Terron left Aaron’s father and exited the study. As he walked out of the house, he saw young Aaron holding a wooden sword and looking at him with wary eyes.
“Hey, Aaron, why are you standing here?” Terron asked.
“I heard you and Dad arguing. Will everything be okay?” Aaron asked.
“It will, but you’ll have to be a very good boy. In the future, I may be coming to ask you for a lot of things, and you’ll have to do them to ensure your safety. If you don’t, people may find out the truth, and that would be bad for you and your father,” Terron said and patted Aaron on the head.
Those words impacted Aaron. He was scarred after the loss of his mother. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to his father and didn’t know how he would live with himself if anything did.
And so from that young age, he taught himself to listen to Terron, doing whatever Terron asked of him just to keep his father safe.
He was a young boy, yet he had done so many despicable things, things even his father knew nothing about.
He swore to himself that he would keep his father safe, no matter the cost.
—
All the first years stood before the large doors of the labyrinth. The area was crowded with a lot of stalls and shops because the area around the labyrinth was seen as a good business spot.
The students waited for the teachers to finish up some details and then open the gates for them to enter.
As they waited, Leah, who was behind Silva, looked at him and folded her fist tightly.
She suddenly recalled her past.
A seven-year-old girl fixing her bow in the mirror of her room with the help of her mother.
And then suddenly, her father knocked on the door and came in.
“Leah, they are here to check if what we believe is true,” he said eagerly.
Her mother carried her out and down the stairs, where a group of people waited.
Among these people were some in white armor and white cloaks with golden designs. There were those in black and purple armor as well.
And then there were those with the armor of the kingdom. Some ordinary people stood there as well, a few she had known from a young age, like Matilda and Terron.
Matilda came forward and spoke.
“Leah, it’s nice to see you again. These people with me are from the empire and the holy kingdom.
They want to help us find out if you are really a hero. We can already tell, but they would like to confirm,” Matilda explained.
Leah nodded, because she felt she was something special. She would be a hero, one of the great people that stood at the top of humanity.
One of the cloaked men came forward and stretched his hand over her head. A light shone from his hand onto her, and her body responded by glowing as well.
The man stopped and nodded at everyone. “She is indeed a hero candidate.”
That was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, the day she became very special, but that was only a pipe dream.
Because after that day, day after day, she was taught magic from the age of seven. She was worked to the bone, casting and casting.
Whenever she finally got a break, she would be given a sword to train, swinging and sparring.
These were the instructions given by the empire and the holy kingdom; they asked that she be trained nonstop.
She would collapse at the end of every day, and her mother would have to bathe her and clean her body, massaging her to soothe the pain.
Information was forced into her with countless classes and lectures, things that a girl her age would never have to face.
But whenever she tried to give up, her father and mother would encourage her, telling her to push through the pain and everything.
Because of this, she started to hate them. She slowly grew detached and despised them. By the time she was ten, she no longer spoke to her parents; she only trained and trained.
But in all this, there was one person who showed her love and cared for her, and that was Matilda, who helped to make the whole thing easier for Leah.
But deep down, Leah knew that Matilda was also playing her. They needed someone who could control her when she became a hero, and since she was already detached from her parents, they weren’t the right choice.
That was why Matilda was used; Leah knew this. But her hunger for someone to care for her didn’t allow her to stop meeting and listening to Matilda.
She didn’t want to go through this alone; she didn’t want to pass through this pain with no one to cry to, so she kept obeying Matilda.
But recently, Matilda had given her a mission, one that caused her heart to be conflicted. She had never been conflicted when it came to doing things for Matilda, but now, she felt a great struggle.
“Hey, Leah, wake up.” Silva tapped Leah. She finally woke up from her thoughts and looked at Silva, who was looking at her with a smile.
“You can’t be daydreaming now. We have to enter the labyrinth. You have to watch my back, remember?” Silva said and started walking towards the labyrinth with the others.
Aaron passed by Leah. They glanced at each other, and their eyes met for a moment, and in their eyes was hesitation. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Silva, who was ahead, could see all that was playing out.
“What will the two of you do? Will you allow them to control you and become my enemy, or will you break free? I really hope you make the right choice and become my real friends,” Silva said in his mind as he walked into the labyrinth.
Leah and Aaron also entered at almost the same time, and so did the others.