Marry a quiet girl, have some children, and die of old age

Unknowingly, more than thirty minutes had passed since he departed from school.

He wasn't drenched in sweat per se.

Though not to the extent of the great rebirth, there still existed remnants of the fiery rain in the atmosphere, so even evolved humans like Anon would sweat from a thirty-minute walk under the red sky.

He arrived at a street, therein, on either side going down this street were compact houses lined up next to each other.

No vehicle would come into this street unless they were lost or lived there, it was the so-called cul-de-sac, meaning, it was a street closed at one end.

In fact, it was a house at the end of the street that caused this.

The amber eyed boy was the next-door neighbor to the people living in that house.

Like the houses before his, he lived in a small house that completed the look of toy blocks lined up next to each other that the this street exuded.

His walls were painted grey as he took out a bunch of keys hooked together from his bookbag and used one to open a lock on the gate that led to a small yard in front of his house.

When he closed the gate, he didn't snap the lock. Thereafter, stepping onto the front porch, he used another key to unlock the door.

His humble abode.

Inside, there was a small living room with a couch and a television, connected to a kitchen with a dining table and two chairs.

Walking further into the house, one would reach the laundry room with a washing machine and dryer, along with a bathroom.

Even in the old era, it could be considered rather simple.

In this world, the rich had futuristic cars, and the poor had worse living environments than those in the olden world.

As an orphan, Anon stood in the bottom-class, and yet, he was also connected to the highest class.

"Minutes to four."

Glancing at the clock, a smile tugged at his lips. Dropping his bookbag, he went to the shower.

…

It was around half five in the evening.

Anon stood on the porch whilst waving his hand at the old woman helped by a slender black-haired girl as they left his yard.

"Old lady Su, Elizabeth."

Anon smiled strangely as Elizabeth's gentle voice barely made its way to his ears, asking, "Do I snap the lock?"

Their gazes met.

His amber gold eyes were hypnotic, they did not seem to be the eyes of a human. But Elizabeth had spent several years now with Anon, growing accustomed.

Seeing him nod his head, she snapped it and walked to the house at the end of the street where she and her grandmother stayed.

"It's been over six years since my father banished me from his manor, killing mother and besides Liam, possibly everyone else who knows of my existence."

"Six years, and yet old lady Su and her granddaughter visits me every day, with dinner."

Like Seth said, Anon had a unique disposition.

But it did not stop him from appreciating certain things.

The pair of women were one of these things.

Old lady Su and Elizabeth had long faded from his vision before he caught himself and retreated into his abode.

"I'd certainly marry a quiet girl like Elizabeth and have some kids before dying of old age or something."

He mused.

"But simply father's status makes this impossible, and dead mother's sacrifice, true father's guidance… I'll be lucky if I can even love."

Anon chuckled whilst shaking his head.

Such thoughts were useless.

They'd only dull the power of his will.

This kind of comfort would lead him to his death.

Naturally, it would be different if he was undying and invincible, or something.

"I can still hear that old hag's curses."

Inside a room with a single mattress, Anon sat, leaning against the wall.

In fact, this was the basement.

Besides a mattress, and a ladder connected to one of the walls, there wasn't anything whatsoever.

The room's appearance could even be mistaken for a mental torture chamber. 

Old lady Su…

There was only one person that she hated with every fragile bone in her body.

A man, the man who abandoned his own ten-year-old son.

"I wonder what reaction she'd have if she learned that the scoundrel she hates is one of the great six, their leader?"

He sat against the wall eating from a food box that old lady Su brought for him.

"Rice and… curry fish?"

He shook his head, "It's been so many years, and I'm still confused where she even finds ingredients to make these things."

Since the fiery rain, the blue planet was blue no more.

The sea had been corrupted like the sky above.

The unfathomable ocean became even more so, unfathomable not, only for a distinct few, the supreme commander, and the five human martials.

But even if water wasn't hard to come by, something that the six city lords made sure of, things like fish, shrimp, shark, and other meats from the ocean were difficult to acquire.

Yet old lady Su didn't seem to have any trouble making a wide variety of meals for Elizabeth, and by extension, Anon.

'The mysteries of another's principles are endless, maybe for old lady Su, this is her specialty.' Anon thought.

Awakening one's dormant principle at a young age was difficult, but for those who had not awakened by thirty, it would naturally awaken anywhere from thirty to thirty-three years old.

Evidently, old lady Su who seemed no younger than in her late sixties, would've obviously awakened her principle.

Whatever it may be, it would be distinct to her.

Even if one's principle had similarities to another, it wouldn't be the exact same.

Two random principles could be related to fish, one good at capturing and controlling fish, another great at nurturing fish and improving their speed of reproduction.

By the time his thoughts settled, he had finished with dinner.

Stellar multi-colored particles were visible like dust under light, permeating the air and converging in front of Anon.

'Seth said I was weak. Indeed, as of now, I'm still nothing more than a pawn, one for the new world order, and one for my father. Both sides manipulate me whilst unaware of my knowledge.'

He thought this whilst appearing to be in a daze.

Relating to certain things, he didn't dare say it out loud.

This was a world of mystic arts and unknown powers, so he couldn't take unnecessary risks even if he appeared to be home alone.

'But I am knowing, and they know it not, this is my advantage, my only advantage.'

'Dead mother has long deduced that a devil will help me grow powerful, but if I'm to grow too much, I'll face an unchangeable end.'

Inevitability.

Fate said it out aloud, destiny wrote it down, and inevitability etched it into stone, making it unchangeable.

He'd face death if this devil deemed him to be growing too dangerous, too quickly. This was an inevitable death.

A pawn grown out of control is but an unneeded hassle.

'And since the devil must always know my strength, he'll always be by my side.'

Anon mused.

'This is why Seth must be the devil dead mother warned me of.'

'But what he desires, I'll give it to him.'

'The first step, to become an Otherworldly Knight.'

'The second step, to entice father.'

Anon thought of Seth's ploy.

'The third, to influence him, and finally, the fourth is to strike.'

'The devil knows it not, but the path he wants me to walk, and dead mother's, splendidly melds seamlessly, for true father to then step in.'

Sighing, he smiled.

'No matter the path, father dies by my hand and at similar times, and yet, both paths end with results so different that it is unimaginable.'

Coming to the end of his thoughts, Anon had a deep frown.

'Yet, even my dead mother doesn't know the nature of all things.'

'She always said that hands unseen affects both paths, and even if she has established a path that manipulates these hands in my favor, without knowing their true depths and their every card, the chance of victory is but a percentage.'

Evidently, if everything was laid out perfectly by his mother, he'd not need to secretly promise himself to walk as far as he could, so as to at least make his dead mother proud.

Instead, it was no different from walking on a tightrope.

Well, there was a slight difference.

In the beginning, his path was broad, safe even, with only small unexpected calamities existing in the shadows.

But as he reached the climax, the path becomes akin to a tightrope, and in the end, there is no path.

The hands unseen would then reveal their true nature, one even his mother failed to see through, one that he'd need to face front on.

Hmm?

Yawning, Anon rose an eyebrow.

'I actually fell asleep?' He got up and walked to the ladder attached to the wall.

'I need to keep this place clean, lest Liam curses at me.' He thought whilst gazing at the lunch box.

But before he could climb out of the underground bunker, his vision grew blurry, causing his grip to slip from the ladder.