Capítulo 13: Chapter 13: Oppression
Two months had passed since Neo's tenth birthday and for those two months, the maids seemed to have noticed something quite different about him or the way he always acted to be precise.
For starters, he was no longer training as much as he used to before he turned and what was he doing with all that time he wasn't training with?
Well, he was watching, he was watching his mother because that was now part of his daily routine.
To put it plainly, he was scared, terrified that something tragic was going to happen to him again, or to his mother to be precise so he decided to start keeping a close eye on her every day, never letting her out of his sight for more than two minutes.
He started his day by watching her do yoga in the room at the far end, the one he termed top-secret a few years back.
He would always open the door a little and watch her from the little creak and he was doing the exact same thing today.
Meanwhile, there happened to be someone behind him.
Emilia's room happened to be close to that particular room so she would always wake up to find Neo watching through the creak.
She confronted him the first time and after he told her to leave him alone, she would just watch him from her door now.
She was planning to do exactly that today, well, that was until Aina suddenly showed up.
"He's still doing this?" She sighed just after stopping in front of Emilia's door.
"Yeah."
"Okay, it's time to put a stop to this because it's starting to get creepy," Aina remarked with a frown.
"Aina."
A few steps forward and she was right behind him with her hand above him.
Neo felt a hard chop on his head a second later causing him to quickly turn around to see Aina standing there with an obvious frown on her face.
"Good morning, Neo."
"Do you mind telling me why you did that?" He asked, looking quite annoyed.
"If you can't tell why I did that then I must be right." She retorted.
"Right about what?"
"You must be losing your mind."
"Huh?" Neo muttered with a confused expression on his face.
"I would have understood if you had this obsession when you were younger but you've always been so focused on your training and now you're doing this?"
Aina was the most polite maid, yes, but at the same time, she was also the most strict, when it came to handling Neo at least.
She sort of expected Neo to snap right back at her but there wasn't any quick retort from him as he slowly turned away from her.
"I guess I can understand that reasoning but you wouldn't really understand my reasoning."
'Yeah, you would just call it bullshit.'
"Your reasoning," Aina uttered with a confused expression on her face. "Hey, don't tell me you have perverted thoughts…."
"What's this about perverted thoughts?"
"Huh?"
The door was slowly pulled open at that moment to reveal Luna standing there.
"Lady Luna." Aina gasped.
"Aina." She called. "What were you two talking about?"
"Oh, it's nothing, my lady." She replied abruptly before taking a step back.
"I'm sure I heard you say something but if you say it's nothing, I'll hold you to your word." She shrugged before turning to Neo. "So, Neo." She called.
"Yes, mom." He responded before slowly bringing his gaze down.
"How would you like to go shopping with me today?" She asked. "I think there are a couple of things around the house that we'll need to restock on."
"Go shopping…."
"Hold up, lady Luna," Aina interjected. "You're not supposed to be going shopping, that's our job."
"True, but there's no rule that says I can't do it either." Luna retorted.
"Lady Luna." She sighed.
"I'm going shopping today and that's that, you guys can focus on doing something else instead while we're gone." She asserted before turning back to Neo. "You're coming, right?"
"Mhm." He nodded.
"Good." She smiled.
________ ________
The two went out shopping that day just like she said and that was sort of a new experience for Neo.
This wasn't the first time he had been outside but it was the first time he had been in a place filled with lots of people since arriving in this world and it's not like he was in places like that frequently in his other life especially after he turned ten.
The marketplace was filled with different kinds of people, those there to buy and those there to sell and they were contributing to that population. There were still the other kinds of people.
Neo was glad that his mother decided to bring him along for shopping for whatever reason she decided to do that, but something seemed to be making him uncomfortable as they walked further into the market and that was the fact that they were getting a lot of attention.
He couldn't really understand why everyone was staring at them but you could say it was their clothes.
Most of the people in the market were peasants who were not really in the most comfortable spot in their lives and that reflected in the way they dressed with most of them wearing brown tunics that looked browner than they were supposed to be and tattered pants.
It was obvious that they would stand out in a place filled with people like that with the way they were dressed.
Luna was in a simple sleeveless white dress with rose designs and an orange hat on her head and a basket hanging on her left hand while Neo was wearing a long-sleeved white tunic with black long pants, he appeared to be holding a black handbag which apparently belonged to his mother.
"Oh, those tomatoes look good." Luna declared just after spotting the tomato stand by the left. "We're definitely getting some of those, Neo, let's go." She added before taking off to the area.
"Right behind you."
She got straight to work just after stopping in front of the stall, specifically picking out the ones that she wanted and while she was doing that, Neo was busy looking around.
"Yes, that will be all, put them in a bag for me, please, and Neo."
She turned to her left at that moment expecting to find her son standing there but to her surprise, he was no longer there.
"Neo?" She called, quickly scanning the surrounding area with her eyes but there was no sight of him. "Where did he run off to with my bag now? I can't pay for the tomatoes without that."
Meanwhile, Neo seemed to have suddenly found himself in a dark alleyway surrounded by four men who looked like thugs.
"What the….how the heck did I get here?" He muttered with a confused expression on his face but he did have his guard up.
"Don't worry about the details kid, just hand over the bag and we'll be done with you."
Those words came from the one standing in front of him, the one he would identify as the leader of the four surrounding him, a man with a scrunchy face, spiky red hair, and a black bandana tied on his forehead.
"And why would I do that?" Neo retorted, tightening his grip on the bag.
'I see, so they're a crew of crooks, how did they get me here so fast though? And I didn't even notice anything.'
His thought process was suddenly cut off at that moment as he felt a heavy hit on his side which sent him flying and crashing into the wall.
"He said, give us the bag and we'll be done with it so hurry up and do it already!"
It was one of the other three men who kicked him, he had his eyebrows furrowed, drawn together in a deep scowl and his hands clenched.
Neo would be lying if he said that murderous gaze of his didn't frighten him a little but still, that wasn't enough to make him willingly give up the bag.
"Didn't you hear me, kid?" The man snapped as he took a step forward, the sound of his feet hitting the ground resonating in Neo's head. "He said, give up the bag."
'I want to fight back but I know I can't do much against this many grown men especially not without an ability and my sword. Things might have been different if I knew this was going to happen though.'
The man was about to kick him again when he felt a wave of aura suddenly sweep past him.
A wave of oppressive and murderous aura that suddenly sent a shrill running down his spine and turned his nervous system into a wreck.
His hands and legs were trembling quite visibly as he staggered back before crashing down to the floor and he wasn't the only one feeling it.
The only one still standing was their supposed leader but he was having a hard time keeping his feet on the ground because they were trembling quite visibly.
"What the heck is this? Why is my body acting like this?"
"Well, that's simple, it's because you're afraid."
All of them turned their gaze to the left entrance to the alleyway to see a silver-haired lady standing there, her usually blue eyes glowing crimson.
"Mom?" Neo gasped.
That was the last thing he said before he suddenly froze.
"Your body actually knows a lot about itself than you yourself seem to know so it's able to react under the right conditions even though you don't realize the cause of the reaction at first." She articulated.
She took a step forward just after that as the whole alleyway suddenly got enveloped by some kind of shadow dome.
She stopped in the middle of the group to turn to their leader who was still on his feet with his teeth tightly gritted.
"Wow, you must have some strong will if you're still standing, well, that's good, I need you on your feet anyway so keep standing." She ordered, her voice so calm yet so fierce.
Just after saying that, the man felt the oppressive aura trying to push him down from above suddenly lessen, the huge load took a heavy slash just like that.
"Hey…."
"You're not allowed to speak though." She interjected.
Immediately, the man found his mouth tightly sealed and no matter how hard he tried, it just wouldn't open.
"At least not yet." She added before turning to the three who were on the floor, her gaze particularly focused on the one who kicked Neo.
She took two steps to get to him and now she was just standing there staring at him.
The aura pressing him down got worse at that moment, his heart felt like it was about to burst forcing him to clench onto his chest while tightly gritting his teeth.
'Just who the heck is this woman? I didn't know there was someone this powerful in this town, her aura doesn't even feel human.'
"You actually tried to kick him a second time."
That was the last thing he heard before he found himself flying across the area and crashing into the hard wall.
"I'll get back to you once I'm done with him." She said before turning back to their leader.
He was already terrified but it was like everything doubled after she turned to him, his skin was starting to turn pale and the only thing keeping his heart bursting open was the fact that he was a healthy person.
This level of oppression and terror was something he had never felt before and if he had control of his body, he would have most likely taken his life at that moment.
'Looks like what we took was a lioness' cub, a very deadly one.'
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