Long ago, before Hideki was even born, his great-great-grandfather Jun was a mage from Bellum who was born with immense magical ability. Unfortunately, his ego got to the better of him, and he believed himself to be untouchable. Despite the best efforts of those around him, Jun failed to lower his pride and eventually disparaged the life's work of another talented spellcaster who had revered him. He was so struck with heartbreak that he took his own life by jumping off a magic tower in Memoria, Bellum's largest city. When his blood soaked into the marble, it interacted unexpectedly with the magic of the tower that had rested in the city for decades. From his last dying wish was borne a curse upon Jun, which would later be inherited by his descendants. Jun was doomed to be an "emperor," a ruler of his own ego who would cause catastrophic failure to all countries or nations under his jurisdiction. This would eventually translate to all of his allies and friends leaving him. Worn down and unwilling to perform magic lest it be recognized as his own and he be shunned once more, Jun left the country. Even though Bellum was his homeland and such a nucleus of magic, he felt weighed down by the guilt but more so his inability to succeed due to the heavy repercussions the curse was rendering on his life.
In Desierto, Jun found himself at peace despite the scorching heat of the rolling sands and the lack of other mages. In fact, the lack of magic and acceptance of it made him feel more secure in a strange way. If barely anyone revered magic in Desierto, he would never feel compelled to use his immense magic power. Eventually, Jun found a wonderful partner. They were never wealthy and always barely subsisted. However, as nomads they roamed across the sand dunes and concealed themselves from others' sight. This would not be enough for his partner, as they eventually convinced Jun to find some way to make more money when their newborn daughter fell ill and needed treatment. It was a disease commonly known but only happened to poorer individuals who were unable to afford fresh fruit. Jun's partner felt compelled to try to protect their daughter, and Jun agreed that he needed to make a change.
He tinkered with the curse that the other mage had unknowingly afflicted upon him. Truly, it was a testament to his own ego and the other's magical power fueling that ego which allowed him to mess with another mage's dying will. Jun eventually discovered that as long as he believed himself to be the best essentially and also allowed his ego to wreak havoc upon at least someone else, then he could achieve incredible success. With this power of the "sands of time," Jun learned to control the flow of time and space in order to manufacture gold, jewels, and power at the expense of other people as long as those people were considered to be under his jurisdiction or mini "country" affiliation. Having turned this curse around, his narcissistic tendencies were fueled even more, leading to his partner eventually leaving him along with their daughter. Jun could never realize what he had lost. Remaining alive, he gambled the black markets and made a wealthy profit by sacrificing others' well-being and safety. Despite the years droning on and on, Jun stole away the lifespan of others using a hidden technique that banked on the effects of his own curse. Eventually, he met his own descendant later on.
Hideki had lived in Desierto his whole life and was only one inheritor of a line of mages who had lived with the bloodline of Jun's original curse. However, up until him, none of them had been born with enough of a capacity for egocentricism to be affected by the prideful and catastrophic full effects of the curse. The majority of them were only born with the inherited magical power which was something of a rarity in Desierto. Hideki, on the other hand, was even a bit more unordinary. His magical potential was greater than his siblings, his father and aunts, his grandfather, and his great-grandmother. Fueled by his ego and lust for great power and wealth, he neglected his physical prowess to the point where the curse leeched onto him, stealing away his bodily efficiency and manipulating him into becoming obsessed with becoming wealthier and magically stronger. His hunt for magical power eventually took him away from the nomad sand dunes of the nation and to the largest city, Alwarda. There he found his great-great-grandfather by something like coincidence. The two both were like flies to honey the way they scrambled for any money. Naturally, that ended up with Hideki involved in the black market that his great-great-grandfather still had heavy control of. Once Jun recognized his descendant, he felt threatened by the broiling power within the young man and cast him out of Desierto using connections and pure magical superiority. He also stole much of Hideki's era and left his magic and body feeble.
Though he found himself in the poor country of Joya, Hideki did not spend much time there aside from becoming a bit acclimated to the culture and flow of money. He originally aimed to travel to Minstrel, but found himself instead moving through Stella and Bosco on journeys that he undertook at the request of his father. He wanted Hideki to do a bit of soul searching and also believed that it might do his son some good to understand other cultures with firsthand knowledge and experience. Hideki was never a filial son, but he also knew that returning to Desierto without first finding a way of concealment or at least becoming magically stronger would probably mean death at the hands of his own ancestor. He spent some years in other nations, even Iceberg, and developed his magic more.
