Ah. Perhaps I was slightly more fortunate with regards to my education, at least.
[ Midnight keeps walking. Because of his heritage... huh. ]
It didn't amount to much, though. Yes, I had trouble. Or, to be more precise, my choices were very simple, but the pickings were rather slim.
I was... sixteen? Seventeen? When I decided to run from home. Here...
[ He pushes the door open for both of them and begins to walk down the sidewalk. He checks for street signs, but mostly walks unperturbed. He spent most of his first month getting familiar with the streets in the first district. Instinct. ]
Once I was out on the street, I was faced with a certain choice. You see, twenty years ago, Higashi was in around the fifth year of a civil war. The Mitsumoto and the Kougon clans, the diarchy, could never leave well enough alone... Well, it was none of my business. Businesses who dared keep their doors open were few and far in between, and due to the nature of my escape, I really had nothing to my name. No connections, nothing to leverage.
[ Midnight laughs again. ]
Really... It was inevitable. I got my first offer to run errands for the men who enforced petty loans. Some Ægir walked up to me, said they needed a lookout while certain parties settled a debt with a recalcitrant street vendor. A week later, I spent several hours hiding from a certain set of gentlemen who swore that they saw a real Sarkaz. Young, healthy, surely looking to prove himself through classic Sarkaz mercenary work. And, of course... The Mitsumoto clan was always looking for fresh infantry.
It was all like that. Not a single offer to deliver papers, to run errands, to sweep doorways. Not because those weren't beyond my ability. No... I was special.
[ The smile on his face is sharp. ]
All I needed to do was prove myself, and I would have gotten very far.
You see... There was another war before the Kougon-Mitsumoto conflicts. The Bloodpeak Campaign, they called it. Ursus invading the borders of Higashi. That was the first time many, many Higashinese had ever seen a Sarkaz, the rank and file mercenaries of the Ursus forces. Because what a Sarkaz is is a soldier. A sword for hire. Diseased, doomed for death. Nationless.
[ When Midnight says that word, it's with some contempt, some bitterness. Vicious irony. ]
no subject
[ Midnight keeps walking. Because of his heritage... huh. ]
It didn't amount to much, though. Yes, I had trouble. Or, to be more precise, my choices were very simple, but the pickings were rather slim.
I was... sixteen? Seventeen? When I decided to run from home. Here...
[ He pushes the door open for both of them and begins to walk down the sidewalk. He checks for street signs, but mostly walks unperturbed. He spent most of his first month getting familiar with the streets in the first district. Instinct. ]
Once I was out on the street, I was faced with a certain choice. You see, twenty years ago, Higashi was in around the fifth year of a civil war. The Mitsumoto and the Kougon clans, the diarchy, could never leave well enough alone... Well, it was none of my business. Businesses who dared keep their doors open were few and far in between, and due to the nature of my escape, I really had nothing to my name. No connections, nothing to leverage.
[ Midnight laughs again. ]
Really... It was inevitable. I got my first offer to run errands for the men who enforced petty loans. Some Ægir walked up to me, said they needed a lookout while certain parties settled a debt with a recalcitrant street vendor. A week later, I spent several hours hiding from a certain set of gentlemen who swore that they saw a real Sarkaz. Young, healthy, surely looking to prove himself through classic Sarkaz mercenary work. And, of course... The Mitsumoto clan was always looking for fresh infantry.
It was all like that. Not a single offer to deliver papers, to run errands, to sweep doorways. Not because those weren't beyond my ability. No... I was special.
[ The smile on his face is sharp. ]
All I needed to do was prove myself, and I would have gotten very far.
You see... There was another war before the Kougon-Mitsumoto conflicts. The Bloodpeak Campaign, they called it. Ursus invading the borders of Higashi. That was the first time many, many Higashinese had ever seen a Sarkaz, the rank and file mercenaries of the Ursus forces. Because what a Sarkaz is is a soldier. A sword for hire. Diseased, doomed for death. Nationless.
[ When Midnight says that word, it's with some contempt, some bitterness. Vicious irony. ]