After dinner I remained in the living room, waiting for my father to pick the letter from wherever he had hid it.
"Shouldn't you go wash your teeth by now?" He asked me, annoyed.
"I feel like getting a small treat; I'll wash them later," I answered.
He sighed.
"Rebelling like this will not convince me, William." He warned me.
"I'm not trying to convince you right now." I replied.
I then remained silent, staring at him; the only audible sound in the background was the sound of my mother washing the dishes.
"At least give me a chance; you can't stop it. If a similar opportunity arises again when I'm grown up, you know I'll take it without hesitation, so why delay it now?" I asked him.
"Do you even realize what you're asking of me?" He asked me, tired and exhausted.
"It's something I worked extremely hard for all my life; I never once skipped training, and I did more than anyone else my age. I'm not asking something I haven't thought through." I replied, full of conviction, I had recovered some hope seeing my father's iron will slowly crumbling.
"But this is different; no one is going to fight fairly, neither the other candidates nor the enemies you'll face in the future." He reminded me; his voice started to mellow out after dozens and dozens of attempts.
"I know," I firmly replied.
But by then, I'll just have to win using overwhelming strength.
"The world is a lot bigger than you think; the hurdles you'll have to face are of a magnitude no normal person will ever face." He kept throwing warnings I already heard a dozen or more times.
"I know. I never planned to live a normal life." I reminded.
"If you really knew, you would back away from this position. There are other ways to achieve success than being the personal bodyguard of a noble." My father tried to persuade me, but nothing could've changed my mind when the original goal was so close.
"Not at all. To get where I want, I need to go there." I replied.
"Why are you so fixated on this?"
"Because I want to explore the world! I want to see true colors, not these cheap hues restored through who knows what method, and I want to become one of the world's strongest." I began listing all the things I always talked about.
My father remained silent at my answer; he stared at me in the eye, trying to come up with a way to dissuade me.
"I want to leave a mark, a genuine legacy, something the people in the future will say: It's thanks to William's effort that our life turned for the better!" I added.
His expression turned into a frown; I thought he was about to raise his hand or to start yelling more. Instead, he suddenly relaxed; he sighed while turning his head towards the ceiling.
He nervously tried to reach for something in his pocket; I could see his hand trembling. He gave up shortly after and turned his face back to me.
"Give me some time to think about it." He said with a defeated look.
"Can I at least keep the letter in the meantime?" I wasn't going to let him take me for a fool; if he really wanted to think about it, I wanted to be sure he couldn't destroy the content of that letter.
"Sure," he said as he took out the letter, still sealed, from his right pocket.
"Thanks." I said as I took the letter from his hands.
With that, our conversation ended.
I immediately rushed back to my room to hide that letter. My parents, on the other hand, remained silent for the rest of the night; even when I said "Goodnight" to them, they remained silent.
The next day everything went smoothly; my parents were completely silent all morning, sometimes exchanging weird glances with one another, but I paid no mind to it.
I went to school, and the day proceeded as it always does. School was boring; we had a few tests, and I played with my friends, and when I returned home, I found my parents waiting for me in front of the entrance door, ready to confront me.
I felt my heart sinking when they both locked eyes with me. I was expecting the worse and praying for the best at the same time.
"William." My mother spoke up first, her voice filled with hesitation as she couldn't utter any other words.
Please… let it be good news.
I kept repeating in my head as I kept waiting, my heart beating out of my chest as I felt my strength being drained out of me.
"After a long discussion, we've decided to allow you to go to the floating islands to become one of the prince bodyguards." She didn't sound convinced at all.
Huh? What did they just say? How did this happen? Did I hit my head on my way back? Are my ears playing pranks on me, or did yesterday's punch finally get to me? Yeah, it must've been the work of a concussion because there's no way…
"We do have a few conditions." My father added.
No, this is real…
Overjoyed by the news, I rushed to him to hug him.
"Ok, ok, you still haven't heard our terms and conditions." My father's voice sounded a bit bitter and sad, but he still reciprocated the hug.
"I'll accept anything if it means I can go there!" I replied.
"Alright… alright… If you say so." He said as he tried to put up a smile.
"Ah, we need to prepare my suitcase for this… Do we know where they depart? How much stuff am I allowed to bring? Where do I even have to go?" I was super excited; I couldn't stand still for a single moment.
My heart was about to jump out of my chest.
"Ok, but promise us that if you ever doubt your choice, even for a single moment, I want you to come back. If you're not confident about passing whatever test they might give you, you can always give up; there's no shame in that." He said.
"We'll always be ready to take you back." My mother added