Even before humanoids learned to control mana, even before the great giants, beasts had always manipulated it—on instinct, on impulse. Scientists still don't fully understand how. One thing is certain: beasts threaten civilization. If the gyn and elves hesitate, they'll crumble under them. — Beast Theory, scholar Zhang
"Who are you, really?" Eloise asked, eyes fixed on Adrian.
"Just a noble boy who likes reading," he said, smiling faintly.
"And that thing you summoned?" she pressed, noticing his reluctance to answer the first question.
"Valhalla. You could call it a dream that woke," Adrian replied.
"You have no aura, yet you do things even a mage can't," Eloise said, voice low.
"What's scarier?" he asked. "Something that exists beyond understanding… or something that shouldn't exist at all? I'm Adrian. That's who you should know me to be."
"I know you as Eloise Carter," He said. "I won't ask your true origin. I understand you shouldn't exist, so show me the same."
"Fine." She nodded. Her hair began to glow, then she rose into the sky and vanished.
"I have a task for you," Adrian called. Valhalla stepped from the shadows and bowed.
"A beast bothers our Wilbert domain. I was too lazy to deal with it. Take care of it. It's just a beast."
"Yes, master," Valhalla said, unfurling its wings and taking to the skies.
"Mom," Eloise called as she returned to the hall. She looked around, searching for her father.
"The representatives went in for a meeting," Sue said, squinting at her daughter's troubled expression.
Eloise recounted everything. Sue listened, expression solemn.
"We've always known the world holds things bigger than us. But him… he's different."
"I guess he's like us," Sue said. "I'll ask Old Lue when we get home. Maybe she knows what he is."
The main event ended without incident. The heads and reps stayed behind.
A while ago…
"Why do I even bother? This town offers me nothing. Why care about that beast?" Adrian muttered, quiet, wrestling with his purpose.
<
"I don't care about them. I don't care about anyone." The words didn't feel like his. He wished he could vanish.
The beast posed no threat to him or his family. He had all the power, yet he sent Valhalla out.
<
"Why do I care?" he repeated aloud, foreign on his tongue.
He leaned against the cold window glass, staring out at a world growing more distant by the second. "I don't. I don't care. Not the beast, not the town. Nothing."
The words only spread emptiness inside him. Hollow, like a mask he forced himself to believe. His hand slipped from the glass, and he began pacing, restless.
The silence pressed in. He was alone, yet something tugged at him, beyond control.
"Do you really think you can escape it all?" The Old Fool's voice was low, certain. "You can't run from what you are. And you can't run from those like you."
Adrian shook his head, trying to block the voice. He didn't want to hear it, didn't want to think. Yet deep down, he knew it was true.
"Shut up," he muttered, clenching his fists.
Even as the words left his lips, he knew escape wasn't an option.
"You're too far gone for that," the Old Fool whispered. "You'll face what you truly are. Whether you like it or not."
Adrian froze, breath catching. The weight of the words pressed down on him. His past, his identity—they were tangled, impossible to untangle. Whatever path he chose would bring him face to face with something he wasn't ready for.
<
"So, I should take the helm of my world," Adrian said, smiling. He looked up at the starry sky.
"You are right, they are sheep, and without my firm hand, they shall go wayward." Rain began to fall.