[5 years ago]

It was an average day in the city of Ravenwalt. The sun was bright and the streets were busy with merchants and travelers going about their daily business. On the sides of the streets were groups of kids playing with marbles, trying to knock everyone else’s marble out of the circle drawn in chalk.

Din, along with his sister, Katherine, were walking down this busy road after having gone fishing with Din’s father. His father had decided to stay longer while the two made their way back home.

“This sucks! I can never catch any fish!” Din complained.

Katherine smiled.

“You lack patience, Din. Fishing is all about patience and stillness. You can’t just keep moving the bait towards the fish, you have to wait for them to come to it.”

“Well, the fishes weren’t moving at all. They would see my bait and just stare at it like ‘heh?’. Fishes are just super dumb.”

Katherine couldn’t help but to chuckle at Din’s childish demeanor.

“Hey, Kat. What’s going on over there?”

Din was pointing down the alleyway on their right. There were a group of kids gathered around that spot.

“I don’t know… you wait here, I’ll check it out.”

“No way, I’m coming with you!”

She was hesitant at first, but was too tired to have an argument.

“Fine, but make sure to stay close.”

Din nodded.

After getting closer to the scene, Katherine could peak above the heads of the children watching.

“Kat, what’s going on? I can’t see!”

Din was trying his best to get a look around the crowd, but it was no use, he was too short. Losing his patience, he suddenly pushed through the crowd.

“Din, wait!”

Katherine tried grabbing him, but he got too far ahead. She used the little space Din created to get through the crowd to allow herself to step forward as well.

They got past the crowd of children and then saw four kids kicking a girl.

“How dare you touch it with your filthy hands!” One of the kids yelled.

There were two boys and two girls amongst the ones kicking.

The girl that was being picked on had long messy black hair that covered her face. Her clothes looked old, but aside from the dirt from the kids kicking her, the clothes looked well kept. She had scratch marks around her arms and legs probably from the two girls.

Before Katherine realized what was happening, Din had already rushed in into the fight. He immediately tackled the taller boy, bringing him to the ground. While he started punching the boy that was hit, the boy’s friend pushed him off.

Katherine stepped between Din and the two boys. From the outside, it looked like it was to protect Din, but she was mainly worried about what Din might do while blinded by his rage.

“Din, I need you to calm down. I know this looks bad, but…”

“There is no ‘but’ in this, Kat. No matter how you look at it, these bastards deserve to get beaten up!”

The boy that Din had knocked down slowly got back on his feet.

“Damn it, that hurt! Who the fuck are you? Do you know who I am?!” The boy screamed out.

Katherine recognized him instantly. “You’re the son of the baron, Roman Nicholson: Milan Nicholson.”

“You knew who I was and still let him attack me?” Milan screamed yet again.

For a young boy, his attitude was ruthless, but because of the title of his father, there were few who would want to challenge him.

Din moved in front of Katherine, “I don’t care who you are. You’ve got no right to be picking on a girl like that.”

Milan scanned Din up and down and then a spark appeared in his eyes. “You’re Din Morrison, aren’t you? Son of Brian Morrison.”

Taken aback by suddenly being recognized, Din froze.

“Right, right. I remember you now. You’re the spoiled child who had no table manner during the celebration of the moon shift last year. And now, you want to come here and tell me what’s right and what’s wrong? Do you even know who this girl is?”

Din slowly shook his head. He had lowered his gaze ever since Roman recognized him.

Katherine couldn’t believe a ten-something year old kid could act in this way, but she knew that if she acted against him, the Morrison family name would pay the price.

With a slight movement of his hand, one of the girls moved towards the beaten girl and then pulled her head back by grabbing onto her hair. The girl’s face was a mess of tear mixed with dirt.

It was a sad sight, but Katherine felt powerless.

“She’s a peasant and she dared to pick up my marble. I had paid a few hundred copper for that marble and she ruined it by touching it with her dirty hands!”

“Argh—!”

Suddenly, Din charged at Milan, pushing him against the alley wall. With no hesitation, he kept punching Milan’s face.

“How dare you—! Do that to—! Someone—!” Din yelled out as he continued punching.

With how battered Milan’s face looked, Milan’s friend and the two girls, along with the crowd of children ran out of the alleyway.

Even with Katherine holding Din back, he would kick Milan with his legs or get a hit with his other arm. While on his rampage, even a grown up would have a hard time holding Din back.

Milan laid unconscious on the ground, face beaten so bad it was almost unrecognizable.

“Din… what did you do?” Katherine had finally managed to pull Din away.

Din was out of breath, but he didn’t seem like he was finished at all. Katherine turned Din around to face her and then held his face.

“We have to leave. We—”

“Stop! Don’t move!”

It was too late. There were a couple of guards already blocking their pathway out.

“Holy shit, is that Sir Milan Nicholson? What did you two do?!” A guard screamed out.

They immediately surrounded Din and Katherine and detained them. Rather than being sent to a cell, they were taken to their home instead where the guards explained the situation to Din’s mother, Aria Morrison.

Milan’s father was a strict man, but after he had heard about the situation, he didn’t want any charges to be filed. He could see that his son had become too arrogant and wanted him punished.

When Din’s father got back home, he was told everything.

“Din, you idiot!” He screamed out.

Din flinched.

“How many times do I have to tell you to keep you anger under check? We’re only lucky right now because Baron Nicholson was nice enough to not press any charges.” He sighed, “What do you have to say for yourself, Din?”

“I… they were hurting that girl for only picking up their marble. They were ganging up on her just for that!”

“Don’t raise your voice at me, Din,” Brian scowled.

Katherine stepped forward, “Father, it is mostly my fault for not keeping Din in check. I am sorry.”

Even though Katherine admitted to the responsibility, Brian didn’t seem to believe her. He gave out a long sigh before calming down. “Din. Listen to me, son. In this world, there are going to be some things that you can’t help. Punching your way through everything won’t solve your problems, understand?”

“Then should I have let that girl get beaten up?!”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Let me ask this first, did you even try talking to them, Din? Or did you just attack them with no dialogue?”

Din remained silent.

“You can’t change people by fighting them. You have to talk with them and make them understand that what they’re doing is wrong. Or else one day, you’ll end in a lot of trouble. Do you understand?”

Din slowly nodded.

“Tell me you understand, Din.”

“I understand.”

“Good. That’s my boy.” Brian patted his son’s head before heading upstairs.

Aria suddenly came close to Din and held onto him.

“Wha—?! Mom!”

“I’m so proud of you, son. You did a great job protecting that young girl today.”

Din began blushing at the sudden praise but kept his gaze away from his mother.

“You know, the young girl’s name is Lorelei. She lives near that bakery you really like.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Well, I thought you’d want to visit her tomorrow. You can just check on her to see if she’s doing fine and maybe you can even befriend her.”

“I didn’t do it to be friends with her!”

“I know, son. But you don’t really talk to many kids around your age so I think you should at least try. It’ll be good for you.”

Aria finally released Din. Din backed away a bit before he replied, “Yeah. I’ll go see her tomorrow. Kat, let’s go to my room.”

He immediately rushed out of the main hall. Katherine gave a quick bow to Aria before following him.

After she reached his room, she found him lying face down on his bed.

“What are you doing, Din?” She asked.

“Moping,” he replied.

“Moping?”

He turned towards Kat while still lying on his bed. “Do you think Milan would’ve stopped picking on the girl if we had just talked to him?”

Katherine sat beside Din. “It’s hard to say. Milan didn’t seem like someone you could’ve easily persuaded. For people like him, the best thing you can do is to divert their attention elsewhere.”

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“For someone like Milan, they want to always be right so when you argue with them, the last thing they want to hear is why they’re wrong. In that kind of situation what you want to do instead is to get them thinking about something else. Like let’s say we were at that situation again in the alley, if we had told him that one of the Ace knights was nearby, he would probably want to check it out and forget about the girl.”

“Ohh! I see!” Din said with bright eyes.

Katherine laughed, “I make it sound easy, but it’s a lot harder coming up with something like that on the spot.”

“Still, you really think like an adult, Kat!”

“Well I am 16 years old. My brain has already matured by a lot,” Katherine said proudly, but then almost immediately sighed, “But I wish I wouldn’t have to deal with a situation like that again. Why can’t people just stop picking on the weak? It will make the world so much better if the strong and the weak worked together.”

“Don’t worry, Kat.”

Katherine turned around to see that Din had already stood up off his bed. He proudly hit his chest as he exclaimed, “Once I become an Ace knight, I’ll make sure everyone works together!”

Katherine wanted to laugh at the childish statement but saw how serious Din looked. She nodded and then said, “I look forward to it.”