Nicknames [C118]

Glancing at their dead bodies, Shu Himo finally calmed down completely, what he most hated was any form of betrayal, no matter if a light or heavy one.

This whole situation made him recall an episode that happened in his past life, an episode which created such hate for betrayers in him…

-----

It began when he was in the 5th grade, during the first day of school.

Entering in class, as usual, the first thing Shu Himo did was to walk to his best friend. His name was Yu Lim, and he knew him for five whole years, believing to be sworn brothers, so since they didn't see each other for months, he was really happy seeing him again.

Smiling, he waved his hand toward him, "Good morning, Yu Lim!"

As usual, Yu Lim was together with his friends, and seeing that Shu Himo arrived he smiled, however, the words that came out of his mouth were different than usual.

"Good morning, meathead!"

The others also called him in the same way, with a hint of ridicule in their voice.

Shu Himo was shocked hearing them, why was he being called meathead?

"Are.. are you joking?"

"Joking about what, meathead?"

Shu Himo felt betrayed, why was his best friend making fun of him? Gritting his teeth, he decided to resist the insults as if they were nothing important.

After that day, everyone called him 'meathead', making numerous jokes about him everytime they met while having expressions filled in ridicule.

Days passed, and the nickname became known to everyone in the area; most kids in the school called him like that.

Shortly after, every kid in the city talked about him in ridicule, as if he were just trash.

The only positive thing about it was that they never tried to attack him physically. However, while they only verbally attacked him, to Shu Himo, their voices felt unbearable not because of the name itself, but because they were full of derision as if he were mere garbage.

For many weeks, he continually asked many questions to himself, as if trying to find the problem within himself.

'Why are they calling me like that?'

'Is it because of my looks?'

'Is it because of my intelligence?'

'Why?'

No matter how he sought to find the problem, he could not find it, in most aspects he was simply average, neither too bad nor too good.

With the passage of time, Shu Himo slowly began to isolate himself, becoming more and more detached from his "friends".

In this cycle of grief and sadness, he considered many times to suicide, however, when he was lastly about to kill himself he coincidentally read a novel. A novel where a wolf-man who, after being discriminated by everyone took revenge by conquering the world proving his worth. The wolf-man was unrivaled, and every opponent he had was easily eliminated.

While reading that novel, he felt for the first time in months to be alive again, imagining himself to be the wolf-man who conquered the world, standing at the top. Lead by the wish to experience such feeling again, he found out the existence of anime and novels, becoming his light of hope, saving him from suicide.

Passing all his time to watch anime and read novels, he slowly became duller toward the happenings in the external world, and stopped caring about the existence of his classmates.

Only after a couple of years, he mustered courage and went to Yu Lim, clenching his fists tightly, nails digging into his palms, starting bleeding, "For what reason did you call me like that?"

As if surprised from the question, Yu Lim looked toward him and simply said, "There was no reason, you didn't have a nickname so we decided it!"

"Eh? You are joking... right?"

"No I'm serious, there really wasn't a particular reason." Said that, he walked away briskly, as if he felt guilty about what happened, not listening to another word from Shu Himo.

Shu Himo froze in place, not being able to believe it, everyone treated him like that for no reason?

The worse part was that the one who he always trusted as his sworn brother... was actually the one who created the nickname which ruined his own life.

Recalling how he was almost driven to suicide by everything, he felt an empty hole creating in his heart as if he lost a part of himself.

Only with many years passing, the hole slowly closed, however, his hatred for betrayers was what born in exchange.

-----

Sighing after thinking back about the past, he cursed at the three who made him remember it.

Shu Himo then looked at the royal guard who was lying feebly in the corner, "From now on the Remir Kingdom is no more, and every land from it will be passed to the Shu Kingdom."

He then showed the [Maximum Honorary Seal - Supreme Grade] and said, "Any command I will make with this Seal will have an absolute authority and cannot be ignored… So this is my first command, announce to everyone that the Remir Kingdom is dead and at its place, everything will be part of the Shu Kingdom."

The royal guard was dumbfounded, how can something like this be as easy as announcing it? Revolts could happen! However, considering his own standing and the scene that just happened, he felt cold sweat on his back and nodded frantically, signaling his acceptance.

Tao Chao also noticed the problem and immediately asked about it, "Young Master, announcing something like that to the commoners may create a revolt leading many problems in the Kingdom! Please reconsider a better way!"

While the royal guard didn't speak, he felt happy that someone pointed out the problem.

Hearing the problem Shu Himo nonchalantly smiled, "There are people stronger than you in this Kingdom?"

Puzzled, Tao Chao immediately answered, "No, if the ones that were in the army died… then there shouldn't any stronger."

Shu Himo then smirked, "Consider resolving these problems as your first challenge, from now on you and Du Kun will be the lords of all the territories that the Remir Kingdom had; the only authorities higher than you here will be the one from my family and me."

Leaving behind the stunned Tao Chao and Du Kun, Shu Himo walked away.

A moment later he smiled, 'Being directly ruled by someone that was from their Kingdom should lower the degree of opposition…'

Suddenly, he heard the usual *Ding* from the system.