November 1914
106 years before the system's fatal crash, 96 years before system inception.
14 years after Alexander's Birth
Oh family, isn't it a wonderful thing? They are there when you need them, they care for you, they bring you presents from time to time, and they help you carry on when you are hurt. They make sure nothing is wrong in the world so you can focus on growing and studying!
That is unless you have the bad luck of having the Saintsworth last name or being from their heritage. "AGAIN!" of course Alexander wasn't any different and so he trained and trained from early childhood to live up to the standards that his predecessors left. "AGAIN!" the bastards couldn't take it easy?
He was awoken early in the mornings and usually slept way late into the night because of said training. He even had the bruises to prove he was training! And he was smart enough to have extra bruises from the older kids to use as replacements in case his training bruises got healed by some random magick!
"AGAIN!" Of course, that bastard of a trainer didn't care if some of the older kids messed around with them, nor did they care if someone else took his share of food or blankets. They were supposed to be the descendants of a noble lineage. Of course, the Saintsworth part was a facade they brought after the templar's fiasco and the witch hunts.
No, the important part was their supposed ancestor "Alexander The Great would mock your effort if he could see you all!" they were supposed to come from his lineage, of course nowadays everyone has a degree of DNA of someone famous. But the Saintsworth clan claimed they also had the right heritage, the correct mindset. So they liked to claim to be the true descendants of Alexander The Great.
So he like others had a name with some thematic referring to the life of Alexander the Great, in his case...He had his name, some less fortunate had the name of his horse, others the name of his father, his teacher and some only had 'The Great' as a moniker.
He didn't envy the poor soul that had the name of that horse, he also hated him, since he was the one to hit him the hardest since someone had the fun idea of making a joke of him mounting that kid. But that didn't matter, what mattered right now was getting over today's training.
Just a few more minutes..."We are doing ten extra laps since some of you look quite comfortable"... the groans were universal among his peers. And he would join the noble efforts of searching for the idiot who didn't pretend to be having a hard time.
With some luck he would manage to break a hand before the instructor came around "WHAT IS OUR MOTTO?" asked the instructor, great. It was one of those.
"TO SAFEGUARD THE KNOWLEDGE OF MANKIND!" screamed the answer Alexanders and his peers.
There was also that, the reason the Saintsworth claimed to be a true lineage coming straight from the source, one of their ancestors was manning the Great Library of Alexandria. Some bastard of a child of Alexander the Great. Of course, that particular bloodline wasn't recognized by the state of Greece. Nor by Macedonia (Not that either is around or has papers of those times).
It seems that the ancestor ran away when the library was being destroyed and carried with him some books to safeguard them. They feared for their life, and so, they started a tradition of buying, trading and even stealing literature to create a new library and 'Restore their lost honor'.
Of course, such an idea was stupid beyond reason and impossible to achieve without the resources of someone in power. Alexander The Great didn't even manage to create that library in his lifetime, and he had power and money. A bastard (Especially one not recognized) couldn't hope to imitate that kind of success.
So they did what any responsible parent would do, shackled their son with an impossible goal and sent them to the world. And like a good son craving recognition from dada, they did or tried to anyway.
That was the beginning of this clan and their mindset since they wanted to excel and imitate their now almost legendary ancestor. This clan turned to martial artists first, becoming mercenaries and joining wars, searching for the most efficient martial art to pass down into the future.
Of course, they still searched for books for their now bigger library, and for a time it was going well...Till they noticed that a martial family trying to keep books in good condition was hard. And some were becoming more damaged with time and poor care.
So the family was in a conundrum...And so they diversified the efforts. Half of the family would focus on studying and taking care of the books and the other half would bring the money for the expenses.
"HOW WILL WE KEEP THE KNOWLEDGE SAFE?" Man, how can they scream so hard while someone was doing an internal monologue?
"BY BEING THE ONES TO INNOVATE THE KNOWLEDGE AND CHOOSING WHAT TO DISTRIBUTE!" and wasn't that just a noble idea?
At some point, they noticed that high-tier knowledge wasn't for the open public, and neither their personas of bookkeepers nor mercenaries were enough. So they diversified again. Half of the keepers of knowledge would share innovations that they had, turning from keepers to masters of the arts.
And just like that they earned the right to peruse that knowledge, and again their clan was growing more. Now they started to be important, so they had to make the right kind of image. But they weren't ready to reveal themselves as successors to Alexander The Great. They didn't have enough fame for that yet, so they brought a name worthy of their sacred effort.
And so the smart-ass coined those words together the 'Saint' work that would make them 'worth' in the face of their ancestors, the Saintsworth clan was born. And since they wished to soar to the heights Alexander The Great had achieved, instead of a Lion like most Greek clans, they used a bird as their emblem.
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A pointy and yellow bird, with pointy wings and pointy beak, still, they weren't worth the attention of the heavy players nor the noble strata, so for now they were doing fine.
At least till the first industrial revolution came "WHERE WILL WE KEEP THAT KNOWLEDGE!?" that changed quite a few things for the saintsworth.
"IN OUR MINDS AND OUR HEARTH!" mostly because with the invention of electricity new storage was open for them.
They turned from hard storage as paper and leather to analogic storage in the form of logic circuits. How in the seven heavens and four hells did they manage to create that less than twenty years after electricity was created? He would never know.
But thanks to that the saintsworth managed to get a thirty years head start from everyone else. So the ancestral home of the clan became the biggest reservoir of knowledge.
So that bad pun about saving the knowledge in their 'hearth' instead of their 'heart' made some sense. "WHEN WILL WE REVEAL OUR HERITAGE TO THE WORLD?" he still didn't think it was funny, if nothing else because he wasn't the one to come up with it.
"WHEN WE ARE AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD!" but beggars can't be choosers.
Especially if said beggar is trying his hardest not to fail this running course while thinking about his heritage and how much he wished to be born in either another age or another branch of this god-dammed clan.
"STOP!" crap, did he notice? "CADET ALEXANDERS, STEP FORWARD!" he might have noticed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" think fast, think fast, think smart.
"MY VERY BEST SIR!" appeals to his ego.
"IT SURE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THAT TO ME!" Man, this asshole should see a dentist, oh right, smart-ass answer.
"THIS IS THE VERY BEST LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS BEFORE ME, SIR!" eh, could be better, might make a good song one day though.
The important question was, did it work? "THAT'S THE RIGHT ATTITUDE CADET, EVERYONE LEARNS FROM HIS EXAMPLE!" Ah...crap, it backfired "YOU ARE ALL DISMISSED" or not? "CADET ALEXANDERS STAY" Why was he still screaming?
"SIR, YES SIR!" you bastards, stay with me! Please don't leave me with the psycho!
Alas, his wish wasn't to be answered, as all his comrades in arms left him to the dogs and returned to their barracks.
"Cadet, you might think that you fooled me, but you only fool yourself and your comrades" ...what was this dude going on about?
Maybe this wasn't that bad after all "Sir?" for now play it safe, and try to worm your way out.
"You are keeping up with everyone else, and yet you don't sweat as much as they do..." Ah...body you betrayed me. "You fail on some spots today and then tomorrow you get over them like nothing only to fail in a new spot you never had a problem with before" ...Police, there is a stalker here, he is looking way too close to a child!
"And even if you are bruised like the others, you never need medical care above a certain threshold" ...HELP I NEED AN ADULT!
"So, anything you would like to tell me?" asked the instructor, a man with so many muscles one could wonder how he was able to dress in the mornings. At least Alexanders had managed to goad someone else to make that kind of joke before, so maybe that's why he was looking into him that closely?
For now, he had to deal with this crisis first "I'm sorry?" yeah, he got nothing, the bastard ambushed him while sleep-deprived and food-deprived since today didn't serve something good enough to fight over it.
"Had worried you would say so" was the last thing Alexanders could hear.
"What...the heck...?" a classical hit on the nape of the neck.
"That's...dangerous..." more dangerous than the literature could say since you could kill someone if done wrong.
"Smartass..." said the instructor before beckoning someone that Alexanders couldn't see, the last thing he could think was to mumble "Was the instructor...laughing...bastard was a masochist after all" to at least get to him.
Probably wasn't a smart move since he was now unconscious in front of a now-confirmed masochist and more importantly. In one of the multiple Saintsworth bootcamps, god knows where would he wake up, but since his conscience was failing, that would be a problem for future Alexanders, present one was busy dealing with the whole losing conscience thing that was coming his way. For now, he would embrace the sweet release brought by having time to sleep and worry about what he would do later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For his part his trainer and the person that had put Alexanders on the floor "You sure he will live up to expectations?" asked a blonde woman wearing a full-plated mask.
"He will, his examination gives him full marks." To which the masked woman raised an eyebrow "The training is not recorded and the one that matters since they can't tank it like this smartass" said the trainer.
Alexanders wasn't the first to try and get away from serious training.
"Well, hope he lives up to expectations, not that we will lose anything important if he doesn't," said the woman while waiting for a couple of trainees to carry the unconscious body of Alexanders into a nondescript vehicle. "Deal accordingly with the other brats" was all that the masked woman said before boarding the vehicle and leaving. For his part, the trainer only looked at the vehicle move away before going into the building that the trainees went in.
"Never could understand the main house members, they are all crazy," said the trainer who was going into the barracks surprising the cadets.
"SALUTE OFFICER! " at least he wouldn't need to keep this facade any longer, this was really straining his vocal cords.
"Congratulations, you lot are no longer cadets!" and they didn't know what to make up of this, he really loved this part, he would feel bad for Alexanders if not for him being such a smartass "The Main Home had chosen the ones that they wish to keep if any of you wish to keep trying to earn the favor of the Main House exit this building from the door behind me," said the muscled trainer pointing behind him to another nondescript vehicle, this one was a military bus, how did they manage to make a military bus look like a normal one, that's the Saintsworth family for you.
Either way "Am...Sir?" the kids didn't believe him, of course, they wouldn't.
"Also, you no longer need to use those weird names allotted for you...Well, Alexanders is an exception since he is among the poor bastards that didn't manage to get away" chuckled the instructor, the ex-cadets still didn't believe him from the looks of it, but that couldn't be helped, when he was on that side he didn't believe them either "On a side note if you do board that bus, you will be moved to a new site to receive further education, depending on the evaluation a new job will be chosen for you, you will not be able to keep the name you had. So you will still need to think of a new one" said the muscled trainer before showing them a pamphlet "Usually the job will depend on your good points. I, for example, was deemed good as an instructor so here you have me" and so he pointed to a possible career type.
He still wasn't sure if keeping his loyalty to the Saintsworth was the right choice, for one side he could glimpse from time to time the wonders they had, and he even got to see the library. So seeing the normal world was...Depressing if nothing else...Not that they needed to know that.
"Can we really leave sir?" there it was, the doubt...
"Of course, just go to the backdoor, a clerk will guide you in your new citizen registration, some money will be provided and a few papers you must sign, but otherwise, you will be free to do as you wish" he wouldn't mention that the Saintsworth would probably watch them for ten or so years from the shadows. Not that it matters either way, since the Saintsworth watch anyone of interest, and most of the dropouts from here would become persons of interest either way.
"Then if you excuse me, sir" saluted one of the ex-cadets before leaving from the door on the back.
He was the one with a horse name, couldn't blame him for running away at the first chance he got "As I said, you aren't required to stay with us. I didn't believe it either and chose the Bus. After my training was done. I don't regret the choice of staying with The Saintsworth Clan...But if any of your friends choose to stay with us...You might want to say goodbye to them since you will not be able to see them for quite a long time" and there it was the final push they needed. That would be the final thing he could do for them, anything else and he might end up being punished for giving too much work to one side. The higher-ups did like their numbers even. And most of the time the half with weird names were the ones to leave. The others used to stay unless for some reason they had friends with weird names.
Not that it matters for the Saintsworth if they ended with too many people they just sent them as spies into the military or something "Choose wisely and choose fast. If you decide to stay with the Saintsworth you might be able to earn a spot among the cadre if you are good enough. Even if Alexanders now has a better start than you. You might still catch up to him if you are dedicated enough to your new prospects chosen by the clan" and so the ball was rolling. He wondered how many would try and stay to try and get into the good graces of the clan.
Observation Logs:
Subject closing into causality limit, further observation deemed necessary.
Not that it would matter, there was little hope for them to catch up to Alexanders now that he was in the crosshair of the Saintsworth's Lab.
Observation Log:
Observation Target moved into termination list, waiting for approval.