Swan Hunter

Life was good when I was a child.

Even when I stumbled and made mistakes, there would always be someone to help me up and give me sympathy.

I thought everyone was like my family.

Then when I was six years old, my family sent me to study in a local academy, to become a mage.

My talent was not that good, I had mixed spirit roots and low elemental affinity. One year later, when I was unable to advance to Grade-1, I was kicked out.

That was the reason they gave me, but actually, they did this because... I talked to a girl.

She was the pearl of the academy, the most beautiful, the most talented.

'A toad lusting after swan's meat', they called me. What was this lusting thing? I didn't know.

Anyway, a lot of my peers became offended at me. Some challenged me and beat me, some complained about me, and eventually, for a valid reason, I was kicked out.

That girl never appeared again to help, to say that it was her who talked first. Life is unfair. I learned something new.

When I came back home, I was still only 7 years old. My parents weren't angry, just slightly disappointed.

Eventually, I changed academies and became a low-level mage acolyte. I stayed there for 3 years. The place had a lot of colorful people. Again, there were at least 3 'swan girls', who would cause your death by winking at you. I made sure to stay away from them.

The kids made the weirdest moves to impress them, and surprisingly they were interested and impressed as well. Perhaps, this is why they were called 'swans', because they had the brainpower of a swan as well.

It was hard to take them as normal girls, because no one else took them as normal girls and because after a certain period, pride seeped deep into their bones as well.

I could see their looks of aversion falling on me occasionally when I passed them by.

One day, on a very normal day, it happened, I bumped into one of them. "Pervert", she screamed. "Toad lusting after swans meat.", they said again and my life... was cruel again.

I was thrown out of this academy too, why? because I wasn't able to become a mid-level mage acolyte after 3 years. Yeah, right, of course, that was the reason.

I exhaled the murky breath in my lungs. I was going home. I was delighted, but my parents were replaced by demons. Most probably.

They clogged me, with disappointment radiating from their eyes. My mother even shed tears as she beat me. Why? Why!? I wanted to know as well.

I sat alone in my room after that. I wondered many things, but I could figure none of them out.

No other academy near our city was willing to take me in. Those that did charge amounts of gold and spirit stones that my family wouldn't be able to afford even if they sold their house.

I could still cultivate to increase my mana and advance, although I wouldn't be able to learn corresponding magic spells, it wasn't a problem. I would rather stumble out in the dark than be bullied in the light.

I began mixing in with people my parents always told me to avoid.

But when I couldn't mix in with my parents, I didn't... avoid those people.

Out there in the dirty streets, where shouts of the vendors and haggling ladies made up most of the noise, how many 'evil' people were supposed to be there? Wouldn't these aunties beat them if they really were?

I received my answer pretty quickly and it was a resounding, 'No'. A savage-looking brute appeared at the end of the marketplace, carrying a teenager in his hands.

The boy screamed and pleaded, yet the brute didn't let him off. "You have offended me, bastard, now just wait to be sold and be a good slave.", He said to the boy, laughing, uncaring that everyone was hearing what he just said.

The world was really quite dangerous, I concluded as I remembered the fearsome brute and his loud voice but somewhere within me, I also desired to be him.

I wanted to look at the world from the lens of a bully. How would it feel to have revenge for the slightest offense against people? How would it feel to slap any swan and their followers if they screamed 'pervert' at me?

I smiled. It felt good to dream.

I went to sleep, dreaming before my mother came to remind me to try hard to get into another academy again.

The next day, I subconsciously visited that part of the market again, hoping to see that brute. He didn't come this time.

I learned from the people that he was a bandit. Since he had appeared there yesterday, people were still afraid of him. He wasn't a mage, he was a warrior.

How do mages differ from warriors? Mages train to cultivate their mana core and cast magic spells to take down enemies. Warriors forcefully keep mana within their veins and meridians to make them bigger, tougher, and stronger. When their body is suited to let mana in and out seamlessly, they train each part of their body to store mana and use it as a weapon to fight mages.

It was a very risky path, but it was the only path for those without talent, much like me. After all, for those with ambitions far bigger than themselves, dying as a nobody while trying their best is better than living as a nobody while bearing the weight of the world.

Still, it was not like the process of cultivation as a warrior was random and just anyone could do it. There were thousands of people that died believing otherwise every day.

I... needed a mentor, and there was none better than that brute for now.

Next to several days, I kept searching for that guy. My mother came to inform me once that there was one magic academy in the city adjacent to us that was willing to take me in since I was already a mid-level mage acolyte through my own efforts.

I couldn't say no. I had no other choice. I agreed to save my face a little.

The next day, I took a carriage and went there. I only reached in the evening. The city walls of this city were far bigger than ours. This left me with a sinking sensation. In their shadows, I was reminded of the correlation between the walls of a city and the strength of its people. Since the people there were already so bullying then how would the stronger people be?

I had to check in to the academy the next day, so for the next few hours, I decided to just wander around to check how the city was really like.

From the bustling marketplaces to the dark alleyways, I just kept walking like a curious passerby. Some people gave me weird looks, but they couldn't be weirder than the looks of the kids who said, 'Toad lusting after swan's meat'.

I shook my head. Life is just a series of traumas that I kept trying to forget.

Suddenly, I turned around. Over my shoulder, I felt a menacing presence. It was the same brute I was searching for in my city.

He behaved like a King over there, showing supreme dominance but here though, he was wearing a tattered robe and a cloak to hide his face. Perhaps, because the people in this city were stronger as I guessed.

He smiled at me, to scare me, perhaps. "Finally found you...", I said and smiled back at him.