[These first chapters are edited versions of RMW. They more reflect my current writing style and ability. If you would like more of this quality, consider reading my other novels (‘Rise. Rising. Risen.’ and soon to be out ‘Dimension Descent’ (only on wn)). The other option is to suffer through my growing pains in RMW until the quality once again reaches this level, LMAO]
Dyon pulled the empty chair between his legs and leaned his chest on the back rest, sitting behind the 2 girls.
“What’s your name?” Dyon asked with a smile.
Meiying shot a glance at her fuming father before smiling mischievously. “Bai Meiying.” She responded in a sweet voice.
“Ah, a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. I believe that means beautiful flower, correct? How fitting.”
Meiying seemed to be surprised that Dyon knew the meaning of her name, but instead of saying anything she raised an eyebrow towards Delia who was pretending to not notice what he was doing.
“You know, you might die.” Delia said.
“Worried? About me? I’m touched.” Dyon said, shifting his attention away from Meiying.
“Who do you think you are?!” Hauk bellowed.
Dyon didn’t even spare Hauk a glance.
“Your card was very useful. Thank you. I gained quite a bit of knowledge.”
Delia nodded in acknowledgement, then chose to close her eyes. ‘This guy really is shameless. He’s going to get himself killed.’
Hauk was about to stand in rage when Mayumi gripped his shoulder. “What’s the use of getting riled up Hauk?” He looked towards Dyon before continuing. “Our pillar families, by the goodness of our hearts, have decided to grace you with a seat amongst us chosen. Don’t you think disrupting the proceedings like this is disrespectful?”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Hauk said sitting down and crossing his arms like a petulant child.
“So Meiying, how long have you and Delia been friends? She’s a bit cold and I could use some help.” Dyon said while turning his attention back to the beautiful Meiying.
Meiying brought her free hand to her lips and giggled. ‘This guy sure is interesting. I wonder how long it’ll be before dad kills him.’
“It’s been so long, yet even I don’t know whether she’s interested in boys.” Meiying said teasingly.
“No wonder.” Dyon said while comically bringing his fist to his palm. “I had begun to wonder whether I wasn’t handsome enough.”
The pressure in the room was palpable. Meiying released Delia, hunching over in a laughter. Delia was still pretending to not hear anything, but her face was at least half a shade redder.
‘He really said that, and in front of my father too.’ Delia thought in a rage. She took a slow breath trying to calm herself and kept her eyes sealed.
Mayumi and Hauk were fuming at having been ignored, Fero had a smile on his face, and Pertinacis was reading words that flew by on the lenses of his glasses.
Dyon finally looked up to the 6 thrones. His eyes glittering when he saw the beautiful dark-skinned family head, something Fero found much less amusing.
Duco chuckled. “This boy seems to have his eyes set quite high.”
Kami had long since reopened his eyes, a sinister aura swirling around him. Sapientia, much like his son, had stopped paying attention. However, the same could not be said of the Patia-Neva, Storm and Bai family heads. The room’s guests had begun to struggle to breathe.
Everyone was wondering the same thing. ‘Who is this boy, and how has he not long since burst from the pressure?’
Dyon finally spoke. “You four seem like you’re about to pop a blood vessel, that can’t be good at your age. If things continue like this, we could have a messy situation on our hands. What a scandal it would be: 6 elders kill child! How domineering of you.”
Sapientia finally looked up in shock. The eyes of the rest of the family heads widened.
“Who do you –”, Bai tried to speak before being cut off.
“Let me stop you right there. That muscle head over there tried to ask the same thing,” Dyon said nudging his head towards Hauk, “And clearly I ignored him, so why would you try to ask again?”
The room was astonished. These were grandmasters of the highest level. They hadn’t been disrespected in years, and yet this unknown kid had said words they couldn’t even imagine thinking.
Meiying finally stopped laughing. Her usual carefree yet domineering demeanor had been blown over into full on shock. But then she started laughing inwardly. ‘Teach that old man a lesson before you die, then.’
Dyon stood and began walking towards the steps. Unlike Pertinacis he didn’t bow, he instead continued straight up until he was about 5 meters from the thrones.
He clasped his hands behind his back and said. “If you’d like to know who I am… Here, I guess I’m a commoner. But, on the other side of the world, I’m son to Saintess Sacharro and General Sacharro.
“Dyon Sacharro at your service.” He looked over at Duco before smiling. “Sacharro is actually Latin for sugar.” He said with a wink.
The family heads almost flew out of their thrones. Only Duco and Sapientia looked on in curiosity.
Mayumi had had enough. He stood from his chair and touched his earring. A bow and arrow materialized before he took aim for Dyon.
Just as he was about to loose his shot, Dyon looked back at him. “SIT!”
A wild pressure filled the room, suffocating Mayumi and forcing him to cough up blood.
Kami gripped the rest of his chair in uncontrolled anger. The throne disintegrated, leaving him standing. He was about to make strides towards Dyon, when he was stopped by Patia-Neva. In the end, he could only grit his teeth and rematerialize a throne for him to sit on.
“Wow, this martial world sure is interesting. I can’t believe that worked. A supposed chosen with a weaker soul than a commoner. How fascinating.”
Delia had opened her eyes to see Mayumi keeling over, taking ragged breaths with his bow and arrow long since dropped from his hands.
“Now, honestly speaking, I’m quite unrefined. That was simply a parlor trick. Any of the 6 of you could kill me.” Dyon said looking back at the family heads. “In fact, if that idiot with the bow gets up, he could probably kill me too. However, both you and I know quite well why it is you can’t kill me, no? If it wasn’t for that, would you lofty so-called nobles try such underhanded tricks more befitting a commoner like me?”
Dyon turned and walked off to the center stage. “Since none of you truly know me, I’ll tell you a little about myself. My name is Dyon, like I said. I happen to be 13 and I guess you could say I possess a little intelligence.
“I love long walks, but not on beaches because sand can get quite annoying. I’m what you all would probably call a commoner. Maybe a couple centuries ago I’d be more reserved, but fortunately, from what I understand, this small school doesn’t have the ability to fight against us commoners at the moment.”
Small school? Rage was filled the room.
“What are you all getting mad about? If that’s all it took for you to get mad, you should have probably fought back long ago. I wonder what the point of funding a school made for elites by elites. They may as well have just used their resources to home school their kids.”
Dyon had reached the center of the stage. He stood, looking off into the crowd. The rage was almost immediately calmed.
“But, unfortunately, I’m not in the habit of helping people who can’t help themselves. So instead of wasting my time, I’ll just show you what happens when a commoner gets to perform. Those guys sucked anyway. Except for you two of course.” He said smiling at Delia and Meiying who still hadn’t recovered from what was transpiring.
“Let’s see, from what I read, anything I’d like to display my talents with should manifest itself, correct? Then let’s go with this… piano!” Dyon spoke softly.
A pearly white grand piano began to manifest in front of him as Dyon walked toward its bench.
“Today, I do this because a few people tried to disrespect me.” The moment he sat, a wave of light surged through the room, sending a light breeze through the air. “Remember my name and who I am. Do not provoke me, and you will not be provoked.”
‘This pressure… he hasn’t even started playing yet. He shouldn’t have any knowledge of how to call upon wills, how is he doing this?’ Delia was more surprised than anyone. Only she knew the extent his knowledge had reached just a few hours ago. To already have the ability to injure Mayumi and emit the will of music without even playing… it was unprecedented.
Dyon’s eyes sharpened as he raised his hands to the marble keys. The pressure in the room multiplied several folds. The light that had been emitted rushed back towards Dyon and merged with him just as he pressed down on the first note.
Dyon’s fingers raced across the keys as a sweet melody rang out. He unleashed his frustration, his pain and his sadness.
He closed his eyes. Sensing the smell his mother’s cooking, feeling her arms around him… hearing her voice ringing out.
He could feel his father’s bitter training and hear his strict voice.
The pressure increased as Dyon’s fingers forcefully slammed the keys, almost as if to beat the piano into submission. His heart beat faster and faster as he tightened the lids of his eyes to escape from the tears.
He heard his father’s robust laugh, felt his sturdy shoulders carry him, saw the purity in his brown eyes.
Dyon thought of the anger he felt.
‘How dare they? This was their last request and you want to run me out of here?’
The tune immediately changed, multiplying in ferocity. The floors began to rumble and the silver pillars began to shake.
Dyon slammed his foot down on the right most pedal of the piano, layering note after note, chord after chord.
The glass windows of the ceremony hall cracked, but Dyon didn’t stop. No one could move, the captivation of the melody was too much.
Patia-Neva waved his hand, trying to use the same barrier he had before to contain Dyon. But, it immediately shattered.
‘You want to contain me?’
The music amplified. People in the hall began to forget if they’d ever heard music before. They tried as hard as they could but the only melody that filled their minds took the shape of Dyon’s rage.
The glass windows cracked again.
‘He… he’s gaining a monopoly on the will of music. This is ridiculous.’ Kami thought.
“Patia, we have to stop him.” Bai spoke in anger.
“No, let him have his temper tantrum. We were in the wrong. We’ll stop it if it goes too far.”
Although the family heads mostly held faces of anger, all of them were truly astonished. They had never felt this type of pressure before from a mere child.
Delia stood, walking towards Dyon. The pressure not affecting her. She was a bit annoyed to see the same was the case for every other female in the room, but she chalked it up to Dyon’s shameless attitude.
But, she couldn’t hide were the tears on her face. She didn’t know what made Dyon so sad and so angry, but she knew that someone should stop him. So, she reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder.
Dyon stopped playing and opened his reddened eyes. He looked up at Delia who had tears streaking down her face.
He stood immediately and wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry. My mom would kill me if she knew about this.”
Delia didn’t say anything, so Dyon let her walk back to her seat.
Dyon looked around the room. It seemed most of the people in the hall had streaks of tears on their face or were fighting to hold them back.
Dyon’s ferocity and sadness disappeared in an instant, replaced by his usual carefree and flirtatious attitude. Then he turned and left, leaving only one thought in everyone’s mind: ‘How domineering.’
