Under the bright afternoon sun, a young boy with smooth light brown hair was working out, doing push-ups, squats, training his body in ways that little kids like him shouldn't be doing, yet he was doing it perfectly fine.
It had been four years now.
Ariel was now a seven years old boy.
He began working out at the age of five because he couldn't stand the way his father returned home beaten up.
It filled him with anger, and what made him even angrier was how his father and mother stayed silent about it without taking action.
If it were Earth, Ariel knew that the person beating his father might end up in prison for their actions.
And no matter how Ariel tried to convince them to take action, they wouldn't listen. In fact, it even caused a serious fight with his parents, which they later resolved but still didn't tell him what was going on, telling him that he was still a child and wasn't yet ready to face it.
Only if they knew that Ariel was someone who had reached his early thirties in his previous life. A veteran at handling burdensome problems and looking at them with bored expressions.
Since they wouldn't listen, Ariel decided to be patient with them as well, but he also decided to train himself.
Back when he was still alive on Earth, around his mid-twenties during one of his sightseeing trips, Ariel was ambushed by a group of armed robbers.
Luckily for him, they were interested in taking money, not lives, they only killed people who tried to disturb their mission.
At that time, Ariel was powerless, unable to fight back. But after surviving that ordeal, he decided to learn martial arts, both attacks and defense, so he would never be helpless again.
As someone who had always been interested in visual fights in anime or films, Ariel was highly motivated by martial arts.
Before, he lacked the drive, but that robbery incident made him reconsider and finally pursue training.
He chose to learn Kung Fu, inspired by the fluid movements he had seen in movies.
It took him two and a half years to complete beginner-level training and another two years to properly learn intermediate techniques. But eventually, he got bored.
After spending five years away from home learning survival skills, he returned.
But now in his new life, it seemed he must properly train to defend himself and his family if he didn't want anyone to get hurt, especially his father, who sometimes returned home beaten.
Thankfully, somehow, Ariel could still remember every technique and skill from his past life training.
And there was one thing that baffled him the most: it was his body.
He noticed he was significantly stronger than kids his age physically and later realized he inherited it from his mother.
His mother, Eyla, looked frail and weak, but her body held strength that even surpassed his father, Huston.
Ariel realized that his mother might be as strong as advanced Kung Fu masters back on Earth, yet she was scared of the outside world.
This realization made him take his Kung Fu training seriously and start right from five years of age.
A little girl with long black hair tied in twin ponytails came from inside the house and saw Ariel training hard.
It was Uriel.
Her grey eyes sparkled excitedly as she watched her twin brother train.
She always trained with Ariel, but while she wasn't as physically gifted like him, she sometimes pushed herself too hard.
Ariel didn't stop her; in fact, he taught her the basics of Kung Fu, enough to prevent her from collapsing or injuring herself.
He also taught her something else she could practice whenever she had the time: he taught her English, so they could have secret conversations out loud without anyone understanding what they were saying.
To Ariel, he now had a sister and a disciple at the same time.
"Ariel!" Uriel called out excitedly.
Sweaty and sticky, Ariel took a deep breath as he stopped training and turned to look at Uriel, who was walking toward him, waving her hands excitedly.
Ariel smiled and asked,
"What's making you very happy now?"
It didn't take long for Uriel to arrive in front of him and shove the book she was holding into his hands.
"Look! Look! I'm able to form a new word with the English letters!" Uriel said excitedly.
"Ooh! Let me see!" Ariel said, a huge surprised smile spreading across his face.
"Here! Here!" Uriel turned the book for him and showed the word.
Ariel: (■-■)
"What? What's with that look?" Uriel asked nervously as her excited face began to sadden a little.
The word she wrote wasn't new to Ariel; in fact, it was an insult used among people.
"Mongrel."
"Haaa!" Ariel sighed. "Uriel, it's good that you are improving, but this isn't a new word. It's actually used to abuse others." He explained gently.
Uriel's expression fell, disappointed that what she thought she had created already existed.
"But it's great that you're now able to connect letters to form words. If you continue at this pace, you might reach my stage or even surpass my English knowledge," Ariel encouraged.
Uriel's saddened eyes lit up at Ariel's praise.
"Really?!"
"Yes! Just keep it up and you will see!"
"Yay!!" Uriel shouted excitedly.
Ariel smiled hard. He liked this twin sister of his very much and would do everything in his power to keep her away from harm.
But at that moment, chaos erupted inside their home.
BANG! CRAANK!!
The sound of the door slammed loudly, and things scattered inside the house, crashing and rattling.
"What's happening?" Uriel asked, fear creeping into her voice.
"Stay behind me and don't get far from me." Ariel said, standing in front of her protectively.
Uriel nodded, and Ariel led her inside the house.
When they reached the main room, they saw scattered chairs and tables. The door was broken.
Amidst the chaos were four men and a woman standing in the middle. Their faces showed they were not here for peace but something far worse.
What shocked Ariel the most was that these people were completely different from ordinary humans.
This was the first time in seven years since his reincarnation that Ariel had encountered anything so out of the ordinary.
Dark elves.