Chapter 15 – The Family is an A anization

  Nathan Evenhart:

  That night I went bay room and finally mao sleep. It eaceful rest with no crazy panthers or psychopathic goddesses to disturb me. I still didn’t uand what Athena’s apparition was, and holy… I didn’t want to uand.

  I’m sleeping when I feel something approag my face. Just as it’s about to touch me, I roll to the side and grab a knife from under my pillow.

  “Well... you’ve got good reflexes,” said the monk, staring at me.

  “What the hell?”

  The monk was in my room, holding a wooden sword.

  “I was testing you, boy. You shouldn’t sleep soundly even if the most beautiful woman in the world was beside you.”

  I g the er of my room ahe goddess Athena.

  “Does he know you actually slept o the most beautiful woman in this world?” Athena asked me.

  I ighe goddess’s apparition and focus on the monk.

  “I wasn’t pletely asleep; part of me always stays alert.”

  The monk smiled.

  “I noticed, but you’re still too slow,” he said, tossing me a wooden sword.

  “I know... I’m still a child.”

  This body is still weak. I was retly wetting my pants while sleeping... let alone having total trol over my brain and body as I did before.

  Now I uand what happeo me. It’s the same as that panther; it bees weak when in its cub form. The difference is that I’ve lost all my powers. I might be a war general, but in the body of a little kid, my punly tickles someone.

  “e on, my apprentice. We have much to discuss, and I o put those little arms of yours to work.”

  Sifu left my room with an agility that didn’t match his appearance.

  I grab my coat, and the phoenix jumps onto my shoulder.

  “Aren’t we even going to have breakfast?” I ask, following the old man.

  “True warriors train on ay stomach,” he replies.

  “I disagree. True warriors traier when well-fed...” I say.

  I had Spartan training, so I know how tthen this body.

  “That’s true, but my goal is for you to reach your peak in your worst state.”

  I follow the blue-robed monk through the mansion.

  “Young master, your meal will be served soon,” said a very beautiful maid when she saw me in the corridor.

  “He’s ing now,” Sifu replied, pulling me away from her.

  “Who was that woman?” I ask him.

  Sifu chuckles.

  “Don’t get into the good graces of any maid or servant who walks withierior of the mansion.”

  “I just... wao know who she was. But why did you tell me that?” I ask the monk.

  He ughs.

  “They’re all trained by your aunt i of torture. You wouldn’t want to piss any of them off.”

  “What? The maids here are torturers?” I ask, surprised.

  “Of course. Do you want anyone living here with us to be just a civilian? Everyone who lives ierior part of this mansion is a member of a warrior family with a legacy of geions... I’ll expier whe to your hell,” he said, ughing.

  "And outside the mansion, when I'm at the castle, how will I know who's a torturer maid and who's a normal maid?"

  He sighs and scratches his beard. "You won't. All of them are trained in espionage, and most live around the area. Your aunt was born and raised is of torture here. I saw her as a little girl walking through these halls... and t people since she was young."

  Holy shit... not even the kids are spared. Don’t tell me that little girl from yesterday was some kind of spy?

  We walked through the pce, and Sifu led me to some stairs. We passed a few wooden doors and desded to what seemed like a training area. Sifu walked to the middle of the mat.

  "What do you think the Evenhart Legacy is?"

  I followed him. "A group of important and trusted people for the Evenharts?"

  Sifu scratched his beard. "You’re right, but that’s not what the Evenhart Legacy is. You described who the legacies are."

  "I still don’t uand."

  "The Evenhart Legacy is an A anization of Warrior Assassins."

  What!? What kind of family was I born into?

  "An anization of Assassins!?"

  "The first king of Evenhart created the anization along with those close to him, his students. These families had to uheir forces and share their teiques, founding the Evenhart Legacy. An anization that seeks to protect the families that fouhe Evenhart Kingdom ahese nds peaceful. What you saw at that di night were the desdants of those families. The anization is 2,000 years old. Obviously, they’re more numerous than those few you saw. Those are the Legacies, and the rest are the soldiers of the legacies and the vassal families that live in the vilge around the fortress."

  Sifu cracked his ned tinued expining.

  "These nds were wild, and the magid knowledge were far from what we know today. They faced magical creatures using these teiques. Only one in every hundred people is a mage. What do you think the other 99 o be?"

  "Warriors?" I responded.

  "Battle Masters!" he corrected, striking a pose with his arms.

  "From today, I will teach you the arts of your family, improved with the assassin teags of your aor and applied with my Kung Fu!" He moved his arms and started attag me.

  Sifu's arms moved quickly, and I tried to block them but couldn’t as they were soon elsewhere, aiming to hit me.

  "Good reflexes, but the body is weak!" He tripped me, and I fell to the ground.

  I know it’s weak! I’m only five years old.

  "And don’t even think about bming ye. I’ve seen monks youhan you fighting adult teachers."

  Fuck... the bastard read my frustration.

  "One of your aors was an assassin for the kingdom. The Kingdom of Teresia has a secret polider the trol of the Royal Family. They are called ‘Night Killers’ and are all women. One of these Night Killers married a Duke Evenhart after they nearly killed each other in a fight to the death..."

  "How romantic..." I muttered.

  "Your aor retired from the Night Killers but always feared that her fanization would try to kill her to keep their secrets safe. So she focused oing her own assassin anization, incorporating torture and assassinatiohods into the Evenhart Legacy, further enhang the anization. Your aunt, our queen, is a product of our special little troop known as the Assassin Maids."

  He pulled me up from the ground.

  "I was saved by yrandfather when I was a young monk. He gave me a new life and never demanded any of my Kung Fu teiques. On the trary, he taught me everything he knew. I stayed with your family and became a teacher, and I've been here ever since. But times have ged. When the war came, I regretted my decision, and it was too te to pass on my knowledge. But today, that ges. Today, you will receive both your family's teiques and mine," he said, getting bato his fighting stance.

  "You will learn politics, eics, administratioiquette, orateography, history, and culture from your aunt and the other trainers. Then, you will lear of battle from me."

  "And where does assassination e in?"

  He ughed.

  "The Art of Assassination is taught to children starting at the age of seven. Until you reach that age, I will teay Kung Fu, and once you're older, I will transform you into a Master Assassin."

  "And what is a Master Assassin?" I asked.

  "A man who fa army by day and kill someone important in their sleep by night."

  He threw me a real sword.

  "And you?"

  Sifu ughed. "I only need my hands. e, try to kill me," he said.

  This monk is crazy.

  "I like him," Athena said beside me.

  Ign the appearance of the goddess, I focused oask at hand. I charged at Sifu, who gracefully dodged and sometimes deflected the bde with movements that surprised me by not cutting him. I tried to apply some of my war teiques, but my physical limitations hindered me. As the tip of my sword neared Sifu's neck, he stopped the bde with a single finger.

  I was shocked. The bde hadn't cut Sifu, and he held it with just his index finger.

  "Very good, apprentice. I see training you will be worth it. Know that none of the acies, even in their childhood, could get a bde this close to my neck, let alone force me to stop it."

  "How did you do that?" I asked, astonished.

  The old man removed his finger from the bde. I ran to the tip aed it with my finger, drawing blood.

  "This is sharp! How did you not get cut?"

  Sifu ughed. "It's just a little trick from my homend..."

  "Trick?"

  "Exactly. The 'true humans' as you call them. I am one of them..."

  I looked at the old man before me and dropped the sword, sitting down.

  "I figured."

  I sat on the ground, out of breath in this small body. Sifu remaianding.

  "In my nd, humans access something called prana."

  "Prana? What is that?"

  "It's a type of power different from mana. That's how the 'true humans' challehe magical humans of this ti. The energy is called 'prana' by the monks, but it has another, more popur name."

  "What name?" I asked him.

  "Battle Aura."

  As soon as he said that, my heart tightened and ached.

  "Aura!?"

  That dangerous power exists in this world!? And worse... a people who hate my race use Aura!

  Sifu seemed to sense my distress.

  "Don't worry, their knowledge of Aura is only superficial. None of them do what I . That's why they invaded my monastery and killed my teachers. They wanted our secrets... but I was the only one who survived."

  A weight lifted off my shoulders.

  The small red hawk nds on my head, as if somehow sensing my fears.

  "I presume that humans who use mana ot use Aura," I say.

  "No. Only the human people from the other ti use Aura, just as only you from this ti use mana."

  Great... so I wouldn't have the luck of using my knowledge to bee a General in Aura again. What bad luck...

  The small red hawk pecks at my head, and I look up.

  "That's curious. The fact that this animal chose you... means you've been through something together. A phoenix read the mali people; you probably had no iion of capturing it."

  "Of course not!" I respond.

  I would never do such a thing. In my past, I was a child whose destiny was ged and forced to bee a tool. When I became an Emperor, I ehat. That's why I had to seek out the Titans; I needed an army that wao join my revenge, and they shared the hatred for the Gods. I wouldn't foryone or take children and train them as tools, so they were my only option.

  "What do you know about this creature? Is it true that it will gre?" I ask him while pointing at the phoenix.

  The monk ughs.

  "What I know are just legends passed down by my teachers. The phoenix should have beeinct long ago... seeing one up close fills me with emotions. I used to hear stories about them and shared them with my old friends. Today, I see one alive in front of me. All I know is that it is loyal and that it have the power to bee enormous, reag a size... that I don't know if it would fit in this castle. But I don't know how the phoenix evolves and unlocks its power."

  "I'm screwed... what if this this out of trol?"

  The monk ughs.

  "You and it will have a bond of friendship. As long as you don't io do harm, it won't. Your fates are now lihat's what having a friendship with a phoenix means."

  I feel a bit relieved.

  "If it's not going to go arouroying everything, I'm already more at ease. I just want to live my life in peace..." I say, standing up.

  The small red hawk sneezes and uionally releases fire. Then it flies to a stone shelf and lies down.

  "There's something iing I heard when listening to stories about a phoenix, actually it's a bit funny."

  I look at the old man who was ughing.

  "What is this 'iing something'?"

  "They say that a phoenix only decides to form a bond of friendship with a true Emperor," he says, walking over to a sword rack.

  Those words echo in my mind, and I look at the bird.

  I hope you chose to be my friend because we saved each other that day... the time of emperors is over.

  Sifu picks up a sword.

  "Today, I'll teach you some basics."

  "I want to skip the basics. Teach me how to fa Aura user."

  Even though I know, it's different when I 't use Aura to terattack. I o learhing I from him.

  He ughs.

  "Still worried about that? Don't worry. Human armies haven't mastered Aura, and the ratio is the same as fes here: 1 in 100..."

  "I know... but I just want to learn a bit."

  “Rex, my apprehere's aire Human Empire, and none of them use Aura like I do... except for one person.”

  I make a fused face. "One person?" I ask.

  "Exactly. Only one person knows how to use Aura the way I do, and he went far beyond. Even I couldn't defeat that person... but there's nothing to worry about. That man, even though he's uable, is still just one man and doesn't have the power to ge the Empire. The Empire only obeys its Emperor," he expins.

  "And who is this man?"

  "His name is Jin Sidao. He's Asian like me and belongs to the Song Dynasty under Emperor Song's rule. His father killed the Emperor, and there must be a crisis with the new heir. That man became a politi and pretends to be meek; no one knows his true nature. I saw him using his teiques only on the War of the Red Frontier. I iigated him sihen with some old tacts, and they firmed that only he knows how to use Aura that way."

  "Then I'm more at ease about that. If he's just one person and the Song Dynasty only obeys the emperor... I hope things stay that way."

  The monk ughs.

  "Things will stay that way for a long time. The Song Dynasty is an Empire that has existed lohan this Kingdom. Jin Sidao is dangerous, but without real political power... he's just an ordinary person."

  This world uses Aura! That's way too dangerous. Luckily, only this old man and Jin Sidao know teiques with it.