From “The book of mandates”

  Mandate 1 - The Sovereignty of the high priest

  Every village beneath the dominion of Great Yiho must possess a high priest. High priests are those who have been chosen after many trials and have proven their worth before God Yiho. Thus, these men are an extension of his authority, and they shall guide their village closer to Yiho’s divine will.

  “You’re a complete and utter failure!” Pawan’s crimson eyes locked onto Yuuki, who stood across from him. Pawan’s study was dimly lit, and he stood with his back to the window. The sunlight illuminated his silver hair, which resembled Yuuki’s own. However, Pawan’s countenance gave his hair the appearance of furious white flames. Contrasting his brown skin, alongside his glowering red pupils.

  “How am I going to have the face to stand outside now that you have returned?” Pawan said.

  Yuuki had the same silver hair as his father, which he wore long and tied up. However, he stood a head shorter, and Pawan was practically looking down on him. He wore a red shirt and black trousers, and he nervously clutched the ice fang necklace on his collarbone as he stood before his father. The only thing separating the two of them was the colour of their eyes. Pawan’s a raging red, and Yuuki’s an ice blue.

  “But, father–” Yuuki protested.

  “Silence!” Pawan roared, slamming his fist down on the table in front of him.

  Yuuki recoiled, his words catching in his throat.

  “I endured great shame in sending my son, the child of a high priest of the Sun God, to the Life Villages in order to learn their strange, pagan ways of cultivation.” Pawan said. “Yet you have failed to even take on their primitive techniques.”

  Yuuki felt a tightness in his chest. Every word Pawan spoke was like a fiery blade, jabbing deep into his skin.

  Their techniques were far from primitive, he wanted to say. Yuuki had tried desperately to learn their techniques, spending months studying under the village shaman. However, when he met the two–headed dragon turtle, the totemic beast of the life village. He was turned away immediately, being told he was not ‘suitable’ for life magic.

  After that, the shaman told him ‘There was nothing left for him there.’ and sent him back home. Yuuki protested, but she did not explain further.

  Yuuki’s eyes darted around the room, quivering as they landed on his father’s face, who was staring directly at him.

  The room seemed to turn darker, and Pawan’s eyes glowed dark red. “It is unfortunate that a child with eyes like yours was born into our family.” Pawan’s lip curled in anger, or contempt. “Those heathen blue eyes like none other. Your mother tried too hard to shelter you, and it was my mistake to leave her to it. I should have known a woman would be incapable of raising a man Yiho would approve of.”

  Yuuki's arms trembled, and the guilt, anger, and fear mingled inside of him as he stared at his father. He couldn’t hear the words being spoken, but simultaneously, he could, and each of them cut deep.

  “Your sister is nearing Rank 1 at age Twenty-five, over thirty years ahead of her peers,” Pawan said. “You stand before me, Nineteen years of age, not having formed a single drop of magic blood!”

  Yuuki lowered his head, knowing there was nothing he could do when his father became enraged. He just had to stay still, and hope it would pass.

  But this time, it will not pass. He thought.

  This had been his last chance to learn magic, to cultivate. And he had failed.

  Yuuki’s eyes felt hot, and he turned his head down towards the floor. He couldn’t bear to look his father in the eyes any longer, or maybe he just didn’t want to be seen looking so pathetic.

  Pawan seemed to agree with his sentiment.

  “Get out of my sight, and it’s best you don’t let anyone see you,” Pawan said. “I will begin making arrangements to send you to a distant church, where at least you can prove of some use worshipping Yiho, and repenting so hopefully, in your next life, you will not be so accursed.”

  Yuuki imagined himself cleaning floors, doorways and stained glass windows. Forced to live one way, and only one way, shackled by the church for the rest of his life. The very thing that had broken his family apart.

  “Father, please reconsider,” Yuuki pleaded. “I still have time. I can try to again to learn Sun Magic–”

  “Enough!” Pawan said. He sunk down into his chair, and suddenly, something crept past the anger. His father, always stern, always righteous, suddenly looked tired. His brow had more wrinkles than Yuuki remembered, and his silver hair now spotted traces of thinning and white.

  “These are my own failures as a father and leader.” Pawan sighed. “I failed to guide you down Yiho’s path, and this is my punishment for it. Go, Yuuki. Please, just leave.”

  Yuuki swallowed, and he found himself out of the doorway without a second thought. He should have felt relieved, no longer being in his father’s presence. But something still caught in his throat, and his eyes watered, and his jaw trembled.

  How could he have brought so much shame upon his family?

  Upon himself?

  On his mother?

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Oof.”

  Yuuki felt himself bump into something hard, and he stumbled backwards, feeling like he had just walked into a brick wall.

  “You alright there, kid?” A familiar voice spoke in front of him.

  Yuuki quickly dried his eyes, and he looked up, blinking rapidly. A hulking figure towered over him. Nearly 7 feet tall. His body was rounder than Yuuki remembered, and as his eyes focused, Yuuki noticed there was a slight flush to the man's white-skinned cheeks.

  Yuuki blinked twice, noting the figure’s brown hair and steel-blue eyes. It wasn’t a wall he had walked into; it was a man.

  “Victor?” Yuuki asked.

  “Yuuki?” The man proffered a plump hand, which Yuuki accepted. He felt his body jerk as Victor easily pulled him up from the ground. Yuuki steadied himself on his feet from being picked up so fast.

  “You’re back, ey?” Victor said, hiding a slight hiccup.

  “Are you drinking on the job again?” Yuuki hissed.

  “Nonsense,” Victor smiled. His once sharp chin had become much rounder than before. “I’m a–” Victor Hiccupped. “Being a Mythril adventurer, I don’t get drunk.”

  Yuuki sighed, turning to the doorway.

  For a moment, Victor’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced from Yuuki to his father’s study.

  Yuuki felt his face turn hot in shame as Victor’s gaze lingered on his father’s door.

  He put a hand on Yuuki’s shoulder and nodded to him before walking off.

  “Use the Bastodon’s door,” Victor said. “There’s nobody that way.”

  Yuuki walked off, his fists clenched. Of course, people would look down on him. He was a failure, after all. Everybody would soon know the failure. Yuuki had returned, accomplishing nothing.

  Yuuki walked through the dim corridors of his home. The Sun wood made up everything, from the dim corridors to the floorboards that echoed with each of Yuuki's footsteps. They lived in the temple to the Sun God, after all. The forever resounding prayers and music from the temple room reverberated through the walls, giving them a slight vibration.

  He reached a large, square double door that resembled a fence gate. Pushing it open, Yuuki squinted at the sheer amount of sunlight blazing in from the outside. Blinking his eyes to adjust, his eyes came into focus. The outdoor room had grass that reached up to Yuuki’s ankles, and a winding, towering Sun Tree. Its ginger leaves contrasted the green grass, and crimson, spiralling fruits dangled from the branches.

  This sun tree was ever fruiting, and its leaves were ever ginger. There were no seasons in the Southern Hemisphere, and it provided the perfect food source for the Bastodon.

  A deep huff came from the room, and Yuuki turned his eyes towards a massive boulder, double Yuuki’s height in the corner. This was his father’s Bastodon, a creature with a tough, rocky hide like armour. It resembled something between a hippo and a rhino. Its long, club-like tail was perfect for crushing the skulls of predators, and the Tusks and horns on its face, though mostly ornamental, gave it an extra layer of defence.

  This one creature provided sustenance to the entire village.

  And it was at Rank 1.

  It was at a level Yuuki could only dream of.

  The rays of sunlight crashed down on Yuuki as he stared up at the clear blue sky. His sister told him that Sun energy felt comfortable, almost like a warm hug.

  To Yuuki, the sunlight felt like a suffocating blanket that was always there, something from which he could never escape.

  Was it because he lacked any magic that he felt this way?

  He closed his eyes, sitting down cross-legged on the prickly grass. Yuuki repeated the same procedure that his father had drilled into him countless times.

  “The Day is when Yiho’s power is strongest. Close your eyes, breathe rapidly. Light is fast, light is everywhere, attune yourself to Yiho.”

  Yuuki took several quick breaths, like he was hyperventilating.

  “Now, sense the surroundings. Find the sun's energy, concentrate, and search for the magic.”

  Yuuki saw nothing but blackness behind his closed eyelids.

  He concentrated.

  And he waited.

  And he concentrated. And hyperventilated like his father taught him.

  But, like always, there was nothing. No magical energy, no sun energy, not even other energies. There was just nothing.

  “Damn it!” Yuuki shouted. The Bastodon opened an armoured eye to stare at the source of the noise, but closed its eye once it registered him in its field of vision.

  Yuuki tried to stand up off the ground, but his limbs felt slow, like his body was being weighed down. He took a deep breath, trying to push the lump in his throat back down.

  Yuuki squeezed his eyes tightly and reopened them. Whenever he felt overwhelmed, he found shutting everything out often helped.

  And it did.

  It would remind him of his mother’s words.

  ‘If ever I’m not there, Yuuki,’ she’d tell him. ‘Just close your eyes, think of me, and even if I can’t hold you, Yiho knows I’ll be watching.’

  Those words brought him peace when things went wrong, as they so often did.

  “I should pay respects to my mother,” Yuuki thought.

  He walked over to the corner of the room, and what he saw made his eyes grow wide in shock.

  Tendrils of grass had grown long and wound around a stone carving. Dirt and moss covered the stone, and its appearance was completely unrecognisable.

  “How could they leave her tombstone in such a state?” Yuuki spat. “How could Taiyo and father leave her monument like this?”

  His whole body tightened in anger, and Yuuki knelt down in front of the piece of stone. He began pulling away at the weeds, ripping them off his mother’s memorial.

  This was a monument to celebrate her life and remember her death.

  And they had forgotten it.

  Yuuki brought some water from the Bastodon’s pond. He thought he heard it huff as he scooped out the water. He began washing off the dirt and moss with a rag he found nearby.

  The Sun dipped, it would be time for the set feast soon, but Yuuki cleaned every crevice of the stone monument. He would give his mother the same dedication she had given him in life, and nothing less.

  He hated her for dying. Hated her for not being there.

  But she had given him more love than anyone else in the world.

  He could never truly hate her.

  By the time Yuuki was done, the sun had gone down, and a full moon had risen into the sky. The moonlight seemed to shine down brighter where he stood, though he was sure it was a trick of the eyes.

  Unlike the sun, the moon felt calm, peaceful.

  Yuuki stared at his mother's monument. Underneath all that dirt and grime, a masterwork carving was beneath. A monument of a scroll, with Yiho’s divine mandates inscribed there.

  This monument existed to celebrate her life. His father had paid a lot of money and commissioned an international stone worker to come build it. His mother was an intelligent woman, maybe the most intelligent person he knew.

  But even after spending so much, his father had allowed the monument to reach such a state after only a few short years.

  It was all just for face; he thought.

  Yuuki clenched his fists, and as he bathed in the moonlight, he felt something different. He set his jaw and narrowed his eyebrows. He looked up at the sky, not in defeat, not in sadness, but in determination.

  Yuuki clasped his hands in front of him and bowed to the monument.

  “Mother, I will become a mage,” he said. “No matter what.”