Primogeniture

Prologue

   "No, they did not. Please think again Emrick." The man in front said with a disappointed voice as he shakes his head with his arms crossed and eyes the two children who were seated before him.

   "I know, they infiltrated the castle to save the princess!" The girl with the braids in her black hair jumped out of her chair to correct the mistake her friend made. The man in front who was their tutor nodded keeping his disappointed face. This was a simple question and yet his student failed to correctly answer it. The boy who answered the question had a puzzled expression on his face and this prompted the teacher to ask his student a question. 

   "Emrick, what is it?" The man in the scholars' robe asked while taking out an ink bottle, preparing to write with his quill. 

   "Master Hsia. I do not understand why they did not just lay siege to the enemy stronghold." The boy said while looking at the man with a confused look.

   "If they had laid siege to the enemy stronghold, would not the princess's life be in peril?" He answered his student's question and thought nothing of it. The boy on the other hand still had the same facial expression and tried to justify is answer.

   "Master, the enemy general loved the princess. Thus, would not the princess's safety be the general's priority? The enemy stronghold had deep underground chambers to shelter important people in case of a siege, would not the princess had been transferred there had a siege occur? Furthermore, after the stronghold was taken over by the attacking army, they destroyed the stronghold and the surrounding town to rebuild Sluggard as the main port city of the Bay of Historia. That wasted so much time and money. So why didn't they just siege it in the first place?" To Emrick, it seemed like common sense but to his friend on his right and the man in front, his analogy seemed cold and condescending to their forefathers who built the country. 

   "Emrick. Please consider that your forefathers were the ones who sacrificed their lives so you can live comfortably in this nation. Their decision was what they thought was best at the time. Furthermore, it is a history question. You cannot change the past Emrick." The man said pinching the bridge of his nose. Emrick has these tendencies to apply common sense to situations and ask certain outlandish questions. Their tutor, a scholar of the University of Historia, the most prestigious school in the nation and one of the many advisors of the sovereign monarch of The Kingdom of Historia, Hsia Ki Liam is a man who is straightforward and impatient. Thus, this normally would infuriate him, but he was used to Emrick and simply moved on to the next topic. His other student that he was tasked to educate was a lot like him and he favored her over her male counterpart. The next topic was about a villain who fought for the country but betrayed the monarchy for his own benefit. The scholar had a disgusted look on his face and was visibly exasperated by the mention of the name of the traitor, Cain Armand. He lectured on the misdeeds and sins of the man in question and the more Hsia spoke, the more hoarse his voice became. Hsia had this searing passion of disdain for this man. The girl chimed in on her master as he spoke and took it all in like a line from a holy text. The boy on the other hand simply thought on his master's words. The more his master spoke, the more it seems like the scrolls that he was reading about Cain Armand was indubitably demonizing him as a villain, a traitor and a murderer. He got lost in thought trying to find the reason behind all this man's crimes. He then raised his hand and this drew the attention of both the girl and the tutor. The tutor nodded as an indication that Emrick can ask a question.

   "Master, why did this man commit all these crimes?" The boy with brown hair raised his question hoping for an answer to his question but received a cold gaze for a response. 

   "Do you need intent to commit evil? It was all on impulse! His sins can no longer be covered with lies and thus he committed crimes to save his skin to no avail. He is a demon who sins cannot be forgiven." The man said then said in a slow and menacing tone. This struck fear into the heart of the girl, but the boy simply went back into deep thought. The lesson carried on. As the tutoring session came to a close, the children handed in their assignments on today's topic and bid their master goodbye.