1 Chapter 1. Born

The Iceland region, near the northern border of the Allenstein Kingdom, lay the castle city of Neverwinter. This city is built by the founders of the kingdom as a fortress to protect the kingdom from a beastman tribe- a kind well-known for the lust of war and blood. If not because they are not united under one leader and only attack the Allenstein Kingdom with the power of only one or several tribes, the castle city of Fortuna will fall for sure.

This city has only about 1000 citizens and is defended by a high stone wall surrounding the castle. The citizens here live mostly by mining iron or fight as sellswords for the Baron of Fortuna when the Beastmen attack. House Fortuna has ruled this land for more than a century and has countered countless raids from the Beastmen; As a result, they are known as the Shield of the Kingdom and a house of warriors. However, in recent ten years, there is no attack of Beastmen so the king of Allenstein Kingdoms has cut off support for this house. Inevitably, House Fortuna lose their position in the ranks of the kingdom and become a mere count, which means they do not influence the kingdom as they used to be.

Inside the castle, the current house head of the house, William IX Fortuna is being impatient and walk repeatedly nonstop outside his bedroom. Sometimes, we can hear the loud cry of a woman from the room. After about 15 minutes, there is a cry of a baby; a midwife steps out of the room holding a boy; however, she looks very anxious and talks to her lord:

- Milord, lady Fortuna has given birth to a boy, but unfortunately, his body misses some parts and her honor also passes away after giving birth to the baby.

Surprised by the midwife, William IX question her:

- What do you mean? How can my wife die? And why do you say my son loses some parts of his body?

Feared of being punished, the midwife answer while trembling:

- It is very hard for her honor to bear a child under her illness, milord. And for young lord, you should check him yourself.

Lord Fortuna carefully takes his son from the midwife's arms, he sees a normal baby aside from the fact that his legs are missing, there is nothing under his knees. This means, his son and heir is a cripple. Desperate from his wife's death and seeing his only son being a cripple, William IX nearly wants to kill himself. However, he is the only male member of house Fortuna alive, so he burry his desperation deep inside himself and talk to his son:

- I name you Ivar, heir of the house Fortuna, Lord of Neverwinter and Barony of Iceland. May you grow strong and wise my son.

After that, he hands back the baby to the midwife and goes into his room, and orders servants of the castle to prepare his wife's funeral to mourn her death. He doesn't notice that after he leaves, the baby opens his eye and shows a look of intelligence.