Kaiden actually wondered about the things his father had said earlier this week. He already had an idea that some parts of Gideon's documents were forged for his own safety. Such as his race being written as Half-Demon only because births of Angels need to be supervised in any case Matthew uses this as an opportunity to raise an army.
"That would make sense" he mumbled to himself as he recalled the last time he hung out with Gideon to the South of the Capital.
Gideon came to the orphanage at the age of Six turning Seven. Aunt Valerie was actually surprised when one of the adults that worked there came back from their vacation with a child. Valerie demanded to know the reason because the southern capital is a very far location here that requires teleportation magic or else it'll take you several days by boat.
"Surely there are orphanages there! Why did you have to bring this child here?" Valerie left kaiden's side for a moment and checked up on the child being carried by the staff. She noticed the child had several bruise marks and was extremely thin.
"Nobody knows who he is and where he's from but all I heard from the other people there is that this child would steal food and that's why some of the owners would beat him up"
Valerie took pity on the child and asked why he was still asleep. The staff explained that they casted a sleeping spell and would only wake him up when they're going to tend to his needs because he had sea sickness.
"Aunty" Kaiden walks up to Valerie and tugs on her uniform.
"Oh Kaiden, Aunty needs to help this little boy first. Can you wait for me?"
Kaiden blinks at his aunt and looks at the boy that was sleeping in the arms of the other person. His eyes sparkled because he could sense that this person was like him. But he noticed the bruises on his neck, arms, and legs. Who knew if he had more under those rags he wore as clothes?
"A-Aunty" Kaiden calls out teary eyed.
"Kaiden! Why are you suddenly crying?"
"He has lots of booboos wuwu can Kaiden help?"
Valerie sighed and patted Kaiden's head. This child really took after Gabriella even though she's no longer here. She smiled telling him that she'll take care of him and that he could just wait for him to wake up. Fortunately for Gideon, Kaiden was stubborn. He said "No" and went straight to the sleeping child and held out his hand.
He managed to heal himself one time when he scraped his knee while he was playing with the other kids. Maybe he could do it again..
Maybe-
Gideon shifted uncomfortably in his sleep and the two adults were about to stop Kaiden with whatever he was doing but they noticed that the bruises on Gideon began to fade away. Valerie saw her fair share of Kaiden's powers and they're all destructive. This was the first time she saw him do healing magic. Sweat began to bead up on Kaiden's forehead and he felt a little weak so he stopped. He stumbled a little bit but Valerie managed to catch him.
Kaiden woke up and saw that he was in the infirmary. He turned his head and saw in the other bed was the child sitting up while looking out the window. His clothes were changed and he no longer had bruises on his neck but he still had some bruises on his hands and face. He felt a little upset that he wasn't able to heal him up completely but he was a little glad that he helped his aunty in some way. When he sat up, the bed made noise and it startled the other kid and immediately he held up his arms in a defensive position. Kaiden was surprised and blinked in confusion.
"Why are you scared?"
The child did not respond and still watched Kaiden's every move.
"I won't hurt you, I promise! I'm Kaiden, what's your name?" Kaiden smiled brightly and it seemed like this tactic worked because the child lowered his hands.
"Gideon"
"Does Gideon feel better now?" Gideon was hesitant to answer this question because he didn't know the intention but he still nodded. Kaiden was pleased with this.
"Yay! I did it!" Kaiden exclaims and proceeds to tell him that he tried to heal him even though Valerie said he should wait until Gideon woke up.
The entire time Gideon was just surprised to know that this kid helped him even though he was a total stranger.
Gideon didn't really cooperate that much with anyone besides Kaiden and the other adult who fed him food. When Kaiden's weekly checkup with Lianna happened, that's when everyone discovered that Gideon was also Half-Angel.
At first he was scared and took a pen as a weapon from everyone else but Kaiden revealed to him that he was also the same. Gideon was hesitant but this person healed up his wounds. He noticed that some of his scars also disappeared and it must be the work of this Kaiden kid. Since then he stuck with Kaiden and they became close friends.
Kaiden sighed as he remembered their childhood and indeed Gideon's background was mysterious. Even the fact he had a total personality change when he hit his head. Regardless, it did make Gideon more likeable and trustworthy. Whatever past Gideon had must have been terrible for him to be on guard constantly. Maybe it was for the best that he did forget that.
Still, it did make him curious on how one would easily forget everything. Yes he did get into an accident but won't he still feel any form of familiarity?
"Well I'll just find out about that one day"
.
.
.
"Happy birthday Gideon!" Theodora says out loud in their video call.
She tried to call Stephen earlier so that she could greet him as soon as 12 am struck but she was sent out by Kassandra to scout the area. So she ended up calling him around afternoon already. Stephen took the day off so he could celebrate with Gideon.
"Thank you Aunty" Gideon smiled at Theodora and she just felt like her heart melted whenever she saw this boy smile.
"How I really wish I was there with you two but I'm still busy with work. But enough about me! What about you Gideon? You're twenty two now! Do you have anything you want?"
"Yeah. If you don't have one in mind right now, you can just tell me later" Stephen chimed in while he messed up Gideon's hair. Gideon only laughed and pushed away Stephen's hand.
"I'm not a kid anymore Steph"
"Well compared to us you're definitely a child" Stephen argues back and Theodora only laughed as she watched the two.
"I guess… I just want you to return soon, safe and sound" Gideon admits and he scratches his nose in embarrassment.
Theodora and Stephen were surprised but her features softened and now really wanted to run back just to hug this adorable child.
"I will Gideon and-" Theodora stops speaking and looks off camera and some mumbles could be heard but it was still hard to comprehend. Just based on her expression, it was not good news.
"I have to go, I'll call back when I'm free again. Till then please take care ok? Love you!" Theodora hung up the call before the two could reply. Only their reflection on the screen could be seen.
"It must be urgent" Gideon tried to cheer up the obviously upset Stephen.
"Yeah, I just hope that she'll be able to rest soon. Being in the front lines is tiring work"
"Have you been there?"
Stephen nods and explains that everyone had to be present during the war that happened around 20 years ago. They mostly focused on the monsters that Matthew suddenly brought with him while the Demons dealt with the other Angels.
Listening to this gave insight to Gideon because he never read the first book and only listened to his sister ramble about it. There was a lot of information that was slowly being filled in by the very characters that weren't even mentioned as much.
"I don't really want to talk about this Gideon since this day is supposed to be about you" Stephen had a grim expression but he still tried his best to smile.
Maybe those memories were bad.
"Ah yeah"
Honestly they keep repeating this same routine ever since he moved in with them. If one asked what he did in his past life during his birthday? He'd celebrate it with his younger sister by eating her favorite cake and taking a day off just to sleep. She'd cook him meals that were sometimes delicious and sometimes just edible. When he got thrown into this world, he had to act like a child but he never asked for anything as usual and would let everyone else do whatever they wanted. It's just that lately, he got more curious about the lore of this world so he got more chatty about it.
That being said…
Gideon realized there was someone who would message him at night asking him what he's doing but wouldn't reply again the moment he responds. That person has yet to greet him but Gideon only rolled his eyes.
Alexander however texted him "happy birthday". Besides him, Valerie also messaged him a photo saying happy birthday. There were several others as well who greeted him but these were the people whom he added back then but never spoke with one another. He texted them all a "thank you" and to his surprise the person he least expected to text greeted him.