"Father, are you really serious about this?!"
"Of course I am, our blackhorn village is in a dangerous state and we need more warriors."
"But there's other capable people in the village; they all have a better chance of passing the trial."
"That's enough! I don't want to hear anything else, and I didn't raise you to be such cowards. This village has raised you for so long. It's your job to pay it back."
" 'Raise'! You didn't raise anyone, and you don't care about the village, all you care about is yourself. You don't want to lose power that's why you want to keep all the strength in your blood-"
*Baam*
A slap faster than anything I could react to came at me.
•••
"Ow, my cheek. Damn him, who the hell hits their son so hard?"
My father truly does not have the word 'self-control' in his dictionary, he actually used so much force in hitting a normal civilian, not to mention his own son.
"Are you all right brother?"
Sitting across from me was a girl I did not know, although her face was a little familiar.
"Who are you again?"
"Did you lose your memory from that slap?!"
Memory, right. It's coming back to me. I, Atri Uddalaka had just picked a fight with my father.
The reason? He wants his children to give the trial of Maya. The trial of Maya is a perilous trial in which one must enter a Maya realm and survive until the end. Upon clearing it, one will gain greater physical capabilities that are almost superhuman.
However, that's just a side benefit, the main benefit is the chance to attract Yaksa.
Yaksa are spirits of the world, connecting with one will give a person a special ability; it's these people with special abilities who rule this world.
Our father has 2 Yaksa, which is why he's the chief of the village, Blackhorn. And now our village is getting pressured by the enemy village, which is why he wants his 5 children to give the trial, which unfortunately I'm one of.
Tho I'm just his son from a concubine and not a proper heir.
"Please speak, don't just stare into the distance like you're giving a huge monologue."
Ah right, this is my sister. She's also a child born to a concubine, a different one than mine. She is a couple years younger than me, she has a look of young beauty, not completely refined like my other sisters but cute in her own way.
"Romasa, right?"
"Don't say that like you barely remember me!"
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry."
Hearing that, my sister let out a deep sigh.
"Thank god, I really thought you had lost your memory for a second there."
"I'm more surprised I'm still alive, I thought I was dead when I saw that slap coming at me."
"It's your fault. Why did you have to agitate Dad to such a degree?"
"He wants all of us to give the trial. Do you even know how hard and deadly it is?"
"I'll manage to survive, you will be dead first if you keep opposing him like this."
"You might be fine risking your life, but I'm not. I'd rather live a long and happy life."
"Don't be such a coward, it's a great opportunity to serve our village. I can't believe I have such a cowardly brother. Men should be more brave, you know."
"I don't care about those concepts like self-sacrifice and honour. I'd much rather prefer to live."
Truth be told, I'm not much scared for myself, I'm sure I can manage to survive and even if I couldn't, it's not a big deal.
The only reason I'm alive is because father treats me as a backup heir, the one who can take the position of the chief should something happen to my brother.
That's the only reason he has protected me from the schemes of his wife, tho he couldn't protect my mother from them, well neither could I.
Anyway, I'm only gonna be protected by my father until my brother takes the position of the village chief, after which I will probably be killed by him through some scheme or live being suppressed by him through my own life.
So yeah, there isn't much to look forward to in my life. It's not like it's a huge shame if I died.
The reason I'm opposed to it is because of my sisters, specially Romasa. Unlike me, she has a lot to look forward to in life.
There isn't any reason for my brother to suppress her, he might be paranoid but he's not stupid. Suppressing his sister will get him looked at as a cruel man in society.
And there isn't much value in her as a pawn, so she probably wouldn't have to be a part of a political marriage.
With her status and looks, she should be able to marry a good man and live a happy life.
"Oh yeah, I heard that brother Sudas was also opposed to it, though he wasn't as much defiant in front of father as you brother. You two really are similar."
"Don't lump me with him, Our reasons for opposing this are totally different."
He's probably afraid that I might become too strong and usurp the position of chief from him.
"Oh yeah, father has also ordered all of us to gather in the Hall in an hour."
"Great, he's gonna really give us those Maya stones."
•••
"Good evening, Sister Vrita and Sister Apala."
"Good evening to you too, Atri and Romasa."
In front of me were my elder sisters, Vrita and Apala. They were beauties famous not only in our village but in other villages too, their graceful and refined movements along with their beautiful faces has enchanted many men.
Though I wasn't really that close with them due to our age gap, I still liked them.
They didn't look down on me for being born to a concubine and were generally kind to me, though they were really scary whenever we used to get in a fight.
I used to think they were monsters who had taken human form like the ones in fairytales. That's how deeply scared I was of them.
"Are you all right now, we heard you got slapped really hard by father."
"You know it's useless to argue with him, it's better to agree with whatever he says."
"Your words makes sense, but there's some times in a man's life that he just can't back down."
"Hah, I give up, why are men like this. You really are brothers."
"I'd rather you not lump me in with him, sis."
The one who said that was my rude younger brother, Sudas. He's only a few months younger than me but he's an ambitious guy, although he is a bit paranoid as well, that's why he always thinks I will try to steal his right to take the chief of the village position.
"Good day to you too, Sudas."
Hearing that, he frowned,anybody could tell he hated doing this.
"Good evening, Brother Atri and Romasa."
Even though his words were polite, his eyes were anything but polite, his eyes were filled with disdain, like one looked at a gross insect.
"Sttle down kids. Sit down and listen carefully. I'm not gonna repeat anything twice."
At that moment, our father finally arrived.
"Alright kids, in a week, all of you will give the Maya trial. Here's all important things you need to know from me experience"
"First of all, the Maya realms are the gifts from the Yaksas to humanity."
"As the legend goes, when the first humans were born, they struggled to survive. They couldn't fight the beasts and were too slow to run away."
"Most of them died in the first few years, the last few humans gathered together. They were all full of fear and despair at their upcoming death."
"At that moment, the great Yaksas took mercy on the despairing humans."
"They gave them power, not only to survive but to conquer. To be unbeatable in the world."
"From then on, these Maya Stones have been found created naturally near places where humans live."
"I'm pretty sure these are things you already know."
"Now, for some real instructions. As soon as you find yourself in the Maya realm, inspect your body. Next, inspect your situation, be ready to react to any situations. Sometimes you're dead before you can even realize."
"Then, you try your best to survive. But surviving alone isn't enough, the only way the Yaksas are gonna connect with you is if you achieve something in there, the more significant things you accomplish, the better your chances."
"You have a month to get ready, make sure to learn as many techniques as you can, the best options are how to heal yourself,how to survive in the wild and how to fight."
"Work hard, this month will determine whether you survive or not."
Damn this guy, couldn't he tell us more than that. All he told us was an old legend and that we had a month only, or maybe I should be happy he's giving us this at least..
Hmm, We only have a week so we can't learn too much. It's better to learn and gain a handling of a few techniques. It's better then gaining mastery over one techniques or learning as many techniques as one can.
•••
One day, while I was practicing, my younger sister, Ronald decided to drop in on my training.
"Can I ask what you are doing, big brother?"
"Hmm, I'm learning how to hold my breath for longer times and hide in a body of water."
"What use does that even have?"
"It's to trick your enemies of course, suppose you're being pursued. You can use this method to trick your enemies into thinking that you're still running from them."
"But, isn't it better to just learn a few techniques to fight so you don't have to run, running is so dishonourable. I'd rather fight to the death with them."
This girl truly does not get the importance of running away huh.
Well there's a few other reasons I'm learning techniques to run away, though that's probably far in the future.
"Listen, Romasa. The only time you should fight is if there's no other option. Fighting should be your last resort. If you're fighting,it should be because you have failed in preventing it. "
"But brother, the only things you have been learning these past few days are tricks to run away from the enemy, along with a few tricks to heal yourself and survive in the wilderness, you've barely learnt any combat techniques. You should be more like brother Sudas, he's learnt many combat techniques and is working hard on his swordsmanship."
Hearing his name, my already bad mood got even worse.
"You should spend more time practicing your own techniques rather than caring what others are doing."
"I am working hard, I've learnt tons of techniques, all sorts of tricks for fighting, healing and exploration. I just got a bit tired and that's why I came to see you."
"Too many of that breaks can become the difference between your death and surviving. There's only half a month left. It's important to utilize your time as best as you can."
"Ugh, you're so annoying. You know, I bet there's gonna be a time when you're gonna say 'oh, I should have listened to my sister, she was so right."
"That's not gonna happen in a thousand years."
"Hmph,we'll see about that."
•••
It was just another day, I was practicing my escaping skills, when I heard the door open behind me.
"You should really take less breaks, Romasa- Sudas, how rare of you to come see your big brother."
"Indeed, I heard a rumour that you were wasting your time learning escaping techniques, big brother.what surprises me is the fact that those rumours were actually true."
"You still have a sharp tongue, my little brother.
However you should still be careful of what you cut."
"Anyway,my reason in coming here was to see how well your training was going? "
"My training is going pretty well, thanks for asking me. How about you, little brother, how well is your training going?"
"My training is going pretty well too, say, how about we test the fruits of our training."
"Test, how. What do you have in mind."
"I was thinking a duel for practice. Of course,that's only if you're interested,big brother."
This guy, he seriously went ahead and proposed it.
"Why, that's a great idea, let us test our training.let's do it right now."
"No, I must refuse, I am pretty tired from my training, my arms are extremely sore from swinging my sword. I'm pretty sure your legs are tired too. We should do it tomorrow."
"Well, I can train for a full day still but since it's my cute little brother's request, how can I say no."
"I must thank for agreeing to this request of your junior."