Hearing Allen's simple, unpretentious answer, Roland understood completely.
The down-on-his-luck scion of a noble family, adrift in a foreign land and hiding his name while searching for opportunity. Or perhaps a young man from a fallen house, forced to venture out and make his own way...
Such stories were not uncommon in any era, on any continent.
An unexpected voyage, a long overland migration, a decision to travel far from home for the sake of survival or an ideal—any one of these was enough for a bloodline to take root in a strange new land.
Perhaps this was the very reason the bloodline of the Collins family had appeared a thousand years later, on a distant continent, in the Golden Valley Kingdom.
The long journeys of ancestors and the turning points of destiny often began with a choice that seemed accidental, yet was utterly inevitable.
With this in mind, Roland spoke directly.
