I know you thought you'd read about Gu Luo and his classmates in this chapter, but that won't be the case. Today, I wanted to talk to you about a man.
Actually, his story starts when he was still a child. Like all of us.
This boy was born on a rainy Sunday.
His parents often told him that his arrival had brightened their days so much that the next day, God had listened to them and had made the following day the sunniest day of that year.
His parents gave him the name Kiakara, in reference to Kiokuru, the god of appreciation.
Kiakara grew up in the capital of the Republic of the Holy Empire of Estmund, or as people were beginning to call it more and more, the Republic of Saint Estmund.
His family, the Kufore, was a family of wealthy aristocrats who had been around since the founding of the Holy Empire.
Despite being a privileged aristocratic family, during the great revolution of 6854 according to the Uruk calendar, the revolutionaries spared them in their murderous fury.
You are probably wondering why. Well, the truth is that the Kufore family had originally been the instigators of the idea of a republic. When they had presented this idea to the emperor's council, they had immediately caused general ridicule.
Only their idea had set the middle and privileged classes, who were suffering from the country's increasing impoverishment, ablaze.
The peasants and the clergy then followed the movement.
The Kufore had always been aristocrats apart. They placed their values of honor and respect above all other advances, whether political or technological.
With such a portrait, you must be thinking that the Kufore were staunch nationalists, but that would be greatly mistaken regarding their intentions.
They were deeply humanistic. The kind of people who believed in human values.
They considered the poorest beggar their equal and never closed their doors to someone in need.
Even though, because of their aristocratic status, many hated them at first, taking their good deeds as a mere act, anyone who took enough time to get to know them realized their intentions.
Now, I don't want you to take them for good Samaritans. They also had their fair share of mistakes and regrets, but they always made sure to do the best they could.
Kiakara therefore grew up in this family.
Unlike the rest of them, however, he did not understand the good faith with which his family treated everyone.
He was deeply convinced that most of humanity was evil. Worse than that, he was convinced that Man himself was a cancer to the planet.
Of course, he never openly expressed his opinion on the subject and never shared his thoughts with his parents, but it was something he deeply believed in.
At first, it was just an assumption.
It all started one day when he was only 6 years old.
During an argument whose origin he could no longer remember.
"Well, go ahead. What are you going to do?"
Kiakara's voice was full of confidence. The boy in front of him stepped back slightly, his expression hardening before he retorted.
"Pfff一 I don't even feel like hitting you because you're so weak."
Kiakara, feeling his ego being touched, immediately retorted.
"I see... You're just scared, actually!"
"That's ridiculous. If I hit you, even just lightly in the stomach, you'd go crying to your mommy!"
Kiakara's face formed a forced smile.
"You can't even do it. You're not strong at all. You're just scared!"
The boy in front of him turned red, his body stiffening under Kiakara's words.
He rushed at Kiakara and punched him with all his strength.
Kiakara didn't have time to see the punch coming, and the boy's fist struck him in the abdomen, immediately knocking the wind out of him.
The pain came immediately. He had never felt such pain before. He held his stomach with both hands and curled up into a ball.
Seeing that Kiakara wasn't getting back up, the boy stepped back with trembling hands while his friends around him leaned toward Kiakara to see how he was doing.
Kiakara was doing everything he could, but the pain was simply too strong. He couldn't do it. He was ashamed.
The teacher rushed over when she heard the children's cries and hurried toward Kiakara, who was curled up on the floor.
"Kiakara, what's wrong?"
Curled up on the floor, Kiakara was crying.