The group sat around the coffee table in awkward silence. It was a style of the table Fred had brought over from his previous world.

Edward tried to break the ice, “So, I heard you got 3rd place for infants?”

“Yep.” Fred didn’t feel like giving anything more than a single answer, he was probably the only one in the room enjoying the awkwardness.

“That’s all? I got 1st place when I was in the infant’s competition” the teenage boy said, Fred could tell that the boy didn’t like him, and acted like he had to prove his ‘superiority’.

“Congrats.” Fred just commented in a neutral voice. However, this just increased the ire of the teen.

The girl chimed in at this point, “I heard Fred managed to get 3rd place in his first year of school, brother, weren’t you in the 3rd year when you got 1st place.” She said while looking innocently at Harold.

Fred couldn’t tell if the girl was on his side, or she just liked to cause trouble for Harold.

“That’s impossible, he has just completed his 2nd year.”

“Fred didn’t participate this year.” Isabella chimed in, she kept her answer short, the kid had already rubbed her the wrong way.

“Why not?” Harold directed this question to Fred, but Fred just shrugged his shoulders.

Harold was peeved about Fred’s lacklustre answer.

But at the end of this, the room returned to awkward silence.

“Fred, why don’t you take your siblings for a tour of the castle,” Edward wanted to have a chat amongst the adults.

“No.”

Edward stumbled, he looked at the two women and George for help, but they just sat there drinking their wine. They were too entertained by the rough spot Edward was in to help. Edward was also a bit angry at Fred’s response, he wasn’t one to allow his kids to challenge him.

“I am your father; you will do as your told.” And then he also took a sip of his drink. He was starting to get a dry throat dealing with Fred.

“Father? You? Mate, I don’t even know you, at best you’re a sperm donor.” At this, the two women sprayed their drinks, while Edward, and George started coughing on theirs.

“Mommy, what’s a sperm donor?” the youngest girl asked, without any trace of taint to her innocence. The other 3 kids all looked her way for answers too. And although the boy looked like he was in his early teens, he could pass for, and could be 11 or 12 years old.

“Erm, it’s nothing baby, your too young to understand.” They didn’t have such concepts in this world, but it wasn’t hard to figure out.

“Please Fred, do it for me.” When Isabella recovered, she decided to ask.

“Alright,” he got up from his chair and the kids followed suit “but not him, I don’t like him.” He pointed at Harold, who was shocked by the bluntness and treatment

“Fred,” she sternly called him.

“He’s been an asshole since he got here, why should I cater to him.”

“Is this how you raise our child, to allow him to talk such filth” Edward scorned Isabella. Isabella grew visibly upset by this. Fred could even see tears start to form.

“HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!” Fred jumped up and roared at Edward, forcing him to reel backwards a bit. At this shouting, 4 guards came bursting in to see the commotion.

“You do not raise your voice at my mother in this house. You do not judge my mother on her ability to raise me when you didn’t have the fucking balls to show up. You do not get to question her methods when you who had the support of your wife, managed to raise a twat like that. You can either apologise to my mother or you can get the fuck out of this house right now.”

At this, the guards drew their swords and were all staring at Edward. All of the other kids felt fear looking at Fred right now.

Edward stuttered for a bit, he looked over to Isabella, who was on the verge of tears, he had not realised what he had done until Fred had pointed it out. “I… I’m… sorry Isabella, I’m sorry for saying that, and I’m sorry for not being here all these years.”

“It’s…” Isabella was going to forgive him, but Fred interrupted, knowing full well what she was about to do

“It’s a barely acceptable first attempt, time will tell if it had any meaning.”

Edward looked back at Fred and was going to refute but seeing Fred looking directly into his eyes without a flinch, made him drop what he was going to say.

The guards sheathe their swords at this.

“Fred, we need to talk amongst us adults, please.”

“Alright, let me think” he rubbed his chin. “Guards,” He addressed the guards who came in. “Put this kid in the storage shed until his parents are ready to call him back.”

The guards and everyone in the room were stunned. Except for the girl who was snickering behind Harold’s back, and the two little ones who didn’t understand the meaning.

“Am I some commodity to be stored away?” Harold angrily growled.

“Your words, not mine.”

“Fred, stop causing trouble” Isabella reprimanded.

“Fine” he looked at the kids, “Come,” he turned to the door and started walking.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Harold argued.

“Your alternative is the storage shed”

Harold looked at the adults in the room for help, but none of them was even paying him any attention. So, he gave up and followed Fred and the rest of the kids.

___

Fred went off with the 4 kids.

Fred didn’t know where to lead them, or in fact, didn’t want to lead them anywhere.

“Where are we going?” Harold asked, but Fred ignored him and kept walking through the corridor.

Fred turned to Holly, the older girl, “So, what excuse did our father say for coming over here?”

“Something about overseeing a weapons smith. He didn’t really explain that all too well.”

“Tch, he’s here to make sure you lot don’t screw up,” Harold commented.

“Looking how you turned out, he has a bigger chance of screwing something up than us,” Fred responded.

Holly and the two little ones laughed at this.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Why you…” but before he could finish Fred had turned around and entered one of the doors. It was the door leading to the back bailey.

“Hi Steven,” he greeted, Steven was at his usual spot in the workshop.

“Hi, Fred, what brings you out here.”

“You allow a lowly servant to speak to you so informally.”

“Steven, this is my father’s trial run attempt at raising a child,” He pointed at Harold, “and this is holly and his two youngest.” He turned to the other kids. “This is Steven, the castle’s handyman, and a great help to a lot of our castle famous products”

“Hello, Steven” Holly greeted.

“Hi” the twins waved their hands.

“Hello, kids, Fred’s just exaggerating my help, I didn’t really do anything.” Steven didn’t seem to be offended by Harold’s comments, he could tell Harold was attacking Fred’s character more than insulting him.

“What are those?” one of the twins pointed to 32 mini suits of armour that seemed to be fighting each other.

“Stormvermin.” Fred responded.

The twins ran over to take a closer look. Fred decided to follow in a leisurely walk.

“Stormvermin? What’s a Stormvermin?” Harold asked.

This time Fred gave him an answer “Giant mutated rats in heavy steel armour”

“Rats, they are the same size as the twins.” Harold was shocked.

“Ew, Rats” Holly wasn’t impressed and remained behind the group.

“I didn’t realise they would grow this big either.” Rattacus didn’t stop growing as Fred initially thought, furthermore, the unit was comprised of 3 rounds of his kids as well as the next generation from his first round. Fred had underestimated their reproduction capabilities.

As the twins ran over to the Stormvermin, they stopped their fighting and formed up into a defensive formation, all of the Stormvermin were wielding halberds, and they seemed to have some simple military training with the way they formed up into an 8 by 5 battle-rank.

“Hold up, don’t get too close,” Fred called out to the twins.

The twins stopped at this and we’re looking at the rats.

“Hello,” they said in unison and waved. However, what shocked them as well as Harold and Holly, was the response from the rats.

The rat with the best-looking armour took one of his hands from the halberd and waved back.

“Rattacus, at ease,” Fred commanded, and the fancy-looking rat made some chitter noise resulting in all of the halberds raised in unison, the rats resting the ends on the ground while still holding it with one hand.

Fred walked to the side, it was the wall of the castle, and had a bench which Fred sat, Harold and holly followed and sat, while the twins were trying to speak and play with the rats.

“Where did you find rats so big, and able to follow commands?” holly asked with curiosity.

“I didn’t find them, I created them.”

“What?” Harold was shocked. “No way, you created them,”

“Yes, and if my guess is correct, our father’s real reason is for me to do the same to you four.”

“You… you’re… going to… turn us into… giant… rats?” Holly stuttered.

“No, you idiot, they were normal rats before, Father would probably want me to do what I did to them on you guys. Although now that you mentioned it, I might turn Harold into a rat.”

“There is no way you are turning me into a rat.”

“I’ll wait until you’re asleep.”

“Wait, I don’t get it, if you are going to do to us what you did to them, how would we not turn into rats?” Holly asked.

“They were normal rats before.”

“Yes, you’ve said that”

“Look at them.”

“I am looking at them” she rolled her eyes.

“Then tell me, what is the difference between them and a rat?”

“I don’t get it”

“They are bigger” Harold commented,

“Yes, bigger, smarter, stronger, faster, that leader over there, the one I called Rattacus, he cast his first spell 2 weeks ago. He was my first Creation, so to speak.”

“Holy Crap,” they said in unison.

“You mean I could become a lot stronger?”

“In theory that would be the case, unfortunately, not for you.”

“What? what do you mean?” Harold panicked, a great opportunity had just presented itself in front of him, but he couldn’t have it. “I’m the first son of the heir to the duchy, I demand you to do what you did to them on me.”

“You think you have the right to order me,” Fred turned to Holly, “does this twat usually act this way back at your home.”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Holly sighed “And it usually goes his way.”

Harold gritted his teeth. “Of course, everything goes my way, I will be the duke when I am older.”

“Then this dukedom is doomed to fall, with an idiot like you at the helm.”

“Why you…”

“Kids, are you back here?”

“Yes mom, around the side,” Fred called back.

He then saw Isabella, with Edward and his wife in tow, walk around the corner

“My God,” Edward exclaimed when he saw 34 small Steel soldiers the size of his youngest fighting each other. When they heard this, they all lined up into a protective pike formation.

“Ahhhhhh,” His wife screamed “Rats, giant Rats”

“Fuck man, do you have to squeal like a fucking banshee,” Fred complained. “Guards, go to the graveyard down south, make sure nothings risen.”

The two guards following the adults turned to leave, or to be more accurate, hide their laughter. This didn’t go unnoticed by Isabella who was also trying to hide her grin or Edward who gave Fred a condescending look.

“Behave, Fred,” Isabella said, although it was more of an excuse to get the guards to come back and control her emotions.

“What are these, Fred?” Edward asked.

“Stormvermin.”

“Stormvermin? And where did they come from?”

“Never mind that Edward where is Luke and Lucy?” his wife shouted, looking around in panic, “Luke! Lucy! Where are you.”

“Who?” Fred asked,

“The twins, you were introduced to them when they got here,” Isabella said.

“O, I forgot their names,” Fred looked around the garden, “they were around here, maybe the rats ate them.”

“WHAT.”

“Fred, that’s not funny.”

“Alright, alright, they were around here earlier, they’ll probably turn up eventually.”

Fred was looking around, and then he was drawn to the Stormvermin, ‘wasn’t there 32 Stormvermin,’

Fred had a closer look and noticed something different.

He cast his head down and gave it a rub while sighing, “Luke, Lucy, you’ve had your fun, come out now.”

“You know where they are?” Edwards’s wife asked.

“Surprise” the two jumped out of the Stormvermin ranks in full plate armour and wielding halberds. Although somewhat scruffy, it wasn’t designed for the human anatomy. “Look mommy, were Stormvermin.” They shouted in excitement.

“You two are in such big trouble.” Their mother was shouting at them, “do you know how worried I was. And what were you thinking playing with those dirty rats.”

“Alright Janet let’s calm down,” Edward tried to pull his wife’s shoulders back.

“And you.” She pointed at Fred, “how dare you get my kids to dress up as one of those rats.”

“Why are you blaming me, I had no idea they were putting on that armour. If I knew, I would have told you straight away where they were. Plus, if you could tell the difference between your kids and those rats, you would have spotted them first.” He said while shrugging.

This caused Janet’s face to turn livid.

“Do you have to anger my mom so much?” Holly said with pleading eyes.

“Alright, I’m sorry,” Fred said to Holly,

“Are you not going to apologise to me?” Janet said in a huff.

Fred looked at her and tilted his head, “For what?”

This time her face went beat red.

Isabella was trying to suppress her giggles from all the drama behind Janet and Edward.

The group calmed down a bit, and this time George had joined them.

The servants brought a table 2 benches and a round of refreshments

“Where did you get such giant rats?” Edward asked.

“I didn’t find them.”

“What do you mean?”

“They should be the real reason why you came.”

“Why would we come to some backwater place for some Giant Rats?” Janet laughed as if Fred said something ridiculous. Only she noticed something was off, no one else was laughing.

“George should have mentioned something to you?” Fred asked Edward, completely ignoring Janet’s comment. Edward didn’t say anything and was thinking.

“Harold is out of the question, and there may be problems with Holly, but the two younger ones would be a possibility.”

“Why can’t I, do you know who I am?”

Fred ignored Harold completely, and just waited for Edward’s response.

Holly was surprised as well. She figured Fred denied Harold on the grounds of his behaviour, but what has she done.

“You’re not seriously thinking of turning our children into these rats Edward?”

Edward didn’t respond to Janet as he thought. “So, you are one too.”

“In essence.”

Harold, Holly and Janet were shocked.

“But you don’t look like one of those rats.”

“I swear to god if you have nothing intelligent to say shut up.” Fred finally responded to Janet’s pestering.

“How dare…” she was stopped by Edward.

“Please dear, not now.”

She was stumped. Was she really the idiot here? Why couldn’t she figure out what they were talking about?

“Are you?”

“An Adeptus Astartes?”

The families’ eyes widened; except for the youngest two, they all remembered the message three years ago.

“Yes,” Edward confirmed his question.

“…” Fred didn’t answer.

“The creator?”

“But the real question hasn’t been answered,” Fred stated.

“And that is?”

“Why should I?”

“Why should we have to bargain with you, we can just go to the one who created the Adeptus Astartes,” Janet Commented.

Fred ignored Janet and continued to stare at Edward.

“We are family” Edward tried.

“Are we? I’ve just met you for the first time today. And I might not have ever seen you if I didn’t have something of value.”

“I didn’t come just for that. I came to see you, and Isabella.”

“Then why didn’t you visit earlier?”

“I couldn’t, my father sent me to command the Castilian order as soon as your mother’s pregnancy got discovered. I was given leave for a year about a month ago. I’ll be honest, I think he gave me this because he wanted to strengthen connections with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your last name, it should be question marks, right?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“You have that because of your status as a bastard. When you come of age and are recognised by one of your parent’s families, you can choose to take on their name. but until then, it will remain question marks, while public records will address you as your mother’s family while you are a dependent.”

Fred hadn’t known about this but was shocked to hear his father accuse his grandad of plotting a relationship.

“And you want to go along with his schemes.”

“I was willing to use his schemes as so far as it allows me to see you. But I wouldn’t be angry if you chose the da Ansul name, my family has not done anything worthy to gain your favour. And I have failed you, by not being here.”