I was raised in an orphanage.

Nothing really uncommon; lots of children were raised in orphanages. Such were the times.

And since times were hard, as soon as I reached my sixth birthday, I was left out on the streets to fend for myself.

It wasn’t like the orphanages were only required by law to take care of children until a certain age—no, they barely received any subsidies from the government at all and there was no requirement for them to actually do anything.

In other words, the government was just paying all the orphanages a miniscule amount of money to seem “humane” and “kind” to the people they ruled over.

But even so, the orphanages took us in, even though they didn’t have to. It was simply something they did out of the kindness of their hearts.

However, space, resources, and funds were all limited. That was a fact—and it’s a reality that weighed even heavier on orphanages, who had to provide for multiple people.

Nevertheless, even with that harsh reality made apparent to them, they still wanted to help as many homeless children on the streets as possible…

So they did the only thing that made sense.

They raised the children to the age of six and then told the kids to leave so that they could take in new kids. After all, a six-year-old can survive on the streets; a baby can’t.

So, when I turned six, I was told to leave. Contrary to what the orphanages would have liked to believe, I had no idea how to survive. But the children released before me did, and I learned by watching them—as I assume, they too had done.

It was a miserable existence. I had been taught what was right and wrong in the orphanage, yet I was forced to lie, cheat, and steal to survive. And, to top things off, there was just this… atmosphere of hopelessness that pervaded my everyday life.

I hated it. I despised it.

And then, one day, a round bumbling man entered our hole of beggars, prostitutes, and thieves. He was wearing brightly coloured robes that seemed to glow against the dull, dilapidated grey around him, and the softness of his flowing silk robes looked so incredibly comfortable in jarring contrast to his harsh surroundings.

I froze. The whole district froze.

We had never seen anything like this before. Something so bright and so… luxurious. And suddenly, we found ourselves dreaming. Such a lifestyle solidified its form in our hearts as a wishful fantasy.

The regiment of rigid soldiers in imposing silver armour following behind the plump man put an end to any foolish thoughts that any of us could have had.

Together, the bizarre crowd walked on; perhaps they were going deeper into the district or perhaps they were simply passing through—I didn’t care. All I knew was that there was finally some indication that there were heights above my station in life; that there existed feelings other than hunger, guilt, and apathy.

A small part of the incongruous group’s radiance had imparted itself within me.

The group left fairly quickly and the energy and upset they had drummed up quickly followed. Their appearance didn’t even last long as rumours before the people discarded their fancies of a better life and moved on.

But I couldn’t move on. A fire had been lit in my heart to do better, be better, and live better. I wanted to learn, I wanted to work, I wanted to try. It felt as if some strange energy had been pumped into my veins, allowing me to look up and shake my head free of the feeling of hopelessness drowning me from all sides.

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My first goal was to get a job. I had felt enough guilt when I cast aside the morals that the orphanage had passed down to me in order to survive. Now I could follow those morals again, and, at the same time, I could earn a wage which would allow me to rid myself of that constant hunger which plagued me every day.

So, I tried going from store to store (which were just shabby people sitting on the ground next to their wares) and tried to advertise my ability to read and write for some work. True enough, it was rare to see people who had the ability in this district—I was one of the only children who had managed to learn enough and retain that knowledge.

However, I had overlooked an incredibly important fact. This entire district which I called “home” was filled with people barely managing to survive. Even if a person was a shopkeeper, they simply didn’t have any money to hire someone. I was turned away from every store I went to, and was finally forced to give up when I had exhausted all my options.

I felt a deep hatred for the world that day. Even though I was trying to reach higher than any of these people around me, I was still stuck in the same position as them.

But then, I remembered that there existed other districts than this one. Districts where they would no doubt have enough money to hire people. I found my gaze shifting outwards and my bitterness vanished, replaced by a new motivation.

Now, to be hired outside this district, I knew I would have to educate myself. From what I had heard, street rats like me, who did not know even the slightest thing about the world around me, would be instantly rejected and kicked out.

So, I opened my ears for any wafting knowledge and kept my eyes peeled for any sign of books and the like.

At the age of nine, I first learned the name of the nation I lived in: Salvorum.

And it just continued on from there. I learned that all the nations of the world only inhabited a single giant continent; I learned that the world itself was called Terra; I learned that the date was measured in years, months, and days; I learned that there were twelve months in a single year (starting from January and ending at December); I learned that we were currently living in the year of 262 C.E. (Common Era); I learned how there were twenty-four hours in a day…

It was honestly mind-blowing just how much I could learn by simply opening up my eyes and ears.

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However, the fact that I hadn’t been able to get a job still meant that I was forced to once again lie, cheat, and steal to survive.

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One day, while I was in the process of distracting a fish merchant from his wares so that I could filch them, another boy scooped up the merchant’s meagre amount of goods and took off. Before the merchant could even process what was happening, I ran after the boy.

I chased him through the dirty, narrow, and winding streets of our district as he continued to smoothly dodge and weave through streets as if he had done this a thousand times before. However, I too had done this many times before, so I was easily able to keep up.

Maybe he realized that he wouldn’t be able to get away or maybe it was something else—whatever the reason—the next thing I knew, he stopped, set the fish down on the ground and pulled out a stick that was hanging on the side of his waist.

I looked around and noticed that our surroundings were bereft of people. Not to mention we were in a wide open space where the thief could swing his wooden stick with ease. Instantly, my eyes widened in alarm a I realized that the other boy had lured me here.

I tensed my body—to fight or run away, I didn’t know—but when the boy actually turned around, all my previous thoughts flew right out the window. It wasn’t that the boy looked like anything special, he looked the same as everyone in this district; greasy matted hair, a face covered in dirt, and a thin wiry frame.

No, the thing that had halted my thought process were his eyes. They were a brown that bordered on charcoal black—nothing special—but they held a small spark of something I recognized quite clearly:

Drive.

After all, I saw that same spark in the reflection of my own reddish brown eyes almost every day.

“You… have the same eyes…” I wasn’t the one to speak. The other boy had taken the initiative.

My mouth felt dry and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel,

“Yeah…”

For some reason it felt like this was the first time I was truly speaking. That single word rang clearly through my ears, unobstructed even by my thunderous heartbeats.

The other boy stared at his weapon for a few seconds before switching his gaze to his stolen fish. Then, his eyes flicked back onto mine, his face now showing clear signs of deliberation.

Finally, his face set into a decisively friendly smile, “How about an alliance?”

I blinked; an alliance was something I’d only seen in history books, and it only seemed to involve nations and armies. But I didn’t want to look stupid so I said,

“I’m listening.”

“You hate this place too, right?” He asked. Not that he needed to, we both knew the answer to that.

So I simply nodded.

“Let’s help each other out,” he said, sticking his hand out for a handshake, “Stuff like sharing all the information we have, getting each other out of trouble, and working together to steal food. What do you say?”

I had to admit, the prospect of having someone to help me out in here was quite appealing, however—

“How can I trust you?”

“I’ll give you half the fish right now,” the boy said, gesturing to the stolen good on the ground beside him.

It might not have seen like much, but it did raise my trust in him a bit—at least for now. After all, he had the advantage here, but he was still ready to give up his prize to display his trustworthiness. And, to be honest, I really didn’t want to drive away the only other person in this place to show any sign of holding any aspirations higher than “survive until tomorrow”.

I walked up to him and warily eyed his offered hand, “What’s your name?”

“Ducis. Yours?”

I took a deep breath and shook his hand firmly,

“Eremus.”

I had no idea at the time that that single handshake would change the course of the entire world.

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Weeks passed and we both continued to uphold our respective end of the alliance. When we stole food, one person served as distraction while the other did the actual stealing, we educated each other in all the knowledge we knew, and we showed each other all the different hiding spots and hidden pathways we knew about.

Over time, we ended up becoming close friends. We spent our nights together talking about all the things we would do when we finally got out of here, and all the things we would buy when we had enough money, and the taste of food that wasn’t at least partially rotten, and the types of colourful robes we would dress ourselves up in…

The topics continued on and on, each having only one thing in common; none of them even allowed the possibility of us staying in this hellish place.

Time continued moving forward, and, even with Ducis by my side to brighten my days, it took an excruciating amount of time for me to even reach my twelfth birthday.

It wasn’t like the day was supposed to be that special or anything, in fact, Ducis and I thought it was just going to be another normal day of trying to scrounge up some food and finding a safe place to rest.

However, on that day, our lives were changed forever.

The morning went normally enough; we woke up, checked up on our meager possessions, filched some food, and wandered the crowded areas to see if we could overhear something we could use – things like new opportunities, current events, or even just some general knowledge. This was our daily routine, and we didn’t have the luxury to deviate from it just because it was my birthday.

And then, we got something. It was a complete coincidence we even overheard anything—a coincidence brought about by being in the right place at the right time.

“Tch, if only that stupid war hadn’t happened… we wouldn’t have so many of these stupid brats running around and stealing our stuff…”

It was just a mutter, but Ducis and I heard it loud and clear nonetheless. We looked at each other, shock clearly present on our faces. Hearing a statement which basically said that it was due to some war that we were even in this hellish place was a punch in the gut.

But we still weren’t stupid enough to take a statement like that at face value so we rushed away to interrogate the seniors in our district. Normally we didn’t do that often as asking them for information required us to bribe them with copious amounts of food.

For each question, they would take an entire quarter of a loaf of bread!

But, in the end, a deal was struck, and we ended up finding out that what we’d overheard was true. The seniors told us the entire story.

Apparently, there had been a war labelled the “Great War” which had lasted for twelve violent years before it had ended right before I was born. The war had caused massive casualties and loss of funds, leading to widespread poverty and the largest number of orphans ever seen in the history of mankind.

According to the seniors, ninety-nine percent of orphans in this district had lost their parents to the Great War.

Ducis and I were simply children who deeply despised the torturous and shallow life we’d lived; and after hearing this story, our blazing, twelve years of accumulated hatred found a new target—

The concept of war itself.

It seemed quite simple to us; it was due to the war that we were forced to struggle for survival every single day for twelve whole years, so if it wasn’t war itself at fault then what was?

The parties involved in instigating it? That seemed like a ludicrous idea; most of the original instigators were dead, but from what we’d learned, war was an incredibly frequent and recurring event in history. Clearly, it seemed to us, if war itself hadn’t existed, then those instigators would have found a far less catastrophic way to settle their differences.

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That night, Ducis and I sat next to each other in silence as we reflected on all that we had learned that day. My thoughts were all jumbled and I wasn’t sure on what I wanted to do next. I thought Ducis felt the same, however—

“Eremus, I promise…” he said, in a soft yet strong voice, “I’ll bring peace to this world—no matter what!”

He raised a hand to the sky and clasped it into a fist, as if he were grasping for the stars.

Even though he was covered in dirt as always, even though his hair was greasy and matted as always, even though his frame was as thin as could be…

I will always remember that determined form of his as the epitome of majesty.

As I gazed upon Ducis, my heart soared and blood pumped through my veins faster than it had ever pumped before. I found words slipping out of my mouth before I knew it.

“And I’ll help you realize that world—that’s my promise!”

On that night, an ambition was born. It was an ambition birthed from a simple, childish wish to have been born in a happier life.

But this childish ambition of ours…

It would go on to reshape the entire world.