One day, a doctor from the capital of a human kingdom is called to an earldom.

Apparently, the earl DarkRaven’s wife is in her last month of pregnancy, and is about to give birth.

As an insurance, the earl had requested his good friend, a duke, to recommend him a good doctor who would be able to ensure an easy birth. The duke had sent his own doctor, as he had very good relationship with the earl, coming from their childhood, so they are like brothers.

Even the earl’s children call him “uncle”, which greatly and clearly makes him happy, as he doesn’t have kids of his own. Therefore, the duke cherishes the earl’s children as if they were his own, and didn’t hesitate to send off his personal pharmacist to his childhood friend’s territory, in order to not lose a new cute “niece” or “nephew”, as well as not sadden his beloved “nieces” and “nephews”.

When the pharmacist finally arrived at the earldom’s capital, he was quickly let in, as the earl’s wife had suddenly started early childbirth just before the pharmacist came to the town.

The pharmacist was an experienced old man, so he knew what he had to do when got to the scene.

He quickly opened his case filled with various surgery instruments and many different and vivid colored potions, and started working. Fortunately, the head maid was there, and she had a lot of experience, so she had immediately ordered the maids under her to bring hot water and towels to the earl’s bedroom. As she had experience, the pharmacist had asked for her help with the delivery.

*****

The delivery was a though one, the mother had lost consciousness half way through, but it was still a success, thanks for the hard efforts of the pharmacist, assisted by the head maid.

The head maid held the newborn child in her hands, as he was screaming and crying. It was a boy.

Hearing the pharmacist call from inside the bedroom that the delivery was a success, the earl powerfully and noisily barged into the room, making the newborn cry even louder.

- Master, it was a success! The mistress is alright, although she has lost her consciousness, and the born baby is healthy! (head maid)

As the head maid was very respectful of the earl and his family, she had also loved the family’s children, as she was the one who raised all of them so far. Having another child, which might have been born unhealthy or even… dead, but was healthy, it made her extremely happy and cheerful.

She couldn’t hide her blooming smile, and tears of joy flowed down her face. She couldn’t wipe the tears, as she was carefully holding the baby, focusing solely on him.

The earl couldn’t blame her, and he himself was a kind man in his 40-s, so instead of reprimanding her misconduct, he went to her, hugged her and the baby with one hand, while he wiped the flowing tears with the other hand, with his expensive looking handkerchief.

- Was it hard on her? (earl)

- Yes, it was… but she is fine now. The mistress is only unconscious; the pharmacist said that she would wake up soon. (head maid)

- Is that so… then it’s alright to have some fun with him while she isn’t interfering! (earl)

The earl wore a mischievous smile on his face, as he blatantly said he will fool around while his wife isn’t there to stop him.

This isn’t the first time he had done this, from the birth of his second child, he started trying to take them away and bring them to a playing room, where a lot of toys were lying around, and he even had a dog, a cat, and a bunny to entertain the kids.

When the first child was born, who was the first son and heir, he was there during the child birth, holding his wife’s hand as every loving husband would do.

But afterwards, the second child birth was more dangerous, as she was very weak and fell asleep right after giving birth. The earl, holding the second child to his chest, had seen the child pleasantly smile at him, trying to grab his nose with his short, and cute little hands.

The earl was so infuriated by the cute notion and appearance of his second child, that he decided to play with her until his wife wakes up. He couldn’t just let her hog all of the children for herself! That was when the idea of constructing a detailed play room came to his mind, as he played with the girl.

When the earl’s wife finally woke up from her slumber, she was angry at her husband for acting like he did, snatching the newborn daughter, and left towards the bedroom, to feed the child, and rest with her.

From then on, the earl had started a war with his wife, trying to take (actually kidnap) their kids upon childbirth. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes she feigned sleep and caught him in the act, and he couldn’t do anything.

And now, it was the best chance so far to do the usual! He couldn’t be any happier because of his fortune.

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But, him barging into the room, and yelling happily about his intentions, had woken up the earl’s wife, and she quickly reprimanded, and took the child to her bed, and he finally stopped crying, as if he had realized from the gentleness caring notions of the earl’s wife, that she is his mother.

Feeling relieved, he fell into sleep, hugged by his mother, who was still lecturing his father for his unbefitting behavior as an earl, and as a husband.

*****

In the end, the youngest son to be born, was called Sirius DarkRaven, as his deceased great grandfather, who had risen the DarkRaven family into nobility, was called.

He turned out to be a very curious kid, unafraid of anything, even going so far as to try to climb up a tree in the manor’s garden to get closer to a bird’s nest, only to fall down, as if surfing along the curves of the tree, from a height of half a meter, when he was 3 years old.

His cute actions easily drew out smiles from everyone who saw them, even veteran soldiers working for the earl, who had been in wars and saw many horrors and had done a lot of things themselves, had their serious expressions melting away into unconscious smiles.

Sirius was very known throughout the manor, and stories of his cuteness had even spread to the city outside the manor’s walls.

It was a known fact that he and the youngest daughter, who was his sister about 6 years older than him, had a magnificent relationship, having many tea parties, and sometimes sleeping over at one another’s room.

The youngest daughter, Silvia, was known to be a beauty, just like her mother, and was a good person, not getting mad at her cute younger brother when he did something wrong, only scolding him because she knew it was needed, but didn’t want to.

Silvia especially hated people who would make her precious Sirius cry, even leashing out her anger on her own father, the earl, when he once tried to force Sirius to wear a school uniform.

Silvia had a lot of fans, the biggest and most shy of them had been a young gardener, who she had picked up from the city’s streets when he saw how well tended his small, and poor house’s garden had been. She had been a 12-year-old girl at the time, while the gardener was older than she was by 2 years.

She threw a small tantrum when her father didn’t want to let an unknown 14 year old youth from the poor outskirts of his city to freely enter and leave his manor, and finally, he relented.

The Gardener was then put to work as an apprentice of the old gardener, focusing mainly on the tending techniques for roses, as those were the favorite flowers of the youngest earl’s daughter, Silvia.

Knowing that his life changed for the better only because of the young lady, he felt immense gratefulness towards her, that changed into love when he got happy because of her praises for his tending to the manor’s roses.

But he was a commoner, and she was a noble, and not just any noble, but an earl’s daughter. So every time she praised his work, or just when he saw her, he felt his heart tightening because of love, but also because he knew it was a love that would never be fulfilled…

Aside from Silvia and Sirius, there were a few more brothers and sisters, who had already been married off to other families with good relationships with the earl’s family, or went to find apprenticeship or into military service, to get some achievements of their own.

One such brother, who had been sent to a military academy, was a 20-year-old second son, Lucas DarkRaven. He was older than Silvia by 6 years, and older than Sirius by 17 years.

He was a young man, with a good physique and a hardworking personality. He didn’t discriminate at all, as opposed to the common nobles, and had a lot of friends.

He had excellent grades in combat classes, while his grades in study classes were slightly above average.

He also cherished his young brother, Sirius. He once tried to teach swordsmanship to Sirius, but got reprimanded by his brother, sisters, parents, and the head maid.

He was a bit too eager, and also it was a secret that the residents of the house and the earl’s family didn’t want to see Sirius grow up too fast, they wanted him to stay innocent and adorable as he is now, in his childhood.

*****

Sirius was 5 years old now.

He had been secretly learning some magic from his sister, Silvia.

When he first conjured magic, which was a ball of water, he was so amazed by it, and got too proud from his sister’s compliment, that his concentration wavered, and the ball of water exploded, drenching both of them.

Because they naturally needed to change clothes and dry themselves, they quickly got the attention of the head maid, who reprimanded them for becoming wet, and after a questioning, she got to know of their secret magic lessons.

She was angry with Silvia for teaching Sirius magic, but seeing Sirius’ dejected face on the verge of crying, she praised him for invoking magic in such a young age.

After that, the head maid consulted the earl about the matter, and Sirius got a personal magic tutor.

The magic tutor was amazed at the amount of mana the young Sirius held within him, and suggested to the earl to send him to the royal capital, and get him apprenticeship in the royal magic court, to which the earl declined without a second of thought.

They wouldn’t see Sirius angelic smile, or even him sleeping if he was taken far away and closed of like that! Only when he would be considered an adult who is able to precisely control his magic, would he be able to visit – not return – to his family! If he got apprenticeship in the royal magic court, he’d become bounded by them, he couldn’t even treat his family as his family, and would need to treat them how a royal court magician treats an earl and an earl’s family!

Because of that suggestion, the earl chased the tutor away, before he could object, and told him to forget about the matter.

And thus, Sirius’ magic lessons with a tutor were suspended for an unknown period of time.

*****

A few months after Sirius’ magic lessons were suspended, during a cold and stormy night, the young Sirius couldn’t sleep. Therefore, he took his favorite book about a human hero defeating vile beastly demons, and went to his father’s study room, hoping he would read him the picture book.

As he came near his father’s study room door, he wanted to knock on the door as he was taught before entering.

As he raised his hand, his hand stopped because he heard yelling from inside the room. He thought he was noticed, and was about to be scolded for not being asleep, but instead wandering in the manor. As he was pondering whether to run or just ask for forgiveness, the yells continued.

But now, he could recognize their meaning.

- Sebastian, what did you just say?!? Did they really come into our territory?! (Earl)

- Y-yes, milord. The eyewitness was Gerald, a loyal veteran that retired from his service from our guard ranks just 2 years ago. (Sebastian)

- Then, did they not notice him? (Earl)

- No, sir, he didn’t see them following him. (Sebastian)

Sirius couldn’t get himself to knock on the door, knowing that an important sounding conversation is going on inside the study room.

Also, judging from their words, it seems like they’re talking about kobolds, who are known to be demons, worshippers of the devil, and even the book Sirius wanted to have his father read to him had kobolds being the bad guys.

He quickly left the study, and went to his big sister’s room.