Chương 10: Chapter 1.10: New Home, New Problems

Led by Marcus, the siblings and Brutus approached their new stepmother and the sharp-faced old man. Favius plastered a smile on his face and studied his new mother. She looked strict. Her hair was bound back in a simple braid, and her expression held polite curiosity. Marcus stopped a few steps from her, and everyone else followed his example as he inclined his head.

"Hesnia, I have returned. I assume you have received my messengers?" For a second, something unreadable passed over the woman's face. Then she smiled and looked over the children.

"Yes, I've heard that our family has gotten some..." She paused, pursing her lips.

"New additions." Her gaze flicked over Favius and Urania with something uncomfortably close to disdain, then settled on Lia and Marius with a smile before she turned back to her husband.

"But before I can meet my new children..." She gestured to a household servant, and the man brought forth a piece of bread, a carafe of wine, and a cup similar to the one that had been used in the rituals of the Magnus household. She stepped forward and offered first the wine, then the bread to Marcus.

"Husband, be welcomed back into our home. You were dearly missed." Marcus inclined his head.

"I thank you for the bread and wine, wife." He turned to Brutus, tension visible in the man's shoulders.

"Will you swear an oath of hospitality, Ovinius Kestrelo?" Brutus inclined his head.

"I shall do so." Marcus took over the wine cup and the bread and addressed Brutus.

"Will you partake of the wine and bread of the Ovinius Loran household and swear to adhere to the codes of hospitality?" Brutus inclined his head.

"I, Brutus Ovinius Kestrelo, the One-Hundred-Man Slayer, am grateful to accept the hospitality of the Loran branch and swear by the Warrior to adhere to the laws of hospitality." A tear welled in Favius's eyes as Marcus repeated the words he had exchanged with Severin on the day of his true father's death. He blinked away the tears as Marcus stepped to the side and began talking to the well-dressed elderly servant standing beside his wife. That's probably the majordomo.

Hesnia gestured at the nursemaid holding Lia, and the woman walked over, handing the baby to Hesnia, and Marius ran forward alongside her.

"Aunt Hesnia!" Urania stepped forward to speak, but Favius grabbed her shoulder and shook his head. A brief flash of anger crossed Urania's face, but Favius whispered to her, "Later." She ground her teeth and swallowed before sighing and observing how Hesnia was holding Lia and hugging Marius. Then Hesnia straightened, cleared her throat, and addressed Favius and Urania.

"Now, children. A few things so we don't start off on the wrong foot. This is a proper household, and I expect behavior that befits your standing as young aristocrats. You will be educated in etiquette and tutored in the other noble arts. You will address me as Mother." Again, Favius squeezed Urania's shoulder as she prepared to say something that would likely escalate the situation. But inwardly, Favius himself was groaning. A strict disciplinarian. Amazing.

Hesnia continued and gestured at a small group of servants.

"Each of you shall be assigned a personal slave who shall take care of your needs as befits your status as young masters and mistresses of this household." Favius's heart stuttered. Slaves? He looked over the servants and reconsidered everything he had seen—everything he had simply assumed. Hell, the flour merchant in the market had even mentioned it, but this world's memories had somehow prevented him from noticing. His jaw clenched. Of course, this is a primitive and savage world.

And even on Earth, not having slaves was historically speaking the anomaly. A brief wave of disgust rose in him, but he crushed it down. I'm a ten-year-old political hostage. I'm in no position to do anything about slavery, so there's no point in getting upset about it. He ground his teeth before relaxing deliberately. For now. A middle-aged man with strict features and a professional smile stepped forward.

Urania had already been introduced to the female slave who would be taking care of her needs, and simply nodded at the woman. When Hesnia's gray eyes settled on him, he swallowed.

"Favius, this is Tiro. He has served me well and shall do the same for you. Now, as to your schedule and other expectations—" That was the moment a loud girlish scream broke the solemnity of the scene.

"Daddy, you are home!" Favius frowned. Her features and clothes were certainly female, but her hair was cropped close to her skull. The girl rushed towards Marcus, who picked her up and spun her around in an embrace.

"Caliga! I was wondering where you were." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Favius noticed the flash of fury on Hesnia's face. And as Marcus settled his daughter down and looked her over, Hesnia spoke up.

"Girl, I told you to stay inside." A bewildered expression settled over the girl's face. She looked about Favius's age.

"But Mother, it is clear the patriarch of the household wanted to see me. And as you've taught me, it is the duty of a wife to serve her husband. So I assumed it was merely a mistake that the slave told me to stay inside." Hesnia ground her teeth but schooled her expression into a tight smile as Marcus looked up.

"You are getting so smart, my little lynx." He ruffled her hair, which Caliga playfully fought off.

"Stop that, Dad!" Marcus chuckled, and Hesnia cleared her throat.

"Well, as I was saying—" But Caliga wasn't done yet. She ran towards Favius and Urania to embrace them.

"Cousins! Oh, come, Mother, I shall show them the household. Is it okay if I take them and show them the house? Daddy, please say yes." Marcus smiled indulgently and gave a small nod.

"Of course, little lynx." Under the glare of Hesnia, Caliga hooked one arm through Urania's and the other through Favius's and dragged them off into the house. As soon as they were through the door and out of hearing range, Caliga giggled and looked conspiratorially at both of them.

"Now, my dear cousins, the first thing you need to know about this house is that my mom is a ripe cunt." Favius's eyes widened slightly, but Urania gasped and put both her hands over her mouth.

"You can't say that!" she exclaimed with all the indignity a nine-year-old could muster. Caliga frowned again with exaggerated confusion.

"I can't? Cunt, cunt, cunt! See, I can! I just did it three times!" Urania gasped again, yet Favius began to chuckle, and the dam broke. All of them collapsed laughing and ran off into the house. Caliga's tour of the estate was a wild experience. She babbled like a wellspring while Favius tried to absorb everything and memorize the house's layout. The only feature he took note of was the library she mentioned in passing.

They spent the rest of the morning inside and shared a tense meal with the adults before spending the afternoon in the estate's gardens. The well-designed flower beds buzzed with bees and other insects. Caliga had acquired a jar of olives from the kitchens, and the three of them spent the afternoon just out of sight of the house, in the branches of an oak tree that Caliga was well-versed in climbing. Favius let it happen, his childish side taking over, though he remained distant and thoughtful.

His thoughts drifted between his life in the other world, what he had learned about this one, and how things were unfolding. Eventually, his personal servant—no, his personal slave—came to show him his rooms, a tightness forming in his gut. It turned out that Brutus had arranged for him and Urania to sleep in adjacent rooms, while Hesnia had claimed the younger siblings. As before, Brutus would meditate while Favius slept.

Tiro was clearly dissatisfied about that arrangement, but hid it behind the stoic mask of a manservant. For a brief second, Favius frowned at the arrangement, but then shook his head. The security I gain from having a powerful cultivator watch over my sleep outweighs any awkwardness about having someone in the same room I'm sleeping in. After all, getting assassinated is going to be significantly more awkward than having somewhat reduced privacy.

He watched as Tiro unpacked what belongings had been brought from his old room. As the sun set over the horizon, Favius again stepped out into the gardens and studied the night sky. He slowly turned, assessing the unfamiliar constellations behind the clouds. I don't even know how many planets there are here. Then, as he turned northwest, he stared at the sky in slack-jawed amazement.

"What the hell?" he murmured. He had already accepted the local star was smaller and cooler than the Sun, evidenced by its orange light and the much shorter year. But this—a structure about the size of the Moon—had just come over the mountains in the northwest. It resembled a gigantic red eye, a bright point at its center, the oval darkening until its structure faded into the night. Favius squinted his owl eyes. Not sure if I'm imagining it, but I think there are ring-like structures in that. He rubbed his chin.

Is that how a supernova looks in the night sky? Or— Something tingled at the back of his mind. A memory of the woman who had meant so much to him and a night spent in the park with a telescope. Anger burned hot and heavy in his guts as he failed to remember anything else about her. You will answer for this, whatever you are, he swore, thinking of the entity in the white world. Then the memory clarified. The oval structure. It reminds me of the rings of Saturn. So his some sort of gigantic ring system?

But the structure in the center, it's illuminating the disk. Suddenly, it clicked. Large dense debris belts weren't all that unusual. At least two stars close to Earth, Proxima Centauri and Epsilon Eridani respectively, had large debris disks. If the disk was especially dense and dusty… But the object at the center—that wasn't a planet. So if it's another star? But— He let his mind slip into familiar patterns of calculation.

Based on simple estimates, assuming it's another solar system with a dense debris disk, let's say one hundred astronomical units in diameter, given it's about the size of the Moon, that's 0. 5 degrees. So… Frowning, he ran the numbers and concluded it was likely somewhere between a tenth and a fifth of a light-year away. A distant binary partner to the star then, probably a red dwarf star. Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him.

"Admiring the Mother's Heart?" He flinched despite recognizing Brutus's voice. He had not heard the man approach. Brutus chuckled at his reaction and gestured to the east and west where the clouds were finally thinning out, and Favius saw two moons. One pale gray and slightly smaller than Earth's moon. The other about the same size, but with a rough reddish-brown color that reminded him of the Martian highlands. And then his mouth fell open again.

A small moon of a clearly irregular shape moved visibly across the sky. It was only a fraction the size of Earth's moon, but its charcoal gray surface was visibly cratered. He watched it for several minutes and could make out its movement. That thing must be in a very low orbit. Brutus chuckled and gestured at the small moon.

"Messenger, the trickster god." He pointed to the smaller of the two big ones.

"That's the Daughter, and that"—he frowned at the reddish moon—"is Allfather." There was audible disgust in his voice.

"Allfather?" Favius inquired. Brutus grumbled before explaining.

"Yeah, the old tyrant prick. He and the Hearth Mother were born from Emptiness. But the Allfather had this nasty habit of raping his sister in a drunken stupor, and that's how all the other gods were born. Of course, you can see by the Allfather's current bloody and scarred state, his reign only lasted until his warrior son forged his solar armor and beat him to a pulp. Nowadays he only dares to show his face when his son is no longer in the sky." Favius's lips curled up.

"That's horrible." Brutus chuckled.

"I've always found it kind of comforting. No matter how nasty your family is, you know the gods have it worse." He paused before murmuring, "Hopefully." The two of them observed the sky in silence for a while longer as Favius ordered his thoughts about his new family, his future, and what he needed to learn about this world. Caliga had mentioned the library, but there was another source of knowledge. He turned to Brutus.

"Brutus, will you teach me about cultivation tomorrow?" The man's contemplative expression turned into a broad smile, and he smacked Favius's shoulder.

"With pleasure, boy."