Nine

Shun realized the truth of life and how it would torment you at the peak of his youth.

A mere son of a concubine.

No matter how favoured his mother was to his father, the titled bestowed upon him would never change.

Relying to the vague image of his kind mother smiling, Shun always thought back then that the hardest the problem he faced the greatest award he could get.

In a Duke family with three more outstanding young male other than himself, Shun decided to keep up with the competition —not for the title but for his own satisfaction and dream.

He endured the humiliation and lowered himself to his father's family just to prove that there's more to the kid they claimed would end up just like his mother.

Sold to another family that could benefit them.

But as soon as he turned 10 his body encountered a disease that required lot of treatments that torment him for months.

At night, while pretending to be asleep he could hear the pleads of his mother to that man. His mother is begging so he would not die.

His mother —on her knees — choking on tears so his father would continue to support his treatment.

He knows that man would not hesitate to let him die knowing that he still have three son more talented than him.

So why bother to indulge himself on wasting the resources of their clan to his youngest son?

He patiently counted every night that his mother is pleading until that man assured he would not abandoned them.

It took two months. Two fucking months to have his father sent a palace doctor to cure him when he could do it at the first place.

That doctor recommend Shun to leave the Capital to be fully recovered. To live temporarily in a place away from the noises and eagerness that the kingdom of Qui offered.

He turned down that recommendation immediately.

They just wanted him to step down, to stop proving himself, to abandon his mother.

But the fate indeed wanted him to suffer, three days after that doctor left. Shun's mother forcefully arranged his departure from the capital to a place that does not even exist in the map.

He just found himself in the entrance of that forsaken village with no one to rely on.

No one to fight for.

No one to impress.

No one to seek for care.

"Big Brother are you allright?"

When suddenly a soft voice coming from a young girl with long black hair, pale skin and serene clear black eyes pulled him from entering the abyss.