200 YEARS AGO
At the pub where most travellers are drinking their days away, Engelard found himself hiding from the eyes of his own family in one of its rooms.
He's considered a young genius and recruited by the imperial family to be their official Neo when he's barely 12 years old. But because of his aunt's greed to become the mother of the most powerful Neo, they've been hunting people who have high levels of mana to sacrifice them for their ambition.
The horror isn't the hunting itself but what transpires before the person's death. It's gruesome and anyone who'll see the process will keep themselves away from food for weeks and months.
It is just another plain and boring day of rune training for Engelard when he decided to follow a cat that went inside their mansion. The cat went into small spaces he didn't even know before but thankful to his small figure, Engelard can wriggle his way in.
As he got farther away from the bright entrance of Erasmus Mansion, Engelard started to sense the heavy putrid smell in the air.
Then he lost sight of the cat.
Baffled on what to do next, Engelard continued his unexpected trip forward until he came upon a door that was slightly opened. A faint light was coming from inside along with the sound of scratching metals and inaudible whispering.
Curious, Engelard walked in tiptoe to check what's going on inside the room. There, he saw the truth of the sparkling Erasmus Family he knew for so long. His father was being cut up in half, his head lolling in the side, lifeless. And on the side of the man cutting him is his Aunt Rosarya who is pregnant. She's touching her belly fondly while smiling menacingly at her own brother. The butcher filled a pitcher with his father's blood and placed it on the table a few meters away from the crime. His Aunt Rosarya sat on the chair prepared for her and poured the extracted blood in a clean glass like an ordinary wine. She drank the blood and licked the spilled drops of blood in the corner of her lips.
The sight made him want to puke. No, Engelard actually puked and fainted right on the spot. Before he truly lost consciousness, he caught a glimpse of his aunt standing from her chair and pointing at him.
Engelard wakes up inside his fancy room, on his side is his mother and aunt who are looking worried for him.
"My angel, what happened to you?," his mother asked him while stroking his hair gently.
Engelard tried to open his mouth and tell her what he saw but the smile in his Aunt Rosarya's face is a warning enough to send cold needles again on his entire body.
The young boy can't do anything but drown his frustrations with his tears. He cried in the arms of his mother until he fell asleep once again.
A month passed since the incident and from being a cheery healthy boy, Engelard turned into a sickly malnourished being.
"How long are you going to act like this, Iris Engelard?"
"Brother..." Engelard called weakly to the man standing in front of him.
Sergey Erasmus massaged his temple and gave a demanding glare to his little brother.
"Stand up, you'll achieve nothing here looking so forlorn all day long."
Engelard refused the offer and buried himself back to the sheets, closing his eyes tightly but Sergey removed the sheets away and carried him on his shoulders.
"Brother! Let me down, brother!," he protested as they walked in the hallway of the house.
"There'll be a parade today, just watch it with me," Sergey pleaded.
The days went by and Sergey always looked for a reason to take Engelard outside. Gradually, the latter recovers. From being a person who denies every opportunity to go outside, Engelard started to touch food again on his own will, without any puking.
Until that fateful night came.
They are walking down a street to digest the food they ate at a nearby pub when a man in dirty clothes clung on to them, crying.
"Please, give me back my daughter," he begged on his knees, crumpling the perfectly ironed clothes of the two young masters.
Sergey took the man's hand off Engelard's clothes but the man used it to stop Sergey on his steps.
Tears covering his face, the man looks awfully distraught.
"My Natasya, give her back. I beg you. I beg you, good sir. She's still a small kid."
The crowd started to gather from the commotion they are causing.
Sergey looked around and when he found an alleyway that was not so crowded, he dragged the man there to ask further questions.
According to the man, a knight and a group of soldiers serving the Erasmus family came to their house and took his daughter, Natasya, away.
"It's a mistake, it's a mistake," the man cried. "Nastasya is a bastard daughter of Lady Gianna and Sir Aaron Erasmus. Since the lady's family can't accept the child, Lady Gianna asked me to raise Natasya as my real daughter. Please, good sir, the child has nothing to do with her parent's sin."
Sergey sighed and looked at the man pitifully. The situation looks too difficult for him.