Berserk: The Prophet

Trunks: "..." "...I hope so."

Trunks remained silent for a while, then looked out the window again into the distance. The situation within Barkley was not peaceful either. Although he did not want to break his oath of loyalty to the Barkley royal family, the current situation was very tense. The long-standing civil war had caused the dukes, ministers and lords to secretly amass power. There was an undercurrent of tension, and he was afraid that once the old king passed away, those people would start to make trouble.

Seranty's eyes dimmed slightly, both lost in their own thoughts. Until one of them spoke, Trunks suddenly smiled wistfully.

"I still miss the days when we went on adventures together."

"...Yes, I am still very grateful to you. That period was the happiest time of my life." Serant felt a little guilty. He was always so unwilling to trust anyone, and even Trunks was kept in the dark.

Seranti was lost in memories, a dark past.

............

I was born into a noble family in the Lion Realm, but it was more like a prison than a home, a tower filled with desire and greed.

His mother was a noble Noldor elf, whom that man had acquired at a high price through auction... His status as a bastard child, and the fact that he had mixed elven blood, meant that he was destined to be unblessed from birth.

That man might just be looking for something new, raising her up to auction off.

Seranti lived with his mother in the tower, raised by a wet nurse from a young age. When he was three, he climbed out of curiosity onto his mother's bed, which was filled with shackles and chains, when the maids in the tower were not around. He was nearly strangled to death by his birth mother. She screamed weakly, her eyes filled with a mixture of anger and sorrow. Her sharp teeth had been pulled out and her tongue had been cut off. Only a few simple notes and screams could be heard from her throat. She looked like she was in great pain, perhaps because she still had a last shred of... a mother's reluctance.

She roared and kicked Seranti, whose face was purplish-red from being pinched, to the ground. The wet nurse, who rushed over upon hearing the commotion, picked him up, and little Seranti burst into tears. Perhaps because he was a half-elf, he actually understood the emotions emanating from his mother. From that day on, Seranti began to vaguely remember things.

From that day on, Seranti was locked in an iron cage and only released at fixed times. A man could often be seen coming to her mother's room, and she would always scream angrily until the man left.

"...Don't give her any medicine this week. I have some important matters to discuss with the earls of the Raven Realm next week," the man instructed the maid who came every day to force-feed his mother soup.

"Okay sir."

The door slowly closed, and Seranti looked at his mother on the bed with a puzzled expression. At this time, he didn't even know what medicine was. Seranti's mother also saw him squatting in the cage looking at her. She glared at Seranti angrily and turned over.

In the days that followed, I only remember that there was a lot of noise below the castle, as if the banquet had just ended. Several strange men followed the father that the nanny had mentioned to my mother's room. During these days, my mother seemed to be in much better condition than before when she was weak and powerless.

"She's absolutely gorgeous!"

"Yeah, tsk tsk."

"Akas, are you really going to share this with us?"

"Of course, it's just the trade agreement between our kingdom..."

"Haha, no problem, no problem, I'll definitely do it. It's the first time I've ever seen such a beautiful elf..."

A long and difficult night...

Seranti witnessed all of this firsthand. The emotions emanating from his mother made him feel deeply oppressed. His pointed little ears drooped, and he curled up in the cage, hugging his tiny self. For the first time, he felt fear, unease, and a sadness that came from nowhere.

Clearly, the group noticed Seranti, who was locked in a cage.

"Haha, is this a little mixed-race child?"

"...Just a product, it's too young now, let's raise it a bit more." The man called 'Father' spoke coldly.

"Hmm, he's already got a pretty face at such a young age. It's just a pity I probably won't be able to wait until he grows up to have a taste of his good looks, hahaha."

"Hahaha..." The men around him laughed, and the so-called 'father' sneered disdainfully.

Cold-blooded and ruthless...

Perhaps because he had human blood mixed in, Seranti grew to be the same size as human children of the same age.

After that night, every time the man came to the room, he would beat his mother. Whenever the man came, you could hear his mother's painful whimpers and screams. His mother was even thinner than she had been five years ago because she refused to eat. She no longer needed to be given medicine to make her weak. She had completely given up resisting. Seranti could sense that she wanted to starve herself to death. She didn't want to live anymore, just like a withered doll.

Perhaps after passing some test within the Knights, his 'father' began teaching him swordsmanship, archery, and horseback riding, all taught by others who did not have a castle. As the scholars had predicted, Seranti learned quickly. Whenever he reached a certain level, his so-called 'father' would pat the top of his golden hair, and when he was dissatisfied, he would punch and kick him. While beating him, he would often say that he looked a lot like his mother.

Soon, they were no longer satisfied with testing Thranduil's martial arts skills. They began to teach Thranduil to read and test him on the knowledge points in each book. It was clear that Thranduil could answer the questions on each page almost perfectly after only reading them once, which made the knights' scholars gasp. However, the scholars obviously just wanted to continue to observe and adopt Thranduil's understanding of those poems and books.

Seranti would excitedly show off to his mother every time he learned something new. He no longer shared a room with his mother, and although she never gave him a friendly look when he visited, his efforts were clearly having some effect; at least she didn't seem to dislike him as much anymore.

However, it was clear that someone was dissatisfied with 'Father's' care for him. A boy carrying a sword barged into the world of Seranthi and demanded a duel. Having carefully studied the meaning of duels, he naturally understood what it meant. It was a battle with life as the stake. He almost accidentally killed the boy. This scene was witnessed by 'Father', the previous Grand Duke of Longlake Town in the Lion's Realm—Arkas.

"What are you doing? You beast!"

After checking on his son, Arkas slapped Thranduil hard across the face and kicked him away, sending him flying. Thranduil couldn't get up for a long time. He couldn't understand why his father had beaten him without knowing the details of the incident. It was a sign of favoritism towards the other child.

Because he had almost killed his heir, Seranti suffered nearly half a month of whipping in the dungeon and entered the darkest period of his life.