"Joseph Von Grant" was a man who had fought his way through the front line of the Ottoman Empire, slaughtering enemies like cutting crops on a field, earning him the fearsome nickname of "Slaughter Hound."

  ?The man whom I awe and look up to, and am fortunate and proud enough to address as my father.

  ?After one fateful war, where the victory was redeemed by the hands of the Slaughter Hound, his remarkable deeds and merits reached the ears of the ruling King—who took value in him and awarded a prized piece of land as a reward.

  ?Receiving the land, the Slaughter Hound bade farewell to his bloodthirsty life and began a life as a Baron, ruling under the King's word.

  ?But the flames of war did not fade.

  A while after the Slaughter Hound redeemed himself as a Baron, the Ottoman Empire's onslaught fell upon the empire like a soaring thumb against a bug.

  ?The Slaughter Hound, now a beloved husband to a woman and a father to a child, defended his land against the forces of the Ottoman Empire with all his might.

  ?The arriving forces of the Ottoman Empire proved themselves to be superior in strength compared to the whole of the kingdom. And Slaughter gradually witnessed how, one by one, the lands ruled by his King slowly fell to the hands of the enemy forces.

  ?He himself had passed his prime. The hands that once swung a great sword to slice through enemies now ached from the slightest fast movement.

  The feet that once brought him across the battlefield in a matter of seconds now struggled to run even ten feet at best.

  ?The enemy he faces from the Ottoman Empire devoured pieces of a barony nearby to his land, waging war against him ever since.

  Joseph could see it, the fall of his kingdom at the hands of the enemy. Realizing this truth, he took matters into his own hands. He is a ruler, a father, and a beloved husband, and protecting the things he values ultimately falls upon his shoulders.

  ?At the dawn of one day, a peace treaty was proposed, and the leaders of each force planned to meet face to face.

  ?. . . . . . .

  ?"Are you angry with me Joshua? You definitely are, aren't you? After all, what child won't hate a man that offers them to a fearsome enemy force?"

  ?Joseph knelt before his beloved son, who stood firmly despite knowing the future that awaited. He loved his son dearly, and adored and spoiled him as much as a father could do, but now he has to betray all those feelings to earn the peace that will secure his land.

  ?Facing his father's apologetic words, Joshua smirked.

  ?"I am not, Father. I see this as a great honor. By sacrificing myself to the enemy, I will defend my land. Isn't that the greatest merit a leader could achieve?"

  The fifteen-year-old youth showed no fear. words so brave that even tough men on a battlefield would fall in awe were spoken by him.

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  ?Joseph was proud, it appeared he had raised his son well. Any child would cry or at least plead, from fear and insecurity of venturing into an enemy's hands and land.

  ?But his son did not, he was ready, ready to bear the weight of having to secure his people's and family's safety starting from a young age.

  ?Looking at his son, whom he named as the successor to his lineage and his barony, Joseph’s thoughts dwindled. The raging tone of the Slaughter Hound slowly whispered in his ears after years of silence.

  ?It urged him to once again grab his double handed sword, unsheathe it, and swing it to slice off the heads of his enemies, who were daring enough to demand his son as a price for peace and ask to name him as the future ruler before handing him over.

  ?Joseph knew this was a ploy. The so-called peace was as false as an eclipse's daytime darkness, only to live for a short while.

  ?His son would return to this land again, surely after his own death, to redeem what was rightfully his. But Joseph feared his son would then be different from the one standing in front of him now. The ploy deployed by the Ottomans was to abduct the children of nearby lords and bring them to their own land to make them obey their words and works. Then, in the future, when they arrived to rule their rightful land, they would be puppets, controlled by strings stretched to the faraway land of the Ottoman Empire.

  Joseph gritted his teeth, holding the fury and anger in his heart. Despite the fury in his heart and the past Slaughter Hound urging him to grab the sword and wage war, his hands were weighted by his own responsibility.

  ?He isn't alone, a land is behind him with a loving wife that weeps more than Joseph could ever do for his son. But her fate also lay in his hands, weighting him and preventing him from not even lift his sword up from his sheath.

  ?As Joseph wallowed in his inability to defend his son, a voice from a man reached into the tent from outside.

  ?"Commander, a group of horses are galloping toward this direction from the east. Overall there are more than fifty horses in the group bearing the Ottoman Empire's flags."

  ?It was a scout who had been observing the horizon for a sign of the enemy forces. Receiving the report, Joseph no longer stayed knelt, instead, he stood up.

  ?The bearing of a dwindling father was no longer visible, instead, his demeanor changed to a man ruling a land with the title of a Baron.

  "Tell the men to be ready and do not let any one of them act weak in front of them. Even if this is a humiliating moment, we should let them know we are not to be easily messed with."

  ?His voice echoed, and the scout, receiving his order, echoed it back with a loud voice to be heard by the whole camp.

  ?"Let's go."

  ?Following his father's words, Joshua followed his father and exited the tent.

  ?The shine of the midday sun fell upon Joshua's face. What came to vision were the knights gathering their belongings and hurriedly getting up upon their horses.

  ?Seeing their commander, the Baron, stepping out from his tent, they bowed their heads as an act of respect and obedience.

  ?Looking south, a giant tree stood solely with remains of a battlefield. A fierce war had occurred here, where lives of hundreds of men from the barony had been lost. But the outcome of that war resulted in a victory. Though the barony lost a hundred of its bravest men, it had the Ottoman forces suffer casualties much worse, more than by hundreds, if not thousands.

  But now, Joseph and his knights could feel their hearts ache in guilt. They were going to a so called peace treaty, to hand over the future lord of the land, their fallen brothers died to protect.

  ?It was an act of betrayal and selfishness. None of them said a word of this and only held the thought in their aching hearts.

  ?All they could do was hate the enemy more, who specifically chose this land as the place to hold the peace treaty, as if to spit on their fallen comrades' graves.

  ?The awaited time arrived when the sun reached the center of the sky.

  ?Baron Joseph, along with his brethren knights and his beloved son, arrived under the shadow of the tree. To his left was his left hand man, Britharon, and occupying his right side was Joshua, but that place wasn't truly his, it originally belonged to Joseph's right hand man, Belen, who fell in battle in this very battleground.

  ?As they came from the east, a cloud of smoke arrived along with a group of horses. Riding the foremost of the horses was a figure clad in shining armor.