After a few minutes of silence behind the wall, the boy started to come out. He ventured to approach the old man.

An uneasy feeling haunted him. If he doesn't apologize right away, then there's no reason for him to stay there.

The old man had a serious face with his hands behind his back.

“I-I'm sorry!” said slowly from the child with eyes that looked down regretfully.

“Huh… why are you peeking at my activities?” The old man who had looked quite good had now turned into a furious lion.

“Hmm…!” There was no response, the child was too afraid to answer. So far, he has only received insults and insults, every time he says high-pitched words that are unpleasant to hear, the child can only be silent. What's more, this matter was purely his fault. He accidentally saw the activities of someone who should not be known to him.

"Huh! In that case!" The old man felt that his words might have been too harsh on the child. He saw that the boy had absolutely no intention of going against his words. "Since you have seen my activities today, do you want to be my student?"

"Eh?" The boy raised his head, he glared in surprise after hearing those words.

"Yes! I will forgive you, but that will only happen if you are willing to become my disciple!”

The boy still looked confused. It was completely impossible for him to understand what was the reason the old man wanted to take himself as a disciple.

"Uh? Are you not interested?" Only silence was shown by the boy to the old man until the old man thought that the offer he said was not of interest to the child.

"No!" The boy answered with his face down again. “Can you tell me, what makes you want to make someone like me a disciple?” All this time there was only misfortune that was always beside him making him unable to accept the kindness of the old man in front of him.

"I see!" The old man saw the flames of enormous sorrow. His tone of voice, gaze, and body gestures were very clearly visible to his eyes. “No special reason, but I just want to teach you a lesson! Let me ask you something, do you like magic?”

"Magic?" The boy raised his head. "Yes! I love magic!” answered firmly from the child. His eyes narrowed as he said those words.

"Then what made you like magic?"

“I often read books that talk about magic. From several stories I read there was a great hermit who could use extraordinary magic. He was against the wisdom of the gods and also disliked the greed of the demons. With the power at his disposal, he wants to create a world without war and misery.”

“Uh…!” The old man became silent, he did not expect that the child knew of a history that was hundreds of years old even people only thought of the story as just a rumor that did not need to be believed. However, the boy's eyes conveyed such a strong conviction that it deserved to be compared to a hard diamond.

“If I'm honest, I live without anything, even though before this I was born to both complete parents, but because of this hand they hate me. The people in my village don't like me. Therefore, when you want to take me as a disciple, I think it's a prank you want to do!”

"I understand! Now where are your parents?” The old man didn't want to think that the child he saw was running away due to the pressures of life.

"They're all dead!"

"Dead? What happened?"

“A few days ago a great disaster flattened the entire village. There's no survivors except me!”

When talking about this the child wanted to cry, but his eyes seemed to prevent him from doing so. Maybe the pain that he always received so that his eyes did not deserve to be saddened by the fate that came.

“Huh… so you are the one who survived the disaster!” The old man was shocked when he know that the child in front of him was a victim of the ferocity of the inhabitants of this world.

The boy nodded, then he saw the old man's eyes became so shocked. A few beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"OK! Now you decide, do you want to be my disciple and learn the magic that exists or do you leave this house immediately?” The old man's attitude became very firm, he wanted to see the determination and intention of the child.

“I have already decided, I will become your disciple and then learn the best magic in this world!” The boy was very excited to reveal his heart to the old man.

"Good! Tomorrow you should be ready, because the lesson you are going to take is quite complicated and difficult. There is no time for yourself to relax or complain. If you can't afford it, you better back off!"

"Okay! I've come this far, there's no way I can back off! If my entire body were to be destroyed by training, then it would be better than giving up!”

The old man smiled faintly, the youthful vigor he saw in the boy reminded him of the past, where he always wanted to be the best magician.

“Before that, I want to ask first! What's your name?"

“My name is Arslan Gladio!”

“Okay Arslan Gladio, now you are officially my apprentice today! Introduce my name is Gamma Artosius.”

Gladio's pupils widened, as a strange aura suddenly appeared after Artosius revealed his name.

***

On the other side, the figure who had given the order to destroy Gladio village was still feeling restless.

“Your Majesty, can you tell me why you look so agitated?” One of the pillars he had became curious. What was the reason for the person who he had always believed to be the strongest being in this world to be so restless like that.

“I am restless that the catastrophic fire has escaped!”

"Uh? Didn't Helios destroy the village from the fire seed?"

“Indeed, but there were no deaths from the fire at all. I think he's still alive!”

"I think you're overthinking it!" An arrogant man came into the throne room. He is Helios, one of the pillars who has extraordinary intelligence and cunning.

"What do you mean Helios?"

“Your Majesty, I have confirmed that no one will be able to escape the Ultimate Gamma Energy I released! If there is, maybe just only a 00.01% chance of getting through.”

“Helios is right! Your Majesty, maybe you're just worried because the truth of the fire corpse hasn't been found yet, what if the fire is gone!”

Hearing his two confidants speak, Zeradas became indecisive. He couldn't decide whether what Helios said was true or the opinion in his mind was more correct.

__To Be Continued__