Calvin Dred Aazumuth
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Humans are creatures who continually face adversity. Overcoming adversity makes them more resilient. But if every human experiences and overcomes adversity, does not that mean any man can stand adversity? So, what’s the trait that differentiates the great from the average?
It’s the way how a man acts once he faces prosperity.
In the long line of the ‘Aazumuth’ family, an exceptionally gifted individual was born. He was Calvin Dred Aazumuth. He devoted his childhood to face wars for the empire. When a child is presumed to care for each other, he was trained to kill others.
With a remarkable display of battle tactics and brute force, he prevailed on the battlefield.
But every time he swung his sword, a question lingered in his mind.
Who am I fighting for?
The Empire? The Emperor?
Why should a man ever swing a sword for any other reason than his own satisfaction?
He who was raised on the battlefield neither knew love nor care.
“As the course of time passes, one’s flesh turns to dust, his desire’s fade. The lights that guide him disappear. In the end, the only thing that remains is your achievements, your name, your family name.”
Those were his father’s last words to him.
Calvin lived by those words.
After many years, he chose brides that would befit the family name and bore many children.
He who received no affection did not know how to give affection, neither did he ever realize its value.
Most of his children were also gifted. He judged his children based on their battle capabilities and strategic planning.
Praising a child when he/she made a remarkable achievement for the family name was the greatest care he ever gave to his offspring.
As time passed, he got old. At his point in life, a man would start craving affection from others and dream of playing with grandchildren, smiling and laughing alongside them, but Calvin had nevertheless not ended his ambitions.
‘A life without affection’ was the kind of life he lived. But never did he ever assume it was a curse. Instead, he was grateful. His father’s words had given his life meaning.
Every time he swung his blade, he knew its purpose.
Every time someone whispered his name in dread, it gave him delight.
Even if death succumbed him now, he would have no regrets.
But so long as his mouth draws breath, his heart pumps blood. He lives with a purpose.
That’s what he thought until his third son was born. His name was ‘Elias Aazumuth.’
The day the child was born, the sky had turned dark, winds roared, thunder clouds screamed. Priests had announced it a sign of a curse.
Priests had spread many prophecies about Calvin’s third son being the most gifted child to be ever born. On the day of his birth, they altered their words and claimed the entire world was crying out as the most cursed child would be born.
However, the child born was neither gifted nor cursed. He was an average child.
It disappointed Calvin.
As the child grew up, he found the child even more strange.
‘Through improvement, one seeks delight. To ember joy one must continually struggle and improve,’ That was the way of his family. It was how he lived. It was how his children lived.
Everyone was supposed to be this way, but his third child, the one who was born with no gifts or abilities, the one who’s supposed to hustle the most in order to keep up with his siblings, the one who should continuously strive to improve sought none of those things.
Calvin gazed through his window as he saw his son making a crown of red flowers. Two siblings were sitting together. The brother smiled as he crowned his sister with a ring made from red flower petals. The sister brimmed with pride and patted her brother.
Calvin, gazing from afar, flinched.
How can a person experience happiness without any accomplishments?
Maybe the brother rejoiced as he felt a sense of pride since he could make his sister happy.
Maybe the sister rejoiced upon seeing the efforts of her brother.
“Such innocence,” Calvin sighed.
It may have been the unconditional love a parent feels for his child, but for a moment, he felt sorrow. He knew the consequences that would follow once ‘Innocence faces Reality.’
As time passed, things went as he foresaw. His children left their cocoons and sought their own individual goals.
Two of his sons joined the royal knights. The eldest one, Droid, was even offered the Medal of honor when he came of age at 16 by the Emperor.
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His daughter, through sheer determination and gifts, matched even professional tacticians by the age of 10.
However, his youngest son, Elias...
When innocence faces reality, darkness is born.
The sister, when faced with reality, realized the value of experiences. Even when young, Ellianna worked to pile up new skills. She constantly learned and sought new knowledge. She competed in strategic battles for adults when she was just 8. Even when mocked for her age; she held her head high and kept on learning. Eventually, people bowed before her sheer determination to grow and succeed and admired her. She who overcame adversity experienced the ‘Delight’ of Joy.
Meanwhile, the brother, when faced with reality, realized his powerlessness. When he was thrown down in such a competitive world, he who wanted only love, affection, and happiness faced despair. No one cared for him. No one respected him. Why should anyone respect him? In a world ruled by power, those without are disdained, not loved.
Calvin stayed neutral during this time. In a world such as this, giving someone else too much support would bear more severe future consequences. One needed to learn to stand up for himself. He wished to see Elias rise on his own.
He wanted Elias to realize what kind of world he lived in.
However,
“My lord,” One of his servants barged into his room, “Your youngest son has committed suicide.”
“I see, anything else?” Calvin replied with an indifferent expression as he continued to write on his desk.
If his son could not endure reality, then he just wasn’t meant for this world. He felt no grief.
“Yes, he actually survived,” Calvin flinched. “That’s unfortunate.”
The servant quivered, “No, no that’s not it, something’s strange.” His words stumbled.
Calvin looked in front, “What’s strange?”
“His body, his body……”
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Calvin headed to look at his son’s body,
They situated Elias’s body in an ice bed covered by a shroud.
A priest with green hair, wearing a white cassock, stood beside the body.
“So, just what’s so strange?” Calvin asked the Priest.
The Priest gradually removed the shroud, revealing the body.
Calvin looked down and saw the body was completely fine.
“Did you heal him?”
“No, my lord.”
“A servant informed me he fell from his room. Did someone catch him before he reached the ground?”
“No, my lord.”
“Then why do I see no injuries?”
Calvin’s face turned pale.
“Actually, The fall utterly destroyed a part of the scalp,” The Priest continued. “It bulged one of his eyes in. The stones present in the ground crushed his face bones, his nose stuffed inside his face, any normal person would have died in such condition.”
“Ho, then why do I not see those injuries?”
The Priest’s face turned pale, “It healed itself.”
Calvin flinched, “His body cannot contain mana, and he has no supernatural abilities, such a thing should be impossible.”
“I agree, but it happened.”
Calvin bowed down and took out a pocket knife. He held his son’s right hand. Taking the knife, he sliced the wrist like carving a cake. Blood squinted out as Elias’s hand got cut.
Calvin stood up, carrying one of Elias’s hands which he just cut.
To his surprise, the blood stooped coming out after a while. Blood clotted, new tissues emerged. First, his bone cells expanded, forming a frame of hand, then his nerves linked, tissues started covering each other, and finally, the hand healed.
Elias’s eyes opened for a brief moment because of the pain, but then he fell unconscious.
“Surprising, to think he would possess such an ability,” Calvin’s face brightened.
“It was slower this time,” The Priest continued, “His body healed faster before, it seems to have limits and condition.”
Calvin’s face brewed a bright smile,
“It does not matter, inject a strong sedative. Cut his flesh and learn the secrets it withholds.”
Calvin’s invited researchers. For over a week, they cut and researched Elias’s body.
After a week, he returned to see what information they had collected.
“So, what did you find out?”
He asked the green-haired Priest.
“Many things, but,” The Priest lifted his hand. In his hand, he withheld a heart., “This is the most crucial part. When an organ or a part is separated from his body, the body creates a new one to replace it, however, when we gouged out the heart, rather than the body creating a new heart, a new body formed around his heart.”
The heart in his hand was continually beating,
“As you can see, the heart’s still beating, but no new tissues are forming around it. It’s because his heart already recreated his body twice today. The first time, the heart formed a new body within 1 min. The second time it took more than a day. I estimate, it will take more than a week, for the body to completely reform again. I have stored a heavy sample of his blood, it will take over 5 years to completely analyze it.”
“And if we destroy his heart?”
“Then he dies.”
Calvin’s face turned pale.
The priests kept the heart back in the ice bed.
“I think the reason he can heal is that of the Aazumuth’s Fami-” Calvin interrupted, “Enough, you know what to do with the other researchers, right?”
“Yes, my lord.”
That day, everyone who knew about Elias’s condition was killed. The only ones who knew were Calvin and the Green Haired priest.
Time passed, Calvin’s attitude towards Elias still had not changed. But inwardly, he was proud. Even after facing so many obstacles, Elias had not given up. Elias began researching weapons and technology. Although he was nowhere near smart as his sister, he still tried to compete.
Calvin realized his son had found his own goals and strived to accomplish something on his own.
To survive in a cruel world, one must himself become cruel. To stay in a competitive world, one must become competitive. Calvin wanted Elias to become a person like that. As in this world, those who strived for nothing were not considered human. In this world, if you are worth nothing, you get nothing.
So, during the age, Elias turned 16. Calvin gifted him, two butlers and one maid, along with his family support.
It was also the time when The Priest had completed his blood analysis.
However, Elias changed once again after gaining his father’s support. He cast away his goal, indulged in pleases, looked down upon others.
Rather than using the support, he got to further his accomplishments. He deluded himself with meaningless pleasure. Rather than understanding and helping those looked down upon by society like he was once, he bullied them to feel a sense of power.
In Calvin’s eyes, he became a complete disappointment. He faced adversity and overcame it, but he succumbed to prosperity.
To Calvin, Elias was pathetic.
The riches and support Elias now had, his other children always had them, but were they succumbed by it? No, did they indulge them or misused them? No, they strived to achieve on their own with their blood and sweat.
Although giving a man something he never had would change him, the support he gave Elias did not just change him. It made him utterly pathetic.
Now, Calvin had utterly lost his faith in Elias.