Right now, I am very busy. Squashing Ants, or feeding caterpillars to them. Eventually even disturbing their hive and watching the enfolding chaos, as they try to repair it.

Well they aren't real ants. I just call them that way, because they behave like ants. They seem more like little crabs. I really should start to investigate the biology of this sick world seriously.

It's always good to know if something that looks cute is deadly in reality.

Feels like what a normal boy, at age of five, should do right? Playing with bugs.... it feels like a great step backwards. Eventually my parents should stop and scold me for hurting a living thing.

But mother doesn't really care about my actions in this. The problem is, that in my mind, I am not five years old, but much much older.

Now it sounds just creepy, am I right? I know this, but it feels nostalgic. Playing with the life of lesser beings, having them move on your whim. It's like in my old times as a god once more hrhr.....

It also distracts me from those headaches, I have had them for some time now. Celes is also here in the palace garden and is sitting on a chair about three meters away from me.

Ireth and Rose are present too. Ireth is reading a book, while Rose does some gardening.

“You know, that you are the worst scum ever, for doing that? The look on your face is creepy!”, Celes looks at me like I am some kind of dirt on her shoe. “Why do you do that anyway? You get some kind of kick from that?”

“Not really, but I have had those headaches for a while now. They wont go away, despite casting all kinds of healing spells on myself. So I am in a reaallllyyy foul mood right now.”

“It's a real blessing for the people of the multiverse that you are not a god any more! After hearing this, I am convinced, that you never deserved the job. I am sure you relieved your pent up emotions like that as a god too. Only in that case, real people had to suffer for it!”, She makes a grimace.

“But I feel those headaches too. Maybe we have caught some kind of disease? It sickens me to think, that I should have something in common with you.”

I can't argue with that. Admittedly, she hit the mark.

“Oh my, children sure grow fast.”, Ireth closes the book and walks over to Celes. Before Celes can react she gets snatched out of the chair by mothers tail and has her head inspected. Mother is like that. Everyone, who is weaker than her, is treated like a puppet.

“Kyaa! I just have to hug my cute little daughter in law! Having your horns come out. It won't be long, before you two can be introduced to the public.”, she declares. “Ho.. Ho.. Horns?”, Celes is flabbergasted.

“YES! Everyone undergoes a transformation at the age of around five years. Some get Horns, some tails, some just go through minor changes like pointy ears. Rose is a case for that. There are all sorts of things!

They show your latent ability. People with the horns and tails of the royal families, are known to possess extraordinary strength and mana reserves. Rose as another example has superior hand-eye coordination and speed.

You seem to have inherited the royal bloodline very strongly like my Angrod. My husbands royal blood isn't that strong. So if you don't shave his head, you can't see his horns.

Males of the royal lines have horns and slit pupils, if they have inherited our blood strong. Females have horns and grow a tail if their blood is strong.

The fact, that you both start to change before your fifth birthday, surely means that you will both go through the full change. Kya, I can't wait! Celes will surely look cute with a little tail!”

Mother hugs Celes even tighter. Yes! That's it! Crush her with your stupid strength! Wahaha, I can almost see her eyes pop out already.

“Ta... Tail?”, Celes has a complicated expression. It seems she doesn't exactly like the idea of a tail. I can understand that, if you reincarnate with a hugely different body from your first, you always have an uneasy feeling about it.

But its just a tail. There is worse stuff out there. I resume my bug-torturing, as I notice that my vision is a little blurry. Hmmm, slit pupils mother said? Shit!

Now my eyes start hurting too, this world is crazy. Is there nothing like normal biology here? Hippogriffins and crab-ants! Not only the animals are fucked up, but the people too!!

Living with Celes sure wasn't fun in all that time. There is always something we are able to fight about. Not a day goes by, without having a hard time to endure her existence.

At least something got better: Mothers attention is now partly diverted to her. I think she got adopted, hehe.

One of the guards enters the garden. “My Queen! Your father has arrived and will be here shortly! He expressed, that he wishes to see you as soon as possible.”

Celes gets dropped and crawls away from mother with sweat on her forehead. Whoho, looks creepy, did she break some of her bones? With that style you would get employed to most horror movies instantly!

“Sure. Children, you can meet your grandfather for the first time! It sure takes long to inspect the whole border!”, mother rushes off.

“Heal meee...! Angroood!”, Celes has tears in her eyes!

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Nope! You should learn some healing magic for yourself. That shoulder sure looks dislocated.”, I won't help her. I still hold grudges against her. If she is in pain a little longer, this will surely make my day!

“You know that I was never good at healing! It's just not my forte. If you don't heal me, I will do something you won't like for sure! It was your mothers doing after all! How did you even survive the time as a baby?”, she is wriggling on the floor in pain by now.

I sigh.

“Fine, but you owe me one!”, I stand up to grab her arm, while standing on her shoulder blade and start pulling.

“WHAT?” -Celes

“Never said I would heal you in a manner that won't hurt!” -Me

*SNAP*

“MMGGNGNMMMN!”, Celes bites her teeth together and hits the ground with her free hand. She refuses to scream. Very brave, but pointless in my opinion. “Heal!”, I patch her shoulder up with basic magic. Something, she could have done by herself, if she had the courage to set her shoulder by herself.

“Hmm. Mothers hugs sure are equal to the love, she feels. Maybe its because, with both of us, it feels like she would have both my older brother and sister, who got killed, back. Ah, don't mention that to her! She still has strong feelings about that.

It sure felt good to step on you, by the way! I could make a habit out of this.”, I muse to myself and nod. I get another glare that tells me, that my worth just dropped another step downwards.

“Why have you never met your grandfather anyway? We are almost five by now! Most of my relatives made a visit to the main family already.”, Celes asks.

“Well. As far as I now my fathers parents are dead. And my grandmother, from my mothers side, is dead too. They all died together with my siblings in the same attack. Some kind of bombing,  I heard.

My grandfather, Nicosar of Tirna, went for a complete inspection of all fortresses and border crossings at that time. It looked like the guys responsible for it came from Stricc. So he tried to find out how they got through the border control.

There are about 4000 minor checkpoints, fortresses and towns along the border. If you take a day of your time for everyone of them, you have your hands full for quite some time.”

Celes nods at that, “It still feels pointless with the current changes in policy, he could have stopped and returned any time.”

Just at that moment, mother came back. A geezer with grey hair is with her. He has the same horns as her, though one of them is broken. Behind him a racoons tail is slowly waving left and right, he has a walking stick, which he puts down at our sight.

“Hahaha! My grandson! How much I wanted to see you!”, he grins as he walks over and picks me up to hold me in front. That grip! I have a bad feeling about this.

“Grandfather! I greeEEE eee EEE eee EEE eee EEE.........”, he threw me up! I turn at least five summersaults, before I get caught by a foot again. Oh no. Now I have a roller-coaster grandfather too.

He drops me to the ground, where I start retching. I am not well, not well at all! This is my weak point!

“Hahaha! You will have a special training from tomorrow on, grandson. I will make a real Tirna noble out of you! And who have we here?”, he starts over to Celes, who takes a step back and looks at him with a wary expression.

Suddenly he kneels down and massages her hips, pinching them a little at the end and stands up again. Celes is frozen solid at that and doesn't move a muscle.

“Hmm, yes yes. That's good! The potential is there. You will be able to have many heirs. We need many of those.”, he nods earnestly.

-PUNCH-

“Ugh!”

-STAB-

-POP-

“aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA!”

-drop-

-STOMB-

-KICK - KICK - KICK -

It was so fast, I almost didn't get it. As soon, as he stood again, she punched him in the groin. He went to his knees at that. At the same time she pulled a hairpin from her stuck up hairdo and stabbed it into his left eye, which was now in reach.

With the other hand, she popped out his right eyeball. While he went down completely, she dropped it and then crushed it with her right foot. That done, she started kicking him with her left foot. There was no hesitation at all!

Phew! I am so glad, that our parents negotiated a no violence contract between us. But I am sure you have done it now Celes! This could become a real diplomatic issue. I see the headlines for tomorrow! Stricc princess permanently blinds valued military leader of Tirna!

“AAAAhahAhahAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”, Nicosars scream transforms into a mad laugh, as he and all the blood dissolves into white mist. Reforming behind a wide eyes Celes, completely unharmed, he throws her over his shoulder like a kidnapper. She struggles, but can't resist his strength.

This guy is not good news! I try to run, but get grabbed by the collar. “Blergh!”, comes out while I am pulled back abruptly.

-

“This is good material my daughter! I will be sure to make real nobles out of them, before they are introduced to the other houses!”