Chapter 11: A Twelve Year Old

As the sun rose over Aries, from the cottage at the corner of the city, a slim looking boy could be seen leaving with a messenger bang slung over his right shoulder.

It had been a little over 9 years since the Black Crow had publicly apologized for attacking the orphanages in the tier-1 cities nearby; They had also provided ample resources for the development of new talent in the Hunters' academy in Aries City.

As the slim boy ran across the sidewalk and headed toward the center of the city, he could be seen greeting a few elderly people who had been out for a morning walk along the way.

A couple of old ladies would give him candy along the way and a couple of food stalls that were still setting up would call him over and give him some snacks;A couple of adventurers patrol groups would stop him now and then and talk to him, rustling his hair in the middle of their talks.0---- The slim boy would smile and nod his head while listening to these people and would tuck away the eatables in his sling bag as he excused himself and continued hurrying towards the center of the city.

At a certain point the surrounding cottages were replaced by two story buildings.

After reaching a gray colored two story building, the slim boy stopped running and walked inside.

He greeted the receptionist before climbing the stairs and walking to a corner office on second floor of the building.

As he pushed open the opaque glass door of the office and walked in, a gentle old man looked up from his desk and stopped writing with his quill pen and put it in the corner of his desk.

"Barrett, are you here to say hello before you go out on your daily deliveries?" The old man said as he clasped his hands under his chin and looked at the slim twelve year old boy, the boy could be said to be fit as the slim figures of the firm muscles underneath could be seen on his arms and forearms, the only visible part of his body save his face.

As Barrett smiled at the old man he shook his head and said "I will never understand why you keep using a quill to write your notes when there are ball point pens available"

He then started walking out and stopped at the door to say "Oh yeah, Dad told me to remind you that you are coming to our house for Dinner tonight"

The old man had a cheery smile on his face and said "How could I forget, your dad is making his stew that's famous among the adventurers after all"

The slim boy then left the room, collected the newspapers from the room and his agency issued bicycle from the storage room, and began his daily paper route.

...

Soon, It was afternoon and Barrett had long since finished his paper route delivery and was now at his backyard holding a wooden sword, swinging it in the same form over and over again as sweat gleamed all over his body, his white shirt sticking to his packed abdominal muscles.

After he was going through a few forms of swinging his sword, he went to the tree nearby and picked up a book lying under it as he sat down on the warm grass and began reading the book with quite some focus.

A bow could be seen peeking over the wall behind the backyard as a little girl that looked slightly taller than Barrett could be seen struggling to climb up the wall that was 2 times her height.

As the little girl managed to climb over the wall, she hung on the side of the backyard and soon jumped down and landed on the grass.

Barrett looked over at her and waved, putting the book down with his other hand.

On the bronze colored cover of the book, the title, "Chess-masters' Slash" could be seen written in big bold letters.

"Are you practicing your sword skills? Do you want me to leave?"

The girl said as she put her hands behind her back and looked at the book that was lying on the grass next to the boy.

"No, I was just reviewing my form using the illustrations in the guide book; Thanks for getting me the book by the way, it completely suits me" The boy said while rubbing his head and smiling while looking at the girl in front of him who was now smiling so much that her dimples could be seen and her eyes were now almost completely closed, looking like two crescent shaped lines on her face.

"No problem, Dad has a lot of bronze level guide book and he doesn't mind me lending them to you since he knows Uncle Sean since they were like 10 or something, he keeps changing the number every time, so I dont know for sure."

As the duo chatted animatedly, the sun slowly began setting and the sky was now orangish with red at the edge of the hemisphere.

The boy bought up the topic of dinner and said "Are you and Uncle Tao coming for the dinner today? Dad did say Uncle might be busy with the guild, so its fine if he doesn't come, but you have no excuse since you obviously have nothing else to do" He said while looking at the girl that had her mouth hung open from what he just said.

She punched him in the shoulder, a slight blue glow around her fist, and he flew out toward another tree in the backyard.

"Idiot" she said under her breath and went over to where he fell and began berating him on his lack of manners or ability to speak to a lady.

As the sound of an angry little lady could be heard from behind the cottage, the sky soon turned dark and a Slightly aged man with gray hair interleaving with black colored ones entered the cottage, smiling as he heard the children behind the cottage.

The shouting voice of the little girl soon stopped and a delicious smell wafted through the neighborhood.

Inside the cottage, the duo that were previously outside were now sitting on the sofa in the living room as they talked about todays' news, the aged man was cooking in the kitchen and had a pink colored apron tied around his waist.

Soon knocking could be heard on the door of the house.