Chapter 10

  There was something wrong with the staff. They kept delivering trays of food to my doorstep, and not all of them were necessarily healthy options. Every day I woke up to a procession of maids lying waiting silently behind my door. That in itself wasn’t a bad thing, but the second I reminded them about the limits of a seven-year-old’s stomach, they would look at me like a group of kittens thrown mercilessly into a dumpster and forced to live on their own terms.

  I tried as best as I could to eat some, but it reached a point that I’d get cramps during the day. I couldn’t keep doing that. My people-pleasing capabilities shouldn’t be exploited this much. I had to show them who was the boss, or else.

  Not today, though.

  Yes, let’s do that next week. I would tell Belfray to get his maids under control.

  Nodding to myself, I climbed down the set of marble stairs and made my way to the generous training space resting under the giant mansion. I found a singular figure waiting at the corner of the circular arena. Her blond hair was tied neatly, and she wore a loose robe looking much like a karate gi. It was completely black, but the meaning it carried was quite simple.

  It was finally time for me to become a better version of myself.

  “Mum,” I announced my presence with an expectant pitch to my voice, my fingers clasped tightly around the handle of my wooden sword. My eyes searched the arena with eagerness, and I wasn’t disappointed when I spotted a much smaller but equally black robe hanging from the back.

  “Leave your sword,” Mother said simply, her voice rather stiff. “You won’t be using it.”

  I glanced down at my sword for a long second. The nicks around its edge were deep and jagged even though I’d tried to keep it as pristine as possible. Woodwork, however, wasn’t one of my finest fields and demanded way more diligence than I’d initially thought. Still, it was my own sword, and there was something sad about leaving it on the side.

  I slept with this thing for these last few years, after all.

  Moving on, I followed the silent instruction and donned my new robe, fixing its strap around my waist. It was way more comfortable than it had any right to be. Then, I sat cross-legged before my mother and looked her in the eye.

  She didn’t smile.

  Some tension there, I supposed.

  “The Path of Glory is the path of true power,” Mother began in her characteristically bored voice, which indicated this part of the training wasn’t really important but still had to be conveyed. I shrugged and kept my silence. “It represents the simplicity of our being and that in simplicity you could find a well of might as deep as the space between the worlds.”

  In my mind, I’d already told her to move on about a dozen times, but knowing this was tough for both of us, I cleverly kept my mouth shut.

  Still, show me the energy already!

  I wished to see those glorious lights coming out of my own body!

  Breathe in and breathe out.

  I balled my fists. It was coming soon. I had to be patient.

  “Tell me, Leo, do you know how a Knight controls his internal energy?” Mother asked.

  That earned an arched eyebrow from me. Was this her way of including me in this boring part of the training? If so, that was a genius move.

  “They do it by relying on their internal energy channels,” I answered. I’d spent many a night drooling over books of knowledge that spoke great things about Knights. Thus, I knew this much.

  “Yes. The channels are of utmost importance. You keep that in your mind, and keep it well, understood?” Mother said.

  I was taken aback. This was simple knowledge. Did we have to act like this was a big deal?

  “Yes, mum.” I nodded.

  “There are nine internal energy channels in a human’s body. More if you’re a beastkin, or less if you’re of the celestial species. To tap into these channels you must first spot them in your body. Normally, we would call a medicinal specialist here to map out your internal channels, but in your case, this isn’t necessary. You can find them on your own, can’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “You already found them, did you not?”

  “Um… I did, yes,” I admitted.

  “Good,” Mother said with a small nod.

  Another boon of soul energy was, again, soul vision. This miraculous visionary effect allowed me to see through my own body, thanks to which I’d long spotted the gleaming channels that stretched under my skin.

  As Mother said, there were a total of nine of them. No change there. When I was in soul vision, they looked like elongated snakes cast in bronze. I had one each in my legs, and their tips stretched further down to my toes. The same was the case with my arms. Another two sat in my chest. The two that were in my stomach were thicker than the rest, while the ninth one, the little snaky snake that was in the crown of my head, looked like a newly born baby.

  They all pulsed with inner light, mostly a light bronze except for the ones that were in my stomach. Those were decisively bronze.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Back in the old days, our forefathers forced their channels to motion by relying on strict training. They would develop their muscles and bodies in such strict conditions that the energy channels would have no choice but to keep up with their growth. That was before the development of Manuals.”

  Even though I didn’t know jack about how people developed these Manuals, they were undoubtedly the biggest deal of the Path of Glory. It was to the point that the quality of a manual could make a lion out of an ant. Or so said the books I’d read. They had weird analogies in this world, and they changed from culture to culture.

  Suddenly, a book plopped with a gentle thud to the ground. Its cover was riddled with sword-like cuts, the corners having burned, and its back smeared with a liquid that gleamed like the surface of a red sun.

  “This… The Undying?”

  I stood spellbound as I stared at the name of the Manual. The red, bloody color of the letters couldn’t be more ominous at first glance, which made it somewhat questionable that it was being brought before a seven-year-old.

  “You’re worried,” she said, which was true, of course. “You’re right to be worried. This is a big moment.”

  I nodded weakly, my eyes still glued to the book before me. Then I felt a hard hand on my head, caressing my shoulder-length blond hair with tenderness. Mother pulled my chin gently and made me look into her eyes.

  “The Undying is a manual I have found in the ancient remains of the Tsdakar Empire. It has been rarely practiced after the Planar Wars of Chaos, forgotten in time and likely not without a reason. It has ties to an ancient order of Knights.”

  “An ancient order of Knights?” I muttered. “So, is it strong?”

  “You’re a clever child,” Mother nodded, and this time there was a genuine smile on her lips.

  She pushed The Undying Manual aside with the back of her hand before pulling out a nasty-looking dagger from her ring. I didn’t know what to say as I sat there and stared at the tip of that gleaming dagger… until it tore a deep gash across my mother’s neck. I winced and reached with a clumsy effort to patch the giant gap with my little hands, only to pause when I registered the scene before me.

  There was no blood.

  The gash had already closed before I could even touch her.

  “During the Planar Wars of Chaos, the Undying Knights were called the Knights of Grim Justice. They knew no sides. They knew no master. They shed no blood in the wars between the worlds. Each one was a Celestial Knight, and they acted alone. To you, however, this manual represents something else.”

  “Safety,” I mumbled instinctively.

  “Clever indeed.” Mother’s smile deepened. “But that is only a part of the truth. You are to become a true Runemaster, and you will face an inevitable dilemma in the future. Will you become a servant to a powerful liege? To be cushioned by strangers and held high so long as you keep obedient? Or will you become a master of your own between the planes that knew no peace for thousands of years?”

  “I—“

  “You will choose the latter. That is the only option. You will become your own master.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. What the hell was going on here? I thought I would be getting a simple lesson like that time when Mother taught me how to use a sword. Instead, I found myself facing a moment that I felt its weight heavy on my shoulders.

  “Take the Manual. I’ll give you the day off so you can familiarize yourself with the first book. Tomorrow, we will start, understood?”

  “Y-Yes…” I muttered weakly, then picked the book and dragged myself wobbling up to my giant bedroom.

  ……

  Alright.

  I spent the day reading what appeared to be the first chapter of The Undying Manual, which was… unnerving, to say the least. Like I’d already expected something of insidious brutality from the way Mother slashed her own throat to demonstrate its effectiveness to me, but still, the thought made me nervous.

  Because there would be needles.

  Why should there be needles, you ask?

  Let me explain.

  Normally, every Manual had a specific method of breaking the mold, a.k.a. opening the internal channels. This step was crucial because it basically set the foundation of that particular Manual’s general path. When you worked with a strength-based Manual, for example, you’d usually start with a kick-ass workout routine, or you’d go for something like calisthenics if your Manual was focused on elasticity and endurance.

  This way, you’d guide your internal energy to match your talents.

  In my case, The Undying’s main focus was regeneration.

  Sounds good, right?

  Well, it was good.

  Sort of.

  The ranks of the Path of Glory were simple. It started with Bronze, then came Silver, Gold, Diamond, Sage, Herald, Celestial, and Paragon. So, in total, there were eight known ranks, with Paragon presumably the endpoint.

  The Undying changed one’s internal energy in such fundamental ways that by the Herald stage it nearly made a Knight unkillable.

  I didn’t know if this Manual was being serious about it, but supposedly, a Celestial Undying Knight could remake his body from a drop of blood. It was that good. That effective. What it lacked in the offensive department it definitely made up for in staying alive.

  But becoming an Undying Knight was painful.

  Taking a bunch of breaths wasn’t enough to become immortal. The first chapter of the Manual didn’t speak much about the stages or the practices, but it did highlight the amount of pain one had to endure with The Undying.

  It started with poking a total of a hundred needles into your internal energy points to “awaken” the bronze internal energy dormant under one’s skin.

  I’d never been a fan of needles.

  I didn’t want to poke myself with needles.

  I didn’t want to go through any pain.

  This was too unfair, not to mention confusing.

  My head hurt from just thinking about the possibilities. The cookies helped, but they alone couldn’t alleviate the thumping of my heart.

  At least I was an adult. Sort of. I couldn’t imagine a real seven-year-old going through this kind of torture.

  Taking another breath in, I crawled under the blanket and pulled it over my head. I felt the soft sheets under me with the tips of my fingers. The night was cold, but the mansion had floor heating. At least I had that going for me. I was in a rich neighbourhood. Even if I was to suffer, I’d do it with class.

  Then I thought about Mother. I knew she wasn’t the best mother out there. She did slash her throat just before to demonstrate the effectiveness of The Undying Manual. I mean, who’d do that kind of thing in front of her seven-year-old son, right?

  But again, this wasn’t Earth. We didn’t live in a modern society. If there were rules, then they were completely different from the ones I’d known from my former life.

  I wasn’t expected to become a college student and marry a woman. I wasn’t expected to have kids and have a happy life. Hell, I was to become a Runemaster, and what did the Runemasters do best? They raised Knights and Mages, damn it! They did that so people could wage wars with better soldiers!

  I had to be realistic about these things. I had to prepare myself for the eventual chaos and blood. It made sense then why Mother would give me something like The Undying.

  After all, what was the best way to evade death?

  To become unkillable.

  If you couldn’t die, then you could live on.

  Assuming I could reach the Celestial Stage, then The Undying was no doubt a perfect Manual. It suited me well. Still, this whole manual thing made me too nervous.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about the pain.

  It was so bad that it even spilled into my dreams.

  I saw myself getting drilled by a storm of needles in my sleep, standing bare-ass in the middle of it while blood poured down my little body. Mother and Belfray, and the house staff stood in the distance, watching me with wicked smiles as though they were enjoying it.

  They were crazy, right?

  Right?!

  I was seven years old, and already, my honeymoon as a spoilt child was over.

  Patreon