Unfolded Truth

What had transpired in these few moments had made me face a flurry of emotions, something rare for me. I was usually numb to feeling any sense of accomplishment, but this time, I felt somewhat proud of myself.

"Come, little ones. I'm tired, and you both need some rest as well."

'I need to get myself together. My first goal right now is to get an evaluation tablet to see if this talent is any good.'

I got up in the morning, and my brothers were still sleeping soundly. I looked at the old clock on the wall; it was still early. This was my chance to get ready and get the evaluation tablet.

That's when reality hit again... I was broke.

The tablet cost 100 silver, an amount of money that wasn't much to an average family. In our case, it could get us through at least a month or two with food if we managed it right. Usually, in times like these, I'd lock myself in the basement where I'd built a library from stolen books and found goods.

In my free time, I always liked to stay there and journal, something very unusual for a slum rat, some would say. But that's how I managed to write down my knowledge of monsters found in the Rifts or solutions to specific situations in the Rifts.

The more knowledge you had when you went into a rift, the better it was in the long term, as avoiding monsters in low-ranking Rifts was way more efficient than dealing with them. The wise always had an advantage going in there, and that applied even to higher-ranking Rifts.

In the basement, there was a part I never touched: the old corner where the previous owners of this house kept their old belongings.

I found the keys in a box my "parents" had in their room, along with some old photos of a noble couple. I had no idea why they were there, but I was very curious.

"CLICK!" The lock made a sharp sound as I turned the key and opened the old box. "There we go!" Enthusiastic for a short moment, I busted the lid open. Dust clouded me, and a rotten smell emanated from down there. Curiosity filled my mind as I scrambled through all the papers carefully.

"Uck!"

It smelled like straight crap in there.

The only things inside were an envelope filled with letters, a pair of dusty gauntlets, and a sheathed shortsword.

'That deadbeat couldn't have been a rift walker, no way!'

My gears kept turning. He was trash beyond understanding and had no morals. There was no way he even worked for a day in his life, so being a rift walker was out of the question.

Confused, I opened the envelope, which was sealed with an unknown famiglia stamp in the shape of a curling dragon, and found many torn letters that looked older than me. They had dates, so before reading, I started putting them in order. The dates ranged from what was close to my birth date until I was four years old, meaning they were almost eighteen years old. I noticed they all had a stamp I didn't recognize from any of my books.

It read "DRACOFIST FAMIGLIA."

After arranging them, I started reading them one by one. The first one read:

"Date 07/02/725 We deeply apologize for this burden we have left upon you, but this is our last chance to save our offspring, and our territories are on the brink of invasion from the House of Royal Angels."

Now, this was a name I was familiar with since the House of Royal Angels was the most powerful of all the royal families and hosted over twenty 1st rank rift walkers. But the thing that got my attention was that they were talking about an offspring. I continued to read the letter.

"The family is now under attack for unknown reasons. We do not know why, but we have been fighting against almost all the other powerhouses and are on the brink of defeat. They have sealed all the rifts where all our strongest soldiers were, making us more vulnerable than we ever were. Whoever gets this letter, please look after our Raphael. We won't be able to fight much longer as the other families join hands with them and hold grudges against us."

I stood there, shocked at the mention of my name, in disbelief, finding that the dates matched up. The first letter's date was six months after what I was told my birthday was. Despite this huge shock, I was still puzzled about when Rennie and Reggie came here. My supposedly biological parents went missing that night, so them being theirs would be impossible. Their features were too similar to what I had seen in the photo.

Another letter was attached next to the last one, but it was almost completely burnt. The only thing that was still somewhat visible was a photo of the twins as infants. It must have been the twins since the signature spiral marks on the side of their foreheads were showing. I was confused beyond measure. The four-year gap between my brothers and me made no sense. The content of the letter that was burnt must have had an explanation, but I couldn't make out any readable words.

This had something to do with the civil war that split the continent forever fifteen years ago, but there was no sign that pointed to a fifth party being involved, let alone it being the main target of the conflict.

This had me questioning everything. It felt like I had a concussion. My head was spinning, and I gathered enough courage to read through the other letters left there. The following letter was a reply to my parents' letter and read as follows:

"Date 15/12/731 (A.A) We cannot express how grateful we are to know that our sons are safe. Our only way of showing gratitude is through these letters and the little monetary support we can send to you in our bad conditions. The DracoFist family is currently in hiding, and the only people remaining are His Highness and myself. We are sorry to say that the only thing we can hope for right now is the survival of Raphael DracoFist, the first heir to the DracoFist family. We sent out our newborn twins as well so that Raphael can take care of them. With gratitude, Elena DracoFist."

Elena… That was my biological mother's name, from what I had seen. In the picture, she had long white hair. She was breathtaking, her pale skin and bright red eyes making her seem like some otherworldly beauty. The person standing next to her had a big smile, a tall, muscular body barely hiding under a three-piece suit.

His hair was jet black, just like mine was at that moment. I wasn't mad at my real parents for abandoning me, as it seemed like they just wanted to protect me. But something was missing...

"Why haven't I ever heard of a 'DracoFist' family before?"

After questioning myself a couple of times, I concluded that the DracoFists had been a powerhouse family just like The House of Angels was, and a coup d'etat was planned against them to bring them down.

"But this doesn't make any sense!"

"Why are there no records in any library of a DracoFist family ever existing?"

Trying to tie things together, I continued to read the other letters. The remaining ones were just updates on the situation. The only information I could gather was that my father's name was Orion, and my brothers both had the royal bloodline and were next in line after me for the heir position. The one who planned the coup d'etat was the current head of the House of Angels, Xander, and the twins and I had inherited the innate bloodline talent.

This was too much for me. Tired of all this information, I sat down on the dirty floor, reviewing in my head all the things I had read. It was both eye-opening and devastating to know that my life was messed up due to my bloodline being that of a DracoFist. While lying down, I noticed a big book at the bottom of the drawer with the DracoFist emblem. This could be the only thing remaining of what the DracoFist family was.