Languid Kane

Chapter 2: Independence?

“There he is. Was that a gold medal? Did he win the quiz bee for this year again?”

“There’s nothing new about that. Rumors said that the zone guardian from the Vasquez family already treat him like he was the heir of the family.”

“He? A six-year-old kid was already treated as the heir?”

“Why not? Isn’t he exceptional? He already surpassed his older brothers when it comes to achievements and talents. He was even allowed to give suggestions with regards to the matters of the zone and even in their business.”

Kane sighed as he heard the people gossiping about him. He was somehow proud that people would recognize and accomplish him for his talents. It was a good feeling, especially when his grandfather would praise him for his excellence.

He went inside their house and noticed his older brother, Keiffer, was seated on the couch with a crumpled expression.

“Keiffer! I won another gold medal!” He ran towards his brother but Keiffer pushed him away.

“Why are you bragging about such useless things?” Keiffer glared at him. “You think you will be the heir just because you are grandfather’s favorite?”

He looked at his brother with a confused expression. Why would he even think that he would be the heir when he has two older brothers who were much more capable than him?

“Mr. Vasquez!”

Kane opened his eyes and sat properly when he heard Miss Fontana’s voice. He massaged his temples when it suddenly ached as if someone just hammered down his brain.

“Why are you sleeping here?” Miss Fontana asked her with a gentle and worried tone.

Kane looked away and kept his mouth shut. There was no need for her to know that he was kicked out of his own house. He just needed to find a new place before the end of the day.

“Aren’t you going to answer me?” Miss Fontana asked again as she tried to get Kane to look at her.

“I’m going to be late for class,” Kane said after he checked his wristwatch. He stood up and walked towards his class, leaving his professor behind.

However, instead of the classroom, Kane found himself in the same spot that he found yesterday. It was the same quiet place with just the trees and a rusty bench. It was the perfect place for him to hang out.

He checked his wristwatch again and decided to stay there for a few minutes since he still have another ten minutes for the grace period.

“Since you already knew about the history, let’s move forward to the classifications and categories,” Clarisse added as she clicked the pointer and moved to the next slide. “There were two kinds of human beings. The first was the non-awakened, which consists of almost 40% of the population, and the awakened, which was the remaining 60%.”

Kane entered using the backdoor of the classroom and sat on the corner near the window. Though history was supposed to be a boring subject, the professor made it look interesting by emphasizing the events instead of the dates.

“The non-awakened don’t have any ability and they also didn’t awaken any ability during the manual awakening. As for the awakened, they were divided into two types.” She clicked again and the PowerPoint proceeded to the next slide.

“Active and passive. Passive awakened usually use their abilities in the industry since their abilities were more useful that way and somehow only benefits them personally. While Active awakeners use their abilities as a source of funds or income by using it for offense, defense, or research which concerns the dungeons and the monsters that come out from it.”

“So all hunters are active awakened?” One of the students asked.

“Yes, Dear. But you don’t have to worry, because there were some exceptions to the rules.” Clarisse smiled. “There were very few passive awakened who still chose to work as hunters.”

The murmurs inside the classroom grew a little louder as they praised and mumbled the names of the famous passive awakened who still worked in the dungeons.

“Now, let me ask you, what is the ideal age for awakening?” Miss Fontana asked her students.

“16!” they answered synchronically.

Miss Fontana smiled and nodded. “That’s right. Before you enter Senior High School, it was mandatory for you to undergo a manual awakening if you weren’t awakened a few months before you turn seventeen.”

“Though it was your choice which strand you’ll take in Senior High; your abilities would also play a major role for your admission even in college,” Clarisse added to inform her students about that trivial fact.

“If that was true, how come someone like Kane was in our class?” a student snickered. “Was it because he aced the theoretical exam that he was qualified to be here despite flunking the practical evaluation?”

“Maybe it was because he was the North zonekeeper’s son!” another student jeered.

Some of his classmates looked at him with insulting glares but Kane kept his blank expression. What harm could those words even do? They were all talking, but no one really dared to confront him. He knew that it would just be a waste of time and energy to get frustrated over something that petty. He had something bigger on his plate.

Kane left school as soon as he was dismissed. He stored his things in his secret place, just a few meters away from their house so he didn’t need to worry about his things getting stolen. His major problem was that he had nowhere to stay because his secret place was just big enough for a few boxes and luggage. It was a small place where he used to play when he was a little kid.

He went to his secret place and sighed. He didn’t really want the situation to end that way but he had no choice. He checked his online bank account and sighed once more. He was sure that they froze his credit cards but he didn’t expect them to touch his personal account. What could he even do with a mere 5,000 Php?

“This should suffice for a while.” He let out another sigh as he rummaged his things. When he found what he was looking for, he locked the secret place and left for the pawnshop.

“This would be 14,000 Php.”

Kane’s brows twitched when he heard the price after he pawned one of his most prized possessions. It was a chain bracelet with bits of diamond worth almost 50,000 Php, but it was pawned at 14,000 Php?

“If you think it’s too little, why not sell this for 50,000?” The man working in the pawnshop said with a mischievous smile on his face.

“No thanks, I’m not planning on selling this.” Kane sighed. “I’ll pawn it.”

The man asked him to sign a few papers before they gave him the money. Finally, he had at least 14,000 Php to rent for a room and buy his own meals. It wouldn’t be easy moving forward and he knew that he couldn’t live just by pawning every jewelry that he had in his care. He needed a job that would pay enough to cover all of his finances.