Chapter 11 Cassim the Aspiring Knight(1)

Alibaba was close to age with Cassim while Mariam was still an ordinary 1-year-old child who wasn't as mature as him and still acted like a normal baby who can barely walk and talk yet because she wasn't an anomaly like Alibaba, who was already very smart at birth and the only reason Alibaba knew of her was that one time when Casino while guarding him had told him a story about his wife and kids. And those conversations were about how Casino's wife had left him and his two kids with little to no money, which almost caused him to be a drunkard and a waste.

But due to the decree that was recently released, Casino had found a proper job, which he had once dreamed of when he was a child, but due to his commoner background, he wasn't able to join the royal army, which was his dream back then.

And one of the reason's that Casino became one of the first people who was inducted for the new decree was because although most of the time a jerk, although he doesn't show it to others much and a bit of a drunkard back then. The casino was known in the slums to be one of the best fighters in there, and he could have become a mercenary; however, he was slowly becoming a drunkard back then, so he didn't become a mercenary.

When the day the decree was established and announced to the citizens was announced by the people of Balbadd palace and also the time when Along with Alibaba, Sabhmad, and Anise. King Rashid, back then in the center town of Balbadd, announced this news to the citizens, which caused most of them to be surprised, and some of them started tearing up as most of the people who attended where people from the slums and commoners who were extremely poor.

One of the attendees was Casino when he accidentally passed, but the central when he had just came from the pub after drinking. When he heard this news, he felt his once childish dream in his mind awakened. After that, he went home and started to put himself back together, which shocked most people of the slum, especially Cassim. However, still, a 3-year-old child was already pretty mature for his age as he did live in the slums where most kids don't retain their innocence for long, and he already knew the ways to live in the slums.

When he saw his Father's sudden change and seemingly return of his old personality, he was surprised as he saw his father this last year after he was born to be a scumbag as most of the time he spent their money on booze and ladies in some shops, which caused Cassim to hate him even more as since they were still young they weren't forced yet to work by his Father.

But Cassim knew that his father would eventually. Would force them to work for him to buy his booze as Cassim saw that the only money they managed to hide away before their mother left them was slowly running out and which, in turn, it will make Casino run out of money for booze. He knew that Casino wouldn't hesitate to make them work even if they were both still young.

Back before Cassim's Mother had left them for another man. Cassim had admired his father as before Casino, although he was just an ordinary guard for a noble family of Balbadd Cassim saw that his father was a great swordsman in the saber.

And due to this, he also dreamt of becoming like his father to become a royal knight of Balbadd, which he had heard from his mom back then was the dream of Casino when he was young. When he saw the change of personality of Casino to his old personality and decided to actually test if his father had changed even a little as he asked: "Hey dad can you give us some money for me and Miriam to buy some food for dinner tonight."

Then surprisingly, with a seemingly not angry voice, said: "Oh Cassim, your here huh, well since I'm gonna try and un rust my skills today, you can take the money in that pouch over there but don't buy any useless things since we still have small amount money since... just get the money and buy your food."

When Cassin saw this, he was inwardly shocked at this as if he asked this in earlier times he would have already hit by Casino with a wine bottle he always has except now, which was also very surprising since Casino always has a wine bottle with him as he was always drunk most of the day.

When Cassim saw this, he started to see hope for his father and thought that maybe his father could change and become a good father once again like he was before their mother left them.

After three days after the announcement, many of the citizens of Balbadd many started to immediately flock towards the Balbadd castle as they wanted to be one of the first people to be influenced by the new decree when they saw how it could completely change their lives.

But since the decree was only limited, for now, many people fought over the first spots. But thanks to the council's idea to hold a talent contest in the categories. And one of these competitions was the Saber completion, in which the top three winners of these categories will be hired to become a knight for the Balbadd Riyal Palace.

In these categories, due to Casino being rusty in his saber skills, although he should have been the most skilled in the slums in terms of it, he lost to the young saber swordsman for the final round Casino reached second place in the completion while he was Rusty.

Both Mariam and Cassim, wherein the tournament center where their completion was held in and while seeing their father in a new light Cassim while holding his sister behind him, had started to recover his former admiration with his father. However, since he still experienced abuse from him for many months, Cassim still thought he was still a bit of a scumbag father to both him and Miriam.