Chapter 56: The Protagonist

The youth had black hair with some white shades in between. He stood at around six feet, with his hair falling over his forehead.

Noah had always been a curious child.

When he saw something, the first set of actions would be to understand the mechanics behind its functioning.

The only thing that ever hindered his curious nature was his situation.

Born as a commoner, Noah had been raised in an orphanage. He didn’t remember who his parents were, or whether he was even a commoner.

Noah had always wanted to find out about his parents since the time he could think for himself. But the people around him had every time advised Noah against doing something that risky.

The risks that people talked about were real in many cases. Many times, nobles had illegitimate children, whom they mostly abandoned near some orphanage or a place that could look after their child.

Even though the nobles were cruel, no one could be so inhumane as to kill a child just because he was born from an illegitimate relationship.

Still, that sympathy didn’t extend to raising the children in their own homes, afraid of what people would think.

And if that very child later tried to search for his origins, then the results were obvious.

He would be silenced by the very people who had birthed him—not out of hate, but simply due to the fear of humiliation they might suffer.

That was the reason all the orphanages across the empire were funded by many noble houses and people with positions of power.

Still, that didn’t necessarily mean that Noah was an illegitimate child of some noble. It was just an assumption and a reasoning based on probability.

But taking that risk wasn’t worth the reward for many.

In most cases, the children at orphanages belonged to accidents that happened in the red-light districts of the empire.

It was something that had been going on for ages since civilizations had been formed. So all these children were raised at these places till they turned old enough to look after themselves.

After all, no matter how much funds an orphanage received, it was nearly impossible to look after every kid for their entire lifetime.

Hearing about all the risks that people talked about made Noah a little scared to search for his real parents.

He wasn’t scared of getting killed—

No!

The thing Noah feared the most was being killed by the people who brought him into this world. For a positive child like him, seeing such a dark side of reality was something he knew he wouldn’t be able to bear.

So for the entirety of his childhood, Noah curbed his feelings of reunion and tried to divert his attention to other things.

That was what sparked his curiosity in learning more about this world.

Noah was born with an iron core, which meant he would be able to cultivate in the future.

That itself opened several doors of opportunity for him.

It also made the staff at the orphanage treat him with more care than others.

Even though having an iron core didn’t necessarily mean that the person would continue to grow stronger in his life and keep achieving higher ranks.

That wasn’t practical.

But it did mean that the person could at least achieve a decent status in his life. No matter the place, soldiers were respected everywhere—

At least in most places.

And if Noah managed to evolve his core into the Bronze rank, it meant he could, at the bare minimum, enter the ranks of a foot soldier.

That in itself was a great thing.

And the other reason was the intelligence that Noah displayed since childhood. That made many people believe in his potential.

So having a decent relationship with such a person was a good investment for many.

When Noah turned ten years of age, there had been a visit by some military personnel for basic military training and possible recruitment among the older children in the orphanage.

This was a common practice among many militaries across the world. The best way to recruit expendable soldiers was by recruiting children who had no home to return to.

That made them more loyal, and also reduced the fear of death because once you had no one to look after, you became much more capable and—

Lethal.

As they say, ’Never fight someone who has nothing to lose.’

It was brutal but effective.

When the military personnel were busy evaluating the older children in the orphanage through live combat, Noah decided to try it for himself.

Though the soldiers had reservations about letting a child fight, it wasn’t like he would die from it.

So Noah had been allowed, and the results—well…

That day, Noah himself understood what type of monster he was!

The drive to fight was something that was ingrained in every living creature, but to make the most use of that instinct was something that only a finite number of people could do, that too with proper training.

But there are always some monsters in the world who have that instinct in their blood since the moment they are born.

The instinct of combat.

These individuals are adept in combat without any special training.

They are just so attuned to killing that it feels like second nature to them. And once they are given education in the arts of combat…

These people go on to become the greatest warriors history has ever seen.

And Noah was just one of them.

Obviously, being a ten-year-old kid with little to no proper nutrition, Noah’s body wasn’t the best for combat.

That was the only reason he was able to display only a percent of his true combat abilities.

But that percent was enough for the recruiters to understand the potential this child had.

Noah not only won but owned all the fights, dominating them like a seasoned pro.

His presence made it feel like the swords were made just to be wielded by him.

This was Noah—

The game’s protagonist!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep