Son of Anastasia Assas and Jordan Atreus, was Damien.
Shortly after he was born, his mother, who had completely seduced his father, dumped the baby off to Jordan, leaving Damien alone as she left to take care of her actual family, who she'd kept secret.
Naturally, getting pregnant in the middle of a marriage with a child that was not your husband's, of course that caused even more tension to the relationship, leading to the divorce.
Damien wondered if his mother had another son. And if so, would they one day meet? Did that brother even know of Damien's existence?
Such answers, Damien thought, would most likely never be answered.
And at that, he left it.
He had no desire to try and turn a "no" into a "yes."
Up until now, he mostly lived, obeying his father. His dad wanted him to pursue sports, so he did so without question. And in fact, he was naturally talented at them, taking a particular interest in baseball.
His looks were quite good, his academics weren't bad, and while lacking a mother figure did make empathy skills harder, he did eventually pick himself back up and learn them well, and was determined to be the best he possibly could.
It was his life, after all. Why would he choose anything but the absolute best?
That aside, when he saw that woman, and when she introduced herself, she was met with—
"Oh. Okay."
Disinterest.
Though his father seemed to be madly in love with her, Damien didn't have any interest in his mom because he never saw her. If a new element is discovered, unless it is put into more products or if one is a big fan of chemistry, the average person won't care that much beyond "Oh, neat."
Such was the same view Damien held towards this woman.
"Oh, don't be like that!" His dad yelled joyfully. "She's finally come back! And she tells me it's for good this time, so I won't have to worry about her leaving again!"
"Naturally."
The woman finally spoke up, saying, "Actually, I do have matters to discuss with you, Damien. Would you be willing to talk to me? Alone?"
"Ah… Kay."
His dad seemed to be saddened, but his father quickly shot back up in terms of joyfulness. Damien and his mother went to another room, where she spoke to him gently.
"I have some news to bear."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"You… are a dragon. Usually, if someone is raised completely against their dragon's blood, it takes longer to explode. How about you? Are you much stronger than the average human?"
'What? Ah, crud, dad stuck his D in crazy… and not even the hot kinda crazy, the delusional-but-unappealing crazy. I bet she talks about the meanings behind the stars and would leave immediately after finding out I was a Gemini or whatever horoscope I am.'
However, at just the thought, it awakened.
Because he wasn't often one to imagine futile things, he never awakened his dragon's blood. Damien lived about as close to a "dragon" as one could without actually being one. He lived a proper, happy life, of improvement and making "the right choices."
This awakened his blood much easier than it would for someone who did not live such a good life.
"What the…"
"It's awakened. You are a dragonkin. Though you're only a few percent of dragon, you might as well be half due to the sheer potency of our kind's blood," she said with a genuine smile on her face. Adding to this,
"Shall I introduce you to the rest of the family?"
…
A family roadtrip later, Damien was met with a large manor. Upon entering, both him and his dad marveled at the beauty of the building. It was old, yet there was still a touch of modern elegance to it.
Further description would suck, as describing things is a pain.
All that's truly necessary to know was that it was a fancy mansion belonging to the Assas family.
Upon entering, he was met with a tall man of brown hair and pale skin. His build was average, nothing special, just the same as his face.
"Is this Damien?" The man asked. His mother nodded her head and waved her hand over to him, putting him on the spot to introduce himself.
"Ah, my name's Damien Atreus. And uh, wow, I didn't know my mom's family was so rich," he said.
"Yes, we are quite respected. I am Hiein Assas, it is a pleasure to meet you."
Damien shook the man's hand, feeling a strong grip. After that, those who currently resided in this Assas family mansion stepped out. Adding to Hiein, there was a woman with brown hair who reminded Damien of his mother, and another woman with blue eyes and brown hair.
"Ah! So this is my second brother!" Said the former woman. "I'm Alicia Assas, your half sister! We've got the same mama. I've wanted to talk with you for some time, but I thought it'd be kinda weird to just introduce myself! How old're ya, little brother?"
"Ah, I'm 16, how about y—wait, no, my bad," Damien said, remembering it was rude to ask a woman's age. She laughed and patted him on the back, saying, "that's the spirit! You'll make a lucky lady very happy one day!"
Damien laughed at that and turned to look at the other woman, one who seemed to be a bit dull emotionally, not laughing when it would have been acceptable to. "I am Clover Assas, nice to meet you, nephew."
'Dang, I got an aunt, too?'
'And on that, I've got a whole sister I never knew about. And she said second brother, so I'm assuming she's met my brother… wait, can I meet him too?'
"Hey Alicia, you said second brother, right? Can you tell me about him? He's kinda the only sibling I thought existed, so I was wondering if I could get into contact with him," he said with a dash of excitement. However, the man, Hiein, entered the discussion.
"Unfortunately, you cannot," he said in an overly stern voice which concerned Damien.
"What do you… is he okay?" Damien asked, confused and worried. Hiein shook his head, stating, "He is not one to meet. He is a traitor to the family."
'Traitor? What?'
"What'd he do?"
"He allied himself with the Graves family, who are the Dragons of Death. It's all very confusing, I know, but believe me when I say that he has betrayed this family," Hiein answered. Damien was taken aback, and met with a bit of sadness.
The one time he got to have a question from his childhood, even if an unrealistic one, properly answered, he was explicitly denied. If this was to be believed, then his brother was a bad guy.
"He's violated a great Taboo, and as a result, he's been marked with the Scent of a Traitor. You will be able to tell when he is nearby, and I advise you to get away from it as soon as possible," Hiein told him with great seriousness.
"I… I see, then. It's a shame…" Damien said, hanging his head down and biting his lip. It was then that he felt a tap on his shoulder, and when he turned around, he saw Alicia walking away from him, waving her hand towards herself.
Damien followed, allowing the adults to talk to each other while he talked to this woman who was also an adult. They entered a room, and she looked at him quite seriously.
"I understand what you might think of your brother. His name is Arthur, and he isn't as bad as that man made it sound," she told him. Damien's eyes widened slightly and he allowed her to continue.
"The truth is, Arthur was tricked into it. Of course, that still does count as betraying the family, but he didn't do it out of malicious intent or reasoning. It's just that everyone hates him because, indeed, he is a traitor."
Immediately, Damien's mind went to the idea of helping him.
"Then, can we do anything to get them to stop hating him? Do they know he was tricked?"
"They do. But that doesn't change much in their eyes. And about that first bit, I truly do not know. To protect your heart, it might be a good idea to give up and let them continue attacking him," she said with a frown.
"Why'd you tell me this, then?" He asked.
"Because I like Arthur. I didn't know him for too long, but he seemed to be a pretty alright guy. I didn't want you to let him die while believing he deserved it, it'd be disrespectful to him. In any case, this is just a big case of injustice, but the world's already filled with that stuff, so there's no use in trying to stop it."
Immediately, Damien clenched his fists, shaking his head.
"No, that's not right. Not at all. I've never met him, but he's my family, my genuine half-brother. I've never met these people before, but what I see right here is exactly as you describe; injustice. I won't let that happen, I don't believe we should just sit around and do nothing. That's what cowards do, and I refuse to be a coward!"
Such was his declaration. It was a worldview, a stance and a determination that was founded by living a fairly good human life. He'd never witnessed a large amount of injustice personally, though he wasn't foolish enough to refuse to believe it existed.
He could accept that injustice was common in the world, but he would do his best to make sure it would not affect anyone that he cared for, or anyone that he could spare of it.
That was simply who Damien Atreus was.
"I understand that, but—"
"No 'buts!' If you care for him, get off your ass and do what you can!"
"I have! I gave him a call one time to prepare for an attack from them, so…"
"But did you stop it? Agh, no, I'm not here to argue. I need to focus," he said, leaving the room. Alicia gave chase, yelling at him before he marched over to the dining room where they were all speaking to each other.
"SILENCE!" He roared, feeling particularly bold. This received the attention of everyone, who looked at him as he marched over.
"You, you all know that Arthur was tricked into it, right?" He said in a supremely authoritative voice. Each of them gave their answer as a "yes," with the exception of his dad who had zero clue as to what was happening.
"Then why do you hate him!? If he was tricked, can't you see that it wasn't his fault?! What's with you guys?!" He yelled. This led to Hiein standing up, going over to him and looking down on the boy who was still growing.
"Why do you raise your voice at us so?" He asked sternly.
"Because what I see is cowardice. Tell me, why do you despise him?"
"Because he's a traitor. Such is a Great Taboo among dragons. If the very world itself marks you as a Traitor, that should be indicative of evil."
"You talk like you care about good or evil. You made me think he was some super evil guy, but he was just tricked from what I've heard. That's bullshit and you know it."
"Do you intend on following his footsteps?"
It was a good question. And one in which Damien had a proper answer for.
"No. I've got no intention of abandoning my family, because he is apart of this family, whether you can see it or not. I lost interest in meeting him for most of my life, so I'm not doing this just because I care for him in particular. My reason for this is simply because you're all giving up on your family."
He continued.
"I've really only ever had my dad, and he raised me to know that family is important, he worked hard to care for me when I was younger and I'm entirely grateful for that. That's why I know that family isn't something you can just toss away because someone got tricked. He's still my brother, even if I've never met him. As long as I know he's not a bad person, I can trust in him and still want to bring him back."
"Do you believe you can bring him back?" Hiein asked, having listened and changed his tone to be a bit more calm.
"I know I can. Watch me, I'll bring him back and beat up whoever tricked him in the first place!"
That was his declaration of war.