Menzhu

The villagers that were aware that the village was finally about to gain power and authority with the arrival of a new Menzhu were eagerly waiting for the Chief to finish his lecture with Leo and put him through the test to confirm his gate. Meanwhile, the other villagers were either ignorant about what was going on or just tired of hoping for change and had gotten accustomed to their beggarly way of living.

"Get your fresh meat! Fresh and tasty meat here! Get them while they're still fresh!"

A butcher with a muscular body who seemed to take pride in his trade was advertising his freshly killed meat to the public in order to draw in customers. He had multiple pieces of meat laid out on the table in front of him and kept raising and smacking each one on the table as he continued screaming.

A few people came from time to time and bought some. A while later, a boy, possibly still an adolescent also came to purchase some meat from the man.

"Good day kind sir. I would like to purchase 1 large chunk of meat please."

He stared down to get a view of the potential customer and upon seeing the face of the boy caused a memory flash through his brain that left a frown on his face.

"Beat it, kid, I don't got time for games today."

Compared to the other villagers, the kid's dressing was uniquely bad. He had on a white shirt that had definitely seen better days with a poorly worn tie around the collar. He wore a pair of shorts that was torn at the extremes in an even pattern and his sandals looked like he ran with it a lot. He had the face of an innocent and quick-witted boy, but it seemed that the butcher knew him better than that.

"Games you say? I am only here to trade your meat with my money. I have no need to indulge you in childish games."

The butcher kept his eyes on the boy as they conversed.

"Oh, so you have money today huh? Prove it."

The boy smiled deviously at the man, maybe his plan was going accordingly. He began walking slowly to the left side of the table while talking to the man, making sure his attention was following him.

"Why would you use my past mistakes to judge the current me?"

He spoke with the authority of a weird adult while swiping his hand on the bloody table of the man. When he was standing at the edge of the table with the butcher's gaze still fixed on him, he knew that he had won.

[Whistle]

He whistled while he spoke, but the man didn't see it as a big deal. Suddenly a bird that was unusually smaller than the rest of the birds in the village, with feathers that made it look unhealthy, almost as if it molted, gently climbed up the table from the right side, stretched out its claw, and grabbed one of the smaller chunks of meat. The Kid was successful at distracting the man and the bird ran away with the meat.

"Well since you don't believe that people are capable of change, then I choose not to patronize your business. Thank you for your time, sir."

The boy walked away from the butcher's shop in the same direction as the bird and he didn't look back. The butcher noticed that something was different about the chunks of meat on his table, but he could not bring himself to blame the boy, so he let it slide.

The boy began running when the butcher was out of sight and headed towards a large tree. When he got there, he whistled again, and the bird, still holding the meat, climbed down from the tree.

"Racky you sly bird. That was a smooth snatch. No one in the village would ever catch me as long as I have you."

He took the meat and proceeded to start a fire to cook it for the both of them.

Leo was still learning about the gates from the Chief and also the limit of their evolution.

"Everyone starts at stage 1?"

"Yes"

"Then I'm at stage one?"

"Yes"

"But is my gate one of the powerful gates?"

"That is yet to be confirmed"

Leo might have been confused at the way everyone was treating him at first. Gwen's servitude approach towards him and the way people like Lucius kept referring to something Kiva said about him. He knew after the long chat with the Chief that they suspected him to be powerful.

[Chuckle]

"Why are you laughing Leo."

"Oh, nothing. A thought just ran through my head. That's all"

Leo laughed at the thought of him being strong because he certainly didn't feel that way.

"You people think I have a powerful gate right?"

The Chief was shocked that Leo was able to realize this even without being told of their thoughts.

'Maybe someone told him something before I came to see him? Ahhh, no use in hiding it now. Might as well tell him the truth.'

"Yes, we suspect that your gate might be very powerful. We came to the conclusion after listening to Kiva's report on your jungle ordeal and she said that she believes that you might even be a Menzhu."

"A Menzhu? Is that like an alien or something?"

"Nothing like that, Menzhu's are humans that appear here already in possession of the most powerful sub gate of their gate. Though they are stage 1 gates. But there are exceptions. People who appear here with the most powerful sub gates belonging to the Gate of the Rodent, the Gate of the Bird, and the Gate of the Canine cannot be deemed Menzhu's simply because the power difference between them and the other 5 gates are too large."

"Are Menzhu's common in this world?"

"No. Menzhu's are a rare occurrence. This world is controlled by the gates and that means power. This means that the Menzhus which are the people with the most power, control this world."

This was far more intense than Leo had realized.

'People powerful enough to control this world? And they think I'm one of them? No wonder Gwen was afraid of me. What's going to happen to me once they realize that they made a mistake and I'm not as powerful as they thought'