"All right," Seto nodded. It was awkward, but...he did want to be understood.

"Like I said before, my mother died giving birth to my younger brother. If it's possible to die of a broken heart, my father died soon after. We were passed around from relative to relative who spent all the money they'd left us, then dumped us at an orphanage.

I knew going in that we had little hope of being adopted. Again, in my culture orphaned children are viewed as 'broken' or bad luck. I tried to prove my worth academically, but adoptions are mainly carried out by childless business owners looking for heirs. So that's who I found---and I tricked him into making a bet to adopt both of us, and won. It was the only way I was getting out with my brother, but I underestimated how difficult it would be.

He owned a war profiteering company and trained me to take it over---that meant I had to achieve perfection in academics and, more importantly, ruthlessness. I wasn't allowed leisure time or to see my brother. I was there to be molded, and any failures were punished harshly. Trust no one, and to lose is to die...those were his lessons for me."

He exhaled, folding his hands on the water's surface for a moment. That was the easy part. Harder topics came next.