My name is Nigel Fenring, the third child and second heir of the Fenring estate. Our manor resides north of the Iron Lake, which one can spy from the portcullis of our manor. The lake is said to be the source of iron that feeds into the woods that make our fortune. The western wing is where the lord of the manor, my father, resided with his regional throne backed onto the ironwoods itself. A symbol that the man himself has the whole might of the ironwood forest at his back.
Our household was one of rules, honour, decorum and etiquette. The woman whom I thought of as my mother would teach me the Imperial and Viltin languages, how to bow, how to dress, how to walk, how to eat, all in a proper manner. It was only by the age of six that I learnt this woman who had raised me was not my mother, but in fact a nurse. I learnt this one night when my father spoke to me, perhaps for the first time in my life. He entered my bedroom in the early morning before the sun had risen and roused me from my sleep.
"Nigel, wake up. You were in the care of Miss Anabel, were you not?"
Half asleep and delirious, I sat up in my bed. The dim light from the moon shone through the stained glass behind my father, making him appear as a being of pure shadow.
"Hmm? Yes?"
"Do you know where she is now? Did she tell you anything?"
It was the next morning that I learnt that Miss Anabel was not my mother but in fact just a maid who was instructed to care for me, and that Miss Abagael was not related to me either. They were simply servants. Father told me that Miss Anabel had committed a grave crime and had fled the manor grounds; his focus was on whether I knew anything about where she might have gone all this time, without telling me what she had actually done.
Perhaps she had stolen something valuable and tried to flee, in order to sell it and live elsewhere. That's the only thing I could imagine, but even then, what would be the point? Life here was good.
That day, I followed and watched from afar as my father wandered around the manor and talked with each and every employee. From the guards to the cooks, the maids to the night woman. As I stalked, Miss Abagael approached me from behind as I was peering from behind a bush. She was our herbalist and the older sister of the person I thought was my mother. I had spent some time with Abagael, who was a kind older woman who enjoyed sharing her knowledge.
"Spying on ya father are ya?"
"Something of the sort you could say."
While she spoke, she was kneeling down and tending to the garden, ripping out weeds and not once looking at anything but her work.
"Finally taking an interest in lording, have ya?"
"Well, it's more so what he said to me."
"About Anabel? I noticed something was wrong with her lately. She kept sneaking out late to meet with someone."
"Have you told Father of this?"
"Your father did not ask. Mayhaps you could tell him, he might praise you for being so productive. Though in truth I know not what my little sister has done, we may be related, but that doesn't mean we talk."
That night, like every other, I sat at a long table for dinner. At the head of the table was my father, Regonald Fenring. Seated to his right was my brother and heir to the estate, Louis Fenring. Though to his left, the person I would sit next to, my sister, Katlyn Fenring, was absent.
Our family didn't speak to each other much, but we would always eat dinner together in silence, though my sister was one other people I was fond of. She would accidentally give me sweets at night and smile at me when we passed in the halls, but her absence tonight left an unsettling silence. I could tell that Louis also wanted to ask about it, but didn't. Dinner ended, and we all stood and went our own way.
It was only an hour later that I decided to enter my father's study in the eastern wing to tell him what I had learnt. So I knocked on the door to his study and entered.
"Oh, it's you, what do you want?"
"Father, I was curious about what you asked of me this morning, and as such, I did my own investigation and have come upon something that might help."
He placed his pen down and rubbed his eyes with one hand. I knew instantly that he had done this because I had slipped up with my words and could have said it better, though once my sentence finished, he paused, lowered his hand and stood up.
"You know something? What?"
"I asked Miss Abagael about it. She said that Miss Anabel had been sneaking away at night to meet with someone every now and then."
"And you only thought to speak of this now!? How did Abagael know about this?" he stood and stormed towards me.
"They're siblings."
He marched past me and out of the room. I remained there for a moment, unsure what to do as I heard my father yell for the guards.
Silence crept in as I looked around the room I would never inherit. I walked around to the other side of the desk and looked out the window that looked down upon the great ironwood forest. Further below was the garden where Miss Abagael was working, pulling out weeds. I watched as my father and two guards marched towards her. I couldn't hear what was said, but I could tell that my father was shouting, pointing, and accusing. A guard struck Miss Abagael across the face, causing her to fall to the ground. With a wave of the hand, the guards grabbed her and took her away.
I didn't understand my father's actions until the next day. Whispers and rumours were abound among the staff. I was assigned three new maids whom I overheard whispering among themselves. I only caught moments, a word here and there. But the whispers were grim. They spoke of the possibility that my sister, Katlyn Fenring, was dead. That Miss Anabel was the lead suspect, and that I might have had something to do with it.
I didn't want to believe it, but as more days passed, it made more sense. Not once did I see my sister. The look on my father's face was sour and bitter, and my brother looked concerned and saddened.
After a week, I saw Miss Abagael return to the gardens. After another week, I had the courage to approach her.
She told me what happened in the cell beneath the manor. How they tried to get as much information from her as possible, even things she didn't think were related. She told them how her sister had received a gift from a friend who works in a town nearby and asked her to cultivate it in our garden. They were black mushrooms, used in cooking and apparently quite sweet when roasted.
The help had their own garden that was out of view from the manor gardens, tucked behind the servant housing. It was here that the black mushrooms were planted. This started several months ago and was the only thing that my father had.
Days later, he announced that he would be visiting every town in the Ironwood forest to discuss with town leaders information regarding the ongoing war and its ever-increasing demand for supplies. Of course, this was only half true; he was going to hunt down the culprits as whoever it was. All we knew was that it had to have come from a town that had black mushrooms.
Over the next few weeks, we travelled from town to town. We travelled in a small convoy with servants in tow. It was rare that I would be brought along as well, but these are unusual circumstances. After all, we were hunting a murderer. Though as I sat isolated in my own wagon, sharing it with cargo and dried food, I found it hard to believe that Miss Anabel would even be capable of something like this. Though I suppose that when she is found, she would be questioned, and the truth would reveal itself.
We first went to the town of Black Hollow, then Hogsvile and Fin. While visiting these, we were all placed under careful watch as bearers of the Fenring name. Though as we moved from the first town to the second and from the second to the third, I noticed the security lessened. So when we arrived at the fourth town, I was left unattended.
Upon arriving at the small town of Trident Wood, my father and his guards made their way to the town hall. Though I stood there at the entrance of the market street, they walked down just to see if anyone would even notice my absence. I stood still and watched everyone walk past me.
For the first time, I was left unattended and free to do or go where I pleased. So, I ran north. Not because I wanted to get away from my family or the life I had, but just to get away from them for a bit. Just to see what the world was like away from them. So I wandered aimlessly through the northern section of the town and further north into the woods.
After what felt like an hour of wandering the woods, it was clear there was no path, no road, no way of knowing where you were. I quickly became lost. Fearing I might never find my way out, I started to cry. I want to call out for someone to help me. I wanted Miss Anabel to hug me, take my hand and walk me back home like she normally would. As I was about to give up, I heard a voice call out, first in Imperial, then again in Viltin.
"You lost?" "Êtes-vous perdu?"
He called out. I turned my head and wiped the tears from my face as I nodded and said a simple "yeah" in response. Walking up to this taller boy, I asked him if he knew the way back to the village.
"Not really, I only come to this part of the woods from my house, so I know the way back there, but I don't know how to get to the village from here. Wanna just come back to my place? My mum's cooking lunch soon, then you can go back to the village from there, it's just a dirt path from there, is a straight line."
His response was long and rambling. I thought since he knew the Imperial language, he might be a northerner, or perhaps related somehow to a noble house, but even I could tell he spoke like a commoner. Even so, he seemed kind, and his invitation to food excited me. I never managed to get enough food and was always slightly hungry, so an extra meal sounded amazing.
I helped the boy gather mushrooms. Every now and then, I would steal and glance at him. His skin was a slightly more tan shade than my own or most people I knew. There was something different about him that I couldn't quite place.
As we gathered mushrooms, I decided to look around carefully for the black ones I had seen back at home. After a while, I spotted it. At the base of a rotting tree sat a single black mushroom.
The boy approached it, examined it and backed away. It was clear that he didn't know what it was, if it was safe or dangerous. If gathering mushrooms was something this boy did regularly, and even he didn't recognise them, then there was no way he could be related to what happened at home. But still, I found a black mushroom; if I tell Father, he might praise me.
On our way back, the boy asked me casually. "What's your name anyway?"
Only then did I realise I had not introduced myself properly.
"Huh? Oh, my mistake." I stopped, turned and bowed properly with perfect form. "Nigel Fenring, a pleasure".
The boy copied the bow, but his foot placement was off, his hand shook slightly, and his posture was poor. "Shinya Akame" he said. I realised formality was pointless with this person, and I desperately wanted someone to talk to where I didn't have to think twice about how I spoke.
"Huh? What kind of name is that? That's a funny-sounding name."
"It's a Metonym name, my father was a Metonym"
"Metonym? You mean that island nation to the west we're at war with?"
"Yeah, that's the one. That's where my dad was born, and he chose my name"
"They're the bad guys, right?"
I walked around in front of him, peering at his face. His features were indeed slightly different to the other faces I knew.
"You don't look like a bad guy, though, here."
I took from around my neck a necklace, the sigil of the Fenring household, and placed it around his neck. That way, all people knew that this one, even if he shared the name of the enemy, was, in fact, not an enemy.
I accompanied him to his home, a small farm with a few animals and crops. I ate a meal with him and his mother, and then was shown the path back into town.
I had enjoyed my time in that room, at that table. It was simple, plain, ordinary. Not a performance like every other dinner I had ever had. It felt freeing.
When I returned to town, Shinya's mother, Sara, led me to the main market street. I told her I knew where to go from here, and she left me. I walked to the end of the street to the town hall, where my father was talking with the village leader.
As I walked up to him, she shot me a glance as if he hadn't even noticed I was missing the past several hours. I approached him and tugged at his coat.
"I found black mushrooms in the woods to the north"
Whatever conversation my father was having stopped instantly. His expression, previously chipper and happy, suddenly became serious and scary.
A maid took me away as my father was talking with the guards. I spent that night sitting in the wagon, unable to sleep as I was wondering what was happening outside. By the time the sun began to rise, we all loaded into the wagons and set off to return home.
I don't know what happened to Miss Anabel, if she was ever found or not. Shortly after, a funeral was held for my sister, and Miss Abagael was instructed to remove and destroy all of the black mushrooms that were being grown.
Weeks later, my father came to me again and instructed me that I would learn how to fight. That I may one day earn my honour.
It had always been like this, and even over my years of training, nothing changed between us. It felt as if he never wanted me as a son. That he hated me, that perhaps this was a way to rid himself of me. Even when I beat my instructors in combat, again and again, he never once praised me.
Once I turned thirteen, I was faced with a choice. Once a person was a teenager, they were free to choose their own path; such was the law of the land. Though I would not truly be considered an adult for another two years, there were strange times; thus, the age of voluntary service was lowered by two years. I grappled with it for months, and I trained even harder with a blade. I studied warfare from books, and I even wanted to visit Balim to learn more, though the journey was far too long and Father would never sanction it.
Once I felt I was ready, once I could say to myself that I could make a difference and survive in war, I went to my father in his study.
"Father, I come to you today to declare that I am to enlist and go to war."
He let out a soft grunt as he continued to file paperwork, not even lifting his head to look at me.
"I pray that if I return, you might think better of me, and I may finally earn your respect, and if I do not return… then I was unworthy of your respect, to begin with."
I spoke with a lowered head. It felt shameful. I wanted to yell at him, to scream to be upset, but I couldn't. So I turned and left. As I closed the door, out of the corner of my eye, I think he was looking at me, and I think I saw him smile.
Little did I expect to be given an honorary position due to my name. I was not permitted to fight on the front lines but instead to manage war slaves. To order them about and shuttle them to their death.
I argued with the Viltin small council over letters for weeks and months, and eventually came into contact with a member of the council named Henri Dericort. We corresponded for a while, and I gave him an idea I had been thinking of for a while. A way of warfare that did not include fighting, but rather gathering information from the enemy and damaging them in ways other than their forces. A thing not too far away from spycraft, but much more dangerous.
While stationed at Red Beach Outpost, I met a few soldiers who shared my vision and expressed interest in joining. Before long, we had a small team of four with two more on the way from Vilta, Henri included. I laid out the plan to use war slaves as a distraction and then sneak to the fort to sabotage it in preparation for a main assault. Though I did not expect to see a familiar face among the crowd of slaves. Nor for that face to be the sole living thing at the fortress when my team of four infiltrated it.
I didn't recognise him right away, but upon seeing that thing around his neck, there was no mistaking it. This was Shinya Akame of Trident Wood, on the front lines, and he had done in one day what an army failed to do over a month.
So he was brought into my care. Though at first the others were afraid of him. How was it possible that a farm boy from a small town could do such a thing? When we started to train him, he was exceptionally ordinary, and the fear we had for him left. Though the question remained, how? Kona was interested in him from the start; she was the one who found him in the Saltfort after all. Perhaps she wants to learn the secret to his strength for herself, though it was clear to us that he didn't have much strength.
That was until the raid on the night ship turned sour. What we saw on the deck of the ship that day was nothing short of a miracle. How this boy, who couldn't fight, managed such feats of violence is a mystery.
Even after the battle, he was more shaken than I was, even though it wasn't his first time in combat.
I continued to train him for the next few months with the help of Kona. We found a routine for him and controlled his diet precisely for him to grow stronger. We went to more missions, all much more successful than the first. The war, once again, came to a standstill.
But still, there was that lingering question in everyone's mind. How was he able to do the things he could do? Nobody knew, and nobody dared to ask. We assumed it was a response to life-or-death situations and nothing more. But even then, it seemed…unnatural.