Book 10, Baruch – Chapter 6, Third Bro?
Within a grassy area near the mountain village.
Monica had her serving girl go back, and then held hands with Reynolds as they walked together.
“Big brother Reynolds, those people go way too far. This isn’t the first time either. I’m going to tell Uncle Miller and have Uncle Miller teach them a lesson.” Monica was so angry that her face was a bit red. Looking at Monica, Reynolds only smiled. “Monica, it’s fine. Don’t tell your Uncle Miller.”
“But big brother Reynolds, they...” Monica said frantically,
Reynolds shook his head. “These people are only angry that you are always with me. They are jealous of me, get it?”
Monica’s face instantly turned red.
Seeing the embarrassed look on Monica’s face, Reynolds quickly felt that the little bit of unhappiness he had just experienced was nothing. “Monica, for you, I chose to stay in the mountain village. I knew these things would happen. Monica...don’t worry. I’m still weak. When I grow stronger, they won’t dare to do these things any longer.”
“But that will take a long time.” Monica frowned.
Reynolds said confidently, “Trust in your big brother Reynolds. I’ll be fine.”
Monica nodded obediently.
It must be said that Reynolds was extremely skilled in chasing girls. Despite having only known him for a few months, Monica had very early on fallen for this experienced, humorous, and attentive man, Reynolds.
Holding hands, the two quietly walked on the grass.
“If we can always be like this and walk together into eternity, how wonderful that would be?” Monica leaned against Reynolds. Reynolds gently said, “Monica, let’s get married.”
“AH!”
Monica jerked her head up as though she had been hit by lightning. Utterly stunned, her face turned pure scarlet. Reynolds laughed and lowered his head to look at her. “What, Monica? Are you unwilling?” Monica stuttered for a few moments, then said with a frown, “My mother wouldn’t agree.”
“Why wouldn’t your mother agree?” Reynolds asked.
Monica shook her head. “My mother has very strict requirements. She originally said that only a person at the Saint-level could marry me. After my father coaxed and cajoled her, she still said...that my husband had to at least be of the ninth rank. My mother looks down upon the weak.”
Reynolds was stunned.
“How could your mother...” Reynolds didn’t know what to say.
Monica lowered her voice to a whisper. “Big brother Reynolds, my mother is very cold. Only in front of me does she occasionally smile. Usually...even Uncle Miller is terrified of her.”
Reynolds was shocked. Reynolds had a faint idea as to how powerful Miller was. His terrifying speed was something which most likely warriors of the ninth rank would find difficult or impossible to reach. In other words...this Uncle Miller was at least of the ninth rank, or perhaps a Saint.
The two chatted on the grass for a long time.
“Alright, it’s getting late.” Monica looked upwards at the sky. “I need to go back and eat dinner. If I get home late, mother will reprimand me again.” Reynolds nodded slightly, watching Monica as she left.
Monica’s residence was one of the restricted areas in the mysterious village. Aside from a few people like Miller who were granted entry, most of the dwellers of the village were not permitted to go near it. Naturally...Reynolds couldn’t go there either, and he hadn’t met Monica’s parents.
Shortly after Monica had left.
“Reynolds, you seem to be enjoying yourself.” Five youths walked over. Their leader had long golden hair, like that of a lion, and a handsome, rugged face. Seeing these people, Reynolds knew that today was not going to be a good day.
The name of this youngster was Videle [Vi’de’li]. He was one of the leaders of the younger generation. Despite only being forty, he was a warrior of the eighth rank.
To those powerful warriors and magi, their lifespan was usually quite long, at least three or four centuries. Forty was quite young.
“Reynolds, I already warned you last time to stop bothering Monica.” Videle stared coldly at Reynolds. “A man should know his limits. Punk, how can you be worthy of Monica? Monica’s parents are both Saints. And what are you?”
Reynolds was startled. He knew that Monica’s father was a Saint, but this was the first time he had heard that Monica’s mother was a Saint as well.
“Big brother Videle’s father is a Saint as well. Him and Monica are a good match. You outsider punk, what type of thing are you?” The other youngsters were cursing Reynolds as well. These youngsters simply couldn’t stand to watch an outsider take away ‘their’ princess.
“Brothers, help this punk learn his lesson.” Videle said coldly.
The four nearby youths immediately charged forward together, while Reynolds continuously retreated...and then immediately turned and began running towards the village. But he was a magus; how could he compete against warriors in speed? In a few short moments, he was caught up to.
Instantly, punches and kicks began to land all over his body. His face, however, wasn’t injured at all. These people were quite clever, reserving their attacks for Reynolds’ body. But the rules of the village were strict; the villagers were not to engage in mutual slaughter. Fighting was fine, but if someone was killed, those youths would have been in for it.
This was the reason why Reynolds had endured.
He knew that these people wouldn’t dare to kill him.
....
“Creaaak.” Reynolds opened his door. At this time, a burly neighbor of his laughed, “Reynolds, you are back? Hrm? What’s wrong? You seem to have some trouble walking. Did those punks beat you up again?”
Reynolds forced out a smile. “Big brother Field [Fei’er’de], I’m fine.”
In the village, there were still some people who were very kind to Reynolds. These were mostly the older crowd. Because Reynolds had a good character, many people liked Reynolds. Field was one of those who cared about Reynolds the most.
“Reynolds, in the future, don’t go out so much. Maybe you can help out at my weapon shop. As long as you are with me, I’d like to see who’d dare try and abuse you.” Field said repeatedly.
“Thank you.” Reynolds forced out a smile as he entered his room.
In his quiet room, Reynolds sat down cross legged, thinking to himself, “Those bastards! But in this village, I am an outsider, after all. All I can do is to endure. One day...when my power increases, I won’t be afraid of them again.”
His life in this village was very tough.
But Reynolds had never thought about abandoning it. Each time he was humiliated, Reynolds would think about Monica. This was the only reason why he had been able to endure.
“Boss...Second Bro...Third Bro...who knows when I’ll be able to meet you again?” Reynolds couldn’t help but think of his dear friends. And then, he closed his eyes and began to meditate. In the past, he had never trained so hard before, but he knew that the only way he would be allowed to leave the village was if he reached the top ten in the annual tournament.
.....
The sky was clear and blue. Linley flew agilely through the skies, with Bebe by his side. Beneath them was the boundless earth and cities which seemed the size of a fist. They had left at noon. Just by using the Windshadow spell, by the afternoon, Linley had arrived at the southern part of the Anarchic Lands.
Linley was able to easily find that large mountain around a hundred kilometers south of Southmount City.
“This little mountain village really is mysterious.” Flying into the air above the mountain valley, Linley stared down at the quiet little village below. Linley instructed Bebe, “Bebe, don’t use your spiritual energy to scan them. Let’s just go down.”
Bebe snickered, “Boss, I got it. It is very impolite to use spiritual energy to scan other Saints, right?”
Linley nodded slightly.
It was actually not a big deal if a powerful Saint used his spiritual energy to scan a weak Saint, but Linley had interacted with Miller before. According to Miller...there were multiple Saints within this mysterious village, and in particular, they had that ‘Lord’ amongst them.
Someone whom even Miller would refer to as ‘Lord’ was definitely someone much more powerful than Linley.
In a place such as this, it was better to be a bit humble.
Before Linley even had a chance to fly down, suddenly, a human figure streaked into the air at high speed. It was Miller. Miller’s face was all smiles. “Haha, brother Linley. You came. This is wonderful. As soon as I got back, I began to wonder to myself when you would come, brother Linley.”
“Miller, you really are powerful. As soon as I came, you noticed me.” Linley said with surprise.
Neither he nor Bebe had utilized their spiritual energy, and yet they had been discovered so quickly. This was indeed terrifying. Miller laughed self-mockingly. “Linley, I am not as formidable as that. When you arrived, his Lordship discovered you and spoke to me mentally to inform me.”
“Spoke to you mentally?” Linley stared at Miller in surprise.
They weren’t master and magical beast companion. How could they mentally communicate? At most, Saints would be able to reach the level of using spiritual energy to broadcast their location or to scan people. There was no way one could use spiritual energy to communicate.
“You and I aren’t capable of it, but that doesn’t mean his Lordship isn’t capable of it.” Miller laughed.
Linley became even more curious about this mysterious expert.
Suddenly, another human figure flew towards them at high speed. It was someone with fiery red hair and a dominating aura that made even Linley feel surprised. This person should be extremely powerful.
“Miller, is this the genius, ‘Linley’, that you mentioned?” The red-haired man stared at Linley, as though staring at some sort of rare specimen.
Miller immediately made the introductions. “Linley, this is my good friend, Livingston [Li’wen’si’dun]. He trains in the Elemental Laws of Fire, and is on par with me in power.” The nearby red-haired man hurriedly said, “What do you mean, on par with you? Miller...when you fight with me, you always dodge here and dodge there. If you are so tough, take me head on!”
Linley began to laugh.
“That’s Livingston for you.” Miller laughed as well.
Livingston glanced at him, then laughed towards Linley. “Linley, although I rarely leave the village, I’ve heard of you long ago. You are only twenty seven...oh, twenty eight years old now, right?”
Linley nodded.
“I am so ashamed I could die. I’m over a thousand years old.” Livingston said with a self-mocking laugh.
“Useless. So useless.” Bebe’s voice rang out.
Livingston and Miller stared at the little tiny ‘Bebe’ on Linley’s shoulders. When they did, Miller’s face suddenly changed and he said with surprise, “Linley, is this Saint-level magical beast the one which defeated Haydson?”
“Twas indeed I, Bebe!” Bebe arrogantly raised his little head up high.
Miller laughed and nodded, then said to Linley, “You’ve come at just the right time. Today, we are holding our annual village tournament. Livingston and I are responsible for organizing it. In a while, the tournament will begin. Linley, come take a look with us.”
“A village tournament?” Linley grew interested.
Linley, Livingston, and Miller all flew downwards, while Miller introduced some of the details about the village tournament. Hearing more and more, Linley was quite astonished. This mountain village really was quite strict, for them to make it so hard for someone to leave the village.
In the empty area east of the mountain village, virtually all of the villagers had assembled. Thousands of people were there, filling the tournament grounds to the brim.
Within the village, this annual competition was one of the biggest events of the year. Because so many people participated, each tournament would take a great deal of time. Generally speaking...Saints would be the officiators for the first day’s competition.
“Lord Miller and Lord Livingston have arrived.”
Those thousands of people stared at the sky as those two human figures flew over at high speed. They instantly recognized Livingston and Miller. Although the mountain village had many experts and quite a few experts of the ninth rank, producing a Saint was extremely difficult. Centuries might pass without a single new Saint appearing. Thus, all of the people in the village were very much in awe of Miller and Livingston.
“Hey, who is that lord who is flying alongside Lord Miller and Lord Livingston?” Many villagers were puzzled.
Reynolds, standing in the middle of the crowd, just stood there, stunned as he stared at that familiar figure. That person chatting and laughing with Miller and Livingston...“Third, Third Bro?” Reynolds’ eyes were filled with disbelief.
But Linley was busy chatting with Miller and Livingston. How could he possibly notice that in this crowd of thousands, Reynolds was present?