Free Web NovelChapter 40: Six months
"You cannot go out, not yet."
"This is not something you can ask for as a reward, boy."
"You don’t know anything about the world outside."
As he had guessed, the elders were in a strong denial. You wouldn’t just sit there and listen when the toy you were so happy to play with voiced his wish to go away.
He had seen this coming right after he decided to show them his powers. But there was nothing they could do to actually stop them.
"I have presented my wish. If you do not allow it, I may have to go against your wishes and–."
"You will do no such thing, Prism." He spoke with conviction in his eyes when he outright threatened them to leave the house, but his father calmed his down along with all the elders.
He knew better than anyone else just what the name of their house represented. Just having the Sungrade name alone made him more special than most people of this world.
He was treated so well all this time exactly because he had this name, but now that he had shown the people of this world what can be done, he knew the people out there would not just sit still.
If the elders who had just seen my demonstrations were excited to explore my talents, then the people present at the Proof of Worth would be excited to make a connection to the certain rising star of the Sungrade.
If he stayed in this house for too long, he would become part of unnecessary elements of the world. And he wanted to stay detached to those political things as much as possible right now.
"You know the rules, don’t you?" The patriarch wasn’t talking to his son anymore. Sitting on the Sungrade throne, he was asking a member of the Sungrade about the rules that applied to each and every member under the Sungrade roof.
"Yes, father."
In Sungrade or any big house of this world, the children were the most precious assets that the house poured every bit of their resources into.
Most of these children would then become new foundations for the future of their houses and protect the legacy that brought them that far.
On the other hand, the children who go out into the world as anything, be it a normal worker, a mercenary or even someone who joined the academic sectors, each one of them would represent the family they belong to.
Even in places where the equality of status prevailed, the ’name’ of the family would carry with them the unique weight that made them different from all the others in a particular room.
Legacy mattered a lot in a world where almost every single person possessed the ability to communicate with the beasts that excited all around this world.
The magic and the skills that these beasts possessed wasn’t normal in any manner. The children that these houses invested in could either make or ruin their names.
So, the families that invest in them must test if the children are ready to leave the house.
The more talented they are, the higher the weight of the family name they carry on their shoulders.
All that wanted to go out of their house and into the world needed to go through a particular test... and in the case of the children of the head of the house, these tests were nothing short of a Trial of Life.
"If I cannot have it as a reward, I ask for whatever test you see fit, father, Elders. My wish is final."
Prism did not back out, or even flinch while glaring straight at the Level-7 Assimilator sitting on the great throne.
If there were any weaker child in his place, merely looking at the patriarch would drain every bit of mental stamina they had. The children would faint, or injure themselves in many cases.
But he was not like the other children.
An Assimilator did not fear him. What feared him was the stagnancy he would face if he remained here for too long.
Deep down, the patriarch had realised how this child disliked him.
"Prism... if it is because of what happened between me and your mother, then I will atone for it however you wish. Leaving the house because of that would-."
"That is not the case... father..." Prism, who had been looking straight at the patriarch, looked down with a sudden hint of shame.
He did not like his father. He will never like his father, he knew that much. But that would not be the reason for his decision.
In the past, he lived for sixty years away from the family. He had hated his father for doing what he did for a long time, but his hate had always got in the way of bigger things.
This family, these people, his father... Even his mother that wasn’t with them anymore, none of these things were as big as the wars that will come in the future, the enemies that the world will face, as well as the ’truth’ that stood beyond everything else.
He did not go out to search for the truth because that was the aim of his life. No.
The world had already reached a point of annihilation by that time. And finding the origin of the beasts, where they came from, and if there was anything humanity could lean on to survive the certain ’fall’ was the only way to save the people.
"I must go away... That is all I can say." He cannot tell them what he wanted to do and the things that would happen in plain words.
Even if they believed everything, the elders were bound to the Sungrade and his father was a lord of the empire that’d protect the empire.
The world was bigger than that. And these people would not be of any help to him at this point in time when nothing had truly even started.
"..."
The elders fell silent at his answer.
His father, stunned at first, looked at the complex burden of his child that he could not truly understand.
When he looked at the gray cat looking around the great hall with anxious worry and the careless white bird, he understood there was more to his young boy than thoughts of revenge.
"Very well then." The patriarch spoke his answer, defeated before the conviction of his youngest son. "You have six months."
What followed after his acceptance of his child’s wish was probably the most brutal trial that was ever presented as an ’exit’ to a Sungrade child.
"In these six months, you will receive approval from each of the elders present here. You will do anything they want to receive that approval, it is up to you.
On the day of my Birthnight, if you do not have the approval of the elders, you will have to stay in the family for three more years until you are 21."
After the children are 21, by the laws of the empire, the family cannot hold them against their will. Doing so would be against the laws, so that was the limit of a family’s restrictions.
"The elders will not ask of you anything that is beyond your capabilities. As for what the limits of those capabilities are..." He looked around at the elders, and saw the brightest delights on the faces beyond the colorful hoods.
"..." The patriarch did not have to finish his words. Prism had already understood the test that was presented to him.
"I understand."
The difficulty of the test was absurd.
There were eighteen elders present in this room, and each one of them were masters of a unique subject.
"I accept the conditions."
He did not have much of a choice anyways.
This was the best they could do to hold him here, so he had faced this challenge.
If the reward was his freedom... he was ready to face even the patriarch himself if needed.
