Chapter 10 – A toast for love

 

…

The Festival for Bountiful Harvest, Orchids and Azalea was one of the most celebrated time of the year in the County of Hopes and Dreams.

Thus, right now, many people arrived to see and attend the festivities.

And two of these people were quite an attraction. One of them was a male wearing a large yellow hat, brown coat, white shirt and floral shorts. He appeared sixteen years old, but an air of maturity permeated on his every movement.

The other one was a woman. She was wearing a simple gown which also worn by many people. Though, with her otherworldly face and outstanding body, the gown became elegant instead.

There was no one that didn’t stop when they saw the couple. They were like a peacock and a swan amidst the flock of chickens.

Everyone made way for the two. They only woke up from the shock when the duo vanished from the distance.

“Heh. You are still beautiful as ever, Jade Hands.” Teased by the strange man. He chuckled and scanned the woman. Though, his eyes lacked any tint of ill intentions.

The beauty wasn’t fazed at all. She knew her comrade the most. She continued her observation with a small smile.

“This county is still lively. Heh, I’m quite itchy to know what more fun awaits us during the festival.” The man chuckled.

The woman finally spoke. “Let’s greet the old man first.” She glimpsed at the north section, on the mansions with insignia of five-petals-flower.

“But the main dish, the lechon glazed with honey and onions, is mine, alright?” The man stated, making the woman laughed. Her laughter was like a petal of a bell, but less booming.

She wiped her tears for laughing before saying one word.

“No.”

A girl, around five to six-year-old, wearing a blue dress, gripped her mother’s hand. She saw an ice cream on the vendor’s stand. She licked her lips, but she restrained herself because she knew they needed to buy grocery. So, their budget was very limited.

She bit her lips along the way. Looking at her, she behaved so her mother didn’t notice her expression.

Unfortunately, the girl could see parents buying their kids an ice cream, making her envious. Her face became grumpy then. But she didn’t make hard for her mother. She even volunteered to carry some baggage.

While walking, she saw the two strange people. She stared at them without blinking, especially at the beautiful lady.

“So pretty…” She whispered. The duo heard it and looked at the girl. The man paused before walking towards the mother and child.

Her mother was taken aback, but she did nothing. Instead, she smiled to the man. The latter also smiled before kneeling in front of the girl.

Their heads leveled to each other. The man observed the child’s expression while his strange clothing astounded the latter.

“May I?” The man asked. The child blanked, but she traced the man’s eyes and saw the flower bouquet they bought. Her grandmother like flowers, so they always bought one every time they went out.

The girl took out the bouquet. But her eyes were pursuing it. Unwilling, she took it back again and pluck only one flower. Her actions earned a chuckle from the man who didn’t hesitate to take the flower. Then, before the girl’s disbelieving eyes, when the flower went inside the hat, what exited was different.

It was an ice cream.

“Magic!” The little girl screamed in delight and took the ice cream away. The mother scratched her head before whispering to the child’s ear. The girl barely hid her emotions before thanking the man with the yellow hat.

“Thank you, kind Sir.” She said, her face blossomed in rosy red color and her sweet mouth grinned from ear to ear.

The man chuckled. He stood up and went on his way, accompanied by the beautiful lady.

The girl hesitated before shouting at their backs. “Kind Sir! I am little Atasha. What is your name?”

They stopped in their tracks. The man faced Atasha, brought down his hat to his chest and bowed to the girl. “I am Green Palm Tree, at your service.”

After that, the duo continued their way, leaving an excited child and the mother with indescribable shock on her face.

“Green Palm Tree… is it him?” The mother muttered and brought her daughter to their home.

…

“Why did you do that?”

“What?”

“Showing that to the child.” Jade Hands cleared. She fixed the hair on her ears, making every man on the street to crane their necks.

“She’s talented.” Green Palm Tree chuckled. He was twirling the hat on his finger.

The woman was dubious. “It is not enough.”

“Fate, it is.” This time, Green Palm Tree erased the grin on his face. “It is true that fate is elusive and almost impossible to beat. But we can still feel it. And at the moment that I saw her, it was crystal clear.”

“Of what? You think that child has that kind of fate?”

“Yes, her fate is huge. She is restricted by her talents, though. So, the wave she can do is very limited. But I’m sure, that she is one of the stones that will be thrown on the calm lake.”

“So, I wanted to give her a small push.”

“What an apt description.” The woman scoffed. “You are becoming senile; don’t you know that? And besides, what’s the use of us if we can’t tide through the waves?”

This time, the man was finally quiet.

…

There was a story of a little palm tree.

He was too tiny. He shook as the large wind blew and bent over when a flood came through. The tree felt like a stray kitten who hoped for the rain to stop. Dreaming himself sheltered while lost and fatigue, and the sunshine still not up. Gradually, his leaves dried up. From his blurring vision, he saw darkness, cloudy and thunder rolls. He felt frightened as the horrifying yet numbing atmosphere touched his nerves. Even though he still had a breath, his time was coming to stop.

This was a sad and short story. Most children knew the story that they could almost recite it by themselves.

Jed was like that too. When he was younger, he was very carefree and spirited, albeit a little arrogant. If you ask why, because he easily understood what others didn’t. So, a story this short was very easy for him to memorize.

But to the current Jed, his past self was his nightmare. With sweat covering his body, the boy got up from sleep. He took a towel before wiping the sweat off his body. Observing his petite body, it was well toned despite being a ten-year-old boy. He’d been exercising for some time.

But a horrifying burn marked on the back of his shoulder.

Jed tried to peek outside his window. He saw that it was still dark. But, for some reason, he couldn’t sleep anymore so he just sat up.

The boy lit up a candle instead of the lights to save electricity.

Although the technology of humanity was already advance making the amount of electricity consumed for an hour was little cost, it still safe to save a coin.

The light of the flame lighted up the gloomy-looking Jed. He sighed as he scratched his cheeks. Thus, within the dim lights, Jed brought out a parchment inside the book of the Adventure of Roland. There was actually a hollow space in the book. Jed’s secrets were in it, like another smaller book and the parchment.

Jed unrolled the parchment on the table. The words written in it had faded already, but still readable, nonetheless. This was his only chance of reaching his goal, so he read it faithfully.

One hour turned to four hours. The roosters crowed aloud. Jed stopped, put down the parchment and massaged his numbed neck. He muttered, which carried by the morning wind.

“Nine Lives Cat Movement Art…”

…

Jed, Jigen, and Ben continued to attend school. In several days, all students listened to Von’s discussion on morals and virtues. However, aside from Ben and Jed, no one was happy listening on his lessons anymore.

Ben focused because he thought there might be secrets from his teacher’s words. As for Jed, he felt lacking in moral part because no one could teach him. Thus, he even took notes so he could be a better person. Jed had long forgotten about arts because Von seemed vehement to only teach about morality.

That he couldn’t play with his construct troubled Jigen. His mother was still very much in seclusion in her lab. Feeling his boredom, Ben bumped Jigen’s shoulder with his elbow. He pouted and rolled his eyes at the former.

Ben had question though. “If you are this bored, why enroll and come to school? You have complete education and inheritance in you clan, right? So, why make your life difficult?”

Jigen scoffed, “Do you think I wanted to? This is my father’s idea.”

“What about you, bro?” Ben averted his gaze and asked Jed this time.

“My parents have made the preparation.”

“I thought you don’t have parents?” This confused Ben.

“I have. Before.” Jed smiled, but there was a hint of sadness from his voice.

…

While the students and Von were having normal everyday lives, Sarah was now facing her greatest opponent.

Ryan Pendragon always woke up earlier than most people. Then, he would try to cook food for himself and Sarah. But Sarah was training all the time. Thus, Ryan always made the maids to reheat the remaining food or make another one instead.

Ryan went to his own after that. He didn’t limit himself, even with works he shouldered as the head of the clan. He would lift a large slab of stone hundred times of his weight without so much a sweat.

Ryan felt being the head was early when his father could still lead. But the old man already agreed. So everyone couldn’t do anything, much less him.

Right now, his father was in seclusion, but he still met two particular individuals. He knew the both of them. These people were here for fun, so he assisted them.

The only thing he didn’t know what happened to his father. But the latter muttered that the calm would soon vanish and continued to his seclusion. Though he didn’t understand; he knew better who to believe. If not because of Deity of Hopes and Dreams overtaking and defeating his father by his glib mouth, then it might be his father’s turn to become Transcendent.

Thus, hearing his father’s blabbers, Ryan felt an invisible pressure. Although, he didn’t know when, but it was prudent to get stronger. But the problem was, he couldn’t overcome his bottleneck even with many years. He stuck in Grandmaster Level for half a century.

Most of his life, Ryan was a genius. Then, one day, he met his wife. He was already not young back then, but he still maintained his younger looks. And even now, he still looked handsome. Like a wine fermented for years.

As for the woman, she might not match his handsome face, but she was still a beauty. What made Ryan attracted to her was her irremovable smile. Even amidst hard situations. She was strong, not physically, but mentally. Most of the time, Ryan could pull through the day just from seeing her smile.

They were a happy couple. They traveled in the lands far away. And during that time, she became pregnant. They felt so blessed and hurried to return home, to gain the blessing of his father and to get married.

Until an enemy killed her.

But instead of anger for not being able to see her daughter. Instead of despair because she could only hug her husband for one last time. She smiled and said to him.

“Protect Sarah, my Dear. I will look upon the both of you in the arms of the Mother.”

In that moment, it crushed Ryan. He was not the genius that everybody knew anymore. He wailed along the way as he held in his arms the stiff body of his wife. And even then, he didn’t know if his unborn child could make it.

Fortunately, Sarah lived. A few clan members were careless and said the girl was strong. However, the midwife rebutted the claim. It was the mother who was strong for protecting her child with the last dregs of her life.

Ryan could not speak. He felt suffocated. A large volume of blood trickled down his chin from gnashing his teeth so hard. But it couldn’t physically hurt Ryan anymore.

Ryan wanted revenge. But even his father couldn’t take revenge for him, much less him who was only a Grandmaster. Thus, his life spiraled into despair.

No matter how much he trained, he couldn’t get stronger anymore. And the bright future ahead of him became bleak. In addition, he neglected his daughter, Sarah.

For the most part of Sarah’s life, or maybe her entire life, Ryan was a stranger and the word father was very foreign to her. When Sarah became unruly, Ryan finally snapped awake and tried to make amends for his wrongdoings.

He tried to talk to her, become her sparring partner, and even cook for her every day.

But precisely because he was too desperate yet still wanted to maintain his strict and stoic attitude that Sarah become more irritated and angered by his actions.

What she wanted was gentleness. What she needed was a father figure who will embrace her. But she grew up none of those. She didn’t even know how many times she felt envious from seeing other kids with their parents, especially with their mothers.

“A mother…” She was in a trance while seeing the happiness plastered on their faces. She could only shake her head by then and continued training. She thought that because her father was a training maniac, they might become close if she also trained hard, but it was the opposite.

And right now, the two of them were coming into blows. Once again, they sparred. But unlike any other spars, they were both agitated.

Sarah didn’t know how many punches she already unleashed because she couldn’t feel her arms anymore.

However, looking at her opponent’s nonchalant expression, she couldn’t stop.

There were bruises on her face, on her shoulders and arms. Her eyes already swelled so much. It had been minutes, but Sarah felt it forever.

Ryan gradually overpowered Sarah, making the girl trembling and buckling every second.

However, both of their anger wasn’t extinguished yet. Their argument led to this brutal show of fists and kicks. Ryan tried once again to persuade Sarah, but the latter just let out an ‘I don’t care’ statement. Ryan blew up and shouted at Sarah. This action also angered the girl, and both of them slugged it out once more.

But from the looks of it, the fight was already finished.

 Sure enough, Sarah groaned and took a few steps back. Ryan didn’t follow anymore and, in that moment, it dumbfounded him. He looked at his own hands and the blood of his daughter on it.

Sarah gritted her teeth. Scoffing, she carried her bloodied and tired body amidst the stare of her aghast father.

In the end, Ryan sat down and covered his darkening face with one hand.

“I am really…”

…

The night was dark. But the few visible stars shone on the veranda. There’s a small fish pond beside it. There were also some exotic plants and flowers. They gathered like sweet maiden, chuckling with blush faces. But the normally beautiful place fell out of place–silent, cold and detach.

Dark clouds also started appearing in the distance.

But it seemed insignificant to what Ryan currently feeling.

He brought out a bottle of wine and two cups of glass. He sat on the floor, looking at the fading stars in the sky. While gulping down the wine like water, he felt a dreadful sadness and desolation trying to overwhelm every inch of his heart. His Adam’s apple bobbed after he raised his cup towards the sky.

The dark clouds blanketed the sky. A chilling wind appeared as the rain was coming.

Ryan looked a little lost. Out of mind as his mouth opened and closed as if wanting to speak. Only when he was half-drunk he mustered the words, he wanted to say.

“One cup for the people who believe in me!” He shouted and downed a cup. He coughed as the liquid trailed down his chin. The cup let out a loud noise against the ground.

“One toast for the wrong things I’ve done.” He clicked his cup on an imaginary cup in the air.

Ryan hurriedly gulped down the next and said. “One gulp for eternal power.” His words laced a sense of bleakness.

Downpour started pouring. A pitter-patter sounded as it covered him with rain drops. The water flowed down from above his head, down to his eyes.

After that, Ryan trembled. Maybe it was because of the chilly wind and rain, or he was hesitating to say something. But for some reason, an invisible force guided him.

 “O-one dear wine… for my beloved wife.”

And then he broke down.

He choked up from his emotion as he sobbed longingly. The large man hugged himself as if he was hugging something precious to him. And the last unused cup beside him trembled ever so slightly.

Unknown to Ryan. In the corridor's corner, a girl hid behind the curtains. She looked at him with complicated eyes.

…