Soon after, Lee returns to the spot he was at. The kids that were mocking him approach, trying to befriend him, but he dismisses them, saying that he is not dressed properly and is not rich enough to be their friend; Suhan’s youngest brother laughs.

  Then Suhan continues opening the rest of the gifts, but despite their shine, none get to the value of Lee’s simple gift, both in price and sentiment, as Lee took his time to hand-make the phone pendant and keychain.

  After the cake, Sue goes to pick Lee up from the party; Suhan’s father personally escorts Lee to the door and even invites Sue into the party so that she can have a bit of cake, but she politely refuses.

  “So, how was the party?” Sue asks when they are on their way back home.

  Lee shrugs. “It was fun.”

  Sue takes a look at Lee’s face and sighs. “What did you do?” she inquires, like someone that knows the other person did something wrong, but for the right reason.

  “I played in the cars and played video games,” Lee starts to say, then casually, like it is nothing special, adds, “And I put more people in their place who think they are more than everyone, only by the gift that I gave Suhan.”

  Sue shakes her head. “What happened?” she utters with a sigh while rubbing the bridge of her nose.

  “Nothing much; some boys and girls were talking rudely about me, a bit like the butler, saying I was too poor and that my gift was not going to be anything good,” Lee says while waving his hand in a rotational motion.

  “So your friend didn't open the gift straight away when you gave it to her?” Sue asks.

  Lee shakes his head. “No, they have a tradition that they only open the gifts before the cake.” He says, then continues, “So when she opened my gift, everyone was surprised; it turns out that the way I make them is very special—a lost art, so to speak.”

  Sue shakes her head. “It's not ‘so to speak’; it's literal.” Sue then thinks for a second and adds, “Your dad had the one you gifted to Saki evaluated; it was very expensive.”

  “So that's why there was so much talk,” Lee says. “I heard people talking that another one had appeared with a beast stone, so I wasn't sure if it was Saki’s or if someone had the same idea as me.” Lee shakes his head. “Apparently, this one I did for Suhan was so expensive that it was capable of buying her dad’s company two times.”

  Sue swerves the car, startled, but then the safety mechanism moves the car back onto the lane. “How can you say that? Wasn't it one like Saki’s?”

  “It was identical; the stone was more expensive, and I used three strings instead of two,” Lee says like it is nothing special. “And someone had a look at it—I think she was Suhan’s aunt—and said that to Mr Grassphin: that the keyring was expensive enough to buy his company two times.”

  Sue thinks for a second, then nods, knowing that the Grassphin family has a massive corporate building in Tokyo. “And how did you put the kids in their place?”

  “Because when they came to me trying to be friends, I just said that I was too poor to be their friend.” Hearing this from Lee, Sue lets out an involuntary chuckle. Lee smiles. “So after that, no one treated me as if I were beneath them. The bad thing is I heard a lady fainted when they said how expensive the keychain was. Don’t worry, I did check on the lady myself and she was fine.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “So what did you do after that?” Sue inquires.

  “Nothing much, just watched a movie with Suhan and her brother that is two years older than her,” Lee says. “He was nice; he was the one who stopped the other children from talking bad about me before Suhan opened the gifts.”

  When they get home, Sakura jumps on Lee to play as she has been bored at home, the string bracelet still on her wrist as she refuses to take it off.

  Lee goes to his room and changes into something more comfortable, then calls Sakura to play a game with her and teach her more Latin.

  A week goes by and, as there is no school, Lee has been spending more time in the woods; once in a while, he notices a wolf or two. At first, the wolves seem to hide, but as Lee’s scent starts to be more recognised by them, they just pass by without a problem.

  Lee’s body starts to go through some changes; due to the hunting, climbing trees, and exercising with weights on his backpack, toned muscles become visible. He also becomes more agile.

  On the Saturday, Lee is heading home for lunch when he hears a rumble behind him; he turns around and sees a sabretooth boar with its head bent down and preparing to run at him. Thinking fast, Lee sprints away while pulling at his bow and preparing an arrow, the boar chasing after him. Lee jumps sideways and lets the arrow fly; it lodges into the boar's side, but the beast just continues running at him. Lee starts to sprint again, then jumps and places his feet on a tree and jumps sideways; in the air, he rotates his body and lets the arrow fly. This one hits the boar's tusks and bounces off without a problem. Lee lands on a roll, getting up to his feet with the momentum, and runs once again. He notices a massive boulder.

  Lee runs at the boulder, the boar beast charging straight at him and slowly catching up; Lee gets to the boulder in time to step on it and jump backward, doing a backflip. The boar misses his feet by an inch and slams right onto the boulder, making a crack appear; Lee lands on top of the boar's back. “Perfect landing; now you are mine,” Lee says as he removes two arrows, one in each hand, and tries to blind the boar with them; one manages to hit its target, the other lands off to the side.

  “Crap!” Lee shouts, letting go of both arrows and jumping off the boar; as he lands, he hears a cracking sound, but no pain. As he gets to his feet, Lee notices that his bow broke. Lee starts to run again, the beast on his heels; Lee jumps and tries to grab onto a thick branch, but this one breaks and Lee tumbles to the ground as he clutches the branch in his hands. Lee comes to a skidding stop and falls back between two rocks, the branch staying upright; the beast that was charging at Lee continues running and gets impaled on the branch, that pierces it from one side to the other.

  As the beast stops moving, Lee tries to move the dead body from above him, but the tight space between the rocks doesn't allow for much movement, and also due to the beast's weight, Lee struggles. Then the beast starts to move again.

  “You are still alive? Crap, this is not good!” Lee speaks out loud and starts to panic, trying to think of what he can do.

  But then the beast's body slides off and Lee has a gap big enough to exit. He does so fast and is about to run away when he hears a bark; as he turns around, he finds a brown wolf. Lee slumps to the ground in relief. “Thank you,” Lee says to the wolf, and lies down on the ground, calming his heart now that the danger is gone.

  After regaining his breath, Lee looks up and finds the wolf lying on the ground next to the untouched boar. Lee gets to his feet and approaches the boar; removing the arrow from its eye, Lee uses the tip to cut the belly of the beast. He then reaches in, his arm buried all the way to his shoulder; when he pulls it out, he has the beast gem in his clasped hand. “Perfect; I think this is a beast core.” He then looks at the wolf and says, “You can have the meat; it's too big for me to take.” Lee then rubs his arm on the boar's back to clean it and walks away to pick up his broken bow shaft.

  Behind Lee, the wolf barks twice; when Lee looks at him, the wolf looks at the dead beast and whimpers as it scratches the ground with its front paw.

  Lee approaches and says, “You can have it.” Lee then bends down and picks up the arrow head and cuts a chunk of the boar and places it in front of the wolf. The wolf blows air from its nose almost like a sneeze and slashes at the boar's underside, making the insides spill onto the ground; then, scavenging for something for a bit, it picks up something like a sack and drops it in front of Lee. On closer inspection, he notices that it's the beast's stomach. Lee looks at the wolf and says, “Sorry, I don't know what you are trying to say.”

  The wolf holds onto the stomach with a paw and pulls with its teeth; as the stomach opens, the contents fall out and Lee finally understands.