Adam had known it was coming. After all, it was the sole purpose for which he had been brought to the estate in the first place. Somehow, he was still surprised when the day finally came.
A few days after Jay departed, Adam was told to report to a room in the family’s living quarters of the estate. It wasn’t that long of a trip for him, as his small room was actually under their section, unlike the rest of the servants and slaves. Ruth had had to explain to him that if he was to be caring for the children, then he would need to be nearby at all times, hence his room assignment.
The room he arrived at was the opposite of the duke’s study: the duchess’ parlor. When he nervously entered the room he was surprised at the scheme of its decoration. Instead of the colors of the rest of the estate, the red, blue, and gold of the DeVille Gryfeonix, it was white and red over yellow. It took him no time at all to find the item from which the colors originated. On a large cream banner hanging behind a rather femininely designed throne-like chair was a six petal flower of white and red over a circle of yellow. With Adam’s only education about nobles pertaining to their wealth, power, and pride, he was completely ignorant as to the significance of the colors and the banner. With the help of Mother Knows Best though, he was able to surmise that he would eventually be overly educated on the matter.
He bowed before the duchess in her fancy chair as he had been instructed, attempting to keep any thought of the chair’s aspirations towards greater meaning far from his thoughts, and farther still from his face. Martin had mention that the trend towards certain privileges of rank was a new and disturbing trend while they had journeyed back towards the Blue Sea Forest. That mention had also included a pointed remark about the dangers inherent in reaching for a throne as well as mentioning the lack of credentials to those doing the reaching. Now facing a blatant sign of such a trend, he was wishing that Martin had never said a thing. Ignorance wasn’t just bliss, it was life.
“Rise, child,” the duchess said. Her voice was a soothing as he remembered, although he also remembered that it was a skill doing the soothing. For once he didn’t have to calm his instincts at the use of such a skill, thankful that it was helping to calm his nerves. “So you are ready to assume your duties?”
The question was no surprise. Ruth had warned him in advance that something like this would happen. “If milady wills it.” His voice was steady, but quieter than normal.
“Hmm, yes. Quentin said you have the skills to care for the children now. He ran some test with that wretched child.” There was a pause as she waited to see how Adam would react. Once more, a warning from Ruth saved him from further trouble, although the majority of the help keeping his face calm came from System Assistance. Apparently, someone with a higher social standing shit talking one of his kids counted as something he needed the help to deal with in a way synonymous with a higher affinity for his class.
For once the Assistance did more than just control his actions, it also sent him a message of sorts. Organization latched onto it immediately, and he suddenly had a list of people deserving of dedicated time planning for long term retribution. Of the fourteen people on the list, all but one of them was the duchess, with the duke reserving a single position. While the duchess began speaking again, he felt the impressions of his skills in his mind moving again. He watched the crone stomp her way into cottage and snatch up a notebook as it appeared out of nowhere. He realized it was Organization only as he watched her flip to the page with the list and start cackling madly. Even the bear was growling fiercely in her sleep.
Trying to shrug off the feeling of impending doom, Adam tried to focus on the words of the duchess again, hoping he hadn’t missed anything important.”… only way forward. Therefore, you will be working with the children alongside my maids until they are satisfied with your capabilities.”
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The crone, who originally hadn’t seemed to be paying any attention at all to what went on around him but had been extremely focused ever since the duchess insulted Jay, scoffed at her words. A trickle of information flowed into his mind, more a reminder than anything else, but still a very good point. Why was he there if the duchess had her maids watching the children already? Furthermore, shouldn’t the duchess be deciding if his capabilities were sufficient rather than her maids. He was beginning to feel a pain in his heart with how little the two nobles cared for their children as people.
Still, an answer was expected. “As milady wills.”
She simply stared at him for a time as he struggled to keep from squirming under her gaze. She snapped her fingers, then spoke again. “For the next week you will shadow Jana while she works with the children. The only times you will be excused from your duties will be during their tutoring sessions which you will also be attending, and while they sleep. Is this understood?”
“Yes, milady.”
“If you assume your duties as their body servant you will still be present during their tutoring, but their needs will come first. Furthermore, your room will be moved to be even closer to the children if you are allowed to take up that duty. Additionally…” The woman continued to ramble on about the things he would be doing, but only if he actually got the job. He would have been more concerned about what would happen to him if he failed to meet expectations, but he knew better.
He had been purchased specifically to take care of the children, and his entire class was dedicated to exactly that. On top of that, he had seen zero interest in their children as people from the ducal pair. Instead they seemed to behave in such a way that indicated that the kids were more possessions than the slaves of the estate were. They were things to them, but, as far as he could tell, things that weren’t performing up to their expectations. Instead of attempting to fix whatever was wrong, or better yet talk to their children, they decided to throw a stranger at them instead. Admittedly, his debt slavery status allowed them to enforce certain behaviors with magical bonds, but that still didn’t change the fact that Adam had found yet more children whose parents made him glad he was an orphan.
Perhaps the most impressive thing to his mind was when he thought back to Martin’s explanation of the differences between Night City, and Sun King City. One was the home of those who took pride in the path of darkness; thieves, assassins, saboteurs, spies, and whores were the prevalent classes, and people prided themselves on their abilities in deception and disguise. The other was the home of priests, paladins, fighters, and farmers, where people were more forthright, holding to the value of a man’s word, a hard day’s work, and the honest truth.
He hadn’t spent a lot of time in Sun King City, but he’d met three different children from the city of the sun, and he pitied them all. The Queen of the Night’s city might have not had the best orphanage, but the average people had always been kindly disposed towards the boys when they were living on the street. People knew them, treated them fairly, and helped them out on many occasions. By contrast, Jay’s life on the street was an absolute nightmare, and the lives of the DeVille children seemed to lack any concept of love at all.
Still, he was trying to not let his preconceived notions of how the children were treated by their parents influence him. He didn’t want to like, pity, or care about them. He had no interest in using Instant Family on them, despite knowing he would need to if he wanted his skills to perform at their highest levels. It wasn’t just that Abigail had stabbed him that was making him feel that way, either. It was a combination of jealousy that they had their parents and their wealth, rage at his own situation, and a general dislike of everyone with the name DeVille.
All that being said, he also knew there wasn’t much he could do to stop any of it. He did pity them. He would be using Instant Family. Even if System Assistance didn’t kick in to make him behave the way it did, his own skills would mutiny if he treated the kids unfairly.
And deep in his heart, there was a tiny part that wanted to help the kids because they obviously needed it. A part that had only been five percent of his heart, but had just grown to six as he decided to do what he could to help them. Not because everything was forcing him to, but because he chose to.