27th February, 3026 B.E.

Two months passed after the incident. Jacob had healed up by now. He was almost back on his feet. He was extremely bored during these months due to inactivity. He could not learn anything. Neither could he play with his friends but they visited him sometimes.

What's more, he could not even remember his dreams. He thought that it was a disease. All he could remember was the nature of those dreams, whether they were good or bad, without remembering even a single detail.

He had told his mother once. She became worried that day and brought lady Maria in the evening. She asked him some questions that he could not remember and gave him a few potions to drink for a few days. But even after that, his disease did not get treated. He stopped bothering with it from then on.

During those two months, not many people visited him except the servants he was familiar with and his friends. Lady Maria also visited him a few times to check his state of health and to remove bandages if they were not needed anymore.

He also had to move his limbs during those two months as per the lady's orders. It was painful at first but the pain decreased with time and he quickly became acclimated to it.

He was very reluctant at first. But according to Lady Maria, his legs would be wasted if he did not comply with her instructions. That made Jacob fearful and he started following her instructions without any question.

Clan lord Rokas had also visited him. He visited him one of those days and asked him about his wellbeing. He was quite nice. He also asked Jacob whether he needed anything but he politely refused.

Nothing much happened in the clan in those months. But he was informed by the maid one day that the father of his attackers was transferred from the clan guard leadership to clan business by Rokas.

Jacob could not think of the implications of this change because of his young age. Only the adults could deduce that Rokas was unhappy with his son and didn't want him in his sights. That was why he ordered him to help his merchant brothers so that he may not be able to remain in the clan any longer.

"Slowly. Slowly. Yes. That's right. Put your right leg down first. Yes. That's it." Maria was helping Jacob get up and try to stand with careful directions.

Jacob was free of most of the bandages he had supported two months ago. It was a great improvement considering his state two months ago. But that improvement came at a cost of two boring months.

Jacob got up slowly from his laid position and tried to put his right leg down the bed first. His body was still aching but that was minuscule. The only exception was his left arm. It was still radiating some pain.

Upon asking Maria once, he came to know that it will take ten more days for it to go back to normal. His upper arm muscles were damaged or something like that. Although he could move it around with some difficulty, he was instructed to not move it much.

With Maria's help, he succeeded in standing up successfully. He tried to walk and fortunately did not fall on his first step saving the nearby servant the trouble of having to prevent him from falling on the floor.

He walked wobbly at first but after seeing that he was not feeling any pain or problem with his legs, his confidence increased and he started to walk a bit more quickly than the crawl he was doing a few seconds ago.

He started walking around normally and a smile blossomed on his face. The inability to walk was the worst feeling he had felt in his life. He was thankful to Maria for helping him regain his ability to walk.

Many times, during his boring days, he thought about one of his mother's lessons. (Truly. People take things for granted. Only when a natural ability is taken from them will they be able to know its true worth.)

He was looking toward his legs while in deep thought. Maria smiled at him seeing his happiness.

Seeing her patients recovering and becoming happy from being sad was one of her favourite scenes.

Every time this happened, she had this tingling feeling in her chest and became very happy. She cherished these scenes and it was also one of the reasons, she took great pains in treating her patients seriously.

Jacob turned towards her and bowed his head.

"Thank you very much, good lady. I shall remain thankful for this favour you have given me." Jacob said in his childish voice while trying his best to thank the medical lady.

She smiled at him and nodded in acceptance.

"Goodbye. Young Jacob. Don't try to run until your left arm is healed. I will visit you after ten days."

She headed out of the room after saying her part.

"I won't, good lady. Thanks again." Jacob shouted from her behind.

After he was alone, he walked for a few more minutes while being happy. He had recovered recently, so he could not walk much and became tired. He sat down on his bed and started thinking.

He had been lying on the bed for two whole months. He could not do anything but think only. So that was what he had been doing in his boring time.

He was quite traumatized due to the attack on his life. He still remembered their words word for word. The bigger boy threatened him with his life and almost succeeded if servants had not arrived at the scene in time.

He remembered her mother badly in those days. He still remembered those days when whenever he was lightly injured due to playing or learning, her mother worried about him greatly and did not leave his side day and night.

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He passed many days in fear of another attack despite the assurances and guarantees of the people.

His mind used to sink into the abyss of negative feelings. He felt fear. He felt hate and anger towards his attackers. He felt sadness due to the absence of his mother. He felt depressed due to his inability to walk.

But he pulled himself together slowly over the days. He also recovered from his psychological trauma after seeing that no other attack was coming. As a result, he started believing in what others said and became relaxed.

He had deeply thought about their words. He could not make any head or tails of their accusations. (I have not killed even a chicken in my life. How come I have killed their mother out of nowhere.)

The more he thought about their words, the more he found them illogical and nonsensical.

He slowly started believing that something was wrong with their mind. (Their mental state was not stable. And both of them went mental at the same time. It is a disease most probably. Something that travels down the line.)

After thinking hard in his childish mind with his limited knowledge and experience, he arrived at a probable conclusion. He had heard about hereditary diseases.

He and his friends were discussing diseases once after the death of a servant due to some disease. There, he had heard many things from others.

But one thing that caught his interest was the diseases that travelled down the line. They were incredibly dangerous according to his friends and could not be cured.

He had asked Maria once when she was visiting the clan. She had cleared his doubts and misunderstandings. Hereditary diseases existed. Yes. But not all of them were incurable and dangerous. Some were mild and could also be cured. And they could strike at any age

As a result, he arrived at his current conclusion after his deductive reasoning. Imagining Rokas and Kai hurling massive boulders on little children, he shivered with fear.

But soon after that, he found a loophole in his conclusion. (If such a disease existed in the clan, would not we have heard about it from our parents. There is not a single case throughout my life except those mad two.)

But still, he knew that they would be back after four months. Here, he could not trust anyone including Rokas and Kai for his safety. His little life was on the line here. There would be many times when he would be alone. They could not protect him all the time.

(The hate of those two was quite palpable that day. Who knows when they will strike next? It may be months or years. And next time, they will be better prepared than before. They may also bring weapons next time. It is a great possibility.)

He had heard about their punishment during those boring months. According to people he knew, James had sent his sons to the mines to work as miners outside of the luxurious lifestyle of a clan before he was ordered to aid his merchant brothers by clan lord Rokas.

According to them, working in mines was very terrible. The living conditions were also bad. In addition to that, they had to do all kinds of menial work. So, their punishment was quite satisfactory.

But for Jacob, no punishment was satisfactory when it came to hurting him or trying to murder him. He was not satisfied with their punishment. He wanted it to be stricter but unfortunately, he had no voice in the clan.

Arriving at this line of thought, Jacob started looking towards the lower left leg of his mother's bed nearby. He was in deep thought and was thinking about something.

His expressions went through a myriad of changes in those minutes as if he was struggling to decide something. Sometimes he was fearful. Sometimes he was sad. Sometimes he was relieved.

After a deep internal struggle, he arrived at a decision. He had decided to leave the clan in a few days and start working somewhere else as a servant.

Age was an issue but he would work something out. He feared for his life. Also, there was that money his mother had saved for him for his journey towards the sects.

She had told him about it on her death bed. But he did not bother checking it all this time. He trusted her so he thought that there was no need to verify.

(I will not spend this money. I will earn money by working and will eat from it.) He decided to save money for the future and earn money to feed and clothe himself.

He was waiting for his left arm to heal up. After having Maria remove the rest of the bandages, he would prepare slowly and would slip out without alerting anyone.

As for his friends, sadly, he would have to say goodbye to them without a last hug. Maybe they would meet after he would become a great cultivator, strong enough to protect himself.

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

After ten days, Maria visited him as expected and removed the last of the bandages from the body. He moved his left arm around and found it fine. It was still aching mildly but he could manage.

After she left, he locked the door to his room from inside and moved towards the lower part of his mother's bed. The purpose of locking the door was to prevent the others from learning about his plans.

His purpose was certainly not to prevent someone from stealing his money. He had not even thought about his money being stolen by someone.

He was raised as an upright child who was respectful to his elders and compassionate to the younger ones.

He tried to be truthful most of the time and abhorred the evils such as stealing. He had heard about thefts a couple of times in the clan. He always thought that only the mentally handicapped could do something like taking someone's possession without the owner's permission.

In addition to that, there was instinctive hate for the evil inside of him. He was like a sheltered plant in a greenhouse, not exposed to the dark side of humanity at all. And this would come back to bite him in the future.

Upon reaching the lower left leg of his mother's bed, he sat down near it and started observing the wooden boards. He could not differentiate between any of them and found them similar to each other.

He tried knocking on them as instructed by his mother. After some solid knocks, he heard a dull knock and knew that he found the money.

The dull sound meant that it was hollow on the other side. He tried to dislodge that dull-sounding wooden board and easily accomplished it.

He found a small leather pouch in the hole under that board and became happy. He quickly lifted it and opened it. He peered inside and found many coins it.

He overturned the pouch on the bed and emptied it. There were many coins scattered on the bed. It included silver and bronze coloured coins.

Jacob knew about the coins. He had been bringing things from outside as per ordered by his mother and other servants.

They always gave him some bronze coins and told him the prices of various things he was tasked to buy from the shops outside.

The economy of the city and possibly the wider world was based on these coins. The lowest of them in value was a bronze coin. Hundred of those coins were equal to a silver coin. Similarly, hundred silver coins were equal to a gold coin.

Jacob had only seen bronze and silver coins in his life. But he had only held bronze coins in his hands. A couple of dozen bronze coins were more than enough to buy some groceries.

He had seen the silver coins in the hands of servants and shopkeepers. But he had never seen a gold coin. According to his mother, only rich people and servants used them. A gold coin was very expensive. He also had a dream of becoming rich and living a blissful life.

Jacob quickly started counting the coins. After a few minutes, he was flabbergasted. His count reached twenty-nine silver coins and fifty-seven bronze coins. The figure almost rounded off to thirty silver coins. It was about three thousand bronze coins.

That was a lot for his young mind and he sat there in a daze. He didn't realize that this was just chump change for the truly rich and the daily wage of a labourer was four bronze coins.

Rosa used to give him two or three bronze coins every week as pocket money to spend. He used the money to eat various foods in various stalls on the streets. He liked them. But after his mother's death, his pocket money also stopped. He missed those foods dearly.