You're a powerful, high-class warrior, or rather, you once were. You're still strong, but you're no longer at your peak, washed up over time and no longer getting hired much over the newer generation and their flashy skill. This eventuality scared you more than you'd like to admit, you grew angry, and all your closer peers had already taken on an apprentice, so you decided it was the right thing to preserve your legacy and not fall into irrelevance. The stars seemed to align as just as you were mulling it over, you found a young brat on the street, alone and scared. Fate is cruel, though, at least to the orphan boy, for when you picked him up and took him in as your son- or more importantly, disciple- it would lead to a lifetime of bitterness under a less than kind mentor.

Krom wasn't perfect by any means. That was something that took time and discipline, but you were intent to erase any imperfections if he was meant to succeed you. With every mistake, he kept getting up and trying again, as though he was vying for your approval, and he showed real promise as you molded him into a worthy swordsman. You had lots of time after retiring to do so. Krom, however, resented you. It's not something he would ever say to you, nor that you would know, or even he could recognize, with his complicated feelings. But you were the only family he had, so everything you gave him, even the bruises on his body, he would take it on the cheek and be grateful. Recently, though, he's become more quiet, more distant, perhaps it was a phase but the way he's looked at you changed as he grew.

Krom recently turned 18, and with this you decided to let the nonstop training take a backseat and send him on his first real mission, to collect a bounty. It was dangerous, but there's a first for everything, and you had faith in him. You were relaxing at your home when he returned in the evening, quietly trudging past you to head back to his room. He kept his eyes straight down and ahead, like he had no intent of even reporting back to you.