Children that rarely got enough to eat won't be ready by 13 years old, while children with good food and who were given regular medicinal baths to strengthen their bodies are likely to become ready by 10 or even 9 years old.
He has had some medicinal baths ever since he was born, but they were once every month, not every day. He also didn't eat any special treasure or meat, so it is an anomaly that his body was ready for training right from when he was five years old.
It is still an anomaly that he is ready for training at seven. That is six years earlier than the average and 2 years earlier than the most exceptional.
When he thought of this, he glanced at Thompson, who was looking out the window. He said inwardly, "There should be something exceptional about Thompson too."
Thompson is one year earlier than the average. He doubts it is because of medicinal baths, as they are very expensive.
The only reason he was able to get one every month is because his mother is very rich. In his past life on earth, she would be in the upper class with a yearly income of six figures.
She is not Dyson family rich, as they are billionaires with wealth that many people are unlikely to ever possess no matter how much and how hard they work in their lives.
Her business as a fashion designer is doing well, so she can afford to give him medicinal baths. He doubts that Gretel's job as his nurse or her husband's job as a guard is enough to afford the spiritual herbs needed to make the baths.
He thought to himself, "Maybe they can afford it once per year. Either that or Thompson is not so bad."
His mind was thinking of a lot of things as they made their way to the training center. He was excited and couldn't wait to start training.
He was so excited that when they reached their destination, he was the first one to open the door and jump down.
He held his large lunch box close to his chest with both of his hands as he approached the large building where he would spend a large portion of his day for the next few years.
The training center is surrounded by a tall fence. But the building behind the fence is so tall that he can see it while standing so close to the fence.
Still, it was until he passed through the gate that he was able to get a good view of the building.
It was two stories tall but very long. Its position was set opposite the gate. Then it elongated away from the gate.
The compound the building was in is far larger than the building itself. The building is only 10% of the whole space. The rest of the space is open and full of training fields for various classes.
There were also fighting rings scattered around. He could see all of these as he passed through the large gate.
He wasn't the only one who was passing through the gate and entering the training center at that point. Many kids were also dropped off for training. There were also many of them that had already begun their training.
The training center is for the children of servants, ordinary guests, and mistresses of the Dyson family. There are a lot of them, ranging from 12 to 20 years old.
Some of them even knew him and recognized him. The first one to do so was a girl that was dropped off a little earlier than him.
She used to be his neighbor and the teenage daughter of one of the mistresses that lived on his block, so he waved to her.
She didn't wave back. In fact, she didn't greet him. Instead, she frowned and said, "My mother said I shouldn't associate with you because you're crazy."
He retorted, "It is your mother that is crazy. How could she bring rabid dogs into the neighborhood? Doesn't she know that there are vulnerable children around?"
She shot back in defense of her mother, "The gods were not rabid. They were not dangerous and would only attack those who intruded on our property."
He insisted, "I still think it is dangerous to have such violent animals around and use them to target a child."
She was beginning to become angry. She raised her voice and said, "If you hadn't been trespassing, they wouldn't have attacked you. Besides, you're the crazy one who killed those nice dogs and ate them."
Now it was his turn to defend himself. He said, "That's not crazy at all. They attacked me, and I killed them. That's reasonable. They were also my spoils of war, so I was allowed to do whatever I wanted with them. Deciding to eat them is not crazy. It is making the most use of good meat and not letting it go to waste."
She huffed and stopped arguing with him. Then she marched away with indignation.
He smiled victoriously and resumed his journey. Thompson followed beside him.
The older boy hadn't said anything throughout the short confrontation. If Arthur hadn't noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, he would have forgotten about him.
He didn't dwell too much on it because the girl he just had an argument with was talking to some other girls, and they were pointing at him.
He made the same gesture he made one year ago to scare her. He swiped his hand across his neck in the manner of a beheading.
His gesture worked as her face became pale. Then she ran away with her friends.
He thought about the past and said, "The dog meat was delicious, actually."
He hadn't wanted to kill the dogs so that he could eat them. He had killed them to get rid of them. Then he had decided to have their meat roasted and ate it in front of the house of his enemy to send a message to them.