As little Zhang continued to grow, Lyrielle continued to work hard every day. She also did not give up on finding her husband. After more than 4 years, she was sure that he had encountered some problem that made it impossible for him to return to Valyria. If she had been alone, she would have already gone after him as soon as the first year had passed.
But now she had to consider little Zhang's life on such a dangerous journey. Unlike her husband, who was a genius and spoke five languages, she could only speak High Valyrian. Because of this, she only saved up money in preparation for a future trip, and from time to time tried to obtain information about Zhang Wei's hometown.
But the news she obtained was grim; not only did no one say anything when the name Zhang Dynasty was mentioned. Some simply said that such a Dynasty never existed in Yi Ti. It was as if the Zhangs never lived in Yi Ti. At some point, young Lyrielle even wondered if her father was right and Zhang Wei was just a con man who seduced young girls wherever he went. But she quickly dismissed all that, he was too brilliant in everything he did to be just a pirate or criminal.
With no clues, Lyrielle could only live her life and leave any other plans she had for the future behind…
***
"Mommy, did you bring it?"
Lyrielle, who had returned home after a long and tiring day of work, smiled at the sight of her son and took out a yellow stuffed sweet bun from her cloth bag.
"Wow, dragon bomb!"
Dragon bomb was a sweet bread baked in a shape that vaguely resembled a dragon. It had a sweet filling and was a favorite of his son and many other poor children in the area.
While the little and now overweight Zhang happily ate his dragon bomb, Lyrielle had a coughing fit that lasted for almost 2 minutes.
"Mommy, are you okay?"
"Sure, son, Mommy just caught a cold. Now eat your candy and go play for a while, I'll make dinner."
Noticing that the boy had stopped eating and was worried about her, Lyrielle quickly covered up the blood on her hands and sent him to play. She knew he was sick, but she couldn't afford the cost of medicine, even if she spent all her savings. Of course, she also didn't know that his illness was something much more serious than she thought...
***
When little Zhang was 9 years old, he returned from the public classes he had in Valyria for commoner children and waited for his mother, who would return from work soon and make dinner for them. But that day, it was already late at night, and his mother still hadn't returned. After waiting until dawn, he fell asleep hungry and tired. Only to be woken up the next day by a woman and a man who worked with his mother.
They told the little boy that his mother had died due to an illness and that they would take care of him from now on. While Zhang let the two of them into his house, they spent a long time rummaging through everything before leaving with greedy smiles. and a bag with metallic sounds. The woman looked at the boy with a bit of pity and decided to leave some copper coins on a table in the living room. That was the only time Zhang saw those two people who promised to take care of him; later, he also realized that they only stole the money his mother had saved at home, leaving him with only crumbs...
***
After more than 1 month of Lyrielle's death, her father finally found out what happened to his daughter. Asking a friend to check on the situation of the boy who was his grandson, he regretted his relationship with his daughter... When his friend returned, what he found was not something he would wish on even his worst enemy...
His grandson, whom he sometimes watched from afar and who had once been a chubby and healthy child, was now thin, sick, and dirty. He lived off begging and eating garbage.
The house where they lived was abandoned and full of garbage and dirt. The cold old man even secretly shed tears when he saw how his grandson lived. But the old man was still too proud and stubborn to admit his guilt or appear in front of the child. So, once a week, he would send some basic supplies for the boy to live on, in addition to sending someone to treat his illness and teach him how to take care of the house, claiming to be an "acquaintance of his mother".
After little Zhang had been living off begging and eating garbage for more than a month, the other children at school began to bully him. Even though he no longer had to do these things, his grandfather only sent him the basics for his survival without any excess, never even letting him know of his existence. So it was only natural that he would crave sweets and other delicious foods, especially his favorite sweet that his mother always brought him…
"Hey, beggar Zhang! Look what we have here…"
When Zhang was coming back from school, a family group of five boys surrounded him, one of them had a dragon bomb in his hand. Zhang stopped in his tracks. He knew that if he endured the humiliation and mockery, the boy would give him the sweet as usual, but if he resisted the humiliation or tried to run away, they would become violent…
But unfortunately for him, today the boy planned to go even further in the "joke"… After mocking him for being an orphan and making all kinds of humiliating jokes about him eating food from the trash, this time the boy didn't give him the sweet. And he threw it on the ground, stomping on the sweet bread several times, filling it with dirt and other dirt.
"Here you can eat it now!"
"Hahaha"
"Hahaha"
"He prefers it this way!"
"Yes, Haha"
The other boys burst into laughter, mocking even more and waiting for the show, but suddenly, when Zhang was about to eat the dirty bomb from the ground, a foot wearing a quality leather shoe hit the bully leader in the middle of the face.
"Urgh"
The boy fell to the ground, sitting down with a bloody nose, letting the dirty candy fall to the ground, and his eyes filled with tears. The boy who appeared did not stop there; he punched the other bully in the stomach and threw a stone he had in his hand at the third bully's forehead. Soon, the other two remaining ran away in despair, while the three got up and did the same. The boy with elegant leather shoes and Valyrian features then approached Zhang and said:
"Aren't you Fatty Zhang? You're so skinny, I barely recognized you. I'm Omar. We studied together last year. Do you remember me?"
"I think so. It seems like we're in different classes this year. You beat up those kids a lot. Are you going to be okay? Their parents might come after you…"
"Oh, don't worry about it… WAIT! What are you doing?"
Omar screamed in fright when he saw Zhang still picking up the sweet bread from the floor and preparing to eat it.
"I'll eat it. It's just a little dirty. My mother always told me that we can't waste food."
Omar saw the boy's sad look when he mentioned his mother in the past, and he remembered his mother, who was also no longer alive. Whenever he refused to eat something, she would also say that same phrase.
"My mother always said that, too. Here, give it to me. I'll give it to someone else, and I'll buy you a new one. How about that?"
Zhang didn't think much and handed the candy to the boy who saved him. Omar put it in a bag, and the two then started talking about their mothers as they walked towards the nearest tavern that sold the candy. But Omar asked him to wait a bit and went to a tree near where the fight started and said:
"The fight is over, you can get out of there! Let's go buy some candy at the tavern!"
From behind the tree, a boy two years younger than they came out; he had silver hair and slightly red eyes. He tripped once, losing one of the slippers he was wearing, and hopped back on one foot until he put it back on. Zhang found it funny that he didn't want to step on the ground while he was without one of his slippers. Omar saw him smile and said that this was Rafael, his "little brother"; he also quickly reminded Zhang that, like them, he also didn't have a mother, and since they were older, they should take care of him...
They then stopped and waited for little Rafael to catch up with them. And they went together to buy sweets…
***
Far away, some angry parents were going to seek revenge for their injured children, but were stopped by an old butler with the symbol of the Velaryon house. When the adults saw the familiar figure, they knew that their children had offended Lord Leo's bastard. Furious and afraid, they began to punish them right there with slaps and ear pulls and apologized on their knees to the old Velaryon butler.
The butler Tom scolded the commoners, and then just looked at the three boys from afar, making sure they were okay, before smiling and being happy that young Omar had made a new friend…
***
In a floating carriage powered by ghost horses and protected by several undead. Zhang woke up from a dream and smiled after dreaming about the day he met Omar and Rafael. Thinking back, he must have dreamed about it again because this was the first time he was away from his two best friends. Furthermore, dreaming about the most difficult moment of his life made him remember what it was like to be alone without anyone by his side… His relationship with his new master was still not that deep, so it wasn't wrong to say that they didn't have much of a bond…
Seeing that he and his master were still far from Corpse City, Zhang closed his eyes again, this time trying to take advantage of the dream he had just had to remember more about his mother… As his soul grew stronger each day, he started to dream and remember things that he had already forgotten due to being too young. Sometimes he would remember every detail of an entire day, and even the things he had eaten on that specific day, and for him, remembering so many details of his mother's final days was something incredible and special…
Sitting not far away, inside the luxurious carriage, Immortal saw that his new disciple had woken up from his sleep. He smiled, feeling empathy for the boy's past. Of course, Zhang didn't know that the Necromancer Master beside him could eavesdrop on his dreams, otherwise, he would never have slept by his side…
Then Immortal looked at Corpse City, which was getting closer and closer. It should only take another half day of travel. Thinking about what kind of changes the third special physique would cause in the city made him quite anxious. He then looked at his new disciple again, this time looking at the souls that followed the young man without him knowing. Among the many monsters and pirates, there was the soul of a woman. She was extremely pure and kind, but she was at the limits of her weak existence. This kind of soul was something unusual and rare, even more so next to Necromancers...
Deciding not to talk about it at the moment, Immortal also closed his eyes and began to meditate. Hours later, the two finally arrived at Stygai…
***
Special thanks to the Patreons:
Sage's Supporter: Jan, Vinnie, frimorigo, Leery Falcon, Parsa, Scott Robertson, and Pato Senalima!
Magical Apprentice: Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Takatchi, mandeep singh, Austin, Kobe Robertson, Paul Gaslac, and Niteo akuma!
Senior Magic Apprentice: Cole Bromley!