New Start

In a remote forest, there was a boy with black hair, slim figure drinking water out of a lake.

"My god, this water tastes like crap. Is this what's it like being born without a silver spoon?" The boy cried out loud as this was the 5th day of his journey to the Imperial Academy.

The boy is Bruce who had recently left Meropis with a new identity. Currently, he's traveling on a remote path to reach the Imperial Academy. By his estimation, he should reach his destination within 3 months which is just in time for the yearly assessment test to get into the academy.

Over the past couple of days, Bruce had been using his dried rations for food, but the food was getting bland to him. As a self-proclaimed food connoisseur, Bruce was used to the luxurious food that was only accessible to the wealthy. Now that he had to remain low-key to grow stronger, Bruce had to adapt to eating rations and cheap food to not attract any attention.

As he walked across the roads, people stared at him strangely since it was very uncommon for a young boy to travel alone. After a few more days, Bruce reached a restaurant in a populated town.

"Hello mister waiter, can I get your cheapest dish?" Bruce innocently asked the waiter for some food. His current appearance can be described in one word, beggar.

"Sure thing kid. Do you have any money to pay for the food?" The waiter looked at Bruce and felt pity for the kid. The child must have gone through so much judging by his looks.

"How much is the cheapest dish?"

"The cheapest dish is 3 coppers. It will fill you up for the day, I can promise you that" The waiter replied expecting the kid to not have any money. Even if the kid didn't have money, the waiter planned to let the kid eat for free since he looked so poor.

"Here you go sir" Bruce pulled out 3 coppers and gave them to the waiter. Though Bruce had thousands of low-ranked energy crystals in his storage ring, he couldn't use them because he planned to use those resources for cultivation.

In the current economy, 1 low energy crystal is worth 10 gold coins. 1 gold is worth 100 silver. 1 silver is worth 100 coppers. He was quite rich by all standards but it's a shame that he couldn't use his wealth.

Currently, Bruce only had about 20 silvers on him. He heavily underestimated how much food costs in the outside world when packing for the journey.

After several minutes, the waiter brought out a simple meal. A rice bowl and vegetable soup. Bruce quickly chowed down on the rice bowl and soup which consolidated his status as a beggar. Everyone in the restaurant looked at him with pity but he didn't mind.

While Bruce was eating his food, he overheard two adults next to him in the restaurant talking about the incident near Meropis city.

"Did you hear about the prodigy from the Stellae family who got assassinated by the dark forces?"

"No, I was too busy stalking my crush, so I didn't hear any news"

"…."

"Anyway, the heir to the Stellae family was a prodigy who had 4 elemental affinities. Such a thing had never happened in the history of the continent. He accepted the invitation to attend the Imperial Academy. However, the dark forces got rid of him before he even had a chance to arrive at the academy"

"Why didn't the academy send protections for such a prodigy?"

"You dumbass, of course they did. Except the Dark Forces sent out two Divine Emperors to kill the kid. Some people found it quite weird that the Alliance of Kingdoms didn't send more resources to protect the kid"

"Why's that?"

"Well, if such a prodigy is to be groomed by the Alliance, he would be able to wipe out the Dark Forces in the future. Why wouldn't the alliance send out experts to always protect him?"

"That makes sense actually… Why didn't they?"

"I suspect that some top members of the Alliance of Kingdoms want to merge with the Dark Forces so they did not allow too many resources to be spent protecting the kid as a show of goodwill"

"Really? If that's true, then the whole world is crazy. But I think you're just over speculating the whole thing"

"Hmph, it's because you don't know any better. Why don't you go back to stalking your crush"

"I can't, she filed a restraining order against me."

"…."

"Why do you think I'm sitting here eating with you?"

"Fuck you…."

After hearing about the conspiracy, Bruce stopped drinking his soup and started to determine its plausibility.

'Perhaps it is true that something fishy is happening at the top of the Alliance of Kingdoms. After all, why wouldn't they just send a bunch of Divine Emperor experts to escort me back to the Imperial Academy? Oh well, nothing can be done dwelling on it'

As Bruce was finishing his meal, an entourage of people came into the restaurant. Leading the entourage with a young teenager who seemed to be about 15 years old. Behind him are several guards with immense aura and a few servants at the very end.

"Waiter, I want the best dishes and wine in the restaurant for my group" The young man looked at the waiter arrogantly and proceeded to lead his group upstairs.

After a while, the waiter brought out tons of exquisite dishes such as steak, fried pork, and herb-crusted chicken onto the table. The wine that the waiter brought out also smelled fragrant. Bruce subconsciously drooled as he saw the food the other party was eating. Thankfully, no one paid any mind to a beggar kid like him.

The young man tossed out a couple of gold coins and spoke in an arrogant tone.

"You can keep the change if you can bring me the map of this entire area."

"Yes sir, absolutely. I will have the map for you in a few minutes" The waiter quickly turned around and brought the map of the area to the young man.

"Uncle Simon, it looks like this area is it. Notice how there are two landmarks between this narrow cliff, according to the rumor, what we are seeking is here" The young man smiled after looking at the map while drinking wine.

Meanwhile, Bruce continued to look at the glorious food and drinks on the table and could not take his eyes off them. He internally cried and cursed to himself.

"Goddam it, I'm fucking poor."