7 Party time

--Gremory Point of View-- Four years later

I open my eyes and to my surprise, no one is yelling at me, well that's a very good and strange thing, the sun is already high in the sky, yet no one came...

I get back from my bed and went to the dining room, and suddenly I see Carine coming from behind the corner of the wall where she was hiding, with her several other people, all screaming and screaming. It looks like I'm never going to have a day off.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREMORY" Everyone shouted.

"Why every time, everyfuckintime this has to happen? I am not deaf!"

'So it is today, I didn't remember that, the old man had this idea one time, to define my birth date as the day I was found on the battlefield, so make sense why neither Robert nor Carine wakes me up to train today. In these last years, I have been training during the day and learning about the world at night, most of the learning came from tales spoken by the old mercenaries, some of them were quite hard to believe, but in there was some good info too, the world is big and full of magic creatures, every tale I heard made me think of how beautiful and functional everything is, and how much age make you forget the details about it, but it's good that my birthday finally is here'

"Cheer up Gremory, this is time to celebrate" Carine spoke with a happy face while she put a hat on me.

'She is right, this is time to celebrate... A lot of things happened in this last years and one of them was the rumor's about me, when we learned that I didn't need food to survive, I just stop eating, the energy I need to live is quite a few if I am not hurt, so there was no problem in that, with just some animals I can be fine for days, yet when I was learning how to make a shell against the dark energy, I just couldn't keep it forever, eventually, happen in front of village people, so the old man had to explain everything to them'

'Back then was quite a chaos, but now everyone is used to me and I can maintain the shell constantly without even thinking about it, it became as easy as breathing. Unfortunately... The people on the city guard that saw me on the battlefield, or at least think they did, started talking about what they saw with a slight hint of exaggeration, and now I am some kind of monster. Thanks to that the old man also forbid me from going outside the village limits until I had strength enough and reached the age of Ten, he never told me why that specific age, but I really don't care because I just want to leave this place already'

"Come on Gremory, we made a cake for you so let's eat already!" Lothar and Clara speak to me with their faces impatient for the delay.

"Oh, so you guys had the trouble of making a cake for me, without thinking about eating yourselves right?" I talk jokingly to both.

'Lothar and Clara are two kids from the neighbors, Clara has six years and Lothar has four, they are playing all the time around the village since they don't have many children to interact with.'

In the beginning, when we arrived in the village we were not welcome, the last nobleman that collects taxes from the village died in the war and since he had no heirs, the Empire decided to give the village as payment to a mercenary company, so the fear of villagers is totally understandable.

But the four mercenary that came to the village just were running away from death in battle, Carine is a very good hunter, so the village started to gain much more meat, we had to build even a place to store everything, Fulgence (the shield guy) is an expert on sieges, so he made a lot of improvements on the village, we are thinking even in starting to build a wall, Scullery is the type of person that barks but doesn't bite, he keeps living in the old times when he was supposed to be a legendary warrior, or something like that, with just a few beers he talked all sorts of tales of heroism, was quite sad, to be honest, but he did no harm to anyone so there was no problem with him. At last, the old man had quite a fortune, to be honest, he never spent much in the old times, so he decided to spend everything he had on the village to make reforms everywhere, better saying that he get materials for the villagers to build, yet he spent a good fortune to improve this place, the house and everything around.

Our dining room now was big enough to accommodate an entire party and here were some good friends, Ludwig the father of Lothar that work on the farming fields, Kalmor and Otto (two of the village guard), Wenzel and Flore (the neighbors of the house next door), Fulgence, Carine, old man, and some other friends.

'We spent hours talking and eating all sorts of things, yet this isn't the thing I was waiting for a present on my ten-year birthday, what I really want is the freedom to know the world outside. So now is time to talk to the old man if I can at least go to the city. Besides, Lathrium is just 42km (24.8 miles) from the village'

"So old man, I am free to go to the city now? I know you guys are going there to sell food next week"

"I was waiting for that, our agreement had two requirements, didn't it?" the old man spoke solemnly.

"Yes, but I am strong enough already"

"There is quite a difference between thinking you are strong and being strong, it is easy to be strong when your opponents are just animals in the forest that don't attack back"

"I've been learning the art of sword fighting with you for years now, and I have my powers to back me up, so I am able to defend myself at least"

"You just think you are strong enough, but that's not quite true yet"

"How do I even prove to you then??"

"That's easy, let's fight"