Chapter 9 : some time in the palace

The elven king led us into his office told us to make ourselves comfortable and then closed the door.

Which left me with an angry-looking mother and a father who seemed more interested in all the "cool stuff" the elven king had in his office. My mother hit me some more, but the hits were soft, or maybe that is because of the awakening. Is my mother a child beater? (kidding).

after the hits, she sat down on the chair behind the king's desk, I doubt she has ever sat in such an expensive chair, maybe it will help comfort her.

I first addressed them with a smooth: "Hey, Mom and Dad." as you do when you sort of ran away from home and have to explain why.

I started, trying, to tell them I awakened. they obviously didn't believe me, so I took off the pendant. they were shocked, my mom fainted for a short while, During which my father high five me. When my mom awoke, which wasn't long because she an awakened.

Then, as expected, many questions arose, so explained that from birth I already had someone's knowledge passed onto me and that I kept training, reading, and meditating. They still weren't at ease thinking about this, but it did clear up some things for them, like why I did so well in fathers training. My mother was silent for a long time and asked: " If you were born with someone else's knowledge, are you really our son?"

It felt like she ripped my heart out and stepped on it: "How could you even say that!" I responded. I did understand her concern, but she still raised me even though I already had knowledge: "You still raised me! You still thought me manners! It was just written down next to other life lessons! You still rewrote me and thought me how to live in this world, the language, the tales. Yes, I've read and learned a lot of this world without you guys through the books in the library, but that doesn't change anything!"

My reaction wasn't very mature, but I'm almost six and my own mother asked me if I'm her son! though it is a justified question, it still hurt. My father hugged me really tight saying sorry and my mother in tears on the chair stood up and joined the hug. We all cried for some time in each other's arms, my mom kept apologizing for her question and I for running away. when we all calmed down my father said: "I will need to give you a good whooping for running away!" to which I answered, " I doubt you can graze my skin.". He looked shocked but accepted the challenge. He promised me that we would fight a little tomorrow and see who grazes whose skin.

We walked out of the office after two hours, our eyes were still wet from the tears. The queen offered a tissue to my mother, while the king was explaining to Ivy that she isn't supposed to listen in on private matters. Not that she could, for obvious reasons the king's office is fully soundproof, but it's a lesson after five minutes of talking we all walked to the council room to discuss the living agreements. On the way to the council room I whispered into my father's ear: "Oh and by the way old man, during my time of training in secret I have mastered nineteen martial arts, I'm really looking forward to that fight tomorrow."

after mastering a few the others don't help too much, but variation in fighting styles can really confuse your opponent so I still believed it is worthy enough to spend my time on, plus it just sounds cool. I still have to master thirteen of the thirty-two martial arts I want to master, but for now, nineteen is more than enough.

I told him his training also lightly contributed to my close combat fighting skill, but he still looked slightly irritated.

We arrived at the table and all sat down around the council table, It was me, my parents, the king and queen, the former king, and Ivy.

The king started explaining that while we are here I will be trained by his father and that all the financial costs will be paid by the royal family, all the ground on the royal estate will be accessible, and my parents were allowed to find jobs in the area if they wanted to kill time. He also asked not to go into the council room during meetings. then my future king proceed to ask some questions about how he could make my life dreadful. My father still a little annoyed because of the conversation in the hall agreed to everything the former king said, I am already dreading my life decisions. Ivy was constantly laughing her ass off hearing all the crude methods her grandpa was going to train me.

After all the talking the king personally walked us to our living accommodations, It is super luxurious. my parents have a natural jacuzzi in their bedroom.

My room is next to my parents so they can keep me in check because I am still not even six.

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It's the day of my sixth birthday, like every day since I started training under Master Iston, the former king, I had to wake up early to train. I've been kept on a tight training schedule and diet. The diet isn't bad because the royal chefs can really cook, but the schedule is terrible I only have a few hours of free time, and most of my day exist of hours of training, which includes theoretical training, this includes lessons with Ivy from her private tutor, this consists of everything mathematics, politics, history, theoretical parts of fighting like martial arts, breathing techniques. It's everything, but before that, I have an early practical training session with Master Iston to make sure my early bird body gets destroyed, the mornings are for strength training. then after the theoretical lessons, I get some more fighting lessons in martial arts. Ivy trains at the same time as me, we sometimes spar lightly, but most of the time I have to spar with master Iston because I am already awakened and thus heal fast, he absolutely destroys me, after seeing the speed with which I heal, they tested me they didn't tell me the result of the test, but master Iston made it very clear that I do have a healing affiliation. My master is always ecstatic to wake me in the morning, by now my body has learned to wake up earlier, my master didn't approve of this, because he couldn't wake me in the morning he sometimes sneaks into my room at night to punch me awake to then just leave again, he says it's to strengthen my bones, but I know this bs, my body has awakened, It doesn't get any stronger from healing anymore, It is very strong though because of the gigantic early awakenings body strengthening. My bones and muscles are stronger than those of my master, therefore he likes hitting them with his full power to break and tear them. He has begun to do all this torcher less since Ivy doesn't approve of this, but when she isn't looking he still often does this, I heal fast anyway. It is still an honor to train under him though, he is one of the most powerful warriors there is, so besides his torturous "pranks" we still see him as a great master. I see my parents every meal, they started managing the royal library because they couldn't live with themselves if they didn't help around the castle, besides managing the castle they also clean around a bit. Since I spend most of my free time in the library they still see me often. they are also very happy that I now get tutored in all the things you learn in an academy, for free too. We often eat dinner with the royal family and even though the king has often told them to address them like friends, because of all these favors we get my parents stay formal. As I said most of my free time is spent in the library, Ivy often goes with me because I'm sort of her only friend, since we are both fighting fanatics we hit it off, but I believe I am the bigger fanatic. She isn't too interested in reading, but still does it to be around me, we also often go explore the city and forest she likes that more than reading. on the weekends we often go into the forest with Iston and battle some of the forest beasts. It is obvious Ivy doesn't get a lot of time with her peers as she clings to me like a sloth to a tree, I assume this is also the reason she is such a fighting fanatic. Training a lot to ignore the loneliness of being the royal princess. Though I bet beating up a few men looking down on her for being a woman also gives an amazing feeling. she is honestly a very strong fighter. When she awakens she will really be a rival to be reckoned with for most people, I doubt she could beat me as my mastery in more martial arts, stronger physique, and earlier awakening give me a clear advantage. of course, I get still beaten up by Iston who also has a weaker physique and a later awakening, but he obviously has a lot more experience and a stronger core, because even though my core is extraordinary, he has had years on his side. When I train with Iston he doesn't go all out, but he still has to go on the level of the highest-ranking soldiers there are, so I'm not too far from his level. when we first spared he kept giving a little more power to see how strong I am, the mix of fear and amazement shown in his eyes was pleasing, to say the least. To see one of the top 5 strongest warriors on this planet look at me like that, let's just say my ego is still a bit in the clouds, but don't worry whenever I get too cocky both Iston and Ivy gladly bring me down by either telling something embarrassing or smashing me to a pulp, because who cares about pain when he heals fast. Ivy can't really beat me to a pulp so as a response she started embarrassing me, she caught me flexing in the mirror in my room after I was filled with ecstasy when Iston tested my powers and she hasn't shut up about it since. In my defense after awakening my body really looked like a sleeper build, of course on a six-year-old it doesn't look great but when I grow up I'll for sure be a hottie with a body.

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It's evening and Ivy and I are walking to the dining room. Ivy won't shut up about some surprise the king has "An awesome announcement I'll love" she said, after greeting the guards we entered the "dining room", it was the throne room but with a gigantic table in it. the first thing I noticed after walking into the room was an older woman sitting next to Master Ishton, Ivy and I greeted everyone in the room and sat down, immediately after sitting down I leaned over and jokingly asked Master Ishton if he finally found a girlfriend but before Ishton could even react the king stood up and everyone fell silent. The king started talking " I'd like to introduce everyone to Miss Hecate Harkness, the director and founder of Harkness school mages located in the human capital, she will be staying here for a while to help Ivy with her awakening, she is a personal guest of mine and thus shall be treated with the utmost respect. Now enjoy the meal prepared by our amazing chefs".

after the king sat back down he started talking to Miss Harkness. Everybody else started feasting, but me, I stared at Ivy with a surprised smile and asked "Why didn't you tell me you are almost going to awaken!", she was smiling from ear to ear and responded, " I wanted it to stay a surprise."

The average person would awaken at fourteen years old, some geniuses earlier, but Ivy was expected to awaken at eleven this is already a historically amazing feat, but she wasn't eleven yet and she wouldn't be for another seven months. From what Ivy told me she feels very close to awakening and believes she will make it this very month, this would be ridiculous. She might become the earliest awakener in recorded history. feel bad to be honest, because of me, who had an unfair advantage she won't be, because of my monstrously early awakening all her hard training for so long would be dishonored in the history books. she will still be very strong because of the early awakening, but I feel like it takes away a little of the magic of it. This doesn't however seem to bother Ivy, but she might just not show it.

after dinner master, Ishton told me that I should also take advantage of Miss Harkness' presence as she is known as one of the world's strongest mana casters. Master Ishton is also a strong mana caster, but he is better at close combat mana use which often consisted of mana enhancement combined with spells and martial arts, but Miss Harkness specializes in long-range consist of only mana casting, but mana casting gat long range often uses stronger spells because they can often spare the large mana consumption and or time needed to cast because they aren't on the front lines. because of her expertise in spellcasting, even though I'm not nearly good enough to try spells as strong as those it would still be smart to learn from her.

after dinner, I meditated until morning.