Five adults sat around a table, their faces grim and brooding; the atmosphere suffocating and heavy. All life seemed to be sucked out of the room as one man ushered a few words.

"It's decided!" A frail-looking elderly man announced, "Leo will be abandoned at the shrine in the mountain."

"Village elder! This is too harsh for a 12-year-old. Why do you insist on sending him to the mountains? He'll die out there! Why not send him to the Western highlands?" A young man in his late twenties asserted.

"What has to be done must be done! He has terrorized the other kids for five years now! And that's not to mention his bloody escapade today! If we leave him in the plains he will just wander back! He must be PUNISHED!" Thud! A fist dented the wooden table around which the men were situated.

"You have to realise that Leo has massive talent, sir. If we can discipline him, it's likely that when Leo gains honour for the kingdom on the battlefield and gets promoted to a high rank, the kingdom will send support to the village and this orphanage. Isn't that what you wanted when we left our lives of adventure? To support the children and give them a place they can call home?"

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT THE WAR!" The elder shouted, spittle ejecting from his mouth, "We have and NEVER will support such a meaningless conflict for self-interest! If you dare speak about this once more, Darren, I will throw you out."

"Elder, please calm down. Darren is right. We can't just leave a defenceless 12-year-old by himself in the mountains but that little shit has to go; we have to, at the very least, give him some sort of weapon." A deep voice resounded throughout the room.

"Alright Reiner, leave him with that rusty knife. You always did insist that knife was some sort of 'relic' so I assume there's no problem here." The village elder's eyes rolled as he responded in a snarky sarcastic manner, "He came to this orphanage with it: now he's gonna leave the orphanage with it. A fitting end I would say."

"It's not like there's a 100% chance of him dying; He's already reached advanced 1st circle warrior. Plus, he's a prodigy in other aspects as well. And, who knows, maybe that Vaunite blood in him will activate and help him survive."

"Not again, Asann, No one wants to hear about your crazy theories."

"You shut up, Haig! Everyone in the village thinks the same way. Have you seen his red eyes? His bloodlust? They're the classic traits described by the books."

"Everyone my ass," Haig scoffed under his breath before continuing, "There hasn't been a single abyssal fracture open in a thousand years now! It's impossible for him to be a Vaunite. Plus he doesn't have the white hair or the scales and he can't use void."

"Alright, that's enough from the both of you. We're here to discuss Leo's punishment, not his heritage. I decree that Leo be dropped off in front of the shrine this night. Leo will be left with his heirloom, the dagger, and 7 silver coins. Reiner and Haig, you shall drop him off, understood?"

"Understood village elder." Two replies came back instantly.

The five adults stood up from their wooden chairs and walked towards the door; Heffus, who was at the front of the group, found it rather strange that the door was slightly ajar. Thinking of nothing of it, Haig didn't bother notifying the others, instead, writing it off as, "having left the door open."

Furthermore, even if a child eavesdropped on their conversation, it wouldn't have mattered as they would have found out sooner or later. It would have been an awful lot of trouble coming up with a believable excuse for Leo's disappearance, even if it was a lousy one.

Unbeknownst to the adults, a child had been eavesdropping on their conversation. The child had blonde hair reaching down to her shoulders, large blue eyes that sparkled like sapphires in the dim lighting of the orphanage and had long pointy ears; she was about 1.5m tall and looked about 12-years-old.

Her legs quivered in joy as she ran along the creaky wooden floorboards; she had just heard some fantastic news. Leo, the tyrant, was finally getting kicked out.

Her long blonde hair trailed behind her as she ran as fast as she could, she ran up the stairs with vigour before bursting open the door to the boy's dorms.

Inside the dorm were all the kids in the orphanage huddling around a single bed, which lay a boy covered in countless bruises. About half of the kids huddled about the bed had minor scrapes and bruises littering their bodies. All of these were the victims of Leo's brutalization.

"Leo's getting kicked out! I heard it from the priests!" the blonde-haired girl ran past the crowd of other kids and tightly hugged Valour; her azure blue eyes shining brightly.

"Sylvia! You know you shouldn't snoop in on other people's conversations. You're lucky you didn't get caught." Contrary to her expectations, Valour's expression turned stern as he raised his voice and reprimanded her.

Sylvia's once spirited and enthusiastic face quickly turned downcast and dejected and tears threatened to spill down her face. Realizing he had gone too far, Valour hastily comforted Sylvia as he patted her head.

"Listen, I just don't want you to get in any trouble. Okay?"

"Sniffle. Okay."

"Come on Valour, you're always so strict with Sylvia. Shouldn't you treat her better considering how much she likes you?" a girl with two tiny black horns commented as she smirked.

On her back were two miniature grey wings and a small grey tail with a heart-shaped tip that erratically shifted left to right behind her; it was easy to tell she was enjoying herself. Sylvia's face quickly turned beet red.

"Stop kidding around, Heila, someone as cute as Sylvia would never like someone as useless and weak as me; hell, I haven't beaten Leo once in a fight. I always let you guys down. Sylvia's just attached to me because we were put in the orphanage at the same time."

While Valour had spouted out this line with a fact of the matter expression, his mind spoke a completely different truth, "God, please just shut these people up. Of course, I know she likes me; even a blind man could see that. I just want her to stop liking me. Why can't any of you take a hint?" Nonetheless, his expression remained completely oblivious as though he was still unaware.

"Y… yeah! I d… don't like V… Valour. You're just mistaken." Sylvia's shaky voice denied Helia's accusations; her face still beet-red.

"See. She doesn't like me."

"The dense God strikes back once again! Seriously though, Valour you gotta stop being so self-conscious, bud. You always stick up for us against Leo. You're, like, the coolest person here! Actually, scratch that. You're the coolest person! In fact, you finally put in a good punch on Leo right on his face! Actually, now that I think about it, how'd you do that? Like, all of a sudden, your arm was glowing white and then you punched him right across the face. It was like the stuff in fairytales! Are you secretly the hero and just not telling us, huh?" A boy with short, spiky red hair interrogated; his dark brown eyes were passionate to know the answer. His pale complexion highlighted the black tribal markings present on his right arm.

"I saw that as well, what was it? Have you learnt some super-secret magic?" A small child about the age of 7 asked.

"Me too, I saw it too!" another child chipped in.

"Me three!"

"Me as well!"

"Me…"

Soon everybody had declared that they had seen Valour's arm glow a mysterious white. All of them looked towards Valour hoping he would give them an answer. Unluckily for them, Valour just shrugged and said a few words that didn't clear their questions.

"I don't know. I just suddenly felt this feeling of power in my body. I felt like I was one of the legendary heroes in stories and that I had unlimited power. I thought I could beat Leo! But, sigh, we all know how that went."

The atmosphere in the room quickly became downcast. However, it was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing and the successive shouts of the adults telling that it was bedtime. the girls hastily left the room and ran to their dorms. the wooden floorboards wailing in pain with each step.

Soon the magically-controlled lights, which were made of a material called sunstone, turned off which left the orphanage dark. The moonlight weaved through the gaps in the walls, illuminating the floor in a cool blue light.