The Kovac family has been involved with government operations before, but they're not an established household. It was only two generations ago that the first Kovac swore an oath to never disclose his work to anyone irrelevant, including his family. Since then, however, there's been a notable increase in the number of Kovac's serving the Slovak government, Marcel Kovac being one such individual. He was a covert ops agent, but unlike Cyril, preferred to use his fists rather than his pen to fight. It was after being partnered up with a certain field agent that he learnt to be more careful with himself. Eventually, he and Louisa married and had their first child, Cyril.

Louisa retired from field work at his birth, but continued to work for the government. Marcel remained a front line combatant, rare to come home. Three years of the same routine, Lenka was born. They both adored their father, as seldom a face he was in their life. Unfortunately, their father came home even less frequently; he was climbing the ranks, and would often hide undercover for months at a time. As his responsibilities grew, so did the dangers. All that time, both his children remained blissfully unaware of the risks he was taking.

A month after Cyril's birthday, his mother openly cried as she read a letter. A notification of death; they couldn't retrieve his body for a proper burial. All three were devastated; Cyril especially so, who'd grown to hero-worship his father. When requested explanations brought up brick walls, it frustrated the 7 year old who just wanted answers. Where was his Dad all this time? Who was to blame? The words of reason he wanted, needed to hear wouldn't come, and that left a lasting impression on the boy. It was here that he first learnt just how powerless he was against simple letters.

Two years passed, and Cyril had not fully recovered yet from his father's death. He remained listless, uninterested in life and was rare to speak, if at all. Louisa finally caved and told the truth; not all the details, but enough for the teenager to understand that what he was hearing should never be relayed to his friends. It sparked a fire in him. He bluntly asked if his mother could teach him about espionage. That didn't go over so well. There was a lot of fighting, shouting in the house during that day, but in a way, it was a relief from the strained silence that reigned before. Lenka remains unaware of what exactly his brother and mother were arguing about, but the fact he was openly speaking again was enough to bring hope that she would have her brother back.

After a year, Louisa finally agreed to educate him in the basics of being a spy. To put it bluntly: the blonde was absolute trash at the things his parents excelled at. He had no natural athleticism, nor did he inherit his mother's gift for deceit. In fact, he was starting to look like a lost cause, which secretly delighted his mother, who thought she was hiding it quite well. Cyril begged to differ, bluntly telling her that she had a tendency to tap her thigh twice if she was happy about something. That was where her suspicions of his true talents began. He asked of how she herself learnt, and Louisa spoke of an academy for women; she knew that there was an equivalent for men in France. She spoke to long-forgotten contacts, and enrolled him in foreign languages as she researched how to enlist him in the program. As Cyril fluently conversed in her mother tongue after only months of studying French, her suspicions were confirmed. Cyril had talent as an agent, but not the kind she or her husband were.

Her research eventually lead her to San Forêt, and she asked him straight if he was serious about being a spy. There was a much more prosperous world for a boy with his talents. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in his eyes as Cyril answered yes, which satisfied her. He was oftentimes hesitant to commit to anything, the death of his father leaving unseen scars. The fact that he was so resolute assured her that this wasn't just a yen for him to scratch. Cyril enrolled, and as his mother predicted, was placed in reconnaissance. Languages was, by far, his favorite subject. However psychology quickly grew a place in his heart, learning that those days he'd spent simply writing notes on people hadn't gone to waste. He learnt quickly, absorbed the knowledge of the sponge. Cyril's satisfied just learning forever to be honest. The ending trial wasn't one to look forward to, but he only had to look at his father's image and he found his feet once again.