For the ask game, 😕🧎♂️🎁, for Eldwin or whoever you want to answer for (I'm a few days late but these ask games are fun!)
Thank you for the ask! I'm enjoying them too, they are fun!
From this ask game
😕What’s their biggest regret?
Interesting. You would expect him to have a lot of regrets, and he does, but are they regrets he would take back if he had the chance?
I'd say he regrets making the pact. But he cannot regret keeping his family safe.
He regrets "letting" himself be sold to the Black Syndicate; but where would he be without them?
Maybe his regrets go further back. Looking back as an adult, he might regret not trying for a scholarship at the Academia. They don't typically do scholarships, either you can afford to learn or you don't - but they are unlikely to let a self-taught child run wild with a power that's dangerous to him and everyone around him. Back then he didn't realise how impressive it was to teach himself magic, even only one or two spells. He's never been an academic person so he didn't even consider that he could be good enough. He also never particularly liked the idea of the Academia, leaving home, being completely under the whim of the government, but again, hindsight is a wonderful thing. It probably would have been the better choice, after all.
🧎♀️If they could speak with their childhood self, what would they say?
He doesn't hold much empathy for his child-self. He's very strict with himself, always holding himself to the highest possible standards. Mistakes can not be forgiven, and his child-self is no exception.
However, if he actually let himself think about it, let himself feel the grief of a wasted youth, of innocence lost -- he would lament that he couldn't protect his childhood self or his inner child as he tried so hard to protect everyone else.
"I wish I could say it gets better. I wish I could say we made all the right choices... I'm sorry we turned out this way."
🎁What is something others are surprised to learn about this character?
Hmm. People are pretty surprised he has such a strong sense of justice. You know, it doesn't really fit with his job and all. But it's one reason he struggled to hold down a job, in the months between leaving home and being captured; there was always people looking down on others, always bosses taking advantage, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
On a lighter note, also the fact of where he was born. He dresses and acts as formally as the nobles he's always around, and even his accent -which was never particularly strong in the first place- has been deliberately replaced with a more... RP manner. (Received Pronunciation.)
Now, the thing about aristocratic types is somehow they always know whose faking it. They know you don't belong, so no matter how hard he tries Eldwin feels like a kid playing pretend. Like he can never be what he's supposed to be.
But fellow outsiders assume he is of a noble upbringing, and would be surprised to learn he is working-class.
(I like to think some of his original accent slips in when he's very frustrated or panicked.)
