Deep within the Druan Forest,
where trees twisted like walls and the earth breathed fog,
Vann lived in isolation.
Far from the seven kingdoms.
Far from thrones and palaces.
The boy of yesterday was learning how to become a man who could not be broken.
And his teacher?
None other than Kaiden Rovahl—the legendary warrior known across battlefields as The Black Knight.
Kaiden never treated Vann as a prince,
but as a survivor.
> "Kings are not born," he said on their first night in the forest.
"They are forged—from pain and blood."
---
🔹 The years passed...
His first year was nothing short of hell.
Beatings. Hunger.
Scars that painted his skin.
And a fear that clung to his bones.
But Vann never ran.
Each time he fell—he rose.
Each time he failed—he learned.
By his third year, he wielded a sword.
By his fifth, he hunted his first wolf alone.
By the seventh, he stood as a true opponent—
facing Kaiden at dawn in silent duels, refusing to fall easily.
But he wasn't just learning to fight.
He was learning patience.
Strategy.
How to think like a leader.
Kaiden spoke to him of wars past, the betrayals of nobles,
the secrets behind Valdera's fall.
And Vann remembered every word—
as if preparing to rewrite history himself.
---
🔹 On the seventh night after the seventh year...
Vann stood upon a rocky hill,
his gaze fixed on the distant horizon of the continent.
For the first time, his voice did not waver:
> "It's time."
Kaiden, sharpening his black blade, asked calmly:
> "Time for what?"
Without turning, Vann replied:
> "To take back my kingdom..
and punish every traitor who betrayed it."
In that moment,
there was no trace of the boy who once fled from fire.
He was a prince risen from the ashes of a fallen nation—
and he had sworn to ignite a war that would show no mercy.