The family I grew up in

Chapter 5

Ten-year-old Asta stared out of the window. His chin resting on the arms he had layed on the edge of the window. Half lidded eyes looking out, a sad look inside them. The sun was shining in the distance, wind blowing through the trees.

He missed it so much.

Since the day he found that book and talked with the black man, he wasn't allowed to go outside anymore. At least not alone. But because his parents were busy all the time, and the members of the squad were all out, he was left alone in his room.

Gone were the days where he spent all his time in the trees or running around in the grass. He didn't understand why. No one told him about the book or about the man he had met.

He was nice. Sure, his mother always said not to go with strangers, but he didn't really go with him. He met him at the edge of the woods. He had just been standing there and even though he had weird black skin, Asta didn't feel threatened.

The man looked at him as if they had met before, but Asta couldn't remember him. He gave him the book, saying that it belonged to him and that he would be able to use it one day. When he was fifteen.

Well, since he still couldn't use any kind of magic, he supposed that this was going to be his Grimoire and that he would get his magic with it, even though he didn't know why.

His parents though, they had taken the book away from him, hiding it somewhere. He had been searching for it for years now, but wherever it was, he couldn't find it.

A few days after that, his mother left for good. He had been mad at her for quite some time, at his father too. But he gave up on it the first time his mother came back. It was month's after she had first left and he didn't even know how much he had missed her, until she came to visit.

She had promised it after all. Asta wouldn't let go of her for about an hour. She didn't seem to mind at all. But he was still mad at his father for years. Even now, his behavior was a bit off. He would avoid him as much as he could.

Why wouldn't they tell him about the book? What was wrong with it? Or was it him.

They were hiding something he just knew it. But he didn't know what it was. It wasn't like they knew what his magic was. He didn't even know himself.

And without anything to do, all alone in the house, he began running around inside. He figured, since he couldn't use magic, he might as well train his body, like his father.

Maybe it would make up for it and he could still become a magic knight. There had to be something he could do after all. He wouldn't sit around inside forever they couldn't make him.

At some point he would be gone, and they knew it. With each day passing by he was getting closer to his freedom. It wasn't a prison, no, but it felt like it. Not allowed to go out without someone watching. Of course, he could just ignore it and go out when no one was there.

But if he was caught, he would never hear the end of it. He wasn't stupid. Asta had noticed to worried looks in his mother's eyes, every time he went outside with her. She would look around nervously as if some big bird would snatch him off the ground and disappear.

Asta sighed, pushing himself away from the window. He had already done his training for the day. Sure, he could do it all day if he wanted. Nobody would stop him. But today he felt like exploring things in the house. There were many halls and doors he had yet to discover.

So, he walked out of his room and began roaming the halls. Most of the rooms he knew. The rooms were the others were sleeping in, the kitchen, bathroom, he knew it all. There was just one hallway he had never walked in.