Chapter 4: The hero and the shadow 1

A year has passed, and I am now 4 years old. During the past year, all we did was study and study some more, with a short time to play. Not that it's a bad thing but Leon would always complain and throw a fit. Our tutor would always compliment me, it made Leon sulk sometimes and I could feel that he started to resent me. I don't want our relationship to be strained, after all, we're family. So I tried to teach him some of the words, and tricks on remembering them.

Spring comes, yet the snow is as thick as ever. Today we are allowed to play outside, with guards of course.

"Leon, slow down!" I chased after him, running in the snow while carrying one of the history books from Mondstadt.

"You're so slow, Leo!" He stopped, took a handful of snow from the ground, and threw it at me. 

"Hey! That's not fair!" I grumbled while using the book as a shield.

"You bookworm! Leave that book and come play!" He threw more snow at me. He kept throwing them until I decided to ditch the book and lunged at him.

"That's it, you're going down!" I tried to tackle him but failed in the process and dove straight to the snow-covered road.

"Try it loser!" He provoked while playing with a snowball, throwing it up and down from his hands. I tried to throw snow at him, but no matter how much I threw, he always dodged them.

"Can't hit me!" He provoked again while sticking out his tongue.

'Then let's play rough.' I thought to myself.

Forming a few snowballs in my hand, I threw it at him but nothing still hits. He started to dance while sticking out his tongue, not knowing I was leading him closer.

"Rahhh!" When he was close enough, I once again lunged at him full force, this time around I successfully tackled him. "Got you!" I screamed.

"Young Masters!" The guards screamed. I unknowingly lunged at him near a slope and we started rolling down.

"AHHHH!"

"AHHHH!"

We both screamed, our bodies hitting a few rocks on the way down. We lay on the ground panting, a few bruises visible on our arms and legs.

"Haha... hahahahaha"

"Hahahaha"

We both laughed, for once we had fun. The guards then rushed, checking up on us before taking us back to the house.

****************

When we got back, we were scolded by the maids, and Papa didn't let us out of the house for days. Leon with all his unlimited amount of energy, did nothing but run around the house. While I started burying myself in reading books. I'm still not good at writing, but I can at least read faster than Leon.

The books contained little to no important information, most of it was things I already knew, while some were just useless information like 'How to not get scammed', 'How to make anyone like you', 'How to be desired by both men and women', and the most shameless one of all is 'How to seduce a god'. The guy who wrote this must be fearless considering there are multiple gods in this world, and why would you even let this book near a kid?

I spent most of my days judging the contents of every book, trying to find any hidden meaning behind them. In "his" memories, some fairytale books on Genshin have deep lore. I'm trying my luck to find one, but it looks like I just wasted my time.

As I got tired of reading these unholy books, Leon suddenly appeared and dragged me out of the room.

"Hey!" I protested.

"Leo, you like books right? I want to try reading one, is there anything fun to read?" His sudden eagerness to read shocked me; he was never interested in books or studying in particular, so what's the change of heart?

"Did you eat something bad?" I asked with concern.

"What?! No! Is it bad if I want to read!" He reasoned. I gave him a suspicious look as if trying to probe his real intentions. He started to squirm and couldn't keep his eyes on me. Truly suspicious.

"Fine! Fine! I want to impress Papa." He answered honestly.

"I... see...." It was all I could think to say. To be honest, Papa has not been paying attention to us lately. He seems more distant since last year. We tried to meet him a couple of times, but he always said he was busy and sent us back. I want to believe that he was just busy and not ignoring us.

I took Leon to the library where most of the books in the house are stored. We roamed around for a while as I asked Leon if one of the books peaked his interest.

"Hmmmm, Nothing seems fun to read. Leo! You chose one for me!" Looks like he gave up. Alas, my brother is not so bright. I decided to give him multiple books, one that teaches basic math, the language of the world, and finally, about elements. We spent 30 minutes reading in the library before his patience ran out.

"Ahhhh, this is so boring!" He grumbled. I ignored him and continued reading my book.

"Leo let's play."

"Leon, I thought you wanted to read?" I questioned

"You've been reading since early this morning, come play with me." He said

"Don't try to change the topic." I frowned and gave him a scrutinizing look.

"Tsk." He clicked his tongue and walked off.

"You forgot your books!" I called.

"Don't need them!"

****************

A young boy strolled around the big mansion, his eyes darting from one place to another.

"Leo, he's so boring." He grumbled after putting his hands on the back of his head. He roamed around without any purpose. Soon, he found two maids cleaning the windows of the mansion and decided to have some fun for himself.

"Let's play a prank, hehe." Slowly sneaking up behind them without any noise, his eyes landed on their pockets. He came very close to them, and slowly put his hands in their pockets, taking out a pouch of mora. He then quickly retreated and hid in his room.

"Mission success!" He said, raising the two pouches like a trophy. In the room, there's a small chest with a few valuables inside. He opens it and hides the pouches of mora inside. 

He then lay in his bed, bathing in the glory of his successful thievery. Not long after, his eyes started to get heavy, and drifted into slumber.

He slowly opened his eyes, and he sat up while scratching his eyes. Leon let out low grunts after standing up. "Where's Leo..." He slowly walked into the door but caught something in the corner of his eyes. Approaching his small chest he realized it was open and empty.

"Where's my treasure!!!" He screamed and a few guards and maids heard it while chuckling. 

"Leo! My treasure is gone!" He started running towards the library trying to find Leo. The doors opened, and he started roaming around trying to find where Leo might be.

"Leo! Leo! Something bad happened!" He kept calling for his name but received no reply.

"Looks like Leo is not here." He turned back and planned to search for him in the garden.

"Hmm?" A certain book caught his attention, its cover has a knight riding a horse while carrying a spear, and behind him is a man with a long robe, their backs turned against each other, as if they're watching each others back. He approached the book and read the title.

"The Hero and the Shadow." He opened the book and was mesmerized of its contents. Inside he read the most interesting book of his life. Inside is a story of a man who shouldered the heroes burden, he guided the hero towards victory, he has slain his enemies and saved many lives even if no one acknowledged him. Paired with colorful pictures, the book has left a deep impression on Leonheart. "Wow!"