The sun was shining brightly in the middle of the sky. Time-wise, it was obviously mid-day around 12 to 1 p.m. There was a boy around the age of 13 swinging a wooden practice sword, striking a wooden post almost three times his height. The wooden sword was almost a size bigger than him but he swung the sword easily with one hand. Each swing struck the post with a loud and heavy sound.
He repeatedly struck the left flank of the wooden post and after 50 swings he swapped hands and began striking the right flank of the post. The boy continued this until he felt completely winded and his arms were throbbing and numbing. After feeling completely exhausted, the boy rested the sword on the post and sat down flat on the ground while heaving, this was after completing 4-5 sets of 50 strikes for both flanks of the post.
"Haahh, haaahhh… damn that old man... He's always giving me these unreasonable requests," the boy muttered.
His name was Cecil Silvaria and he came from a family with a long lineage of traditional martial arts. He was the next heir of the family so he would be the one to inherit the family's martial arts from his father, the current head.
He was only the fifth born child so why was he the heir of his family? Although he had 3 brothers and 2 sisters, the boy's father named him as the heir. This was because of his talent and zeal in his family's martial arts from a young age.
His 4 older siblings weren't too keen on inheriting the family because of the old traditions, especially when considering this was now the modern age. They had trained when they were younger because of the family's traditions, but they had other aspirations other than inheriting the family head's position.
Cecil's zeal and enthusiasm soon turned into one of his greatest regrets because of the unreasonable amount of training he had to put in to inherit all of his family's martial skills by the age of 16, which in his family, would be called the age of adulthood. This tradition was really strange considering the modern age that the family lived in.
A woman's voice soon rang out across the field where the boy was resting, "Cecil! Wash up and eat! Lunch is ready!"
Cecil looked up to find a young woman standing outside the entrance of the field calling out to him. She had black silky straight long hair, which reached her legs. She had an oval face with a youthfully aged complexion. She had healthy white smooth skin, but the one thing that was prominent about the woman would be her height. She had a very short height, somewhere around 145 cm or so.
"Okay, Mom!"
That short-statured beauty was surprisingly his mother. Cecil picked up his wooden sword with one hand and started walking towards his mother. Mind you, the sword weighed around 30 kg. For a kid his age, being able to easily pick up a 30 kg object with just one hand was quite the feat. This was of course due to the semi-hell-like training that he had to endure during his very unhappy childhood.
Other children would be running around playgrounds, playing with other children in kindergartens, and being spoilt rotten by their parents and whatnot. Not him, however. At the age of 5, Cecil was sent onto an uninhabited island that was owned by his family to train. There he faced the elements and other things that were deemed fatal for a 5-year-old child.
Of course, he didn't face this alone. Since this was considered training, he had his father, the current head of the family, and his grandfather, the retired head, with him. They were there to train him to survive. Survival against what you ask? It wasn't anything special like dragons, unicorns, huge fiery birds, or multiple-headed serpents and such. Although Cecil had his hopes up for fighting against these supernatural creatures, these were in fact, just lies that his father and grandfather had fed to him to brainwash Cecil from a young age.
This was because the two were desperate to name a successor. After all, the 4 older siblings of Cecil had renounced their rights for succession because they deemed them as old-fashioned. So, after spending a few years on the island with his father and grandfather, the young Cecil, exited the island greatly despairing and harbored slight hatred towards his two seniors for ruining his fantasies and even feeding him that bullshit from the start.
Of course, this was just him venting, although his fantasies had been ruined, he never once did renounce his rights for succession. His other older siblings, however, had directly renounced their rights for succession right after their island training. The eldest to the third-born didn't have any lies fed to them, but after the grueling training, they just didn't have any enthusiasm to continue. The fourth had renounced his rights because he had his fantasies destroyed.
After the training and finding out that Cecil didn't renounce his rights, the 2 seniors were elated and thus committed their second mistake which had earned Cecil's whole-hearted resentment towards his father and grandfather. The mistake was that they had upped the daily training's duration and intensity while shortening the time for when he had to inherit all of their skills. The normal 20-year period had been cut down to only 10 years.
Having his training intensified, Cecil had no time to spend going to school and such. He had to devote all his time from when he finished his training on the island until now. In a few months, he would turn 14, so this marked the eighth year of his harsh training, almost hitting his ninth year. When he finished his training in another 2 years, he'd be sixteen by then, and finally, he would stop his training and dive into society.
Cecil, who was already a teenager, had no contact with the outside world for his entire life. The only things he knew about the outside world and society were the things he heard from his family members and the stuff he saw on the television. He knew nothing of the outside world. Well, nothing would be taking things a bit too far, but all he had was second-hand information.
After reaching where his mother was waiting, they started walking together toward the building that was located adjacent to the training field. Even though their family had held onto a very old tradition, the family house was pretty modern in design.
It was a multi-storied mansion that you would normally find belonging to any rich and prominent family. Their family was in fact very, very rich. They were a long-standing family with a history proportional to their wealth. They had large and small businesses all around the world, and these corporations were now being run by Cecil's older siblings.
With a family so well off, who in their right mind would want to inherit the family's old traditions? Being the head of the family didn't mean that the heir would inherit everything that the family had. It just meant they inherited the family's traditions and martial arts. The businesses that the family owned were created and managed by the founding ancestor's siblings, who at that time, failed to inherit the position of the family head.
From then on, it became the role of the inheriting family head's siblings to manage those corporations and businesses and this custom continued to this date. You may ask, what about the families of the non-inheriting siblings? At the time when the new heir to the family was announced, the siblings of the heir would be trained to inherit the businesses by the current heir's siblings, in this case, it would be Cecil's uncles and aunts.
Their family would be given the proceeds that they had earned throughout the time that they managed the businesses. The sizeable amount of money they earned would normally be used to open up their own personal businesses, which although in name only, would be tied to the main family. This way, both the heir and his or her siblings' families would be happy and live peacefully with each other without discord.
Of course, the main family would hold at least 50% of the shares in the big corporations that they owned, which is the sole reason why the family itself is rich. However, most of the money would be channeled back into managing and keeping the business itself afloat. Because of this, the main family was rich, but not overly rich to the point where the branch families would feel that the work they had done was only being used to enrich the main family.
They had no reason to be jealous this way since it was a give-and-take relationship that benefited both sides, but with the times becoming more and more modern. The benefits of being the main heir started to look bleaker compared to being a non-inheritor.
Not being able to focus on anything besides training from their early childhood from dawn to dusk with no contact with the outside world meaning that they had no fun or anything more to look forward to for their childhood... It wasn't something any normal child would like. The only thing that awaited them was training... training, training, and more training until the end of the inheriting period when the heir had successfully learned all of the family's traditions.
Who in their right mind would do this but maybe it was because Cecil saw how pitiful his father and grandfather had looked when they thought he would renounce his rights, so in the end, he reluctantly didn't renounce them and instead accepted his fate.
After arriving at the side entrance of the mansion and being greeted by the numerous servants who were waiting for them, Cecil opened his mouth and said, "Mom, I'll go shower first then come eat."
"Alright, don't worry. Lunch won't start until everyone's arrived, so take your time," his mother answered with a gentle smile.
"Okay."
His mother went towards the dining room with the family's butler and a few maids following after her while Cecil went to take a shower. He didn't like anyone following him so none of the servants followed him. Due to his upbringing, he was rather indifferent to everyone else who wasn't his family, and he was quite independent, so he never wanted anyone to serve him or anything.
*****
After taking a 5-minute shower and changing into his casual wear, Cecil hurried towards the dining room. When he arrived, he found the figure of his father sitting at the head of the table. His father had a large build with prominent muscles showing even though his father was wearing somewhat loosely fit clothes. Even while sitting, his father was a full 3 heads taller than him, clearly exceeding 2 meters in height if he was standing.
Cecil's father had experienced the same grueling training that Cecil had gone through during his childhood so he was naturally well-built from all the training. Also, his father was inherently tall due to his genetics.
Cecil himself was the opposite though, despite being his father's child. He was of small stature. As a 13-year-old he only had a height of 135 cm, more or less. He had the average height of a 10-year-old while being 13. Clearly, he wouldn't pass the 180 mark by the time he was 21 years old no matter what kind of food or training he did. This was because his mother was the so-called Loli.
Even at the age of 40, his mother was still very child-like. Whether it'd be from how she looked or how tall she was, his mother was child-like, a bona fide Loli so to say, and that mother of his was sitting beside the largely built man who was his father. His father had turned 42 this year so the husband and wife only had a two-year gap between their age, but the contrast between the two made them both look like a father and a daughter, instead of a married couple.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
If someone from outside the family who didn't know about them saw the large difference between the two people then they would be pretty shocked. It would also make one question the taste Cecil's father had in women, not like his father would care for that matter. Cecil was already used to this scene so for him it was all a part of his common sense which was clearly, not developed in the proper way.
After taking his seat next to his mother, Cecil waited for his other siblings and grandparents to come to join them for lunch. A few minutes later, an old couple entered the room. Although they were supposed to be more than 70 years old, the old couple came walking in with a strong gait, laughing and teasing each other.
"Haha, old coot, you still can't beat me in a game of chess!"
Hearing the old lady's words, the old man next to her quickly spoke up, "Th-that's because I took it easy on you since you're my wife!"
To which the lady quickly countered, "Says the man who couldn't even beat his wife ever since they met!"
"Urk…"
These two were without a doubt Cecil's grandparents. His grandmother was a genius at the game of chess, so there was no way for his grandfather to ever win against her. When his grandmother was still in her youth, she was the world champion in chess for 5 consecutive years.
It was only after she grew bored of the game, that she renounced her title and passed it to the winner of the next championship, and declared retirement. She was only 25 at the time of retirement and she was officially and unofficially, undefeated at the game. So the old man's talk about letting his wife win was just total and utter bullshit. It was only Cecil's grandfather trying to find an excuse to save face...
They walked towards the other side of his father and sat down. The old couple sat directly in front of Cecil and his mother. The grandma, after looking up and seeing her favorite grandchild sitting in front of her, immediately asked, "So, how was your training, Cel?"
Cel was the puppy name that most of his family called him by.
"It was the usual. Repetitive and exhausting," Cecil blandly replied.
"Well, we expect you to be able to inherit the skills by the time you're 16 so– "
Cecil's grandfather had just spoken up after hearing his slight discontent but was immediately cut off by his grandmother.
"That's just because you both are desperate," Cecil's grandmother chided. She glared at her son who was sitting at the head of the table and then back at her husband before continuing, "The both of you are the ones to blame for putting Cel in such a situation!"
"Grandmother is right, fufu," Cecil's mother added.
"Ugh…"
"…"
The two men of the family could only remain silent at the women's complaints. This was the normal happening when Cecil ever started complaining, even if it was only a slight complaint. Grandfather and father would try to encourage and lecture him, only to be chided and criticized by his grandmother and mother.
Cecil felt happy being defended as it was his form of revenge towards his father and grandfather who so dearly loved their spouses. Hearing his mother and grandmother continue to complain on his behalf, Cecil decided to give a little leeway to his father and grandfather.
"Well, it's not like I'm not against doing it…" Cecil said before trailing off.
But with these words alone, his father and grandfather's expression brightened a bit while two women stopped complaining and began giving him some words of encouragement. Right then, a young lady around the age of 20, walked into the room. She was tall and had shoulder-length wavy black hair. She was wearing glasses and had a very cold expression on her face.
She resembled Cecil's mother. At first glance, this young lady could be described as the so-called cold beauty, but she also happened to be Cecil's very doting, elder sister, the firstborn of the Silvaria family, Fatima Silvaria. She walked next to Cecil and took her seat beside him. Seeing his elder sister, Cecil happily greeted her with a slight smile, "Big Sis!"
The young lady smiled warmly, breaking the extremely cold expression on her face, nodded towards Cecil, and proceeded to ruffle his hair.
"Hehe, how was your day, Sis?"
"Nothing worth mentioning," the young lady quickly replied.
"Heeeh, I bet it was much more thrilling than what I have to go through."
"Mhm, I bet it was. Work hard, Cel."
"Yeah!"
Fatima was especially warm towards Cecil. She felt a little bad for pushing all the hardships of training towards her cute and adorable little brother but it wasn't because of these guilty feelings that made her dote on him. She just genuinely cherished him, just like she did with all her other siblings. Her expression turned cold again before she greeted her parents and grandparents.
"Grandma, grandpa. Mother, father."
"Huhu, how's my Fatima doing?" Grandma Silvaria asked.
"I'm fine Grandma."
"That's good."
The exchange between the 2 could be seen as cold from an outsider's perspective, but for the family, this was considered a warm greeting from Fatima. Normally she wouldn't exchange any form of greeting if someone even tried talking to her. So for her taking the initiative to greet someone was considered warm.
The only exception would be her change towards her little brother Cecil. Unlike how her appearance suggests, she was very protective of her siblings. She cared so much for them that the actual reason for the other siblings' renouncement of their rights was mostly due to her persuasions. The only oddball would be Cecil, her youngest brother. She couldn't bear to ruin her little brother's enthusiasm for training so that resulted in the current situation where Cecil was the heir to the family's ancient traditions.
"Is everything good with the company?" Cecil's father asked, his voice rather booming.
"Yes, father."
Right after, their mother added a few words of encouragement, "Keep working hard, honey."
"Mhm, okay mama."
"Although, you aren't the heir, do remember to train once in a while. In a healthy body therein lies a healthy mind and soul!" Grandfather Cecil also added in.
"Yes, grandfather."
'Today's Fatima seems to be in a good mood,' thought Cecil. He's never seen his eldest sister respond to each of them with a slight smile on her face. Something good must have happened to her today.
"Did something happen, Big Sis?"
"Not really, it's just nice to smile once in a while. Don't you think so, Cel?"
Fatima right away changed the subject. Cecil thought to himself that it would be better if his sister was smiling much more too, so he didn't disagree with that. While they were talking 2 more boys, around the age of 16 and 15 respectively, came into the room. Again they were Cecil's siblings.
"Yo!"
"Hello…Mother, father… Granny, grandpa."
The older one was called Matheus and the younger Luca. Right after the two entered a 6-year-old little girl ran in hugging a bunny doll in her arms, followed by another 15-year-old boy who looked like an exact copy of Luca. The remaining 4 of Cecil's siblings had finally arrived. The little girl with the bunny in her arms quickly rushed toward her mother while calling out cutely, "Mummy~~"
"Come here, Angelia."
"Hihihi~"
The little girl ran towards their mother and jumped onto her. The boy who was the twin brother of Luca, Gabriel, walked in rather sluggishly after yawning aloud. He passed by Matheus and his twin brother, Luca, and quickly found his seat near the end of the table. After which, Matheus and Luca took their seats respectively.
"Sis." "Big sis." Matheus and Luca greeted their eldest sister.
Fatima only returned it with a slight smile and a nod, "Mhm."
After greeting Fatima the two turned to Cecil and greeted him as well.
"Sup, Cel!" "Hey!"
"Matty, Luc," Cecil replied before turning towards the rather sluggish-looking brother of his, and greeted, "Gabriel."
"Hm," Gabriel replied with a grunt and a slight nod before yawning again.
Gabriel was the laziest of the 4 brothers, partly because he had his fantasies as a child ruined by his father and grandfather.
"Okay, now since everyone's here, let's eat!"
After Cecil's father declared as such, the family's head butler immediately ordered the maids to quickly bring in the food. Once Cecil finished eating, he quickly excused himself and went to feed his pet dog, Silver. He went to the kitchen retrieving the already prepared huge slice of beef and a big bowl of dog food and water. He then walked out the backdoor of the mansion and ran towards a large doghouse.
"Silver! Come and get it!!!"
After which, a meter tall and almost 2 meters long white silvery-furred dog, no, it was more like a wolf, came out of the doghouse and sprinted towards Cecil. This wolf was none other than Silver. He was originally a wolf pup that Cecil saved during his days of training out in the wilderness with his father. He wanted a companion so after saving the poor little pup from being eaten by other predators, Cecil decided to raise him as a pet and partner.
After saving the wolf, it became attached to the young Cecil and started following him around throughout his training. A large majority of Cecil's childhood experiences were also experienced by this wolf. The large wolf barked happily when he saw his master. Cecil grinned in reply and tossed the slab of meat he had with him over to the wolf.
"Here ya go!"
Just as he threw the meat into the air, an ear-screeching sound rang out through the air. Cecil quickly covered his ears and looked around bewilderingly. He searched for the source of the uncomfortable ringing thinking that it was an attack by some unknown creature or perhaps from one of his family's enemies. The screeching sounded like it was coming from the front of the Silvaria mansion.
Cecil ran towards the front of his mansion with Silver and looked towards the source of the sound. Since the Silvaria estate was on elevated grounds, almost to the point where it was built on a mountainside, he was able to see the modern-age city down below, which was partially engulfed in a piercing white light. The light itself seemed to be rapidly expanding, trying to engulf the entire city and the area around it.
"Cecil!!! Silver!!! COME BACK HERE!!!"
Cecil looked back and saw his mother waving frantically to him from the entrance of his house. Looking back towards the light, he could see that it was rapidly expanding and approaching his house. He was somewhat stunned but quickly regained his bearings. Cecil immediately began sprinting back towards his mother alongside Silver.
"MOM!!!"
"CEL!!!!"
The light was too fast, however. Before they could even reach where Cecil's mother was, the light engulfed both him and Silver. The last thing he saw was his mother and father, as well as the rest of his family running towards him before everything in his vision became white and the only thing he could hear was the uncomfortable screeching.