Concealed Love

Chapter-25 His past- I

            Long long ago there was a little boy who was born special, from birth, he never cried, he never smiled, he grew at his own pace and learned about his environment in a different way from other people.

             Normal children, laugh, cry, play and learn unconsciously but he looked, listened and learn intentionally. It was planted in his head from birth that he was to be a ruler and even his name was named according to it as Aldrich, meaning and hoping for him to be a wise ruler. The angels gave him a devine sword along with his name which could be held only by him alone and nobody else could even touch it. It was a sword that matches his nature according to his will and desire, if others touched it, their hands bleed with a burning ache and get rejected by the sword, moving only for its master.

             Al knew he was different but it never bothered him, for he possessed no emotion including the bad one's, he felt no jealousy nor anger, no loneliness nor suffocation. He did his work whether it was hard or easy accordingly and thought it normal that he was born in such a way with such behaviors.

                He was brought up amongst the elders and by the time he was 14, he had already learned as much as an adult and even his mentality was built to match his knowledge, he was a wise young man, who had acquired a great deal of fighting skills and strength in addition to his high intelectual knowledge. His sole stable company was his sword, which accompanied him from birth.

              When he turned 15, one of the most thrusted general's in the empire suggested in the court that the young prince need to go out and cultivate alone for some time, to experience a different environment of the outside dangers and see the outside world.

              The court thought and agreed it to be a wise suggestion so they told Al of their plan and he agreed. It didn't make much difference to him whether it was outside or inside the castle walls, the people wished him a safe journey and he left alone with only his sword and enough rations.

                His mother opposed to him going alone saying he was still a child in age no matter how mentally and physically grown he was but they discarded her thoughts and told Al to go on with their plans.

                 His mother looked at Al but he gave her no mind, his lack of feeling for the things around him was not limited for his parents, he saw them as nothing but as someone who gave birth to him, and also because quickly after birth before he could get attached to her, he was taken away to learn the ways of a respectable future ruler.

             His father was always strict and as a ruler he never had much time for him, it was like he himself was a person with no feelings, he was a strong perfect ruler, who was born to rule and as such was beloved by the people but Alas he had no special concerns for his family.

               Al went on towards a forest that was directed by the generals as perfect for cultivation, it was a thick forest with many wild animals but demons avoided the place as it was a the border between the human and the demon realm, the humans heavily patrol around the borders so they would not be very far away when he needed backup.

                 He entered the forest, hunted down the monsters at night and rest during the day, after some days the wild animals realised that he was a foe stronger than them so they hid from him. Some unlucky ones whimper and ran when he crossed their path.

               He was nearing the end of his short adventure and was going to return in the next few days but something unexpected happened.

              While he was walking round the forest, some men came running to him shouting, " Run prince, the..... " Before they could finish his words, he was shot down by an arrow.

                Right then, Al was surrounded, not by monsters, not by demons but by the humans and specifically the general who had suggested the idea for him to explore the outside world, the general was with some his armies.

               The general warned him " Surrender to us prince, no matter how strong you are you can't kill this many hight level, trained soldiers on your own when you can't even control your powers yet. "

              Al speculate from the scene that they had killed the armies patrolling the area and no help would come anytime soon but surrendering to the enemy was never taught to him and neither did he knew or thought of it.

            He asked them only one word question, " Why? ".

           The general was not exactly acting arrogant or hateful, he was standing firm and proud, standing by his decision, " I don't have any high or good reason, I just decided to live under the protection of the demons instead of betting my future on a child who was supposedly blessed by the heavens. Me and the people with me cannot risk to see another of our beloved families die, it is better to live under the demons. "

              Al uttered an "oh " And without another word he took out his sword, getting in a fighting position.

               He tried his best to defend himself from their attacks while running to avoid their arrows. He clashed with the general and while he was focusing to avoid his heavy blow he stepped on a wrong side of the cliff and fell.

              The general stood on the top of the cliff and frowned looking at him as he fell down the cliff, where it's bottom couldn't even be clearly seen " I never wanted to be the one to kill you, however this way is fine, I will receive the punishment before this life of mine ends. "

               The general was a strong and faithful leader and well as a thrusted subordinate all his life till now. He had vowed to fight the demons until the end of his life but fate had another plan for him. His wife and children were kidn*pped by the demons and he was ordered to kill the prince in exchange for their safety. He watched the little prince grow since he was an infant and saw him as a pitiful human who was deprived of emotions, however serving him was his honoured duty. Alas! He was forced to point his sword at him and he intended to receive his punishment fully.

               He didn't want to sound reasonable as he killed his master so he ended up saying that it was fully his choice alone, thinking it was indeed his own weakness that put him in such a shameful position that he had to betray his wise master.

             He turned away and left the forest, making his way to the demons tent instead of returning to his people, he had no desire to receive the praising words and respects of the innocent people who didn't know what he had done.

             As for Al who had fallen, he was unconscious for a day until a sweet voice called him and shook him awake, " Brother, big brother? Wake up".

             Al slowly opened his eyes and saw a little girl smiling as she saw him opening his eyes, he looked at the girl's grinning face from ear to ear and smiled.

            " Oh, your awake big brother, I saw you sleeping there in the rain so I pulled you in here. And you're badly hurt, what happened? " The little girl curiously looked at him holding his sleeve with her small little hands and crouching down to look at him.

               Al noticed that they were inside a small hole of a big tree trunk, and it was raining heavily outside of it, he was feeling pains all over his body but surprisingly he was not suffering from any internal injury. Even if the trees had cushioned his fall, there will be at least some broken ribs but there was none.

              He looked at the curious child staring at him and laughed gently, " Big brother fell from the sky. " He said.

              The little girl looked at him stunned and smiled " Big brother is so handsome when he smile. "

           Al was shocked and become speechless, he realised that he was different, he was feeling strange. He thought to himself ' I,.. I laughed?, and I'm even shocked, what's going on? '. He may have had no emotions but he knew by looking at others what shocked or other emotions were, he uttered " The restriction on me has been broken? "

           He turned to the girl and asked " Was it you? Did you do anything to big brother while big brother was asleep? " He assumed that the little girl had no idea that people could fall unconscious so he went along with the way she said it.

             The girl looked at his surprised face and said with a giggle " Brother you're weird, you're face keep changing hehehe.... Oh yeah, earlier when you were sleeping I saw blood and wounds all over so I gave you my secret special potion. "

             Al tried to calm himself down from all the different new emotions he was feeling, " Secret potion? " He asked her with a gentle voice.

             " Yep, my secret potion, mommy told me to drink it only when I'm badly hurt but I'll share it with you. " She said excitedly.

           Al though that it must have been the potion, but what kind of potion was strong enough to even break the heavens chains?

           He calmly asked, " Where are you from? Why are you here?".

              She turned a little gloomy, " I'm on a picnic tour with my mommy and the maids but I went away from them to play around by myself in secret since they would never leave me alone and won't let me do anything I want but now I don't know how to get back anymore, does big brother know the way? "

                Al noticed that the way she talked and dressed was very different from the people he met, he slowly remember that the accent and the way of dressing belonged to the demons, he realised that he had fallen from the border cliff into the demon's territory.

              However he didn't show his thoughts on his face, he knew the girl was an innocent creature and also that she had helped him. Seeing the little girl so down he found her adorable so he patted her head gently and said, " Big brother doesn't know the way but don't worry, you mom and the others will come find you. "

                She smiled " Ummn, I'm sure they will. "

               "By the way, what's your name? How old are you? " He asked her while patting her head.

              The little girl was excited to reply to that, " I just turned 10 today hehe... Oh and my name is Asfet".