1 Chapter 8:

Chapter 8:

" Oye!" Are you alive, boy? Can you hear me?

Hmm... his breathing is stable. That's good, oh! I have an idea! How about…

I'm sorry for doing this to you. I hope you'll forgive me. "

"AHHHH!... What the!?" I jolted up, screaming in agony, upon feeling the sensation of an unreal pain throughout my body. Suddenly, the pain in my body died out.

"COUGH!! COUGH!"

I opened my eyes again, with towering trees and dangling vines filling my vision as I lay on my back.

I tried to get up, but my body didn't listen. The only thing I was able to manage was to turn my head, and even that involved a series of throbbing pains in my neck.

How was I still alive?

I couldn't help wondering what had happened while I was unconscious. That son of a bitch threw me out into the sea.

How can I be so stupid to fall for his acting? I now wonder, do I am strong?

Sigh…

"Wait a minute!! Before any of that, what was the pain that I felt before? I pondered over the possible answers until I was interrupted by an old man.

"Ho-Ho-Ho, "I am glad that you're alright, child," I asked the old man, who appeared beside my lying body. I turned my head in his direction and looked. The man is old, and I mean older than Grandpa, without any hair on his head and a long white beard, with a hunched back. He stood before me.

"A-Are you the one who saved me?" I asked, and in return, he replied to me with a nod.

"Thank you for saving me," I said with a head bow to show my appreciation.

"Ho-Ho… " No need to thank me, child. "All that matters now is that you're okay; now get up; you don't want to spend the entire day sitting on the sand, do you?" He said it with a big, friendly smile that reminded me of my grandfather.

I took his advice and stood up, brushing up the sand that was on top of me. I checked myself for any injuries or broken bones by moving my limbs here and there.

"Ho-ho, fear not, child. I checked earlier, you don't have any serious injuries on you. By the way, just asking, How did you end up drowning?" The old man asked, and so I retold him my story; to my surprise, he didn't look that surprised. Without any expression, he listened to my story till the end.

"Hmm… So, you encountered one of the king's candidates. It's amazing that you survived without any use of Maya.

"Kings candidate, what's that?"

"...!" Upon my saying that sentence, he, for the first time, looked shocked. His eyes were wide open, and he looked at me from head to toe.

"Y-you don't know about, who, or what the king's candidates are... Son, have you been living under a rock since you were born? How is that even possible?"

"You don't know about the stuff that every child in this world knows." The way he emphasised my not knowing what or who the king's candidate is might be common knowledge in the world.

I'm not surprised that he's surprised that I don't know some common things, because why wouldn't he be? I spent my entire childhood on Mt. Kurobo, isolated from the outside world. The only people around me were "Dr K," "Danny," Uncle Kureha," and "Grandpa." There were times when Second Uncle Carl visited me, but they were rare. The only time I descended Mt. Kurobo was when Danny was not well, and so I had to visit Lucia City to get the medicine from Dr K.

Not only that, there are times when Uncle Kureha and Danny tried forcefully to teach me about the world, but they failed to do that because every time they tried teaching me, I ran away or paid no attention. I now regret it. I should've paid attention when they taught me.

Sigh…

"Well, my upbringing was in the jungles of the mountains (Kurobo) of the Kikua Kingdom, which un-abled me to learn more about the outside world. So …"

"Oh, so your parent was one of those types, I see." "Oh well, no worries,"

Rumble…

"…!"

"Ho-Ho, looks like someone is hungry, how about we pause our talk for a minute and resume it after you ate something… "Come with me." "My hut is nearby." As he turned to face the jungle, he said

"S-sure! "Thank you, sir, for your kindness," I embarrassingly answered him, cursing my luck; not only did I end up in the middle of nowhere because of that bastard, but all the luggage I had is now lost.

"My name is Riku Volta, so you can call me Riku; what's your name, young one?" I asked the elderly man who was walking ahead of me as I was flowing behind him.

"This is the name my grandfather gave me," I explained.

"Ashu… Hmm, it has a nice ring to it. How old are you, by the way? From the looks of it, you don't look that old."

"I turned 19 this year,"

"Oh! So, you are a man now. Good-good."

"By the way, where are we?" I asked while we were passing through the deep forest. Everywhere I look, the only things I see are flora and fauna that I never saw in the mountains where I used to live; no, I never saw these types of animals and plants before, even in books.

"Son, you are currently standing on one of the world's lost islands, known as Atlanta." "And on this whole island, we both are the only ones present here except for a few mysterious faunas of this island, and no other human exists on this island except us." As he said those words, the land beneath my feet slipped away.

I was shocked and thought about what would happen next. I don't have the map or know how to get off this island. While I was contemplating, a thought came to my mind, and so I curiously asked old man Riku, "If that is the case then, what are you doing on this all alone?" I mean, I was thrown by that bitch, and because of that, I'm stuck on this island. What was his reason? From the looks of it, he's been on this island for a long time.

"Ho-Ho… To answer your question, we need to travel back in time about 20 years.

Back in my time, I was one of the king's candidates in my young days; I was stronger than anybody of my age. I fought with people who were wiser and stronger than me; I won and lost a few times, here and there; my team and my companions were all quite strong like me, and I held them dearly, they were like family to me. Our bond resonated all over the land. Simply put, we had made a name for ourselves throughout the continent.

Our fame rose so much that everybody from the bottomless sea to the highest sky knew us, and because of that, the world government offered me a position as Marshall for their army, but...

That's when, where things turned for the worse... You might not know, but the king's candidates aren't able to bow to or work under anyone else. It's not that they can't; it's just that, when the king's candidate is born, they have no idea about the power within them; they're just like any other human. When a person has a strong will and a terrifying determination to achieve their goals, the power manifests itself. If the King's candidate bowed to anyone and allowed himself to work under someone more powerful, that means that person has lost his will and dreams. They will not only lose the title and the powers, but in my case, I was about to lose the respect of my companions, friends, and the people who follow them. "

"So, because of that reason, I refused the offer. Not wanting to lose the respect of my followers, I refused the offer, which angered the world government. So, in the name of wanting to maintain the balance of power and peace throughout the world and to put me in my place, they constructed a strategy.

They put a huge bounty on my head, as well as on my friend's head, for the crime we didn't commit. This plan of theirs led many people to come after us.

Ku-Ku… Humans are greedy little creatures; always keep that in mind, son. This advice might be useful in the future. Well, as I had said, we were strong, and so we fought to protect ourselves. And so we successfully repelled many without much trouble, but things turned worse for us. The bounty kept on increasing, and strong people kept coming. As the price of our heads increased, people with great might started to come after us... "This kept going for a quite long time, and many of my friends died because of that." As the old man paused his story, his once happy and cheerful expression got grim, and silence erupted between us. We kept walking, and he was in his thoughts.

To break the silence and my growing impatience for knowing what happened next, I asked. "And because of that? "What had happened?"

"Sigh… I was furious because many of my close friends had died, and fear had struck us hard... Many of my companions thought they were the ones next to die...

Many had family and loved ones; I was too close to breaking; I didn't know what to do at that time; my action and pride led many of my dear ones to die; I blamed myself for that; and so, in rage, I rebelled against the world government. I have gone alone to fight. I killed many of their soldiers and I slaughtered many of their headquarters, and mayhem was spread throughout the world. But everything ended when the government showed their true face: They took my friends and their families hostage. People I was close to broke my trust for the money and were in desperate need of protection for their families. My friends requested, no, begged me to stop.

In the end, I answered their plea and offered myself into the hands of the enemy in exchange for the safety of my friends and their families. I was sentenced to death, but the government thought it was too easy, so they sentenced me to life in prison in the hopes of breaking me. "They removed all traces of my being all alone in solitude with this."

"This is my whole story. Now you know why I am here. I am a criminal that has been forgotten by this world…"

To be continued...

Author notes: sorry for not uploading for quite a long time.