A/N : Been busy playing LL! SIF this week, so please excuse the slow update. Thank you, anonymous reader, for giving a rating to this story. Like, you're the first one ever to do that! It's not an obligation, but, I'd prefer it more if you pointed out which part about the story that might seems to be lacking, so I could fix it...

If you haven't noticed it yet, I changed the story description. My friend said it wasn't 'eyecatching' enough. Uh, I know, it wasn't perfect, and I'm not that good at it, so if you had better suggestions, please do tell me.

Also, big thanks for drealicious for drawing a cover pic!

And here's the pic of Dios, or transformed Raven in the future, be sure to check it out! Click here!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon entering the main hall, Raven was immediately greeted by the sight of his family, and some of the maids, who are waiting for him to celebrate his birthday.

In the middle of the main hall, there was a giant chocolate cake, almost as tall as Raven himself, with various delicious topping.

“Whoa...” Raven couldn't help but sighed in amazement when he saw the cake. It was the biggest cake he'd ever seen. His parents, grandmother, and the maids, smiled as they watched him getting awestruck at the sight of the cake.

When he acted like a little kid like this, he seems to be really different than the usual him, but different in a good sense, that kind of thought flowed in the minds of everyone, aside from Raven of course. In fact, even though Raven desperately tried to act like a child, but he still ultimately failed.

Since he rarely interacted with another person, outside of his own family and the maids, and also often reads all kind of books in the library by himself with solemn expression, and frequently acted like an adult —though Raven himself didn't aware of this— they thought Raven was a special kind of advanced children. Or in another word, a genius.

And the event that had happened when he was born, didn't even help to lessen their suspicion about him being another kind of 'special' kid.

That's why, they felt rather happy when they saw him acted like a proper child.

“Raven,” Edward laughed and waved his hand, “Come here, don't just stand around like that. Today is your special day, and you are the main star!”

“Ah,” realizing about how he acted just now, Raven felt embarrassed and covered his flushed face with his hands, 'Jeez, that's so embarrassing! Getting stunned by the sight of a giant, delicious looking, full-of-toppings, chocolate cake, made with love... no, wait, what am I thinking about! It's like, I am thinking like a child... eh, I AM a child!'

—Could you, like, decide whether to act like an adult or a child?— Dios' voice resounded in his mind. —If you continues like this, forget genius, they'd think you're crazy instead...—

'No, that was... I did that unconsciously,' Raven then tried to put on his best 'cute children face', and ran to his parents, then hugged them tightly.

“Happy birthday, my dear,” Elena kissed him in the cheek and gently caressed his face. “Look at you, you have grown so big already.”

Edward patted his son's head and said with a laugh, “Okay, let's just throw away all the formalities and start the party already!”

The party had been enjoyable for Raven. There were also several representative of noble houses who had came to congratulates him, though obviously not without ulterior motive...

Even though the House of Lind couldn't be called as the best, or the biggest, or even the strongest noble house out there, but they still had enough influence in the City of Loen, the place where they resides. And so, there were some noble houses who had planned to betroth their own children to Raven, as the sole heir of the House of Lind.

Some of them, whom only had the information about Raven's appearance, which looked very feminine, thought that he was a she, and they had even planned to get their son to marry Raven. Obviously, it made Edward and Grandmother felt enraged, resulting in some nobleman and their representative running away from the party with bloodied nose.

As for the rather 'informed' noble houses, who had planned to marry their daughter with Raven, were personally handled by Elena. Even though she didn't use any violence, her cold demeanor when she calmly refused any offer, made people shuddered unintentionally.

In the end, the party had successfully ended with Raven getting many presents from the guests.

…......

After all of the guests has returned, Raven and his family gathered once again in the main hall. However, the maids didn't partake in this little meeting.

“Well,” Edward wiped the bloods in his hands, and said with a mirth, “Today was a good day.”

Raven's lips twitched when he heard that statement. Grandmother on the side glared at his father and said rather angrily, “How could they mistook our little Raven as a girl? Were the two round things in their heads just a pair of useless marbles?”

“Fufufu,” a terrifying chuckling sound suddenly could be heard from behind Raven, which immediately made him started and turned his head to look and saw his mother, Elena, with a shadow of a demon behind her back, “It's alright, my dear, mommy would've never gave you up to those vixen.”

—This is interesting, yes. I thoroughly enjoyed your current circumstances— said Dios laughingly in his mind. Raven immediately barked at him with a 'Shut up!'

“Mother, Father, Grandmother,” said Raven nervously. He desperately tried to change the subject of this conversation, “What about... my training? I am already 6 year old now...”

The trio turned to look at Raven, and said at the same time: “Training?”

“Um, yes, you said that I would begin my training at the age of 6?” Raven said, fidgeting.

Edward nodded and answered him, “Yes, I do remember about it. As we've talked about it before, your training as a warrior would begin after—“

“—wait a minute, Edward, what is this all about?” Before Edward finished his answer, Elena immediately interjected with her own question: “Warrior? Training? How could I have never even heard about this?”

“No, Elena, my dear, please listen to me—“

“Oh, I am listening alright. Yes, explain everything to me, RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!” there weren't any traces of calmness anymore in Elena's voice. The sight had made Raven panicked, since he thought that he was the one to blame for bringing up the topic. Meanwhile, Grandmother only facepalmed on herself.

“Grandma, please stop them?” Raven tried to ask his grandmother. However, she only shook her head and said resignedly, “It's okay, it happened a lot, even before you were born. Just let them be.”

“....”

—Pft— 'Shut up!'

…......

“So, you were already planned to learn martial arts for a long time?”

Now, it was Raven's turn to be interrogated by Elena. “Yes, mother.”

Elena said with a sigh, “Can you tell mom, why do you want to be a warrior? I mean, there are many paths available for your future, and those are definitely not as painful as this one.”

“Mother,” Raven gazed at his mother's eyes and firmly said, “I want to be strong enough, to protect everyone that I hold dear, of course, that includes everyone who lived in this house. As of now, I am too weak to protect anyone. If something were to happen to you, and I couldn't have done anything except watching from the side, then I... then I would like a power to be able to do something. At the very least, I want to be strong enough to not become a burden.”

—Oh my, your character were getting out of control, again.— 'Eh?'

Jaw gaping, wide-eyed, were the reactions shown by Elena, Grandmother, and even Edward.

Elena and Grandmother then suddenly turned their head to glare at Edward and said accusingly at the same time, “Did you told him to say that?”

“No!” Edward frantically shook his head, “God, that was so deep, I can't even create a complex sentence like that! How do you think I could teach him to say that!?”

Elena and Grandmother looked at each other, furrowed their brows and said, “That's true.” “Yes, it's impossible.” then they turned to look at Raven, whose back was already drenched in sweat.

“I... uh, that was...”

Raven felt afraid that his family would be suspicious, or even afraid of him, since he said something which definitely didn't seems to be something that should've been said by a children. The response he got, however, completely surpassed his expectation.

His mother suddenly hugged him tightly, followed by his father hugging her and him, and then followed again by grandmother, hugging them all.

“Don't worry, Raven,” Elena said with a sob, “You shouldn't have thought of something like that. Mommy, daddy, and granny would protect you from any danger.”

“....I am sorry mother, father, and grandma,” somehow, Raven felt really warm inside of his body, and unconsciously, tears started to flow from his eyes, “And thank you.” From the bottom of his heart, he smiled to his family.

Once again, he swore to himself that he would forever treasure and protect both his new and old family.

'From today on, I will...'

—You're still weak, however— 'Dios.' —Ah, yes, I am not going to comment anymore.—

His journey was just beginning, and there will definitely be many obstacle awaits him. But with utmost determination, he gazed at the future.

***

In the same day, at night, in a certain place, inside the City of Loen.

7 shadowy figures were running beneath the starry night. All of them wore a black cloak, similar with each other. There weren't any weapon attached on their hands or body, nonetheless, the aura emanated from within their bodies made anyone around them, even without noticing on their own, instinctually felt afraid.

“Boss, this is the 5th city that we had visited in the past week,” said one of the shadowy figures, “Is it even possible for them to run that far, with that kind of body, in just a week?”

The man identified as the boss answered with certainty, “Don't worry, I have placed a tracking spell on their body. It seems like they were continuously using wind magic to increase their traveling speed.”

“Remember, we must successfully killed the both of them, at all cost,” the boss solemnly said, “Failure is not an option.”

“And don't ever underestimate them. They weren't as strong as us, but if you were to be caught off guard, they would've undoubtedly killed you. What we are afraid of isn't their current strength, but their potential. Try to imagine it, what would have happened in the future, if we let them continue their training?” said the boss.

The other 6 figures shuddered when they tried to imagine the scene. It was just an imagination, but it was scary enough to make them felt afraid.

“Spread out, and search every corner of this city.”

“Yes boss!”

The 7 shadowy figures immediately goes to different direction from each other. Unbeknownst by Raven, or any other person in Loen for that matter, something big was going to happen, right in front of their doorstep.