Cain & Cloe

"Hey brat" A loud shout of a boy was heard.

'Fuck! Talk about the devil' Tom cursed inwardly.

A boy with bulky and tout muscles bigger than his age should have approached Tom, trying to overshadow Tom's presence.

Cloe timidly bowed her head in the overpowering presence of Cain.

"What do you want, big brat," Tom was unamused seeing the top alpha of the Netherlore family in this place.

"W-What did Just Call Me!!!" Cain shouted.

Tom frowned, "Frist stop shouting, this is not the mansion were you would've show shown how much testosterone you have in you brains instead of you balls. And I just called you big brat, Afterall I don't see an age gap between us, so inorder to address you useless muscles I added a big to the brat." Tom taunted.

Cain Netherlore,

Who was he? He is one of Tom's half brothers.

There are many arrogant pricks in the family and this guy sits at the top.

Tom hated this guy to the core. This guy Cain was like a chimpanzee in the mind, only thoughts that ran through his mind were Flex his muscles, suppress males and females alike, find mate, get more mate, sleep, repeat.

Rumer has it that Cain is already estimated to have 20 wifes in contract, many of them even his half-sisters. It would have been fine even if he chose over 200,000 women as his wifes. In a world where the ratio between men and women are 1:3 it didn't mean that much.

But, the problem comes with Cain's attitude. He wants everyone with smaller body stature than him to bow down and pay respect. Cain's thinking is childish, maybe eventually when he grow up he would understand how naive he was, but that doesn't mean that he was any less annoying.

There was a rule in Netherlore mansion, no one was allowed to kill anyone in the family. Unfortunately that didn't mean that one wasn't able to beat one till submission.

And that was exactly what Cain did to anyone who stood in his way.

Or so, untill he had a fateful encounter with Tom. Tom, oblivious to who Cain was supposed to be was annoyed by Cain when he demanded 'to bow down'. Tom didn't respond to Cain's childish fetish ignored him and just continued to enjoyed a casual book.

Until, Cain resorted to violence. Unfortunately for Cain, Tom was the text book definition of don't judge a book by its cover.

That day Cain was beaten to pulp. That day experience destroyed muscles, after all living upto 10 lives he had to pick up some skills along the way.

Tom is not a fan of unnecessary violence, he responds violence with violence.'If you pick up a sword you shall be slain by it', Tom thoughts can be summarised this way.

Unfortunately or fortunately, the human mind is not a simple thing, it has a preservation mechanism in-place to prevent something that can damage it. And something Cain believed in his entire life to be a fundamental Truth was proven wrong and that was enough for his brain to go haywire.

But instead of following the route of denial, anger, depression and acceptance his brain instantly denied it as some sort of trickery.

Then Cain started challenging Tom everytime no one was around only to get instantly beat down till he became purple. Funny thing was Cain only challenged Tom only when he was alone, proving Cain was actually not confident enough to beat Tom, reputation as the unbeatable was important to Cain unconsciously.

Few years later Cain started doing verbal battle with him in hope of defeating Tom in that sector, which Cain sucked wery much for a person with less experience.

Human brain is truly unique in a weird way, not knowing when one lost or when unconsciously one accepted his failure but not understanding it.

'It seems like he didn't know Cloe is his half-sister otherwise he wouldn't have started it here' Tom observe.

"che! just you wait untill I awaken... with that petty body of yours, I will be surprised if you even have an average Talent... then I will make your life a living hell" Cain declared.

Tom gazed at Cain weirdly 'guss this guy can actually think about the future, colour me impressed' Tom was genuinely impressed.

"Well, that's 'if' you awaken. With that dumb brain of yours I doubt you would even sense Mana" Tom taunted again.

Hearing this Cain clenched his fist. It really huts when someone is point-on about their weakness. Cain is also aware that he is not smart, but who needs to be smart when one has status and power.

Cain and Tom stared at each other untill a loud shout was heard, "Twenty-eight!!"

Cain's number was called as he awkwardly ran till the end of the hallway and entered a room.

At that time Tom also looked at his token number which was the number 40 in this worlds language.

'Guss I have lot of time to kill... eh? where is Cloe?' The girl right next to him has mysteriously vanished. Soon he saw her sitting at an inconspicuous corner.

'Girl has some serious skill to vanish like that, no wonder I didn't took notice of a beauty like her' Tom thought with astonishment as he didn't notice her moving form here to there.

Tom stood up and approached Cloe and took a seat near her, "Hey, when did you move? "

"A-A few seconds after brother Cain arrived" Cloe said in a stiff tone her previous cheerfulness gone.

'So she is a girl who is not into the limelight and troubles of society. Talking to Cain or just being near him was just asking for trouble. I understand' Tom mused.

"You have a great talent to be an assassin if you can vanish like that" Tom joked.

Cloe covered her face with hands, a tingle of red appeared on her face due to embarrassment.

"No, No... I'd never become an assassin. I'll become an Artificer!" Cloe declared with a tint of pride.

"Hmm... as far as my knowledge Artificing is the craft of carving runes into normal objects to give it... special effects? " Tom tried to gather bits and pieces from his memory.

"Ah yes! It is not Just some runes it's the language of the heavens" Heavens? For a man who belived in stars heaven was an ethereal concept, but considering the world he was living in, it was not that surprising. Cloe continued "It's not just about giving ordinary objects some buffs. The output of mana, input of mana, the ores used in it..."

Cloe was a person who was obsessed with her craft. Her mother died when cloe was 3, due to runes malfunctioning, killing her mother in explosion.

There after Cloe lived lone in the mansion section designated for her. Although, the word mansion may seem small for close to 50 wifes with their own children, it's actually four gigantic buildings placed in a rectangular position with a big garden, training ground and a pond in the middle.

So, it is very easy for one to be not spotted.

After her mother's death Cloe dedicated her life towards learning runes, mentioned in the books of her late mother.

Day after day, she dedicated her life towards Artificing. She rarely exits her room. Food and other stuffs were taken care of the maids and Butlers in the residence.

A few people other than servants rarely visited and one of them was Uncle Jom, one of her late mother's friend.

Maybe it was due to her talents in Artificing. He always tried to have a favorable impression on her. When she reached 10, he offered her token to participate in the awakening ceremony he held.

She gladly accepted his gift. The only thing she had to do was put Artificing into practice, after all it required her to control mana.

So, now here she was talking to Tom.

Tom and Cloe talk for three hours straight, It was mostly Cloe talking about her occupation. Cloe felt like Tom was her best friend. Talking about runes was just talking about complex math, it was obviously confusing and boring for average people.

But, Tom was different—he was smart, no he was smarter than Cloe by a large margin. Just talking to him made her have many inspirations. She felt like a humble lamb before him, completely exposed to the gaze of the Shepherd. Tom felt more manlier as more time they interacted. He felt more handsome seeing how intelligent this man was.

She just hoped that he would also try creating Artifacts and vist her when time allows. Unconsciously she took a liking to Tom, because she had less interactions with others.

A few movements later Tom number was called.

Before he left, he turned around and spoke "It was nice speaking to you, Cloe. You such a nice girl, if I could, i would've been very happy to take you into my life. Unfortunately, you're already been taken, what a pity." he turned around and left, entering through a door.

Cloe hid her face in her hands so fast that even a slapping sound was heard, fortunately no one was left to witness this embarrassing scene.

"...Shameless" She muttered under her breath.

Cloe pressed the back of her neck, the choker was surprisingly removed.

The words Tom used in the end were just a form of complement in this world, just like saying 'Miss Cloe you look beautiful today. The one who is going to marry you is going to be one lucky basterd'. Tom did exaggerate a little, but his words were genuine from the depths of his heart. He quite like this smart girl and she is beauty too. It was indeed a pity she was already taken. But little did he expect that the choker was a fake used to avoid unwanted attention.

"Maybe... I should write a letter." Imaginary steam rising from her tomato ripe face.

Cloe also misunderstood his intent—one of the perks of being a shut-in.

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A/N: Need faster chapters use power stones