Alright everyone, this is my take on how it was like when the Baskervilles first became a dukedom, the first child of misfortune, and how Glen became… well, Glen. There will be some characters that everyone knows and loves in the later chapters, but it honestly depends how people like the first few chapters. Also, there will be OCs in this, but all the concepts belong to Jun Mochizuki-sama. I own nothing except Alduin.

Enjoy!

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I don't think I've ever had a dream where I have felt so many emotions; excitement, calm, conflict, anxiousness, and above all, happiness. Nor have I had never had adream that was so full of softer but darker colors such as blues and violets. My dreams were always in black and white for some reason. The most abnormal thing about this dream wasn't the colors or the scenery that was blurry and didn't make a complete back round, but the young woman who stared up at me, calling my name with a smile, though I could not see her eyes because of the shadowing on her face. She was the only thing in black and white, which appealed to me even more.

Alduin! she had said over and over again. It was the only thing she would say. Her voice chimed in my ears like soft bells. It wasn't a voice I knew or recognized, but the sound of it drew me in in the least menacing possible.

I blinked in surprise. "Do I know you?" I had asked her in a shocked manner.

The young woman smiled up at me. Not now, but perhaps we will eventually. She said. Because... You are my protector, crusader, and my best friend.

I was taken back from what she had said. In my state of confusion, the young woman hugged me around the waist and buried her face in my vest. I leaned down to grab her hand when she pulled away. "Wait!" I had said. "It's pointless for me to be anything to anyone! I was born with red eyes so-" I was cut off as she turned back towards me, the smile that lured me in this across her face.

She reached up and pressed her hand lightly across my cheek, her thumb running lightly over one of my wine red eyes and through my semi-short jet black hair. I love your eyes, Alduin. They are beautiful. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

She pulled away again, this time, fading away into the back ground. Anxiousness arose in the pit of my stomach as I reached for her again. "Wait! At least tell me your name!"

The girl did not turn back around this time, but continued to disappear more with each step. My name is...
I woke up from the dream only to be surrounded by my room. I stared blankly at the ceiling, contemplating my peculiar dream.
It was a very peculiar dream indeed.

"How unlike me," I muttered as I positioned myself into a sitting up position. 'Perhaps I'm coming down with an illness?' I thought to myself while unbuttoning my sleeping shirt. "A mental illness more like," I answered myself.

I pushed myself off the bed, pulling off my shirt and laying it on the bed. I went over to the window and opened up the curtains. It was still dark outside, perhaps five o'clock or so. 'Good,' I thought as I went over to my dresser to find a box of matches and a candle. 'I don't have to deal with the maids dressing me.' Although my mother, older brother, Glen, and I were well off in our mansion, it still annoyed me when the maids would try and dress me or do things for me when I had told them countless times that I could do it on my own. For God's sake, I was a twenty-five year old man.

Besides, we hadn't always been this well off. We were once middle class, perhaps even part of the lower middle class.
The Baskerville family, my family, had only come into the dukedom a few years back. We had earned our position because of 'what we did' and the special abilities we had. The Baskervilles, as weird as it may sound, are known as 'the messengers of the Abyss'. The Abyss being another dimension other than the human world and where different life forms called "chains" lived.

Each chain looked different from the other, and they each had their own unique powers. People throughout history have always tried to make contracts with chains for whatever reason, perhaps to gain the chain's powers. It always ends the same; they are dragged into the Abyss where they cannot escape. Whatever their fate was, I wasn't sure of it myself.

The only successful research recorded was what my mother and brother had conducted. The Baskervilles were the only ones who were able to make contracts with chains and not get sucked into the Abyss. We accepted the Abyss's "light" and became its messengers. According to my mother and older brother Glen, in a way, we were like "the chosen ones".

I find the last part complete bullshit.

I struck the match and lit the wick of the candle, before lighting a few more candles after that. Turning away, I went over to my dresser and pulled out the first pair of black pants and button up shirt I could find. Dressing quickly, I went over to my fireplace where the embers were dying out. I took the sticks of charcoal that lay against the stone wall around the fireplace. I brought the charcoal over to the area where I had placed the candles, which I had placed by my wall beside the door. I ran my hand over the empty place on my white wall, then took a piece of charcoal in my hands and began to sketch on it.
Ever since the dream, I couldn't stop thinking of the girl. I pictured her clearly in my head as I began to sketch her on the solid white wall. I slowly sketched her hair, her dress, her smile, but stopped once I got to her eyes. Since I hadn't seen her eyes, I didn't bother with guessing what they looked like, so I began to give more detail to her.

I was so in tuned with the rhythm of my drawing, that I didn't even pay attention to how much time had passed by. That is, until I heard the teeth-grinding noise of my personal maid, Claudia, calling my name.

"Master Alduin, time to get up!" she said. I looked over at her, seeing her shocked eyes as she realized I wasn't still in bed. The woman's eyes scanned the room slowly, as if something were to jump out at her, but froze when her eyes met mine. I didn't bother standing up from my kneeling position, nor did I make any effort to move at all.

The woman's brown eyes widened before quickly coming into the room and staring with complete disbelief at my wall. "M-master Alduin!"

"Ah, yes, Ms. Claudia, good morning to you too." I said with a smile and closing my eyes, though I was being a bit sarcastic as well.

"W-what do you think you are doing?!"

"Isn't it obvious?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at her. "I'm sketching. I know you're getting old, but you think you would be able to see a picture."

"I am not getting old!" she exclaimed. "I am only twenty-five years old! But that's beside the point; you're sketching on the wall? Why not use paper? That'll take forever to clean off!"

"Perhaps I want it on here."

"Don't be absurd, sir!" she half-yelled. I pressed my index finger to my temple, trying to drown out her lecturing voice. Yes, perhaps it was childish of me, but sometimes she could be so annoying. "And besides," the brunette said while attempting to get me up from the floor. "Today is Lord Glen's last ceremony. After this, he'll become the new Head of the Baskerville clan. As his brother, you must attend."
I had to bite tongue to keep from talking back. I didn't want to go. I truly didn't. Not for any reason that you would think, but because the ceremonies felt weird, and almost cult-ish to me.

His ceremonies weren't like any other fifteenth-century ceremonies that you would expect. His were designed for him to make contracts with the Four Winged Angels, also known as the Black Winged chains. The Four Black Winged Angels, Raven, Dodo, Owl, and Gryphon, were the ones that were able to travel in and out of the Abyss and the human world freely from what we had found out over the many years of research.
Glen would inherit the final one today, Gryphon. It wasn't like I didn't want to go to support my older brother; it's just that the ceremonies made me feel sick. In order to make the contract with a chain, we would have to consume the blood of the chain, which always unnerved me ever since I saw Glen contract with Raven when he was nine. I was six at the time.

"And if I said I didn't want to go?" I asked, which I received a rare glare from the blonde.

"You are going, Master Alduin. Your mother has demanded it-"

"Jiri," I said in a flat tone. "I don't consider that woman my mother." Claudia's eyes softened as she looked down, understanding my reasoning. Long story short, Jiri hated me. I was, as she and everyone else called it, a 'Child of Misfortune' because I was born with red eyes. Apparently, being born with red eyes brought misfortune around me wherever I go, and it also symbolized that someone close to me, my brother Glen in this case, would become the next head of the family. At least that's what I've heard. So far, the misfortune part was correct. But of course, being among Baskervilles, who also had bad luck surround their lives, it wasn't as bad.

"Regardless," Claudia said as she went to my dresser and pulled out a white button up shirt and a black vest. "You are still his brother. Go. If not for... Lady Jiri, then for Lord Glen."

She stood in front of me, reaching up to quickly unbutton my shirt, but I grabbed her hand. "I can dress myself, Ms. Claudia."

"Ridiculous, Master Alduin. You are too spoiled to do anything yourself." I chuckled. She was getting bolder, though I don't blame her since we've known each other for a few years now. She was one of the only people in my life that wasn't afraid or shunned me. Her and Glen both. It was only natural that I could call her my "friend".
I took both her hands in one of mine and rapped my fingers around them. I keep forgetting how small she was compared to my six-foot-four self.

"Don't make me make you uncomfortable around me, Claudia. You are one of the very few people I like around here, and especially since you are one of the very few people who'll even come nearme."

She looked up at me with a challenging glare. "I've been your personal maid for three years, Alduin. There's nothing you can do to me that you haven't already done."

I smirked at her, and watched as her face pale, but her expression stayed the same. "Is that a dare, Ms. Claudia?"