The months passed and Mika continued to train, focusing on drawing in as much pure mana and ki as he could.

Mika didn’t read on his fifth birthday, instead spending it laying down on the grass, staring up at the sky. When the sun was high above, the servants placed down a stand with a cover to protect him from the light.

He spent the entire day doing nothing in particular, to the point the doctor had been called. Yet, she found nothing wrong.

“I just wanted to see the sun today,” Mika said, simply, all the while waiting.

At night, with Ami cuddling him close, he heard the ticking of the clock at the end of the hallway. He waited. And waited. And waited.

Tick.

The clock struck midnight, and the boy closed his eyes, sighing. When he awoke in the morning, he felt something he had never experienced before. Relief? Joy? Sorrow? He wasn’t quite sure what it was, nor what the combination of emotions was.

Seeing his mother and father felt strange, and it was then he realised that this world was truly different.

‘Are you trying to tell me something?’ he asked, staring at the open sky in the morning. ‘Are you done playing with my life? Are you done sending me on the path of a lone warrior? Were my previous lives enough?’

Mika had no idea what they were planning, but since they had allowed him to keep his family, he understood that there was no way this family would survive without him. ‘It’s time.’

The months continued to pass by, and Mika lived his days one by one. He did nothing extreme, trying to live under the gaze of the great figures nearby, though he had already caught the attention of the Elder Alchemist recently.

‘Should I do that?’ Mika thought, wondering if he should raise an army. ‘No, why build an army when I should focus on building my family?’ He wondered how quickly he could raise them up, and when he should refine them. If they had decided not to deal with him in this life, it meant he had permission to complete the goal he had in his first life.

As the months passed, shock rippled through the Black Hand family.

Somehow, Ami’s meridians had been healed, and equally as shocking, strengthened.

‘Is she a genius?’ Rogue thought. He was certain that Ami’s meridians had been injured due to the wolf. ‘How did it heal?’ There were so many things which were strange about the situation, but there was nothing he could think of which would explain this away.

“Miki,” Ami called, cutting off a piece of her cheese, before passing it to her brother.

“Thank you,” Mika replied, biting into it.

Months continued to pass, until Mika turned seven and it was time for testing. Ami grabbed his hand as they marched their way through the town, heading towards the testing facility. The facility assigned to the children of the nobles was a school which had been requisitioned to be used for the children across town who were eligible. The tests occurred twice each year, where all children over the age of seven would be taken to be tested around the various facilities.

“You have to try your best, Mika,” Ami said, brushing his hair as they walked through town. Two guards accompanied them this time, as Amon and Martha were busy with other matters that day.

“I will.”

“If you do well on your tests, you will be able to live your dreams,” Ami said, recalling what her parents had told her.

“Yes.”

“What is your dream, Miki?”

“To be happy.”

“That is a good dream.” Ami smiled, petting her head.

‘Is it a dream?’ the guards thought.

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“Do you still want to be a Silver Heart?” Mika asked, recalling the amount of times Ami had told him.

“Yes.” The girl smiled.

‘Young miss!’ The guards kept away their tears, unable to tell her that her dream was impossible. ‘We’ll support you no matter what, young miss!’

‘I have so much work to do,’ Mika thought, thinking about how difficult it would be to allow her to become a Silver Heart. It wasn’t so much that the path was difficult, it was that if she took the path, then others would begin to notice her, and inevitably, others would wish to stop her.

‘Should I make an army?’

The school was bustling with the children of the nobles, the richest merchants, and the most intelligent of the town. Mika looked to the commoners, wondering which of them would be chewed up and spat out for the sake of the nobles and the rich.

‘Good luck.’

“Sister Ami,” Damien called, waddling his way over to Mika and Ami. He was chubbier than before, but in the stoutly built kind of way.

“Hello Damien,” Ami said, greeting him with a palm over her fist, causing him to do the same. “Have you been well.”

“Yes, have you?”

“I have.”

Vasher also appeared, silent like a shadow. “Good morning.”

Mika smiled towards Vasher, who avoided the dark eyes of the boy.

“Vasher,” Damien said, greeting him with manners, and Vasher returned the gesture.

Mika rarely saw the pair after what happened. The children could only meet together when the mothers met, and the women only brought the children out every few months at most. The wolf issue hadn’t changed the relationship too much, though they had agreed not to allow Ami to take command of the children any longer.

‘I should probably help my sister with cultivation,’ Mika thought. ‘It’s been a while since her meridians have been fixed, so it wouldn’t be suspicious if I helped her a little bit now and again.’

Ami brought out some cheese which she had wrapped in her cloth, before offering it to the three boys. “You should eat this so that your brain is working properly.”

‘That’s not how that works,’ Vasher thought.

The bell was wrung, and quickly the children were taken away to be tested. The first test was a simple physical test of a light athletic routine. Running, stretching, body weight exercises.

Mika lay, out of breath after the first test. He sipped his water slowly, before dabbing his mouth with a handkerchief. ‘Bottom three?’ Mika assumed.

The children were then taken inside the school, with their guards standing around outside, a few town guards inside, with the Captain on duty too, patrolling the room outside.

Mika answered the questions as best as he could, making small, innocent mistakes, which would allow him to score reasonably high without gaining too much attention. He recalled what mistakes he had made, and kept them consistent across the tests.

‘Hmm?’ Mika stared down at the paper. ‘Why is there alchemy theory?’

The tests lasted forty minutes each, with a twenty minute break after each test. Maths, literature, science, history, and the new test, alchemy. Once the hours passed, the children were finally let out, where they were tested physically once more, this time revealing their cultivation and inner strength.

Mika remained on the side, since he was a cripple. His eyes remained focused on Damien and Vasher, whose physical prowess was decent compared to most of the other children, though they also came from one of the seven big families within the town. The other noble children also did well.

“Aren’t you going to join in?” a young boy said.

‘Ah.’ Mika eyed him up. “No, I’m a cripple.”

“A little cripple boy are you? You must be Black Hand,” the boy said, his silver hair matching that of his father.

“Yes, Silver Wyrm,” Mika replied. ‘Garad, wasn’t it? What’s with the names of everyone being so unoriginal? Amon and Martha, Ami and Mika. Did they really decide to keep with the same letters? At least it’s better than Jarad and Garad.’

“That’s young master to you, boy.”

“Hey, leave Mika alone,” Damien shouted out towards the young master of the Town Lord. “If you want to fight, I’m ready!”

Vasher glanced between the pair. ‘Stop trying to pick a fight with the Town Lord’s son. We’re not meant to be aggravating him.’ Vasher sighed. ‘How did you not learn the politics of our town?’

The teacher cleared her throat, pushing up her glasses. “Please do not bother the other children, young master.”

“I wasn’t!” the Silver Wyrm boy said, his cheeks flushing red since he got into trouble.

“No fighting,” the teacher warned little Damien.

‘Damien is better than Vasher, but Vasher is not that far behind,’ Mika thought, assessing the two he was closest with. ‘They’ll definitely get into the top ten. Damien will get in the top three, depending on how they assess.’

The children found their parents waiting for them, though Mika’s parents still seemed to be busy. They would need to remain there for some time, as the nobles and the rich usually received their answers on the day of the tests.

“Miki!” Ami hugged her brother tight, rubbing her cheek against his.

‘What need of I of parents when my sister is like this?’ Mika thought, all the while his sister embraced him tighter.

“Did you do well?”

“I think I did okay,” Mika replied, simply.

“Okay?” the Silver Wyrm boy asked. “Aren’t you a cripple? How could you do okay?”

“My body is crippled,” Mika replied, simply once more. “My scores for the written exams will be decent.”

“Decent?” the boy snickered. “I heard that you almost died to a wolf.”

Mika glanced to the side, ignoring the boy. “Sister, let’s go eat.”

“Are you ignoring me?” Garad asked, before he marched up to Mika, reaching for his shoulder.

Mika turned, moving his head towards the fist, before pressing his cheek against it. Then he flung himself away, sliding as dust kicked up.

“Miki!” Ami shouted, quickly scrambling to his side.

Garad remained frozen, blinking with his arm out. ‘What?’