Chapter 26: Introductions

Forest, Jade Empire

Hearing the mother’s apology, Kai heaved a huge sigh of relief. He relaxed his body and leaned against the tree behind him.

It’s finally over…

He silently nodded in forgiveness. She smiled in appreciation to his amiable response.

“I’m glad that I stopped before I did anything I would regret. Are you heavily injured? We know a healer that can help”, she stated worriedly.

“I’m fine”, he calmly reassured.

“You don’t have to act tough, the attacks that you received from me couldn’t have been light.”

She approached him and carefully examined his body. Her eyes widened in surprise as she noticed, besides a few bruises and scratches, he was perfectly fine.

“Are you really just a Novice?”, she gaped.

“Mid Novice”, he nodded in conformation.

“Mid Novice! But you look so young… how old are you exactly?”

“Almost six.”

“Almo-”, she began to echo but halted in shock.

She took a step back and sucked in a breath of cold air. Jaden just rose to his feet but instantly fell back on his bottom after catching his words.

“Y-y-you. You’re only six years old? Were you born a Novice or something? This isn’t fair”, Jaden pouted.

“Mid Novice at the age of six… this is the first time I’ve heard of someone with such a monstrous cultivating speed. Are you being taught by a powerful mentor?”, she questioned.

Kai shook his head.

“Wait you don’t even have a mentor and you were able to handle the attacks from my mom? Sure, that’s perfectly normal…”, Jaden sarcastically commented.

He folded his legs and hung his head. Laying his left elbow on his knee, he placed his cheek on his left palm and began to draw circles in the dirt with his right index finger in a sulky manner.

“Why are you acting so sad”, she laughed, finding Jaden’s jealousy adorable. “You are a Peak Novice at your age which is already an amazing feat.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know”, he smiled. Dropping his act of jealousy, he jumped to his feet and walked cheerfully towards Kai.

“My name is Jaden”, he greeted, extending his hand in an attempt to shake his. “You should teach me how you became so strong little brother.”

L-little brother??

Kai shrinked back in astonishment at Jaden’s casual attitude to familiarity.

“Look you’re scaring him”, she teased with a laugh.

“W-what? Was it something I did? Do I smell?”, he worriedly checked his hand and sniffed his clothing.

She laughed and ignored her goofy son.

“As you probably know by now, he is my son, Jaden. My name is-”

“Melissa! Jaden!”

“Melissa!”

Voices repeatedly called out the two names from a distance.

“We’re here”, Melissa responded.

Seconds later, several people walked out from behind a nearby tree. Turning his head, Kai took a good look at the newly emerged group of people. Leading the group was a man, closely followed by a woman. Behind the woman were three more men.

The man in the front stood a bit taller than two meters. His hair and eyes were an identical shade of red to Melissa’s. His breastplates, pauldrons, and gauntlets were similar as well, however, rather than soft long pants, his legs were equipped with knee plates and greaves. Squinting his eyes, Kai closely examined his armor and recognized the shallow engravings.

They have the same markings as the ones on Melissa’s armor.

The woman behind the man wore a tight sky blue dress that extended down to her ankles. Her eyes were black and her straight blue hair fell down to her waist-level. A long wooden staff was diagonally strapped behind her back. The tip was shaped in the form of a claw and a polished pale blue orb snuggly sat in its grasp.

What an odd weapon…

Trailing right behind the woman were two men that were almost exactly identical. They each wore light long sleeves and pants, had light blonde hair that were shortened into buzz cuts, and strapped a long sword on the side of their waist. The single aspect that differentiated the two was their eyes. One of them had black eyes while the other was white and unusually unfocused.

Is he blind?…

Bringing up the rear of the group was a tall burly man. His robust arms threatened to tear the short sleeve shirt he was wearing. His short hair was dirt brown and his eyes were black. Slung across his back was an intimidating large double-sided axe.

“There you two are-”, the man in the front began to say but stopped when he saw Kai. “Who’s this young boy?”

“We were just introducing ourselves before your ill-timed interruption”, Melissa smirked.

“Oh?”, he replied, raising an eyebrow in interest. The corners of his mouth formed a smile. “Better yet, how about we all introduce ourselves after a nice meal?”

“You guys caught a beast?”, Jaden asked, his eyes shining with excitement.

“We caught a huge bear”, the burly man confirmed with a wide smile, his arms stretching apart in an attempt to represent the size of the bear.

“Great! I’m starving!”, he exclaimed. “Come on, let’s go eat.”

Taking Kai’s hand, he began to drag him while running from the direction he came from. Kai allowed himself to be towed by stared at him with blatant curiosity.

He is so abnormally… friendly.

“Wait Jaden, do you even know where we set up camp?”, the blue dressed woman hurriedly called out before Jaden could run too far.

As soon as her voice reached his ears, he abruptly halted. Slowly turning, he released Kai’s hands and rubbed the back of his head. His ears and face glowed a faint tinge of red.

“Heh… um… where is it?”, he awkwardly asked, the sound of his voice lowering with each syllable.

He truly is foolish.

Kai berated him in his mind but unknowingly smiled. The group of adults, on the other hand, merrily laughed. The burly man, in particular, laughed with a tremendous booming tone akin to that of a thunderclap.

“Typical Jaden”, the red haired man playfully teased. “Follow me.”

He started to lead them in a slightly alternated direction from where Jaden initially ran towards. Still red from embarrassment, Jaden left Kai’s motor skills to his own devices and walked on his own. Not long afterwards, a glimpse of rising smoke could be seen in the distance. The alluring scent of smoking meat assaulted their noses.

Rejuvenated from the prospect of food, Jaden immediately grabbed Kai’s hand and bolted towards the source of the smoke. The speed was not something Kai could not handle but, once again, Jaden’s overflowing sense of familiarity caught him off-guard.

Speeding past the bushes and weaving around the trees, they soon entered an open field of grass. A small batch of crackling fire sat near the center of the field. Two tall and sturdy ‘Y’ shaped branches were stabbed into the ground on opposite sides of the fire. Laying comfortably on the indents on top of the branches laid a single smooth branch with a large chunk of meat speared through the middle.

“There it is!”, Jaden shouted in joy as he ran.

Nearby the cooking meat were three large tents and a fresh corpse of an enormous bear. A visibly large chunk of flesh was missing from its side.

As Jaden reached the meat, he stopped and glanced at it for a second as his mouth salivated, then he ran past it. He headed straight for one of the tents and hurriedly flipped open the flaps of its entrance. Kai halted next to the meat and curiously stared at the tent.

Why did he go i-

-Clang- -Ting- -Bang-

Before he could finish the thought, a series of boisterous noise clattered from within the tent. Seconds later, Jaden’s shoulder peaked out from between the flaps as he gradually emerged. His legs trembled with every step he took as he carried masses of metal bowls and spoons in his arms.

The adults casually walked onto the field of grass just in time to witness him struggling to exit the tent. They immediately broke into a chorus of laughter.

“What’s so funny?”, he shouted questionly as he peered through the gaps in between the bowls.

The white eyed man was the first to recover.

“We’re not eating stew, there’s no need for the bowls and spoons.”

“...Oh…”

His face quickly resembled a tomato but only Kai was able to see it from his standing point. He stumbled back into the tent as fast as he could.

The adults recovered from their laughter and continued making their way towards the meat. After another round of boisterous noise, Jaden reappeared from inside the tent and sprinted to join them.

“Looks like it’s just about done”, Melissa examined.

She bent down and picked several thin branches that strayed from the fire. As she rose to her feet, she pulled out a long knife from a hidden compartment in her breastplate and leisurely cut a generous portion from the hanging meat. The separated meat began to free-fall but she swiftly speared through it with one of the branches she acquired.

“Here”, she offered as she bent over and gave it to Jaden.

The fragrant smell invaded his nose and his eyes lit up as he received the long desired meal. He started to bring it towards his mouth but suddenly stopped halfway as if a thought crossed his mind. Lifting his head, he stared at Kai and thrusted the skewered meat in his direction.

“Be careful it’s hot”, he cautioned with a wide smile.

Kai hesitantly gazed at the his act of kindness.

“Take it”, he reassured when Kai remained motionless.

After another moment of pause, he extended his hand and took it.

“Thank you.”

“Aw, look at my little gentleman”, Melissa complimented with a proud smile as she handed another skewered meat to him. “Here’s a bigger piece.”

Jaden gladly accepted the new piece and wasted no more time as he immediately devoured it. She returned to the meat and proceeded to cut everyone else a share. Having each received their individual meals, they all comfortably sat down around the fire and enjoyed it. While taking her first few bites, she extended an open palm at the fire and her hand emitted red Qi. The flames swayed to her will and slowly mitigated into a lighter, gentle, flame.

“So, shall we start with introductions?”, the red haired man questioned as he finished his last piece of meat.

“Wait, can I have another piece first?”, Jaden hurriedly asked.

Melissa laughed and patiently carved another portion before handing it to him.

“Thanks mom!”, he appreciated with a grin. “I’ll go first, my name’s Jaden!”

“I think he already knows that”, Melissa pointed out.

“Oh right…”, he recalled with an embarrassed grin. He silenced himself from further blunders as he began to work on his second portion.

“So I suppose you’ve already been introduced to Melissa and Jaden”, the red haired man accurately assumed. “Then I’ll go next. My name is Brad and this-”

He placed his arm around the blue dressed woman’s shoulder.

“-is my wife, Tina.”

“Nice to meet you”, Tina greeted with a gentle voice.

“I am Michaelius”, the burly man stated loudly with a hard slap on his chest. “It’s such a long name, I know. Never did like it, you can just call me Mike.”

“I’m Roger”, the light blonded man with the black eyes went next, “and as you might have guessed this is my twin brother. His name is Jerome.”

He pointed at his white eyed counterpart.

“Hey! I wanted to introduce myself”, Jerome complained.

“Well I’m older so it’s fine.”

“What! You’re only older by thirty seconds, that hardly counts.”

“Last time I checked, thirty seconds still counts as time, right Mike?”, he turned to Mike for confirmation.

“Sounds about right”, he nodded.

“You gu-!”

“Alright, alright, break it up guys”, Melissa appeased.

“-ys are ridicu-”, Jerome continued.

“SHUT IT!”, she shouted with a hard demanding tone.

The three men immediately subdued and lowered their heads, not daring to connect eyes with her glare.

I wonder if her temper has anything to with her affinity to fire…

As Kai silently contemplated to himself, Brad turned to him with a kind smile.

“So how about you? What’s your name?”

“Kai”, he casually answered.

“That’s a nice name”, Tina responded. “Where are you from Kai? And what brings you into this forest?”

Kai opened his mouth, then closed it as he pondered over his next choice of words. Misinterpreting his silence as reluctance, Melissa quickly interjected.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s fine”, Kai reassured. “Up until recently, I have been a slave to bandits since I was a baby. That is my origin.”

They all stared at him in slight shock but recovered quickly as if the circumstances were not uncommon.

“I’m sorry”, Melissa empathized. “You’ve had a hard life.”

Jaden stared at Kai with an expression of pity. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he jumped to his feet.

“Hey mom, how about we let him join us. He’s stronger than me so it should be fine.”

“What?”, Brad stared at him in surprise. “You’re saying he’s a Peak Novice too?”

“No, he’s only a Mid Novice.”

“Wait, how old is he?”

“He’s six.”

“!!!”

Brad, along with the rest of the adults besides Melissa, recoiled in shock.

“I was surprised when I heard it from him as well, but he really is incredibly strong. He handled a few of my blows and escaped with only a few bruises and scratches.”

They recoiled once more.

“Well… in that case, I guess he could join us. It’ll be wrong of us to leave him as a slave and Jaden will finally have a companion near his age instead of rotting his youth away with us.”

“Say… speaking about slaves, don’t we have a mission about that?”, Mike mentioned.

“I doubt he’ll have a connection, it’s too much of a coincidence”, Brad presumed as he shook his head. “But I guess it won’t hurt to ask. Kai, have you heard of other children slaves named Teresa, Ben, Cindy, or Robert?”

What!?

His eyes widened as he flinched in astonishment at the familiarity of each name.