Chapter 4

Aldrin’s eyes opened slowly and light flooded into them causing him to close them rapidly with a light wince. “The young master has awakened, relay this to the lord.” A female voice suddenly called out and a figure dashed out of the room closing the door behind as she left, Aldrin slowly sat up and surveyed the room he was in and quickly recognized it to be his room. Not far from the bed was a table that was tidy and yet messy at the same time as a plethora of reading and writing materials were displayed across, aside from that table there wasn’t anything noteworthy of in the room, everything else was exquisite and yet simple. “How is your health sir?” A small lady approached Aldrin and tried taking his hand to feel his pulse but suddenly Aldrin stretched his hand and gripped her throat tightly threatening to strangle her. The lady trashed wildly while sobbing and begging for mercy but no matter what she did Aldrin didn’t release his grip on her neck and despite being an ordinary person he easily overwhelmed the serving girl in terms of raw strength, just as the lady was running out of breath and getting too weak to struggle the door to the room burst open and two figures marched in with wide strides both figures Aldrin recognized. The first male stood at a height very close to six feet with a suave face, dark hair and pitch black eyes just like his, if not for the face being far more matured and composed one would mistake him for being Aldrin’s twin or perhaps elder brother but the reality was that the male figure was none other than his father. The other male was extremely lean and lanky, wearing a pair of glasses and a grey overall that was often donned by alchemist and doctors, he was Jai-Blynn the clan doctor. “Let go of the maid Aldrin.” The clan head spoke in a tone that betrayed neither thoughts nor emotions and without thinking Aldrin released his grasp, Jai-Blynn dashed towards Aldrin and grabbed his wrist, the moment he did Aldrin heard a familiar voice and at the same time several strings of words appeared in his vision. [External Zen is being forcefully injected in your body. Do you want to resist?] [Y/N] It took a moment for Aldrin to process what was going on, he didn’t understand where or how this entity came to be but he recalled hearing its voice when he was battling with the assassins that came after him, also he heard it sometime after then but this was the first time words were appearing before him, surveying the expression of his father and doctor he could tell that he was the only one seeing them. “No.” Aldrin replied in a murmur but despite his low voice his words was heard clearly by both men. “What do you mean young lord?” The doctor asked while his father raised a brow “Nothing.” Aldrin replied coldly [Accepting Zen input] the voice echoed in his head while the string of words in his vision changed. “His body is fully healed but I can’t say same for his mind, being at the brink of death does quite the damage, it would take some time to heal.” Jai-Blynn spoke out after a few seconds of examination. “Good, now leave us.” The clan head said and with a bow Jai-Blynn promptly left the room leaving father and son alone staring each other down. “A gang of assassins infiltrated the clan and tried killing the clan leader’s eldest son who was a wastrel but luckily he was with his brother who didn’t hesitate to sacrifice his life to protect him using a forbidden technique to vanquish the assassins.” The clan head said in a low but straight voice, hearing the short speech Aldrin was shocked by the conclusion but his shock was instantly overwhelmed by rage, he was about to speak when his father raised his right palm signifying that he wasn’t done yet. “You and I know that the truth is far from that but what we know isn’t always the truth and the truth isn’t always correct, our truths would be different from the truths of everyone else and sometimes it isn’t beneficial for the masses to know the truth.” He added and Aldrin took in a deep breath carefully digesting what his father had just told him, while he might have used complicated terms with a lot of truths what he basically meant was that they were to keep the truth on tight lids and what he had just spoken would be the information announced to the whole world. “Do you know the truth?” Aldrin asked, abiding by his father’s words were easy, just a light thinking and he could understand why the event should be kept a secret but he wouldn’t accept it if his father didn’t even know what happened. “I might not know the meticulous details but I can more or less guess what happened even though I’m confused about one thing. How did Fabien die exactly?” The clan head asked with narrowed eyes and Aldrin’s mind flashed to the event, after a few moments let out a sigh “I don’t know.” He replied, despite it not being the full truth it wasn’t a lie either, even he still finds it hard that Fabien just died just because he said he should, perhaps it was a coincidence or someone else was behind his death, Aldrin really didn’t know. “~sigh, I can’t believe that none of my sons can do anything properly, what a waste.” Aldrin’s father said with a disappointed tone as he turned around to leave, just as he reach the door a scroll materialized in his hands which he tossed towards Aldrin and the latter caught it effortlessly. “You’ll still go through with the test, not like I expect you to win anyways but it’s too late to back out now.” He said before leaving the room with Aldrin alone within it. He opened the scroll and read what was within it a wry smile forming on his face and he understood why Fabien had said he had quite a high chance of completing the test, he indeed did have a chance of passing the test but by his knowledge the chances of completing it was around thirty percent at best. As soon as he finished reading the scroll the mechanical voice spoke in his ears again as a string of words appeared in his vision. [B rank chain mission “quest of acknowledgement” had been detected, do you wish to accept this mission?] [Y/N] Aldrin read the sentence over and over with an incredulous expression but in the end he replied “Yes” [B ranked chain-mission accepted. Preamble: The elders of the ancient dragon clan do not acknowledge you and would not accept you to become the future ruler of the clan but they’ve come to a compromise and as long as you prove your leadership skills and your bloodline strength you would become accepted but you’re not without competition as there are others who would fight you for this position. 1st Part You are to lead a crusade to the Orc Empire and claim some territory for the human race.]