The inheritor of the Hougetsu Clan legacy of faithful retainers of the daimyo. From a young age, Haruo and his brother were groomed into becoming servile bodyguards. They studied numerous texts and practiced under his father's watchful eye. Learning numerous martial arts and the way of the sword, along with a warrior’s etiquette and code of honor. At times it was hard as they practiced their swordsmanship in the middle of winter, sometimes from sunset to sunrise.

Haruo was growing up to be a great warrior. His sword skills had even surpassed his father's, and he was only fourteen years old. His younger brother always looked up to him since Haruo never boasted or belittled him for his lack of skill. He was strict, but thoughtful and caring unlike their father, who seemed to value their status more than his family. Haruo knew he had to respect him, but he was a brute when it came to their training, especially their brother. It was like he somehow was expecting more of him despite the fact Haruo was the eldest.

When Haruo turned fifteen, he was sent away to study under a new master that could polish his skills even further according to his father. He was saddened by not being able to see his brother and mother, but knew it was necessary for the improvement of his kenjutsu. When he arrived at the school. The first thing he was told to do was chores. Cooking, cleaning. This lasted for months as he saw the other students undergo training every day. When he asked when his training would start. He was met with disappointment when he was informed that he wasn't brought here to train at all but to be a servant. When he demanded an explanation, he was swiftly disciplined for his back talking.

Months of abuse from the teachers and students ended when he finally had enough and demonstrated that even without months of practice, his skill with the sword was still superb. As he was able to defeat several of them by himself before the school master kicked him out into the streets. He was hurt and hungry, but after weeks of traveling. He finally made it back home where one of his maids saw him and quickly took him in. Or so he thought, once he woke up. He found himself on the floor of a shed. He was confused, but too weak to get up. When the maid came back with a healer, Haruo was more confused than ever.

The maid still addressed him as a young master, showing how she still cared about him. And tearfully explained to him what had happened. Originally, his father couldn't conceive a child, so he adopted one that closely resembled him from a prostitute. It had been kept a secret for years. But when his father was able to sire a child on his own. He wanted to get rid of him right away to raise his proper heir instead of him, but given how he had already presented Haruo to the daimyo and the rest of the retainers, he couldn't do it so easily, until half a year ago where he was sent off with lies somewhere far away. Meanwhile, in his absence, his father fabricated the story of him having been assassinated by outlaws while on his way to his new school.

Haruo was speechless from the revelation he just heard, but he was about to learn the worst part. His brother, who had always idolized him, had passed recently. He went to train by himself next to the river, but there had been rumors about a monster showing up there. They never found a body, just bloodied pieces of clothing and his practice sword. A funeral had been held last week, and Haruo’s parents, or at least who he used to believe they were, had been secluded themselves in their state, mourning the loss of their heir.

Haruo was devastated, despite knowing they weren't related by blood anymore, losing his brother was too much. But his anger at his father still remained, so with even more determination, and against the maid's warnings, he showed up at his former home once more. There he found his mother, shocked from seeing him there, and was surprised once she yelled for help; she called him an intruder, and told him to leave since this wasn't his house anymore. After having listened to more hurtful comments from her calling her an impostor, he didn't feel so bad from knocking her out.

Silently, he made his way to his brother's room to retrieve his sword, when the partition was suddenly sliced open by his drunk father. He was so inebriated that he could barely recognize him, yet he blamed him for the death of his heir. And readied his sword to cut him down. The alcohol made his moves sloppy, but Haruo still didn't wanna face him. He went out the window and through the roof. It had started raining a couple hours prior to his Haruo's arrival. The tiled roof was slippery and Haruo had to be careful with his steps, but his father had followed him there, swinging his sword wildly at him, Haruo had no other opinion than to parry his attacks which knocked him out of balance and off the roof entirely. Next thing Haruo heard was a blood curdling scream from one of the other maids as she saw the corpse of the master of the house laying on top of a muddy puddle. Haruo lamented the outcome, but felt it was deserved. Suddenly another man yelled “murderer”, as he heard lots of footsteps approaching his location.

Haruo ran away from there, he ran away from his former home, from his town, from his brother's resting place. He was heartbroken for not being able to pay his respects, but he couldn't return, not now, not ever. He ended up stealing a horse from another thing he felt remorseful about. Traveling all night, until he reached the shore, he finally made it to a port town. He hid there for a couple of days and passed as a cook in training thanks to his previous experience while working as a servant for some months. While waiting for things to die down for a bit, he heard about a ship going to the silver continent in the west and it made him remember the times he and his brother would talk about what they'd like to do if they didn't have to train to become swordsmen all the time, the first thing his brother said was that he'd love to travel the world and see the many wonders it had to offer.

When he saw wanted posters a day later with a face similar to his, he packed what little belongings he had and he volunteered to do the extensive travel ahead of him towards the Silver continent. It was an exhausting month but he finally made it. During his travel, his cooking skills improved greatly thanks to the help of the cook on board the ship, to the point where Haruo became invested in cooking and finding out all kinds of different recipes on this foreign land.

“The Samurai Chef” that's how people came to know him through the years after he became an adventurer; all thanks to his graceful and impeccable swordsmanship and culinary skills, along with his honest and honorable behavior. He met Grant one time the two were tasked with dealing with a group of goblin bandits. After they were done with the task, they returned to the nearest town where Grant invited him to dine and drink with him at the nearest pub. When they found out the place was mostly desert due to the bandits, Grant was disappointed that they couldn't eat some good grub, but then Haruo stepped inside the place and told Grants he was going to use the kitchen and wipe them out with something quick with what he had.

Moments later a mouthwatering smell started emanating from the back of the place as Grant waited at the deserted bar area. Haruo exited the kitchen and brought back with him a simple dish, and Grant doubted it was the same thing he smelled earlier, but once he took a bite, he immediately told Haruo to marry him. Promoting the flustered swordsman to ask him to stop making such asinine jokes. But Grant's abundant charm was extremely contagious, his flirting lasted all night, and it led to them both spending the night at the deserted pub, their naked bodies still resting next to each other as the sun rays illuminated them. Ever since he arrived on this continent, he was surprised by how bold everyone seemed to be regarding such intimate encounters, and through the years, he assumed he would become accustomed to such daily debauchery, but sometimes, it still surprised him.

He had lost his innocence a long while ago, but the things Grant did to him that night let a lasting impression on him. Once he confessed that to him, Grant simply put his big arm around him, letting Haruo get a good whiff of his manly scent, and with a wide grin he told him he now was his male wife. Haruo felt embarrassed by the nonchalant yet honest comment from the hunky adventurer. He knew Grant had many lovers, and he refused to be part of his harem. He left earlier that day, but kept on thinking about him ever since.

A couple years later, Haruo met him again, but this time, he had actually accomplished his goal of forming a party of like-minded individuals searching for adventure while traveling across the globe. He had to admit to himself he wished to be part of that group despite the fact their beliefs clashed with his, but to his surprise Grant told him, he wanted him to join them on his travels since he couldn't start without his male wife's culinary skills. Telling him, he had wanted him to be his first party member but he left him back at the empty pub before he had the chance to tell him. Haruo felt a little ashamed about his actions. Ever since what happened to him during his childhood, he had become prone to running away whenever he did something he didn't know how to handle. Perhaps, this could also give him the sense of not being adrift in the world anymore. He finally accepted and joined his group of rascals.

He's known as the mother of the group and the party’s bride, always reminding everyone about not taking too many risks while on battle, and always bringing food snacks and extra healing potions and elixirs just in case anything goes south. Razz sees him as his main rival for Grant's affection, but also has a grand respect for his skills, to the point he has requested to have private cooking lessons from him. Lucian is always asking for cuddles from him and always telling how good he smells; Najid is always curious about his culture and Jai is always requesting for him whenever he needs to be patched up since knows he's the only competent one at doing so. Regardless of their needs, he's finally glad to be of service.

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Here's a new party member for Grant's ever growing group of adventurers. Adopted from DJ_JD27. Thank you again! 💜🪻