Chapter 64 - Parting is Such a Sweet Sorrow

With a more or less clear path and goal in mind, Nerun finally went to rest. Maikal could not guess the changes that had taken place inside Nerun's body. The development of both Mana and Qi at the same time, might seem a bit slow compared to training one of them alone, but the power one could fathom was not as simple as one plus one.

Besides, Nerun had not even used most of his time trying to increase his levels of Qi and Mana. No. His time had been devoted to something else entirely…

The night went by with no further complications.

Maya left the Storage Room, where the man was still tied to the chair. His hair was disheveled, and many parts of his body seemed to be missing. It could be seen that Maya had not been exactly gentle when obtaining information from him. It was quite hard to believe that a sweet girl such as Maya could be capable of performing such acts, however, those comments came from people who only knew her on the surface, and were unaware of the true darkness she had once experienced in her life.

It was precisely because of the hell she had once lived, that she was willing to do anything so that her little brothers and sisters would never have to go through the same experience. Besides, she knew that had she fallen into the man's hands, her future would not have been simply described as bleak.

Therefore she had no remorse whatsoever for what she put the man through. She closed the door and didn't allow the rest of the kids to check inside.

Well, calling them kids was a bit of a stretch right now. Many of them had become teenagers, filled with energy, dreams and passion. Brandon and Luca, for instance, had become Qi Masters when they were just 12 years old, and even though they were not as talented or powerful as Nerun and Silvester, they could be proud of their accomplishments. With some more hard work, there was hope for them to become Qi Grandmasters before they turned 16, and even Qi Praetorians before they turned 20 if they could find better resources and environment.

The reason most of the children had not left before, was because of several reasons, for one, they were truly attached to each other and loved each other as family. Some of the older children had even developed some "feelings" for each other, and they were even more reluctant to part with each other. Another powerful reason is that they were waiting.

The children were all reunited in the special training area that used to belong to Maikal, and Maya was in front of them. All of them were together, and Nerun and Silvester were among them, and were looking directly at Maya, who had a stern look on her face.

"How did it go, Sister Maya?", asked Silvester directly.

"It was as we expected somewhat. He is from a so-called secret organization, and was looking for information regarding Father. Father's fears all those years ago seemed to have become true, and his enemies are more unfathomable than what we expected."

Her tone was a bit flat, but there was actual relief in her voice. There was also relief in several of the children. Even though Nerun had shared Maikal's letter with them, and they came to know of his arrangements for their future, several of the children were quite saddened by Maikal's departure, even to this day, and that feeling of abandonment would not easily go away. With Maya's words, most of their resentment simply vanished, at the news that their Father had not lied, and that his fears were not unfounded. This was another of the reasons they did not want to leave just yet. They wanted to confirm the truth of Maikal's words with their own eyes.

"We were lucky. Much of their efforts went into searching the frontier, and looking for traces of Father in the border. He had also left some vague clues, so people would seek him out, trying to get them away from us, but they were more careful than we expected, and left no stone unturned. This man was actually part of the lowest tier in the organization, and he was already a Qi Centurion. He could have been a Major or even a Lieutenant with some luck in the Army, yet he chose to work for this Organization. We could therefore infer that the Organization is far more powerful than we could even imagine. There is a real possibility that many powerful experts from around the continent are part of this Organization.

The man we captured yesterday said the Organization was called the Dark Brotherhood. He did not know much about the leadership of it, nor had he met any of the true leaders, just one of the supervisors. Yet this supervisor was already a Qi Emperor."

When Maya talked up to here, many of the children, especially the youngest ones, could not help but gasp. Maya had told them that their Father was also a Qi Emperor, and to think that a bunch of men as strong or even stronger than Maikal were chasing after them, made them want to run away right the next second. However, seeing the calmness in Maya's voice, as well as Nerun and Silvester's steadiness, allowed them to relax.

"Fret not. So far they have not discovered any clue about Father, and this man only found out after years of searching blindly in the towns along the periphery of the Kingdom. That is not to say that we don't have hard decisions to make right now. Since this man found us, it is likely that his disappearance will elicit some kind of response from the Organization. What we have to ensure right now, is that him being gone will not affect us on a short notice. It looks like we will have to use some of the preparations we've done over the years."

All of the young teens, men and women turned serious when they heard Maya. Things have finally come to this. They all looked at each other, and saw the sadness in each other's eyes. The Orphanage had to go. It had to disappear from the face of the continent. This obviously could not happen in a day or two, otherwise, if the man was gone at the same time as the Orphanage, there would be a clear link between the two. So they had to make further arrangements.

Some of the boys would go to the Frontier to seek fortune. Some would go look for jobs in clans and families nearby, or would go to some other towns and live there, changing their names and appearances. Some would even try their luck at some of the small and middle martial schools close to the periphery of the kingdom, using their talent and knowledge obtained, and some even wanted to join the Army. After all, even though Ansem supported the registration of its citizens, the poor people had no such concerns, and finding a way to falsify the documents, while incumbent, was not completely impossible. Little by little, during the next weeks and months, the Orphanage would simply cease to be. When people arrived to look for the missing individual, the kids would have long been gone. They would all seek to become stronger in their own way.

They also had agreed that no one would truly know where the others had decided to go.That way, in the rare case that some had been found, he or she would not know where the rest had gone, and they could be protected. Of course, this in turn, would mean that the chances of finding each other once more would be more than difficult.

Also, they had decided not to look for Elijah. Even though Elijah had grown quite strong, and they were sure that their Big Brother would take care of them, as one of his dreams was to care for his brothers, it was quite likely that if they all appeared next to Elijah, it would be a confirmation of the relation between Maikal and their Big Brother, also to the relation between the hooded man's disappearance and all of them going to Elijah, which for the people looking for clues, would be like a lighthouse being lit right in front of them. They could not allow such blunder. They also did not want to put Elijah under any risk or pressure. It was quite likely that some of Elijah's rivals could use them as his weakness. The tales of the conspiracies among nobles and the high command in the Kingdom were well known to them. Their own Father, after all, was the victim of such a plot.

All of this does not mean that they would cut every venue of communication. The way they were being dispersed actually served another purpose. They would join different organizations in the Kingdom of Ansem, and they could serve as intelligence officers being planted, and potentially activated in the future. The center of all communications would be Nerun. Nerun was the only one that they would know where he'd gone. He would also be the very first of them that would leave and the only one that would leave a trail that could be followed if searched carefully.

After Nerun had reunited with Elijah and gotten a place to stay, he would send for a notice through the Kingdom's notification system. This was a board usually put in town for news to be shared from the Capital. Private news could also be put, though it would cost a bit, but Nerun had inherited much of Sagat's fortune after everyone's discussion. Also Nerun would use a secret code only known to the members of the Orphanage. They would later write letters to Nerun, letting him know of their whereabouts, so if they were ever needed, they could stay in touch.

If Nerun and Elijah managed to get rid of most of their pursuers, they would also send for them in the future. Otherwise, they had agreed to meet each other in ten years, right here in the town of Radem, close to the Rando Woods.

Having made their decision, Nerun decided to leave after 2 days.

…

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me, Fatso? I'm sure Big Brother could put you into the Army and we could still go on adventures together", asked Nerun. Even though, the one person he fought the most was Silvester, he was actually quite close to the fatty, and both could be considered the best of friends. He deeply cared for Maikal, the one who raised him, and admired Elijah, his strong and reliable big brother. Maya was like his very own mother, or his really pretty and caring big sister. But Silvester was his close friend, the one he could go and do fun stuff with, the one who would fight with him, the one who would fight for him. After so many years together, he'd love to still have the fatty around.

"I really thought about going with you. But I have the feeling, that I truly need to start walking on my own. I'm already 16 years old, and I have a lot of strength, so I need to make myself useful. I'll also go to the Army, but I don't want to depend on Big Brother Elijah completely. I want to make my own path, after all, I also have my own pride. But don't worry if I ever do need help, I'll be the first to ask for rescue from Big Brother hahahaha," Silvester guwaffed, however you could see some redness in his eyes, and he was actually holding back some tears.

The rest of the children were also there to say good bye to Nerun. The younger ones like Myriam were looking at him tearfully. They were somewhat scared for what the future had in store for them. They had been preparing for a long time for this, yet when the moment truly came, they were very reluctant to leave each other.

Nerun was watching all of them. The boys and girls he grew up with and he could not help but cry a little. He knew that he would have to leave eventually in order to fulfil his dreams, however he always thought the Orphanage would always be there, so he could return to his family. Nevertheless, thing turned out quite different from what he expected, and reality came knocking once more.

However, this time, while they all were feeling a bit sad, they were not despondent. For they had grown a lot in the last 6 years. For they also had dreams and desires, and although they were being somewhat forced to leave, they believed that they would reunite in the future. They would all go into this cruel world and seek their own fortunes, meet new friends, maybe have new partners. But they would all reunite once more as the family they ruly are. For they would always be family no matter what. This was their belief.

As Nerun was seeing his family he told them: "I made an oath 6 years ago. An oath to take back the things taken from me. I guess I still need to add a few more things to that debt. But it begins now. My path to reclaim what we've all lost. Remember to write back when I send the notice. I'll be waiting for you all. Fatty, practice hard the move Father left you. I'm sure you'll truly be invincible with it. Brandon, take good care of sister Malina. You two fell for each other, and I know you two will go together. So make a beautiful family. Maya… You have given me so much over the years, I'll never be able to repay you. You know that I'd do anything for you. I know you'll be going to Rhodnius and train an look for information over there. Please take good care of yourself. I know EON will allow us all to meet again."

As Nerun said this, he started to leave towards the entrance to the woods. He then yelled "WE'RE LEAVING"..

Then Nerun stopped and waited for a while. Then, all could hear a howl coming straigth from the Forest.

A Gigantic Wolf came running towards Nerun. The wolf had beautiful blue fur, with a silver tuft of hair in its forehead. The wolf was well over 3,5 m long, and close to 2 meter tall. This was Whitey who after 6 years of being close to Nerun had grown a lot, and was already a Rank 3 beast.

"Hehehehe… Adventure calls Whitey. Are you certain you want to come with me?", asked Nerun. Whitey nodded and started shrinking until he was no taller than a normal dog. This was a secret technique of the wolf species, and only some of the pure blooded kind could actually perform the technique. Whitey could perform it after he became a Rank 3 Magical Beast recently. Ever since he met Nerun, he felt that his life had changed. It was in his instinct. Therefore, he decided to go along with Nerun and helped him in his quest.

"Ok then…" turning to look back at his family one last time, he smiled kindly. And then he left with Whitey, disappearing into the horizon.