It had been a few hours since my physical training was completed. I had washed myself and grabbed a simple meal for lunch prepared by Rosie using the leftover meat from the deer I had hunted. Alfred had me almost glued to the chair in front of his desk as we began the next part of my training, which was studying and learning about the world that I was in now, the world of Orbis. Contrary to how he was when overseeing my physical training, Alfred was far more humane when it came to scholastic matters, though he was a little annoyed when the wonderful smell of Rosie’s cooking of the deer meat came to find its way into my nose during the first few hours. Alfred gave me a couple of slaps on the wrists throughout the lesson. During her time taking breaks from preparing the venison in the kitchen, Rosie had brought us refreshments and even some cake.
My stomach was growling after half a day of not eating a full meal. I basically skipped any meaningful lunch time because of my training and though I enjoyed learning about the histories and cultures of the world, an empty stomach was still an empty stomach.
“I’m sorry it took a while because of the seasoning, but the venison’s finally ready!” As if she were an angel sent directly by The Lord, Rosie had arrived carrying a rather large tray of the venison, putting it to the large table in front of Al’s main office desk which was essentially our dining table.
“Wonderful! Perhaps this should be the end of the lessons for today…” I said as I clasped my hands ready to get up but Alfred immediately held me down.
“Not so fast, Charlie. We’re almost done here so be patient.” Al said “You won’t die if you wait a couple more minutes.”
“You don’t know that, though.” I looked at Al with pleading faces
“It’s not a problem, I still need some time to wash up and get the smoke out of my hair…” Rosie said as she had finished setting up the table “I’ll be back in a little.”
“Ah, splendid!” Al said with a grin to my grimace as we once again “Now let’s go over that one more time, yes?” Alfred said as we were once again going over the world map “Now point to me the sovereign countries of the Elven folk.”
“Hmm let’s see… The High-Elven Republic of Auregenia, the Valairan -I’m about to throw up- Sultanate and the High Elven Lordship of Silvania.”
“Mhmm, now to the major divisions in faith of the Sovereign states of Christendom…”
“Okay… So the Kingdom of Feldonia, the Nordic Kingdoms of Snaerevig, Rommerike, and Iskaldland, the Kingdom of Caomaed, The Kingdom of the Halak, The Grand Duchy of Southerland, The Telvan Merchant League, the Newlander Republic and the Elves of Silvania are Protestant…”
“Aye…”
“While the Tsardom of Vasilia, the Dwarves, the Giants, the Beastmen, and the Augustan Imperium are Apostolic Orthodox?”
“Yes…”
“And the rest are true believers in Christ and the church that he instituted to the apostles?” I said with a grin
“Pfffft, hahahahaha! You cheeky arsewipe, Charlie.” Al said as he slapped the side of my arm “Alright and now of the basics of the races and peoples of the world…”
The concept of races within the world were simpler for me to learn as each had a similar enough counterpart in my previous one for me to make allusions too. So I began recounting what Al had taught me “So basically, there are several sentient races in Orbis, humans - that’s us -, elves, dwarves, beastmen, orcs, giants, faeries, and each with their own sub-races, subcultures, and what have you not.”
“Yes, as you’ll most probably meet them on some of your adventures. Also keep in mind the bulk of these lessons pertain to us on the Western continent. I’m not even going to bother with the sods over in the East.”
“Yes. All I need to know is that the East is a bad place filled with horrible heathens and pagans.”
“Pfft, quite so. But still, now that I think about it, you still need to know at least some things about the people there…”
“Alright, so you have the Hanren of the Xintian Empire, the Hindans, the Miyazu Shogunate, and the hellbound Moslems and Moslem Elves.”
“Eh, close enough…” Alfred said as he finally closed up the world map and tidied his table. Rosie was done cleaning herself and had changed her clothes as she set out the plates for us. I pushed Alfred’s wheelchair to the dining table before I sat myself across Rosie. Alfred led the sayings of grace as usual as I bowed my head. As the Protestants of this world were still rather nascent, much of their practices had not yet morphed to such a degree that it became unrecognisable.
I had cut into the venison to take a portion of it onto my plate and the smoke still encapsulated within was captivating to say the least. As I brought the food into my mouth, I was once again very impressed by Rosie’s cooking.
“This venison is absolutely marvelous, Rosie!” I said as I took another spoonful of the meat along with the bread into my mouth “Where in the world did you learn to cook like this?”
Rosie laughed as she directed her head to her left and I saw Al giving a triumphant look. “I still have much to learn from my grandfather…”
“She isn’t half bad.” Alfred said as he was cutting another piece of meat. I was truly surprised. I didn’t take Alfred to be a good cook of any sort. Although, to be fair I have never tried any of his cooking. “Having a good cooking ability does monumental work in making the adventuring life that much more bearable.”
That was indeed something I was deathly curious about in regards to Alfred, so I decided to start the conversation. “I’ve been wondering about this for quite a time, Alfred…”
“Wondering what?” Alfred turned towards me as he raised his eyebrow and smiled while he was still cutting away on his food with a marvelous sense of etiquette
“How did a nobleman like yourself, an Imperial Prince in fact, get into the business of adventuring?” I asked
“What more is there to say? I was a rebellious youth is all.” Alfred said matter of factly
“I was expecting more from the man who said ‘Old people like to tell stories’.” I goaded him on
“Aye, that we do. It’s just in my particular case, I don’t quite see anything special you’d be able to learn.”
“It would relieve my curiosity if nothing else.”
“Aye, you have a point. Although you’re going to make poor Rosie here die of boredom as she’s probably heard this hundreds of times before.” Alfred said to which Rosie only shook her head gently
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“Not at all. I always enjoy hearing grandfather tell his stories.” Rosie said “Besides the very occasional parties we have to attend at the capital, I don’t really get that many chances to learn about my own family and origins… that and my shyness gets in the way.” Rosie blushed a bit as she said that.
“Ah well. If that’s so. What do you want to know about me, anyways?” Alfred asked
“You can just start from the beginning. It’s not like I’m going anywhere. You were an Imperial Prince so your racial and cultural background shouldn’t be the same as the average Feldonian I assume.”
“Yes, yes, yes. I was born Alfred Pierre Etienne de Lamellarouge 72 years ago in the Blue chamber of the Skyfront Palace of Skysea. I was the youngest of 12 children, two of whom died stillborn. My father was the late-Emperor Peter the Honourable and my mother was Empress Isabeau Mathilde, daughter of Grand Duke Jean-Pierre of Malinor and grand-daughter of King Louis XII of Altergenia.”
I nodded at Al’s undoubtedly illustrious pedigree.
“From a young age as I had four older brothers ahead of me, the expectations laid upon me were minimal. My father didn’t have that many grand plans for me, but my mother wanted me to join the church. So from a young age I was studying to become a theologian of the Sanctum Catholic church. But of course that plan didn’t bear any fruit as my mother had secretly converted to Protestantism under the auspices of the great theologian and my personal mentor Christopher de Villenoir who was then the Archbishop of Skysea. Anyways, I had always been a bit of a runt and the aptitude and skill for magic ran in my family. I had always snuck out of the countless boring lessons to train my sword-arm and magical attributes along with my best friend at the time.”
“Was it Sir Blakebow?”
“Eh? Nah, me and Pat are good friends but we only met a few years after I had joined the adventurer’s guild. No, my best friend at the time was my nephew Stephen. He was my nephew but he was actually a few months older than me. That’s what you get when you’re the youngest runt of the litter. Me and him were tighter than blood-brothers and we used to go everywhere together. We played together, trained together, hahaha, we once even had a crush on the same girl.”
“Oh really?” I asked with an enthusiastic grin
“A story for another time.”
“Right, but anyways, how did you manage to join the adventurer’s guild? Your time with your family seemed quite peaceful.” I asked the thing I was most curious about though I could see Rosie getting a little nervous as she looked at Alfred
“Oh, yes… it was during a rebellious phase I had… it was…” Al’s voice grew weaker for a split second as I saw his expression falter “It was when my mother and brother died… I was only 14 at the time and we were out with the whole family in one of the protected Royal forests. I was playing with Stephen and the other kids, acting like knights and warriors and what not. My mother had warned us not to stray too far from the guards or from where we could be seen… Stephen was always a goody-two-shoes so it was me who came up with the stupidest idea. I dared him to go to a forbidden part of that forest. He was reluctant but I goaded him and called him a chicken and so we did. We were both gifted with the wind attribute and were decently adept at slipping past our guards…”
“I don’t like where this is going…”
“Grandfather, it's fine, you needn’t continue…” Rosie said but Al carried on as if he didn’t hear her.
“Yes, well, I know where it goes and I still hate myself for it. The part of the forest we had gone to was actually the ruins of an old mana-point dungeon. Me and Stephen being there whilst playing around with our skills and mana aggravated the place to a point where somehow we managed to reawaken the dungeon and all manner of calamity happened when dangerous magical beasts started appearing from the affected creatures of the forest not to mention the beasts materialising out of nowhere. Even in a panic, me and Stephen managed to fend them off somewhat but we were getting pushed back and the situation was dire… It was in the nick of time when help arrived. My father and eldest brother along with my mother and many professional guards had arrived. They had dealt with most of the normal mana beasts but it was then out of nowhere, one of the most terrifying creatures I could think of appeared. It was an Archdaemon, a beast that up till that point I thought only existed in legends. I was in its attack range when it appeared and I was none the wiser… my mother she… protected me from the archdaemon’s first attack by shielding me with her body. She perished that day protecting me. My father and eldest brother fought the hardest against the beast and they eventually managed to defeat it, but not before it mortally wounded my eldest brother, Baldwin. I saw my father looking at me so furiously as he held my mother’s cold corpse in his arms and my wounded brother screaming in agony… I felt on that day that I was the most accursed person alive… and… and I ran away… I… I r-ran… Father! Mother!! I’m so sorry!! Ahhh… My son… where is my son?!”
Alfred’s mood had deteriorated quickly as his breaths grew short and brief and he started crying, and babbling incoherently. Rosie and I hurriedly got up from our chairs to calm him down. I was worried what Al might do, he may be 74 but he was still very powerful. We felt gusts of winds shaking the room a little as Alfred’s state was still slightly volatile.
“Grandfather! Grandfather, look at me!” Rosie was shaking slightly but she managed to keep herself calm as she grabbed onto Alfred’s face, directing it towards her. “Listen to me, grandfather. It’s your Rosie see? Everything is fine!” As she embraced him, Rosie looked to me to ask for my help holding the old man back a bit.
I did it immediately and it was proving a little difficult but at the very least manageable. Alfred was getting more and more volatile before finally Rosie broke out singing. And I was stumped as it was a song that I’ve actually heard before.
“~Silent night… Holy night… All is calm, all is bright… ‘round yon virgin mother and child…” I was stuck in a stupor for a second both by the fact that this song was from earth and by how soothing Rosie’s voice was “Holy infant, so tender and mild… Sleep in heavenly sleep… sleep in heavenly sleep~”
Alfred began calming down though he was still sobbing.
“Mother… mother…” It was only after a few more minutes did he calm down though he was still muttering for his mother.
“I’m sorry, Charles but I think I’ll have to put grandfather to bed for a bit… Can I bother you with cleaning up after? Just put the venison in the cupboard and I’ll take care of the rest.” Rosie said as she moved Al towards his room
“Of course, Rosie, I am so sorry about all this…” I said
“Oh no, it’s alright… I forgot grandfather could get like this when he tells that story… Anyways, goodnight, Charles. Hopefully grandfather’s mood will be better tomorrow.”
I bowed slightly once again before I helped out with the clean up. That was quite a ride. I know I’ve only known Alfred for a bit, but it was surreal seeing the always nonchalant old man get like that. But regardless, I blew out some of the lights in the main hall before I headed for my room to sleep. If Alfred was petty, he’d have me up again by the ungodly hours of morning for training. I wasn’t looking forward to that.
As I got to my bed, I laid upon it and let the darkness set in.
***
It was still dark when I opened my eyes but I could vaguely make out the rays of the sun slowly rising upon the horizon to the east. I instinctively looked to my left to see if Alfred was already there sipping his tea as usual but to my relief, he wasn’t. But then I started overthinking especially after remembering the events that had transpired the night before. I hurriedly got up and made my bed before I headed out, opening the door to go outside and check on Alfred.
As I opened the door, I was slightly relieved to find Alfred already up as usual on his desk, lighted by his usual lamp.
“Ah, good morning, Charlie.” He said as calmly as ever as he looked at me with a smile
“Good morning, sir…” I said as I tried to avoid his gaze “Erm… about last night…”
“Oh, it’s fine boy… No harm done. Luckily for us, Rosie’s somewhat used to those episodes. Pay it no matter…” Alfred said
“No, it’s just… I felt horrible making you recount those memories, I mean, I shouldn’t have pried and…” I stopped talking as I saw Alfred raising his hand and shaking his head still with a smile.
“Like I said, Charles, no harm done. It wasn’t really your fault either. Sometimes my proclivity to tell stories works to my detriment, hahahahahha… Now, if you think going soft on me like that would save your arse from the torture I am about to put you through today, you’d be dead wrong. You woke up late, and the sun’s already up… Hurry up and run 10 laps around the village, oh and don’t forget to put these on…”
Alfred threw something at me and I instinctively caught it. It was those accursed braces again. I looked at Alfred with a pleading sign, but all signs of weakness were lost. Now it was only the shit-eating grin that I don’t think I’ll ever learn to love left on his face. Another day of hell here we go.