Tales Of The Legendary Scholar 21 Fred's Experiments

After Fred arrived home that day, the only thing in his mind was on why he was lacking in many ways.

On the way to the capital, he might have fought with the knights against the bandits but Sir Riquier and two more knights were there protecting him. Then this one incident in school where he had nothing much to use to protect himself. The urgency to become stronger bothered him much.

He had no other way to protect himself as much as Theo had to accompany him home. Helplessness nagged at him every time someone tried to protect him.

For him, coming here in the city was like living in a jungle. More predators lurking. Life here was full of luxuries that were absent in the village but he seemed to be on the run or had to face problems he never had before.

Those students running after him was more like an eye-opener for him. Why are they after him? If not for the forewarning, he couldn't imagine what might have happened to him.

But how to get stronger with nothing much but his brains and fast feet?

He was born with a disease he got from his mother's side. His arm muscles were not that strong due to this. His hands had no deformities but he experienced cramping or numbness when he carried heavy objects or even a simple movement of his arms.

So, running for exercise or for muscle strengthening became the best option that his father could think of for Fred.

Still, it was useless. Most of the fighting styles present were more on using weapons and hand to hand combat.

Everything came to a turn when his mother, at last, was able to contact the doctor who looked after their relatives with the same illness. And that was when he was already ten.

But it was not a cure but more on prevention from the symptoms to occur. He had to have less meat and more on vegetables and fruits in his diet.

After the sickness was controlled, his arms were able to carry things but he had to rest from time to time. He tried pulling a dierd bow his father made but he could only do it three times.

Later, he tried learning basic self-defense from the desert tribe who he met during their trades with the black wheat. However, their way was so crude that he had to bury his feet in the desert sands. Sadly, he only learned two moves and the traders left.

The first he learned was to hop and kick while using the sand as the weapon. The second one was moving one's feet as it moved with the lightness of the desert sands to avoid the enemies' attacks. But he needed time to develop both moves for he lacked teachers as a guide.

He tried to study fighting styles through books but nothing much to gain. Same story, arms, magic spells, and weapons.

When it comes to magic, he recalled the village teacher tried his affinity with magic using the magical tree of Sienboom.

There's nothing special of the tree with its appearance. It looked simple in the naked eye. But when someone with magical attributes touched its trunk, flowers from nowhere bloomed on its branches.

The flowers would show the strongest type of magical affinity a body had, whether it be to fire, water, plants, soil, air, and others. The tree's flowers would be covered with fire if the affinity was for fire and etc.

However, when he touched the trunk, no response, not even one.

For Fred, it was not a reason to give up. As he grew, he tried studying magic spells and tried chanting them, still, nothing happened.

What's left for him was his brain.

Since he lacked those other things, he indulged himself with reading. Books became a common sight in their house, as in literally they were in every corner of his room.

Even with gifts, his delight was on receiving a book than toys when he was young.

He studied a lot of things. Medicine was one of them since his mother was formerly an a.s.sistant doctor and a.s.signed by the king to look after the queen's health as she aged. Then later she was appointed as the queen's lady in waiting.

Then his father, who was already a Griftein Knight at this time, met his mother in the palace. And he fell in love with him and wooed her…

Ahem, I'm getting off track here because I love romance stories. Their side of the story had to wait for later.

We're still talking about Fred here.

Where are we? Ah, yes.

His curiosity with little things was so great that he had to study almost everything he saw. From stone, wood, ants, plants and more. He discovered different things and experimented with it. Thus, his knowledge grew.

Sometimes, his parents freaked out with his experiments. Just like when a bird almost died when he innocently tried letting the poor thing eat a fire insect.

"Why not let him eat this? We have a lot of these insects in the mining area," said the six-year-old Fred.

"Drech, the bird will die because this is a fire insect," said Lady Aenor.

"Why is it called fire insect when it has no fire?"

The mother had to think first before explaining further. "Yes, this insect has no fire but it will when it enters the bird's body."

"How?" The curious Fred continued to ask.

"You better show him the effect or he won't stop," said Louvel with a wink to his wife. The husband came for the rescue.

Louvel took a fire insect and smashed it with a stone and dropped some water on it. Then slowly the insect's dead body sparked and a small fire bloomed a minute or so after.

Fred's eyes grew big with what he saw and from then on he brought in these insects to help the cook start the fire. The cook had no way but to abide with his little master's whims even though he disliked the smell of the burning insect.

At first, the cook covered his nose when the insects' burning smell filled the kitchen.

But one cold morning, when the cook was suffering from sneezing spells, Fred told him not to cover his nose and a.s.sured he would be relieved soon. The cook didn't believe but when the little master showed him his puppy face, the cook reluctantly gave in and received the nasty smell.

Indeed, as what the young Fred said, his sneezing stopped and the stuffiness in his nose was gone after breathing the smoke for minutes.

Lady Aenor heard of it later and asked how did Fred learn of this. The little boy told her that he showed the burning insect to their neighbor's kid and the father had a stuffy nose at that time. Later, the father walked out with furrowed brows and scolded Fred of the nasty smell pervading their house. Then Fred reminded him that he could smell now and the man recoiled in shame. And shyly thanked him later.

When he was seven years old, his father brought him a black stone as a gift. It was from the field they were clearing for planting. Fred searched his books about this stone but found nothing. But his discoverer's heart would not easily give up. He tried submerging the stone underwater, nothing happened in particular.

He tried putting it in the flaming stove but nothing happened. Fred tried next on the fire insect's fire and was delighted to see the stone's outer part smoothened and crystallized. He poured water on it to douse the fire so he could show the stone to his mother. Somehow, the once s.h.i.+ny crystal went back to its dull state.

Fred threw it back in the fire insect's flame and its s.h.i.+ne was restored. He waited until the flame died and the s.h.i.+ne became permanent. He showed it to his father and the father showed it to a jeweler. With that experiment of his, the village's income became better and stable.

When he was eleven years old, he read about the greenwood and coincidentally met a traveling merchant who had a small block of this wood, but the merchant was disinclined to tell him of its secret.

Fred didn't give up as well and brought him many things to trade for the secret, still, the merchant was adamant. Later, Louvel was looking for more buyers for the crystals since their buyer bought it from them for a cheap price and sold them for a higher price.

Louvel loathed this type of people but he was not a person who used violence or trample a merchant with his authority as a Griftein Knight in exchange for a higher price. Anyway, the businessman gave them a basic price for the raw crystals bought from villages.

Fred brought the crystal to this adamant traveling merchant and the latter was amazed and asked if he had more. It turned out, this was a needed object in another nation to tame beasts. Thus, Louvel bargained that he would sell him the crystals but the merchant had to tell Fred the secret of the greenwood.

In conclusion, the pleased merchant got what he wanted with a promised he would come back for more. Fred got his secret and the village prospered.

These things were but a fraction of what Fred discovered and learned.

Back to Fred's present predicament, after realizing all of his inadequacies, Fred wished to continue his study and experiment again. This time, for his own protection. Talking about the said topic, this reminded him of spending some time with Amerth.

Hence, Fred thought of writing everything he learned since all of his books were left in the village.

Somehow, he remembered of his problem with his files in the past and came up with the idea of writing them on the walls, saving him lesser time from searching later. But, to keep others from stealing his notes and used it for their own gain, he made his own codings to keep the explanation vague.

That night after writing, he called Pheya and had his notes cloaked with invisible spells and he asked the butler for books or any library in the mansion.

Thinking of books, Pheya thought back of the secret library Louvel sealed after leaving and the only person who could open it would be Fred.

Pheya brought this topic to Ave when he went back to their side.

"Once the seal is broken, your young master's life would be in great danger," said Tet.

"Yup, and we are not enough to stop it. h.e.l.l will break loose, Pheya. I still want to live and get marry," said Ave.

"I understand." Pheya was now planning of making another library for Fred.

The next day, Fred went to school with escorts sent by Theo.

The suspension of cla.s.ses the other day brought in speculations bringing more attention to Fred. It was the result of the announcement summoning him to go to the office.

Anyway, Fred was still summoned today, for a good scolding.

"You are so naive. You are not allowed to attack in school. It was written in the school guide I gave Pheya for you," said Lord Rhabras.

"What school guide?" Fred asked innocently.

At this moment, Pheya saw the handbook in his coat. The headmaster gave it to him yesterday morning. He forgot to give it to Fred because of the commotion.

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Sienboom -/s.h.i.+-yen-b.u.m/ - the tree to test a person's magic attributes.