Levi

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Levi: Levi is a fair-skinned eight-year-old boy with flushed knuckles, elbows, and knees. His dark green hair is slightly tousled, with untamed waves and a carefree fringe that sweeps across his forehead. Bright, expressive green eyes glint with playful mischief, and his wide, infectious grin reflects his spirited approach to life. Chalk dust clings to his fingers—he eagerly volunteers for blackboard work and keeps a crumbled stash in his pockets, ready to coat his hands whenever rope drills or wood-chopping tasks arise.

Levi’s dressed in a dark brown short-sleeved shirt, the cuffs casually rolled inward, paired with green shorts secured by a black belt. Chalk dust clings to the edges of his pockets, pale from the crumbled pieces he stashes inside. His shirt collar hangs loosely, the undone ties offering a teasing glimpse of his collarbone. Thick green wool socks stretch up to his calves, and his unlaced boots—slightly too big—threaten to slip off whenever he sprints too hard.

Levi is one of six executioner apprentices in the government’s trade guild, training alongside his peers in a classroom built into the fortified walls encircling the royal garden—mere steps from the private execution scaffold and the prison cells. Their mornings begin with laps around the garden, mirroring the guards’ rigorous drills, before shifting to lessons in anatomy and execution methods: calculating the precise force needed to snap a neck based on body weight, or mapping the optimal angles for a clean decapitation. Evenings are spent scrubbing the classroom’s stone floors, stacking desks, and retreating to their prison quarters, where they sleep in triple-tiered bunks crammed into a room with a splintered, broken door.

Levi, the bastard child of a courtesan, grew up in a brothel steeped in the cloying haze of incense and resinous perfumes—so potent they dulled his sense of smell. Years of narcotics left him guileless and prone to reckless impulses. Desperate for his mother’s affection, he obeyed without question, even selling his own body to line her pockets. His mouth, in particular, became a favored indulgence among garrison men. Then his mother was hanged for prostitution—her death unfolding before Levi’s bewildered, childlike gaze—some soldiers, amused by his ignorance, mockingly offered him a way out: study to become an executioner instead.

Levi still maintains the best rapport with the guards, occasionally engaging in casual conversation or oral favors when asked. He bristles when the other apprentices tease him about having "cock-breath" taking their jabs literally when they're really mocking him for being the teacher's favorite. Deep down, Levi craves the teacher's approval—though he lacks the physical prowess or technical skill of his peers, his theoretical knowledge is unmatched, retaining even the most trivial details. He'd willingly hang himself if it meant earning praise. Some days, he struggles to sit properly after particularly rough encounters with overzealous soldiers, but he clings to his mother's advice: Just don't let them ruin your pretty face.

With the sheer number of apprentices and only two positions available—successor and assistant—the students were coldly informed that the rest would face execution by year’s end.

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Relationships: Reuven uses Levi as a punching bag—shoving, striking, and berating him without restraint. Levi learned to fall silent in his presence, instinctively cowering as if Reuven were one of the brothel's violent patrons rather than a fellow apprentice. Desperate for approval, Levi once knelt to service him unprompted—an offer met with a savage beating that left him sobbing in his own urine. The nickname "cocksucker" clung to him like a brand afterward. Ever since Reuven was imprisoned for botching the public execution he was assigned to oversee as executioner, Levi has visited him on weekends—after his own shift—to bring him dinner: a simple onion soup.

Yehuda shares a desk with Levi—his first and only friend. Though Yehuda brushes off his chatter with dismissive silence, Levi clings to him with desperate devotion, pestering him for games between lessons.

To Levi, Shimon is classroom royalty—the effortlessly perfect noble’s son who commands silent obedience. He’s the unspoken second-in-command, yet every smirk from him ignites Levi’s need to preen harder, to be noticed more by their teacher.

Gad becomes Levi's constant companion beyond classroom walls - splitting firewood in the forest, trading jokes between axe swings. Of all their peers, it's Gad's clumsy warmth that stirs something unfamiliar in Levi's chest. He recognizes his own awkwardness mirrored in Gad's easy laughter.

Levi and Issachar exist in mutual indifference. While Levi obsesses over classroom performance, Issachar skips lessons to sprint through the courtyard or assist his father—the kingdom's chief executioner—in testing rope tension on the gallows before each hanging. Needy, Egocentric, Exhibitionist, Energetic, Playful, Social butterfly, Approval-seeking