"We're almost there." Zephyr said in an attempt to console the quiet Ares. The troubling thing was that he would say that every few minutes.

While they were moving in the dark night, they would hear birds cawing every now and then.

After hearing a random shriek, it finally unnerved Zephyr and he fully sped up, forgetting the condition Ares was in.

"Urgh..." a short groan brought Zephyr back to his senses as he turned around to check up on Ares.

"Shoot! My bad, are you okay?" He quickly apologized while the boy just nodded his head, indicating he was alright.

Soon they heard rushing footsteps and saw a few guardsmen running with weapons in a hurry. These five knights were all big and sturdy, with sheathed swords while being covered in light armor to remain mobile as they were responsible for upkeeping the peace late at night.

"Why are kids out so late, its dangerous out here." The leading knight replied in an admonishing tone.

"What's going on sir?" Zephyr asked, kind of confused.

"There's a thief who robbed mister Montgomery's Roan Boar meat and maybe even took his money." The guard explained while not noticing the sweating Zephyr.

"Um, we are kind of lost. Could you escort us to the Reinhardt manor?" Zephyr asked his request as he was fed up of prowling the dark streets.

"What's your relationship to the Duke? The knight was surprised to hear such a request from a child but became serious hearing a Duke was involved.

"He's my Grandpa." Zephyr said with pride.

"What!? With haste then, but the boy..." The knight started getting suspicious when he saw the sickly boy but didn't continue.

He told his squadron his task and hurriedly went on his way. Within ten minutes they arrived in front of the Duke's house but the knight stayed there, fully intent on seeing everything to a finish.

With Zephyr knocking on the door a maid opened and when she looked down and saw the small child she immediately made a curtsy.

"Welcome home Young master Zephyr, and you've brought a friend so late in the night? Quickly come in!" She soon noticed the condition of Ares and hurriedly went to work.

The knight also left after seeing everything was alright and went to catch the thief, not knowing he just led him home. Within a minute, Aaly, Grandpa Reinhardt, and the Madam had all appeared in front of Zephyr, hoping for an explanation.

"I saw him dying outside and so..." Zephyr went into detail about all the events, even his theft as he looked down, awaiting punishment. What he received however was a pat on the head.

"You've done well boy, you stole only to save a life. I will look for this mister Montgomery and reimburse his losses. As for the boy, seeing as you went through so much it take care of him, I guess we can take the boy in and shelter him." The Duke said with a small smile.

"Hehe." Zephyr gave a bright smile to Ares before watching him depart into the house. When Zephyr turned around , ready to sneak back into his dorms, his grandpa called out to him.

"Stay the night boy, leave in the morning."

"But..."

"Shut up and head upstairs!" The Duke snarled and left to his room, leaving a despondent Zephyr all alone in the living room. With nothing else to do, Zephyr made his way to his room ready to get some nice shut eye.

He made his way past the sleeping Ralph on the bed near his and once he hit his bed, it was lights out. His old bed could not compare to the softness and fluffiness that this bed brought him.

He Easily entered dreamland within moments of contact with his pillow. After a few hours had flown by, strange groans were intermittently being heard around his room.

"Zzzz..zzzz, huh!?!? What's going on?!" Zephyr sluggishly arose from his sleep and made his way out of his room while Ralph seemed to be deep asleep.

"Keurk.. Argh!...Odin!" The noise was wavering all the time.

Zephyr was finally spooked and finally tried helping the matter out.

"Gramps!!!!!!!"

"Wha-" with that, multiple clatters were heard and footsteps were heard clearly, the Duke was seen in his nightgown as he rushed to Zephyr with a trailing, calm Renault behind him as his aura was slowly increasing, preparing for battle.

"What happened?!?" He was alarmed as this happened in his home, who had the gall to attack him in his own residence?

"Nothing, just that there was some strange freaky sounds being emitted somewhere. "Zephyr explained the situation as a couple of nearby maids clearly voiced their discontent and headed back to their jobs.

"It seems I'm not needed then, father, you take care of it since you and Zephyr brought this on, you solve it." With that, Renualt returned to his own room while scratching his frizzy bed hair.

'Whack!'

"Ouch!? What was that for gramps!? Zephyr questioned with indignation as he rubbed the back of his head in pain.

"Quiet! Now let's see what's going on." As the pair entered the guestroom of Ares's, the intermittent groans were becoming more audible.

"F-Fa-ther, c-c-come b-b-back, Keurk, O-Odin....argh!" Screams and moans kept coming from the boy they picked up. It was a tragic scene that made Zephyr go quiet and the Duke solemn.

Duke Reinhardt approached the bed to see a pale Ares sweating buckets and wrangling around the bed, he quickly put his hand to his chest and forcefully calmed him down.

The Duke then brought over a towel and helped wipe the sweat off the boy as he calmly watched him to make sure everything was normal again.

"This boy reminds me of someone I knew back in the day, what was it, 40 years now? I remember having to go out in a campaign at the age of fourteen and my platoon was ambushed, 300 out of 350 perished in the skirmish.

Our commander at the time took some of his loyal soldiers and attempted to abandon us, failing to make it past 100 meters from us. It was up to me and 39 others to stay alive from an onslaught from give or take 500 soldiers from Rustev.

We had nowhere else to turn to but the mountains as we had little to nothing to eat and a tail on us constantly. We took advantage of the terrain up the mountains to unleash guerilla tactics, trying to whittle their numbers while moving for higher ground, looking for a place to escape to.

Me and the last of my unit, we were committing to this for a week and a half when the plain hunger started eating at us, we had no energy left in us and we barely diminished their numbers, only getting around fifty casualties on their side while we lost ten of our own, demoralizing us even more.

If it was not for the fact that our family name was so important to our military, the Rustev forces would never have rushed at us with such ferocity that knew no bounds."

After the lengthy story, the Duke gave a long sigh as he stood up from the side of the bed as he turned for the door.

"So? How did you escape grandpa?" Zephyr was really into the story as he wanted to find out what miracle played out to save his grandpa and his crew of friends.

"Ahhhh, its time for you to go to bed, I'll finish it up at a later date. This boy seems to have lived a hard life, if he truly wishes for it, we can take him in and take care of him. He will be a dependable person, just like my old comrades. Remember boy, sheer grit and will can get you past even the toughest of times." With that, the Duke made off for his own room with quiet steps, fading into the darkness of the hallways created by the looming twilight.

"Sheer grit and will..." Zephyr mulled it over a bit but soon made his way to his own room for some Shuteye once more.

***

"With this, please welcome our newest addition to this class, Ares Seldyne." Linus stood on the platform introducing Ares before he started the class. Zephyr looked surprised as Ares looked much better than a day ago.

He still looked pale and skinny, but his eye's were brimming with more than just malice now. His purple hair that was sort of brown seemed to be full of dirt back then as it was now a full deep purple. He was wearing a clean black shirt and brown pants that was like night and day compared to his torn rags he had when Zephyr found him. The clothes hung loosely due to his low weight yet he was 140 centimeters tall. He was already near being the tallest in his class.

He slowly made his way to the back of the classroom to where Zephyr and his group was and just silently found a spot beside Kaiser.

Just like that, another strange group was formed. The nobles to the left with their snobbish remarks and attitudes were grouped together. Then the timid and dedicated commoners were to the right all remaining focused and dedicated to studying.

The group in the middle now had a boost in people. There now sat Zephyr, Lute, Aqua, Magma, Simon, Rory, kaiser and now Ares. They were the only group aside from Lute, Rory and Aqua, that had a lackluster enthusiasm towards their studies as even the most spoiled of the nobles were instilled from a young age to work hard to not embarrass their family name.