I woke up in my bed staring at the ceiling and even though I should be aching and in pain I feel fine. Actually I feel better than fine. I feel full of energy, I spring up from my bed and immediately feel my arm scream in pain as I remember the events of earlier. Looking at my arm I see that It looks fine, apart from some scars it looks normal. I am starting to wonder how long I've been out with no scab or anything. I must have been out for weeks if not months.

As I’m lost in thought I see the door open and Rafael steps in dressed in his usual Light Grey training armour with a brown leather vest on top and his hair tied into a top knot.

“Ah I see you’ve woken young master”

“How long have I been out?”

“hehehe you’ve only been out for about 2 hours what are you thinking”

Perhaps noticing my glance to my arm he answers with a kind tone, “oh I suppose it’s the first time anybody’s used healing magic on you, oh well thanks to that we were able to get you to good health very quickly. You better pay a visit to the church and say thank you later, not that we didn’t pay them enough or anything. Oh well the Lord will be glad to hear you’re awake from what I gather the other two are waiting for you to arrive before they begin.”

Oh Lundarian, I’m only praying to you because you seemed the nicest, please send help because I think I might be meeting the devil incarnate soon. Putting on a solemn look I start heading to the Lord's office with a confused Rafael behind me.

I stand outside my fathers office and with one look at the guards outside they move to open the door for me to which I see a scene that I find quite confusing. My brother and Sister are both on the floor kneeling towards my Father at his office.

“Well now that he's finally here you two can get up and sit to the side”

Hearing no emotion in his voice sends a bit of a tremor though me and I see my siblings struggle to stand up as I can only assume they’ve been in the prone position for a while, we make eye contact and I can see that my brother looks purely exhausted which I find quite strange considering that I’m still full of energy. I look to his hand to see that it has been healed and only a faint scar remains.

“Well then the star of the show has awoken?”

Faced with my Fathers taunt I look to see only the stern face of the city lord.

“Yes father I’m all healed up now thanks to you”

“Oh so you do realise that if it was nearly any other family in the city you would have been bedridden and lost the use of your arm”

I didn’t realise that the wound was so bad but I guess the adrenaline of the situation might have clouded my judgement, realising my plunder I look down in shame.

“sigh At least you we’re able to awaken I guess you’ve really got a head start on everybody else in your generation, to awaken only after a week, granted not every 5 year old will fight against a Warg and live to tell the tale”

I look up to see my Father looking back at me with nothing but worry in his eyes.

“Well at least something good has come out of this trip, nothing like a near death experience to awaken your core, you know the great general Kali activated his core at just 4 years old, his body might have been to young at the time but he was able to survive and become one of the strongest generals in the country.” A look of longing appears on fathers face before it is quickly squashed and replaced with a stern look.

“But enough of your praises do you atleast know what you did wrong?”

“Yes father w-”

“Not you, Noah you know exactly what you did I’m asking Joseph” Seeing Noah go to speak up for me I do feel touched but Father is right it is as much my fault as it is theirs.

“We left without waiting for our guard”

“Yes that is one of your many blunders where else did you mess up”

“We should have left once we encountered the enraged horned rabbit”

“Good that was your biggest blunder. You knew something was wrong within the forest and still decided to stand around, god forbid it was something more dangerous than a small goblin scout party or I would have lost all my children before their coming of age.”

I look at my father and see concern all over his face. He looks really tired right now and I think our situation might have taken a couple years off his life just from worry.

“I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing yet, that my children are so brave but I really don’t want to find out. So you all will be banned from entering the forest until you are at least rank D it is far too dangerous out there for any E rank to explore”

Upon hearing this I see Noah go to speak up but with a swift look from father he is stopped in his tracks. After that we are all dismissed and I follow my defeated siblings out the room.

“I’m sorry Noah if I wasn’t there you might have been able to get away and father wouldn’t have been mad at us.”

“Its okay Joseph we couldn’t have predicted this but I guess this just means I’ll have to get to rank D if I want go out there”

With a painfully fake smile I depart from my brother and sister and go to head to the training grounds to clear my head when Rafael stops me.

“Young lord I got a message from Dastreal your blade is ready”

And upon hearing that news we depart immediately for the city.

The streets seemed quieter than usual with the nobles district being all but empty and the commoner district not looking like a sea of people anymore, perhaps noticing my confusion Rafael begins to speak.

“Young master the streets are on edge as the lord in his panic mobilised the military”

I can’t help but be shocked. My Father does not seem to be the type of person to panic but some people have a reverse scale and maybe we are his.

“Why was Father so on edge oven if we went missing there should be no troubles finding us with Noah's pendant”

“The pendant was the only thing stopping your Father from going insane, you have to understand my lord, the bandit situation has put the lord in a bind and he thought this might have been a bold kidnapping attempt from the bandits”

I forgot about them. It's only been a week and Fathers lessons are escaping my mind. After the telling off we spent the rest of the trip in silence until we made it to Dastreals blacksmiths.

As we enter the store we’re met with his assistant Samantha the poor girl hardly spoke before simply running out of the room and arriving with Dastreal.

“hohoho so the young master has been found has your father finally taken care of the bandit problem or were you just frolicking in the field”

I looked down in shame before telling Dastreal the events of our little exertion, the dwarf didn’t say anything and just listened to my story in silence.

“Hmmm well young lord I just want to ask you one thing, do you regret your actions even if they led to you awakening early?”

“Yes I do even if I have awoken early the average is still 9 months I am only early by a couple months, is the chaos we’ve caused worth the results”

Looking up I see Dastreal looking confused for a second before a knowing look appears on his face as he turns to Rafael who is only sporting a stoned expression, quickly turning back to me before continuing.

“sigh this is why I hate dealing with nobles. The expectations they put on their kids leaves them either broken or great, but I guess that's how the biggest households stay so strong. Kid I’ll let you in on a little secret the average age a commoner awakens, if they awaken at all, is about 11 years old and that's if they work hard, for nobles the average age of awakening is about 6-7 never usually more than 8. Young master you are very lucky to have awakened this early hahaha I might be looking at the next general Kali at this rate”.

After his little speech he seems to put on an almost grandfatherly persona, in my two lives I’ve never had a grandparent but this is how I feel like they should act, gentle and patient are how I would describe Dastreal I don’t know whether that's perks of his trade but he embodies it quite well.

“I heard general Kali awoke at 4, how is that possible”.

“hmm that man is different if it was anybody else in this country they would be dead by now but he is just different, I don’t know much about the man I’ve only met him once ,before he was big and famous, when he didn’t have the money to buy from proper dwarfs,” I see Samantha visibly wince at that statement and a shade of sadness is draped over her face, “ but when I met him he was still an up and coming recruit in the army and his story was knowns as this.

Kali was the son of a baron in the northeastern region bordering Elinie, his father was one of the top knights under the count of city black crest and had been awarded the title of baron for his feats. One night the army of Elinie launched a series of assassinations onto the families of all the top ranking fighters in that city, his father was a Rank B knight and the assassin that had been sent to deal with him was also rank B. During the fight his Mother was killed and his Father and the assassin we’re both seriously wounded, the fight ended soon after and both his father and the assassin we’re dead and he was found later having opened his QI core, after that incident he was taken into Duke Slaviks household who have raised him ever since”.

I sat in silence after listening to the story. I could see how he might have awakened so young being in that situation but still the strength of the man General Kali escapes me, I know this man is strong otherwise he wouldn’t be alive after such a situation but I can’t measure it.

“How strong is General Kali?”

“Strong enough to where he isn’t allowed on any battlefield anymore, now enough of this talk I think it’s about time you take a look around my workshop don’t you think.”

Ohh so he’s at least S rank that's the only reason he wouldn’t be allowed on the battlefield, looking at Dastreals face I can see the Grandpa has reappeared as he beckons me into the workshop, an offer I have no reason to refuse.