Midian

Although he was the son of Camille Campbell, a graduate of the Imperial North Academy of Art recognized worldwide for her artistic performance and dedication to her studies, and even more so of Ethan Caesar, a genius by nature, Theo didn't show his talent in the early years of his schooling.

He couldn't concentrate, learn or show interest during kindergarten.

Due to a language conflict, Theo developed a series of communication problems; from a speech delay (babbling only a few words, and sometimes forming nonsensical sentences) writing difficulties and mixing up words from three languages.

This is because in Romerian, the empire where Theo was born, it is compulsory to learn two languages: Romerian and Latin (a language known to be universal; all residents of the Great World Alliance must speak it).

However, some memories of Liam Mason reside in the mind of the Young Master... some enough for his maturity to be precocious and egorian.

The conflict of these three languages made Theo unable to communicate, as well as having difficulty paying attention (because he was always immersed in memories of an old life, even though he knew that Liam Mason wasn't him).

Luckily for Theo, he went to Loureto's public school and was a pupil of the renowned teacher Beatrice who, despite her young age, was already known in the region as one of the best mentors for children.

During the first week of school, she noticed Theo's behavior before his neurological condition worsened.

"Young Master, how are you?" said Beatrice, crouching down next to Theo.

Raising his eyebrows as if to answer, Theo stared at Beatrice, waiting for new words.

Looking at Theo's notebook, the teacher saw how difficult it was for the child to write words in his native language. Instead, he wrote directly in Latin.

"No, Young Master. You have to copy exactly as it says above... Come on... Alpha…"

Theo traced the alpha symbol in his notebook, but it came out imperfect.

Beatrice suddenly erased the graffiti.

"Again... Alpha..." She waited for Theo to repeat.

"Al... pha." said Theo, separating the syllables.

"Beta…"

Instead of following the symbol for beta, Theo wrote a casual b, from the Latin"Roman alphabet instead of the beta from the Greek alphabet.

Your teacher also erased it.

"Do it right, so that the Duchess doesn't erase it when she gets home. Come on, you can do it…"

Without speaking a word, Theo kept trying to write, but confusing the alphabets.

'Hm... He's not even going to talk about his difficulties?'

"Glauben Sie, dass es so besser ist?" Theo asked, showing the letters in the notebook.

'What?' Beatrice was startled.

After a morbid silence, Theo decided to look at his mentor and understand why she had distanced herself.

Beatrice was dumbfounded and staring at Theo, trying to process the words he had spoken and trying to translate them into one of the five languages she was fluent in... but she couldn't get to grips with them.

"What did you just say? Excuse me…"

Theo raised his eyebrows.

"Ah..." Theo processed that he had spoken as Liam Mason. " Ma'am... Is that better?

The Young Master smiled awkwardly as a bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

"Hum..." Beatrice pretended to ignore the language, but decided to look at what he had written.

She was surprised.

'Is that serious? He didn't... write anything right...'

Theo had written everything in the Latin-Roman alphabet.

Beatrice, however, was not disappointed by the situation. It was normal for the children in that room, except for the fact that Theo spoke the same language...

'That will end up in Sir Ethan's hands.' Beatrice stood up and walked around the chairs until she reached the dishes. 'All the students here have had some peculiarity... Deviants are really complicated, but this generation is surpassing the old one.'

Scribbling some information on the board, Beatrice took a deep breath and thought.

'Of course, Beatrice. After all, everyone in this room, including you... is superhuman.'

Midian village, Loureto countryside

North of Loureto is the largest village in the duchy, responsible for providing some of Lawrence's biggest sources of income: wheat, milk and beef.

The village leader, Michel Hansen, gave in to Ethan after years and decided to become a supplier to the Duke himself. It was a partnership that benefited both of them: while the village of Midian gradually grew from a cluster of houses into one of the largest estates in the state, the Duchy of Lawrence established itself as one of the three richest houses in the Empire.

Because of the partnership, the wheat plantations in Midian have become something beyond the horizons...

Almost eternal fields, exuding the perfect color of wheat when touched by sunlight.

In Theo's eyes, it looked like a field of flames... He was lost in wonder at its natural beauty.

Walking hand in hand with Duke Ethan along a road between the plantation and the woods, Theo worshipped the wheat fields.

On the right-hand side of the road were wheat fields, while Midian's workers walked along the dirt roads.

To the left was one of the most dangerous places in the world: the beginning of the Nymph Forest.

A natural territory capable of covering most of the continent with its forests and hostile climate, it is the pure and fierce combination of countless biomes commanded primarily by the creations of the mythological Ruler of the Seas.

Creatures of mythical origins dominate the whole expanse; whether in swamps, dark forests, woods, caves...

Magical, intelligent, spiritual, brutal beings who don't follow human ethics. Governed by fairies; dark elves; druids and mostly nymphs.

Although 60% of the territory of the Nymph Forest is dominated by the death zone, where a wave of morbid mist hides the true dangers of the magical world, another 30% is part of the habitable zone, where humans can still coexist with the creatures.

Finally, there is a place so unreachable for humans that it seems like a myth: the heart of the forest. It has been speculated that the heart of the forest dominates 10% of all biomes, but this is pure speculation.

No one has walked more than a kilometer in the mist of death to know what the 'heart of the forest' really is.

And those who went beyond that limit were forgotten by history.

Theo used to dream about this mist; he wanted to see it, but it was impossible.

So he only lived in the habitable zone, where human habitation is still permitted by the great empires.

Theo admired the woods to his left, but then returned his gaze to the field.

"Hello!" shouted Ethan, to a group of farmers coming out of the plantation.

"Greetings, Lord Ethan!"

Taking Theo in their arms, they walked towards the villagers.

"Where is Mr. Michel?" The duke asked the farmers.

"He went into the woods with Iert and Jliner, and they fetched a good amount of firewood."

"Is it missing again?"

"No. Michel wanted to get reservations for his house."

"Ah, I know..." Ethan sighed. "Edward! Stay with Theo."

Edward, who was on the previous road, paid attention to his brother.

Taking Theo's hand, Edward walked alongside Ethan and stood at the entrance to the forest, at the foot of a tree, while the duke walked inside.

Sitting down with a stick found on the ground, Theo scratched the sand to pass the boredom.

Walking alone along a woodland path, Ethan reflected on some of the advice Beatrice had given him half an hour earlier.

When she left the office to collect Theo from school, Beatrice asked the Duke for a word and explained Young Master Lawrence's behavior in the first weeks of school.

Unfortunately for Ethan, his son was not very different from his entire lineage...

All the Duke's brothers had the same behavior; a reserved personality for the first ten years of their lives. Something he truly feared. For, after growing up, Ethan realized that communication was the very essence of humanity.

Ethan knew he had to race against time to prevent his son from growing up like his brothers.

Although Theo was only two years and six months old, for deviants, superhumans with accelerated cognitive development, the behavior was not appropriate.

Ethan put his hands on his head and sighed deeply, relaxing his shoulders while keeping an eye on the atmosphere in the forest.

It was fall in Romerian. The trees were yellowed and dominated by warm tones, the leaves were thrown across the path as Ethan walked.

A damp wind swayed the leaves along the path; such winds were common in Romerian. But the autumn weather brought a unique aspect to the environment.

'Amiah... How did you break me? How did you take me from the world of ice, to the warmth that I am?'

Ethan scratched the back of his head.

'Being a father to a girl was so much easier...'

Thays didn't show the same behavior as his younger brother when he was the same age as Theo.

'Comparing my own children seems unfair...' He reflected. 'Maybe I should be ashamed of myself and take care of it.'

Walking a few more meters, Ethan stopped in front of a stream, which flowed to the east. He decided to sit down on some rocks in the bed and look across.

Sitting down and breathing deeply, the Duke looked at the forest of nymphs. The edge of the habitable zone; the transition to the zone of death. A mist literally began when the trees touched the stream bed, growing thicker and thicker in the distance.

'How far can I go? What is the limit of humanity's greatest monster, inside this place?'

Clenching his eyes and having intrusive thoughts about actually entering the death zone, Ethan was interrupted.

"Duke Ethan?" Michel called out in the distance, carrying a load of firewood on his shoulders.

Turning his face, Ethan's eyes met Michel's brown eyes; a straw cap covered his short red hair, while a beard of the same shade extended beyond his chin.

"Michel."

"What are you doing there, alone?"

"I came here to look for you. Some villagers said you were here."

"What happened?" Michel wrinkled his eyebrows.

"No big deal, relax" Ethan stood up from the rocks "It's harvest time, so…"

"Yes, yes. It's time to provide…"

"Yeah," Ethan sighed suspiciously.

It wasn't a native attitude of the Duke, someone who used to be confident and level"headed. That set alarm bells ringing in the leader of Midian Village.

"Iert, Jliner, lead the way…"

The other two villagers carried the firewood down the path, walking towards the plantation again.

Before Ethan could leave, Michel threw all the wood he had picked up into the Duke's arms.

"What?"

"Lady Camille lives in my house, delivering books to my daughter and granddaughter, trying to teach children to read... And sometimes she mentions how childish adults can be."

While retrieving the wood that had fallen to the ground, Michel continued.

"I can tell when a man is in trouble... And you're the only real man I know for miles. What's going on?"

Crouching down and picking up the wasted wood, Ethan replied in a casual tone:

"My youngest son, Theo, is behaving unpleasantly towards me."

"Are you too agitated?"

"No. He's the opposite of that... A few days ago, he awakened an energy core, and I'm afraid it's affecting his head."

Michel jumped back with his shoulders.

"Did the Young Master awaken as a deviant?"

Ethan sighed in confirmation.

"The core sometimes creates illusions, you know? Especially in our heads... Depending on how much energy a deviant has, no matter how old they are, whether or not they understand what power means, our minds are flooded with arrogant and ignorant thoughts…"

"You..." Michel laughed. "Do you think the Young Master, at two years old, is going to think like that? Is he a god to be born knowing?"

"Well... deviants are considered demi"gods, aren't they?"

"Not to me…" he replied. "To me, you're just idiots who have learned how to use the energy in your body to perform spells and great things. But you're not gods, heroes, saviors... I don't believe in any of these false messengers of peace."

"So I'm a nobody to you?"

"No... You're a very strong guy. The strongest my peasant eyes have ever touched... But you're the guy who puts money in my pocket. You're not a hero to me, you know?"

"Even if... I save your life?"

"I'll be grateful, but nothing more."

Putting the wood on his shoulder, Ethan smiled.

"But... As for the Young Master... You're worrying too much about a simple solution."

Ethan paid attention to Michel's words.

"What are you? Twenty"seven years old? You're very busy leading this duchy, while looking after your family. You live five kilometers outside the capital, far from any other village or interaction the Young Master might have; with only a sister, an uncle, your parents and a bunch of servants."

Michel slapped Ethan on the shoulder and knocked him off balance.

"How can he smile when he's stuck in a house and a school? Let the kid loose in Midian. Run around, break an arm, tear his knee, get dirty, learn to swear, learn about life... Come on, take me to him. I'll teach him how to be a person."

Picking up the wood on his right shoulder, Ethan threw it at Michel's chest and said:

"I don't know... I'll follow up."

Michel then threw the wood at Ethan again and complained:

"Hey, hey! I'm an old man of seventy, are you really going to treat me like that?!"

"You said it yourself. I'm putting money in your pocket. It's for you to work, not me!"

"Boss bum..." Michel grumbled, turning his face away.

"What is it?"

"Ah, blah, blah, blah. Come on, get going!"

Strolling through the fallen leaves of autumn, Ethan and Michel left the fog of death further and further behind.