Supreme Magus novel Chapter 21

After those words, Orpal fell to his knees. His world was crumbling beneath his feet. All he knew, all he had planned and dreamed about, had disappeared in the space of a single word.

Disown.

It meant that he was dishonourably banished from his own family, leaving him with nothing he could call as his own. He had just become a nameless, penniless orphan.

When the parents of the other boys arrived, things escalated quickly. Seeing their boys broken and unconscious in a foreign house, stinking of their own feces and urines, they demanded for an explanation.

They were all long-time friends, so it was easy for Raaz making them calm down enough to have a civil conversation.

"You" Raaz ordered the nameless one "explain what you did."

Despite being still shocked, he was already angry enough to return to his old self.

"If I must go down, I’ll bring them all with me. We’ll share the same destiny, so I won’t be alone. I refuse to be the only one to pay for this!" He thought.

The nameless one confessed that he had always hated his brother, and how he had planned to teach him discipline and respect with the help of his friends.

When he had finished, everyone in the room was appalled, refusing to believe those words. They had always known Orpal as a good, kind young man.

"Lith, can you tell us what happened here exactly?"

Lith acted like he was reluctant to leave his mother’s embrace, and after a dramatic moment of pause, he stepped forward. He made sure of limping and holding his left arm, while wincing with pain at every step.

"As you all know, my family has a lot of expenses, and my sister is ill. So, since I am quite talented in chore magic, Selia pays me to clean her house too. I give the money to my parents, to help them make ends meet."

"I have carefully picked the words for this speech." Lith thought. "If they don’t feel pity and compassion for a beaten up five years old after this sob story, these guys are full blown psychos."

"Today miss Selia is out of town, so I was alone in here when your sons suddenly barged in and started beating me." He held out his arms, turning around to let them see how battered he was.

"I tried to defend myself, like my dad taught me, but they were too big and too strong." Lith started sobbing again. "I had to use magic to defend myself, I was so scared! I really thought I was going to die." He returned between Elina’s embrace, weeping non-stop.

"Poor kid." Said Bromann, Rizel’s father, picking up the wooden stick from his son’s hand. "This piece of trash even dared using his grandfather’s only memento. Elina, Raaz, Lith, I offer you my most sincere apologies. I have failed as a man and as a father, to raise such a snake in the grass. Whatever is your decision, I will comply without questions. But first..."

Bromann splashed Rizel’s face with a bucket of dirty water to get him conscious.

He needed to hear the truth from his own son. He still could not fully believe even his own eyes.

"D... dad? What are you doing here?" Rizel held his chin that was throbbing with pain, when he suddenly recalled what had happened.

All the eyes were on him, including Lith’s. The same cold eyes, glowing with blue energy Lith had before unleashing lightnings.

"I make the questions, young man. And if you don’t want another beating or worse, you’d better tell the truth. What in the gods’ names were you all doing here?"

Terrified by both his father and his tormentor, Rizel could only say the truth.

One after the other, the four remaining boys were woken up and forced to tell the whole story. One of them tried to expose Lith’s torture, but his father made him shut up with a strong slap in the face.

"Five against a little kid and you have the gall to blame him for going all out? Our families are friends from generations, your actions dishonoured us all! When we get back home, I will show you what real torture is!"

"What a moron!" Lith laughed inwardly. "Their credibility is less than zero, they can tell whatever they want. It will only appear as the pathetic excuse of a criminal caught red handed."

"Raaz, what do you want us to do?" Bromann asked.

"I am going to disown Orpal, and then report all of them for attempted murder. I won’t ask anything from you. We all know how hard is being a parent, especially in moments like this. I just wanted you to hear it from me, before I go to the village chief."

"I will not disown my son. Not yet at least." Bromann said. "But I can promise you that I will do nothing to defend him in any way from the consequences of his actions. And when he will be back home, I will make sure that he will never have the opportunity to harm your family again!"

So, they all went to Lutia, where the village chief listened to the six boys’ confessions before pronouncing the sentence.

"After hearing all the facts and testimony, I hereby sentence the six of you to four hours of pillory, where you will be shaved of all your hair and whipped ten times for your crimes. After that, you will spend three days in jail to reconsider your actions.

Any objections?" All those present shook their heads.

"I have a question." Lith said.

"For me or for the prisoners, young man?"

"For them. Can I?"

"But off course. Ask them whatever you want."

Lith nodded, and moved in front of Rizel.

"Did Trion know?"

"Off course he did!" Orpal screamed. "He is always stood by my side, unlike you, Leech." Lith ignored him.

"Did he?"

"No." Rizel looked at Orpal with eyes filled with disgust. "We planned everything when we were alone. Orpal said that he did not trust Trion enough. That Trion is a spineless coward, and that he feared that he could rat us out."

"Thanks." Lith then spoke to the village chief again. "Could you please reduce his sentence? His sincerity helps my whole family, it clears our doubts and my brother’s name as well."

"But off course! If the victims asks for mercy, how could I possibly refuse? Rizel will only receive five lashes, and after the pillory time has passed, his family is free to bring him home. Is that okay for you?"

Lith nodded, and Bromann shook Lith’s hand while his wife was weeping with joy.

"Thanks, Lith. That means a lot for my poor Lisa. I will not forget your kindness. I’m sure you’ll become a great man, just like your father."

Lith was completely satisfied with that outcome.

"I didn’t know that disowning a son, especially the firstborn, was possible. Everything went even better than I imagined. Orpal’s friends can’t wait to get some alone time in jail with him, and once his sentence is over, he is doomed. Either someone from the village adopts him, something that I find hard to believe, or he will be deported to the nearest orphanage. I hoped to get rid of Trion too, but maybe that’s for the best. I don’t think my parents can bear losing two sons at once. And between their happiness and getting even with that idiot, they come first by a landslide."

The following days were really hard for Raaz, Elina and Trion. The couple needed quite some time before overcoming their grief.

It was really hard for them to accept that the kind and bright boy that they brought up for almost twelve year was gone forever. Even worse, they started to suspect that the Orpal they knew never really existed.

Thinking back about all the bad things he did and said over the years, he might as well have been deceiving them all along, _{freewebnovel.cσ๓}