Another year passed.
Sirius was now two years old. He could walk normally, and he had said his first word. He was able to talk, even if only in short sentences.
He often asked his grandfather, Aurelius, to play with him or to tell him some fairytales. But Aurelius only accepted a few times during the entire year, he was too depressed to play with Sirius.
His sorrow was too heavy, his regrets too immense to even look at Sirius. If only he hadn't allowed Samaël and Sonia to leave. If only he had insisted a little more… Maybe his child, and Sirius's parents, would still be alive.
So, most of the time, he stayed in his bedroom doing nothing. He wanted to die, but he couldn't, because Sirius was still there. And yet, he couldn't even be with Sirius, because his sorrow was too deep. How laughable… his life was nothing more than lamentable.
Sirius was a good child. He was curious and often tried to comfort Aurelius when he saw him, but nothing worked. Each time, Aurelius would give him a faint smile... and leave.
So Sirius played with the few toys Aurelius had left in the courtyard. At dinner, Aurelius would cook something for Sirius, then return to his bedroom. The life in that house was nothing more than silence, a painful silence.
Three years passed.
Sirius was now five years old. He could run, speak as much as he wanted, and had even learned to read on his own, driven by curiosity and the absence of a grandfather who didn't want to spend time with him.
Sirius discovered something called money, a strange thing that allowed people to buy anything they wanted. People with a lot of money were called nobles, and those with little were called poor.
Money in the Aerindel Continent was simple. The lowest rank was copper, followed by silver, then gold, and finally diamond. Each rank was one hundred times more valuable than the previous. So, one gold coin had the same value as one hundred silver coins.
Sirius learned about the three continents: Tharagon, Solkara, and Aerindel. He also discovered the name of the capital of the continent he lived in, the Aerindel Continent. Its capital city was called Jade, the imperial city where all the nobles, the wealthy, and the powerful lived.
The city of Jade was immense, the size of a country. Its population was almost one hundred million, one-tenth of the Aerindel Continent, and one-fifteenth of the entire world.
The majority of the world's in habitants were humains. Other races, elves, giants, even dragons, were mostly slaves, with even fewer rights than Sirius, who was just a poor child. Most of these other races lived in Tharagon and Solkara, the two less prosperous continents, as they weren't allowed to remain in Aerindel, humans were simply too powerful.
Sirius didn't yet understand why humanity was more powerful than all the other races. No book he read ever explained it.
Most of his time was spent reading, content in his own world. On the other hand, Aurelius still couldn't accept what had happened.
His sorrow hadn't faded, nor his pain over the deaths. He did nothing but buy food from the nearest village, the Bright Village, and cook for Sirius. Nothing more.
No, there was one more thing Aurelius did every single day:
He cursed the Heavens and Fate.
He couldn't curse the whole world, for there were too many living beings who had done nothing wrong. And he couldn't curse the ones who had killed his loved ones, because they were already dead.
Aurelius, a martial artist who had lived nearly seventy years, had heard countless stories and rumors. Some of them claimed that at the King Boundary, a realm far beyond his reach, martial artists could manipulate both Heavens and Fate themselves.
He didn't care whether the rumors were true or not, he chose to believe they were. Because if Heavens and Fate didn't exist...
Then who was there to blame?
Three more years passed.
Sirius was now eight years old. He had already read every book in his grandfather's house. He hadn't discovered anything new in a long time, but he had learned the topography of the Aerindel Continent.
In the South, many small forests could be seen. Roads crisscrossed the land, and there were many small villages. The average population lived in deep poverty.
In the West, an endless mountain range stretched as far as the eye could see. Villages and cities had been built within those mountains. The books said that the view from those cities was unfathomable. The average population there was quite wealthy, thanks to the extraction of valuable ores.
In the East, many cities and ports had been established, as the sea was calm and ideal for fishing. These cities were described as the most beautiful in the world, with some even claiming that the Jade City paled in comparison. The people were either extremely poor or extremely rich, depending on whether they were the ones doing the fishing… or the ones selling the fish.
In the North, there was nothing but ice and snow. It was too cold for most humans to live there, yet some brave souls ventured north to hunt beasts, which they then sold in Jade City for incredibly high prices.
And finally, at the very center of the Aerindel Continent, stood a majestic and immense plain, with a warm but gentle wind. Not too hot, not too cold. In the middle of this plain stood the Jade City, the City of Humanity.