Martial Arts Worlds

"You are kidding, right, haha?"

The young man said with a short laugh.

The rest of the children looked suspicious, as if they were thinking that he had some alternative motive.

"I am not."

Kiernan said.

"What is your goal then? Trick us into slavery? Make us work for you without pay? What are you really after?"

The young man asked with hostility in his tone.

"If I wanted to do any of those things, I could've done it with force instead. Believe it or not, but I am actually more alike to you guys than you might think."

Kiernan said.

"And how's that?"

The young man asked.

"…I also grew up in the woods. I am not saying that I lived in the same conditions, because that would've been a lie. I had a proper roof over my head and a warm meal every day.

"However, in woods such as this, I was reborn with my martial arts."

Kiernan said with a chuckle.

"…You don't know anything about us."

The young man said.

"I know enough. You all are orphans of the Battle of the Three Sea Kings. A single ship survived the battle, and you drifted into the shores of Montrael, with empty stomachs and only a few tattered sails left.

"Instead of going back to the civilization as children of somebody you didn't know, you ended up escaping to the woods and started a new life as self-sufficient survivors in the wilderness."

Kiernan said.

"You have done your homework, but you don't know everything. We weren't in any battle. We were already orphans before the battle.

"We were going to be shipped to the Pirate Kingdom for whatever reason, and we ended up in the middle of a feud between three pirate crews.

"In the end, they destroyed themselves while we just kept drifting somewhere in the ocean, completely alone, until we happened to come here."

The young man said.

Some of the children behind him were too young to remember those events, but he was old enough to remember everything.

"I just don't understand why not just get adopted? Some of these children would be living nice lives by now. They would be in school, making friends, and having some romances budding.

"You all decided to come here instead. Why is that?"

Kiernan asked.

"How long would that have lasted? We all would've been abandoned once they realized we were different from them."

The young man said angrily.

"Different… How different?"

Kiernan asked curiously.

"…"

The young man stayed silent and instead put the rusty sword's blade against Kiernan's throat.

"Leave."

"…The boar is burning. You all are hungry, yes? There will be no food for any of you if you let it turn to charcoal."

Kiernan said, and tapped his finger against the rusty blade of the sword.

Immediately, the black smoke enveloped the entirety of the rusty blade and turned it into a gleaming, sharp weapon.

The darkness swallowed the rust of the weapon.

The young man looked at his brand-new-looking weapon with a look of amazement, as he couldn't understand how he just did that.

"It's burning!"

"Hurry up!"

The children hurried to the bonfire and secured the boar before it was completely inedible.

"What is your name?"

Kiernan asked.

"…Alpha."

The young man, Alpha, said with a deep frown on his face.

With a nod, Kiernan walked past him and took a seat by the bonfire, watching the crackling fire with a deep look.

The children looked at him curiously and prepared the food. While it wasn't much, they still shared the food with everyone present.

Everyone just got small amounts, but they weren't exactly normal people either.

'…I read that they survived adrift at sea for close to half an hour. Their food must've ended in a month or two, but they survived four to five extra months without dying.

'The ship had a list of everyone on board, and not a single person was missing, which meant they didn't eat each other.

'Somehow they lasted that long without any food. These kids are not normal, and I know exactly what they are.

'High Kids—a race of humans that went extinct during the destruction of the Paradise World.

'They are a race that can adapt to any condition to survive, and thus, with the lack of food on the ship, their bodies adapted to survive with less food.

'They didn't have anything to drink either, really, which is why they started drinking the seawater, and their bodies adapted to survive with that, which would be impossible as an ordinary human.

'They probably think of themselves as monsters, but they are actually evolved versions of human beings.'

Kiernan thought.

'Their existence must've been revealed to the pirates, and three pirate crews went to fetch them, as they would've definitely earned an enormous amount of money from selling them.

'In the end, because of their greed, they got themselves killed.'

In that moment, a moon's beautiful light shone through the overhead branches, and then, the children started acting odd.

They moved out of the sight of the moonlight as if they were allergic to it.

"It is the moon!"

"Go inside the shelters!"

Alpha suddenly shouted, and every child escaped with their wooden food bowls inside the shabby-looking huts to escape from the moon.

He ran to the doorstep of his building and then saw that Kiernan wasn't moving anywhere.

"Hey, you! Watch out, the moon's light is almost upon you!"

"Hehe, thanks for the warning. You are a good kid."

Kiernan raised his head, looked at the moon, and its light fell on his face, which caused the children to turn pale.

They thought his flesh would just peel off his face now, but Kiernan kept smiling as if he were completely fine.

"E-Eh?"

Alpha couldn't believe his eyes.

'…This proves it. I read that the High Kids had a strange fear towards the moon. The moon can't actually hurt them at all, but they still fear it.'

"The moon is bullying you all?"

Kiernan asked.

"…You are not afraid of the Evil Man of the Moon, sir?"

A cute little girl asked from inside one of the shelters.

"Oh no. Not at all."

Kiernan said, and then reached his hand towards the moon. He opened his hand wide, and at that moment, darkness started covering the moon.

The moon's light disappeared, and it was only the bonfire's brilliant flames that lit up the surrounding area.

"Mastered Iron Style, Blackout!"