Prologue Part 22
In the mountains of Marivale, Callistéa, there were two noblemen enjoying a lively hunting competition between themselves.
"Another one down!" One of them celebrated after shooting down a rabbit with their bow. "You better hurry up, my dear Reginald. You are falling farther and farther behind ha! ha! ha!." Reginald's face was a mixture of frustration, jealousy and annoyance as he watched his friend Claudio walk ahead of him. They were on a steep mountain with soft, damp soil, surrounded by tall trees and hard rocks of varying sizes.
They had been hunting for a few hours under the cloudy sky and were nearing the end of their competition. With time running out and a large point gap between them, Reginald was caught between giving up and trying to stage a comeback. He chose the second option.
Instead of following Claudio along their path, he chose to run away from their track to the other side of the mountain they had chosen to skip prior. "Hey! Where are you going, you imbecile?!" Claudio yelled from behind him. "That's none of your business Claudio!"
He kept on running, showing no intention of stopping anytime soon. Claudio couldn't guess what was going on in his mind and chose to follow after him. Reginald continued sprinting ahead, but before he could reach his desired destination, he tripped over a piece of rock and fell hard on the damp soil. "Ah! What the hell?!" He groaned in pain.
He caught his breath then turned his attention to the rock. That's when he noticed something interesting. The rock had a large crack on it, and through the crack, seeped a strange black liquid. He crawled over to the rock and touched the liquid with his fingers. It was cold, sticky and slimy, it was also really smooth. 'It feels so good on my fingers'
Reginald scooped up some more from the rock and began rubbing it all over his hands, fingers, and even his legs. He was having a lot of fun and he had completely forgotten about the hunting competition or the other side of the mountain.
But, as he was rubbing this liquid all over his hands and legs, it suddenly began moving around his body on its own. "W-wait, what?" His heart raced as he staggered back, trying to wipe the liquid off of him. But it was no use. It was stuck on him like glue. But that wasn't the worst part.
The liquid began seeping through the pores of his skin into his body. Reginald howled from the pain and discomfort, scratching his arms and legs against anything and everything. He even used his Spirit Seed to try and get rid of it, but to no avail. Once inside him, the black liquid raced throughout his entire body with frightening speed, tearing each and every muscle in his human body.
Soon he was effectively paralyzed as he quickly lost the will to move his body.
"Claudio! Claudio!!"
The liquid moved from his muscles to his organs, shutting them down one by one. Not too long after, the liquid reached his lungs, then his heart, and finally, his brain. The conquest of Reginald's body was completed.
Claudio rushed over to Reginald' side after hearing his desperate screams of terror. But when he got there, he found him lying on the ground, eyes open and empty, body unmoving. It was too late.
"Reginald? Reginald?!" Claudio slapped his face repeatedly but nothing changed. He kept slapping him repeatedly until he noticed the black liquid dripping out of his mouth. 'What in heaven's name?!'
He wiped some of it off his face using his fingers and inspected the strange liquid for himself. Then, at the corner of his eye, he noticed that a nearby rock was oozing the same liquid. He inched closer to the rock and scooped it up with his other hand. He felt the same sensation that Reginald did, cold, sticky and slimy, yet oddly smooth. As he carried on his inspection though, something terrifying happened…
The liquid on his fingers began to move, all on its own.
***
It was lunchtime at the MacRion High School, and right around the corners at the far end of the main building, something interesting was taking place. A small group of rowdy teenagers gathered around, screaming at and kicking a boy who was around half their size. The boy tried his hardest to protect as much of himself as he could as people threw their shoes, food and other random objects straight at him.
The leader of the group grabbed the boy's blonde hair and pulled it forcefully towards himself, then shoved the boy into the ground, leaving him exposed to more attacks. "Well congratulations Lord Matteo, thanks to you my parents think I'm a failure!" He kicked Matteo's shin with all his might. Matteo screamed from the pain but it didn't help him.
"You think you're so perfect just because everyone thinks you're a genius?" a teenage girl shouted from the background. "They call you the future of the world like you're some magical gift!"
"I am so sick of everyone treating him like he's some kind of god! He is literally a child! A stupid child who can't even stand up for himself!" Another girl shouted out.
Another guy added, "But because he's a little bit smart, now he thinks he's better than us!"
"I don't! I promise I don't!" Matteo tried to defend himself. "Oh, really?" The group leader said with a dark smile, "Well you certainly do a horrible job of showing it." He continued, "Do you know that last night, I had to sit in front of my father and explain to him why some snotty little child is getting better scores than me on all our special exams. And when I couldn't find an answer, my father beat me and locked me away in one of our rooms, forcing me to study until I memorized every detail! And when I failed he would beat me again and again and again! I now have brushes all over my body, bruises that you caused!
"Before you came here, I was the genius of this school. But now, you're taking everything away from me, and look what happened to me because of it! Because of you!" He showed Matteo one of his bruises.
"I-I'm sorry", Matteo whimpered, but the leader just clicked his tongue and kicked him again. Matteo screamed once more, clutching his stomach. "Shut up! If I see your name anywhere near the top ten rankings again, I'm going to-"
"Hey!" Everyone stopped in their tracks once the faculty member called out to them. "What is going on here?" The surrounding students all put on their most innocent expressions, "Oh, nothing serious sir, we were just playing around, but it seems we were a little too rough with Lord Matteo".
The faculty member glanced over at Matteo and asked, "Are you okay?" Matteo got up off the ground and replied, "Yes, it was just an accident that happened while we were playing". He kept his eyes on the floor the whole time, but he didn't need to look up to know that there were a chilling amount of death stares being pointed at him from all the teenagers there, and that he had to choose every word that came out of his mouth very carefully. It had been like that for the past year after all.
But, after his statement, the faculty member left, seeing no reason to stay there. Luckily for Matteo, all the other students left with him and he was finally alone again.