Cruel Reality

" Son, you are going to be late for your big day if you don't hurry..."

Yone heard his mother's voice, which made him stop his meditation session and get up.

"I'm coming right away," Yone yelled internally as he thought,' Big day she's saying, this family is as annoying as ever and not just on this specific day. I can never have some free time without interruption while living with them.'

He slowly walked towards the door and opened it.

The instant Lilia saw him, she jumped on him and went for a hug, kissing him multiple times on his cheeks.

"Here are your new clothes, son," Lilia said as she handed him a black jacket made from durable silk and leather pants complementing it, with additional lightweight, flexible shoes.

"This..." Yone's eyes widened when he saw the clothes his mother bought him.

"Mother, this is too expensive." He worriedly said.

" Don't worry; It's a must that a martial arts user has, and even if you can't become one, we can just sell this so you don't have to worry about it Yone."

Yone still had a hesitant expression.

" You must wear it," Lilia insisted as she stared at him with her blue eyes.

" Alright, fine, fine." Yone could only helplessly yield to his mother and accept her gift.

Right behind Lilia, Tom almost puked watching this scene, his eyes uncontrollably rolling at his brother's acting skills.

' If only she knew what I know, her image of her perfect son would immediately crumble and shift to the opposite.' Tom recalled Yone's cold indifferent face when they were alone, his body uncontrollably shuddering.

"It's your special day and something that will decide your future. You have to be careful, my son."

" Yes, I understand, mother." He nodded his head as he went back to his room.

Yone inwardly was amazed by how advanced this world was in terms of daily life necessities, buildings, and even clothes and food. This village alone was several times more advanced than a large town in his past world. He could only imagine how advanced the places outside of this village were.

***

Yone leisurely changed into his black martial arts attire, and put on the leather pants before looking at the mirror to check himself.

His build was lean and athletic, unlike his brother's muscular physique. His eyes were a striking bloody red, perfectly complementing his white-short hair and soft face with high cheekbones and well-defined jawline.

' Not bad for a kid. Still, my last body was countless times more handsome than this one.' Yone proudly stated as he touched his forehead, he felt a stinging pain stabbing his heart whenever he failed to feel anything up there.

' Sigh, it took me a hundred years to find that legendary dragon and several years to accumulate enough strength to kill him and cultivate his body parts. Yet, in the end, everything was lost.' For a moment, Yone felt disappointed by the outcome, but that only lasted for a split of a second before he immediately pushed those random thoughts to the back of his mind.

He then closely inspected the attire his mother gifted him.

It was a typical martial arts attire designed to enhance every aspect of the wearer's body, albeit by only a slight margin. Although made of silk, they incorporated special materials and were usually tailored to perfectly fit the user upon wearing them.

Surprisingly, their use didn't just end there.

The main reason everyone acknowledged this attire as the martial arts uniform was its passive skill. The jacket and pants helped smooth the cultivation of what people in this world call qi.

From what the servants told Yone while he was growing up, Qi was the spiritual energy of heaven and earth that had existed since the dawn of time, which people used to cultivate and become stronger.

Unfortunately, the servants only gave him that meager information and knew no more than that. This is why he had kept cursing this family all these years.

He could easily tell that his family did their best to keep anything related to martial arts shrouded in fog for him and his brother. He was literally kept away from everything, and all the servants they brought to him were mortals who had never seen or heard much about anything related to that subject.

Regardless, he cleared his mind and walked out of the room to find Lilia, David, and his twin brother Tom all dressed up nicely and neatly.

"Are you going with us?" He asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Of course, we are going, how can we miss this special day for both of you," David answered with a smile," Also, even though you can't practice martial arts yet, knowing your talent is beneficial since it determines if you can catch up to your peers in the future or not."

"Let's go then," Yone said as he walked down the stairs leaving the mansion.

Inwardly, he couldn't help but roll his eyes at his father's words,' Oh David, your dreams are nigh-impossible if you wanna catch up to your noble household which kicked you from the Kingdom of Elinar.'

Yone could only sigh helplessly.

For some reason, his father forgot that a thirteen-year gap was by no means a trivial matter.

Even if he had the highest talent for martial arts that was ever witnessed in the past hundreds of years, he still wouldn't be able to catch up. Putting aside the countless resources that noble houses and kingdoms would shower their talents with, an even more terrifying problem that everyone in his family overlooked still loomed over them.

Even though countless people would look at Yone with a complicated gaze if he said these words aloud, he would only smile and answer with three words.

You won't survive!

Indeed!

The real problem in this situation was survival, which was how he knew he was walking into a wolf's den, courting death if he wasn't allowed to practice martial arts.

Why?

Many people would ask that question, which is completely reasonable to do so.

While Yone would answer such a question with a bright smile adorning his face.

The moment he or his brother is found out to have a talent that could threaten anyone who ever banished and prohibited their family from practicing martial arts, their death will be assured before they grow.

At least, that's what Yone would have done if he were in their shoes. And he honestly suspected that anyone powerful wouldn't take such measures against them.