Being born into a family of knights, Jaune had always listened to his parents' heroic stories — stories that made him dream of becoming one too.
As the only son, he was spoiled to the extreme, and since many of his sisters ended up becoming knights, why wouldn't he?
That was the question he asked himself, and the answer was simple: no.
There was no explanation, just a "no." The feeling that something was wrong kept growing; he didn't feel complete and believed it was the denial of his dream.
Anger came, and in a reckless move he packed his things and left in the middle of the night while his parents and sisters slept, taking only his father's stolen weapon.
He fell into the forest and got lost. His lantern was so weak the darkness swallowed most things; he could barely see, let alone navigate.
Hours passed, and fear crept in along with the sting of branches scraping his skin and leaving little wounds.
Jaune's confidence was gone — he only wanted his family and to get out of there. Anger faded and left behind only regret.
A growl.
Something in the distance of the forest scared Jaune. With only that faint lantern and no clear sight a few meters ahead, he trained it toward the sound.
At first he saw a glowing red ball of anger. Then more shapes appeared — they weren't red but yellow-eyed, just as furious. One, two… many.
Fear hit him and his legs shook; a terrified scream tore from his throat.
Shit, shit, shit — he was dead. He knew what it was.
A Grimm, a creature of darkness: humanity's predator, the legendary beast he'd only heard about and never seen.
Instinct kicked in and he ran, turning his back and sprinting. Nothing else mattered — he had to escape. He couldn't die here. He had to apologize to his family; he couldn't die like this without one last embrace.
But the world wasn't kind. Red eyes closed in on him, faster now, cutting between the trees like blurs. They moved so fast they reached him in an instant.
The biggest one, with red eyes, arrived and swung a paw lined with claws as sharp as combat knives. The blow caught Jaune's back, but by luck or misfortune he slipped free at the last second.
Dragging himself along the ground, he felt the pain and turned to face the huge wolf-like creature.
It looked the size of a bear but shaped like a wolf, massive and radiating destruction and savagery. The wolf swung its paw again — it was so quick and the pain so fierce that Jaune's stomach was torn; blood sprayed through the forest and he felt like he was dying.
He rolled his eyes, sensing death close. Was this how it would end? Dying to a monster after having run away? Without one last hug for his family?
No — he couldn't die like that. Time seemed to stop.
"Do you want to live?" a voice whispered in Jaune's ears. "Do you want to tear apart this filthy creature that oppresses you?"
Fear, terror, anger and a sliver of hope lit up inside him. He had no strength to speak, but he screamed in his mind.
"Are you willing to give up your ignorance?" the voice purred, tinged with bloodthirst. "Are you ready to accept the slumbering legacy in your blood?"
Jaune already knew the answer. He didn't need anything else — just the power to survive. No, surviving wasn't enough. He wanted the power to destroy the monster before him, and he shouted in his mind:
"So be it, o you who descend from me."
The broken moon glowed red and for a minute seemed to mend itself. When that moonlight touched Jaune, a spark of energy blossomed from his core. It was powerful — it numbed the pain at once.
His eyes turned red, his fangs lengthened, and veins crawled around his eyes. Jaune's wounds vanished as if they had never been, and he stood up just as time resumed.
The red-eyed wolf blinked, leapt back, and vanished, only to reappear several meters away. It snarled and shook its head. At the same moment, a pack of ten smaller, yellow-eyed wolf-creatures burst from the trees and attacked.
They were fast, but nowhere near as fast as the red-eyed alpha. Jaune stayed still, his newly red, glassy eyes fixed on them. A single spark of black energy shot from his body and ten spears made of what looked like pure darkness formed and flew at the wolves.
Each spear struck a wolf, piercing them; they cried out, but that wasn't the worst part. The spears seemed to come alive, turning into tentacle-like shadows that wrapped around the wolves until they were completely consumed by darkness and vanished.
Then Jaune looked at the red-eyed wolf. The monster narrowed its eyes — not in fear, but in anger and betrayal, as if something in its plan had failed, as if someone had betrayed it.
Jaune stepped toward the wolf, then suddenly stopped. His red, lifeless eyes dimmed and returned to their normal blue. Jaune collapsed to the ground.
The wolf was confused — but didn't hesitate. It was its duty to kill the boy; he was a threat. As it advanced, something held it back. No — to be precise, ropes held it.
"Stay put, mutt," an angrily childish voice snapped. "How dare you enter our territory?" The voice grew colder and crueller.
"How dare you hurt my brother?" the hidden girl snarled, and the lines tightened. The wolf, desperate, spat out words. "Why didn't you save him before?"
"Shut up, dog," the girl whispered coldly, and the ropes constricted more, tearing the wolf into pieces.
Time passed.
"Rogue, what happened?" Carmilia Arc shouted, running up to her youngest daughter, who carried her brother on her shoulders. "My God, Jaune!"
"What happened to your brother?" Carmilia demanded, grabbing Jaune from Rogue's arms and hugging him.
"Mother, Jaune ran away. When I found him, he was attacked by a Teriantrop — an alpha, no less." Rogue's voice trembled between worry and excitement. "When I arrived, Jaune had already dealt with most of them. He awakened, mother — he's not a faun; he's one of us!"
Rogue's joy turned into a sting when a slap flew toward her face. "Don't call your brother a faun," Carmilia growled, furious. "Our people do not produce fauns — even if they did, he could still have a dignified life among our people."
"A dignified life?" Rogue shot back. "He's an Arc, the royal family of Valakia. Teriantrops, Grimm kings — all our enemies will come after him. That's why the Teriantrop attacked — to kill the Arc prince who was born a faun." Rogue waved her arms in rage. "Our own kind hates him for proving that even we, the nobles, can bear fauns."
"Don't you dare," Carmilia shouted louder; her eyes turned red and the mansion trembled as a white aura poured from her. "And even if our people did bear fauns — half of Valakia is made up of fauns."
"No matter. They're commoners; except for the few raised to nobility, they mean nothing." Rogue's eyes went red too and a blue aura emanated from her. "In the end they're just hybrids of Teriantrops and humans."
"Rogue," Carmilia began, ready to strike back, when a hand caught hers. "Dear, what happened? My God, Jaune." A blond man, bearing a striking resemblance to Jaune, emerged from the shadows. "What happened?" His eyes glowed red and a black aura leaked from him.
"He ran away and a Teriantrop attacked him," Rogue said coldly. "They wanted to kill that so-called faun prince of the nobles and show we're no better than them — disgusting as always."
"I'll kill them all," the man growled; his dark aura swelled and the castle shook so much that Rogue shrank back.
"Vlad, stop. You'll wake the populace," Carmilia cried, and Vlad sighed.
"What's going on between you?" Vlad asked seriously.
"I was teaching Rogue to respect the people of our kingdom," Carmilia began to explain.
"Rogue?" Vlad called. "No matter the origin of fauns, they're our people and we must protect them, not hate them."
"But father, they're half-teriantrop — they can be controlled by alphas. They're enemies disguised as citizens," Rogue argued, refusing to accept her parents' softer view. "We should eliminate them, along with the Teriantrops."
"Rogue," Vlad imposed his authority. "Go to your room. You're grounded and suspended from your knightly duties until further orders from me or your mother."
"Yes, father."
Rogue left the room, and Carmilia, still holding Jaune, put him gently on the sofa and sighed. "He awakened," she cried. "I trusted the witches to keep the seal. They failed."
"Don't blame them, my love," Vlad replied. "The seal broke from Jaune's sheer willpower."
"How will we face the people now? We promised a future king like them and then present them with a distant ruler again." Carmilia stroked Jaune's head, smiling sadly. "If we can have faun children like the Teriantrops do, we could have peace — only Grimm would remain to worry about, and we'd have a future king the people could identify with."
"We can't do anything, love. When our ancestor, the Moon God, created our species and the Teriantrops, declaring war on his brothers, our people refused to take sides in exchange for keeping our divinity. That made the Teriantrops hate us for losing their divinity. Now they make hybrids; if they don't intermarry among themselves, we won't have peace."
"I know, but… it wasn't our fault. Most of the original nobles died millennia ago; the pureblood nobles today are descendants of humans and transformed fauns. We're not to blame."
"I know, love, I know…"
Vlad soothed his wife and tended to their son. "I was thinking — we should send Jaune to Remnant," Vlad said, looking at his son.
"Why?" Carmilia snapped, shoving Vlad. "No, I won't give up my son."
"I don't want to either, love. But clearly some pureblood noble must have leaked information about Jaune to the Teriantrops. Keeping him here is a danger to him and to the people." Vlad spoke with a head that had to prevail over the heart. "Besides, Jaune wants to be a hero, a knight. If he becomes a hunter in Remnant, he can be all that. I have contact with Oz; I'll arrange everything in secret."
"Oz? You know Director Oz?" Carmilia was surprised.
"As a responsible king, I have contacts along the border. After all, we border the Grimm lands that were once part of Vale." Vlad scratched his chin. "Someone must keep Salem occupied. Even though we're immortal like her and nearly as powerful, we still have the weakness of our hearts, whereas she has none."
"The Grimm Queen — making a non-aggression pact with her was hard. I had to kill her about nineteen times; she kept coming back and I nearly died myself," Carmilia shuddered at the memory. "But I got the agreement — she won't interfere with our kingdom as long as we don't interfere with her plans."
"He won't accept being sent away like this. Jaune is too nationalistic; he loves Valakia and could be dangerous. Sending him off will make him feel betrayed."
"Don't worry, love. I have everything under control."
Time passed, and Jaune left Valakia as a knight on a mission to learn as much as he could about the kingdoms of Remnant.
As he knew, Valakia was a realm after the world's end — a place humanity at large could hardly reach because of the mass of Grimm Alphas and elders. If humanity discovered another kingdom flourishing there, it would be overwhelming. That's why it was necessary to learn the military strength and unique powers of those kingdoms.
Jaune's mission was to keep his full power hidden, to pretend to be a normal faun like before he awakened, or a human without animal traits. He was alone and had to study at the hunters' school, become a hunter for a few years, then return home to report what he'd learned.
People in the kingdoms didn't know other species existed beyond humans and fauns, nor the origin of fauns. They were ignorant, but Jaune couldn't change that — they were cornered by the Grimm and had no pact with the Grimm Queen or the Grimm elders to stop attacks on their territories.
He would do it. Yes — he would make Valakia proud.