Chapter 32 32 – Rose Sue
Hearing his grandfather apologize to him made Ken raise one eyebrow in surprise. He didn't expect this treatment, but he also didn't believe this apology was as sincere as it sounded.
'Does he think I will sacrifice my life for the family if he acts nicely? I guess his thoughts aren't so wrong when he sees me as a 6-year-old. Most kids would do their best to get recognition and love from their family.'
"Thank you, Grandfather."
"Take those two tokens. The black one is for our family; the guards will not block your way when you come home. The blue one is for our sect; you are officially an inner disciple in our sect, although unranked. You can learn about the different types of top lists of our sect later, you must be tired and hungry after your long travel."
After a short pause, the patriarch continued.
"I assigned Rose to show you around, she's the youngest daughter of your first uncle, and she turned 16 lately. I'm sure you two can get along well."
He didn't tell Ken, but Rose was very difficult not to get along with, and that's the reason he gave her the job of introducing the family and the sect to Ken, who had a bad impression of them.
The patriarch didn't plan to suppress Ken, although he also planned to use his alchemy skills for the family. Unlike Norman, he didn't care if Ken becomes strong enough to take revenge later for his mother.
Dominic cared about strength; if Ken took revenge, it meant he was much more important to the family than Norman. His only mistake was assuming that Ken will differentiate between him and the ones who hurt his parents.
As soon as Ken left the main hall, a female servant approached him and bowed.
"Young Master, I'm Soleil, and I'll be your maid from now on. Please tell me if there's anything I can improve."
Ken looked at her with a weird gaze while thinking she should start with her name, but just nodded.
'Maybe it's just a name for maids.'
She led him to a separate small house in the large yard and gestured to come in.
"Young Master, this is your personal house. You also have a room in the main mansion, but normally everyone prefers to sleep in their personal houses rather than share the main mansion."
"All right, thank you."
Ken took a short tour inside the house and found it rather small but fitting for his needs, given that he was living there alone. There was one small bedroom with a large bed that took most of its space, one study with a furnace and a desk, and one training room with a fixed Qi Gathering Formation.
As a still-developing child, he needed a lot of sleep, so after having dinner he went straight to bed and had a long dreamless night's sleep.
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"Good morning, Young Master. Young Lady Rose had come to take you out for breakfast with her, would you like to accept her invitation?"
Soleil greeted Ken as soon as he left his room in the morning. He thought about it for a moment and chose to agree.
"Sure, let her wait in the living room and serve her tea. I will be there when I'm ready."
Ken took a quick shower and changed his clothes. He found robes fitting his size perfectly waiting for him clean and folded when he came out of the shower. The robes were blue colored, indicating his status as an inner disciple, with black embroidery of a tortoise, which was the symbol of the Sue family.
When he entered the living room, he found a girl that had the typical Sue black hair and dark brown eyes, but she seemed much livelier than the others he had met. She was pretty with a slender waist and moderate curves and radiated the cheerfulness of a young teenage girl.
"Aw, you're so pretty! Are you really a boy?"
"As you can see from my outfit, yes."
"Well, hi Ken. I'm Rose Sue, but you can call me Big Sister or Big Sister Rose. Let's go out, I've already reserved a table in a good restaurant in the sect. I figured you might prefer a small group for your first time around, so I only invited Little Dean and Little Aya to dine with us."
"Who are they?"
"Dean is the son of Second Aunt, whom you still didn't meet. He is 10 years old and has just started his cultivation journey, so you have much in common. I heard you started cultivating already despite being only six, this is so impressive!"
"I'm in the Soul Strengthening Stage."
"Oh."
There was an awkward silence for a moment. Rose misunderstood the words "started cultivating" and thought he just started, which was already amazing for a 6-year-old, so she never imagined he was already at the third stage.
"Ahm, anyway, Aya is his big sister and she is 12 years old. Most of her Major Meridians are already awakened, she's very cute and talented. I'm sure you can get along with her."
She said with the same cheerfulness as before despite the change in circumstances. Originally, she brought Dean as a peer and a potential friend while Aya was supposed to become a big sister role model to him. But with his strength much above theirs, bringing them was a bad idea.
"All right, sure."
They passed by the siblings' house and a maid was sent to bring them. Evidently, they were already prepared since they came out within a minute in their blue robes.
After a short introduction, the four left the family's territory and went to the city in the sect. Since there were tens of thousands of people in the sect, there was a medium size city inside. The city offered a variety of attractions, and fancy food was one of the more popular ones among the rich young generation.
"I'm taking you to the Northern Tortoise Restaurant. It belongs to our family so I could reserve a VIP room on short notice."
Ken soon found himself in front of a 4 floors restaurant with a fancy "Northern Tortoise Restaurant" plaque, and the four went in.
"Young Ladies, Young Masters. Please come to the top floor. We've reserved room number 2 for you."
The four sat down and waited for the food to arrive.
"Big Sister, what's your cultivation stage?"
Ken decided to start collecting information about common sense in the sect.
"I'm at the peak of the Soul Strengthening Stage, like you."
"Big Sister, aren't you wrong? You've told us Brother Ken was only 6, how can he be at the same stage as you?"
Dean asked her after hearing her words. He felt like Rose was tricking them; he was told they were going out for breakfast with a 6-year-old boy who just started cultivating, yet everything seemed wrong.
First, the supposed boy was too beautiful, second, he seemed to be around 10 years old rather than 6, and third, Rose just said he was at the third stage and not the first stage as he originally thought.
"This is a misunderstanding. Little Brother Ken is already at the third stage."
"Then, will he form his core soon?"
·ƈθm Aya finally spoke with a meek voice. She didn't open her mouth ever since she lay her eyes on Ken, and her cheeks blushed slightly as soon as she tried to speak.
"I don't think so, Aya. Although I could already form my core, I will only do it when I achieve the realm of Small Success with my saber art and movement technique, which would take me around a year or two. If Ken wants a powerful core, he has to do the same first or his strengths will not shape his core."
Ken decided to find out more about the sect in this chance.
"And can I get manuals and arts?"
"You can. You can have free access to the techniques treasury we have at the main mansion with your family token, and you can have access to the sect's treasury with your inner disciple treasury. However, you can only take 3 manuals or fighting arts out, so choose them carefully."
"Can I read as many as I want inside the treasury if I don't take them out?"
"Yes, but you shouldn't. You must memorize your techniques, and you can only have time to get proficient in a limited number of arts. You might not know it, but breaking through in your cultivation is extremely hard if you passed 40% of your lifespan, so you should focus."
'My lifespan should be above 150 years old with my cultivation's base and foundation. By that logic, I have until I'm 60 years old. At least the danger of having my brain collapse is mainly gone.'
Ken also wondered if God had anything to do with his family getting attacked when he was 6. In a sense, God's promise to keep him safe until he was 6 just expired when Norman and Krone attacked.
"Is it true that many people die in the sect?"
"It's true, but not many dare kill someone from the Sue Family, so you're much safer than the normal disciple."
"And what about our own family?"
Rose hesitated this time before answering. She didn't want to scare her new cousin.
"It depends. Our family is very widespread, and there is fierce competition. If you're careful you should be fine."
Rose said with a forced smile and Ken nodded in understanding. As he guessed, Rose's personality didn't represent the family well.