บท 68: The catalyst of power
The group managed to get safely without any incident to the secluded house in the "Forbidden Forest." They were stared at by the district's people, but Vlad didn't care much about their views on him. In an identical state of mind was Sofiya, who walked next to Elisabeth.
As for Elisabeth, she was one that still had problems adapting to her new clothes and arranged black hair. Aerius was standing on Sofiya's shoulder and looked around himself for anyone daring to look suspicious.
Yet, he didn't notice anyone wanting to harm them around the group.
Like this, the group entered back into their secluded zone. Vlad had the little guys place the bags on the ground and let them have some fun around the water stream or orphanage. Robert followed after the kids since he had nothing better do to except help Vlad at night to teach Vlad some complicated words and how to spell and write them.
He even saw Aerius jumping off Sofiya's shoulder and quickly getting on top of his shoulder before he followed after the little guys storming for the water stream to play.
Distancing himself from Vlad and the two girls, he later heard Aerius tell what he did with the ladies. He just scoffed at Aerius and said to him, as a reminder.
"Friend, you better stop doing that kind of things as to listen to the ladies conversation. It's bad manners, if it was someone else and you got caught secretly listening, what would happen to you?"
"I know, I know, but I just can't resist that temptation of hearing and seeing beautiful girls. Call it a species weakness, because like dragons we gryphons are drawn by beautiful things, especially maidens."
"Sigh, it's already obvious that they are high-class beauties Aerius. Why even bother getting yourself caught?"
"That's my instinct Robert, I can hardly fight back, especially with the maiden problem."
Rolling his eyes at what Aerius said he said to him. "Whatever. How is your training going? Spying and all those things that Vlad talked about at night with you? Did you get what he was talking about?"
"About how to sneak on people, to hold my breath and keep myself calm in certain situations. I'm confused about why he even tries to teach me those things? Once I recover from the side effects of that witch powers, I will become the strongest in the world."
Robert still rolled his eyes as he walked towards the water streams, looking at the little girls who reminded him of his little sister. Giving out a sigh, he began lamenting his weak self, who got captured by the pirates, and who sold him in slavery.
All he could do was to follow Vlad's fighting teaching and his swordplay and hope that once Vlad truly becomes the prince of this country, he will take him home.
If he was to do it by himself, even if he knew navigation and what Vlad would teach him the following years, it would still not be enough for such a feat.
Like this, Robert began meditating in his mind about Vlad's swordplay while also keeping an eye on the group playing around. He felt really weird when looking at them, he was the same age as them, but his way of looking at life was totally different. Instead of playing around, Robert, just like Vlad, would instead prefer getting stronger.
Meanwhile, on Vlad's side, he was staring with a calm face after bringing inside the orphanage house all the food ingredients. Then he turned to look at Elisabeth, who was in her new clothes and only said with a smile.
"Well, well. To think that sobbing lady who clinged so much on me would turn like this. Let me guess, this is all Sofiya's doing? Not bad, really not bad."
Sofiya, when hearing Vlad's praise, felt a bit proud of herself but didn't show it outside, keeping her indifferent and calm face. Still, she said to Vlad, who was observing Elisabeth.
"Hmph, this place doesn't have anything better than what we brought today. In the future if the access towards Common District is open to the public, we will go shopping there. They have better standards compared to here."
Elizabeth shook her head, saying in a soft voice. "Sofiya, there's no need for that. I'm fine for a long time with the clothes on me. I'm really thankful to both of you. This should be a really sad day for me, yet instead of sadness I feel a weird feeling that I'm unable to describe."
Hearing the girls getting all emotional all of a sudden made Vlad pounder a bit before cutting their conversation, saying calmly.
"Girls you probably guessed that I'm not the best person to talk with those subjects. If you excuse me, I have a book to read. The orphanage house is all open for you to talk all day long. If you really felt bored, you can even cook something for the kids."
Ending saying that he didn't bother himself staying any more to look at the two girls talking while wearing a blank face. With steady steps, he walked inside his wooden house, walking to what could be seen as a small desk that had a seemingly old book on it.
The girls still looked a bit at the wooden house, then turned to look at each other and giggled a bit. They followed, bringing the clothes bags inside the orphanage and taking a seat on a bed. They began to talk about all sorts of things, unknown to Vlad since he couldn't hear them that far.
Inside the wooden house, Vlad got seated on a chair next to the small desk and opened the old book that Sofiya bought from the market a long time ago and remained untouched since then.
Suited in the leather of animals, the book had no title on its cover, yet this didn't bother Vlad. With a calm demeanour, he opened the book in a slow movement. When he arrived at the first page, he observed the drawing of multiple men's arms and side bodies, which contained all their muscle fibres in an orderly manner. As he read in his slow motion, each word containing the pages he whistled, impressed by everything he was finding out, you could even say he was in a state of shock.
'To think that the writer of this book would create such magnum opus, my knowledge of the human body even with the help of my devilish powers is pathetic. So this is how he calls those muscles on my shoulder. Spalla which he later corrected himself calling (Deltoid), the Trapezius, Humerus, Terres Major and Teres Minor. This work it is truly unworldly, to think such a genius could exist in this world to hold such knowledge over the body.'
Then Vlad, after absorbing all the information as if he was a sponge, turned the page while his face also changed to a genuinely happy smile. With the next page, he saw that besides the masterfully draw pictures, there were some notes besides, in the corner of the page, which Vlad read with a serene mind.
"And you, man, who witnesses in this labour of mine, the marvellous works of nature, if you would judge it to be a wicked thing to destroy it, well think what a very wicked thing it is to take the life of a man; if this composition appears to you a marvellous piece of work, you should regard this as nothing compared to the soul that dwells with that architecture; and truly whatever that may be, it is a thing divine. So leave it to dwell in its works at its pleasure, and let not your anger or malice destroy such a life; for truly he who values it not deserves it not. Since it so unwillingly departs the body, I need to believe that its cries and pain are not without cause."
As Vlad read the words of the person who created this masterpiece in the front of his eyes, he followed down a raw that also contained his advice.
"And strive to preserve your health, in which you will be more successful the more you keep away from physicians, for their compounds are a sort of alchemy, on which there are no fewer books than there are on medicine."
With those lasts, words from what Vlad could guess was a kind old man writing those messages. He chuckled a bit and said it to himself. "The old man seems to also have been scammed by those fake physicians to take it off his chest in his magnum opus."
Following that, he said while touching the pages of the book. "Not even in death will I destroy such work. The work of your life, master of the past. Your knowledge will also be shared with the next generations after passing from my hands. I will make it so all the people who are interested in studying the human body have access to your grand work."
With that said, he regained his focus and looked at each of the drawings as if he was staring at the most beautiful thing. Following the notations made for each muscle, and the explanation of the positions, after reading all the page contents, he leaned back on his chair with his head held backwards, which made his long hair flow to the ground.
'I couldn't ask for more explanation than what this book offers. About how the muscles clothed the important tendons of my shoulder and arms. So the muscle is not fixed except at the edges of the tendons, and it's designed in such a manner so those muscles are free and readily able to thicken and shorten. Later grow thin and elongated, according to the movements.'
Closing his eyes, he tested a bit this aforementioned zone of his shoulder and began pushing blood from his heart up to the shoulder zone. He moved his shoulder and chest muscles slightly, and as the books explained, this was the feeling he got for shortening and lengthening the fibres.
And so he began yet again contemplating in his mind about he just read, and after 10 to 15 minutes, he got back to the book, turning the page again. This time he arrived at a page that showed the head of a person with his neck muscles accentuated beautifully. Placing his focus on the note, he read the notations on the diagram (a,b are the muscles under the chin).
Nodding his head, he watched focused the drawing of the muscles on the men's body. After contemplating a bit, he turned to look at the skeletal drawing of a foot in the upper left corner that also had some explanation about the number of bones.
He turned the page and arrived yet again at another drawing. This time there was drawn an individual in the centre that showed the left shoulder from above with the individual facing to the left. In this drawing, the deltoid is again divided. There was a smaller drawing at the top left that indicated a prominent upper portion of the trapezius and a more normal deltoid.
As he read those words of the master, there on the right side of the page, he explained his understanding of the head movements, confusing Vlad a bit. But following the explanations given by the old master in his book, he began moving his head to test if the descriptions were accurate and not long stared awed at the book page.
.......
Time passed a lot for Vlad with each page he went by. Night came around Sagletius, and Vlad didn't even bother himself to eat or do his specific sword training. He would rise and place some woods on the fire to maintain it.
Even when Robert came back together with Aerius the first time and looked at how focused Vlad was on reading the old book, they left him alone. Robert took his sword and went to train his swordplay and body.
He also walked to the orphanage building and told Sofiya, Elisabeth, and the little orphans to not disturb Vlad. When inside, he could also see that the girls, in fact, cooked something with the ingredients they had. Seeing how proud Sofiya was of herself when looking at the orphans eating the food she and Elisabeth cooked made Robert feel a bit weird.
Nevertheless, he also gave the food a taste and was surprised to find that it wasn't that bad. After eating, he left the orphanage building and went to train by the waterside.
He followed Vlad's past instructions to the letter and began doing first a warm-up to not strain his body which he didn't understand why he was placed in doing these boring warm-up exercises. Yet he followed them. Just like this, Robert began another day of training without being disturbed by anyone, only accompanied by the bird's cry and the sound of the flowing water stream.
Meanwhile, Aerius remained inside the orphanage house and opted to play some games with the little guys, while Sofiya and Elisabeth continued talking random things.
When the night came, Robert came after Aerius, and when he saw him relaxing by the fire, almost annoyed, he grabbed him and told him. "Let's get going home, Vlad should have stopped reading that book by now."
He was met with resistance, but regardless of what you thought, Robert was quite strong himself, after almost two weeks of training by Vlad's side. The effects started to be shown to the eye.
Then Robert looked at Sofiya and Elisabeth and said to the two of them. "Big sisters, I will take this annoying guy with me. Don't stay up too late. Also, big sister Sofiya, are you going to stay here, or go back home?"
With that question, Sofiya pondered a bit, turned her attention on the little guys, and when noticing the faces of Fay and Alicia, who were almost pleading for her to stay. She still thought a bit until Elisabeth told her. "Sofiya, you should remain here, you can take a pair of sleeping clothes from the ones we brought today. It's already this dark, what if you get attacked by some beast when passing the forest, or when you arrive at the district you encounter those syndicate guys."
Following what Elisabeth said, she nodded her head and walked towards the little girls, patting their heads a bit, before settling down on one of the beds.
Seeing this, Robert, who held Aerius by the body, took his leave after saying his farewells and walked towards his wooden house with a hand grabbing Aerius and the other one holding his sword.
Thinking that Vlad would be done reading by now when he entered inside, he was mistaken by a large margin. Not only was he still with his face on the book, his face almost seemed to have a weird smile on his face. Almost like he was drunk on the information inside the book.
Closing the door and dropping Aerius to the ground. He walked to where his bed was and placed down on the ground his sword. After that, looking at Vlad, who was moving his head up and down from the book, leaning on the chair up and down, he walked slowly to him.
He thought that if he did this, he would take Vlad's attention from the book, but mistakenly, he arrived beside Vlad and gave a look at the pages he was looking at, and stared shocked at the drawing in front of his eyes.
Both of them were staring at the drawing of a heart that looked so stunning that you could actually say it was real if you used your imagination a bit.
Then Robert, without even thinking much in his head, asked out loud, not even trying to take Vlad's attention.
"What is with this drawing? This shouldn't be real, such draws, such realism and details, who is this grand scholar?"
"Leonard, that's how the grandmaster of this masterpiece calls himself. Also, those things you're point at is our heart. The master describes the central function of the heart, overcoming some old theories. Then he says that the heart provides blood to the tissues, thanks to arteries which become smaller and smaller until they become capillaries. Capillaries, from what he described, are some small veins. Aside from this, there's also bronchial circulation. Leonard described the close correlation between this circulation. He noted that the "blood from the heart receives freshness and air in the lungs."
Robert stared at the drawing and heard Vlad said something surprising.
"His observations of the heart and circulatory system are truly breathtakingly accurate but he fells short about something he didn't discover. The blood circulates around the body, from the heart, from the Aorta. It flows towards the arteries from the shoulder, neck, and lower body. Here I'll show you what I mean when I say this."
Then he began showing Robert different drawings from the book that had the arteries represented and pointing out with his finger to what he was explaining.
"You really understood all those complicated drawings?" asked Robert, a bit not believing Vlad, concerning this.
"Surprisingly I can test those ideas using my blood powers. I still have a lot of testing to do, but so little time. Sigh, I think I will take a break from studying too much. Did you train as I told you?" asked Vlad after responding to Robert's question calmly while staring at Robert with his dark-green eyes.
"Yes, I did everything you taught me to do for the start."
"Good, after I finish cleaning the district of those syndicate scum, I will do some checks periodically on you. If you're not up to my standards expect some harsh training." said Vlad with an evil grin on his face while closing the book in a careful manner, as if that book was his most precious.
He only saw Robert nod his head slightly. After that, he switched his focus on Aerius, who was standing close to the fire.
Walking to him and patting his head a bit before going to his bed, he asked him.
"You took advantage of those beauties again right? Don't try to deny it, I know from legends how greedy Gryphons can be to things nice to the eye. So, what's the score for both?" ended Vlad while staring from his bed at Aerius, who wore a sad expression when he heard Vlad ask him the first part.
When he reached the final part, like lightning stroke him, he raised his head to look surprised at Vlad, who chuckled a bit.
"You really want to know? But aren't you strict with both of us when it comes to that stuff? Haven't you punished me because of my precedents?" asked Aerius, a bit confused, while looking at Vlad, who began laughing a bit.
Robert took a seat on his bed and stared at Vlad, who only said behind his laughs.
"Come, little guy, the reason I'm harsh sometimes with you is to discipline you. Being surrounded by annoying brats, it's hard for my mind. I like to look at cute kids who are listening to me. As for you? I'm also trying to train you and fix that weakness of yours, that probably will get worse once you grow up."
"Now go on, tell me the scores, and I might be lenient to you in the following weeks."
With Vlad's confirmation, Aerius jumped on an empty bed, the one he used to sleep, extended his four small wings, and said with a proud face some numbers that made Vlad nod his head with a pleased face. (A/N: Guess the numbers, the scale the guys use is 0-10 for scoring the ladies)
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Somewhere else in the city of Sagletius, in the cover of the night, 1 person arrived holding an envelope containing most likely a message. The address the person was nearing was the headquarters of Behemoth Syndicate.
The person was stopped at the gates of the mansion, and after being checked a bit by one of the leaders of the group, he gave the envelope before quickly rushing back.
The person was wearing simple clothes that didn't seem to suggest that he was a syndicate member, but instead someone neutral, a messenger.
After everything looked to be cleared out, the squad leader let his men continue patrolling while he entered inside the mansion and got the envelope to one of the guys with scars.
Then just like in a pyramidal system, the guys with scars knocked on Aldenis' door before entering inside.
The old man was on the desk chair, writing something in a notebook. He stopped when the guys with scars entered inside, and with a confused face, he looked as the one holding the envelope place it on the desk.
Nodding his head at them and seeing them off, later opened the envelope and only saw two small red ropes.
Placing those ropes on the desk, he thought to himself for a bit, before laughing out a bit to himself, after that saying.
"Who would have thought that those two idiots would get so impatient and actually summon a meeting between us. The prince really disturbed them big time to make them go to these lengths. So a meeting in two weeks' time at the same place. Good, very good. I have to tell the young man the location and the time of the meeting, and also hurry my guys with that list of noteworthy guys from the other syndicates."
.....
Morpheus's Note: Ok, hope this chapter didn't make some of you annoyed by the anatomic and scientific details and so on. I tried to keep it as clean as possible and only focus on some sequences of importance to Vlad. Muscles (tissues) / Organs / Veins + Artery/ Heart.
Much inspiration from the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
"Knowledge is power. There is no comparison between a king and a scholar, as the king is celebrated only in his country, whereas, a scholar is celebrated everywhere." - Francis Bacon
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