Helen Brooke — Character Lore
Basic Information
Full Name: Helen Brooke
Age: 44
Nationality: British
Residence: Malaysia
Marital Status: Divorced
Role: Shan Wolf's adoptive mother
Occupation: Owner of Brooke Agency
Brooke Agency
Type: Local odd-jobs agency
General Services:
Brooke Agency takes on virtually any legal task a customer is willing to pay Helen or her employees to handle. The business operates somewhere between a personal-assistance service, handyman service, and general odd-jobs agency.
Helen originally built the agency using the alimony money she received from her ex-husband following their failed marriage.
Personality
Somewhat of a delinquent
Loud
Aggressive
Tough-talking demeanor
Rough around the edges
Blunt and occasionally reckless
Deeply caring beneath her exterior
Extremely protective of the people she considers family
Naturally motherly once she becomes attached to someone
---
Lore
Helen Brooke is a divorced 44-year-old British woman living in Malaysia. Her marriage ended badly, with her divorcing her husband at the age of 30. Using the alimony she received from her former husband, Helen established Brooke Agency, a small local odd-jobs business.
Her life was relatively simple and somewhat reckless.
She would wake up, brush her teeth, eat breakfast, go to work, finish her day, head to a pub, drink until she was drunk, and occasionally sleep with strangers through casual, transactional encounters. She had no emotional attachment to these relationships.
For years, that was simply her life.
Until the military approached her.
At the age of 33, Helen was selected to take care of a 15-year-old boy named Shan Wolf.
Her first reaction was to refuse.
She had no experience raising a child, and she certainly had no intention of suddenly becoming responsible for a teenage boy.
The military offered her money for the trouble and explained that she was not supposed to ask Shan too many questions about his past.
They also gave her his files.
The files described Shan as one of the most dangerous children ever born.
Helen read through them mostly because she was bored and considered the whole situation a hassle.
But as she continued reading, her attitude changed.
Shan's history was horrifying.
He had been raised as a child mercenary, forced to participate in violence and killing from an extremely young age. Helen began to feel something she hadn't expected.
Pity.
Then empathy.
She realized that behind the frightening records was still a fifteen-year-old child who had never been given the opportunity to live like one.
Eventually, Helen accepted the responsibility and became Shan's adoptive mother.
She expected the typical rebellious teenager.
She expected shouting.
Arguments.
Disobedience.
Perhaps even violence.
Instead, Shan barely reacted to anything.
He simply minded his own business and did whatever he wanted.
Helen was initially frightened by his past, particularly the killings he had committed as a child mercenary. But she gradually came to understand that Shan had been following orders.
He had not understood the world the way an ordinary child did.
At some point, however, something inside him changed.
His growing self-awareness led him to turn against his handlers. Shan killed five of his teachers and saved the other child mercenaries held within the camp deep in the Amazon.
Helen eventually began seeing him less as a dangerous weapon and more as a traumatized child.
---
Brooke Agency
Because Helen couldn't simply leave Shan alone at home, she brought him to work.
She told him to sit around, do whatever he wanted, and stay out of trouble.
Eventually, however, Helen began asking him to help with small tasks around the agency.
That's when she discovered something unexpected.
Shan was extraordinarily capable.
He could repair things.
Take things apart and put them back together.
Organize equipment.
Manage workloads.
Solve logistical problems.
He possessed an almost extraordinary practical intelligence that allowed him to accomplish tasks even experienced employees struggled with.
As Shan became involved with the agency, Brooke Agency began growing.
What had once been a small business gradually became a medium-level operation, with more customers, more contracts, and increasingly demanding workloads.
Eventually, Helen found herself overwhelmed.
Shan stepped in.
Within a remarkably short period of time, he reorganized the workflow and made the agency significantly more efficient.
Helen couldn't help but feel that she was somehow exploiting a child.
At least, she paid him.
---
The Gang Incident
One day, Brooke Agency was targeted by a group of gangsters.
The business had become successful enough to attract their attention, and they demanded protection money.
Helen refused.
She fought back.
But there were simply too many of them.
The gangsters eventually overpowered her.
Their intentions became much darker.
Helen understood exactly what they intended to do to her.
She closed her eyes, preparing herself for the worst.
Then—
A scream.
Helen opened her eyes.
The gang leader's head had been decapitated by Shan Wolf, who stood there holding an axe.
Shan then turned his attention toward the remaining gang members.
He brutally incapacitated them, chopping apart their limbs and fingers and destroying the body parts they relied upon for their daily lives.
The police arrived.
Shan was arrested for manslaughter.
Because he was only fifteen, the case would ordinarily have gone through the juvenile system.
However, the victims' families demanded that Shan be placed on trial.
Helen broke down.
She begged.
She got on her knees.
She apologized for Shan.
Then the military intervened.
They revealed Shan's international immunity, preventing him from being prosecuted normally.
With the security footage, witnesses, and evidence supporting his actions, the court ultimately ruled the incident self-defense.
Shan was released.
Helen looked at him afterward.
His face remained expressionless.
No fear.
No anger.
No relief.
Nothing.
Helen realized that perhaps his childhood as a mercenary had taken away something fundamental from him.
His childhood itself.
---
Becoming His Mother
From that point onward, Helen made a decision.
She wasn't going to simply be Shan's caretaker.
She was going to raise him.
She worked harder to expand Brooke Agency and brought in investors.
She sent Shan to therapy so he could begin processing the trauma he had endured.
She also enrolled him in the best school she could afford.
Slowly, Shan began healing.
It wasn't easy.
The nightmares remained.
Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night, causing disturbances because of the memories haunting him.
But he was changing.
And so was Helen.
The woman who had initially accepted Shan because she was being paid gradually became genuinely motherly toward him.
She taught him things he had never properly learned:
Love.
Care.
Protection.
Trust.
How to live.
Most importantly, she taught him what it meant to have a home.
---
Shan's Success
Shan eventually excelled in school.
During his high-school years, he won gold medals and demonstrated exceptional academic ability.
He eventually earned a scholarship to Oxford.
He graduated with full marks and honors.
During his graduation ceremony, Shan was given the opportunity to speak on stage.
He spoke about his life.
And he spoke about Helen.
For years, he had called her by her first name.
Helen.
But during his speech, Shan finally called her something else.
Mom.
Helen broke down in tears.
For the first time, she felt that she truly understood what motherhood meant.
She had not simply taken care of Shan.
She had become his mother.
---
Separation
By the time Helen was 42 and Shan was 24, Shan was working as an office employee in a small building owned by Won Group.
Eventually, he was promoted to the Investor Relations Department.
He was then ordered to relocate to Seoul, South Korea, where Won Group's main headquarters was located.
The decision had been made anonymously by the founder of the company.
Shan accepted the relocation.
Before he left Malaysia, Helen and Shan spent their remaining time together.
They ate together.
Went out together.
Spent time at home.
Shared ordinary moments.
The kind of moments that Shan had never been allowed to experience during his childhood.
Helen loved her son more than anything.
And she was genuinely satisfied with the life they had built together.
Eventually, the day came.
Shan left Malaysia to begin his new life in Korea.
Helen bid him farewell with tears of happiness.
She knew she could visit him.
But she didn't immediately.
She would visit him when the time was right—or simply when she felt like it.
For now, she was content knowing that her son had finally grown into a man capable of living his own life.
And for Helen Brooke, that was enough.