After fifteen days, Rokas left for Agoross and things returned to normal. The only difference was the change of leadership.

Jacob's life didn't change as much. He continued his daily routine after that hectic day. He had learned most of the things by now except cooking and smithing. He knew the do's and don'ts of cooking and was learning new dishes to cook currently.

As for smithing, he had no progress at all due to the non-cooperating smith. So he became free most of the time.

Recently, he had found out about the clan's library. Now that he knew how to read and write, he tried his luck entering the library building but was stopped by the guards standing there.

According to them, he didn't fulfil the two conditions required to enter the library. One was to become an adult. The second one was to formally join the clan as a servant when he grows up.

(Damn, this is just a library after all, not a treasury.) This was his inner monologue as he was shooed away. As a result, he gave his free time to the revision of the past lessons given by his late mother and to physical exercise. He did not want to remain idle.

Due to his hard-working routine, he was a bit more muscular and healthy than the other kids who were the same age as him.

He thought that if he kept working like that for the coming years, he would have a consistent advantage over the others and his body would be well developed. That would be beneficial for his goal of joining the sect.

One day, as he was returning to his room, his way forward was blocked by a familiar person. It was the oldest son of James, Micheal.

He was not supporting a friendly expression and was looking at him with sharp eyes. Jacob tried to step aside and walk past by his right side but Michael also stepped to his left and kept blocking him.

Jacob almost collided with him but stopped in time. Instantly, he stepped back while maintaining his eye contact with Michael.

(Welp. Trouble is here. He decided to confront me after all. I expected this much. I should not confront him. They are clansmen. Where is his little brother?)

Jacob looked back and he found the answer to his inner query. Liam was standing just behind him a few feet away.

Jacob was surrounded by two older children. They had also picked impeccable timing. No servant or other clansman was in their vicinity.

(Looks like there is no ignoring it now. Are these two trying to bully me? Wow. At least I will find out what is the cause of their non-so friendly attitude towards me for the past three years.) He was wiser for his age due to the training of his mother and humble way of life.

"What is it that you want? Step aside and let me go."

Jacob asked the older one with a calm voice.

Hearing the question, Michael remained silent at first for a few seconds. Then instantly, his face twisted into anger and he spat out a few sentences that Jacob could not understand at all.

"How dare you kill my mother. Because of you, I and Liam don't have a mother. I will kill you right now and here, you bastard."

"What the? What are you talking about? I didn't kil..."

Jacob became stunned after listening to his incomprehensible response and started reporting but he could not finish because a punch was already upon him.

As they were standing very close to each other and due to the suddenness of the situation, he was not ready for a fight. He could not parry or dodge the first punch at all.

The punch caught him on his nose. Michael was quite a bit taller than him as he was about to turn into an adult. So the punch packed quite a bit of force behind it.

Jacob became disoriented after that but did not fall. He immediately felt a second hit on his back and knew that both of the older children were ganging up on him.

He made a split decision to take down the younger one first before confronting the older one. He gathered his wits and turned towards Liam, another punch was heading towards him but he parried him and launched a strong kick towards his legs. In the meantime, Michael had punched him in the back.

Jacob was in an extreme state of pain. His back and nose were radiating intense pain. He was also feeling something hot flowing down his lips but he didn't care about it at all in the heat of the moment.

His strong sideways kick connected with Liam's lower legs and he fell. This was his chance. He leapt on his fallen foe and started punching his head rapidly. Liam fought back but could not do much. He was soon knocked out by Jacob.

Meanwhile, punches and kicks kept raining on him from the older sibling. After knocking the younger enemy out, he caught a kick headed towards his head with both hands and immediately stood up. Michael freed his leg and prepared for the next move.

By now Jacob's body was hurting in many places. He was bleeding from his head and nose. His left arm was not even functioning properly. Whenever he tried to move it, an intense pain radiated from the upper part of his arm that almost made him scream.

He was in no condition to fight back. In addition to that, Michael was almost two feet taller than him and was much stronger and faster than him. The most he could do was to take out the younger one due to the lesser age difference.

He could not fight with Michael longer than a few seconds and was down on the ground in no time. Punches and kicks kept raining on him. He tried to defend his head but everything became blurry and painful soon and he lost consciousness.

...........

Jacob woke up with a start and tried to get up but could not do so and screamed in pain.

"Woah. Easy there. Don't move."

Jacob heeded the words of someone sitting near the bed and stopped moving. The intense acute pain receded slowly but some of its remanents remained. Tears were already rolling down his cheeks.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Yes. That's right. Don't move. Lady Maria has ordered us to tell you not to move much after waking up. You are badly injured but your wounds have already started healing."

Now that Jacob was not moving much, he looked toward the person sitting near him while slowly tilting his head. It was a cleaner he knew.

Jacob did not have much interaction with that servant. They remained silent for a few minutes. Jacob was getting a bit uncomfortable with the servant sitting near him due to his sad state of mind. He wanted to be alone.

"Umm". He tried to check whether he could talk or not and was successful. He thought over his words to convey his request to the servant sitting near him without being rude.

"Thank you for helping me. I want to be alone for a while."

Seeing Jacob's state, the servant sitting near him became sad and acquiesced to his request.

"Very well. Your food will be delivered here and fed to you by a maid. As for your other needs, they will be taken care of by me. Don't worry, child. You will be on your feet in no time." After saying that, he got up and left the room.

Jacob slowly observed himself and his surroundings. He was in his bed and was covered in bandages like a dumpling, especially his left arm. It was wrapped in more bandages than any other part of the body.

His entire body was radiating a constant dull pain. Especially his left arm, the dull pain was intense and bone piercing. In addition to all that, he could also feel intense pain in his nose.

Tears were already wetting the bandages on his nose. He was also emitting sobbing voices. Here he was, all alone with no one to properly care for him. His loving mother had left him a few months ago.

He would not even feel comfortable with the servant if he would decides to accompany him in the room. They were not like his mother. He was hungry and thirsty. He did not know for how many days, he had been unconscious. He forgot to ask the servant.

And the room he was in further exacerbated his longing for his deceased mother.

"Mother..." He whimpered while sobbing softly.

After a few minutes, he quickly controlled his emotional state and tried to sleep. The dull pains kept him awake for some time until he fell asleep.

He then woke up due to someone prodding him from the side. He opened up his eyes and found himself surrounded by many servants he was familiar with. Even some of his friends were there. They were all looking at him with sad and worrying gazes.

A maid was holding a dish and asked him to give her permission to feed him. He did so with a word of thanks.

At that everyone left them alone and Jacob was spoon-fed. He ate much and had his fill.

"For how long have I been unconscious?" Jacob asked in a soft voice.

"For two days. Lady Maria was called immediately after the incident. She patched you up properly after our crude work. She also checked for any fractures. But luckily only your nose was fractured. She corrected its crooked position there and then and properly bandaged you after that."

"Did she say anything about my left arm?"

"She was saying something about it. But it was quite crowded at that time. The only word I could hear was "tearing"."

"How did you feed me when I was unconscious?"

"We didn't. Lady Maria forbade us to. She visited you three times a day and injected various things into your body to fulfil the need for food and drink."

Jacob found out why was he feeling hungry and thirsty when he woke up. He was not fed anything in the last two days. Neither was he given any drink.

"What happened to my attackers?" Jacob asked about the fate of those two older children who had attacked him out of nowhere.

"Oh. They were punished. You don't have to worry about them any longer."

"Can you tell me the details?"

"Sorry. I don't know the details. I just heard that they were punished heavily by their father. There is also gossip that their father will be judged by Rokas himself. I don't know whether it is true or not."

"Alright. Thanks for taking care of me and answering my questions. I remember my debts." Jacob was grateful to her for giving him her time.

"You are like a son to us. There is no need to remember any debt here. It is rude to talk to the people close to you about such debts. Don't you know?

"Yeah, I know. Sorry for that."

After their short conversation, they fell silent and the maid left the room with the trays after smiling at him. He smiled back at her and warmth blossomed into his cold lonely heart.

He was thankful to all the people who cared for him and made sure to remember this in the future.

After that, he was visited by many people including clan lord Kai and many other clansmen. Kai assured him that justice had been served and he didn't need to worry about them any longer. No one would dare touch him in the future.

.................

Two days ago, Kai was informed about an incident that took place in the manor a few minutes ago while he was sitting in the clan hall discussing business with his younger merchant brothers.

His youngest brother's eldest son Michael was found beating a child just outside the servants' quarters while his younger brother lay unconscious near them, bloodied and dirty.

By the time the servants separated the two, Michael had almost beat the child to death. The child was unconscious.

When he came to know about the child's identity, everything clicked together and he had already guessed the entire story.

His guards immediately called for Maria without his permission and he appreciated their decisive actions.

According to Maria, the child had deep bruises all over his body. His head, nose and right leg were bleeding. His nose was also fractured and bent out of shape. His left arm muscles were almost torn apart due to excessive use of force.

Kai almost blew a fuse upon hearing Jacob's state and barely stopped himself from getting up and rushing to the investigation room nearby to slap that little twat to death. (How can anyone be so cruel to a little child? Only bandits do this.)

These were his thoughts as he forced himself to keep sitting on the throne. He would visit little Jacob after Maria finished with her treatment.

Upon further interrogation of Michael by his guards, he found out the exact details of the fight. Michael did not dare lie to them. He knew that if Jacob opened his mouth, all his lies would be exposed and the punishment will be stricter.

That was yesterday. Today, he had to deal with James and his two sons. They were standing in front of him right now.

The sons were in the front while their father was standing just behind them looking at Michael's backside of his head with a cold expression.

(Ah, what a headache. I will let James decide. If he dares show any bias, I will step in.)

"James. I leave their punishment to you. Deal with them yourself. They are your sons." Kai looked towards his younger brother and told him to decide their punishment himself.

James nodded towards Kai and stepped forward. He came standing in front of his sons and faced them.

Liam had his entire head covered in bandages but he could walk. Michael also had bandages on his body but they were sparse. He only suffered a few bruises.

James kept looking toward Michael. He didn't pay any attention to Liam. He knew too well that the main perpetrator was Michael and Liam was only influenced by him.

He suddenly slapped Michael so hard that he fell with great force and hit his head on the rigid floor. He had three of his teeth lying near him and his head started bleeding.

Michael slowly stood up while putting his right hand on the head wound to stop the bleeding. His face twisted in pain, he did not dare utter a single word due to fear and pain.

"Both of you will work in the iron mines for 6 months." He decided to send them to the mines in the east. He knew some foremen there. They would easily accept his request.

Upon hearing their punishment from their father, their faces turned white as sheets due to horror and fear.

But James didn't care about their feelings. He had no idea how to pacify his father this time. He had no excuse this time. Moreover, what his sons had done was very serious.

Ganging up on eight years old despite their age difference with a sudden attack, was a dishonour and a disgrace to his name.

"And I don't expect such things from any of you in the future after your return. Otherwise, things will turn really bad for you two."

His two sons didn't dare retort his punishment and their heads drooped down. They were quickly taken away by the guards.

James looked back at his elder brother. Kai nodded towards him with a satisfied expression and said,

"That was satisfactory punishment for them. But you should prepare, James. Father won't take that lightly and will probably punish you for the lack of training from your side. I won't be able to talk him out this time."

"I understand, brother. I understand.."