Chapter Nineteen

I N T E L : FLY ON THE WALL

B E L L O W : FLY ON THE WALL

Osiris got better at hiding after that incident. Lambert wouldn’t always bring her sister, but it was a few times a week at least.

Sometimes Osiris could avoid it, other times he couldn’t.

The lessons started up soon after, once they thought Osiris was calmer. He wasn’t. He’s, in fact, way worse than before but he wasn’t going to bring a child into this. That seemed to be the difference between him and them.

The lessons were lessons. No one ever really likes school. He barely graduated and these people think he will write an essay about the county's founders?

They got him fucked up if they think he went through twelve.. thirteen years just to do this all over again.

He only thanked the stars he could read and write this damn language that looks like fake game holographic.

The tudors changed constantly.

Because Adam could give two shits about learning, the King has had to change them quite a bit. He also may or may not have a reputation for stabbing his tutors.

Nothing like the rumor mill sabotaging his name.

Another thing Adam learned was these people love gossip.

People’s tongues wag when they think management isn’t around, and Osiris is but a fly on the wall.

Through this he was able to learn that the kids he saw that day were his siblings. Apparently the dinner was to celebrate his birthday.

The tutor this time was a man.

He was a fellow with a monotone voice and a thin, sleek body. He looked to be in his mid twenties and already comfortable with who he was as a person. The maids love him and Osiris believes he’s sleeping with a cook from a different castle.

He doesn’t teach him much.

Adam watched as the man purposefully mixed two different countries with similar names.

Osiris thought that royalty needed to know in extensive detail all neighboring countries, cities, and their politics. So it was hard to imagine the King choosing someone to teach him sociology that could mix up county names so easily.

It wasn’t like Osiris knew everything they were saying. He didn’t even pay attention, but when they have the correct names on the board and still mix them up..

Adam bit into an apple.

L A Y O U T : FLY ON THE WALL

Osiris sat on the ledge of a spare guest bedroom balcony and watched the workers shuffle around the yard in their daily duties of fucking around.

Kicking his feet Osiris let the air carry little flakes of ember like wind carrying trash in an alleyway.

The layout of the place was massive.

His castle was just one of eight in just their section of the city. The Lux Kingdom was one giant circle. It was divided into four districts with the center hubing royalty. The center also had a circle layout with the main castle running across the map like a cross.

Each section was designated to a royal, and Osiris happened to be the child with the most land out of them all.

Osiris slapped the sides of his feet together in a click. Like hitting a dying campfire a plume of amber rose and fell towards the ground.

The world was monstrous in size but Osiris was never allowed to leave the boundary of his own castle.

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I S O L A T I O N : FLY ON THE WALL

Osiris was alone when he squatted down to examine his findings.

The bug was dead, faded green pigments plated its dome like body. Its eyes were round with four white dots at the center, and its little antennas were all crooked. But what made Osiris even stop was their wings.

As flat as a board, but with an intricate stained glass design, it had see through wings.

It was fragile.

Osiris held the little guy up and faced it towards a bit of light.

The colors bloomed.

“Look at it, how pathetic. It’s even playing with bugs.”

Osiris picked up said bug.

When he stood a few maids were there. They seemed to have stopped their duties just to make a snide comment at him.

Adam was used to it. His online persona was always flooded with demeaning, backhanded, deprived comments so a few little pebbles did nothing.

But that did not stop the grudge he was forming over the entire country.

Adam’s eyes must have unnerved them because the maids left without a fuss.

Adam moved on.

Over and over again Adam watches these people despise him. The hate ran more than skin deep, they were infected. He was the other woman’s child. He was the scapegoat. They would use him when things went wrong. They would blame him when things get tough.

They will kill him if given the chance.

If Adam didn’t know any better he would think the entire world was like the people in his little prison. Not that Adam had much hope for that. With mana responding to every violent whim of his he doubts there is much kindness out there.

Adam kicked a rock.

Osiris hasn’t even met a race other than human. There were ologies upon ologies of different animals, creatures, things, magic, a lot of these wonders were left to wonder because Adam was never allowed to leave. He saw pictures, and a few moving images, which surprised Adam since he thought the technology here was ancient. That was another thing he was missing out on.

So many things and Adam couldn’t even touch them.

Osiris put the little glass beetle on his desk.

M U D D Y : FLY ON THE WALL

Adam was on his tenth set of burpees as men from his guard unit walked in.

While the cooks had their routines, so did the guards, and the guards of his castle practiced once in the morning and once in the evening. Along with the guards came his most recent hired trainer, Brown.

Clever is the Queen to wiggle her main squeeze into this place.

Adam pushed another set.

“Look who we have here.”

His steps were heavy and could be heard against the dirt floor. The man stopped a few feet away.

Adam ignored him.

“Still at it with your weird, little exercises?”

Adam decided to change the flow of his set. His sides were burning and he needed to pace them. Adam’s feet smashed a cube as he jumped side to side.

“What do you want today, Brown.”

“The King wants you to work on your aura today.”

“No thanks.”

Brown’s face strained.

“Just do your exercises.”

He then left with the other men to work out.

Adam went back to his regime.

Grunts filled the air.

Adam knows the Queen is after information, especially when it comes to his training. While watching the bells, Adam learned each person has a distinct mana eye.

The eye is them, their ego personified, and acted as a fingerprint.

Adam could watch an entire scheme play out and know who casted what, and who started it all.

Another curious thing that happens around Osiris was that he could touch mana.

Where the cubes phased through a person’s shoe, skin, and bones, they could not do the same with Osiris. Things would bump into him, move around him, or vanish after a run in with him.

Adam began working on his thighs.

There were obviously spells that could hit and hurt a person. Adam had to dodge a ‘stray’ blast of aura Brown let loose the other week. Osiris paused.

Did aura even work like mana?

Whatever that blast of white light was, it nearly cost him a leg. The comments and jabs from the gang of men kept coming.

Adam gets it. Everyone in this place uses heavy, doubled handed weaponry. Their workouts are tailored to match a body type made to handle their obnoxiously gargantuan sized mallets, hammers, and swords. He gets it. He gets that his moves look strange, that his routine looks a bit odd, but come on. He was positive this world came with an array of fighting styles. The books in his castle are limited, but there have been a few from other cultures and races he’s skimmed over.

But Adam is a creature of habit.

He’s mastered his trade. He loves it. While he does not mind learning new moves, he was comfortable and confident in his craft.

It is his profession.

Adam stopped to catch his breath.

He guessed he can understand how a child who, to them, has never fought a day in their life, is exercising without any sort of guidance. It would be pretty silly to see, especially when none of his moves match anything they’re used to.

Sweat dripped off his face in thick streaks.

Adam can learn and understand these people all he wants.

They will never take him in as one of their own.