Do you bleed?

"Hey, Curtis, come on, Sally is inside," Edna echoed out, snapping him out of his daze. In front of him was the accumulation of the De Leon's long history in Candelabra. He followed the disgruntled woman inside. He knew she didn't like waking up this early, especially when she had been keeping watch on her daughter. The tiny terror was getting into as much trouble as she possibly could. Curtis had babysat her daughter before, and he could honestly say that he'd rather train with Hjilmar than stay and take care of her.

The pirate had warmed up to him, from treating him like a nuisance and then evolving into a little brother. She had a rambunctious personality, liked to get into brawls, which honestly made her more likable than he had initially thought. The woman liked treating him as a sibling, the years they've been together in training had opened him up to her.

Curtis was looking at the mansion his family had owned in the city before the last descendant had vanished. It wasn't as big as his trainer's home and considering that he was human, it was still fairly large. It looked like it could fit at least three or four families and still have enough for more. The mansion took up space, a lot of space, it had as many bedrooms as the fingers on his hands and even more miscellaneous rooms than all his toes and fingers. It was well-maintained for lack of a better word, the furniture and decor had all been replaced. The redecorating was being managed by Sally, and she is a whiz at it. The woman knew his taste in decor and had gone on her way to making the mansion suit him.

Years of training with the woman had made him understand her more and more. Sally was as much of a troublemaker as Edna, she was reserved in her trouble-making, more on the scheming side of things rather than being the center of it all. Most of the fights Edna was in was most likely organized by Sally on the sides. Curtis labeled her as the scheming aunt that he could have had. She was either always planning somethings, or enacting one. She was a good but troublesome egg. That was how he had put it the first time.

The mansion was as good as any. It had a certain style to it. Even after she remodeled it, it felt oddly familiar, the layout, the design of the house, he felt like he was home. "That's it!" Curtis's mind lit up. It had been so long since he was home, but he knew. The mansion was like a bigger version of his previous home, back on the Continent. The fireplace was in the same place albeit bigger. The rooms were arranged in the same manner. Heck, even the training grounds had the familiar fountain, he had wanted to check if it had an underground tunnel but scrapped the idea as he remembered he was on a tour and put the thought at the back of his mind.

Sally was putting her all into restoring the manor, he felt a bit guilty himself, but it wasn't like he could tell them his plan. Curtis didn't have much of a complaint. He knew he was leaving this place soon one way or the other, he can't stay still not knowing how his family was doing. He knew he might get Sally onboard the idea. She was nice to him. Even when Hjilmar was beating the ever-living shit out of him, she ensured that he had enough potions and medicine to be able to get back up the next day. Edna on the other hand kind of grew on him, sure she was a bitch sometimes but he knew she liked him well enough to care for him, her daughter too. He admits that he didn't want to leave them as they had treated him as part of their family, but his real family was waiting for him. He couldn't forget how his mother had cared and made him feel loved, granted that he WAS foreign to this world in the first place, but being around them, he felt like he was meant to be with them, and with them was where he needed to be.

He was being given the full house tour. After the council had signed in on his emancipation as an adult, they had Sally refurbish the house and give him the tour. Along the main hallway of the house. There were paintings of his ancestors, he didn't recognize any of them save for one name; Alfred De Leon, a name from the book his father had made him read. He didn't have a picture, just a weapon attached to a name, depicting that he had used that particular weapon. It was an ancient spear, the tip was beginning to return to dust, and the shaft of the spear was broken in two. Words were engraved onto the wood of the spear. 𝑰𝒏𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒎 - meaning unbroken. Below the plaque was a record of his final battle.

"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒙 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕. 𝑯𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒂 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒅."

The words had thrown Curtis into a loop, he remembered when he first met Vera, the goddess herself, he remembered what she had told him, what his duty was supposed to be, a duty that he cannot fulfill here. But he didn't want to be a puppet, Curtis felt conflicted, following a path laid out for him was moving to the tune they were playing. But if he didn't, who knows what the consequences were. Right now he was weak, he can't even land a clean hit on the giant. How was he supposed to play a tune for himself? Curtis reread the words, Invicta? Invincible? the gods! they were supposed to be untouchable, but his ancestor had done it? He would need to become as strong as them.

"It's a story passed down generations, in the times of monsters and men, the Light of Man; that was what he was called back then," Edna smiled, "Your ancestor held up one of the torches for humanity. He had started to attack the counter-attack against the beasts, but as time went on, the war only got worse. Alfred De Leon led one of the last bastions of humanity away from the fighting and traveled the world. I���m not too clear on the details, but after the war, his descendants had established Candelabra. Maybe Sir Hjilmar knows more on that subject," Edna explained. She seemed rather fond of stories of heroes. She knew a lot of the history of the City, ever since her daughter was born, she frequently told her stories of the heroes of their history, and with Curtis babysitting most of the time, he had learned a fair amount of tales from her. The story gave Curtis more information on his ancestors but it provided little to no help. It was centuries ago. What he needed was info on now. He kept on asking Hjilmar to give him updates on his homeland, but he kept on changing the subject. Only told him his home was the farthest away from Chaos and that he shouldn't have anything to worry about.

The group tour was coming to an end. Curtis was impressed with the manor, he was fairly content with the size of the house, and if the stories he was told was true, his ancestors were very conservative, after the war they seldom mingled with the other races and kept to themselves. The family was kept small so they didn't bother expanding the manor.

Their next stop was a Mausoleum. Sally just urged him to enter, it made sense, this was a personal matter, she and Edna didn't want to intrude upon another family's burial grounds. Curtis entered by himself. Outside it was a grand building, one you would expect Romans to build. It was built on the edge of the property, separate from the main house. It was where the family remains were put to rest so they put it somewhere it wouldn't be disturbed. The inside was much larger than he had thought, stone shelves decorated the inside. The family practiced cremation. Even in Curtis' previous home, there was a building similar to this. Rows and rows of stone shelves decorated inside, forming a semi-circle around a large stone pillar, on it were names carved for each of the descendants of the family that died throughout the years.

Curtis gave a silent prayer for them, he didn't know them but it was thanks to them that a city like Candelabra came to be. It was only right to give them the respect they deserve. Finishing his prayer for them he asked for some guidance on how his ancestor was able to make a god bleed. Right now he would take any help he could get.

Sally brought Curtis to the Master Bedroom of the manor, their last stop for the tour. Inside there were the bare necessities for a bedroom, a bed, a drawer for clothes, a chair with a table. A very spartan arrangement.

"The last head wasn't much for decoration, Sir Hjilmar said that he didn't care for presentation. He lived for himself, he didn't care for other people's opinion, that was how he phrased it." Sally recounted being fairly surprised with the arrangement herself, Curtis agreed with the idea, it was noble in a way, strip away all the distractions, and keep yourself focused on what's important.

Examining the room, it really was the barebones of what you'd need in a bedroom, Sally wanted to spruce it up a bit for Curtis "I'll add a few furniture by the end of the week-" but Curtis cut her off before she could finish her sentence "I'll keep it as it is, It will be good for me, see how my ancestors thought of things," he said firmly.

"It doesn't matter in the end, I don't want to change things only to leave as soon as I changed it." he thought. Getting out of the manor, he bade Sally and Edna farewell as he needed to get his personal effects back from Hjilmar's home, and while walking back, he needed to start making plans on how to get home.

Time was of the essence. The longer he delayed, the easiest it was for him to get caught. He didn't want to put off his homecoming any longer.