes, and they rushed towards him.

  “What happened!? Are you okay?”

  Amanda’s hands grasped his shoulders as she checked every inch of his body, looking to see if he was injured anywhere.

  Crack! Crack!

  “Are you being bullied?”

  Keel held a dark look on his face as he asked the question. He looked as if he were ready to kill someone.

  Crack!

  It was his neck that he had cracked this time.

  “Bullying on the first day? These kids need to be taught a lesson!”

  Aries half expected his mother to reprimand his father and say something along the lines of ‘You can’t hurt children, Keel!’ But to his surprise, she didn’t say anything to him. In fact, she looked like she was about to do something worse than him.

  Aries felt his expression soften as he watched them, his lips curling into a slight smile.

  Seeing this, His parents became shocked, their murderous aura fading. Their being shocked at his smile would normally seem weird, as he smiled nonstop, but he had already made it clear to them that something was wrong with him and that his typical smile wasn’t genuine.

  As Amanda was a doctor, she had checked it out and determined that it was a mental condition that couldn’t be fixed through typical medical means. They hadn’t seen Aries make any genuine expression in years, so seeing his smile left them stunned.

  They didn’t let themselves be shocked for long, as they too smiled and both embraced Aries in a hug.

  Releasing the embrace, His parents asked once more, this time with a softer tone and expression.

  Looking at his torn-up shirt for a moment, he came up with a story.

  “I was just playing with a friend, and my shirt got caught on a branch and tore.”

  They looked at each other, then back at Aries, and without asking any further questions, they simply took him up and began walking home. They didn’t need to catch a carriage as their home wasn’t that far from the school.

  “Do you want some ice cream?”

  Amanda asked. This was his favourite treat and one of the only two things he had ever shown any actual emotion for.

  Hearing this, Aries enthusiastically nodded in excitement.

  And thus, the smiling family made the journey to the ice-cream store and went home.

  *

  After having changed into his home clothes, Aries took the ice cream they had bought and headed to the back door. He pushed the door open, stepping outside.

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  Woosh! Swish!

  He saw his father swing a wooden training sword. His moves were masterful and powerful, his swings perfectly blending into each other. There was another— deeper quality to the swings his father made, but without any experience with the sword, Aries couldn’t tell what it was.

  He wasn’t using the technique to its fullest; this much Aries could tell as someone who once held great power.

  ‘Where did a woodworker learn such swordsmanship?’

  This was the second thing that interested him. As such, he had always asked his father to teach him, and where he learned to wield the sword, but he was always rejected, so he eventually gave up and relented to just watching his father practice.

  Swish!

  With each movement his father made, the more mesmerized he became. His hand began to itch, so he rubbed the back of his hand to try alleviating it, but it did nothing.

  ‘I want to try…’

  After about an hour and a half of training, his father finally stopped. His clothes stuck to his body as sweat seeped into them.

  “Haaa… Haaa… Haaa…”

  He let out heavy breaths as he wiped the sweat from his face. His gaze landed on Aries, who had an empty cup of ice cream in his hands. He had been watching him the entire time, like he usually did.

  He gave him a smile and walked in his direction. He leaned the training sword on the wall, right beside a similar, smaller sword that he had made for Aries, so he could play with it.

  He dried off his hands and ruffled Aries’ hair before taking off his shirt, throwing it over his shoulder, and entering the house.

  “Haaa… I need a bath.”

  Aries watched as his father sighed and left for the bath. He stood still for a moment, then he went inside and placed the empty cup of ice cream he had before going back out.

  He took up the small wooden sword, the one his father had placed his beside. He walked out into the grounds of the backyard and looked toward the trees that led into the forest. Walking towards them, he stopped before one of the trees, which had many cuts and dents in it from being struck many times.

  He raised his hand and made an attack toward the tree.

  Thwack!

  It was a horizontal attack. As the attack landed, he felt it reverberate through the sword and into his arm, causing him pain and almost making him drop it.

  “Hooo…”

  He let out a breath as he stood still for a moment, then drew back the sword.

  He made another horizontal attack toward the tree, this time from the other side.

  Thwack!

  The same thing happened once again, but this time he quickly drew back the sword and followed up with a thrust.

  Clack!

  He paused and drew in a breath. He then brought the image of his father to the front of his mind. He remembered his every movement. Then…

  Swish!

  He swung, copying the movements of his father.

  Thud!

  He frowned.

  ‘Thats not it.’

  He had failed to grasp even a sliver of what his father did. So he moved again, striking the wood once more.

  Thwack!

  He continuously copied his father's movements and struck the tree. With each strike, he felt a pain ripple through his arm, but he ignored it and continued striking.

  With each strike, he felt as if he was getting closer to grasping the technique, even if it was a small part.

  He continued copying the form of his father, a smile creeping onto his face.

  Clack! Clack! Thwack!

  He pulled his hand back, along with the sword, and prepared to make one final attack towards the tree.

  “Hoooo…”

  He briefly let out a breath, then sucked in air as he gathered his chi. As the chi gathered his chi, he coursed it through his body. He sent a large amount to his sword hand, while sending a small portion to the rest of his body to protect and stabilize it.

  It took a bit longer than it normally should have, as his chi control felt awkward due to the suppression he had from using his disguise.

  Nevertheless, He still managed to do it and tensed his hand. The aura around him changed as he focused. Releasing the tension in his hand, his sword shot forward like a spring.

  Then…

  Bang!

  Splinters flew as the wooden sword hit the tree, leaving a deep indent in it.

  He frowned.

  ‘I still can’t get it.’

  No matter how much he trained and practiced, he still failed to grasp even a sliver of the technique.

  ‘Why is it so hard to copy the swordsmanship of a mundane woodworker?’

  He sighed.

  ‘It must be because I lack the fundamentals.”

  Yes, that must be it.

  He looked down at the destroyed sword in his hand. His gaze paused on it for a few moments, then his expression became complicated.

  Rustle. Rustle—

  Aries’s head whipped around to look at the bushes where the sound came from. Walking over, he pushed the bushes apart to see the corpse of a rat, and two other rats scurrying away.

  His brows knitted.

  ‘When did rats begin to appear in Lios?’