Chapter 1 - The End and the Beginning (1)

Year 20534 of the Erka Period, planet Yuba.

It was a typical summer day in Hillfort Village, which was located on the outskirts of the great Frederick Kingdom. Summer wasn’t kind in this area, with the blazing sun producing intolerable heat for the majority of villagers living here. Despite the heat, thanks to the abundant precipitation that falls in the other three seasons, the hills and surrounding areas of the village were still filled with green grass and colourful flowers. Upon seeing such a scenery, most people would easily come to the conclusion that this village was definitely one of the best places to live of the entire planet.

Under a large isolated oak tree on one of the hills adjacent to the village, not that far away from the village walls, rested a young teenage boy. He laid horizontally on the grass, hands crossed together under his head, while staring at the blue sky. The boy had black hair and was rather handsome for his age. He was observing a flock of beautiful birds flying in circles around the hill.

This was none other than Kane Barker, the only son of James Barker, the Vice Mayor of Hillfort Village. He was wearing a summer uniform, composed of a half sleeve white shirt and a short grey trousers.

He appeared disturbed, and was presently busy cussing into his heart. ‘’Damn it! Seriously… what the hell is wrong with Madam Lena! This is just ridiculous! That ugly…’’ he kept swearing in his heart, clearly pissed off. ‘’I did over a thousand good deeds and she never congratulated me, and today I did the smallest mistake, and she went all out against me!‘’

Kane kept cursing his luck, but there was nothing he could really do about this matter. After all, Madam Lena was the instructor of his class in Green Book College, not to mention her being one of the daughters of the Mayor of Hillfort Village.

After spending around three more hours under the oak tree, Kane decided to head back home for dinner. Kane`s house was located near the centre of the village. The Household was rather large, which was pretty normal considering the financial status and reputation of the Vice Mayor. Compared to other families in the village, Kane`s family could be considered one of the richest families around.

Despite that, Kane`s life was anything but plain sailing. His mother, Elena, died shortly after he was brought to life into this world. Furthermore, he didn’t have any siblings. His only aunt, the sister of his father, wasn’t on good terms with him. Kane was aware that she was secretly scheming against him. He wasn’t exactly clear on what her objectives were, but he could roughly deduce that she was lobbying for her child Brandon. She wanted him to be the future successor of James Barker as Vice Mayor of Hillfort Village.

This was rather a troublesome matter, but Kane didn’t pay that much attention to it. In his opinion, his father was still full of life. The average life span of any individual amounted to roughly 500 Yubian years, while Kane`s father was only 100 years old. Thus, he could be considered rather young. Additionally, the remaining relatives of the Barker family, which numbered slightly more than a hundred, all had good relationships with James and Kane.

As Kane entered the main hall of the Barker House, he heard an anxious but yet soft voice.

‘’Kane, where have you been? I was worried sick! I thought something bad had happened to you. I actually sent some guards looking for you an hour ago!’’ The voice came from Kane`s father. He had a look of a noble and a gentleman, was good looking and smartly dressed.

Seeing the worried look of his father, Kane couldn’t help but sigh. ‘’Ah… father. I am at fault. I was pissed off over some trivial matter and decided to head straight to the hills to calm down. I should have come home first. I beg father for forgiveness.”

James sighed, but then smiled and replied happily, ‘’Ha Ha, I am actually at fault as well! You are now almost sixteen years old, and yet I still treat you as a kid. But I guess it is normal for me to feel this way. You are my only treasure left in this world Kane, more important than my status as the City Vice Mayor. If something ever happens to you, I would never forgive myself! After your mother Elena had passed away in the Frederick civil war fifteen years ago…’’

‘’No need to continue father. I know your feelings.’’ Kane quickly interrupted as he gave a light hug to his father. They spent time conversing together, while they also ate dinner as the rest of the day passed slowly.

The next day, early morning.

‘’Oh shit! I remained asleep,” Kane murmured as he helped himself out of his bed and quickly left to prepare his stuff. ‘’If I arrive late, I would just be giving another excuse to Madam Lena to target me. I have to hurry my ass off!’’

Kane quickly dressed and headed straight out. While he was passing in front of his father`s room, Kane saw it was empty, and assumed that his father had already left towards his office in the Village Headquarters. He didn’t realise that his father was currently in the library doing some research.

Kane then hurried outside and ran straight towards Green Book College, hoping he would be arriving in time. The College was outside the village below a mountain to the west of Hillfort Village. A normal walk from the village to the college would take roughly 30 minutes, but one could easily run the gap in under fifteen minutes.

‘’I can still make it in time,” Kane anxiously whispered to himself as he kept his pace. He kept running at full speed, barely giving attention to anything ahead. Still, it was impossible not to notice in the far distance the large statue of Kind Frederick IX, the current King of the Frederick Kingdom. The statue was located in the Capital City of the Kingdom, but it was so massive that it was basically visible from the entire Kingdom.

‘’It is all because of that bastard that my mother died. Shortly after I was born, he led the rebel armies and attacked our town.’’ Kane argued with himself, whilst his face showed hints of anger and disgust.

In truth, the day when the rebel forces had attacked the village, James was the Mayor of Hillfort village. The enemy surrounded the village walls and fighting went on for two hours straight. The situation was precarious and the village demise was just a matter of time. It was at that moment that Frederick the Rebel arrived (now king Frederick IX), proposing that he would spare the lives of everyone in the village, as long as they surrendered unconditionally, whilst also paying him a quarter of the village total financial net worth. James had no other choice but to comply, otherwise they would have faced total annihilation. Frederick was highly impressed by James cooperation, and as an expression of gratitude, he didn’t dispose of him but instead demoted him to the rank of Vice Mayor.

All while this was happening, Elena happened to be doing an errand outside the village, and was caught in the middle of the struggle. After Frederick left, James hurriedly launched a search and rescue operation to find her, but to no avail. Thereafter, he also searched all the prisons and slave camps of the kingdom, as well as nearby kingdoms, but all his searches were unsuccessful. In the end, she had never returned to the village, and her body was never discovered either. After a couple of years, James had given up all his hope and acknowledged that his wife had definitely died on that day, otherwise she would have been found or would have returned back by now.

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Kane had now finally reached the main door of the College. He rushed inside, taking only a couple of seconds to arrive in front of his classroom. When he entered, he saw everyone seated, and noticed that instructor Madam Lena was about to start a History session.

She stared coldly at Kane, immediately shouting in an angry manner, ‘’so… after the lesson I gave you yesterday, you still dare to challenge my authority and break the rules. Fine brat, I hereby punish you for four hours at the college stable, by cleaning and feeding the Horses. Go now!’’

‘’But… but… you didn’t even started the…’’ Kane stuttered, but was immediately interrupted.

‘’Go to the stable right now you little punk, before I change my mind and keep you there for a whole day!’’ Madam Lena shouted angrily.

Kane`s blood was currently boiling, but he had already decided to cowardly leave the class and head straight to the College stables, located around one hundred meters away from the College. Kane didn’t want to directly challenge Madam Lena. She was after all the fifth daughter of the Mayor of Hillfort Village, who had a close relationship with King Frederick IX himself. Kane didn’t want to cause any unnecessary troubles on his father.

As she watched Kane leave the classroom, Madam Lena couldn’t help but to grin coldly, and a hint of satisfaction appeared in her heart. Madam Lena always viewed the Barker family as a threat. After all, James used to occupy the position of the Village Mayor in the past; not to highlight the fact that he was loved and respected by a lot of villagers. Needless to say, her odium towards James extended towards Kane. That was the real reason for all this hostility towards Kane.

Kane finally arrived at the stable. The stable was small and it only housed five horses. It was mostly used as a training ground by the military instructors to teach their fellow students. It only took Kane 30 minutes to sort out everything, then he rested against the wall outside the stable, waiting for the remaining time to pass.

Suddenly, he felt a shadow approaching from his left. He turned around to look. In front of him, stood a chubby blonde guy, with freckles on his cheeks. Every student of the College would immediately recognize this face. He was rather infamous in Green Book College, the number one delinquent Terry Browly, nicked named ‘The Deadly Candy’.

‘‘Oi. You little kid... Daddy Terry wants to sit here, so how about you piss off? And while you are at it, how about you throw me 50 gold coins, everyone deserve to live an easy life after all right?” Terry said coolly.

Kane hesitated for a moment, then he replied. ‘’Do you know that my father is the Vice Mayor of Hillfort Village?’’ He had hoped that Terry would change his mind and leave.

Terry paused for a while, then fumed aloud, ‘’Do you think I give a crap about who your father is?! You can be the child of King Frederick himself for all I care!! In this College, once daddy Terry demands something, you have to bow your head and obey obediently!’’

Instantly, without giving Kane any chance to dodge, Terry launched a potent punch on Kane`s chest, throwing Kane two metres away into the distance, as his face turned immediately pale.

‘’Now, I hope you understand what happens when you disobey daddy Terry. Now, be a good boy and give me 100 gold coins, or I will make sure that not even your mother will be able to recognize you!’’

At this stage, Kane could have submissively handed 100 gold coins and fled. As the child of the Vice Mayor, money was never really a problem. But he couldn’t do such a thing, he would never let such an arrogant punk have it his own way!

‘’Oh! Mr. Principal! Help me out over here!!!’’ Kane suddenly shouted. Of course, this was just a lie that Kane invented right on the spot.

Instantly Terry became distracted, as he looked behind him. At that very moment, Kane immediately grabbed up a stone that laid next to him, and threw it with all his strength, smashing directly into Terry`s face.

‘’Arghhhh!!’’ Terry screamed in agony, but before he could do anything, Kane acted quickly and threw a powerful kick which landed between Terry`s legs.

‘’Arghhhh the pain!! Stop it! Stop it! I’m sorry!!’’ Terry fell on the ground, one hand holding his face that was covered by blood, while the other hand was between his legs. He was in a very sorry state.

In terms of physical strength, Terry was definitely stronger than Kane. But when one factored intellect into the equation, Terry was miles away from Kane. The sudden charge of Kane gave Terry no chance to counter him. After spending roughly one minute on the ground, Terry stood up slowly and then ran away from Kane. Seeing the fleeing Terry, Kane couldn’t help but shout in a mocking way.

‘’Don’t forget to tell your mother your name when you arrive at home, otherwise she might not be able to recognize you!’’ But Terry had already disappeared into the distance.

Now, an hour had already passed since that accident.

Kane was again resting against the walls of the stable. He seemed deeply lost in thought. He was contemplating about his life in general. He was wondering how the creators allowed people like Madam Lena and Terry to exist. He felt that the life of many people would have been much better without these kinds of people around.

Kane was a rather lonely child. He had a strange sensation that he was different from the other people in the village. He also felt that his view of reality was somewhat different than that of other individuals. It was more of a feeling of being a fish out of its pond, rather than having an eccentric personality.

As he was busy reflecting on his life, suddenly, something unexpected occurred.

Kane felt a surge of mysterious power entering his body. It felt like his body was being attacked by thousands of invisible needles that were flowing into his body like an electric storm. The sensation lasted for just a few breaths, but for Kane it felt like an eternity. The tremendous pressure and pain this force was exerting on Kane`s body, was not something a common mortal could comprehend or endure.

Kane panted heavily, as he felt that all his physical energy was being sucked away dry. He started to get dizzy, as he slowly lost his awareness, then he fell on the ground, totally unconscious.

Next to Kane, a small grasshopper, which was resting on a nearby leaf, also fell on the ground. Its body, showed no sign of life.