Chapter 004
How the lack of sex-ed caused a family cold war
Out of all people who could possibly interrupt my coming out tragedy/comedy/drama - answers may vary depending on who you’d ask - it happened to be Her. The little femme fatale of our family - at least that’s the kind of vibe I get from her - Iverie. She firmly stumbles into the room, probably after seeing uncle Lenniel still covered in his own blood being dragged away by grandpa’s bodyguards, which I assume based on her shocked and irritated expression. She immediately interrupts the discussion my father has with grandfather by asking what exactly just happened.
“Well, we all witnessed what could only be called a revelation.” Father calmly answers, using a voice so cold that I can almost hear a glacier with a bunch of penguins, polar bears and seals, all playing around and trying to eat each other. One could safely assume that what happened today set his mood into one where he no longer wants or cares to hide his antipathy towards anyone. “It’s really a shame you’ve just missed it.”
I’m slightly astonished by grandfather’s silence. I thought he would say something about his son’s attitude, but it seems that being a father of an abused and molested child gives one a lot of leeway in the field of expressing emotions. Who would've thought that’s the case in this family.
“Oh? And what could that revelation be, Naharius? Lenniel tripping over his son’s toys? Or maybe Gods themselves decided to honour us with their company and beat him up?” How nice to finally get to know my own father’s name. It would feel kind of awkward to know the names of Lenniel and Iverie but not father’s. Then again I’d probably just dismiss it as this family’s fault and not mine.
“Try Lenniel turning out to be a sexual deviant who molested my son… who, to the surprize of us all, isn’t in fact retarded. Oh, but I’m sure, with an attitude like that it’s not a big news to you since you already knew all this and came here just to mock us!” It seems that father’s outburst worked, because Iverie genuinely looks heavily shocked.
Unfortunately it doesn’t last long. She quickly regains her composure and in turn looks right at me.
I try to avoid her gaze and not because of my host’s aversion - unlike with his strong dislike of uncle Lenniel he doesn’t seem to mind Iverie. No, this time it’s my… fear? I can’t really describe this feeling. It’s like something is screaming at me that under her disguise of a beautiful, composed and fashionably dressed woman hides a nest of venomous snakes which given the right circumstances can all leap at you and bite your life away. So either I got myself a sixth sense of sorts or there’s magic in play (I still didn’t understand in the slightest how it works in this world), or that black bastard wants to ‘send’ me a message.
Iverie averts her eyes from me for a moment to take a quick glance of disbelief at the two others… and then she walks right to me! Damn, damn, damn! I low-key expected her to grow fangs and talons and shred me to pieces right then and there. But no - she just examines me closely and - damn it - she suddenly shows me a really, really fake smile - I wander if claws and talons wouldn’t be better - and speak.
“I’m Iverie Veles. What’s your name?”
I presume that she expect me to run away and hide beneath a couch. Or something like that… And frankly, I’d gladly do it, only I can’t. Not after more or less purposefully putting myself into this situation. I wanted this… I needed this! I have to execute it to completion. I should answer with a proper introduction of my own. But my tongue seemingly has a mind of its own and says something far, far different.
“I don’t like you.”… Damn. It looks like my tongue has suicidal tendencies.
She holds that fake, disgusting smile for a few seconds - unfortunately only I can see it. Which more or less confirms my weird, irrational and slightly unnatural hunches about her sanity… something's really wrong with her but she manages to hide it quite well. It only bothers me more after that, that she decided to reveal this side of her only to me.
Or, she could just be a rare case of a nasty, immoral and ambitious bitch. I honestly don’t know which alternative would be worse. Especially since I just publicly insulted her and - at least in the future - I’m a potential threat for her position in the family.
“Well, that ultimately confirms it. He’s not only healthy, but also seems to be really intelligent for his age.” Father just couldn’t stop himself from commenting on my answer and Iverie doesn’t take it very well. She instantly spins around to face him, but instead of an attack I anticipated she simply asks him a question.
“So, what are you planning to do now? With this… development?” Impressive, I must admit. I can’t hear any venom in her voice. Did she swallow it? If so then I’m truly surprised that she survived. I was under impression that if she were to spit into the well she’d kill half the town with poison.
“First things first, providing my son with proper protection in form of bodyguards would be in order right away.” He informs her with antipathy filling both - his voice and expression. “After all, if the current events have shown us something, it’s that one can’t even trust one’s own family.” Painfully obvious sarcasm. And plenty of it. I can only guess that primary target of that statement was actually grandfather, as it’s him who responds.
“That’s true… I really did not expect Lenniel to do something like that.” He’s genuinely shocked and disgusted by what happened. Well… I can imagine how my old-world father would feel if I ever did something like what they think uncle did. I definitely wouldn’t have to fear the police intervening, since firstly they’d have to dig me out of a grave he’d put me into. I just almost felt bad for Lenniel over what I did to him. Almost. “Seems like it can’t be helped, I accept bodyguards. Anything else?”
“I want to be sure that all the slaves around him are directly mine.” Which makes sense - because of collars they must be loyal to him. But just when I was starting to feel sympathy towards him, he had to remind me what kind of business he’s involved in… “Moreover, as soon as he’ll reach the appropriate age a year or two from now, he’s going to get tutored… by tutors of my choice.” That was kinda confusing. I wasn’t sure why shouldn’t he be the one to choose… ah! Maybe grandfather tried to ease tensions by making sure that every child is taught by tutors chosen not only by his parents but also by other members of the family? That’s actually a plausible explanation considering grandfather’s failed ‘bonding time’ plan…
I must admit than in a certain way I like this new grandfather of mine. He’s one hell of an idealist which can be praiseworthy given the right conditions. A knight-errant type. Such people more often than not end up rather badly, but if they’re lucky they can get a statue and be praised by generation of historians to come.
“Oh? And why is that?” Iverie decided to step in. “Wasn’t it you who didn’t want to bother with educating that - by your own words - ‘deadweight’ all by yourself and dumped that responsibility onto me?” This quarrel ‘s… such a rollercoaster of emotions! From high and entertaining ‘well, my father isn’t that bad’ to low and horrifying ‘OHFUCKSOCLOSEHOWCOULDYOU?!’... What a terrifying fate have I just been spared from! That was such a fucking ‘near’ miss it might’ve even left a scar on my psyche. I’m left to wander after how many months there would happen a tragic and fatal accident centered around me.
“It was long before I found out he CAN actually be educated. Besides I always thought impossible tasks were your specialty, Iverie?” She either can’t hide her confusion or deliberately shows it. Grandfather’s however is completely honest. “It seems that by now you have failed only in learning how to grow old without becoming such a bitch.”
Ouch. Even slaves seem shocked. I can only guess that my father and Iverie never reached such level of bitterness in their bickering, at least with an audience. For a few seconds I seriously thought that he got her, but no. She only hisses, and then leaves the room loudly tapping her heels on the floor.
“Now she’s pissed.” States grandfather. “I’ll go and make sure she won’t set the house on fire.” And with that he also leaves the room.
“Well… if that wasn’t an eventful evening, but I think it’s already bedtime for you.” And with that way too cheesy line ends the first day in which my new dad acted like a father - or at least tried. Let’s hope it won’t be the last such day.
* * *
Six months have passed since that day and in that time I’ve learned two things. I found out that I’m almost completely in charge of this body as it gets nearly impossible to push my host outside of our mind even for a few minutes. And the second thing, well… this family have finally and definitively proven to me that they are just a bunch of assholes only pulling out for themselves. No, really… even though it seemed like everything would be different after my little performance.
One thing I have to admit - it started rather well. I was even give the promised bodyguards. Two of them working in shift. I didn’t really see the one guarding the door to my room at night since our schedules didn’t quite allow for a meeting. But my daytime guard - Gavlan - turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me in this new life. He’s of course a slave wearing this fancy magic collar. I doubt if at that point my father would trust anyone beside people literally unable to betray him. Gavlan’s been chosen for my guardian because of his proficiency as a warrior. Initially he wasn’t at all talkative but after just a few weeks spent with me he realised that I’m not as bad as he expected, so he began showing some initiative.
Oh, and he’s a beastman. A wolfman to be precise. This world never ceases to amaze me. Despite that, he isn’t as much wolflike as one would expect from Earth’s fantasy fiction. It looks like in this world ‘beastmen’ can be both - a human with some animal features but also an intelligent animal-like humanoid. And they’d be in fact a part of the same race, only different variations of it.
They can be found pretty much everywhere, but most of them inhabit an island - or rather a small continent - called Leana, which is somewhere to the west from here. Far west from here - though I didn’t see any maps yet. It’s a frequent target of slaver raids, because it’s quite disorganised, filled with warring tribes and only civilised by small and highly decentralised countries, never strong enough to successfully repel invaders.
And Gavlan was unfortunate enough to be captured in one of such raids organised by - big surprise - my family. I swear, it’s like they do everything they can to make me - slightly speaking - not like them. But that’s about all I know about Gavlan. I didn’t really ask too many questions because I noticed that he dislikes talking about himself. There’s nothing like pretending to be a nice and well behaved boy in a world of mean and hard to understand adults, huh?
The most important and positive result of my reveal as a completely normal child - beside the bodyguards - was that I could finally explore the house I was living in. And while having someone follow me everywhere I go was… slightly irritating, he could answer all the questions I had about this new - for me - world. Of course I couldn’t ask any suspiciously precise questions - I was only a four-year-old kid! But even by simple imitation of childish curiosity I received some valuable informations.
It looked like I was born in the coastal city of Res. It’s - more or less - a merchant republic and a major trade center. It’s a part of ‘Free Cities’, but I’m not sure if it’s a treaty, alliance, or something entirely different.
Climate here looks pretty… mediterranean. There’s no actual winter here, just a rainy season of sorts. Over time I’m growing to hate this weather as I always enjoyed low temperatures more than high ones.
Funny thing - the religion here is at the same time widespread and nearly nonexistent. While as far as I know everyone believe in some deity that is supposed to look after this city, I never had any occasion to see priests or religious ceremonies, with a sole but notable exception of that one celebration in my early days here - which I still remember mostly because of a huge snake materializing from a small fountain. But who knows, it might’ve just as well been more magical than religious in nature and origin. But regarding local beliefs - According to Gavlan, the deity ‘resides’ in the grand temple somewhere in the city - only the temple tower with a big clock can be seen from the mansion.
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It’s pretty Sumerian-like, because it seems like every city/town and sometimes even villages have its own unique deity or at least a protective spirit. For now I take all this ‘residing’ business as a metaphor. But who am I to judge this by my own common sense - since it’s a fantasy world and all, I’m not going to take my own opinion for granted.
But all of that is off topic from ‘a bunch of assholes’ theme. It all started with relatively peaceful two weeks filled with my uncle’s excuses and accusations against my father. In Lenniel’s version of the story it was all my father’s plan from the very beginning - he obviously made me say all those lies. But, as that didn’t actually happen - there was no proof. And no one payed any attention to Lenniel’s ‘excuses’... at least for now.
But in the end, what practically divided the whole family into pieces was the very same ‘news’ which lead me to my desperate reveal - my mother’s pregnancy. Well… not pregnancy itself but rather new light casted upon it when father decided to dig into this topic a little bit and found that conception must have happened exactly when he was away on a business trip in a different country for a whole month.
A lot to take in, i know, and that wasn’t even the big problem here… Simple adultery would just end up as a conflict between my parents. but my mother - her name is Alva by the way - turned out to be an idiot. Not only she cheated on father when he was away… she did it with a slave. Moreover - she consciously let that slave impregnate her. By which I mean having sex without protection - because of this whole situation and everyone talking about it I know that there are methods to practice safe sex here, but I probably won’t learn about their effectiveness till I’ll get older and have someone explain it to me - and with someone belonging to the race that can procreate with humans… In this case another human - It wouldn’t work with Gavlan for example.
Why she did all that I’ll probably never know since she kept avoiding the subject for obvious reasons. However the deed was done and the whole family went mad.
Quarrels and debates were so frequent and loud that even I heard most of them. And their contents were rather simple - whether or not throw my mother together with her bastard out of the family and disown them…
Fortunately my dear relatives didn’t go as far as to suggest throwing me out alongside her, but doubts about Naharius actually being my father begin to appear. And on doubts it ended… Everyone have been too preoccupied with my mother’s futile struggles to ease this whole situation. Futile because, well… it was all her fault after all. Nothing she could do would help her in any way. Besides even if she was actually disowned it still would be better fate than what happened to that unlucky slave. Why unlucky? He didn’t have any say in the matter, he’s a slave so he had to do whatever my mother told him to. And because of her he has been sold to a mine or quarry… I don’t really know the details. I guess his presence reminded every family member of what my mother did… Petty and stupid - another reason for me to dislike the Veles.
This state of family argument continued for two whole months because no one actually wanted to make any decisions. And then... Then my father have definitely proven that he’s also an idiot. He knocked up a slave girl. And that was a big gamechanger.
Since by then everyone was more or less aware of the fact that I’m not retarded people didn’t gossip freely with me around anymore, but I still managed to find out a few things. It looked like my father was so pissed with his wife’s betrayal that he decided to vent his frustration in the most idiotic way possible. Seriously, somebody should teach him how to masturbate, that would solve his problems.
Anyway, the arguments more or less ceased after that. My mother accepted her much lowered standing within the family - but she and her child remained a part of it. She also forced my father to - more or less - legitimize both bastards, mainly to humiliate him. It’s not like he could do much to protest at this point - he just lost everything he gained because of my actions against uncle Lenniel. Not only he turned out to be a hypocrite, but a stupid one at that, who couldn’t even restrain himself and keep it in his pants.
Not to mention that having a child with a slave in this family is viewed as something nearly as bad as being a child molester, though I can’t really understand why. So now it was once again Iverie to be the number one potential successor. Seriously, father? Grrr… On the other hand, considering how it was done in Earth’s ancient times, Alva should be glad she wasn’t disowned despite her husband’s stupidity. For unknown reasons men’s adultery was often trivialised.
One point for Res. Current score: Res 1, Earth 10000…
The only good thing, aside the fact that I was going to have two siblings - and for an only child always regretting not having any, it was going to be an interesting experience - was my newly found freedom. Cold war in the house reached a level at which everyone was too preoccupied to even notice me. So I could, well… together with Gavlan, explore the mansion relatively freely.
And I must admit - it’s pretty impressive. It’s a small complex of buildings surrounding the main open area. It’s all so Roman that it might very well just be called a peristyle, from which one can easily reach any destination. To the south is the atrium - a cross between a garden and the main hall after the entrance. East and west sides of the atrium are closed of by utility buildings like kitchen, laundry, stables and a staircases both to the basement serving as a warehouse and slave quarters on the upper floor.
On the opposite side of the whole house is a more business oriented building with an adjacent library and in which grandfather had his office.
However up to this point I spent most of my life in the biggest building, housing most of the rooms. In a way it’s cut in half by peristyle - closing it off from east and west - and has one floor above the ground level.
My peaceful days - in a way this ‘cold war’ was much more pleasant for me than the time before the revelation of my mother’s infidelity - lasted for about four months. And now, after that that time I’m ‘impatiently’ waiting for the first of my bastard younger siblings to be born. Of course, they didn’t let me in to witness the childbirth itself but I’m sitting together with Gavlan right outside the room where the whole event takes place. Of course, my father isn’t here. Actually, nobody’s here besides me and the slaves. Most likely even my mother wouldn’t be here if she could avoid it. It doesn’t bode well for the future of the child.
Fortunately I don’t have to wait long - mostly because no one bothered to inform me that it started (why would they). But even though I was late for the party the short wait is mostly the result of it being a fast and simple labor. And when it’s over a slave accoucheuses carries my younger sibling out. It seems like, despite her initial pride about this whole pregnancy, our mother really changed her mind about this kid when father found out about her betrayal… I still can’t come up with a good reason for her to ever think that getting pregnant with a slave would be a splendid idea… She’s really kind of an idiot.
Somehow I can’t utter any words. I didn’t expect this to have any effect on me… but it seems like it just got to me that from now on I’m going to have an actual - living, breathing sibling. I never had one, not even in my previous life. Gavlan, on the other hand, doesn’t seem affected as much as me and rescues the situation.
“So, what’s this new Veles gonna be? Young master or mistress?”
“It’s a girl.”
I have a sister now.
* * *
Cold war within the family continued even after the birth of my sister. Actually, I’d even say that it got worse after that, and she was the only real victim of it. After nearly four months since her birth our father still doesn’t even acknowledge her existence. Although, the first one to get rid of any responsibility was in fact mother… she practically abandoned her newborn daughter leaving all the related duties to slave nannies.
I finally got to know some more about local religion. It seems that a newborn baby doesn’t receive a name till about three weeks after birth. There’s a naming ceremony similar to baptism held in the city’s only temple. Unfortunately due to my ‘dear’ father’s developing paranoia - his brother molesting his son, wife getting pregnant with a slave and then getting his own bastard really shattered his perception of safety… - I couldn’t leave the mansion…
It was actually pretty sad seeing that mother was the only Veles to attend my sister’s ‘naming’. And even she was there only because it was somehow required. Moreover, right after the ceremony ended she left her daughter with slaves who were accompanying them to the temple.
Truth be told I’m not entirely sure I would go even if I had permission to do so. After my previous life I’ve been contacted by a mysterious, black, seemingly shapeless creature with multiple personalities… and reincarnated here in this world to unleash havoc and destruction… I don’t suppose such qualifications would work in my favor in the vicinity of a local deity. I still don’t know if that part about said deity ‘residing’ in the temple is actually any real and I don’t feel like risking it yet.
After this whole ceremony mess I didn’t even want to try asking my mother about my sister’s name. I eventually learnt it through Gavlan who asked among slaves present in the temple during the naming… Lena. I kinda like that name.
Following months were… depressing. Most of this time I spent with Lena. And I was the only family member to actually do that. I know that she’s still an infant but come on! There’s definitely something wrong with this situation. I didn’t have to help in any chores, slaves were more than sufficient in that matter and even if I tried to help I would only make a mess and cause problems.
Fortunately my interest in my sister didn’t seem to cause any suspicions. I guess it was simply seen, once again, as genuine childish curiosity. Acting like an actual young kid is sometimes really hard. I mean… I see all this, let’s be honest here - pathology going on and I can’t do shit about it! I have to act as a polite child all the while internally I desperately want to order the slaves to leave, barricade all the exits and set this whole place on fire. But I have a confession to make. I’m doing this whole ‘spending time with my sister’ thing mostly to earn some positive opinions among slaves. It’s pretty cold hearted, I know. I’d still do it, even out of my own free will… but certainly not to this extent. She’s just few weeks old, what exactly are we supposed to do together?!
So, yeah… That four months went by rather uneventful. And now, it seems like this whole irrational state of family cold war is still going to last for at least this long once more because by now I also have a brother. At least father had enough decency to be here when the slave girl he slept is giving birth. I honestly didn’t expect him to do so but despite his recent potential psychological problems - or maybe because of them - he even holds my newborn brother for a while. Moreover he even shown some emotions. Quite surprising but well, it’s not like he’s the worst person in this family… he pales in comparison to Lenniel or Iverie, in my humble opinion. It’s rather natural in this particular environment. Antiquity in most cases was much worse than our present times - or even middle ages. This father of mine would probably be deemed as hopeless and unreformable on Earth because the social norms changed so dramatically throughout the centuries. Here? He’s probably just slightly above average when it comes to decency. Lenniel or Iverie however…
Speak of the devil… she actually shows her ugly face. Not at the beginning, but after my father left my brother to the nannies, as it’s already getting late but only now I was finally allowed to see my newly born brother… I can hear her on the outside of the room. She didn’t come in, just asked one of the slaves whether the child was a boy or a girl, and if it was born healthy. After receiving answers, I could immediately hear her leaving.
I think that it’s suspicious and because of that I decide to follow her. Or at least try.
Persuading Gavlan to accompany me could be tricky, so I simply tell him that I want to go for a walk so I can sleep better. He doesn’t seem to mind, probably because I’m not his problem at night. Then again, it’s not like there are whole battalions of assassins lurking within the mansion, so he has no reason to refuse.
Then I simply follow Iverie desperately trying not to be too obvious about it so that Gavlan won’t think of it as suspicious. She doesn’t even try to be stealthy - why would she anyway - and the entire building is slowly getting ready for the night, so I can hear her footsteps from quite afar. Fooling Gavlan won’t have been possible for too long, so it’s quite fortunate that her chambers are close to the place where the slave girl was giving birth.
When we reach her quarters, I lie to Gavlan again, this time by blabbering something about getting curious what my aunty is doing. Sometimes it’s actually quite nice to be a kid this age because nobody takes me seriously… Gavlan seemingly decides that I’m only playing and let me eavesdrop a little on her door.
Iverie has two kids. One of them - Kiera - I already know. But she has a brother who’s two years younger than me. I can hear them in the background, so they are definitely not asleep yet, but sounds they’re making are muffled so they must be in a different room. Unfortunately they’re loud enough to make clearly hearing what Iverie’s saying rather difficult.
She’s not alone - I can differentiate two male voices but they are totally indecipherable. One, most likely, belongs to her husband - who as far as I know is controlled by her in such an extent that he most likely requires her permission to do as much as use a toilet. He’s a laughing stock even among slaves. I once heard one of them saying that he’s in fact an independent man, and manifests his independence everyday by choosing his clothes without consulting his wife.
“Well, now that we know it’s a boy…” I can hear Iverie speaking, at least partially. She must be closer to the door than the men. But sometimes for some reason she lowers her voice to the point when I can’t hear it. “... within three weeks. And of course neither one of you (…) you really call yourself men?” One of the men’s voices says something I can’t understand and Iverie answers. “... you expected from him? That was literally the most retarded thing you’ve ever…” The same voice again. This time what he says sounds like a longer monologue. “... well it wouldn’t be a problem if you didn’t mess up with the dose (…) stop jabbering about being framed by him, he’s just a fucking kid for Gods’ sake.”
Oh shit. It seems like the second man… is uncle Lenniel? Now that’s what you call a surprising development. Gavlan with his great hearing must’ve heard it too - even though he wasn’t really eavesdropping - as he suddenly grabs my arm and almost drag me away from the door. On his face is a clouded look. This time he doesn’t care about my protests and just leads me to my room.
I definitely have a few things to think about. What was it about ‘messing up the dose’? Not to mention… what Iverie meant by ‘within three weeks’ and then saying something about ‘them not wanting to help her with something’? And it’s all somehow connected to my new sibling being born as a boy…
I suddenly have terrible premonitions.