This is pretty much an introduction chapter to his new home, and therefor it is not very long, sorry about that. We also get introduced to a very important character!

H.F.

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Azul and the others arrived in front of a strange gate, thought it was open it was still pretty massive. Currently they were in the slums of the human capital, the slums of this city was truly massive, as it was fueled by the poverty of the poor.

Azul was still held by the hooded man, which had a twinkle in his eyes as he read the title on a huge board above the entrance. The sign read -Orphanage: the 9 lives-

The title was truly strange, why would anyone spend that much gold to buy children for an orphanage. There should be more than enough poor children just outside the walls of the orphanage.

There was a clear reason, first of all. These children might have families so if they went missing someone would probably look for them. second, the younger children of the slums were 90% of the time malnourished because of their poverty. Third, whenever a slave was sold by the slavers marked, they would be removed from records, making them virtually impossible to locate after. This was also one of the reasons the hooded man and his people were hidden so that no one would recognize them.

There was a second reason to why as to why they were hidden, but that is for later.

The wall was build from rough oak planks. It seemed like it would collapse at anytime, as the construction work was horrible. It was strange that it could support the massive gate and sign.

From the viewpoint of the hooded man and Azul a massive stone courtyard could be seen. Strangely this many brown sliding marks which looked like dirt or mud. on the far side of the courtyard was the a building which looked very old. This building was also made from Oak planks, thought it seemed a little more robust, as it had the support of large stones at the corner point of the building. The building itself was a massive two stories tall. If not for the poor materials used and the construction work. This building could easily go for a mansion, it had the size and probably the room count too.

The hooded man with Azul in his arms walked through the gate, on the other side were a lot of children varying from the age of 5 til the age of 18. These people were mostly male, but there were a few groups in between who were female.

All of these males were robust and had clearly defined muscles. they were all tanned, and wore nothing but shorts. though they all had bracelets on their ankles and wrists. While also having a small collar on their neck. On the collar was a symbol of a bloodied dagger, with a gold letter 9 on it. This collar could symbolise the ownership from the orphanage, which would mean that they were slaves as well or at least that the orphanage had the ownership of these people.

All the males had pride in their eyes, yet their gaze at Azul was eyes filled with fear and despair. some of them made ugly faces, as they knew the fate of Azul.

When they looked at the hooded man, they were full of respect and even bowed in his presence, some saluted, other knelt. it looked a bit weird, with all of these people doing random gestures of honor. Some even gave a warrior's salute with a fist to their heart.

The females acted a little different though, they all made a slight bow towards the hooded man. Strangely, all the features of the women said that they were human. Even if they could hide their tail and fur. It would be nearly impossible to hide the animals ears that the beastkin is known to have,

The females all had that cold beauty look, and they were all incredible beauties even if they wore a veil, which covered most of their cheeks and nose. The top view of their eyes, forehead and hair were all visible. Even if they all wore fairly loose robes, which hid most of their ‘features’ some were still visible through the dark robe, like the butt and the breasts, even if it couldn’t be seen the waist had to be thin with that otherwise well proportionate body.

The hooded man continued to walk, not even glancing at all the people saluting left and right.

When all the people had walked through the gate, and the carriage were parked. The crowd began dispersing, some took the new slaves with them others others began unloading the carriage and parking it.

The hooded man finally took of his hood revealing a middle aged man, with a tan skin color, black eyes and and long greasy black hair. The greasy hair actually looked like the edges went into a needle like shape. His gaze was sharp and filled with strength and wisdom.

He had a very big scar on the side of his lips. It looked like an oversized arrowhead had passed through his lips, and it formed a cross like shape.

He had no beard, and his cheeks were shaved so no stubble was visible. Except for his hair he looked like a captain or a general in the army, tested in battle.

His gaze was locked on the doorway to the main building of the orphanage, it was like he was expecting something.

But it was not a gaze of wanting, more like a gaze of being prepared and ready.

Even though he stood at the far side of the courtyard facing the orphanage main building. He took a strange stand with his left hand which didn’t hold the little Azul.

He was ready but confident.

After a few seconds, he jumped to the side for no apparent reason. While jumping he clenched his left hand, while protecting Azul, and then ending the jump with a rolling fall. Directly on the ground into another jump this time into a spinning somersault.

The actions were so elegant even a skilled gymnast would be proud.

After the somersault, he stood steady as a pillar. It was like he was waiting for something, thought he had large beads of sweat on his forehead. He also had a slight tremble in his legs.

A voice erupted from the doorway to the orphanage “Failed again! Ivan, improve your agility! You don’t want to continue this treatment do you?”

Apparently the previously hooded man was called Ivan, a strange name for this part of the continent. But whose was this voice who seemed to belong to a teenager.

The voice paused for a few seconds before continuing to speak again “Oh, I nearly forgot, the needles is under the third rib, just above the little boy’s head.”

This comment sent a shiver down Ivan’s back, he could face 30 guards, no problem. Facing a ‘hidden’ attack by that man, he wouldn’t last a second if he was serious. And he could have take the life of the small boy, easily. In front of that man the life of the boy was like a small candle flicker trying to persevere a storm.

Of course the child would hold no chance of survival against anyone at that age, but still. He could be dead before anyone knew it.

Ivan lifted the hand which held Azul, and loosed his left hand revealing a small silver needles with strange engravings on it. He moved his right hand to remove it, after it was done. He bit his lips until a small river of blood formed. The pain most have been frightening.

He now had a free hand to remove the needle under his third rib. and when he did, it was like he was in shock, after a few seconds he let out a faint sound from the pain.

He glances behind him to prove his suspicion, behind his previous position before his first jump, were 5 needles. he could calculate the angle of the throw and the position it would have hit if he stood still.

Their area of impact would have been one needles in each eye, a needle for his mouth, another one for his throat, and the last one for his heart.

Clearly they targeted weak spots compared to the needle which hid under his thirds rib. And he had only managed to catch one of them.

He thought to himself that that man was too frightening.

He let out a large mouthful of air, while he walked towards the building.

This time he was carefree, his gaze loosened and his muscles relaxed.

When they entered the orphanage it was like Azul woke up, he might be a baby about one month old, but he just kept looking around. And when Ivan thought about it, it was strange that the baby in his arms was not crying after having been shaken around by all that jumping before. He had of course been gentle, but still he had made a spinning somersault with the baby in his arm.

Inside the building it was a completely different story than outside, not that the construction was any better. No, it was like the walls were filled with scratches. On nearly all the wall, there were various weapons and equipments, strange for them to be out in the open like that.

These people clearly didn’t fear thieves at all, not that thieves would want equipment like that. Most of the equipment was full of scratches and repairs, it was still functional but it was definitely battleworn.

Ivan walked as if he had an objective, he moved straight for some stairs just in front of the door. When he was on the 2nd story of the building he went in front of a door which was closed, but was in perfect condition, just like it had just been produced by the carpenter. He knocked gently on the door, before entering straight away.

The room was totally different story that the entire building, the walls were made with well made planks, from high quality lumber. and just behind a large dark colored desk sat a young man with a gentle look on his face, he sat in a large chair like a king. even if he wasn’t that tall it felt like he looked down on everyone before him. His hair was blonde and it seemed that he was still in his teens.

The teen was currently writing something, and didn’t look up before finishing.

In contrast to his young appearance his eyes were bright blue but were filled with ageless wisdom. Even if his face was gentle, it seemed like his eyes were tired.

When the teen’s gaze landed on Ivan, Ivan immediately knelt and bowed, he even lowered Azul onto the ground, on a piece of silk which appearing out of nowhere.

The teen move to next to Azul after waving his hand at Ivan, signaling him to stand up. He spoke briefly before inspecting Azul “I see that you’ve brought me something interesting, you can leave.”

Ivan stood up, bowed again before leaving, leaving behind a few words “Thank you milord!”

The teen picked up Azul, with his frail looking arms, before beginning to talk to himself. “Hmm, I see, no wonder I felt something strange about your aura, your little body is weird. It seems as if your soul had been separated from your body recently and had been reconnected, that is truly not something you see everyday. You seem like a beastkin, but for some reason when I use my Inspection spell It gives out a question mark for your race. Your body truly is weird, it’s like you are some kind of albino tiger beastkin, but you lack a tail and your eyes are blood red, it’s like they are filled with waves of blood. It’s says here under Special that you possess hereditary memories. That will be truly eye opening, as only the strongest of the beastkin have hereditary memories from their ancestors. it also says here that your name has been specified - but it doesn’t show it. Hmm.. Maybe i will just call you Snow for now, until we found out what your real name is. I will have to measure your potential closely. Kid!” Finished the teen with a wide grin, it seemed as if his eyes lit up a bit.

The teen quieted down, when Azul fell asleep. The teen rubbed a ring on his right hand a few times before a well crafted cradle appeared out of nowhere, this was the so called storage rings the price of these things were astronomical, and even the exorbitantly wealthy would own one. they were still rare though, as one had to be a Tier - 10 user of Spatial magic to use one.

Even if Spatial magic was basic to understand in the low tiers, one still had to grasp a different and complex view of space.

The teen moved Azul to the cradle while muttering in a low voice as if to not wake Azul up “First we will have to let you grow up a bit before we can get any results out of you. But first we have to remove, the influence of the demonic beast milk that you’ve been given. Even if demonic beast milk can strengthen your body over a long period of time, that technique is for adults and not babies, the filth that have given fed you with it is truly a scumbag, who should not be allowed near babies at all, though we might be able to squeeze a bit more potential out of you because of it. hehe!”

The teen was just about to drop Azul in the cradle before another someone knocked on the door, which was closed when Ivan walked out.

The teen said “come in!” in a slight angry but low voice.

“ma--master” a trembling voice came from behind the slightly opened door. “I am very, very sorry to interrupt, but I’ve found a cloth necklace in the carriage, with the little boys aura on it and i figured that it must have fallen off in the carriage, as the cloth piece holding a small coin is ripped.” Even though the voice was slightly nervous in the start of the sentence, the person still gave a very detailed and structured report.

“Yes, yes bring it!” said the teen, with a frown. Patience had never been his strong side, and only those he found interesting could he tolerate. And this person was not one of them.

A small arms opened the door, revealing a very stunning beauty. But the teen didn’t bat an eyelid at all, he just stretched his hand signifying that she should drop the necklace in his hands.

And she did, she quickly placed the necklace, in which after she made a very low bow, and then walking out. She knew that her presence was just a bother to the teen.

Also a thing to notice was that most had these strange collars around their necks, but Ivan lacked one and so did the teen. But the young lady that had just been in the room wore a collar as well.

The teen picked up the necklace with his hand and glanced at it. He was identifying it, he noticed immediately that the coin strapped to the cloth was engraved with a weak rune, which had the effect of nullifying one weak attack, while also giving the wearer a weak presence.

The teen talked to himself “so the little boy had some help after all, even if he still got into this mess, someone tried to protect him. And this cloth, ohh. This is interesting, there is a very big match with the child's aura, even if they are fundamentally different for some reason, there are still slight elements which are the same. It also seems to be from a woman, probably his mother. hmm.”

The teen walked over to the cradle will moving the necklace near the Azul. As if noticing the presence of the necklace, even if he was still asleep, he moved his small hand and grabbed the necklace, and with an amazing strength for a baby he pulled the necklace close to him. After which his nose moved sniffing the lingering odor of his mother, and a slight tear fell from his small eyes.