Chapter 2 Alex

• "Alex! Where has this stupid boy gone to now?" shouted a woman who seemed to be in mid thirties. She walked out of the mansion and entered the courtyard where she was greeted by some servants who were working within the premises.
• She left the courtyard, which was green from end to end apart from a small path left for people to cross. The courtyard was a garden with several types of trees that gave a good shade during the day and the ground was filled with different types of well trimmed grasses. There were several flowers that were planted at the edges. The scent that was produced from the flowers that had nectar was something that encouraged people to stay there longer.
• When she arrived at the gate, she stumbled upon a boy who seemed to be not more than twelve years old. The boy fell backwards dropping the things that he was carrying. Among the items that he was carrying, there were several eggs that had just been taken from the chicken coop but now, they had broken after he fell on the floor.
• "You idiot! Are you blind or something?" shouted the woman at the boy who had just fallen down and was trying to stand up. The boy had short black hair, small brown eyes, a small nose and thin lips. His body stature was thin as he was suffering from malnutrition. "Can't you look where you're heading to? And again, you went to play when I sent you to bring me the eggs and to sum it up, you've just broken them right now!" shouted the woman.
• She reached her arm out and grabbed the boy by the hair and started dragging him to the house. The boy didn't dare to let out a sound because with the slightest sound, the punishment would triple. He was used to being treated this way by his step mother. Even if he wanted to resist, he had no strength to do so and there was nobody that could help him in this situation.
• As he was being dragged away, those working around looked at the boy with pity because they knew how harsh the lady of the house could be to the small boy. Definitely, the boy would not eat food for at least three days and he'll not be sleeping in the house, he'll be sleeping with goats or sheep's and maybe worse in the pig pen. This kind of treatment began about three years ago, when his younger step brother awakened his power. He was the last one after his elder brother who had awakened two years before.
• Alex was born from the first wife but his mother died when she gave birth to him. His father married another wife bit surprisingly, two months later, she gave birth to Alex's step brother. Of one could see, they would notice that the story between the two didn't start after Alex's mother's death.
• As for treatment, his father was treating him well till the age of seven. When he failed to awaken, the favoritism that his father had towards him diminished. All this was transferred to his two months younger than him step brother, Mathew, who had managed to awaken as a cultivator.
• Then, things changed for the worst three years ago after the youngest of his step siblings awakened too. As a result, he was seen as worthless and one that brought shame to the family in a continent where strength was the king.
• Without his father's support, Alex began going through things that a boy of his age shouldn't have. At the age of nine, he was treated like an adult and was moved from the main mansion to a small room, worse than that of the servants there. It seemed that his stepmother was bottling up her discontentment for Alex all those years and she had finally gotten a chance to vent out her frustrations. As a result, Alex had to suffer more.
• Being the son of the strongest person in the town, the leader of the town, bit he hadn't awakened. That was indeed a dark spot on his father's image. And to his step mother, he was a threat to her son's inheritance of the family wealth and what was more, to the chair of the family head. Against what one would expect, his father turned a blind eye to his son's grievances as if they were nothing. He always gave a cold shoulder in his time of need.
• True to the servants' expectation, Alex was told that he would not get food for a week and he was banned from entering the mansion nor the room that he was staying in until the one week of punishment was over. His father was currently out on a mission and would come back after a week. The only place where Alex could spend the night was in the stables where horses resided. All servants were prohibited from offering any kind of assistance to Alex or else they would lose their jobs and the punishment that they would receive wouldn't be small.
• .....
• That night.
• Alex was currently sleeping on top of hay which was currently his bed. He had no blanket and his clothes were tattered from being worn over and over again. He slept there silently as he tried to revise his living circumstances. Since he got to the age of eight, he has never received any kind of affection and life continued being difficult the older he grew. Apart from his step mom, his step brothers began bullying him since they awakened as they obliviously became stronger than him. When he tried reporting this to his father, he always ignored his presence. Since that was the case, Alex got used to taking all this silently, suffering both physically and mentally with no shoulder to cry on.
• His stomach growled representing the descent of hunger forcing him to hold his tummy instinctively. He hadn't gotten food during the day and it was already night time. He had no source of food as he was twelve and hadn't awakened.
• He rolled on the hay stack from left to right holding his stomach which was causing him discomfort while he was trying to get sleep. In the end, he decided to just sit and wait for the night to end.
• "Alex, am sorry I can't do much but please have this to reduce your hunger," Alex heard a whisper coming from the entrance of the stables before he heard footsteps retracting. He immediately looked at the door and saw a bowl of rice with a few pieces of meat. He immediately ran towards it and took the food and began eating without even washing his hands. He ate everything until the plate was swept clean.
• After the meal, Alex drunk water from the trough used to offer water to the horses. After having his fill, he then took the plate and washed it. While he was rinsing it, he saw some words written under the plate. 'Let's meet at the edge of Maza forest tomorrow at ten morning.' Alex immediately understood and placed the plate under the hay.
• "Thank you elder Simon," he whispered into the breeze of the night. Although he couldn't see the person that had brought him the food, he was still thankful. He had just been saved from the deadly clutches of hunger.
• At least this time, he was feeling better and all the weakness that had come from hunger had greatly diminished as the meat that he'd eaten was from a martial monster, most likely a rank 1 initial stage as his body couldn't handle anything beyond that. Furthermore, even the initial stage rank 1 martial monster meat that he ate was only a few pieces as that was all that he could take hold of.
• Martial monsters, these are animals that had been mutated by the presence of essence in the surroundings. This led to them having greater strength than normal animals. But as a result, mist of the animals primitive instincts were activated and the martial monsters became more hostile to humans.
• The strength of a martial monster wasn't something that a normal human could match. An initial stage rank 1 martial monster could kill hundreds of Alex. That was just the gap between them. So, for Alex to be able to eat the meat of such a monster, one could imagine how precious it was.
• Simon who was some distance away watched the boy from a distance with a sad expression on his face. He was currently at the initial stage of rank 7, the fourth strongest person in the family. Although he held power, he couldn't do much for Alex because if he helped him openly, he would only end up making his life even more miserable than it was now. He had a good relationship with Alex's mother thus he couldn't bear seeing her son suffer.
• After watching as Alex went to sleep in such a poor environment, Simon felt his heart ache while at the same time, his anger was boiling towards the one that caused Alex to be in such a predicament. After releasing a sigh full of frustration, he decided to leave and wait for the following day.
• ...
• Meanwhile in the mansion.
• A lady with brown hair and green eyes was seated on a couch with her legs crossed. She was wearing a blue dress that reached slightly below her knees. Sitting beside her was her first born son whom she treasured so much.
• "Mother why don't we just dispose off that goat in stables? Isn't he just wasting so much resources in the house and destroying our family's name with his lack of talent? He's such a disgrace!" said the boy with disdain clear in his eyes.
• "Mat, I sometimes wonder if you ever learn. If we chase him out of this house it will only bring more shame to our family and furthermore, when your father comes, trouble will descend. Even though he looks like he doesn't care about him, he does care about his reputation," replied the woman with a calm expression.
• "What's more, after Alex is thrown out, the reputation of the family would drown. Our family heads the Swil town. If the family of the town leader can disown their own blood, wouldn't that mean that they wouldn't care about the residents of the town?" The woman said as she looked seriously at Mat.
• Mathew nodded his head in understanding. He could clearly imagine the scene in his head, where his father gets angry at them, and his anger was nothing to scoff at, it was something neither him nor anyone who knew him wanted to face.
• "But worry not, his time will come and I'll make sure he's out of this house," continued the lady whose name was Sandra, Alex's step mom. "Just focus on improving your wind magic. You have all the resources of the family so, before you reach fifteen, you must reach the peak of rank 1. At that time, you can join the royal academy. " said Sandra while eyeing her son.
• "Yes mother, I'll do my best not to fail you!" Mathew said as he clenched his fists with determination.
• "Well, you're no doing it for me, but yourself so keep that in mind," reminded his mother.
• "Yes mom. I'll go and rest now, tomorrow I'll continue my cultivation under the guidance of elder Jack," said Mathew as he stood up.
• "Oh! hold on a bit, I've got a gift for you..."
• *********
• Author's note
• Thank you for reaching this point that marks the end of the first chapter but the beginning of the second chapter. Please, don't forget to leave your comment in areas you'd like me to improve.
• Thanks a lot, love you!