One of the largest rooms in the orphanage had now been converted into a kind of primitive classroom. Simple desks were lined up, and hastily drawn shapes and symbols whose meaning Aurelion couldn't decipher but whose importance he sensed, were hung on the walls.
Linnea pointing out specific lines and curves with a piece of charcoal in her hand. Today's topic was inevitably the first, most basic letters of the alphabet in the common tongue that everyone had to learn.
This 'lesson' was theoretically for the 3 to 5 age group. However, Aurelion, though physically the youngest in this group, had taken his place in these desks by Linnea's direct order. Was this a privilege, or special surveillance? It was certain that the woman had sensed the 'difference' in him, that unsettling potential.
In this new order, the 'valuable' or 'dangerous' would be labeled early on, he knew that. As Linnea taught, her eyes constantly scanned the room, frequently lingering on Aurelion. Yet, as they were both secretly observing each other, there were moments when their eyes met.
Aurelion sat in the corner of the desk, as close to the wall as possible. This provided him with both a wider field of vision and the opportunity to avoid unwanted physical contact.
Next to him was the Wood Elf girl. "Wood Elf… Linnea had called her that. The other… me, that is, High Elf. What does that mean then? Does one live in the forest and the other on high? Nonsense."
The girl was even hesitant to touch the tablet in front of her, fiddling with the frayed edge of her dress with her tiny fingers. At the other end of the desk were those two Beastkin. The girl had orange, thick hair and pointed fox ears that twitched constantly. The boy was calmer, with grey hair and ears that were rounder but distinctly wolf shaped. Both were chewing on their charcoal pencils and senselessly scratching the surface of the tablet. "Half-animal, half-human… Beastkin. That's what those around whisper. Uncontrolled instincts… Nothing will come of these."
In the back rows sat a dark skinned Saharan child, quietly observing his surroundings. "Saharan… Dragged from the deserts. I wonder how he'll survive in this cold?" And right next to him, those two large, Orc brats who had earned Aurelion's special hatred since the cleaning punishment…It was obvious from their every gesture that the only thing they understood from the lesson was boredom. "Orc… Crude, noisy, idiots carrying a pile of muscle instead of a brain. Even their names are grating." Next to them were a few "normal" looking children. Eluvians, perhaps? Aurelion wasn't sure. "They look ordinary, but some can learn surprisingly quickly. Mustn't overlook them."
Linnea drew an 'E' on the stone slab. "This... is the first sound of 'Egg," she said calmly, elongating the syllable. "Egg. All together: Eee..." A faint, reluctant chorus of 'eee's rose from the room.
She began to walk between the rows one by one, leaning over each child's tablet, showing tiny hands how to hold the charcoal pencil more correctly. She tried to show more patience with the Beastkin children, perhaps thinking their learning style might be different, but the fox girl's attention kept wandering, and the wolf boy refused to hold the pencil. Linnea's smile became forced.
Just before reaching the Orc brats, Linnea had leaned towards the fox girl to give her a little more attention. That was when the opportunity arose for Aurelion. He coughed lightly to attract the attention of the Orcs in the next row. When the two green brats turned to him, Aurelion leaned towards them, lightly covering his mouth with his hand. He spoke in a sarcastic whisper: "Heeeey... Green pigs... Is it really that hard for you two thick heads to draw two lines?"
The two Orc brats instantly turned to him. One of them, with a sound like an angry roar, angrily knocked over his desk and jumped to his feet.
The sound of the falling desk echoed throughout the room. Everyone turned in that direction in shock.
Aurelion, however, as if he had calculated all this beforehand, had quickly turned back to his tablet the moment the Orc jumped up, burying his head in it, trying to draw the curves of the letter 'E' with incredible concentration. There wasn't the slightest hint of guilt or provocation on his face. Just an innocent child trying to learn.
Linnea quickly turned around. The scene she saw, exhausted the last remnants of her patience. "YOU! Sit down immediately!" Her eyes briefly fell on Aurelion, who was innocently occupied with his tablet, but the child's unusually focused appearance on his lesson left no reason for suspicion.
Her anger was entirely directed at the Orc who had disrupted the discipline. "What is the meaning of sabotaging the lesson?! I told you there would be consequences for this behavior!" The Orc brat, though somewhat cowed by Linnea's icy anger, was still growling. When Linnea reached him, her voice took on an even more dangerous tone as she leaned towards him. "I told you to sit!"
The Orc child reluctantly slumped down next to the overturned desk. "Neither of you will move until the end of this lesson, and you will listen carefully to what I say. Afterwards, you will face the punishment for this!"
When Linnea turned back to the stone slab, her face was still tense, but she had regained control. Aurelion, though his head was still bowed over his tablet, smiled. "Yes… fools. Uncontrolled anger and a weak intellect… This is the result. This is just the beginning. I have more in store for you." He had enjoyed this small game. This was something he could do even in his powerless body.
Linnea paused when she reached Aurelion's side. She looked at the child's tablet. Despite the clumsiness of his initial attempts, the last 'E' he had drawn was surprisingly neat. It was clear the child was trying.
After Aurelion finished his work, he turned to the Wood Elf girl beside him. The girl still hadn't even touched her pencil, her fingers trembling. Aurelion, in a gentle tone, whispered, "Don't be afraid." He pointed to the 'E' on his own tablet with his finger. "Look. Easy. One line... Straight..." Then he drew three horizontal lines in the air with his tiny finger. "Then… three short ones. Try." There was no trace of a command in his voice. He was explaining by showing and murmuring, without touching the girl's tablet. The girl, surprised by Aurelion's unexpected help and calm demeanor, was looking at him with wide green eyes. She slowly picked up the pencil, hesitantly trying to draw the first line.
His motivation was twofold. He thought he might be able to get information from this girl in the future, and he also wanted to paint a "helpful and intelligent" profile in Linnea's eyes.
Linnea watched this interaction with raised eyebrows. This was truly strange. This problematic child... was he now helping another child? Was there some kind of bond between these two Elf children that she couldn't understand, even though they were of different kinds? What was his motivation? Linnea quickly noted her new observations, questions, and this inconsistency in Aurelion's behavior on her parchment.
"Well done, Aurelion," she said, her voice neutral this time. "So you're learning and teaching at the same time." Aurelion didn't care whether this praise was sincere or not; what mattered was reinforcing the "potential" image in Linnea's eyes.
When the lesson ended, Linnea dismissed the children with a voice that sounded a little more tired than usual. "Alright children, that's all for today. You can go out to the courtyard. But remember, the older ones are training. Watch quietly, no disturbing them!"
While most children rushed out noisily with a sigh of relief, Aurelion didn't hurry. He calmly got up from his desk and, instead of following the others, headed directly to the edge of one of the large, arched windows overlooking the courtyard. He found the best viewing spot and perched on the windowsill.
In the courtyard, a large, stern faced Northerner instructor was shouting commands, striking the ground with a thick stick in his hand. Before him was a mixed group of children, aged between 7 and 9, all in a miserable state. A large Bear-Beastkin, was crushing a Northerner brat beneath him. A little further on, a Lizardfolk whelp, evaded another Northerner's attack with incredible flexibility, using his tail like a whip to strike his opponent's legs and unbalance him. An Eluvian girl standing at the side, while grappling with a more robust boy, relied not on brute force but on quick, clever maneuvers. The Northerner children, despite their injuries or fatigue, gritted their teeth and resisted, refusing to give up.
The instructor's voice was merciless: "Faster! Hit him! Get up, you lazy dimwit! Find your opponent's weak spot! Use your eyes! Don't cry, fight!" Every fall, every moment of hesitation earned them a scolding, forcing them to get up immediately and continue.
Aurelion watched this scene with cold attention. The children's pained faces, the instructor's ruthlessness, didn't affect him at all. He saw the system. He analyzed how raw power, speed and agility, intelligence and technique, and sheer will and endurance clashed, and which provided an advantage when.
"Harsh… Yes. Organized brutality. But not blind. Everyone seems to have a different advantage. The instructor, by pushing them to their limits, is both revealing their potential and weeding out the weak. "This… this is what I must do too. Push the limits of this body, reveal its potential. And never show my weak spots."
This sight further fueled his desire for power and control. One day, he would be the one in that courtyard. But he wouldn't just survive; he would be the strongest. Just as he was lost in these deep thoughts, he was startled by a timid voice from beside him.
"Um... Can I... sit next to you?"
He turned his head. It was the Wood Elf girl from class. She had her hands clasped in front of her, her green eyes fixed on him anxiously. While other children had scattered to different corners of the courtyard, this girl had been left alone. And now, she was approaching him. Why? "Is it because I helped her in class? Or just because she has no one else to stand by? Or… did she choose my side because she's an Elf?"
The girl's timid demeanor made her seem like an ideal target for information gathering. But it was also important not to scare her away. He tried to put on a faint, perhaps slightly unnerving, smile. He nodded slightly.
"Sit," he said. The girl let out a relieved breath and slowly sat down next to Aurelion. For a while, they both silently watched the courtyard. The girl flinched slightly at every hard fall or shout. The Bear Beastkin mercilessly slamming his opponent to the ground had particularly unsettled her.
"It's horrible..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "Why… are they doing this?"
Aurelion looked at the girl. She was weak. But there was a different purity, a fragility in this girl. Normally, this weakness would disgust him, but now… he had to be strategic. "Don't be afraid," he said, trying to make his voice softer this time. "To be strong… World… dangerous."
The girl turned to him, tears welling in her green eyes. "But… they're hurting each other."
Aurelion grumbled inwardly. "Of course they're hurting each other, stupid girl. What did you expect in a war?" But outwardly, he was calm. "Sometimes… pain… necessary. To be stronger… to survive." He remembered the promise he made to himself. Not to be weak… This training was part of it. "You… where did you come from?" he asked, changing the subject, taking the first step towards the information he craved.
The girl's eyes glazed over. "I… Elara. I came from the forest. The Northwood... It was so beautiful. The trees… the animals..." Her voice trembled with happiness. "I had… a family. My siblings..." Then her face clouded over with sadness again. "Then… dark ships came. Fire… Screams… We ran." Tears started to stream down her face. "We ran so much… We hid… Some… got lost. My father… My mother…" She broke into sobs. "...then we met others… we were walking… Then this place… I was left alone…"
Aurelion listened carefully to what the girl said. Wood Elves, the Northwood, devotion to their families, the devastation of war… He noted it in his mind. Still, the girl crying so openly and vulnerably… It stirred a strange, unsettling feeling within him. Not pity, but a kind of… familiarity.
He awkwardly reached out his hand and gently touched the girl's trembling shoulder. "Don't cry," he said simply, his voice not very comforting, but that was his intention. "It's over." Elara, somewhat surprised by the unexpected touch and words from this strange, golden eyed child younger than herself, her sobs subsided a little. She wiped her tears with her arm and looked at Aurelion. "Are you… Are you alone too?"
Aurelion nodded. He remembered his mother's face. "Yes." They sat in silence for another moment. As Aurelion was thinking of ways to get more information from the girl. He heard familiar, heavy footsteps approaching from behind them. Only one person walked like that. But there were lighter steps beside him too.
They turned. There were two figures standing before them. One was Linnea, looking at them with her usual serious expression. But the other… It was Roric! But a very different Roric. The reason for his absence was now clear.
He wasn't wearing his armor, just a simple tunic, but his shoulders looked broader than before, his muscles more defined. His height seemed to have increased slightly, reaching almost two meters. The most striking change was his skin. His dark complexion had tanned even further, giving way to a color that seemed to emit a faint metallic light from beneath. There was no trace of his wounds; on the contrary, he looked stronger, more… different. Even the aura he exuded was more intense.
"Roric!" The name involuntarily slipped from Aurelion's mouth. "You… different!"
Roric looked at Aurelion and Elara beside him. His face held its usual lack of expression.
Linnea smiled. "Captain Roric rested for a while and received special treatment. He has now fully recovered his health, even stronger than before." Aurelion's golden eyes narrowed, suspiciously scanning Roric from head to toe. Special treatment? Such a dramatic physical change in such a short time? This was more than simple healing.
He remembered the other "different" beings he had seen in the orphanage. Those scaly, agile Lizardfolk children, the Beastkin with ears and tails… Then he recalled the first time he saw the War Chieftain. That colossal figure sitting on the throne. He looked like a Northerner but at the same time, he didn't. Roric's current posture, the intensified aura he radiated, and even that strange metallic sheen on his skin… It was different, but it was reminiscent of the air about the War Chieftain.
"Like the War Chieftain?" he asked suddenly, looking directly into Roric's eyes. "You… like him?" The question hung in the air. Both Roric and Linnea froze for a moment at this unexpected and incredibly accurate comparison. Linnea's mouth fell slightly open, her blue eyes behind her glasses widening in astonishment. It was unbelievable that such a young child could make such a connection merely by seeing the War Chieftain a few times and noticing this kind of change in Roric. How could a mind at this age work like that?
For the first time, a clear surprise, appeared on Roric's usually expressionless face. His eyes narrowed, as if trying to see the chain of thought inside Aurelion's tiny head. He tried to gauge how much the child understood, how much he was saying merely as a random analogy. The tough process he and the War Chieftain had undergone, the power gained, and the transformation experienced... These were not things to be discussed openly. How could this brat possibly sense the how and why?
After a few seconds of tense silence, Roric composed himself, masking his surprise, but his voice was a little more cautious than usual. "Where do you get these ideas, child?" he said. "The War Chieftain is strong in his own way. I too have become stronger in my own way. Everyone's path is different." The evasive tone in his voice and his failure to answer directly did not escape Aurelion's notice. "Yes… He's avoiding the answer. So I hit a nerve. A kind of 'being like' situation… A way to become stronger. Just like the War Chieftain. How?"
Roric quickly made his move to change the subject. "You should focus on your own mischief. Linnea told me you were wandering around the construction site, a forbidden area. What was that all about, meddling around Master Grom's valuable rune tools?" he asked.
Aurelion grimaced. Just when he had grasped the edge of something important, the topic had reverted to his "mischief." Although Roric's blatant evasion annoyed him, he had also gained valuable information.
Linnea too had shaken off her surprise and resumed her serious expression. "Yes, Aurelion. We haven't closed this matter yet. You must learn to obey the rules. The construction site is a dangerous place. Moreover, that incident in class today..." Just as Linnea was about to mention the Orc incident, Roric gently stopped her again.
"Perhaps he's just too curious, Linnea," Roric said. "In this new world, curiosity, if channeled correctly, can be a strength." His gaze turned to Aurelion, this time containing more of a warning. "But you need to know your limits, son. Not every door can be opened, not every secret learned. Especially at this age. Next time you wander around the construction site or anywhere else you shouldn't be, the consequences might not be this light."
Aurelion just looked at him silently, trying to weigh the threat beneath Roric's words and perhaps other hidden meanings. Roric protecting him was strange, but it also prevented him from accessing information. His mind was filled with complex emotions and new questions. Elara beside him, thoroughly frightened by this tense conversation, was almost about to hide behind Linnea, unable to bear Roric's changed appearance and harsh words any longer.
Linnea sighed, understanding that Roric's intervention had closed the subject. For now. "Very well, Captain. But my eye will be on you, Aurelion. At the slightest mistake..." She didn't finish her sentence, but the threat was clear.
She turned back to the courtyard. "You two, come inside now. It's dinner time." Aurelion and Elara walked in after Linnea and Roric. Aurelion's mind was filled with the transformation Roric had undergone and his similarity to the War Chieftain. "Change… Transformation… How does this happen? What is its source? And why are they being so evasive?"
This world was far more layered, far more dangerous, and full of secrets than he had estimated. And Roric… this colossal warrior with strangely gleaming skin, could be one of the keys to these secrets. He had to observe him, understand him. He had to etch every detail, every word, every look into his mind.