42. Isolation

"Explain it to me again."

Noah was in a room in the guards building with a big map laid on a table.

William was in front of him with a stern face looking carefully at his disciple.

Noah pointed at the map and spoke in a calm tone.

"I went inside Evergreen forest looking for the Gray Shadows. After searching for two weeks I found no traces of them so I chose to explore deeper in the forest. After some days of travel, I felt signs of life inside a small cave and so I investigated. The bandits' group was inside sorting their items, so I killed them and used their clothes to carry the goods back to the mansion. On the perimeter of the forest, I found Quinn, the merchant, and he willingly offered me a ride back to the mansion inside his carriage. That's all."

Noah would point out on the map his route while he was describing the events of the mission.

William stared at him for some time before speaking again.

"The merchant said that there was an Earth pill with its description among the goods, are you sure that you took everything from the deposit?"

Noah shrugged his shoulders and said with an innocent expression.

"I'm sure that I took everything from the cave, I'm not totally sure that all the items remained in the package though while I was dragging it. What is an Earth pill? Is it good? I can go search for it again if you let me keep it."

Noah had his usual attitude greedy for power which only made William sigh and shook his head.

"Never mind, you can go. I'll give you the reward you asked for once everything is delivered to the inner circle."

Noah lightly bowed and exited the room.

At that moment, a figure appeared behind William.

"Do you trust him?"

William looked again in the direction where Noah went and answered with honesty.

"I think he said the truth, after all, it's quite impossible to hide such a good pill from us. And, captain, you seem to forget that he didn't even try to hide the "Breath" blessing last time even if he risked his life to obtain it."

The captain of the guards just looked at William before turning back.

"You are getting too affectionate to that kid, remember that our duty is toward the inner circle and his position will never be good there."

William's face darkened hearing these words.

He could clearly imagine in his mind the small kid repeating the same techniques every day alone in his room only to get a little bit stronger.

He remembered all his determination during the treatments, even with his body broken his mind was still completely focused, striving to make a small step toward a higher level in the road of cultivation.

For the first time in many years, William felt that life was being unfair and he gave voice to his thoughts.

"Are Heaven and Earth really fair?"

The captain stopped his steps for a second before replying for the last time.

"They are, humans are not."

Then he left, leaving William with a conflicted expression alone in the room.

Meanwhile, Noah went back to his building.

He wanted to meet his mother and reassure her on his well-being, yet, her room was closed with only faint sounds coming from inside it.

It has been a while since Noah became able to completely hear anything happening in the room but he forced himself not to because it would only ruin his mood.

He entered his room and unsheathed his saber, then he practiced in all the forms of his martial art until he calmed himself.

Then he picked the Kesier rune and began a full night training in it.

It was only around midday that he was forced to stop the training because of someone knocking on his door.

Nowadays, even if 8 hours of training consumed a lot of mental energy and made him tired and sleepy, he could still force himself to do basic actions and simple reasoning.

He opened the door only to find Lily standing on the other side with a small box in her hands.

Her figure looked extremely weak and pale, she was visibly tired as her hands were trembling slightly.

A big bruise was on her jaw.

"Your Master sent this for you, he said that you did an amazing service for the family."

She was smiling proudly looking at her only son.

Noah took the box from her hands and gently caressed the spot where the bruise was.

Lily just shook her head.

"It's fine, don't you worry. Your father simply can't handle how amazing you are compared with his other son and daughter."

Then she got close to Noah and took his face between her hands looking at him seriously.

"Promise me that you won't do anything reckless, you have to be safe! Don't worry about me, just focus on your future!"

Noah looked at his mother and nodded showing a slight smile, but in his mind, he could only think about how cold Lily's hands were.

Lily seemed satisfied with his answer and hugged him before going away, while Noah stood still for a while before he closed the door and sat on the ground.

CRACK!

The box in his hand shattered from the pressure applied by Noah's squeeze and two bottles fell on his legs.

'As expected, it's just the Inner-energy potion. It doesn't matter, it should be enough.'

He directly opened a bottle and drank its whole contents.

A wonderful sensation of being strengthened ran through Noah from inside his body but he didn't care, he was already looking at the Kesier rune in front of him continuing his training.

.

.

.

One month and a half passed by, with Noah barely going out of his room during this period.

He would only attend the weekly sparring with his Master and the lunches with his mother, he didn't even go out for missions anymore.

Right now, he was standing in his room, his face was pale and there were large bags under his eyes, yet his eyelids were completely open.

There seemed to be some source of light inside his pupils as his eyes shined in the darkness of the room.

'So, that's what it feels like.'

He was holding the Kesier rune in his right hand in front of his face, yet he seemed to have no difficulties in looking at it.

It was like he was reading any other book!

He smiled and then he put the rune away.

'Next is the sixth treatment!'