Chapter: 158

Hodley had worked as a butler his whole life.

Scared of Mathesons temper, he scurried off into a different corridor of the large manor.

Hodley let out a sigh as he found safety, finally out of his master’s glare. He had served Matheson’s father in the capital years ago, but Matheson’s anger was even fiercer than his fathers.

Holdley grew more and more frustrated every day; Matheson simply couldn’t be contained – he did what he wanted, he had no self-control.

Living in Losla was a punishment for the both of them – for Matheson, as he spoke rudely at a noble’s banquet. Hodley was also punished for simply being in the banquet room at the time; he wasn’t meant to be there, as it was considered rude to bring your own servants to someone else’s banquet. Hodley didn’t want to be there, though he was forced to enter the banquet because of Matheson’s threats.

This single incident caused various repercussions for Mathson’s father, so both of them are now exiled here in Losla..

Matheson’s budget for his fine lifestyle was tied to his presence in the Losla manor. If he were to leave, the budget would be reduced or even pause until he returned back to it.

It was a somewhat ingenious idea of his father, as Matheson would be forced to either remain here, living like a child still holding onto his parents, or become a man, making something of himself and forging his own path; of course, Matheson didn’t realise this was his fathers plan all along.

Matheson wasn’t physically forced to stay there, but as a noble without any skills he was purely dependent on the budget of gold that his father provided. It was like an invisible shackle.

Matheson hated it, feeling suffocated – but one day an opportunity came; he turned eighteen and got his class.

While he lived in comfort, he felt an internal struggle – he was restless knowing he truly wasn’t free, and this feeling got stronger every day.

For his independence, he decided he would become an adventurer, slaying monsters to earn a living. Adventuring was now his way out of exile.

In this world, adventuring was something that the peasants did, while nobles would be trained to fight by skilled officers in the military, before going on to command the troops below them.

Matheson knew he would be looked down upon by the nobles if he became an adventurer, and he didn’t care.

To him, being independent was much better than being like a child given an allowance: he would still have his self-respect intact, even if he were to earn less than his father’s allowance.

Matheson started training himself, not taking any shortcuts and using his guards.

Doing pushups in his manor, Matheson repeated to himself as he trained.

He did a pushup between each word “No”.. “one” .. “Is” .. “going” .. “to” .. “own” .. “me.” He repeated this each time, and created this as a workout mantra for himself, eventually he started applying it to every type of exercise he did.

Because his mantra was seven words long, this led him to doing sets of seven repetitions. He didn’t realise it yet but this number of repetitions would create the perfect balance between lean and bulk muscle.

As his training progressed he became better at dealing with pain.

Clenching his jaw, he repeated the mantra numerous times while doing different workouts, even becoming happy when he found new muscles to workout. He could workout for many hours during the day due to his class giving him energy.

Slowly but surely, he was learning to control his anger and channel his rage into his workouts.

Each day he did more workouts, each afternoon he ate like a king, and each night he slept like a log.

Slowly but surely, he was disciplining himself, and he didn’t even realise it – though this was just the start. He still had to practice his sword skills; tonight, he would start going to dungeons by himself.

Hodley even started to notice a change in the young master. Despite Matheson’s increasing muscle, he had less outbursts of anger – perhaps it was due to being tired, or because he channelled his anger into exercise.