As the door to the study opened a tall man in a black suit walked out. He looked towards the Hero and said, “I heard you were making trouble again.”

“Hmmm?”, the Hero took the book in his hands and put it down on an adjacent pile, “And you are?”

The man in the suit walked over to a nearby stack and a raised his hand causing a book far above on the shelf to gently float down towards him, “Holstein Whitmore, Baron, and Lord of this Manor. Which makes me your Father Hiro.”

The Hero’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but think just what kind of father doesn’t show himself for four whole years.

“I see, Hiro. So that's my name. Frankly, I’m surprised it took me so many years to find that out. All the servants simply refer to me as young master.”

Baron Whitmore sat down on a pile of books and began reading, “Well that's because I never told them, you may keep it if you wish. At the very least it’s the name your deceased mother wanted to give you.”

“What do you mean If so I wish?”

Baron Whitmore tossed the book he was reading to the side and snapped his fingers causing another one to float over from across the room, he turned to Hiro, “Other than a few other servants and doctors who were present during your birth, no one else is aware of your name. If you so wish you could call yourself whatever you want. Perhaps you already have a name in mind, you're probably more used to people referring to you as something else right?”

“Excuse me?”

Baron Whitmore pulled out a small notebook and left the book he called over floating in the air, “You don’t need to play dumb. I may not be around, but I've been keeping tabs on you. At age one, you were able to learn to walk, speak and seemingly read despite the abnormal circumstances of your birth leading your body to be weaker than a normal child's. It should have taken you perhaps another year or a few more months even with all the medicine and magic we've administered. At less than two years old you were already capable of freely navigating the manor, and it was in this period you began to start training.”

Baron Whitmore turned the page and continued reciting “From the very start you've exhibit an abnormal amount of physical strength an intelligence, and there have been several magical incidents when you were in the vicinity. Further observation over the years shows that you possess a level of maturity above your age, you're not picky, you don't have the sense of mentality befitting a child, and somehow you are able to remain uninjured despite this training you put yourself under.”

Hiro paused, before attempting to say, “I see, I wasn’t intending to keep it hidden forever, but I’m-”

“I don’t care”, Baron Whitmore closed the small handbook he pulled out, “I don't care who you were, I don’t care if this was intentional, I don’t care about your goals, regrets, or true intentions. I simply don’t care.”

“...”

“I won’t tell any of the servants about any of my conclusions, let alone anyone outside of the manor. You’re free to use the resources we provide you and do as you wish, after all at least to the outside world we're still Father and Son. But this is under one condition."

"A condition?"

Baron Whitmore glared at Hiro and the air in the study grew incredibly chilly. Several icicles began forming around Baron Whitmore as he said,

"Never drag the Whitmore Family into whatever you’re planning on doing, or whatever you intend to do. You’re on your own. We’ll feed you and shield you, but that’s only as long as you’re a child or you don’t intend on doing anything. But if you want revenge then go ahead be my guest, if you want to save the world so be it! But if you ever make enemies know that if you come to us, there will be no place for you here.”

“...”

The Baron continued, “If you come to us, or if anyone that’s involved you with comes to us cause of whatever you’ve been up to...if your enemies come to us and they hurt our family the be warned. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter where you come from, I will personally hunt you down and kill you myself. Now, are we clear?”

Hiro nodded, and an almost transparent layer of blue light began to cover his body. Baron Whitmore breathing grew heavy and his eyes red, "In my eyes, you're no son of mine, and you're not her’s either. To me, you’re nothing more than a monster. Remember this!”

Baron Whitmore stood up and as he was about to leave Hiro asked, “Holstein, tell me this at the very least."

Baron Whitmore turned around and asked, "What?"

"Do you know of an existence known as the Demon King?”

Baron Whitmore turned around and stared at Hiro for a moment before shaking his head and leaving. Hiro sighed, and looked around, “If he doesn't know, then I wonder if there’s anything over here about us...”

Then once again the door to the study slammed open and the Head Maid walked out with several other maids following behind her, “Young master!”

“Oh boy…”

~

After Hiro’s short encounter with his father, he rarely ever saw him again. Later he came to find out that the Whitmore family started off as a family of merchants who managed to secure a noble title, but even after obtaining their title the Whitmore’s continued on the family trade.

This left Baron Whitmore quite busy as he had to both manage his land and continue managing the family business by traveling and trading with neighboring lords. Naturally, this meant that the Baron himself was often absent.

Though frankly, this didn’t particularly bother Hiro, in the past the Holy Empire came to find him at a young age to train to defeat the Demon King. Even the previous Heroes experienced similar circumstances, and in the end, while at the moment he was a child, mentally he was already fully grown, adult.

So instead Hiro immersed himself in training his physical body so that way he wouldn’t be limited by what meager strength he could currently muster. This was how Hiro spent the years, participating in only a few mandatory events that he was forced into while for the most part shutting himself inside the Whitmore Manor located in the countryside close to the frontier or somewhere in the vicinity.

Hiro felt it was better like this anyway, he had his own motives and so did the Baron. Besides, in the first place, it would simply be disadvantageous for him to clash with his own Father, and his father didn't seem to like him anyway. So his absence made the situation a little less awkward.

As the years passed the servants even stopped bothering him about all the training he did, or how kept breaking equipment. Though oddly enough even his own twin brother seemed to shy away from him, perhaps it was due to his father's orders or perhaps for some other reason. This lead Hiro to living a mostly uneventful and lonely life of training and research, with but one exception...

“Wow, you’re so high up!”, Hiro heard the cheer of a little girl and lowered his head.

As he looked down at the ground he could see a small brown haired little girl jumping up and down as she waved at him. She cheered as she looked up at him balancing himself on a massive pile of stone slabs with his fingers.

“Me next! Me next!”

Hiro laughed wearily, before quickly jumping down. The little girl ran over, and he picked her up, “Eris that’s dangerous you can’t”

Eris pouted, “Aw, why not?”

“Because you’re too young.”

“That’s not the problem here,” the Head Maid walked up from behind Hiro, “In the first place it’s not a matter of age, you shouldn’t be doing something like this in the first place. What if you were to get injured.”

Hiro scratched his head, “But it’s fine, I’ve been doing this for years.”

The Head Maid sighed, “Frankly it’s more concerning that you’ve been doing this for years, I wonder what the Master’s thinking letting you just do as you please...”

Hiro laughed wearily before putting Eris back down to the ground and patting her head, “Anyway I’m going to go out for a bit. Stay here.”

Eris nodded her head, “Big Brother Quinn said he’d read me a book.”

“Heh, is that so.”

A soft blue light covered Hiro’s body and he jumped up into the air, “Well have fun!”

Eris looked up at Hiro and her eyes sparkled as she jumped up again, “Wooooo, teach me how to do that!”

The Head Maid sighed once more, “Please don’t”

~

Deep in the forest close to the Whitmore Manor, if one looked carefully they could see a short figure weaving through the trees and foliage. His entire body was covered in a thin blue translucent layer, and despite how quickly he was going whenever he’d land on a tree or a branch he would barely make a sound.

The moment his feet would make contact with any surface, the blue layer over his body would expand for a fraction of a second seemingly damping his steps and the layer of light under his feet would act akin to a spring launching him forward.

Hiro jumped off a tree and launched himself up into the air breaking past the tree line revealing the night sky. Hiro stopped atop a tree and looked at the stars.

He pulled out a piece of jerky from his pocket and began chewing on it as he thought, “It’s getting a bit late.”

The originally thin layer of blue light around Hiro’s body began gathering towards his back into two clumps and became increasing denser. These two lumps began to change shape and color eventually turning into a pair of white wings. Hiro jumped up and flapped the wings on his back as he began to return to the manor.

These wings allowed Hiro to quickly return, and as he approached the manor he noticed there were several people standing on top of the roof. Hiro gathered some of the light from his wings and gathered it in his right eye allowing him to see further.

As his vision in one eye increased he was able to make out the figures of a light brown haired child sitting down on the roof of the manor holding what appeared to be a picture book. Behind him stood the head maid and butler along with several other servants.

This was his younger twin Quinn who he rarely spoke too, and on his lap was Eris from earlier. Hiro retracted his wings and focused the aura surrounding his body around his legs allowing him to safely land.

He quickly made his way over to the manor before jumping up to the roof. Quinn turned his head towards him and he raised his finger motioning him to stay quiet. He quietly put down the picture book in his hands and picked Eris up handing her to the butler standing behind him.

Hiro asked, “What are you doing up here so late at night?”

Quinn turned to the sky and said, “I was never particularly fond of sleep, often times I would just lay down with my eyes closed or stare into the sky. Here.”

Quinn passed Hiro a letter with a wax seal, Hiro looked at it and asked, “What’s this?”

“An invitation.”

Hiro looked back down at the letter, and broke the seal, removing the parchment within slowly reading it.

“An academy?”

Quinn sat back down and nodded, “Father said it’s about time we get acquainted with the other nobles, and that we should take the time to better ourselves. We’re already ten years old after all.”

The head maid walked up to Hiro, “This academy is one for Knights and Mages, of course, there’s also a general education curriculum. The Master stated you may freely choose which curriculum to take up in a months time.”

Hiro looked at the letter and then back at Quinn, “Are both of us going?”

Quinn nodded his head, “Also Father said the academy might hold the answers you've been looking for. Whatever that means.”

“I see…”