7 Years later:

17th September, 3024 B.E.

In the morning, there was slight fog. Birds chirped non-stop as they started their search for food.

In the late autumn, the cloudy sky looked like a boundless calm sea. As the sunlight emerged from the horizon, it was as if there were ripples in the calm sky.

As the sun rose, the clouds above the city cleared as if swept away by a giant hand, pouring out golden light, shining a red glow for a very long time.

From the changeable clouds, the blood red sun lent its light to the city and its surrounding plains below, filled with the autumn breeze. The rusty red leaves of the trees were rustling in the wind and were producing a symphony of soothing sounds.

Similarly, the rust-red leaves also decorated the courtyards of the manor. Several servants were cleaning the place. Cooks were heading to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Maids were running around carrying out various daily chores.

Somewhere in the manor, a bunch of kids could be seen playing with each other with laughter and mirth.

All of them were wearing low-quality clothes. They were playing tag and having fun. They were giggling and laughing. They were of similar age, with only one or two years of age difference at most.

Soon, Rosa arrived there and called out,

"Jacob, come with me. Breakfast is about to be ready. This time, it is your favourite breakfast. Guess what it is?"

"Ok, mama. Coming right away." Jacob replied as he stopped playing with the other kids. He was very happy because it was his favourite breakfast today.

He came running towards Rosa after that and hugged her legs.

.

"The rest of you also head back to your parents."

Seeing tiny Jacob hugging her legs, she smiled. She also ordered other kids to return to their parents.

"Ok, grandma." They all replied in unison. Rosa was like their grandma. She was far older than their mothers.

After that, she turned around and started walking, with children following her from behind. They headed to the servants' quarters together. Jacob was holding her right hand as he walked with her.

The quarters for servants were located near the west wall of the estate. After a couple of minutes of walling, they reached there and all the children except Jacob bade Rosa farewell and headed toward their parents.

In the manor, servants ate their meal after serving the clansmen. After serving their masters, they used to gather in groups to eat their meal together.

Jacob accompanied Rosa to her allocated room. The room was not that large. But it was enough for two single beds, a small closet, a table with some candles on it and a couple of chairs to fit in it.

One of the beds was larger than the other. The larger bed was for his mother while the smaller one belonged to him.

After waiting for a few minutes, they headed to a large room nearby where several other servants had gathered. They were sitting around the table on their chairs, accompanied by their kids.

The atmosphere in the room was too noisy. It was filled with talking and laughter. The adults were talking with each other while the children laughed after seeing each other make silly faces. Jacob smiled after seeing that. He was used to that noisy environment.

Everyone in the city was allowed to apply for being a clan servant. The servants were not slaves. They had a proper salary and were not treated that badly by the clan.

The servants could also marry each other. Their children were not servants though. It was a perk given by the clan to their servants. Their children were allowed to stay in the manor until they reach adulthood.

Reaching fifteen years of age was considered as attaining adulthood in the world. Children grew up and matured early due to the strict life conditions they faced along with the teachings from their parents. They had to become a productive member of society as soon as possible.

In addition, the ambient Qi present in the air was also responsible for the early maturity. It permeated throughout the whole world and affected everything, including plants, animals and non-living things. It was also fuel for cultivation.

A few minutes later when all the chairs were occupied, a few servants got up and exited the room. They soon returned while holding large trays of loaves of bread and fried eggs. One of the trays also had jam in it.

This was Jacob's favourite. Though simple and plain, he liked fried eggs with bread, with a bit of jam applied to it. For him, they were very tasty.

In the past few years, he over-ate friend eggs many times and had to lie in the room all day long due to abdominal discomfort.

As a result, Rosa forbade him from overeating in the future. But those episodes of discomfort were not able to decrease Jacob's love for that simple breakfast.

Many of his little friends had asked him many times previously why did he like fried eggs so much. They did not find anything interesting about it.

In response, they always got the same answer every time,

"Because they are tasty".

Those children found his response funny though. Because fried eggs were well fried eggs, nothing special about them.

Jacob was not affected by what others thought about him too much. He only cared about his mother, Rosa

He used to eat this simple breakfast with gusto without caring about what others had to say about it. It was one of the lessons his mother had taught him in the past.

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"Never care what others think about you. You have to be yourself and be firm on your principles. Never compromise them for anyone". That was the lesson his mother had taught him once. He had to repeat it many times in its entirety to learn it by heart as per the commands of his mother.

Jacob could not understand most of the lesson but he got the gist of it. It was to do what he wanted without listening to what others had to say. As flawed as his conclusions were, he was just six years old when being taught life philosophy.

Rosa knew this but she was growing older every year and knew that her time was near. So she had decided to impart most of her life experiences to him as early as possible.

That was the reason she made Jacob repeat the lessons many times so that they are engraved in his growing blank mind word for word. She hoped that he would understand them when he would grow up.

Rosa watched Jacob eating his breakfast with eyes full of love. She treated him like his own son. She was infertile but her husband loved her even then when he was alive.

She and his husband were one of the original servants that came to serve Rokas in his early years, long before he travelled to Worlen to start his clan. Both were unmarried at the time of joining but married later.

Her husband was a guard. Unfortunately, he had perished in a clash with an opposing party in Agoross before Rokas broke through into the second level and travelled to Worlen.

The passing of his husband had affected her greatly. She had wept for more than a month before accepting her new reality. After that day, she decided to dedicate her life to his master under whom she had met the love of her life.

But now, she had a dear son. He was the star of her eyes.

Once, Jacob had asked about his father. He was five years old when that happened. He came to know from his friends that they had fathers.

As a child, he could not deduce the identity of the males accompanying the mothers of his friends. He did not think much about it and had thought that "father" is a name.

He was baffled how come so many people in the clan had the same names. He never heard of a second Rosa in the entire servants' quarters.

One day, one of his friends asked him about his father, and he was caught off guard by the sudden question. He replied that he did not know any father.

His friend was surprised at the seemingly illogical response. Later that day, he and all his friends held a special meeting where he was taught a single fact that a father and a mother had to marry to have children. So there is always a father.

After hearing his friends and contemplating what they said for a few seconds, he accepted the hard truth. It made Jacob take a double take about his previous thoughts.

He had never seen his father throughout his life. Neither had he seen her mother accompanied by a man. He had never heard his mother mentioning anything about his father.

As a result, he became curious about his father. He wanted to know who and where his father was. So he asked the most obvious person who may know about it, his mother, Rosa.

When Rosa heard him asking the question that where his father was, she almost had a heart attack.

She thought that someone has told him about James. But on further query, she came to know that he was told about fathers by his friends.

She exhaled a breath of relief at that. Thankfully, her son was still unaware of the circumstances under which he was born.

She did not want his son to know about it for the rest of his life. She wanted his son to live a happy life, free of any kind of sadness. She hoped that her son would never learn about someone known as James.

But she knew that it was not possible. Jacob was bound to learn about his past sooner or later. But even then, she went to talk with Rokas that he must prevent it from happening but she was bound to be disappointed.

Rokas had already forbidden people from telling him about it. He was of the mind that he would inform his grandson about his late mother and previous father when he would be mature enough. He wanted to tell him that he was his grandfather.

He was unwilling to budge from his decision even after talking with Rosa. As a result, Rosa decided to take Jacob away from the clan when he would become an adult.

So after thinking for a few seconds, she told Jacob that his father had died bravely while protecting them from bad people.

Rosa had accepted herself as Jacob's mother and her late husband as his father long ago. That's why she portrayed her husband as his father.

James had disowned his son when he was judged normal by his father one month later after the death of his wife. He accepted that he was wrong and apologized to his father and his brothers for the disgraceful behaviour from his side.

The reason he gave was that Jacob was too much like his wife. He had inherited his mother's eyes and hair. He also had great facial similarities with his late mother.

So whenever James looked towards Jacob, he remembered the face of his late wife and that dark day.

There were also some after-effects of his mental breakdown that were still lingering and making him slightly biased. He disowned Jacob and vowed to never see him ever again.

All his elder brothers resisted his decision heavily. They had all stood up from their seats and argued with him for almost half an hour in front of their father.

This time five of his elder brothers were present. The two additional brothers were the merchants that were responsible for the clan business outside of the city. They were most active in the cities towards the south.

They had returned to Worlen a couple of weeks ago after hearing the news of the death of their sister-in-law and the current condition of their younger brother. They had decided to stay in the manor until the thing with James came to an end.

During the argument, they tried every technique they could think of to dissuade their younger brother from taking such a drastic step. This tried to exert their pressure of seniority on him. They tried to appeal to his fatherly side.

They questioned his morality and teachings. They also tried shaming him that how much of a coward he was as he was not willing to accept reality. But all of their attempts failed nonetheless. They were not able to secure a better future for their nephew.

James did not budge from his stance. No matter how much his elder brothers tried to persuade him. His decision was final. He would not come under their pressure, no matter what they say. He would never see Jacob's face ever again.

Rokas kept sitting on his little throne silently through the whole debacle. His forehead in a deep frown, he kept looking at the ongoing argument without uttering a single word.

He had expected this much based on his lifelong experiences. He knew that there was a great chance that Jacob would disown his son after getting his bearings. That's why he had already made alternate plans for his grandson.

Even then, he was a bit expectant from his son. He wanted his inner predictions to be proved wrong by James. He wanted his son to become a great man by accepting his son after everything had happened. He wanted to feel proud of his son once again. But he was bound to be disappointed once again.

After half an hour, when he had thought that enough time has passed, he silenced everyone with a single word. He looked at his son with a disappointed gaze and accepted the decision James took.

The elder brothers did not speak a single word after that and sat back down in their seats with a face of displeasure, especially Kai. He was extremely displeased with his brother for his behaviour.

As per decided before, Jacob went under the guardianship of Rosa and was expelled from the clan one month after his birth. Rosa kept taking care of him as she did for the last month.

Seven years had passed by then. These last seven years had been the best years of her life. She had a son of her own at last.

She raised him with great love and compassion. She never let him feel a lack of anything. She took great care of him and did not ever let him feel the lack of his father.

The happiness she got when watching Jacob could not be described in words. He became the sole reason she lived.

His very existence added a few more years to her ending life. And she was always thankful for any supernatural entity present out there that she was given a son in the ending years of her long life.