"Who are you, claimer of the last name Note?" Headmaster Kaiser's vice rang through his office, as the rain continued to pour, making a rattling noise every time it hit the translucent glass that the room was surrounded by.
My face remained unfazed, yet my mind aggravated over the fact that this topic got brought up so soon. The fact that they caught on so quick, would now place a severe shadow of doubt over him, for as long as he would stay at this school.
I take a slight moment to myself before replying. "What do you mean by that, headmaster Kaiser? It's just my last name. Is there a problem with it?
The headmaster proceeds to stare at me sternly, whilst folding his arms beneath his face for support. Actually, there is. But that's not the only problem. The fact is, your whole existence is a problem and a mystery, a long and continuous blank that needs filling in. So let me ask you again. Who are you, bearer of the last name Note?"
"Gryph Note. That is who I am sir. I am nothing more and nothing less."
"So, you're going to pretend you don't know anything, or maybe you don't. But that doesn't matter, as this conversation will define your statement. So, let's start this investigation. When I looked into your student file, after hearing you arrived late to the opening ceremony and caused a ruckus, I started wondering which of the prestigious families you belonged to that made you think you could just enter the ceremony like that, yet I was met with an inconclusive blank. There are no records on you, your family or your existence. The only thing I've been able to find out, is that you lived right at the very edges of the Kingdom, isolated in a shack deep in the forest. No family, no friends, no loved ones either. But a kid can't live by himself from the day he was born. So let me ask you, who did you live with before coming here?"
I gaze back into his eyes, that peered deep inside mine determining any factors that I may possibly be giving away, during this investigation. I sigh, then proceed to fold my arms. "As you have already said, I lived alone in a shack in the forest. That would also be the reason why I have no records on me. As for who I lived with, well, I lived alone, that's all I have ever remembered. It was just me and the wilderness, nothing more nothing less."
The headmaster turned to me in a mocking way, clearly not believing what I had said and continues pressuring me with another question. "So, you're telling me, since you were an infant, you have lived all by yourself. Bullshit! You'd be dead after the first day."
I swiftly and coldly reply, " I said that being by myself is all that I can remember. I have never claimed to have lived alone since I was an infant. My memory doesn't span all the way back to when I was still a kid. At best, my memory extends only as far as the age of seven, and that point I had been hunting and cooking for myself as well as taking care for myself."
Headmaster then asks, seeming to slowly believe me but still having hints of uncertainty, "Ok then, let me ask you this. How did you know your name or your last name if your memory only extends to the time that you were already by yourself. Nobody else would be calling out your name. So how?"
"My name, Gryph, was something that always remained with me for as long as I remember, as for my last name, well, I heard it get throw around when I would occasionally visit small towns, saying that a great man with the last name Note perished. So, I thought it'd be okay to claim his last name as mine."
Whilst I spoke of this man with the last name Note, the same as mine, images began playing in my head like an old cassette tape, with a man whose face remained blurred but his smile still retaining its visibility and glow even after all these years, becoming impossible to erase.
The man crouched down, in front of a smaller me, extending his long arms with an open palm.
"Gryph."
The man spoke in a gentle tone with a beaming smile on his face. Then a scene of the man teaching me how to cook.
"Gryph!" Raising his voice in a concerned tone, still with a big, kind smile on his face.
Finally, the image of the man's head spinning through the air of their shack, detached from the rest of his body with blood dashing from his neck, as his head falls to the ground and rolls to me, once more retaining his warm smile.
"Gryph."
My hands tightened into a fist underneath the desk, yet my face remained calm, trying to hold onto his poker face that was unreadable, the one that never reached anyone and never told anything.
Headmaster Kaiser finally spoke up. "Is that so, student Gryph? Hmmm. Last question. Why did you enter the school. We know how you entered, but we want to know why?"
"Isn't it like everyone else. To become a great hero and personally, to live up to the name of the great man that perished. This is why." My face now slightly crumbled, letting emotion slip through. With the last words that I uttered; more scenes of that man flooded my mind. Scenes of us sparring, laughing, scenes of us playing, scenes of the man crying alone in his room whist drinking liquor while I peeked at him through the crevice in the door, and a final scene of the man consulting a smaller me. "Hey, Gryph. Do you think what I'm doing now will ever atone for everything I did? Will this make it up? No. Of course it won't. But at least after destroying and killing so many things. Maybe, just maybe, my efforts will sprout, and I will give life. Hopefully, I can give that to you, Gryph. I will place my own life on the line, to protect you. After all, YOU, are my everything."
I bite my lip as I try to smile at the headmaster, but tears began welling in, my eyes. I attempt to recompose myself and look back at the headmaster with that same poker face that I had used throughout this conversation, but I struggled. All whilst the headmasters face remained the same, lacking any sympathy.
"Well then, student Gryph. As there is now emblem that allows us to know if you are telling the truth, it will be mandatory for you to be detained for the next week while me and the teachers discuss what to do with you and if we choose to believe you. This situation may have to be even assessed by the Five Grand Pillars of Alfheim. Until then, guards. Take him to the cells held under this tower. Also, see if you can get anything else out of him. It doesn't matter what methods you use as long as you don't kill him unless you are given the order to."
With that, the guards cuffed my hands once more and escorted me down, whilst my head hung low and a lone tear hit the cold, obsidian floor. I would now be taken to the cells for the next week and will most likely be tortured. But for you. For you I will hang on.
Father.