CHAPTER 15; THE LE NOIR FAMILY
CHAPTER 15;
THE LE NOIR FAMILY
I was now officially 12 years old on this planet [I later found out it was called 'Atter' by the people of this world] and now had two twin siblings; Alex Jr. and Alexandria, unlike me, they both bore a resemblance towards my mom, with white hair that had trace tinges of black around it, and red eyes that were the only things that made them look like a 'Le Noir', by the time they were five, my sister was indistinguishable from my mom in every way.
My mana control had now reached the seventh stage of mana control {Mana's Saint}, which made me the first human in the world to have done so at twelve, but, because of my family's history of blatant op-ness [not a word I know], it came as no surprise to anyone at all.
What did come as a surprise to everyone was the fact that I had not begun developing my martial body and awakening my first star, even though I had been mastered basic martial arts years ago;
The combat ranking system in this world, differed from the mana control system, whereas mana control used 'stages', combat power ranking used 'stars' to determine one's level. Although, the methods of achieving each star depended on the combat type which the person was; A martial artist who used a martial body would get to the first star using a different method than an aura user who used a mana core, people on the same star had equal levels of combat strength, destructive power, and sense of time, regardless of whether one was a Magician or a Spiritualist.
However, some imbalances could be seen in the combat system;
Due to the intense competition in the martial artist world, there were a lot more powerful martial artists in the world than any other combat type; martial artists took up four spots among the strongest in this world, and there were fewer martial artists than any other combat type, since martial bodies were the hardest mana storages to form; as one would have to begin at a very young age, utilize huge amounts of mana, and go through complete body reconstruction [like I did in the pool].
While it was possible to be at a mana stage that was higher than your combat star, the reverse was impossible [i.e., one could be at the eight stage-zero star like me, but one couldn't be a zero stage-eight star or even a seventh stage-eight star], because your ability to manipulate mana heavily affected your mana control.
There were ten combat levels in this world, each of which bore a corresponding name to their mana stage equivalent;
The First Star – *
The Second Star – Student of Combat
The Third Star – Child of Combat
The Fourth Star – Man of Combat
The Fifth Star – Destruction {Born from combat/Combat Psychosis}
The Sixth Star – Creation {Made for Combat}
The Seventh Star – Combat Saint
The Eight Star – King of War
The Ninth Star – The Empire of War
The Tenth Star – The Monarch.
And finally, only humans could be Aura users and Saints; whereas non-human spiritualist who used divine spirits were called Shamans alone, and not Saints.
*
About 80% of the 2 billion or so people who populated this planet, were able to reach the first stage of mana control, only 10% could cross the first stage, only 50% could cross the second stage to reach the third stage, and only the 0.01% of the population could reach the fourth stage.
This 0.01% is what made up the 'Families' of each country, with LE NOIR being one of the most powerful families in this world.
In order to keep on proving the power of each family, every five years, children between 10 to 13 and 14 to 16 years old from the direct lines of the most powerful families in each continent fought in a friendly match. While it did seem like a simple friendly match between families, the fights were actually very political, and played a huge role in determining which families would have more power in the forthcoming future, thereby strengthening their standing in the political world as no one would want to be an enemy of a future 'Top ten'.
*
Just as I was set to leave the mansion along with my father [Our load had already been sent down to the venue], my two siblings came running at me along with my mom who had a sad smile printed on her face.
"Weehh!" They cried out as they hugged my legs, looking up at me with baby eyes.
"When'll you be back home?" My sister asked as I lifted her in my arms,
"In about a week, hopefully." I said to her as I glanced at my mom who looed like she was going to cry. I dropped my sister down and walked up to my mom to give her a hug [who I was now taller than] as she gently pulled me away and said to me,
"Try not to get into any trouble, okay?"
"I promise." I said, and smiled to her as I wove them goodbye.
"Buy us toys when you're coming back Alex." My baby brother said to me as I nodded to him in affirmative.
My dad quickly said is goodbyes to my siblings, kissed my mom and exchanged a few words with her before joining me in the limousine, as we were headed to the venue.
In the car were Maria and her mother; Elizabeth, and my grand-uncle; Dimitrius' son and grandson; William and John Le Noir who were our representatives for the older category.
We were introduced to each other by the parents and exchanged complementary talks as myself and Maria had a lot to catch up on, being that the last time we saw one another was at my twelfth-year birthday party, four months ago.
"By the way, why is your hair black and white?" John asked from nowhere. John was a 5'10, very bulky and extremely outgoing yet reserved-when-he-needed-to-be, 15-year-old. He had pure black hair and red eyes, like the average Le Noir, but didn't inherit the unnecessary beauty that most of people from the direct line had.
"That's because his mother has white hair." Elizabeth said to him,
"Oh no…he was born with dark hair." My father quickly replied, correcting Elizabeth.
"Ohh.. I assumed that was why your hair had strands of white..if that's not why, then why is your hair black and white?" Elizabeth asked as I had now become the center of attention in the car.
"Uhmm…" I began nervously as beads of sweat rolled down my forehead and my eyes darted to my father who I had told the reason, hoping for him to save me.
"I absorbed too much mana and went through mana reconstruction too early, I think, and by tye time I got out…my hair was just like this." I said as everyone nodded their heads in understanding and my dad stretched me a thumbs up.
[I mean, it's not like I was going to tell them that the reason my hair was white and black was because I had a fallen Angel and Demon inside me and because I essentially became one with mana, they also became one with mana, causing their connection with me to project itself on my hair].
Not less than a second after the conversation stopped did the car stop and the driver announced to us,
"We're here sirs."
Maria looked confused as to how exactly we had travelled to a country in a completely different continent in the span of less than twenty minutes as her mother explained to her that we simply drove to a Tele-port and teleported to the country.
We soon stepped out of the car to reveal a behemoth of flashing lights from several cameras, as they tried to take perfect pictures of us while we walked down the red carpet and into the hotel.
On one corner of the crowd were a mob of girls who screamed out the names of my dad and his cousin,
''ALEX….WILLIAM…Please look at me..oh my Gosh." As my dad and William simply waved at them as we walked into the hotel.
William was just as tall as my dad and had the basic features of Le Noir; A fair almost bleached-looking skin, red eyes and long dark hair with plump lips and a perfectly shaped nose [another beautiful person in the family].
On the world rankings he was number 11 and was a model for several hair and skin beauty products, being the face of the biggest hair product in the world; Dermatol, which made a lot of sense as to why girls were swooning for a thirty-six-year-old man.
As soon as we got into the lobby of the five-star hotel, we were greeted by a rally of soldiers who surrounded Mari and her mother as they all saluted in unison.
"We hail the princess."
One man in a dark army suit and a beret appeared from the rally of soldiers and walked to the front of Elizabeth with a stern look on his face before screaming.
"THE PRNCESS AND LITTLE LADY HAVE ARRIVED!!!"
Out of nowhere, balloons came showering down as the soldiers all held a bottle of what I could only assume was wine and popped it in the air, chanting celebratory songs as they drank from the bottles. Maria simply stood beside her mom, utterly confused as to what was going on.
"Urgh." Elizabeth grunted, as she held her in embarrassment before calling out to the man in the black army suit.
"General, where's my dad?"
"I'm right here my love." A twenty-year-old looking man in cashmere said to Maria as he stretched his arms open for a hug.
Beside him was a familiar looking lady in a beautiful white dress, white gloves and a white scarf around her neck.
She stood at a height of five foot ten with dark long hair, red eyes that were decorated with a dark eye-liner, plump red lips that were enhanced by the beauty of simple lip gloss, fair skin that looked almost bleached and an extremely toned body, built from years of training.
She was undoubtedly a Le Noir and more so, the most stunningly gorgeous one I had ever seen, she glanced at us and said to my dad.
"Hello son, how have you been?"