Chapter V - Visiting Lucas
After the nightmare that had occurred as a result of Kenneth being unable to properly control his magic, our protagonist led his still shaky older sister back into the house.
On their way upstairs, Mikaela had called out to them, startling the duo who were trying to be as quiet as they could.
"Kenneth? Is something wrong with your big sister?" Mikaela, who was in the kitchen washing dishes, was somehow able to hear the two heading upstairs. Her cold voice that seemed to imply that she knew something made the shaky Lena even more nervous.
"N-nothing, Mother. Lena is just feeling a bit weak. I had troubled her by asking her to cast a bit more spells than usual. My bad, hehe…" Kenneth didn't have enough time to come up with a reasonable enough excuse, and was therefore stuttering a lot during his explanation.
"Hmm…" Mikaela's motherly instincts were telling her that something didn't feel right about this. "Okay then, make sure she rests well. Mana Exhaustion is a terrible thing, you know." Even so, she let them do their thing.
"Ye..yeah, see you later." Where Kenneth's last words before he helped his sister climb the stairs.
Lena now wasn't as scared as she was before, but she could still feel the goosebumps in her skin and her hair standing up. Her jittery behaviour had lessened, and soon she could soon walk on her own without feeling like her legs would give up on her.
"Once again, I'm sorry. Here, let's get you to your room." Despite being the one physically disabled out of the two, Kenneth decided to put a bit more force into his movement and started walking ahead of his sister.
"Heh… It's almost like you're the older sibling here. Don't worry. I should get better after a nap. Tell Mom that I'll be staying the whole day in my room." Lena waved goodbye to her brother, and walked over to the door to her room.
'If only she knew, haha.' Kenneth thought about the last sentence Lena had said. He was actually the firstborn of three siblings, so he knew the feeling of being the oldest one.
While Kenneth was talking with his older sister, there was one particular sound echoing through the house. It was one he couldn't tone out, as the person responsible for it was actually close by.
Passing by Lena's room, Kenneth staggered over to the door beside his older sister's. Looking at the brutish design that consisted of stickers of the famous rock bands of today, Kenneth assumed the room in front of him belonged to his other older sibling, Lucas.
Eager to find out what Lucas was doing, Kenneth reached his left palm out to the wooden door's surface. There was barely any space to knock on, as the door was thoroughly crowded by the stickers Kenneth had seen earlier.
It took some time for Kenneth to find the small patch of space that wasn't covered by stickers. It would've been easy to just knock and get Lucas' attention, but there was an even bigger problem that wasn't the stickers.
It was the fact that the patch of space used to knock on the door was fairly high up. Kenneth had found it difficult to reach it without losing his balance. He had attempted to get on the tips of his toes in order to bridge the gap, but he was unable to do so without almost falling over.
Times like this was one of the reasons why Kenneth wasn't too keen on being a cripple.
It had its benefits, especially since Kenneth heard that the disabled did get tons of benefits from the government, but it was a hassle going about daily life without having someone to help you.
He could move on his own, as long as it wasn't anything extreme, but the fact that he wasn't able to even do simple things like reaching a doorknob was deplorable.
After Kenneth was sure that he couldn't reach the door, he instead resorted to calling for his older brother. He didn't think he'd hear him easily, with how invested he was in doing what he was doing, but he didn't have any other option.
"Lucas! Could you open the door?" Kenneth raised his voice. He hoped that Lucas would hear his cry.
After a few seconds of waiting, the door in front of Kenneth opened, revealing the figure of a muscular adult, towering over the toddler over three times.
"Yeah? What's up, little bro?" Lucas' body was visibly sweaty. The pungent smell that came from him almost made Kenneth want to cover his nose.
"What're you doing inside? You've been hitting at whatever that is for the past few minutes."
"Oh, it's my punching bag. Wanna come see? You can take a few hits if you want." Lucas beckoned to his younger brother. He seemed fine with letting him come in to see.
"I'll take you on your first offer, but not the second one. I don't think I can handle punching twice without tiring myself. If you'll excuse me, then." Moving out of Kenneth's way, Lucas gestured for his little brother to head inside.
Heading inside, Kenneth was surprised to find that the room was bigger than he had expected it to be.
Numerous posters were plastered on the walls, alongside the diverse range of gym equipment that lined the walls. Bench presses, treadmills, even dumbbells of various weights were all over the room.
Lucas took Kenneth to the original item of interest. The toddler was eager to find out the source of the sound, and upon seeing the bulky punching bag in front of him that was almost the same size as Lucas, Kenneth revelled in the immensity of the bag's height.
The training bag was visibly damaged in several places, with some portions of the bag sinking in much more than the others. This just went to show how strong Lucas was. His punches were able to do significant damage to the dummy, as it looked like it was only a few hits away from breaking down.
"Huh. You're a gym junkie, aren't you? You look like you spend a lot of time here." Kenneth said as he observed Lucas, who had already gone back to the punching bag and was preparing to hit it.
By the looks of it, the punching bag wouldn't be able to handle anymore of Lucas' hits. But Kenneth was interested to see how many times it would take for it to fall.
"You wanna see me do some practice swings? Sure. Give me a second." Lucas seemed fine with showcasing his usual training regime. He had already gone to a nearby table and took out the hand wraps he was keeping hidden.
The hand wraps too, looked very much battered. The cloth tying the wraps looked as if they'd lose their structure soon, and with how Lucas was gripping on them tighter than he expected, they looked like they'd rip from the pressure.
"Shouldn't you be getting some new equipment? All your training gear look like they'll fall apart. Don't you have any money?"
It was weird how Lucas didn't just use his allowance to buy some more equipment. Mikaela and George were both working parents, so the siblings were often left behind.
Their parents didn't forget to give them their allowance every week. It was "in case of an emergency". If something happened to them, then they'd have enough money to get by for some time.
"Yeah… about that… Tyrone stole it all."
"Woof?" Just as Lucas blurted out his sloppily made excuse, a bark was heard from the end of the room.
And from a pile of blankets, a large, hairy dog had risen. The dog was about Kenneth's height, and its mighty body exuded an air of authority. The dog reminded Kenneth of Lucas. Not because of its calm manner, but their large structures.
"Oh, it's Tyrone. You're seriously going to blame your irresponsible self on this dog? Look at him! He doesn't look like he's someone who'd steal your money." Kenneth said, pointing at the dog who didn't look like he would hurt a fly.
Motioning the dog to him, Kenneth continued on rebuking Lucas, who stood there taking the toddler's scolding.
It was really like Lena said. If people who didn't know about the family came, they'd most likely think that Kenneth was the eldest, with how he wielded a certain amount of respect over the siblings.
Once Tyrone had gotten closer to Kenneth, the baby was able to further inspect the bushy exterior of the dog.
"Why were you hiding under that pile of dirty clothes? I'm pretty sure Mother already bought you a bed sometime ago. Where's it at?" Kenneth asked while trying to rub out the dirt and dust stuck to the dog's fur.
As if understanding the baby, the dog released its head from Kenneth's grasp and used it to point in a certain direction.
"Seriously…? Did you really just clear out the dog's bed just so you could put an extra dumbbell?" Kenneth sighed.
Looking at the direction Tyrone was pointing to, Kenneth saw the dog bed that was positioned upside down in a corner of the room. It looked like it had been neglected for quite a while now, as dust was beginning to build up.
Lucas was a strong person, especially for his age. So it was only natural that he would have equipment fit for his size. His dumbbells were no different. Each one was twice the size of Kenneth's head.
"It-it's not my fault he wanted to sleep on my dirty laundry. There's a perfectly good bed there!" Lucas explained, pointing at his bed. Contrary to the terrible state the room was in, Lucas' bed was rather clean.
"You think he'd actually want to sleep with you…?" Kenneth said, facepalming.
Even if Lucas' treatment of Tyrone was obviously bad, he clearly cared for the dog. His first excuse about the dog "stealing" his allowance wasn't too far from the truth.
In reality, Lucas would spend his allowance on the dog. He'd use it to buy all the premium dog products he'd find while browsing the web.
"I appreciate how you care for the dog in your own way, but maybe try to take care of yourself first. I'll be taking Tyrone until you learn to clean your room."
"Wha- seriously?"
"Yeah. This isn't how you treat dogs of his breed, or any type of dogs for that matter."
The first half of Kenneth's sentence was a clue towards Tyrone's bloodline. There was only one type of dog breed that deserved to be treated like a king. And that was Tyrone's breed, which was otherwise known as a King's Guardian.
The name stemmed from the fact that the late kings of this country each kept the same type of dog as a guardian. This breed was unique by the fact that these dogs could manipulate mana, the same way humans and other races could.
So yes, even Tyrone was able to cast spells. Just like any other race, he was subject to the same rules of mana, and had to adhere to the same factors when casting spells like everyone else.
This only further cemented how special Kenneth's innate magic was.
"Anyway, I should be heading back now. I've got to practice my magic." Kenneth said, his expression visibly darkening as he remembered his blunder from earlier.
Lucas didn't fail to notice this. Curious about what happened, he asked the toddler about it.
"Why? Did something happen when you were with Lena?"
"Yeah. I made a mistake while casting my magic, and accidentally hurt Lena. If only I could control my mana…"
"Well, don't beat yourself up about it. I'm sure you'll learn how to eventually. Or you could be like me. See these muscles?" Trying to lighten the mood, Lucas began to show off his toned body.
"Tell you what, let me take you somewhere. It's the place you've always wanted to go to."
"Wait, really?" Kenneth's mind immediately went to the Argonsville Training Center.
"Yeah. But not now though. I'll take you out later. It'll be hard to sneak by Mom and Dad without them knowing. Are you fine with staying up late?"
"Yeah. I've been sleeping a lot these days, so I think I can handle a few hours of sleep away from my schedule." Kenneth was already eager to go. A grin was already beginning to form on his face.
"You seem excited. Don't worry. I know you'll get strong enough to control your power. Just don't beat yourself up."
"Heh. I hope I do. Thanks. I'll be heading out now. Come on, Tyrone. Let's go." Kenneth called over the dog, who had distanced himself when Lucas and the baby were talking.
"Wait, you're really taking Tyrone!?" Lucas wasn't taking Kenneth seriously earlier.
"Of course. Learn to clean your room first, then I might consider bringing him back."
