Prologue: "A new beginning"

"Let me see, oh here I am, number 71! Yeees! I passed!"

For the past 17 years he had been working hard to get into the most prestigious law school in the country, and now was the crowning moment of his efforts. All the sleepless nights, all the times he wanted to skip a lesson or the days where he was as sick as a dog but still dragged his body over to the desk to do school work, all this led to this moment. His name was up there with the best and brightest, and high up at that. Since he was a child he dreamt of being a lawyer, for him they were the independent entities who the society could not push around as it did to him. The people respected and feared the ones representing the law of the land since ancient times, and he wanted to become one of them.

'I am a law student now. Time to treat myself, a whole night run of my favorite rpg and as much junk food as I can get my hands on. Ok, ok, calm down my beating heart. First things first, let's go to the supermarket and buy the supplies.

Lets see, oh I need some chips and some juice, the fruit stuff is good. Yes, yes, yes there is some on discount, sweet.'

As he was walking down the street his brain was in overdrive. Excitement because he got in but also because he was going to get a long overdue day off. His life was filled with two things, studying and gaming. Gaming gave him a window into new worlds, where he could relax and unleash his frustrations when he had a hard time learning a lesson. And his favorite game was a visual novel with rpg elements "The Legend of the First Hero". It had it all, a good story and a lot of side quests that made it one of the biggest games both in popularity and in content available. He played a lot of times and he knew most of the paths, yet there was still so much more to see and do in that world. While he was immersed in his thoughts he got to the store and got in.

While he was merrily browsing through the food aisles he heard a scream. As he rushed to the source he saw the clerk being threatened by a man holding a machete. Seeing the man's size he knew he could not help with his strength, so he crept behind the man, grabbed a tin can of juice and leapt onto his back. He started frantically hitting the man on the back of the head hoping to knock him out. But just as he was excited that his surprise attack might work, reality hit. The man threw him off his back and while turning got a "lucky" strike with his weapon. The machete had cut deep into his neck severing his jugular blood vessels. The man's eyes were almost emotionless as he did this, only a hint of disgust could be seen.

'Huh, that is the amount of my strength, not even worth this trashes time, am I? If only I had a stronger body, if only... If only less of us fell into the darkness of crime... pitiful"

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The man pulled the machete out and turned around as if nothing had happened, but as he was about to swing towards the clerk a thundering sound broke the silence. A policeman patrolling the area rushed into the store and shot the assailant, before he could hurt anyone else. The cashier rushed past the robber and knelt next to him. Tears rushed down her face, she was trying to say something, but no sound was coming out.

'Ah, warm, surprisingly no pain, just a warm sensation all over my body, this should be fast, my neck was cut, unfortunately I did not get to study law in the end and become a lawyer. But if nothing else I gave my life protecting someone. Oh don't cry, don't come any closer, you will get blood on your clothes. There is no hope, I have mere seconds left.'

He tried to say those words but no sound came out. The two tried to exchange words but no sound came, yet they both knew what the other one felt. Then the policeman ran up to them and quickly tried to stop the bleeding. All he could do was smile at the people who tried to keep him alive, the policeman was applying pressure to his neck with his jacket, doing his best to stop the blood. But soon the warmth started fading, and what took its place was a cold feeling. He knew it was due to blood loss. It felt as if time stopped, seconds felt like an eternity but in the end his consciousness faded into darkness.

He was slowly floating below a dark sky. Darkness was holding his body in an embrace, slowly drifting down a stream he felt warmth again. Before he could truly enjoy this feeling and relax a burst of light was below him, he scrambled, he did not want this feeling to end. Unfortunately there was no helping it. He fell into the light, it was cold, a set of huge hands grabbed him and a strong pain crept into him lungs.

'How much longer, this pain, why... it is cold, someone help me...'

A scream of sorrow escaped from the top of his lungs. He wailed as he thought about all that was lost... But what he heard was laughter, joyous laughter, at least that was what he thought. He felt his body immersed into a warm liquid and then he felt someone wrapping him into a cloth. He did not see all too well. there was some liquid in his eyes and his vision was blurry. His eyes darted left and right, trying to get a sense of his surroundings, to no avail. He knew he was moving, the colors before his eyes moved, he saw light dancing in the background. He was taken by someone and lifted, he felt scared and tried swaying his arms around in protest. Then he moved again, sounds came to his ears, they were distorted, as if he was underwater. Then he was placed into a new set of hands, a new feeling awakened inside him, the feeling that he was safe, for the first time in a very long time he felt safe. He reached out with his weak hands towards the source of a new sound. His hand touched something warm, for some reason he felt as if his hand was kissed, and the sound started again. It was getting clearer and clearer. And finally he could hear a woman's voice say a name.

"My precious little son, welcome to this world Henry. Daddy and I have awaited your arrival for the longest time. You will show this world the power of our house and our convictions." (woman)

Most of the words were still muffled, but one got through to him, it was a name, .

'Henry? Who is she talking about? It doesn't matter, I am tired, I need to sleep. I will try to get a better understanding of things when I wake up.' (Henry)

His eyelids were getting heavy, it felt as if they were made of lead. While he was falling into slumber he could still hear the woman speak, it felt like the sweetest lullaby and soon his strength left him and his breathing calmed down, a sign that Henry was sound asleep.