Chapter 2 attendant Its been 5 years since I was born into this world and I haven’t been able to do much as a child, but I have become accustomed to the local language and I now can speak to my family. Its my birthday today and i’m sat at the table enjoying my meal as my family talks over dinner, as there is little i can really add to the conversation. I was finishing my meal when my father suddenly stood up only to my surprise as everyone else seemed to be expecting it. “ Everyone, as we all know it is Joseph’s 5th birthday today and as per tradition we will have him choose from our 3 specially invited guests which one he would like to be his attendant” WHAT. I look at everyone else and they all seem like this is normal. How does this make sense, i’m only 5 why are you trusting decisions like this to a 5 year old. Suddenly Father claps his hands and 3 people enter the room and stand at the opposite end of the room from me. “ Now Joseph which of these 3 would you like to be your personnel attendant?” I take a look at the 3 people in front of me, the first being a burly looking 20 year old who is as tall as my father and from the looks of him is very confident in himself, flexing his muscles and all. The second is a woman of roughly the same age with a slender figure she stands just a little shorter than the first man and while she doesn’t exude confidence she stands seems like this whole process didn’t matter to her, quite the opposite from the first mans enthusiasm. The last man seemed about 40 and looked aged he leaned against the wall showing little effort to appeal to me, he looked at the ground and stood there quite eerily. “ Father will you be able to tell me anything about them?” I saw a hint of approval in my fathers eyes as he smiled and said” 1st is a warrior and a locally accomplished adventurer, second is a magician who has just graduated from the magic academy at Hixphis and lastly is a retired adventurer.” I had to think about what he said, why was he being so vague about the last one while the 1st and 2nd he had been told of their accomplishments, was it a way to persuade him but he couldn’t help but look at the last one, who could have the gall to not show respect to the lord of the house if the lord doesn’t tolerate it first. I then thought of what a attendant should be the first and second were too young they would have little life experience and probably thought of this job as a bodyguard position instead of an attendant, while the last guy didn’t scream competence he clearly had experience and he is only meant to protect me while young so his age doesn’t really matter as I get older I shouldn’t need any bodyguard so with that in mind I know what I was going to pick. “Father I will pick the third one” while my father visibly brightens at these words the first is viably offended and the second is not able to show her disinterest anymore. “Joseph are you sure about this decision?” asked my father to which I only replied “yes”. This got the third guys attention and he finally looked at me, I could see it now and was not disappointed his eyes were silver like his hair and although he was introduced as a retired adventurer there was still fire in his eyes and he actually seemed surprised at my decision. This seemed to set off the burly man who stepped forward and says “My lord can this decision really be left to a 5 year old, look at who he chose, a past his prime old man”. To this question my father just raised his hand signalling him to stop talking and calmly said” It is a tradition of this house, do you question the traditions of the Moon household?” The big guy puffs up for a second but chooses to remain silent in the end, while the girl just sighs and asks to leave to which my father sends them both out. “What did I say Rafael, this would not be a wasted trip?” questioned father almost smugly which only brought out a sigh from the older man. What followed was the slightly raspy voice from the man in question “You were correct my lord, it seems my expectations for the young master were too harsh he has surprised me” he then stepped forward towards me knelt on one knee and said “I Rafael, 40 years old rank B qi master would be honored to serve you, young master Joseph”. RANK B, holy shit father was defiantly trying to test me there was no way those two would be anywhere near this rank, hell this is the same rank as my father. I have to wonder if I had made a different choice would Father have stepped in to change the outcome or let it play out, I would guess the latter. It must have been evident that surprise was on my face as my mother and father couldn’t help but laugh, stop that its embarrassing are you trying to kill this young master on his birthday? I take a deep breath and think of the general strength ranks which while being in the same rank doesn’t guarantee equal footing fighting a higher rank is basically suicide, and the ranks went from F to A and then the really inhuman ranks S to SSS. I then put my hand on his shoulder as a sign that I acknowledge him and ask him to stand up, to which he does and goes to stand behind me like the attendants of the rest of my family, after which father calls for congratulations on my decision and signals the end of this dinner.