6 New attitude

The day was drawing near to a close and Klaus for the first time if he did remember, had in his own words an "awesome" experience through out the day. There wasn't much that he set out to do that he hadn't accomplished. And as he and his best friend Arsha parted ways, he hurried home in excitement for the next day.

"Man, will tomorrow just come already" Klaus said to himself as he walked home. He realized how suddenly he looked forward more to each day than he did previously. A thought then occurred to him.

"Has dad been the problem all along ? "he thought, but quickly though, he dismissed the thought and rebuked himself for even conceiving the thought in the first place. Although, the thought still lingered that perhaps all the time, his real problem that needed to be fixed wasn't breaking his mana. It was something else. Something more delicate that he didn't want to wander far off in his mind thinking about.

He resorted to distracting himself with some other thing along the walk home. He would often wave at people as he passed by them simply out of courtesy and nothing more. They did wave back too. It was mostly a friendly community where people often saw each other as family. Sadly in a way, places like this were the only place left in the world where actual deep rooted human interaction still existed.

Competition was still a factor but not at the center of their lives. Each person living within the settlement had one goal in mind, SELF SUSTENANCE. There wasn't as much rush to be above one another as there existed in the bigger, denser populated area with wider range of Opportunities. Neighbourliness and treating one another as family dominated over the overachieving mindset of the higher class citizens as they referred to themselves.

And even if it wasn't that evident, they showed it in little ways from time to time.

Although in Klaus's case, the only people he saw to be his family were his parents.

He wasn't a very social type to begin with. Not much of a talker either but Arsha would debate this one if she heard him describe himself that way.

Just like most kids his age, they were all mostly preparing for the entrance test to the academy. So not a lot of them were seen around the settlement as they would usually be. Only the younger, less involved ones went about their daily activities which mostly involved training in basic self defense as this was a crucial part of the world they now existed in.

Kids like Klaus and Arsha on the other hand focused on mostly trying to break their mana shell. As this was a requirement to gain admission into the academy. It didn't matter if one still hadn't perfected their magic yet. What was important was the mana flowing in their bodies.

The main focus of the academy was to train students in various acts of magic to cope in the new world they now lived in and loved.

Klaus particularly could be seen as the only one that did the opposite of the societal trend. He started training in basic self defense from as little as four, younger than most kids.

And as if that wasn't enough, he has been training that way till the current time. As a student of the art, he had a more carved out body than most kids his age. This was due to the intensive training he took up at age seven. Now he looked far bigger than his age and certainly stronger than most of his peers. But this fact wasn't proven yet for more than one reason.

He had never actually gotten in a fight with anyone. He was always protected and guarded by his father. So that opportunity never presented itself. Most children feared his father in the first place so on instances where he and Arsha were out together, they had always noticed how people kept their distances and greeted from afar.

This was all due to the reputation of Mr Zen, the great "shiro senshi". And by now Klaus was all too familiar with this feeling.

He always wondered how that name got attached to his father in the first place. He heard tales from his mother of how his father fought off beasts and drove them to their death with a single hit.

And then one day, an old man who was saved by his father from a beast attack on the settlement gave his father that name. And since then, he had been dubbed the great SHIRO SENSHI.

Klaus would often joke about how the only person who didn't fear his father was his mother. As he would say, "Dad might be scary. But mum married him. So she's scarier".

On getting home, dinner went well except for the extra quietness between all three members of the family. Klaus in his own case was being careful not to say anything that would implicate him.

The way his father often looked at him made him feel the older man could see through him and this made him uncomfortable. He was all too glad he was done and made his way to his room.

"To alleviate your concerns, why don't you just ask him?" Mrs Angie, Klaus's mum asked.

"I don't think its something he would say easily. The boy thinks I'm a demon" Mr Zen said looking at his wife in the eye. There was a slight pause between the two as they searched through each other's eyes.

"You are wrong. He loves you and even I know that. So what if you push him so hard. One day he will come back paying gratitude" Mrs Angie said in consolation.

"I think you should compel him" she followed up.

"I'd rather not. It's his decision if he wants to speak about it" Mr Zen said and stood up passing the rolls of black wooden chairs at the dinning to his room.

Mrs Angie bit her lip slightly knowing this would be his answer. She also knew he was now in a mood and followed shortly after him.

Soon after when she got into the room, she met him holding an object in his hand. Mr Zen heard her walk in even as she needed not open the door as it was left open. Now turning around, he said...

"It's all fine. Look at it, it's still not broken yet. But yet somehow, he has changed" Mr Zen said. She walked closer to him and held the object in her hands for sometime before letting go of it and as it almost hit the ground, Mr Zen had his hands out which glowed white and the object ended up seemingly afloat on his palm. He raised his head up to meet his wife's gaze.

"You still haven't healed, have you?" Mr Zen said as he drew her closer to himself.

------

Hours later in Klaus's room, he sat in a cross legged meditation pose and remained still. His eyes were closed unlike at the field and he focused hard. He was trying to find something.

"So this is what you look like?" Klaus said opening his eyes. It had been over two hours since he left his parents at dinner that he came to his room and began to meditate. And just at the brink of giving up, he found what he was looking for.

"I never thought mana was blue. The flow, the energy...so..so majestic" Klaus said in awe. Now he was mentally exhausted and needed some sleep. He had it in mind that the next day was going to be a big one. He laid his head on the pillow and fell asleep shortly after.

*Bing*

[Daily quest available]

And immediately he opened his eyes with a smile etched across his face.