As the days passed, Ian was getting more comfortable with them. Since he was in the healing process right now, all he could do was watch Elius and Wilbert’s training from afar. At first, he was reluctant to stay here and wasn’t sure if he could trust them, but they patched his wound, treated him friendly, and fed him generously. Thus, Ian decided to stay until his wounds healed. After Elius’ training was over, he was always trying to talk with Ian. But Ian wasn’t that much of a talkative type. He was shy and didn’t talk unless someone directly asked something to him. Even though, Elius sat there and kept telling him stories about his training because there was nothing he could talk about. Wilbert was watching them from afar.

‘How can you talk nonstop about just one topic? It is fascinating.’

He thought to himself. He was also curious about the kid, where he came from, who he was, but decided not to push further and didn’t want to overwhelm him with questions and Elius seemed happy to have him around, so he just kept doing what he always does. Ian’s complexion was becoming better, and after constantly eating for a few days, he looked brighter. His physical condition was becoming almost good enough to train like them, but he needed a few more days. One day, after waking up, he decided that his long hair was becoming a nuisance, so he cut it with his dull blade. And looking at his condition, it was nothing like two years ago. Watching Elius every day made him want to train too.

‘If I wasn’t traveling around without a purpose like a dog lost its way, maybe I wouldn’t put myself in that laughable situation. I should’ve done some training as he did.’

No matter how hard he tried to appear strong, he was just a child who was rejected by his family and sent into exile after all. In his first weeks, he was constantly crying, and he had given up on life. He wanted to die. But whenever he faced danger, his body acted on its own and overcame the situation. He kept saying that he wanted to die, but he didn’t even dare, so he decided to move on. After wandering aimlessly, he began to stray from his purpose, forgetting his promise, forgetting his grudge against his father and Silvershiv, and finally, he became powerless. This time he really thought he had given up on life, so he would let the mantis kill him, but again, his body refused and tried to defend himself. When he was about to be killed, he felt angrier than remorse, mad at himself, mad at having strayed from his purpose, and mad at having been put in this position by a creature he would normally have been able to kill without difficulty.

Just as he was about to surrender himself to the darkness, he saw a glimmer of hope. The kid who appeared out of nowhere began beating the mantis with his hair as dark red as hellfire and the black staff he held in his bandaged hands. His green eyes were hopeful. And that’s all he remembers. Then he woke up in their house with his wounds treated.

It was almost three weeks now, Ian had already decided that Elius and his father’s actions were not phony. They were genuinely good people. He began to feel sad since he had to leave after a few more days. Because unknowingly, he had begun to feel close to Elius, after all, he was Ian’s first friend, he wasn’t sure if he could call him a friend though, but he felt shy, staying at their house, eating their meals, but couldn’t even say a thank you.

More importantly, Elius made him remember something more substantial, something he swore to do, and thus he was going to feel gratitude towards them forever for saving his life, but he couldn’t express it.

Today he decided to work for it instead of letting desperation get to him. As usual, Elius and Wilbert were doing some physical training side to side, and they were in perfect synch. Ian began to walk towards them with a determined demeanor and serious expression, but he started to panic as soon as their eyes met.

“Ooh, nice hair!”

Elius shouted while Wilbert was nodding, but Ian kept walking without reacting and stood in front of them. His heart was beating like crazy. While Elius and Wilbert were curiously watching him, Ian suddenly bowed and shouted.

“T-thank you for saving me!”

He was stuttering.

‘I-I did it.’

After hearing that, Elius casually patted his shoulder.

“No problem, anyone could do the same.”

‘Wow, what an unexpected event.’

Wilbert thought to himself. Ian was still bowing.

“It’s nothing much. You can raise your he-”

Before Wilbert could finish his sentence, Ian shouted again.

“C-can I train with you?”

Elius’ smile got brighter, and he shouted this time.

“Yes! Yes! Let’s do it together!”

Thus, Ian joined them, but of course, he could not keep up with them, both because his wounds were not fully healed and because he had not been training for almost two years. Before he even reached halfway, he was lying on the ground, panting in sweat. But they didn’t push him and finished the physical training on their own. They finally finished after two more hours, and Elius sat down next to Ian.

‘Amazing, he doesn’t even look that tired.’

Ian felt admiration towards them.

“So, what made you train today? You are usually very quiet.”

Elius’ question must have intrigued Wilbert, so he decided to sit with them. Ian didn’t say anything at first, not because he didn’t trust them, but he didn’t want them to pity him.

‘Whatever! Keeping everything to myself won’t get me anywhere.’

So, he opened up to them and told his story.

“…After that, I abandoned my name, and the style they taught me, I’ll create my own style and get my revenge.”

He never thought it would feel good to open up to someone, and he felt as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. A light smile appeared on his face. Elius didn’t know what to say after hearing all this. At the same time, he felt a rage against the association and thankfulness for having such a father.

‘I don’t know what I would do without my father.’

But what surprised him most.

‘He already killed two people at this age? While I can’t even kill a mantis. I can’t believe this quiet kid did all of that. I didn’t see that coming.’

But that didn’t make him have a bad feeling towards him. On the contrary, Elius agreed with him after Ian explained why he had killed them.

“I’ll be frank.”

Wilbert said with a firm tone.

“First off, you’re pretty lucky they let you go so easily. Second, you can’t just hang around and tell people about Silvershiv this easily. If you go around and bad-mouthing about Silvershiv, it could end badly for you.”

Ian nodded in embarrassment. An awkward silence was in the air after Wilbert’s words. Elius decided to be the one who speaks first.

“So, you said about creating your new style, how are you going to do that?”

Ian felt more embarrassed, and his voice was getting hoarse.

“I have no idea.”

“Hmm, so what do you plan on doing to get revenge?”

“I’ll destroy the Silvershiv.”

“How?”

“I have no idea.”

Wilbert intervened.

“You know that Silvershiv has thousands of members, right?”

Ian was surprised and raised his head.

“Huh? thousands, but there were only around a hundred people.”

“You didn’t think they only had one building on the whole empire, did you?”

Wilbert’s words hit him like a slap in the face. Ian never thought about that.

“The one you talked about is the headquarter, and it has branches all over the empire.”

Wilbert continued. The more he talked, the more Ian felt desperate.

“Going in a war with them alone, especially as a ten-year-old kid, is a terrible idea.”

Ian bit his lip and frowned.

‘How could I be so naive?’

“Hey! don’t worry, we can keep training after you completely heal.”

Elius tried to lighten up the mood. But it couldn’t be said that it worked very well.

“After I recover, I plan to hit the road again.”

Elius tilted his head and blinked.

“To where?”

Ian opened his mouth, but words didn’t come out, he had nowhere to go, and if he started to wander around in this condition, he was going to be dead without a doubt.

“I-I don’t know. I have nowhere to go.”

“Then why are you leaving? Come to the Blernian Academy with me.”

Elius said casually. Ian was perplexed. Deep down inside, he wanted that too.

“N-no, I already burdened you enough, you gave me a place to stay, food to eat, but I can’t give you anything in return.”

His eyes were teary already. Elius turned towards Wilbert.

“Can he stay?”

Wilbert shrugged.

“I couldn’t care less. He is not harmful or anything, and with his presence, I could carry the training we are doing to a whole another level.”

A weird smile appeared on Wilbert’s face, and it made both of the kids shudder.

“So, what do you say?”

Elius turned towards Ian again and asked.

‘Stay, stay, stay, stay…’

He was inwardly begging for him to stay. Ian shyly nodded.

“O-okay.”

“Yay!”

A big bright smile appeared on Elius’ face, and he jumped in joy. Then he shouted in excitement.

“Okay! I’ve decided! You won’t have to fight with Silvershiv alone! We will!”

Ian didn’t understand what was happening and looked at Elius with curious eyes.

“Will you help me?”

“Not just me! But the whole Namean Dynasty!”

At this moment, Ian was lost entirely and couldn’t follow Elius.

“What do you mean?”

Elius spread his arms to both sides. He was trying to imitate Julius.

“You! I’ll choose you as the Namean Dynasty’s first member! Bwahahaha”

Ian was confused and didn’t get it, but he was getting excited for some reason. Wilbert left the kids alone with a smile on the corner of his mouth. With that, they began to spend all of their time together, and in the blink of an eye, six years had passed.