What It Means To Be King

Chapter 43: What An Enigma The Human Is

How does one not submit to anxiety. It's practically shortening my life-span. 

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There was.... a time when Leo thought that he was above everyone, everyone in the world put together. A time where he thought no one could match his pace, could steal the limelight, could even indulge him in the honor. No, no one could even give him a spark of challenge and when he grew bored of being disappointed with people trying to prove themselves right beyond the truth, he simply thought that his role was enough. He didn't need to prove anyone anything, or better yet, he didn't need answers to their questioning if they even began to doubt him. Why should he, when he already knew the truth? Why should he care about what others think when he knows they were wrong. 

He made his first PhD at the age of 13, at the field of Biology. Few more fields soon followed, like neurology, cardiology, endocrinology. Even then, no one really knew when exactly he deserved those pieces of certificate, because Leo hadn't thought to get his PhD (s) if it weren't for someone mentioning it to him. That, and he was finally done with people telling him to create technology, be involved in engineering, make the world a better place blablabla. He needed a barrier, a piece of paper that tells them that he wasn't going to agree, wasn't going to make androids or robots, or spacecrafts for them just because he was good at science. Science or not, Leo wasn't the least bit interested in playing with screwdrivers. His hands were designed for scalpels. For medicine, for biology, living things. 

If anything in the world could make him feel as challenged, Leo would say it was human. Forget the vast universe, forget about time-space theories, golden ratio, nuclear energy whatever you can think of because nothing among those unanswered question could make Leo feel more challenged than humans do. Or rather, the human brain. 

The only spark he felt in his heart his whole life. The only time he was actually interested. The only thing he wanted to figure out. 

Started when Leo met him. 

Thinking back, Leo could hardly remember anything that exciting before he shared the few days with Shao Long. It wasn't until he got to know him that Leo found himself wanting more than what he had, what he knew. 

He was in Shanghai (not Beijing as you might've thought, that's where Anubis met Shao Long), because why not. Leo wasn't lacking in affection from his family if that's what you had in mind to think a 10-year-old would walk in the streets of Shanghai alone. No, Leo's parents gave him plenty calls day in and day out, his siblings were the closest human interaction he ever allowed in his life and he himself would return the gestures simply out of mannerism. He'd like to think that out of the trio, he was the only one with a steady relationship with his blood relatives. But otherwise, not even they could stop him from travelling the world, going to multiple countries twice or thrice, he didn't really count. And this wasn't his first time in Shanghai, just....just not this part of the place. 

He could've sworn he crossed this store five times today. 

Exhausted like a 10-year-old boy should, Leo felt justified that he claimed the first bench he saw, ignoring how it once sported a now very angry stray cat. The cat hissed, and Leo couldn't be more bothered about it than giving it a brief pat which it returned with a scratch. Leo eyed the three bleeding lines on the back of his hand as the cat trod away with its ass facing him. No, he wasn't even offended. At this point, he felt he was lucky enough to not have to brawl with a drunkard to have this seat because fuck his luck.