Chapter 79: Chapter 77: Volume After Stories (5)

**Adventurer Keith**—

Years before being employed by the Marquis of Hall, a young man from the Northern ends of Schwarz, deep in the territory of the Fonias duchy, was hailed as a prodigy in his small village.

With red hair that swept in the air like sparks of flames and a sword that swung like the breeze carrying it on, young Keith was gifted in more ways than one.

The greatest of those gifts, though, was his grandfather.

"Swing it harder, brat!"

"Yes sir!"

Creaking back, shaky breaths, the old man with wrinkly skin standing at the porch of a wooden house watched as his grandchild swung the sword in his hands.

Now nearing a hundred and seventy in age, the old man had lived nearly two centuries.

A plague had spread in the village ten years back, where his wife, son and daughter in law decided to leave him behind. Before going away, though, they had left one last responsibility for the man who had been a great knight in his own youth. Searᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The old man shook his head and walked over to his grandson, adjusting the height he held the blade at.

"Child, you are powerful, but don't be wasteful," he said. Keith looked at his grandfather whose hair was as white as the snow that kept falling around them.

He could swear that years ago, he did not look this old.

Back then, there was no way for Keith to tell anything but now that he had grown under his grandfather's strict training and could perceive Ki, he could tell that his grandfather suffered from a severe lack of it.

"But I am strong," Keith had answered.

"And how long can you keep that strength for?" His grandfather asked. Wincing slightly in pain. "Remember, Keith life is a long game. If you use up all your strength today, you will be weak tomorrow."

Keith took in his grandfather's words and adjusted his posture and height, paying attention to the finest of details to ensure most of his strength remained.

"But just if you end up weak today doesn't mean you can't grow strong tomorrow," the child muttered, dissatisfied by his grandfather's words.

The grandfather stoked his grandchild's head with a wry smile.

***

The next day, the same events repeated once more. Keith and his grandfather stood behind their house in the pile of snow as the youngster swung his blade and the old man watched.

But today their training was slightly different. A beast had appeared in the woods behind the forest.

The grandfather and his son were the village's protectors in such situations, but with the son gone and the grandfather weathered by his age, they had no choice but to call for knights. Today, though, the grandfather had made his appearance in front of the villagers and said that his grandchild would handle this.

Now, stuck against a kobold, Keith swung his sword in the strict and rigid manner that his grandfather had taught him.

Bookish were his movements, polished by years and years of practice.

Yet, the boy being pushed back.

The kobold swung its club at Keith's shoulders while kicking his stomach. It would act as if ready to ram the club into Keith while spitting in his eyes.

The poor child was left rather helpless in front of the monster.

That was when his grandfather's voice returned to guide him once more.

"Remember, Keith. You should not grow too attached."

"Can't you see I am busy, old man?"

"HAHAH! Just listen and fight then." The grandfather coughed into his fists before continuing. Though Keith had lost some of his cool from before and had lost the efficiency in his movements, his attacks had started to hit.

The moment he turned against his grandfather's lessons was the moment he started overpower the opponent.

"People are like teachings. Each of them fit for their own. The teaching I impart on you is to guide your path, Keith. The destination is yours to make."

"Speak more clearly! I don't understand anything!"

"Look at your sword, Keith. With my teachings as a base, learn to swing it in your own way. Never grow attached to anything. Be it the way you swing your weapon."

A sword was a bad weapon against a club.

A single collision on a bad angle, and Keith's blade broke into two halves.

Startled, the boy jumped back with just the hilt and the small stump of the blade still in hand.

"Or your weapon itself. Don't be attached to anything, use them all to your advantage."

Keith closed his eyes and reimagined the way he had fought.

Never be attached? That sounded like bullshit.

As if to prove him right in his desperation, the part of the blade that had broken apart was eventually replaced by a new strength he had awakened within him, the strength of Ki.

Keith calmed his mind and swung the sword in the same way his grandfather had taught him, a swing and the club was out of the kobold's hand, another his blade had lodged into the Kobold's neck.

Keith looked at his grandfather with a glare.

The old man was surprised by his grandchild's actions but smiled eventually.

To think he would be able use Ki to that level, his grandchild was truly a genius incomparable to people who had been protecting a single village.

A few days after that incident,

The grandfather who had been holding on his fleeting life for ten years with his Ki alone passed away. The plague that took his family had also targeted him, but for his grandchild, he could persist.

To the end, he left his grandchild lessons that he shouldn't have. He taught him to hold on with gritted teeth when he wanted the child to learn to fall and cry, he taught him to not love and be fleeting when he wanted his the child love and be loved.

But he could pass away in peace.

For his grandson was smarter than he could be himself.

Conflicted between his mind and his grandfather's teachings, Keith continued his life as he had learned. Never being weak and never going down.

A decade and a handful years later, he soon met another young child who ended his conflict.

Keith could openly be weak and let him get attached to others at last.

—

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**Ban Ket Hall, the School Shuttle**

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Ban Ket Hall. The scion of the Hall fiefdom, beloved only son of a very deeply in love couple, and a genius amongst geniuses though admittedly there were way too many of such geniuses too.

Ban Ket Hall, though, was stuck in one of the worst generations in history when it came to geniuses in school.

"Hey, Ban,"

The voice of the woman with pure white hair sent chills down his spine. Holding his head low, the young man bit his lips and said.

"H-how may I help you…?"

"HUH?"

"How may I serve you, lady queen?"

Ban Ket Hall was deepy embarrassed to say any of it. But he knew that he would be beat up if he went against this devil in a woman's clothing.

"I don't know, how strange…" the woman said. "Even when you piss me off like this I end up being soft on you, Ban."

"T-thank you for your magnanimity, lady!"

The person in front of him was the first of the scary bastards, Charlotte Fonias from the Fonias family. A person that was enough to make the sky tear and the earth tremble with her rage.

"School is boring, if not for those books I wouldn't have come here,"

"I see…"

"Not like I need the books either. You know what, Ban, go and get me something to eat."

"Yes!"

Ban turned around and started walking before he was slapped on the back of his head with a purse of coins.

"Take that. Get me something good."

"Yes!"

Ban ran out of the class while the others snickered.

Just as he was about to rush through the door, he hit a wall and was pushed back.

"Ouch!" Ban yelped. He was one of the stronger students in school, but even he was sent knocking back from a single bump.

"Ah, sorry, senior Ban!" The man smiled a very refreshing smile and stretched his hands at Ban. The blonde future Marquis accepted it and stood up.

"Thanks, Kai."

"Don't mention it!" Kai, the other one, smiled and waved away Ban's words. "Have you been alright?"

"HEY!" Before Ban could answer, the devil behind him screamed. "What did I say? Get me something to eat, bastard!"

Ban smiled a wry smile and Kai.

"I am sorry, I'll see you in bit."

Kai frowned but was unable to say anything to Ban. He let the man pass and turned to the woman sitting behind.

"Senior Charlotte, let's fight."

"How about no? I am not on trash duty today."

"T-trash duty!"

"Go and take yourself out. You know you're just going to be beat up anyway."

Ban pushed all those voices back and continued running out. He soon jumped over the islands and made his way toward the building that housed the cafeteria for the students.

But the cafeteria was empty.

As Ban stuck his head inside, he noticed to people sitting as close to each other as possible in the center of the room, acting all lovey dovey while claiming the place as their own.

He winced and was about to run out when he was stopped.

"Ban, I saw you there."

Ban scratched the back of his head and stepped inside again.

"Morning, senior Hades and senior Persephone. I didn't mean to disturb you guys…"

"It's alright," Hades, the senior with slick black hair and a sharp grin waved his hand. "You know her, we empty the place out just to be safe."

The person in front of him who looked like the definition of the word beauty had white hair just like Charlotte's, but a countenance that couldn't be put on the same level as that wench.

Persephone also had a strange condition which affected others more than her, but if they were really thinking of others here, they would have gone to private place instead of sending everyone else to one.

"Running errands for Charlotte again?" Asked Hades.

"You should just stand up to that girl," Persephone continued.

"Ahahaha!" Ban laughed. "I would love to but,"

"But you're just weak!" The one who spoke this time was the person at the counter. Ban turned around to see someone unexpected there.

"Principal Lushan?"

"Please, I am lunch lady Lushan right now."

"Lunch lady…"

"Look kid, if you're just going to be weak then you'll end up crushed in your future. Look at the Mirxa boy, he fights."

"You didn't do anything during that library incident."

"I can't control her either," Lushan shrugged. "More like I don't want to."

"I know, principal," Hades intervened. "He just doesn't have someone he wants to protect or look cool in front of."

Persephone blushed at that.

"Ban, do me a favor," Lushan spoke up once more. "Take another lunch set B to the garden behind the school."

Ban Ket Hall was confused, even the people who seemed to be on his side were asking him to work.

Maybe it was his fault after all?

But he didn't have the energy to object. He did as he was told.

On that day, Ban Ket Hall met the first of his wives and began the change coming in his life.

But all that is a story for another day.