Aaron took permission to leave the school after winning all his duels for the day. Though it was late, he had already made reservations at a diner to meet his father.
When he arrived at the diner, he took a deep breath before stepping inside. The person at the counter checked for his name, and when they confirmed it, they let him in.
He spotted his father already there and headed to the table. He pulled out a seat and sat down. His father had yet to order anything and only had a glass of water.
He knew they didn’t come here just to eat; his son wasn’t like that. There must have been a reason good enough for Aaron to call him here.
After Aaron sat down, the waitress came by and asked them what they would have. Aaron’s father opted for some wine, and that was all.
Aaron, on the other hand, ordered some steak. The waitress took down notes and went to get their food and drinks for them.
“So, what is it, Aaron?” His father went straight to the point.
“Before I go into the main reason, Father, I’d like to confess something to you. For many years now, I’ve been carrying out jobs for Duke Terron behind your back,” Aaron came clean.
“Oh, I know,” his father responded and sipped his water.
“You knew?” Aaron asked in shock.
“Of course, Aaron. I’m a magical researcher; it’s my job to observe. I know the first day he spoke to you and planted that seed inside your head.
But Terron had control. It was either I tried to stop you and risk him exposing the truth about you, or let you do what he says and guide you from the shadows.
One way or another, I always followed you whenever you went on those missions—through tracking crystals and whatnot.
I cried every night I watched a kid carry out such missions, but I had to be silent.”
The wine and steak came, but at this point, Aaron had lost his appetite.
“You watched me do all that? Why did you not do anything? Why didn’t you tell me, and don’t give me any bogus reason like you were trying to protect me.
I was a child going through all that. I cried myself to sleep every night, but whatever gave me the will to go on was the thought that I was keeping you safe.” Aaron slowly started raising his voice.
“This is not the best place to tell you, Aaron. I can’t tell you now,” his father said.
“Why? Why can’t you tell me now?, if you weren’t going to tell me, then why even let me know that you knew about it.” Aaron asked, on the verge of snapping.
“I can’t tell you here!” his father said.
“WHY?” Aaron yelled the question.
“Because they are always watching. The king knows about my wife, your mother, and they have been watching me for all these years to ensure you don’t find out,” his father said.
Immediately after he said that, a massive beam of light struck through the walls and obliterated his father, leaving only half of his body remaining.
Everyone in the diner began shouting and running. Aaron just stood there looking at his father’s remains.
Suddenly, he sensed a huge amount of mana locked on him, and he instinctively leaped out of the way. The same beam that killed his father broke through the wall again.
Though he tried to dodge, the heat from the blast seared his shoulder and destroyed his skin, but he survived.
He got up on his feet after that and looked around; there was no one there anymore. Then he sensed people heading for the front door, and from their movement pattern, he could tell they weren’t normal civilians.
Just as he expected, five guys burst through the door wearing black, slight armor and holding swords. Immediately they saw Aaron, they moved into formation and charged at him.
Aaron quickly used a wind spell that dealt little damage but was fast to cast and would be able to push them back.
“Wind Burst,” he called out, blasting them with a huge gust of wind that pushed them back.
Using the small chance he had created, he ran and broke through the window, landing on his back outside.
“Arghh!” he groaned in pain as he struggled to stand. When he looked up, he saw several armored men with swords pointed at him and mages with their staves ready.
“What did I do?” he yelled at them. “I didn’t ask to be born this way. Why do you all have to make my life miserable?
I never asked for any of this. I have never been a threat to you all, even though I wasn’t fully human. So why? Why am I being treated this way?” Aaron asked.
“All mages ready to fire,” the person leading spoke. He didn’t even care for what Aaron had to say.
The mages readied their staves to attack. Aaron looked at them, a teardrop falling from his eye.
“Fine. If I’m going to die here, I’ll bring all of you down with me,” he said as fairy wings grew from his back and his whole demeanor changed.
A star-like mark appeared on his head, and his eye color changed to gold.
“Fire at will,” the man gave the order, and all the mages cast their spells at once.
There was no way Aaron could dodge all normally, but in his fairy form, he could. He raised his hands up, and a huge gust of wind picked up, turning into a tornado that blocked all the attacks.
The man who gave the order saw this and decided to handle matters himself. He pulled out his sword and charged at the tornado.
He slashed through it and created a gap big enough for him to enter and try to drive his sword into Aaron.
Aaron was shocked that anyone could get through his defense. He did his best to react fast, but the sword dug into his shoulder. He placed his hand on the man’s head and blasted it with flame magic, killing him.
He pulled the sword out with great pain, flapped his wings, and shot into the sky to get away. A mage still spotted him in the sky and fired an ice lance that dug into his abdomen.
Though the wound bled like crazy, Aaron kept flying, pushing himself to go as far as possible.