Chapter 11.3

[ Viewpoint: Jack Salvatore ]

My name is Jack, I am currently sixteen years old, I am a novice disciple of the Higher Body Sect and I am also part of one of the great clans of Nebrasal Country, the Salvatore Clan.

According to legends our country was created with the union of three clans, the Salvatore Clan, the Brandon Clan and the Neville Clan.

To avoid injustices and possible rebellions, it was decided that power concentrated in the hand of a single king would not be an option, so they chose to divide the power equally into three.

An assembly was created in order to define the laws and enforce them, the participants of this assembly are chosen every ten years through an open vote for the whole population, the members of the three founding clans can stand for election and each of these clans has only three seats in the assembly, people who are not part of the three founding clans can also stand for election, having six seats for them, thus the total number of seats of the assembly is fifteen.

Above the assembly is only the leaders of each clan who give the final verdict on the decisions taken by the assembly defining whether they will be put into effect or not, the opinion of each clan leader counts as one vote totalling a maximum of three votes, so it is necessary for two clan leaders to agree for a decision to pass or be vetoed.

At first the clans had balanced powers in every area of society, but after hundreds of years each clan specialized and concentrated its forces in a single area, the Salvatore Clan has more influence with the military, the Brandon Clan dominates the political landscape, and the Neville Clan has deep roots throughout the country's trade landscape.

Since I was born the few times I left the Salvatore clan domains I was always accompanied by many guards and I was always in disguise to attract as little attention as possible, so few people in this country know my face, this did not happen because I had some kind of treasure or because I was a great genius, this happened because there are many people waiting for any small chance to take advantage of the three great families.

And if someone kidnapped the youngest son of the Salvatore family this would be a disaster, other powers could use me as a shield to bribe my family or torture me to find out important information, thinking about it I would become uncomfortable and avoid leaving the house for superfluous reasons.

I really didn't mind living only within our clan territories because I was the youngest son of the head of the family and because my older brothers were geniuses who made great achievements for the clan from an early age people looked at me with high expectations in their eyes waiting that I would follow in the footsteps of my big brothers.

But this never happened, I was always an insecure boy with social phobia, this weakness of mine turned out to be fatal when I started training, I felt trapped and could never do my best in training and with people judging me and comparing me to my brothers this became a rock in my heart.

Consequently since I started training in martial arts and cultivating my advancement was slow compared to what it could be if I could give the best of myself, but beyond me nobody knew that, so it was a shock to the clan that my talent was so mediocre.

As the years went by the ambience within the clan became too hard for me to get better and the discomfort took hold of me, I wanted to overcome my weaknesses and become stronger to show everyone how wrong they are about me, but in that kind of ambience it would be impossible.

So I had to convince my father that it would be more beneficial to let me out of the clan for a while, I thought it would be hard to convince this old hardheaded guy, but surprisingly he accepted without question.

But he set one condition: if I do not return to the clan by the age of twenty with the strength of the Martial Master Kingdom, he will cast me out of the clan forever.

Obviously if I choose to give up my idea and decide to stay inside the clan forever he would not expel me and I could continue living my life normally with the benefits that only one of the three founding clans of the kingdom could offer.

This last option was not even considered by me, although living comfortably for the rest of his life seems tempting, it bothers me deeply to risk the lives of others to keep me safe, I want to have the strength to take care of myself.

I left home when I was fifteen years old and a few months later I joined a small sect called the Higher Body Sect, since then I have been training hard every day even though my strength is evolving at the pace of a snail, even in this place I am only the last placed in the ranking of the novice disciples, what would be the reaction of my family if I knew this, surely it would not be good...

Tonight I was training in my yard like every night when a tall man showed up with a Novice Elder mantle.

I recognized this man, he's that elder that everyone calls trash, I think the name was Arthur, but different from the rumors I heard about this man, he seemed like someone confident about what he was doing, his aura was dominant too, I'd be called crazy if other people knew what I was thinking now, but I think he's more powerful than the Great Novice Elder.

While I was lost in thought the elder extended a piece of paper and asked me to appear at the appointed place in the next morning just after sunrise.

If this man were like the rumors said I wouldn't even put it into my mind, but he's completely the opposite of what they say, it attracted my attention, making connections with someone like that may be useful in the future.

He has said that I am training inefficiently and that it can improve the efficiency of my training in many folds, although I am skeptical about that, I want to understand what plans this man has in mind, tomorrow will be an interesting day.