7 Anger, Sadness and Care
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It was bright and early, but many small children of varying ages filled the Kaiser Family's main training area. Punctuality and respect for elders were two virtues instilled in children from a young age.
Danyul stood before all these children with an upright stance. However, he wasn't the only elder in the family present. Ashur, the shifty elder who stopped Apollo when he returned, was also there.
Aside from Ashur, there was a mature lady with long pale blond hair tied into a low braided bun. She wore a pale blue dress that hugged her slender yet sensuous body and cascaded to her ankles. As she stood there, a graceful and tender smile filled her eyes as her gaze fell on Apollo and Aaron.
"Mom," Aaron called out and waved.
'So, that's Aunty Cynthia,' Apollo thought to himself. His opinion of Cynthia sat on the same pedestal as Danyul since they were essentially his only caretakers.
Apollo bore the unfortunate fate of having his parents killed young. In fact, only Apollo's mother lived long enough to see his face for a few days as a baby.
In place of his late mother, Cynthia filled that void.
"Be a good boy and pay attention. Act as if I'm not here," Cynthia said to Aaron.
He nodded obediently before turning his attention to Danyul, the elder who would conduct the main training.
"As your first official training, the difficulty won't be terrible. However, it won't be easy either. We're looking to extract your potential and instill discipline, not condone cowardly behavior," Danyul spoke in a loud voice that commanded respect.
The kids sat in a circle as Danyul explained what would happen. "There are key factors to becoming a warrior—strength, ferocity, balance, speed, endurance, and technique.
"Without these key foundations, you're an essentially worthless warrior. No, you wouldn't be fit to be called a warrior. Today, our focus is strength, but most of all endurance."
"Up!" Danyul roared.
This command prompted everyone to their feet, including Apollo. Danyul gave a pleased nod before delivering more directions.
"You will train your bodies day in and day out using these training posts. While you have all been strengthened by an Essence-filled environment, the strengthening is at a basic level at best. You must deepen it through arduous training. Fist or legs—those are the only permitted weapons today."
Apollo looked at the training post not too far away from him. It seems to be made from shaped wood with multiple layers of thick rope tied around it. "These posts will be stripped one layer every three days until you reach the Refined Ironwood underneath."
"Refined Ironwood?" One of the kids cried out. Refined Ironwood was a durable wood with metal-like qualities, so it was a favorite when creating durable training weapons.
Only an Aura Warrior or stronger could shatter this wood with their bare hands.
"Correct. Now, begin. You aren't allowed to stop until you have landed 1,000 fist strikes!"
"1,000?! Uncle, I can't count that high!" A few kids called out.
"Well, then you'd better find a unified rhythm so I can count for you," Danyul replied.
Many kids grumbled but looked around and talked other children into following their lead. Soon enough, muffled thuds filled the training area.
Meanwhile, Apollo stood in a daze before his training post. He knocked on the post and felt a slight ache in his knuckle.
Before even attempting to train with it, Apollo used his remaining stat points.
┌───────────────────
(Demon Monarch System) Lv.1 [0/20]
Name: Apollo Kaiser
Race: Human
Level: 2
Experience: 0/100
[«Attributes»]
Strength: 10 → 20
Stamina: 10 → 15
Agility: 10
Perception: 80
Vitality: 10
[Stat Points: 0]
└───────────────────
A powerful feeling flooded his body, but it faded almost instantly. There was still an ache in his hand when he knocked on the post, but it was bearable.
Thonk!
Apollo struck the training point once and inhaled sharply. A jolt of pain coursed through his hand as he blew on it.
'Damn it!' Apollo screamed in his mind. The urge to swallow his fist and mitigate the pain rose in his mind.
[Don't chicken out now, you wimp. Keep going. Look at your surroundings.]
Apollo gazed upon everyone in the training area and found that they all struck the training post harder and faster than he did. He looked down at his fist and opened and closed it.
'I will be powerful….'
Apollo thought about Aaron's words. But, before he knew it, his mind slipped to the moment before his death. His mother's ice-cold, disgust-filled gaze was the only thing that filled his mind.
Afterward, he recounted the abuse from Ashur, Axel, and Dylon, and this caused the flames of rage to burn in his chest.
Thonk… Thonk! Thonk! Bang! Bang!!
Apollo hit the training post harder and harder until he began losing count. All he felt was rage and pain as the skin of his fingers and knuckles quickly ruptured, exposing the metacarpals underneath.
Danyul's eyes focused on Apollo outside of the rest as he frowned. 'That boy… He has so much anger in him that he can't contain it. However, I understand. I understand that you resent how you've been treated and despise the unfairness.'
"Danyul," Cynthia suddenly called out. Her voice was laden with worry as she watched Apollo release his pent-up anger on the training post.
"I know," Danyul said. He knew what she wanted to say. But, Danyul felt this was something Apollo sorely needed. Containing all that wrath with no outlet was unhealthy.
"I'll give you a decent healing pill after the training ends," Danyul said.
"Thank you," Cynthia clutched her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. However, the worries on her mind didn't fade at all. After all, Aaron had told her of the situation in the Dining Hall.
She feared something terrible would happen in the coming days.
Aaron noticed that despite Apollo's rage-filled punches, they all hit the same spot on the training post while he held a correct punching form. This knowledge stemmed from his training as a young child before it was revealed he couldn't wield Mana.
Before his original family acquired this assessment, Grissella spared no effort in creating a stable foundation to walk the illustrious path of an Arch Knight. Alas, fate was a fickle mistress.
The strike counter produced by the system quickly increased until Apollo reached a thousand strikes an hour later. Despite achieving that number, he kept going.
If one looked closely, they'd realize his gaze was unfocused. Sometime during the training, the pain had grown so great his mind couldn't bare with it.
Danyul suddenly appeared beside Apollo and placed his palm on Apollo's forehead. A subtle stream of Essence entered his body and woke him from his current state.
"Don't go so overboard. Learn to control your emotions, boy. But, I have to say, I'm surprised you finished even faster than the rest," Danyul said.
However, a stark contrast happened after they switched to stamina training. The children ran laps around the training area, but Apollo gasped for air after only the second lap.
It appeared 15 Stamina wasn't as helpful as he thought. However, had his Stamina been 10 like before, he would've collapsed by now. Apollo pushed himself to the brink of complete exhaustion more than once before Danyul ultimately called it a day.
Rather than let Apollo return to his empty home, Cynthia received the items from Danyul and brought both Apollo and Aaron along with her.
"Come, Apollo," Cynthia said while taking a seat on a comfortable cushion. "Let me see your hands."
Apollo sat beside Cynthia and placed his hands on her lap, revealing his traumatized hand. Aside from the skin ruptures, the bone was incredibly tender. Apollo hissed in pain from the slightest touch.
"You know I love you very much, right?"
"I—" Apollo was too stunned to speak. He didn't understand where the question came from, but he ultimately nodded.
"So why be so reckless?" Cynthia asked this while crushing a healing pellet and adding a few drops of water. The concoction formed a paste-like consistency with a herbal smell.
"Because the kids bully me so much, and I am powerless," Apollo muttered in a small voice but flinched when Cynthia applied the paste.
Cynthia fell silent but softly massaged Apollo's hand while looking into Apollo's eyes.
"Just don't be too reckless, okay?" Cynthia looked at Apollo pleadingly.
This look made his heart give in, leading him to ultimately nodded. After applying the paste, Apollo looked over the notifications acquired during the training.
