5 The Dream Of A Leader

After his speech, everyone started to leave in little groups according to their ages.

"Guys, a Knight will really come to the village!"

"I will train until every bones break to become a Knight in the future!"

"Do you think he's handsome? Maybe he'll fall for me..."

"Hey guys, wanna follow up a future Knight such as me?"

....

As the crowd was dispatching on little groups, Astris approached me.

"Varos, do you know why I called you today ?" He said with a gentle voice.

"No"

"It's because you're the most smartest kid I've saw in my life. I can see that you'll be very talented in the future. I want to train you personally with my dad. If you follow me, I promise you glory and fame, Varos!".

Oh, so that's how it is. This kid saw that I was acting differently than the other kids. He saw that I didn't interact with them, not because of shyness, but simply because of my disinterest in them.

"I'll think about it" I calmly stated.

He probably expected me to agree without a refusal, not such a dubious answer , even though I'm more intelligent than the others, I'm still a little toddler in the end. A realistic answer coming from a kid of my age would be "yes" without hesitation. He would just need to make my eyes shine with dreams to make me accept his proposition.

In fact, in a normal situation, I would've accepted his agreement. I've nothing to loose here. I can easily manipulate a kid of his age, and trick him to think that I'm loyal to him. But in my current state, I didn't want to start scheming against others like in my old life, I was just too tired of it.

I don't want to hurt him unless it's necessary too. Knowing more about this world make me forget about my pains, if I start again to manipulate others, my life will probably be the same as my precedent.

Becoming a scholar, learning about the world and living a normal life might not be too bad. I want to become stronger, but from a realistic point of view, it's better for me to live a mundane life. I still want to learn more about Ki but given my social status, I'll probably never attain the state I've dreamed off.

Astris was a bit startled after hearing my answer, but he quickly regained his composure "No problem, I can wait Varos. Call me if you need something". After that, he leaved with his two others companions.

Well, that day was full of events. I need to think about that on a more convenient place, in other words, my home...

...

At the midnight, next to a little hut, a campfire could be seen, with three kids around the fire.

A cute little girl with silky black hair was putting her head on the shoulder of a handsome kid. That girl was Sana and in front of her was the best friend of Astris, Favel who was gazing quietly at the fire.

"Astris, why did you say that to that brat Varos? You know that he's creeping me out, he's always alone, mumbling in his corner" Sana said coquettishly to Astris.

"Don't underestimate that kid Sana, he's more talented that you think. He doesn't behave like the others kids. I've never heard him saying something useless, if he want something that he can grasp, he says it otherwise, he refrain himself."

"Are you sure about that? He just seems retarded for me".

"My dad always says that I should surround myself with good people, from the beginning. Don't worry, believe in me, I just feels that he's going to me something in the future".

Favel who was quiet from the beginning began to talk "But that's because he's that smart that you need to be careful. He could be dangerous to us in the future, Astris".

"I know Favel, one the most important quality that a leader needs to have is to be able to see what might be advantageous and disadvantageous not to him, but to his group. If I see that he becomes dangerous, I'll cut any possibilities of growth in him... But for now, he's only a toddler, so I just might be thinking too much about that".

Astris gazed at the stars for a moment, and looked at his lover next to him, and finally at Favel and said "Thinking about that is rather unpleasant, but if it means to protect all of you, I'm ready to dirty my hands. Favel, Sana, we won't stay in this village all our life, it's just our first step. I will let you taste you how glory and fame is, in exchange, promise me to follow me forever."

"You like to repeat that each don't you ? You don't need to say that Astris, beside it's a bit awkward when you say it like that, you're not a kid anymore right" Favel said wryly .

"That's what makes him cute Favel, why don't you try that kind of approach, you would be more popular with girls you know ?" Sana said while teasing him.

Astris thought silently for a moment. He smiled before saying only one word "Thanks".

"See, you're continuing with the awkward talk. Don't start to cry for nothing, we don't need a second Sana you know ?"

"Hey, what did you said about me?! I stopped crying after...huh..."

"Yeah, you were crying recently I remind you, simply because of a little fall on the ground, you literally tripped over nothing ! It remind that time when you cried all the day because Astris leaved with his father for three days to train him in the forest..."

"Y-Y-You! You promised to never say that in front of Astris! You big jerk!"

As the two friends started to arguing, Astris looked quietly at them, with care and joy on his face...

...

"Good night Varos"

My mother covered me with my blanket and kissed my forehead before leaving my room. My room is quite basic, with only my bed, a wardrobe and a few picture books for kids. There was also a few toys in my room. When I'm bored, I play with them, it's still better than doing nothing. Beside it also help the growth of my brain, if I keep doing nothing all days, my intellect might lower itself. It's not the fact that I should do something smart that is important, but rather to simply keep my brain active.

I need to start a few flexibility exercises from now, and I also need to learn how to run correctly too.

I know the perfect exercises for this, I just need to adapt them to the corpulence of a kid.

I have to think more seriously to Astris's proposition too. I know that I will start to scheme for my own benefit if I accept that. Scheming for unimportant things doesn't matter, but for the access of the teaching of a Knight, I will surely put more means for this.

And those means will surely affect others in a bad way. I don't care about what happens to them, but "you harvest what you sow", and I know that from my own experience that the setback will be painful to me...

I became very lazy overtime since I didn't have the opportunity to move when I was a baby, and my mother only gave me the permission to leave home recently. Before that, I could only leave with her and rest at home.

There are no school in the village, so things such as the basics of this world and the language are done by the parents. From time to time, the elders come to demonstrate their knowledge to the children, but it's only for kids older than three years old, and unfortunately I have only one year and nine months at the moment.

The calendar of this world is similar to earth, a year is a bit shorter than earth though, it last between 360 days and 365 days. The leap year happens every two year. A year has 12 month, each month last 30 days and a days goes for 24 hours.

The names of the months are also the same from Earth.

The seasons are also named the same here, with just a difference of what they call the Everlasting seasons. Those seasons last way more than normal, and it's said that they can last for years.

There are two strange fact with the calendar of this world. The first is that it is too much similar to my old world, the second is that instead of adding a day in a month when it's a leap year, they're adding a whole new month, who only last for five, and is named Kalaveran's December, how weird...

I'm excited and confused at the same time on what kind of world I'm in. It's in those moment that I would like to see that fellow, even if he's despicable, at least, he was always with me in my most difficult times.