Six years has passed by since I was last accepted into the church.
Life here has been pretty good to me. It has been peaceful and slow paced and the air around here is clean unlike back in the old world where it is polluted.
The astronomy here is pretty weird for there are two moons in the sky one is red in colour another blue in colour and if you know your science the light from the moon is just reflected sunlight.
The church here operates as an orphanage and a church at the same time. The nuns here, especially the nuns, will always try to make us as busy as possible with our lives.
On the weekdays the nuns here will try to teach us language, maths and life skills for when the traders comes the orphans in the church can show case their skills and hope that they get apprenticed to a traveling merchant.
Of course, there some who aren't able to be apprenticed to a merchant and so they tried their luck in the military but most never make it back after their first campaign.
And on the weekends we have prayer and foraging the nearby forest for herbs.
The church is located in the village of Dórsk. It is near the border of our "Friendly" neighbour the Nordic Kingdom who will sometimes pay us a "visit".
The Nordics are grown and raised on the harsh and barren cold North and that is the reason why they sometimes raid empires and kingdoms filled with rich plunder.
The "visits" that the Nordics gives will depend on how low they are running on supplies.
But over time the "Visits" became more and more cilvilised, back in the past before I was born into this world they used to rape or pillaged villages like mine but now they simply come and we pay them "Taxes" in addition to the taxes that we give to the Romus Empire.
And now let's move on to the good stuff Magic.
Magic is available here. It needs an energy called mana and it has different variations or elements. There's the four basic elements air, water, earth, fire.
And then there are three special elements, lightning, light and dark.
Those three special elements can only be obtained by being a priest or priestess of the religion related to that element.
For the lightning element you must be a priest/priestess of the Tais religion.
For the light element, a priest/priestess of the Serion religion.
For Dark element, a priest/priestess of the Hados Religion.
The church that has taken me in is of the Serion religion which is the most widespread religion on this continent.
There are four major powers on this continent and they are the Nordic Kingdom, Romus Empire, Hadin Empire and the Serion Theocracy.
There is not much I can say about the four powers as education isn't given out to commoners but only to the nobility but I can tell you some from what I've heard from the travelling merchants passing through the village.
The Nordic Kingdom is comprised of beastmen who are often demonised and looked down upon by the Romusian. The Nords believe in the same religion as the vikings do back in the old world but the religion is called Tais instead. The Nordic Kingdom is made up of various warlords controlling different parts of the kingdom.
The next country is the Romus Empire and as the name suggests it has a Rome esque like society. The Romus Empire believes in human supremecy and you will most likely to find slaves of non-human origins in its cities. The Romus Empire is located at the West of the continent and is the largest and powerful of the 4 countries.
After the Romus Empire is the Hadin Empire. The Hadin Empire is made up of beings from all walks of life. From Humans to dwarfs to the Elves to the beastmen. It believes in equality for all and it often has issues with how the Romus Empire treats non-human beings. Despite it believing in "equality for all" it is an aristocracy.
The final one is the Serion Theocracy. The serion Theocracy is located to the south of the continent. The Serion religion is mainly a religion made of countless gods and above them all is Serion the king of gods and godesses.
Now on to the daily life of me, Pual.
For the most part my daily life is pretty boring. It consists of me waking up at 7 in the morning due to the damned roosters the farmers keep.
After waking up I went down from the second floor which is the dormitory and headed down to the dining hall located behind the kitchen.
Breakfast in the orphanage usually consists of hard bread, dried meat and cheese. Not that I'm complaining aince it could be much much worse.
After getting breakfast I went to the front porch of the church to get lessons on mathematic and on language.
After language was lessons on magic which I usually skip due to the fact that I'm really really bad at it. There was this one time when I went to check on how high my mana was and what affinity it was when it came back that I don't have any mana not even a single drop. In this world your mana level can be determined by a special crystal which usually shine in a colour of your mana affinity brightly or dimly based on your mana level.
I remembered back then when Lily tried to comfort me. Lily is a half elf half human and with how the Romus Empire is mostly pro human you can imagine the insults aimed at her but when the church took her in her life became peaceful.
With her origins of an elf she naturally of course has a high affinity with magic and it has been whispered among the nuns that Priest Andrew--who was the priest in the first chapter--- wanted to send her to the Arcangulus Academy which is located in the Serion Theocracy and it has a high prestige and high requirements on accepting students.
Social standing in this world aparently depended on one's magic and so for me a man who doesn't have any magic will probably find myself in the gutters. But since I'm a bastard child of an influential noble perhaps not, but we will see.
When I skip my magic lessons I usually head to the nearby forest. Overtime it became a second home to me. I knew where every ditch is, which plants are edible and inedible, which herbs are best for making potions and which herbs are best at making poisons, which tree makes the best spot for sleeping under and which spot is best for catching animals.
That is also where I usually secretly trained on my swordsmanship. After all being a sword fighting nerd back in the old world has left me some form of habit which I followed religiously.
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Another three years passed by without me having any magical talents and well I sometimes find myself isolated from the rest. Only Lily will come and accompany me and for that I'm grateful.
Lily as I've mentioned before is a half elf half human and she has traits from both sides. She has silver hair and long ears charateristics of an elf and a slim body. Her face is kinda well cute I guess? It has this soft look on her face which makes you want to protect her and her eyes are of emerald green another trait of the elves.
"Pual, come here. I need your help with a little errand." A red headed nun, sister Collins, beckoned me to approach her. Standing behind her was Lily.
"Yes sister Collins?"
" I need you to go to the blacksmith together with Lily help get the church get some metal tools." Sister Collins dug inside her nun outfit and produced a pouch filled with bronze coins. "Here are the coins needed." I held out my hand and she dropped the pouch of coins onto them.
The currency system around here works like this:
100 bronze Denari coins = 1 silver Denari Coin
100 Silver denari coins - 1 Gold Denari coin.
" I understand sister Collins, shall we go now?"
"Yes please." Sister collins made shooing motions at us.
With that Lily and I stepped out of the church grounds and went to find the blacksmith.
The village where the church is located is pretty small its population is 200 people and the buildings are made of stons and tiled roofs.
The village's paths were at best stone paths. At the middle of the village was a dirt path which cuts through the village. The dirt path is often travelled on by merchants and travellers alike.
Being a small village it had best only a small stone wall only about the height of a grown man's chest. At the outskirts of the vilalge were the fields which the farmers harvest and grow wheat from. So far, I haven't seen them growing vegetables yet but oddly enough merchants travelling past us tend to have carrots or lettuce for trade.
Maybe the reason why they aren't growing any vegetables may be due to the conditions of the soil. I thought to myself.
After 10 more minutes of walking through the village we've arrived at the village's blacksmith. The blacksmith was quite easy to spot due to having his store's chimmey spewing out black smoke.
As we entered the Blacksmith greeted us.
"Ohh, what's this? It's rare for you to bring someone else along." Said the blacksmith in a gruff voice.
The blacksmith has a face and greying hair stained with soot, beefy and thick arms as well as callused hands
Ah right, when I skip my magic lessons I tend to go to the blacksmith to learn how to make swords other than going to the nearby forest.
"Is she your sweetheart?" The blacksmith said jokingly. Strangely enough Lily's cheeks were tinged in red but after a few seconds I realized that she was embarrassed and decided to give her a helping hand.
"She ain't, old man." It feels weird calling someone younger than me old man but respect ya know?
"Hahaha. Well, nice to meet you young lady, my name is Brad, what's yours?" Brad greeted Lily who still has that red tinge on her cheek.
"Li..Lily." Lily replied in a shy voice.
"Ohhh, Lily eh? That's a good name."
"Anyway, what are you kids here for?"
"Sister Collins send us here to collect the tools which she ordered last week." I stepped up and handed over the pouch of coins.
" Keep it Paul." Brad waved the pouch away.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"You have a family to feed don't you Brad? Besides I will feel guilty if I don't pay for your services."
"It's alright Pual, I bet that money coud help the church in another way. Wait here kids, I'm gonna grab the tools."
As Brad said that sentence he went to the back of the store and went to grab the tools.
After a minute or two he reappeared from the back with the tools as well as a pack of smoked meat.
"Here are the tools as well as something extra from me. Make sure you guys don't finish it on the way back to the church and share it with the other kids, alright?"
Brad then drop the tools in my arms and the pack of smoked meat to Lily.
"Yes, sir. We promise that we won't finish the meat." I promised Brad.
We then got out of the store and head back to the church.
After that incident my impression of Brad just went up.
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A few months have passed by and the local lordof this area came to inspect our small and humble village adn it was also on this day I did something which I never thought I wil haev to do again but did.
The day started out normally, wake up, do my morning business, ate breakfast, went for my lessons and skipped my magic lesson.
And when I went to the nearby forest I felt that something was wrong that something was misplaced. It didn't take long though as I found out what was "misplaced".
What I foundw as a trail of broken branches and flattened grass which led to scene that it is fucked up and beyond fucked up at the same time.
What lay before me was the son of the local lord sitting on top of Lily whose clothes were shredded and had a knife to her throat.
Seeing that I shouted at the son of the local lord.
"Oi Pretty boy! You best get off her lest.." I left the threat silent hoping that the silence will make him think of what I'm gonna do to him but it had the opposite effect.
Hearing my threat Pretty boy turned his head whilst sitting on top of lily and spoke back to me.
"Do what? You commoner. Lest I cut off your tongue and stuff it down your throat?" He sneered.
"And my name is not pretty boy, its James, you commoner filth."
"Hey come on now pretty boy. There are plenty of wenches out there who are willing to whore themselves out for your pretty face unless your preference is in men." That seemed to insult him pretty good as he stood up from Lily and slowly strode up to me.
"Well,well,well. you think of her as your friend? She's an elf, a half breed even. She's filth not even worth wasting your precious food and time on. So, you can either stand back and watch or stop me, little boy."
James calling me little boy was the last straw as I held him by the shoulders. Feeling that, James looked at my hand in disgust and looked back at me.
"Get your hands off me filth lest..." James left the threat silent hoping that it will un nerve me.
"Lest what pretty boy? Lest I cut off sausage and stuff it down your throat?" With that insult James exploded and turned around trying to stab me with his knife.
As he tried to stab me with his knife I grabbed his arm and pressed down on a nerve located in his joints causing him to drop his knife. As I did so I punched him in the guts, hard.
With the punch to guts James slumped down to the ground clutching his stomach and puking out contents of his lunch.
While James was writhing down on the ground I told Lily to get the guards from the village. Of course that will bring the highly trained knights of the local lord as well after all they need to see what was causing a stir in the militia and see if it threatens the safety of the local lord.
I watched as Lily ran past us in her torned up clothes and towards the direction of the village. Once I was sure that she was out of sight and ear shot of this place I bend down and picke dup the knife which was dropped.
I then examined the knife as I spoke to James. "Wow, this knife is worth a fortune isn't it? Is that a gem that I see there? Seriously you need to spend more of our tax moeny on hiring more militia."
"Go.. Screw yourself, Filith!" James shouted while staring at the knife.
"Oh, this? Don't worry I won't kill you. The only thing that I hate more than rapists is killing people who aren't fighting back."
I tossed the jeweled knife towards James and took out my own knife which actually belongs to the church's kitchen.
"Go on, pick it up. Let's settle this like the gentlemen that we are." I indicated to the knife on the ground.
After a moment James got back on his feet and grabbed the knife and settled into a stance probably taught by his instructor while I stood adopting a sloppy stance making him think that I'm an amateur.
Seeing that James put on a smirk convinced that he was facing off with an amateur totally forgetting what happened to him a moment ago.
With a shout James launched himself at me. Seeing that I side stepped and slashed his fore arm.
Seeing blood dripping down from the wound that I've inflicted upon him. James immediately pulled back.
"Come on Pretty Boy I know that you can do better than that!"I taunted him.
"Don't make fun of me!" While shouting out that sentence he lunged at me again but with the help of magic. What James did was that he enhanced himself with wind magic and so when he lunged at me this time it was faster than I anticipated but still slow enough that I managed to avoid it.
"Even with magic you still can't hit me! What kind of noble are you Pretty boy!"
"GRRRRAAAAHHH!!" I guessed I mad him much more mad this time as instead of pulling back he continued slashing at me with his jeweled knife.
It wasn't long before I could hear the sounds of armour clanking against each other and the shouts of other men.
"Looks like help is already here huh? I'd better finish this up." I decided that this was the time for me to get serious.
Feeling the change in my atmosphere James tried to pull back but before he could I slashed my knife down and cut off his right arm from the elbow onwards.
"Huh? Why can't I feel my arm? What's this? Is that my arm? No way, I mean it was there a moment ago right?" At first James was confused but soon realised that it was real when pain washed through him.
"Arghh!! You goddamn commoner filth! How dare you, how dare you." As he said that an overpowering aura came from him.
Sensing that something dangerous was about to come from him I strafed backwards to gain some distance.
Without any warning James dashed forward towards me whilst at the same time picking up the dagger still clutched tightly in his right hand.
He was so fast that he left a sonic boom in his wake.
Within seconds he was already in front of me knife in a stabbing motion towards my head. As he did so I rolled side ways and felt a sensation I haven't felt for in a long long time. It was the rush of adrenaline and that woke up the beast inside me which I've kept locked up in the darkest deepest pit which I could imagine in my mind.
As the beast woke up I could feel a smile creeping up on my face.
"You just woke the beast up from a long long sleep boy and you're gonna regret it." I said with a feral smile which is now showing my teeth.
And what I justs aid was true. For when the beast wakes I can't control what happens to the man who does it.
My vision begins to be clouded in red and I lunged towards James who lunged towards me as well.
From then on it was me sitting in the sidelines and watched as the beast takes control of my body.
We traded blows with each other. When I managed to get a hit in on James he will get a hit back at me. But instead of flinching in pain the smile on my face grew bigger and bigger until my cheeks started to hurt.
One thing that I can't explain is that even though I can't control my actions I still can feel the pain inflicted upon me.
And with each blow I grow more and more excited.
It wasn't long before James finally went exhausted. Kneeling down on one knee in front of me and wounds appearing all over body.
It was at that point when I realised that it was more than enough for a lesson on him treating Lily like shit but I watched on in horror as the beast in me just slowly walked towards him and stood in front of him. I knew what the beast is gonna do but all I could do was just stared out of my eyes.
As I stood in front of James, he looked up at me with eyes pleading mercy but I replied with me raising my knife. The expression on his face changed into one of horror, one which I will probably have nightmares about for a few nights, I then proceed to cut open his stomach and watched on with a feral smile on my face as his guts spilled out onto the ground.
He watched in confusion then soon realised what was happening as he tried scooping his guts back into his stomach and I just stood there laughing at his futile efforts in scooping his guts back into him as the guts themselves kept on sliding out.
He kept on repeatingly scooping his guts back into him until the moment he died.
The moment he died my vision returned back to normal and I just stared back at the reflection of myself in the pool of James' blood.
I stared at my reflection for a good minute or so before looking down at the knife I held in my right hand. I merely sighed and sheathed my knife.
I then sat down on a nearby stone and reminisced about my past while I waited for the guards to come. After all, they are quite near now probably 20 meters away and even if I were to run away from them where will I go?
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A/N: So uh, another chapter I guess? I did a six year time skip as I wanna avoid having a MC who is walking at the age of three and stuff. So yeah, MC pretended that he was a normal healthy kid the past six years.
Now then, next ch will be interesting parts.