Episode 12

While his parents get interrogated by their friends in their child raising, Gabriel just arrives at the group of friends who are chatting away. He stands behind them awkwardly, he doesn't know how to interact with other children close to his age and was thinking of millions of ways how to start a conversation.

But it seems he didn't have to worry any longer, a boy with blue hair and deep blue eyes, as if seeing the sea and seems to be the oldest already noticed Gabriel, and his predicament. He looks at his friends and then at Gabriel, so they get to notice the new boy too.

"Hello, is there something you need?"

The older boy walks up to Gabriel and spoke to him, Gabriel looks up at the boy and quickly did a noble bow.

"Um! Uh.. y-yes! Oh um actually no. No wait um! I- I was actually sent here by the adults, they said their children are here, so they send me here to interact with you all. Oh! I'm sorry, I should introduce myself first, my name is Gabriel Envoy" Gabriel was stumbling with his words, he was nervous since this will be the first time he got to speak to children his age, he didn't know why he was rambling on and felt that he is making the situation go downhill.

'You idiot! Did you forget all that etiquette classes and how to begin conversations just like that!'

Gabriel started to reprimand himself and didn't know what else to say.

The older boy can see Gabriel's dilemma and looked at where the boy pointed at, only to see his mother give him one of those looks 'you better behave! Or else.'

When he thought that was what the look signifies, he can only let out a self pity laugh, he then turns back to the awkward kid.

'He seems to be 10 or so years old, this is the first time I have ever seen him' the older boy looks at Gabriel and the first thing he notices was the light mocha skin of the boy, it represents the boy being of mixed blood, since in this area there are few who have such skin, the boy has soft wavy hair, the color of mixed green, but the one that pops out the most was emerald.

Then the eyes that were round, the irises a mix of emeralds and dark pink, giving his a unique feel, like a rose blooming while surrounded by greenery. The boys lips downturn, but all together, seems like a lost forest nymph, descending the first time in human society.

While thinking that, the boy leaves his thoughts and smiles down at the kid.

"Hello Gabriel, my name is Jonathan, I'm the son of Mike and Elena Topaz, it's a pleasure to meet you, from what I can see, you must be the son of uncle Luke and aunt Ivory."

The boy reaches his hand out to shake Gabriel's. When he saw how welcoming the older boy was, Gabriel smiled, flowers seem to bloom out around him, causing Jonathan to feel even more so as if Gabriel matches a tree nymph.

Taking Jonathan's hand and shaking it, Gabriel was too happy that he didn't let go after, causing Jonathan to stare at their hands. The boy just sighs and turns to his friends, adjusting the hands so they were holding hands and not in an awkward handshake pose. Gabriel became even more happy and started to swin their arms a bit.

"...I see a puppy wagging his tail happily." One of the children blurt out, while another hits her in the back of the head for speaking her thoughts out loud, yet they were all thinking the same thing.

"Guys, this is Gabriel, the son of uncle Luke and aunt Ivory, introduce yourself to him."

"Hey, I'm Adam, 12 years old, son of John and Emerald Evergreen" The boy had marigold hair, the eyes the same with a mixture of honey, giving a autumn calming feel, the exact opposite of his personality, then another girl pushes the boy away and does a lady bow,"and I'm Eve, daughter of John and Emerald Evergreen, twin sister of Adam." Her hair was the color of honey, but the eyes the same as Adam's.

Then another girl approaches and has her arms crossed in front of her, "I am Sapphire, daughter of Jaydon and Lola Riverson. I'm 8 years old"

The girl had an aloofness of a proud peacock, her hair the color of a peacock blue, and her eyes a shamrock green with her hairs blue.

"I'm Ivy and he is Azure, we were named mostly for our hair colors, they got the idea from Sapphire's mommy and daddy. We are Mike and Elena Topez kids too, I'm 6 and Azure is 3, nice to meet you!" A perky girl raises her hand and drags her younger brother with her, his face shy and hiding behind her.

Gabriel felt overwhelmed with everyone's introduction, but still bowed.

"A pleasure to you Adam and Eve Evergreen, Sapphire Riverson and Ivy, and Azure Topaz."

He memorized everyone's names in just less than a minute, surprising the kids and even Jonathan. But what surprises him more is that Gabriel still hasn't let go of his hand, making him feel as if he ended up gaining an extra sibling.

'Why am I the only older one here? Couldn't there have been one at least born the same age or something.' While the boy was thinking that and watching Gabriel talk and get to know the other kids.

He finally seems to relax after a while more, and let go of Jonathan's hand. While feeling the freedom of his hand and happily celebrating it. He ended up losing that bit of freedom when a group of other children, his age range approaches the group.

Seeing the new kids and them being older and bigger than him, Gabriel quickly reaches out and holds Jonathan's hand again. Gabriel knows that the older boy doesn't seem to be used to holding hands with him, especially because they just met, but for some reason, he felt that Jonathan is reliable and trustworthy, so he ended up leaning on him for support.

"Good evening Jonathan, it's been a week since springbreak, and I see even away from the academy,you are babysitting a bunch of nobodies."

The boy greeted Jonathan, but it seems he didn't come for just a hello. The other boys and few girls chuckled and giggled.

"And I see that you don't have any other line than those, aren't you tired saying the same thing each time we see each other outside or even inside the academy?" Jonathan didn't even react to the boys words, his tone holding a hint of contempt.

"You...! And I see you still have that eyes filled with contempt and don't try to even hide it."

"Oh? I'm surprised you were finally able to notice it, but then again, going through this routine again and again, you must have noticed it, surprised you hadn't the first 10 times we spoke."

Jonathan didn't light up on the insults, he even smirked and looked like he was laughing at the guy.

"You have no manners, no wonder your only surrounded by low class people." The boy sneered at Jonathan, and those who follow behind sneered too and raised their heads as if they are looking down on them.

"I can say the exact same thing to you, but rather than low class, you just surround yourself with low brain functioning people, but that must be good news for you, since you can act as if you have a triple digit IQ when in reality, you don't."

Jonathan quickly shot that comeback that makes Gabriel understand that he is a professional at snarky comments.

"Y-YOU!!" The boy points at Jonathan and then notices Gabriel. He knew he couldn't win against Jonathan, so he switched targets to this boy, especially when he remembered the conversation of his parents with their friends. Jonathan notices the change of targets and furrow his brows, he pulls Gabriel from the hand to hide behind him.

"Don't be a lowlife Nora, he is just a boy in his first outing, leave him out." Jonathan knew his parents send the boy here, because he wouldn't be discriminated with them protecting him.

He knew what Gabriel's parents had to suffer through to get married, and knew what their child will go through if he was left alone without any help.

"Hoh? No need to be in defense Jonathan, I'm just curious to know how the boy feels knowing he may actually never know how to use magic because of the blood mixed in his veins."

Nora didn't stop and didn't wait for Jonathan to move the boy away, and he knew he got the kids attention when he looked at him with shock and walked to the side, away from hiding behind Jonathan.

"Wh-what do you mean by that?" Gabriel's words were trembling, his eyes held shock and a sense of loss.

"You didn't know? You must have noticed the difference between you and the others, well other than your skin, what really makes you different and... well... an abomination is what mixed blood you have."

"NORA!! Enough!" Jonathan raised his voice and glared daggers at him, his hand holding tightly to Gabriel's limp one, before he can say more he hears Gabriel's feeble voice beside him.

"My mixed blood... I know my mother is from the beastman race, but what does that have anything to do with me not being able to use magic."

"Just that? The problem isn't that your mother is from the beastman race, have you really not noticed?" The boy knew he got Gabriel in his hands, he looked down at him and had an evil look in his eyes, even when he was smiling warmly at Gabriel.

"Your mother doesn't have the traits of a beastman, she doesn't have the animal ears or tail, not even the magic that they all would have always mixed as their affinity magic. What's more, her hair and eyes, they hold no real color, it's just a dull white, she can't use magic. Have you really never noticed it?"

Gabriel feels his heart tighten, because he knew what the guy means, he knew but ignored it. Jonathan tried to walk up to the boy, but Gabriel held onto his hand tight, he wanted to know, even if he might not like it.

Nora knew he had him, and he continued even when Jonathan looked as if he was getting ready to beat him.

"Your mother does have beastman blood, but she has more than that, she has demon blood too, she is an abomination that shouldn't have existed, everyone knows that the demon tribe can never have a child out of their race, even if they marry out of their race, they can never bear fruit a child, and yet, your mother was one such thing, and the gods will never forgive such creatures, that why they take away the ability of magic from such things, and you, born from such a thing, is cursed to suffer the same, your children's children will suffer it, you being born has caused your father to lower a class in nobility, you are a mutant that can never use magic."

The boy felt a sense of triumph when he saw Gabriel's eyes grow dim, his face crumble up.

But before he can gloat anymore, he was punched to the floor, Jonathan got on top of him to throw more punches, the two boys ended up swinging at each other, and it was looking bad for Jonathan when Nora's companions joined in, but even then, Jonathan was still in the wining side, Adam even joined in while the girls backed away but cheered on Jonathan and Adam. They haven't noticed Gabriel leaving.

30 minutes before the fight. Gabriel's parents are being scolded with no rest about how the way they raised Gabriel was the worst parenting they could have done. That a child needed to be praised and feel the love of their parents, not the pressure of being the best.

"What were you thinking!? He wasn't able to be a child since the age of three, and you guys haven't even noticed the negative changes that he was going through, until now!?!"

John looked at his friend as if he was staring at an idiot.

"This type of mistake doesn't seem like something you would make Luke, you should know how hard it is for a child to grow in that type of environment, don't you remember your own family life? You even said you will never raise your son that way." Jaydon looked at his friend with disappointment and wonders what went wrong.

"You won't escape from blame either Ivory, how can you allow yourself make such a mistake? The boy doesn't even look like a normal child, he even looks awkward deciding for himself and looked at you guys for approval, and even then! He didn't expect you guys to agree, form that alone, you can see how your son thinks of you guys!"

Lola, looks up at Ivory with a pout, her face marked with a scowl. Ivory doesn't say anything and takes it all in.

Only when everyone finished saying their part, the couple began to talk.

"I know we did wrong, I'm ashamed it took us just today to see what are actions caused Gabriel to go through, we thought we were doing it for his own good, and were lead astray."

"We wanted to gain the emperor approval, and maybe even get the title of earl back, we thought as long as our son grows up and has the title of earl, people would have less things to say about his heritage. We thought if he can't be able to use magic, then maybe the more intelligent he is, then that can overshadow his disadvantage and people will forget he has demon blood mixed in too."

Ivory clenched her fist and had to hold back her tears.

"If only he wasn't born from me, then he wouldn't have to suffer looks of scorn and disgust, it's my fault for existing, even when something like me shouldn't."

"Don't say that! I knew of what would happen, but I will never regret loving you and marrying you. We knew what would happen in the future, that's why we tried so hard to make sure he has a promising future."

Luke holds his wife's hand and gently strokes her back to reassure her that it wasn't her fault, and they already knew what was going to come from this.

Watching their friends suffer for their child, they can only sigh.

"Well for now, you guys have to change how you raise him, he needs to be surrounded by friends rather than just homework, I wouldn't be surprised if he filled his head that his parents hate him or something."

Mark tries to ease up the atmosphere, but when they all thought of how he was raised till now, they all thought, 'maybe he does though?'.

Luke and Ivory froze at the thought and decided to speak to Gabriel after this. Before they could talk anymore, they heard a big commotion to the side, there was the noise of screams and a scuffle, they all turn there.

"Seems that their is a fight over there."

"Wow, they actually have the balls to fight in the crown prices's birthday, I really admire kids this days."

"...Mike, doesn't that boy seem very much like our eldest?'

".... I wanted to ignore the similarities, but that definitely is our boy..."

"..... And isn't that Adam over there kicking at a boy few years older than himself, John?"

"...haha...."

"And the girl with such spirit cheering them on is our Sapphire, isn't it Jaydon? Ah, Ivy just kicked a boy who fell on the floor because of Jonathan's uppercut..."

watching this unfold, they quickly ran to the kids, and tried pulling the boys away from each other, a few other men came to help too, and a while later, they were finally pulled apart. Jonathan had a bloody nose and Adam had a black eye, they had a split lip and their clothes were in disarray.

But if put next to the other boys, they actually seemed more presentable. The other boys had a bruised up face, their face was busted and they were a mess to look at, their clothing ripped here and there, they were just a mess.

When their parents arrived they were infuriated and wanted to start a fight with John and co. But couldn't since almost all are Earl's like them, so they really couldn't pressure them, especially when John and Mark have deep connections with merchants, the nobles worried it can effect their businesses, so they stopped and decided to send their children back home to recuperate.

Seeing everyone leave and continue their discussions again, and the knights who came because of the commotion too start to leave.

They decided to borrow a parlor especially reserved for visitors and started to treat Jonathan and Adam.

While getting ready to go, Ivory and Luke started to worry when they looked around.

"Have you guys seen Gabriel? Why isn't he here?"

Luke glances behind the children and then around the room, only to not be able to find their son, he started to panic a bit but before he and Ivory start to yell for Gabriel, Jonathan spoke.

"I'm sorry I didn't watch over him, I'll help look for him. It's my fault that he had to go through that. So I'll take responsibility and look for him too."

When they saw how serious the boy was and by what his words imply, it means something may have happened that caused Gabriel to leave by himself.

"No, it's fine, how about we talk in the parlor ok?"

They all agreed and decided to speak in the parlor of the incident. His parents were worried but then remember.

They are inside the palace walls, so no one can get in here and kidnap some kid. But they should have thought of other dangers that reside inside the palace walls.

Right at that moment that they decided to go to the parlor. Gabriel was walking at the royal garden without noticing how he got there and was face to face with a 5 year old child, looking at him with cold and fierce ruby red eyes, a tiny of silver mixed with it adding to the coldness.

His hair gently swaying by the wind, the color of maroon and crimson, as if a fire is blazing in the night. That was the meeting of the Emperor Mihkael and his longtime friend Gabriel.

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