Chapter 4 of the day. Thanks to everyone who reads.

Enjoy

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Chapter 4: Meeting the elders

When Curo felt the oppressive aura, he instantly shrunk. Jack had a smile on his face and said in a joking tone, "Well, well, now, don't scare the little guy witless just yet."He started moving towards his seat at the end of the table, when he saw that Curo was frozen stiff, where he stood. He was still 7 and having 24 men, who had an extremely fierce aura, all staring at him, had scared him practically witless. 

  No matter how much courage he possessed, he didn't dare to make a move without anyone giving him permission to do so. Seeing that, all the Elders understood and withdrew their oppressive auras. Jack gestured Curo to come and stand besides him. Curo timidly scampered to stand besides Jack, he lacked the courage to even make a sound. As he quietly stood next to Jack, every ones gazes had a hint of nostalgia mixed in as the observed Curo. In him, they saw the Clan Master's son.

   After a few minutes of observing and silence, Jack finally broke the silence, "I believe everyone knows, why we are currently sitting here like this, so I won't speak much nonsense and will introduce to you, who I want to succeed me." He drew a breath as he saw everyone nod to him, he continued, "This is Curo, he's 7 years old. He is an orphan who has been living on the streets of Nailu, basically since he was born. He has the Phantom body and has agreed to be here for three months before making a decision, whether he wants to succeed me or not."

   When the last sentence echoed out, everyone got into a uproar. An option to become the successor of one of the four biggest powers in the Empire is a chance most men dream of and he is currently deciding whether to take it or not. It sounded like joke to them and all of them were pissed at it. One of the older men, that was sitting closer to Jack opened his mouth and said in a clear loud voice, "Do you mind giving us an explanation about his three month trial period? To be honest, if you can't give me a clear explanation on this, I can't say I will support him even if he decides to succeed you."

    Everyone else had the same thought and were looking at Jack with eyes that demanded and explanation. Just as Jack was about to open his mouth to answer him, the man interrupted him, "I don't want an answer from you Clan Master, I want an answer from the little lad standing besides you." Every ones eyes changed their directions from Jack to Curo. Jack could only sigh and gestured to Curo to give the explanation.

   Curo grit his teeth and said with a determined tone, "If you were to put yourselves in my shoes, would you blindly accept it? I have been living on the streets for as long as I could remember, I only survived thanks to picpocketing and stealing. I have been looked at like I was a monster and been shunned by the general community for all my life. Suddenly a man, who I tried to pickpocket from, drags me to a mansion to say that he wants me to succeed him as a person, who would become one of the four most powerful people in the Empire. This just seems too unreal for me, as luck like this dosen't just fall into a person lap. As for the three month trial period, it was suggested by Jack, when he also realized how absurd it was for me to believe him in a heartbeat."

   When everyone heard the reason, they understood why the situation was like it was. When they started imagining how they would act in that kind of a situation, they all arrived at the same conclusion. They would call it bullshit and try to leave, Just as they started wondering why Curo hadn't run already someone said, "So that's what all the commotion was about during the night. The little fellow tried to run away when he found himself in this situation." 

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   As the words fell, everyone started to feel pity for the little fellow, he had his world thrown upside down in a day. The elder who had asked for the explanation had an apologetic face on when he said, "Hearing your reasoning, makes me feel admiration towards you, you had your world turned upside down in a day and you have managed to stay so calm."

   "Well, I realized that running away would be pointless and would most likely get me killed before i reached civilization."  Curo said with a straight face, when everyone heard him though, they were astonished. One of the elders managed to asked in weird voice through a hollow smile, "May I ask, what do you mean by that?"  Curo looked at him for a second and answered nonchalantly, "Well, first of all, I have no damn idea where this place is. All I know is that it's very far south from my home town. Second of all, I doubt that the clan that deals with assassination would let a small child waltz on out of here unharmed and let everyone know where this place is located at and third, I have tried to run away from this guy twice already and I've had zero success as all of you can see. Now you guys tell me, what are my chances of running away from him, when I have failed so miserably twice already?"

  As curo said the third point, he pointed at Jack. Everyone had mixed feelings about that answer and finally one of the elders muttered in a low voice, "Are you really just 7 years old, from your thought process I would say it is on par with people twice your age." When everyone heard that, they nodded. A 7 year old child could reach the three points after weighing all his options and obstacles. Heck, even some of the people that were three times his age could not think things through as well as him, at least not in such a short time frame. 

  "Well, I've been living on the streets whole my life, if I couldn't at least do this much, I would have died long ago." When Curo said that with a bitter smile, everyone understood, just how much he had been through in his short life. A single thought ran through  the Elders heads simultaneously, "He has been through a lot and has been forced to grow up faster than his peers." They all understood that at the time his peers were still playing around, he was already fighting for his survival on the streets. They now also understood, that this little kid, didn't trust anyone and had made it clear with his second point that, these may be his final three months in his life and he had accepted it. 

  All of the Elders now looked at Curo with the same respect in their eyes as Jack did. One of the Elders, that was sitting closest to Jack, opened his mouth and said in a determined tone, "If you decide to succeed Jack after the three month period, I will support you with everything that I've got." As the sentence fell all the Elders started saying the same thing. Curo kind of felt that this hadn't gone according to the scenario he had in his head at all. All of these guys decided to support him instead of slandering him and pushing him away.

   He felt a weird feeling he had never felt before. When he saw the determined looks in their eyes, he saw that they were not lying. He immediately felt a warm feeling of happiness spreading through him and his face broke into an innocent smile. When the Elders saw the smile, they felt as though all their worries had faded and understood one thing: If Curo decided to succeed the Shadow clan, then the clan would be in safe hands. 

   They immediately started going over the details on who is free to teach him what. They nearly broke out into a fight, seeing that Curo could only laugh. He felt that after the three month period was up, he would most likely stay and succeed Jack.