CH8 True Background
***
When Leo looked around, he realised he was in a totally unfamiliar place.
It was just a bedroom, but it was many times bigger than the shanty cabin Leo lived with Zora's family, not to mention the box he lived in after Zora's parents died.
Everything in the room screamed a luxury that Leo hadn't even dreamt of coming close to seeing.
He carefully pried his arm from Zora's grasp and sat by the side of the bed.
His dirty slum clothes had been changed for luxury pajamas made from beast wool it seemed.
The door opened just as he stood up to investigate the room.
"You are awake? Good." Rowland smiled.
The middle-aged man had forgone his uniform for a simple shirt and trousers.
"Thank you for saving Zora," Leo said awkwardly.
He still didn't know how to address the man.
Fortunately Rowland wasn't in a hurry.
He smiled genially, "You have been asleep for almost a day. The girl wouldn't leave your side no matter what."
He faintly motioned to the sofa a few feet from the bed.
The boy and the middle-aged man sat opposite each other.
Leo sat carefully at the tip of the chair as if he were afraid of damaging it or offending his host.
A tinge of pain flashed through Rowland's eyes but he hid it quickly. He reminded himself he couldn't rush the boy and had to be patient.
"Zora told me you were her brother."
"Like her brother. Her parents found and raised me like their own but they never hid it from me that I wasn't theirs. But even then, they never treated me any different from how they treated Zora.
"Even with my Mana deficiency, they still called me their lucky star. They would say it was because of me they had hope of having a child again after they had given up. And they hoped I would protect Zora like a big brother would."
"They sound like good people," Rowland commented.
"They were," Leo affirmed immediately.
Rowland had done his investigation on Leo and his life so far. He knew about the deaths of Zora's parents. He also knew about Leo's condition.
He wanted to bring it up but he didn't know how.
The War King could face Extinction-class Beasts and Overlord monsters as well as lead hundreds of thousands if not a million troops into battle without fear, but the same man now feared the reaction of a ten year old boy if he rashly brought up the topic he wanted to talk about the most.
Fortunately, Leo asked the questions first.
"Where are my parents? Did they abandon me because they knew about my Mana deficiency?"
"No! Definitely not." Rowland answered instinctively.
His agitated reaction shocked the boy.
Rowland realized his mistake and calmed down.
"Your parents... are dead," Rowland said.
Leo's body trembled but he forcefully kept his calm.
This was within his expectations after all.
"How did they die?" His voice cracked a little.
Rowland gritted his teeth. Eventually he said, "They were killed by an assassin when they were coming to Landrose City ahead of your birth.
"The attack put your mother in a condition where your mother had to give birth to you prematurely in order to save your life. Afterwards, she hid you and led the assassin away.
"You can doubt anything in the world but one thing you can never doubt is that your parents loved you with every fibre of their being since even before you drew your first breath in this world."
Rowland looked at the stunned boy and added, "If there is anyone who failed you... who you should be disappointed in, it is I."
"My sister didn't leave you behind for strangers to find you, she left you for me to find you. And I failed to do so for ten whole years. Perhaps if I had did, we might have been able to solve your defect."
"What? What do you mean?"
Rowland raised a pendant necklace around his neck. It was identical to the necklace around Leo's neck, one of his family heirlooms.
"This necklace is a pair. One should have been able to locate the other, but for some reason, it failed. It was only yesterday that I was able to sense the location of my sister's pendant.
"If I had been able to find you earlier, I might have been able to do something about your condition.
"The reason you can't store Mana has to do with your premature birth. You had yet to develop the cells that would have grown into your Mana Core and pathways. If I had found you earlier, a strong healer might have been able to do something about it. But now..." Rowland explained with obvious guilt.
"It is too late?" Leo asked
Rowland nodded slowly, "Your body has formed. Healing only returns to the forms state, it is very difficult to alter beyond the forms state with just healing magic. Not to mention, your condition isn't something even the highest known healing magic can change.
"Your only hope is that when you turn 15, you awaken a gift that can radically change your body."
"Is there such a Gift?"
"Honestly? I do not know," Rowland shook his head. "If there is, it will be rare. However, a Gift is your only hope of altering your defect. It is the only thing powerful enough to do so without any backlash."
The middle-aged man looked at the boy and said sincerely, "I don't want to lie to you nor give you false hope, Leo. The chances of you awakening such a Gift, if it exists, are very slim. It is even doubtful you will awaken a Gift at all. I don't believe you should bank your hopes on this. There are other ways to gain power without needing Mana or combat prowess."
"Those are just falsehoods that can be taken away at any time by someone with a stronger fist. I have seen it all too well in the slums. Here shouldn't be any different." Leo stated.
"It isn't," Rowland admitted. "But what they lack, that you have, is me. No one will dear touch you with me around."
'Someone dared to attack my parent right under your territory.' The boy thought this but knew better than to say it.
His silence was enough to display his stance.
"Very well, if this is the path you have chosen, you will have to walk it to the end without looking back. Whatever happens you mustn't leave room for regrets." Rowland commented.
Leo nodded in understanding.
"Good." Rowland smiled, but then his expression became solemn in the next. "It is generally believed that the class of awakened Gift can be improved by improving Mana absorption speed and Mana Purity before the day of Awakening at 15.
"Since you don't have Mana, we are going to have to approach this from a different angle.
"Mana Purity is dependant on Mana refinement which after awakening corresponds to the body, while Mana Absorption Speed is dependant on Mana Sensitivity which corresponds to the mind.
"As we can't train your Mana Purity and Mana Absorption Speed directly, we will train your body and mind instead."
"How do we do that?" Leo asked.
"By doing the only thing we can do... we will take your body to its limits and break it, over and over again until the day of your awakening," Rowland responded.
He looked at the boy.
"This will not be fun. You will be in pain for most of the time. Even if Healing magic can cure the wounds, you will still have to bear unimaginable pain, even if only for a while.
"Are you sure you still want to go through with this?"
"I would rather suffer the pain of my choosing now than to have it inflicted on me by others later." Leo replied.
Rowland was taken aback as he didn't expect such a response from such a young boy.
He smiled appreciatively. But also within that smile was a tinge of pity.
'What have you experienced to make you become like this?' The uncle wondered.
"Very well. I will personally train you from now on. No matter how much you beg me, I will not stop until the day of your awakening. I will make sure you have no regrets." Rowland promised.
Leo accepted with a nod.
He wouldn't have it any other way.
"Is there anything you want to ask?" Rowland suddenly asked.
"My parents... who were they?" Leo asked.
"They were remarkable people." Rowland showed a reminiscent smile mixed in with a bit of melancholy. "Drake Xander, the Swordsman of Storms, and Amelia Kroft, the Chain Queen. Both of them were A-rank Veteran Hunters who would surely progress to S-rank Hero. But even more impressively, they were unofficially Tier IV: Master Craftsmen, meaning they could craft beyond their rank. Your father was a Master Swordsmith while your mother was a Master Runesmith."
"Swordsmith?"
"Yes, your father loved swords so much that he decided to specialise in making just swords, unlike other Forgesmiths. His swords were highly sought after. Even my Doombringer was forged by him."
Leo showed a smile due to finally knowing who his parents were after ten years of life
But his expression dropped in the next moment as he asked, "Do you know who killed them and why?"
(To be continued...)