Elitshen

pspspsps I have just finished my examinations, but as a student, I am still very busy, don't expect SPEED updates lol

Time is fair, in its cruel endless march, it stops not for anyone. And it surely did not stop for Denapne. A year has passed, she is now exactly 9 years old, a child celebrating her birthday alone, but not quite, surrounded by people she could barely care about, a year it has been, but to her, a single second had not passed. Her light had been taken from right in front of her, the two candles snuffed out by dark tendrils.

"Happy Birthday Denapne!" The Mentor said, all the while smiling an unreadable smile. Due to her parents' work as civil servants of the great Fafner Kingdom, she has been given a bed at one of the many state-owned orphanages located in the middle residential area. Miss Alizia, or otherwise called "The Mentor" by all the kids in the orphanage, is the appointed supervisor and superintendent of the orphanage. Despite the sincere congratulations that she is receiving from all her peers, Denapne's face remained stoic. After all, everyone was only putting up an act in front of The Mentor to avoid trouble. "Make a wish Denapne!" a voice said from among the crowd. Immediately came the concurrent agreements, the voices overlapping, shoving her to follow.  She closed her eyes and blocked out the noise, and she wished. 

"Bring my parents back to me, that's all I will ever ask for."

Denapne was highly intelligent for her age, and her wits were her curse. She understood and accepted her parents' death, she knew why she must stay in the horrible institution that she is in right now, and most importantly she understood revenge. All of this has forced her to mature far beyond her age, but who can blame a child to wish for her parents? On the day of her birth none the less. 

*Foosh*

And another candle has been extinguished.

Once again, Denapne was alone, she was the ground zero of a nuclear warhead, a defined radius around her was made by the distance put between her and the rest of her peers. This was the common sight, most of the other orphans lost their parents to the Northern theater, where a war against Ravelia, a powerful superpower empire, led by a ravenous emperor, was commencing. The small trade country of Fafner was only holding on thanks to the support of its neighbor and ally, Calefa, which similarly shared a border with Ravelia. It is in their interest that Fafner does not fall, as Fafner's Southern border is the Gulf of the Lost, a massive body of water that borders with the Eastern landmass where Calefa is located. With their Western border already being pounded by Ravelia's naval forces, they cannot afford their Eastern side to similarly be attacked.

But of course, the people of Fafner themselves also needed to take part in the war, lest they become a vassal to Calefa, a puppet. The board overseeing Fafner were no fools, they knew the risk of letting a foreign force into their country to aid in a war against a common enemy. Any new research and Fafner's internal situation were all bare to be seen by Calefa. If Fafner becomes unable to assert the dominance of its military force by showing off in the war, the "ally" can very quickly turn into a threat. Such is the state of the world that young Denapne was born in.  And all this chaos inevitably had a hand in how Denapne was seen by the other orphans.

"Isn't it strange that her parents were killed and yet her spared?" "Why didn't she fight back against the assaulters?" "How was she unharmed?" "She must have cowered in the dark, sitting in her own pee, hoping that they won't smell it." And what retort did Denapne have? It was true, she was spared by the enemy, she did not fight back, despite the country's doctrine on never yielding to an enemy, to always stand tall and never kneel. A convenient doctrine that has kept the small trade country resilient in the face of overwhelming odds. As such every single citizen knew what to do in a fight. Win or die trying. This does not mean that they were barbarians, they were sophisticated in their chivalry and conduct. The doctrine makes it a point to state that bloodshed should be given up for a banter of words instead. But bloodshed did come to Denapne, and luckily(?) the blood sheded was not hers. To the revenge hungry orphans who wanted nothing more than to avenge their parents, Denapne was an outcast, branded as a coward.

This was truly no orphanage, for young Denapne, this shall be her hell.