Growing Duty

Running with quite the speed along the pathways inside the castle that made a full circle around it, sweat shone on his face and reflected the sunlight while it trickled down his forehead and cheeks.

Nero had long noticed that the castle shown in the game was not coming even close to the true vastness of this keep. For all sense and purpose, it also made sense why the Cousland family was this rich.

They were basically already only second to the Kyng(King Title in Thedas and as far as I know on the same level as Emperor unlike in our world where Emperor outranks a King.) and definitely one of the more powerful Teyrns(Duke).

And that made the outcome and the fate of this family in the game even more bitter.

Stopping after reaching the training grounds Nero started getting back some breathe and stretched himself a little.

Four years have passed now since he had started training. With a body of a bit more than 10 years of age Nero became a splendid youthful teen.

Six more years and he would officially become an adult even though in his mind that status would only be reached at 18.

The past few years became more rigid than anything. Mostly repeated training and strengthening of his basics.

His first tourney experience was also rather anticlimatic and he actually beat most opponents easily.

That even sow some seeds of doubt into his modern mind. It could very well be because there were no knights present that day or worse. Nero suspected his family is at work.

He actually had the suspicion that either his father or mother used their immense wealth and influence to buy him this victory.

A small tourney like that would not matter much. The grand tourney coming up in 4 years is another matter.

But then again, he had no evidence and it was useless to pursue it. He would not get complacent and just further his training.

He knew better what monstrosities await someone in this world.

So while relaxing and taking a break Nero saw a shadow hush through on the ground and that let him look up into the sky.

When he did so a screech was heard and shortly after a beautiful white feathered griffon the size of a normal dog landed near Nero.

Its amber eyes looked at him and the soft screech it produced unmistakenly was to ask something.

"Hmmm? Hey there, Luna. Are you enjoying a leisurely stroll?", asked Nero and patted her sides when she came closer and nudged him.

A confirmative short screech came from her and she prepared herself again to jump and start flying again.

Looking after her he sure had to smile how fast she grew. Griffon seemed to age faster but also had a rather long lifespan around being the same as humans from book material.

Come to think, even the Mabari Hounds are rather longlived and can easily reach at least 50 years. That was about 4 times more than the dogs he knew from his past world.

But of course, most war dogs never would have the chance to reach such an age and it only was confirmed one by an old noble house hat had the luck of having this hunting partner age so well.

It could have been accounted for living so long just because he was living well, who knows.

When Nero's gaze came back to ground level, a person appeared close to him and handed him a cloth to wipe the sweat away.

He smiled at the rather slim figure with dark lime green hair flowing down her head. Her features were beautiful even though she had yet to reach adulthood like himself.

The girl had a friendly smile on her still rather roundish and cute face. Her big round eyes reflecting the light and increasing her warm response.

What would get her contempt and hate though, would be the pointy long ears that came out from underneath her hair.

She was an elf. A full breed as well since halfbreeds do have slightly shorter ears.

At least that was what he had thought at first. But shorter ears were only a sub-species of elves like the city elves. It was akin to humans having a lighter or darker skin color.

Nero found out through research that the genetics of elves adapted to the non-elven partners if an elf had a child with a non-elf. With that half-elves were basically a nonexistent race and only rarely showed traits of their elven heritage.

They were present, but unlikely a concern to anyone that does not know the fact of their birth.

That also explained why Kieran, the son of Morrigan, had no clear differences between a human if the father is an elf.

Where did he know that fact? Observing was enough and asking the servants was also easy as well. He had a rather friendly if not familial relationship with most servants here.

Nero sighed in relief that at least those children were somewhat protected from ridicule. He despised the way they were treated just because of their race. It just doesn't sit well with him but then again, changing that would take a long time.

Even his parents viewed them as an inferior race even if they treated them well. And his nan? She actually barked at them commands like no tomorrow. But at least he knew even she appreciated their help.

Nero was also actually amazed by this race. He did know them as servants from his household, yes. And he was no stranger any longer to their presence but when you compared city elves and nature-loving Dalish, it was like two different worlds.

While city elves had their own beauty it came nowhere near the Dalish. What fascinated him most is the various hair colors they could have that ranged from silver to darkish blue and even green such as this girl's.

Of course, the normal colors were also present. It reminded him of anime characters and that got himself to smirk a little.

The girl seeing his expression looked confused.

"Thank you, Syllia.", he said quickly to clear her confusion.

"You don't need to thank me, my lord.", she said back and bowed lightly.

Nero and his father had found this girl recently when Nero heard about bandit activity in their lands.

He even suggested clearing the bandit camps on his own but that was denied instantly by both his parents.

With some coercion he got them to still do it. His father and elder brother would use this as training for the troops and sent a handful of soldiers with them.

That said and done, after clearing some camps with minimal losses, that was mainly in form of heavy wounds, they soon came across the cages full of either dead people or the still lucky live ones.

Most of them were obviously women and one could clearly imagine for what purposes the last bandit camp used them for.

The only cage that was looking rather "friendly" was one full of young children of different races. Most of them being elves. Some dwarves and the rare occasional qunari in the mix.

After freeing them all, all but one child reunited with their mothers that were hugging them when being freed from the other cages.

Some had tears and others may have found at least a little bit of joy in their depression. And others had such a dead look that it was obvious they would kill themselves.

Nero knew this was how this world worked. And looking away from such suffering is the same as not acknowledging it.

He asked all of them to follow where they would bring them to the chantry for help to get some shelter and food.

Most that agreed accepted that proposal and those that had their own ideas left without a word.

Only a small girl remained silent and watched pitifully at him from her cage. Her rags were old. From the looks of it, she was already longer in captivity than the others or on the road long enough to have them.

And after inquiring about her through the others he also found out that she came together with another woman that was probably her mother.

The bandits of course did what they always do and soon after tried to sell her and rape her before that. But the mother was killed in the end when she tried defending herself by biting off a captor's ear.

So she effectively had no family any longer and being an elf did not help her case.

Looking at her Nero approached her slowly. Her first reaction was that of mistrust and soon after that of panic and retreat back towards the iron bars of her former cage.

But what she didn't expect was him just reaching out his hand towards her and smiling. He caressed her head and gently patted her.

Feeling the warmth of his hand and no evil actions the girl slowly stopped trembling and looked at him with blinking eyes.

"Father, can we maybe take her in?", asked Nero then. "That is if you want.", he added while looking back into the girl's eyes.

Not waiting for an answer Nero started his introduction himself with a warm smile. "I'm Nero Cousland. Nice to meet you. What's your name, little girl?"

The young elf slowly opened her mouth. She felt compelled to answer as if she knew it was alright. And while she said her name tears started to flow down her cheeks.

"S...Syllia..." And with a sobbing small voice, she gave him an answer.

Nero smiled saddened and now held his hand that he patted her with in front of her. Without a long wait, she even soon took it.

That is how he came to meet her.