This chapter is full of information, and describtions of some upcomming people who will have a great influence on Azul/Snow's future.

The chapter might be a little too informative sorry bout' that.

I felt, that we hadn't gotten enough information about the world until now, but i wanted to wait until Azul was a little older, otherwise it would be pointless to explain it to him. As he isn't a reincarnated person, with inhuman memory skills.

H.F.

---

Snow had just turned 4 years old, or at least 4 years had gone by after he arrived at the orphanage. He had been taken good care of in these years, but not it was finally able to start learning.

Snow had gained a basic personality, he was childish as a child is. But surprisingly mature for his age. He was still curious, but now it was like a curiosity of nature. It was like he was born to be a hermit or a lone hunter in the wilds.

He would still sit at the pond, watching the fish under the sun. Though he had gained a curious hobby. He draw strange art on pieces of paper while watching the carps swim about. To the people of 9 lives orphanage, the art made absolutely no sense at all. He would draw faint silhouettes of shapes. and weird scratches on the shapes he made. Though it looked very artistic, it made no sense at all.

Sometimes he would go see the sword practice that was performed at the large courtyard.

When he did, he would sit quietly on the side, blending in with his surroundings. The only movements he made, was his face, which sometimes displayed a sour or happy face.

Generally he only saw people older than him, even if he sometimes saw, Ivan come back with a whole group of younger slaves.

They just didn’t seem to be at the orphanage.

It was funny, because he had truly become the mascot of the practitioners. He wouldn’t mimic the moves, but he would nod as if comprehending them.

Snow glanced at the sun, and saw that it was about to go down, and his grandfather (the teen) had said, that he had to come back before twilight, always.

Snow had been a little rebellious at one point, his personality was a free one, and he wanted to be not be locked in his grandfather’s chamber. He knew that it was for his own good, but he had still been rebellious and did not come back to the chamber before twilight. ø

When it got dark, and he hadn’t come back, his grandfather, as if teleporting had arrived just before him. Even if he wasn’t that tall, his stature was still pretty epic.

He had grabbed Snow by the neck and dragged him to the cellar. The teen was usually very good to Snow, but then not matter how much Snow cried and screamed, The teen just wouldn’t yield.

The teen had forced a classical torture method on Snow, he had taken a fairly thick piece of cloth. Soaked it in water. He had then strapped Snow to a Table, so that his face would face upwards.

The teen had then taken the wet piece of cloth and strapped it to Snow’s face.

Even if it was wet, Snow was still able to breathe, even if he was hyperventilating because of the deficit of air, and the water he inhaled.

Through this entire process, Snow was crying and begging for mercy.

The teen had then take a bucket full of ice water, and poured it in his mouth through the cloth.

Snow hissed and sprouted, he simply couldn’t breathe. And it felt like his mouth was burning, and he had a biting tooth pain. But that was the least of his problems. His lungs filled with water, but the teen just continued to pour the water down his throat.

When the bucket was empty, he pulled off the piece of cloth. And just like a fountain, water and vomit filled the air. Streaming from Snow Mouth and Nose.

Snow had been so scared and terrified that a bright yellow pool had appeared where his sex was.

A gruesome odor filled the air, as the stench of vomit and piss wavered in his nose.

The teen that had not said a word, until now opened his mouth “I am disappointed in you, Snow! You are never late again understand.”

Snow who was still terrified could only nod, as he could barely comprehend the message.

---

This showed Snow that his grandfather was not a man to be trifled with, and after that he was never late again. Even if he was rebellious, his grandfather was like a ghost, it was as if his presence were everywhere. No matter where Snow was, his grandfather could still whisper to him through the wind.

But Snow was still curious, what was it really that made it so that he couldn’t come out at night?

He had tried to ask his grandfather, but he had just told him that he would know, once he was older.

This comment however made Snow very impatient. He wanted to grow up fast, so that he could see what was happening.

---

Snow thought it strange, sometimes his grandfather would meet people in his chamber, they would always be very respectful. Some bowed deeply, other saluted, others gave a warriors salute, with a fist to the heart.

But these people only had some common features in common. One that Snow had seen many times, were a man called Ivan. Snow kind of like this man, even if his hair was greasy and had a rather strange look.

He had never really spoken with him, but Ivan would always look strange at him for some reason. He always held a look in his eyes as if he was proud of something?

Snow had come to know another man, his name was Leon, for some reason his grandfather would always be cold towards precisely this man. Even if he was cold towards every other person except those which entered his room without needing permission, and Snow including Snow who lived there.

His grandfather would always be hurried when he talked to Leon.

Snow himself, didn’t like the man very much himself. There was just something wrong with the man.

Snow saw a few others, he counted that there were 3 other people who didn’t need permission to enter.

There were two women.

One had a very large build, with big breasts. She was probably 2 meters tall. On her back seemed to be a massive shield, and on the left side of her Waist hang a scabbard with a rough looking sword.

The shield was filled with scratches and holes. The shield was filled with various ornaments. All sharing the same color scheme of black and silver. with some small parts being royal blue.

The woman herself, was extremely tanned, looking nearly completely brown.

When she had noticed Snow sitting in the corner of the room, she was at first a little startled, but quickly recovered. She moved her big hands to pat Snow's head, leaving a little black dust on his pure white head.

She seemed to be a nice person, though she seemed a little eccentric, his first impression of her was good.

Snow heard his grandfather call her Helena.

There was two more, a small woman, with snake like features, her eyes were bright green, and they were the only thing you could see. as all the other parts were covered in a pure black robe. Her name was Katarina.

The last one Snow would never forget, his first encounter with the being?

Was a strange one:

---

Snow was at his usual spot, beside the small pond. He was currently trying to draw the carps in the pond, but it proved to be difficult. He was fully concentrated on his drawing and the fish.

Suddenly a cold voice came from behind his neck “good drawing, though you should use a smaller brush for the scales.”, the voice was extremely clear, and the breath from the one who spoke was ice cold.

It sendt shivers down Snows back. He was so scared that, he didn’t even try to turn around. Snow could feel the being move away, so he turned around, while holding his drawing up as if protecting himself.

What he saw was a skull. Not like a face looking like a skull, but an actual skull. The eye sockets were burning with a cold white flame. Giving of a faint presence. The rest of his body, was covered in something like leather. it also hid his jaw, and nose. The only thing visible were the bleached bone of the skull around the eye sockets.

“W-ho. are you?” Said Snow in a terrified voice. His gaze was lost in the abyss, behind the burning flame of the being's eye sockets.

“You can call me Grim, what is yours little one?” asked the being, with a delighted voice, yet it still remained cold and terrifying.

“I don’t know my real name, but you can call me Snow” Snow put up a brave front, while still trembling.

“Snow that is an interesting name. hmm, I can see why though. I’ve got to go now ‘Snow’ I will see you later. hehe.” Grim let out a happy laughter at the end, but it seemed endlessly creepy.

Grim was moving backwards towards a shadow, when he entered the shadow it seemed as if he became a part of the shadow and disappeared.

Snow had seen Grim a few times after that. Surprisingly he had a pretty gentle personality when you just got over his terrifying appearance and voice.

---

Snow was by the pond, when his grandfather whispered to him. “Snow it’s time to begin your lessons about this world, come to my chamber, you have 10 seconds.”

Snow dropped everything he had in his hands on the ground, and ran towards the orphanage building.

When he had entered his grandfather's chambers, he saw a huge map in the middle of the room. His grandfather stood in front of it clearly he was impatient.

“Good, come sit down” said the teen as he pulled out a chair from his storage ring.

“First of all, before we begin I want to show you something that has been long overdue.” Continued the teen.

Snow nodded, he understood the seriousness that his grandfather wanted from him.

“I want to show you what I look like, and what my real name is.” The teen moved in front of Snow, while trying to pull something off from a necklace around his neck.

The teen continued “You see, I have a very special appearance and I need a special crystal to hide what my race really is. Not like your’s which is hidden or undecided.”

Snow knew about what his grandfather knew about him, He only nodded slowly as he imagined at what his grandfather's name really was, he had never heard anyone say it before. Usually he was just called Master, or milord. Or something along those lines.

The teen finally got the crystal off from the necklace. Like a blinding light, it seemed like a layer of light had been scrapped of from the teens figure.

What it revealed was surprisingly nearly the same silhouette, except a few details.

First of all, the teen was no longer a teen. Instead he looked like a man of 25, except for some extremely long ears, the tapered as they reached the end of his head.

Snow had seen pictures of elves before, so he knew that his grandfather was probably an elf.

The man, had long sleek blonde hair with strange black lines in it.

All things considered it looked absolutely weird.

“My name is Xivar the Third, you might think I am an Elf, but actually that is not entirely true. I won’t go into my history, but know that i am an High Elf and High Human mix. It might sound like a good thing, but that is not true, when i tell you about the various races you will know why.” While speaking Xivar had a strange sad glint in the eyes.

He quickly inserted the crystal in the necklace once again, this game it was the reverse, he seemed to regress in age and regained his very youthful human appearance.

He went up and patted Snow on the head before continuing his lessons.

Snow learnt a lot from that lesson. He found out that the world they lived on was called Darsus, a strange name for a world. But no one knew why it was named such.

He learned that there was various continents. He already knew on the Human and Beast continent as he was on the Human continents, while his race? probably came from the beast continent. He didn’t know the others though.

He learned that the humans shared continent with the demons. These demons were not like big scary thing full of fire and death, but a rather peaceful folk, though they had the appearance of humans except for some really noticeable features. The demons all belonged to different clans, this meant that they had various different appearances ranging from having bat wings, on their backs to having a snake's tail instead of legs.

The demons were a confusing folk, as they varied so greatly.

The demons lived in the north of the Human continent, they were not really great in numbers and therefore the continent was called the Human continent.

The dwarves and gnomes lived to the West, were the mountains were plenty, the dwarves was a race which lived for mining and smithing. They lived with the gnomes were had very steady hands so to say, they could produce anything.

The gnomes and dwarves lived on the continent with the ogres and trolls which they were busy keeping down.

On the east continent lived the elves, though the High elves were nearly extinct they had many subspecies. The elves of arcane, a race fueled by unorthodox magic. These beings were very deadly. the night elves, were fantastic hunters and druids. They were an ancient people which was tasked with protecting the world from the Inferno. The night elves had elite troops called the Wardens of the Groove, these beings were warriors who were blessed by a higher being of nature. Deadly was an understatement. Thankfully these Wardens were only tasked with eliminating Inferno troops, otherwise they would truly be feared.

There were also blood elves who were a deviant of the high elves, though they have been in hiding for millenniums now, and nobody know what they look like.

The high humans were a also a strange deviation from humans. It was said that the first high human was a human whom was reborn in holy fire brought by the human god of light.

Snow had learned the basics of the worlds, he had also learned of a few of the capitals names, even if he wasn’t going to need it at the moment.

At the end of the lesson, his grandfather had said a single sentence with a very large grin on his lips “Don’t you think it’s excellent whether for some exercise?”