《Multi-carnation》 Prologue warning: this is a time skip, it''s roughly in the middle of the time line, it''s not the start of the time line. a normal, brown haired, average height young man has lived his life as a lumberjack. He did not have many relationships and disliked alcohol, so he was not a common customer as taverns and bars, which was known to always being filled with common folk from all professions and lifestyles. He didn¡¯t talk much either, and liked being alone. He was such a lonely, but hardworking person. He had lost his family in a raid made by bandits in his childhood; in that same tragedy, his childhood friend was captured by the bandits, and was probably sold off as a slave to some noble or rich merchant or adventurer, or maybe worse¡­ However, he didn¡¯t want to think about it, even though he remembered her face and his family¡¯s faces every few days, as they were haunting his dreams. He was trying to forget. Therefore, he lived his life as usual, cutting away at the trees of the nearby forest. Until one day, soldiers came to their village, and started conscripting the youths and the able-bodied men from the village, as per the feudal lord¡¯s orders. As they were conscripting all the working men, which would obviously cut away at their productivity and thus food for meals will lessen, they also grabbed some of the young women of the village. They had the same eyes as those bandits who ruined his childhood ¨C lust, and arrogance were perfectly given away by the glint of their eyes, and their grins. He couldn¡¯t stand it anymore, so he took out his hatchet, which was on him as he was cutting trees at the time the soldiers came, and plunged into the group of soldiers. He could only kill 2 of them, and injure several more before being stabbed from behind by a swordsman, afterwards being pierced by all other soldiers¡¯ weapons, and the first swordsman cut off his head. Ahh¡­ I¡¯m a pitiful and weak man, aren¡¯t I¡­ I couldn¡¯t do anything to save my loved ones a long time ago, and even now, I couldn¡¯t stop these pathetic excuses of soldiers take more of our men into a war, from which most will not come back from, and the women, who would have the same fate as those taken by those damned bandits¡­ If only¡­ I had one more chance.. I might have been more successful¡­ ¡­and why does this feel so familiar? This sensation of coldness, silence, emptiness¡­ And as he had those thoughts, darkness finally enveloped his consciousness. ***** On top of the village¡¯s church, stood one figure. It had black clothes, reminiscent of the thieves and assassins that lurked in city streets at night, with a hood covering his head and his face, in addition to a mask, which was portraying a smiling human face on its right side, and a smiling, eerie human skull on its left side. This figure held what appeared to be an unusual writing utensil which didn¡¯t require being dipped into an ink container, yet it had the ability to write with ink, and a stack of papers held together by twisted chains. On its side. - Hah, so that¡¯s how it was. I have forgotten a few things, but now it¡¯s ok¡­ (mysterious figure). The figure nodded to herself, whilst not stopping to write something in one of the pages of the open stack. It might be an unnecessary detail to mention that the stack of papers had ¡°#21¡± written on the cover. - Well, now that the current task is over, should I have some fun? (mysterious figure). The mysterious figure tucked the writing utensils into her clothes, and leapt from the roof of the church, and right into the group of soldiers who had already reorganized themselves and were planning to continue their ¡°recruitment of willing citizen¡± into their soldier and ¡°female support¡± ranks.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. - Wh-who the fuck are you?! (vict-, soldier #1) The sword-wielding soldier who had cut off the lumberjack¡¯s head was the first to react, slashing ¨C more like trying to slash ¨C at the person who suddenly appeared from above. He didn¡¯t succeed though, as his sword shattered on contact with the hooded figure¡¯s fist, its fragments flying in all directions, most of them hitting the swordsman¡¯s fellow soldiers, or into the swordsman himself. - Aagh! Fuck, how did- (soldier #1) The soldier could only stare at his broken sword and at his enemy, being shocked, unable to comprehend. As he tried to ask his enemy how he broke his sword, he got his head pulverized, without having enough time to end his question. He died instantly, not even noticing his own death. The surrounding soldiers had got restless upon their best fighter¡¯s insta-kill, and weren¡¯t sure whether to push on or withdraw. They decided to try and gang up on him. - You monster! You will pay for th- (soldier #2) A second soldier tried stabbing the assailant on his back, by using a long spear. As he thrusted it forwards with a yell, his target disappeared from its original place, and the soldier felt a sharp pain as something sharp had passed swiftly and flowingly through his back, and came out from his chest, as if it was a sharp knife passing through butter. It was a human hand, clenching something red, pulsating, with blood spilling out from tubes coming out from various places of that object. He was terrified after a second of being unable to realize what that object was. That was his heart. His face quickly became pale, his consciousness fading, as his life source had been taken away from him, literally. As the hand crushed his still pulsating heart, splashing blood unto nearby soldiers and unto the ground, the figure withdrew her hand from his body, causing his limp and lifeless body to fall unto the ground. That had alarmed the left over soldiers, making them not withdrawing earlier. - Shit! Run, it¡¯s hopeless! (soldier #3) - Uaaahhhh! What the hell! (soldier #4) They started running away, not keeping any sort of formation, just scrambling to get away, some of them tumbling and falling, but standing up and running again right after. - Hmmpf, how pointless. Are these really the same guys? It makes me depressed. (figure) The figure had pulled out a knife from a hidden pocket in her clothes, and threw it on the closest soldier. The knife had passed right through its intended target¡¯s throat, continuing on, passing through the right chest of another soldier, and stopping only when it penetrated into yet another soldier¡¯s back. Just that one knife only, had killed 1 more soldier, and gravely injured 2 others. As the other soldiers saw this, they started sprinting even faster, not even stopping to help their two injured comrades. No, actually, they even threw down their weapons in order to decrease their weight, and increase their speed, two of them had decided that the best way to get rid of their weapons would be to throw them on the incomprehensible monster in human¡¯s clothing. However, that also proved itself a poor choice. As their bodies suddenly burst in an explosion, sending a small shockwave and very hot looking flames to their surroundings, injuring 3 more soldiers, and killing one more because of the shockwave throwing a sword which was just being thrown down into his chest, passing right through his heart, albeit a lot less clean and swift as it was with the figure¡¯s hand. - It¡¯s the 3rd recruitment platoon from greenwood village, we request immediate reinforcements! a fucking monster is here, we can¡¯t do anythi- (soldier with comm orb) Unable to just look and do nothing, one of the men had taken out a small, blue orb, and started yelling a request for reinforcements, as it started to glow in a faint light. A shame that his speech was also interrupted, when the orb shattered without an apparent reason, and a shadow was casted on him from behind. Unable to control his curiosity and feeling of dread, he peeked over his shoulder, to see a mask staring right at him, just a few centimeters away from his face. - Shi- (soldier with comm orb) He didn¡¯t have enough time to end his curse, as he fell limp unto the ground, his skin, hair, and clothing withering away, as if someone had sped up the man¡¯s aging by several tens of time. In the end, only bones and object made from metal were left, such as a sword¡¯s sheath, a few coins of various colors, and his sheath¡¯s belt buckle. - Well, this is easy. I guess I¡¯ll be done in a minute or 2, and afterwards, I will start my work, huh. This is a bit anticlimactic come to think of it. (masked figure) The masked figure nonchalantly mumbled to herself, as if she was busying herself with house chores, while planning her next house chore to be completed in a loud voice. ***** After killing all the soldiers present, reviving them, killing them in new ways, reviving them, torturing them and only then started interrogating them. The masked figure found out that the feudal lord had been preparing for war, and because he knew that he wasn¡¯t really respected within his subjects, he decided to use however much peasants he can as cannon fodder on the front lines of his battles, in order to weaken the possible future revolt force, while keeping his war force relatively safe. The feudal lord even promised his commanders that they could even take young women from villages where they ¡°recruit¡± and have ¡°some fun¡± with them, excluding very beautiful ones, which will be ¡°played with¡± exclusively by the lord. After that, the figure got some more information about the enemy forces, and a few of the feudal lord¡¯s plans for confronting the enemy. Noticing that the soldiers don¡¯t have any more useful information, he killed them swiftly and mercilessly, all the while humming a song known only by him. - well, I guess it¡¯s time. [tempus imperium]! (time control ¨C in Latin). A flash of light suddenly appeared, engulfing the masked figure, followed by a swirl of shadow, whirling around counter-clock wise, and then ¨C the whirling shadow, the light, and the figure all disappeared, as if it all was but a hallucination. chapter 1 A long, long time ago, before the massacre at the village occurred¡­. There was a man, with black hair, black eyes, European facial traits, dressed in a fine, black suit. He sat on a chair, made from stone sculptures of humanoid figures, mended together, locking hands and legs with each other to resemble a chair; the figures were of heroes who were known throughout various cultures, countries, and eras. In fact, those figures were those said heroes. And the man was not a human as he seemed. He was the trickster god, Loki. - Hmm, who should I play with now? This toy seems to be broken already¡­ what a shame. (Loki) There was a table made from refined diamond in front of him, on it there was something that looked like a map, but it was showing moving, see through images, as if it was a TV screen. He was watching the moving images, that depicted a great battle between humans, and some other humanoid race, which had wolf or dog-like features, but stood on 2 legs, and used weapons and armors. That humanoid race was the kobold race. - *yawning*, he died after only killing 200 humans, how weak. He seemed to be getting stronger during the past few reincarnations, though¡­ well, as they say; you shouldn¡¯t trust mortals in the first place, heh. (Loki) Loki seemed bored, even though he was surveying the battle that he caused in order to get himself entertained. The kobold mortal, who was called ¡°sharp fang¡± during his current life, betrayed Loki¡¯s expectations. Loki made sharp fang reincarnate in a time of bad fortune for the kobold race, of kobolds being publicly recognized as slaves, which should work, suffer, and die for the convenience of the other races. The human race was the cruelest of all races towards kobolds, using kobold children to clean human cities¡¯ sewers from beasts that wandered into them. The men were as baits in battles and hunts for beasts and ferocious animals, as well as hard labor such as construction works, cart pulling. The women were used for sexual fetishes that had violence and abuse in them, thus having less human and other races¡¯ females suffer such fates, even if they were the ones who worked in brothels in the first place. All of it wasn¡¯t just suddenly made up on the spot by some race, nor was it a degradation of treatment of kobold captives during the years. It was also Loki¡¯s work. Loki, with a seemingly friendly smile on his face, started reminiscing of good and joyful times¡­ Joyful solely for him, of course. ***** About 2 decades ago¡­ He had possessed a well-known spiritual leader of some ¡°holy¡± faith, and said through the leader¡¯s mouth that he got a revelation from their god, and it said that the kobold race was a thieving, murderous, cunning and merciless race, they were god¡¯s enemy, and should be cut down. The ¡°holy god¡± didn¡¯t mind if they were enslaved, die, or be tortured, the only thing that matters is that they shouldn¡¯t be free, and had their power taken from them, being completely hopeless. He even made a miracle appear when the human army marched into battle with the vile beastmen; a rain of fiery giant masses came down from the skills, right at the kobold village, more accurately speaking, into the residential area, where all the old, women, and children were hiding when the men and youth were at the palisade wall, preparing to intercept the human assault. That was a meteorite shower which was originally supposed to only pass near the planet, and leave it unscathed. It might have came back again and fall down unto the planet only in some 2¡¯000 odd years, but Loki just decided to make the process faster, shifting the shower¡¯s orbit closer to the planet, accurately aiming it at the defenseless kobold non-military personnel. He thought that the kobolds¡¯ terrified and uncomprehending expressions to be quite amusing, as they saw what happened right behind their line of defense. They should¡¯ve been protecting their families, friends, and loved ones, who were hiding behind their broad backs, shields, and the sturdy palisade walls. Yet they couldn¡¯t do anything, even if the kobold shamans could conjure a certain amount of water, and heal wounds to some extent, they couldn¡¯t possibly even stop one of those fiery giant boulders that suddenly appeared from the skies. They couldn¡¯t even extinguish all the flames after said meteorites fell and stopped. Maybe they could extinguish just a 4th, but even that would take at least half a day, and that would totally use up all the shamans¡¯ mana, so they would be useless in the upcoming battle with the humans. They could only stare with wide open eyes, as their loved ones were hopelessly crushed by the meteors, unable to do anything, aside from cursing, biting their lips, and gripping their fists with incredible power. Some of the defenders had blood dripping from their gripped fists, and some had fallen to their knees, sobbing and weakly shuddering. Most of the ones who fell to their knees were the youths, they hadn¡¯t even known how to properly fight, they wanted to show their courage in this battle to a female they had an interest in, or show their families that they were already mature, and dependable adults. They wanted to protect something, to prove something to their important ones. Only that made them go to the front lines, even though they still had their own anxiety from battling for the first time. But now they had their own reason crushed, stepped on, and mutilated, as their loved ones were menacingly dying from a rain of meteors, flying with a very fast speed, a giant mass, and temperature that put blacksmiths shops of dwarves to shame. Some were crushed, some were melting from the flames and temperature, and some had houses fall on them because meteors fell on said houses¡¯ roofs, being buried in the debris. Sharp fang was one of the youths that were defending the palisade walls at that time. He was the only youth who didn¡¯t get his determination crushed by that tragic sight, although his feelings of sorrow, and anguish were probably the strongest among his fellow kobolds. He told himself that there were still other members of the village that he should protect, and they were right beside him, the men and youths didn¡¯t get hit by the meteor shower at all, as if it was mocking them. Besides, their village wasn¡¯t the only kobold village. There were still other kobolds scattered around the world, who still had children, youths, men, women, and old ones that needed to be protected from the damned arrogant humans. So he had taken up arms, took a war axe from a crude weapon rack beside the palisade gates, a long bow and a stack of arrows, and proceeded to get to a nearby hill which was situated near the walls, inside the village. There were a few catapults there, and a personnel that manned them. He was among the first ones to wake up from the misery, anguish, hopelessness, and powerlessness that engulfed all his brethren. He hit the catapult personnel, waking them up from their stupefied trance, and made them prepare and shoot volleys of burning boulders on the cheeringly approaching human forces. They were a fairly big village, especially recently, because of all the refugee kobolds who had ran away from the human lands. Overall, the military personnel that defending the village amounted to approximately 600 kobolds from various ages, while the enemies had been over 3,000 warriors, not even accounting the non-military personnel, and supply units. With his quick thinking and courage, he managed to get the catapult corps start firing at the enemy troops when they were already at the edge of their range of fire, reducing the enemies¡¯ numbers by some 150-200 warriors. When the humans came close and had their siege rams closing in on the gate and a few parts of the of the palisade, he quickly neared the most less protected area where the humans wanted to make a breach. With his high beast-like agility, he climbed up a building near the future breach, and started shooting arrows at the humans who were ordering around kobolds just like him to move the siege ram to the palisade. He couldn¡¯t find it in him to shoot his kin who were clearly subjected into this task, so he thought that by killing the nearest humans to them, he¡¯d free the kobolds and those would join the battle on their side. That might¡¯ve happened, if it weren¡¯t for the quick and merciless order of an archers¡¯ platoon commander to shoot at the chained up slaves who were moving the ram, the same slaves he hoped to free and had to their forces. That was also Loki fooling around. He found the sight of the dependable kobold hero to be too ¡°uninteresting¡± from his perspective. So he read his thoughts, and made a move of his own to completely crush his hopes, by possessing an archers¡¯ platoon commander and ordering that platoon to kill the very own people sharp fang hoped to save, and hoped to have them help him in defending and rescuing more of their kinsmen.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. At the time, Loki couldn¡¯t suppress a cackle that rose from his twisted heart due to sharp fang¡¯s look of bewilderment and hopeless as he couldn¡¯t do anything to stop the arrows from falling down, penetrating, and scratching the ragged and tired kobolds who were all chained together to the ram they had been ordered to move. The kobold mages might have been able to cast a surge of wind to deflect or even send back the arrows, but he was no mage, as he didn¡¯t learn any magic, and wasn¡¯t deemed compatible with magic by the elder kobold shamans. He could only kill of the last human near the siege ram, and start shooting at the archers who had been killing off his helpless kin. The first archer he killed was the very platoon commander who issued the order who deprived the people he wanted to save from their lives. His arrow accurately plunged itself into the commander¡¯s right eye socket, burying itself a bit less than half way through, instantly killing him. He shot that arrow from a distance of a bit more than 300 meters, yet had that much accuracy to pinpoint the arrow into a moving human¡¯s eye socket. At the end, the kobolds lost that fight, and were enslaved or killed. Sharp fang was enslaved, but not before being cruelly beaten by the archery platoon whose commander he killed, getting his right eye gouged out by a small knife, and his left ear savagely torn from his head by several archers pulling his head and ear to opposite sides. Then he was sent to the human country¡¯s capital city, in which they would hold a grandiose ceremony and festivity out of the more prominent kobolds¡¯ public execution. He was one of the kobolds who were deemed important enough, as his silver shining fur, which after the defeat got dirty and lost its shine, had gotten him recognized as the very same archer who killed a commander from a distance that most of the human archers weren¡¯t able to even reach with their bows, not even considering accuracy. The most the human archers could do was probably about 200-250 meters. However, as the time to the public execution was nearing, something strange happened. A plague had struck the human capital, not sparing any humans, whether it was a child, a woman, a man, or an elderly. The plague had delayed the scheduled execution of the kobolds. The human casualties from the plague, just from a week worth of time, were an astounding number of over 15,000. In addition to it, other races were also affected, such as dwarfs, elves, other beastmen aside from kobolds, all together adding another 1,000 casualties. The kobold casualties = simply a big, absolute zero. The kobolds were completely unaffected by the plague, they did notice that it had a strange odor, but nothing happened to them, even if they were exposed to a source of it for prolonged time. Researchers, pharmacists, and magicians noticed how strange it was for only the kobolds to stay unaffected by such a terrible plague, so they checked it, by closing groups of kobolds and isolating them together with dying victims of the plague, or corpses of the already deceased from the plague. Their healthy appearance even after a few days of living with the plague just angered them, it was like a mocking to the humans and the other races, as the plague needed just half a day to start showing its symptoms, and the victim dying right before the dawn of the next day. Thus, inevitably, the church blamed the kobolds for the start of the plague, and the nobles and high standing people in the human society of that country, and nearby ones who also got infected, easily bought that otherwise so fishy and apparent lie. Even the commoners and other lower statuses got to think that the church¡¯s ¡°revelation¡± might be, in fact, true. And the fact that a big number of kobold slaves and captives used the plague¡¯s disturbance in order to run away from their human enemies who had captivated them, some of those incidents had some human and non-human casualties, as the humans didn¡¯t let the kobolds run away without any resistance. And so, sharp fang led the biggest group to break free, the group of important and known kobolds, some of whom had been some sort of village heroes, the best archer or warrior, the best shaman, the kobold village leaders and elders, and such. Needless to say that most of them were known thank to their fighting capabilities, so breaking out was easy, even if their protection was better than other kobold prisoners¡¯. As the common number of kobolds in escaping groups was between 10 to 20, sharp fang led a group of at least 80 mostly battle capable, and good at that, fierce kobolds. ***** And now, about 2 decades of persecution and small skirmishes, when the kobold race diminished to just a 5th of their original numbers, there is a great battle going on between the united humanoid races against the tired, impoverished and desperate kobolds, who don¡¯t portray even the shadow of their past might and glory¡­ Well, that¡¯s understandable, because not only their numbers decreased so much, they faced so much pain and self-loathing for being helpless, their leaders died one after another, some from slavers or ¡°holy expedition¡± forces, others in discreet operations of liberating their oppressed brethren in small cities and towns, or mines and work camps that were built for accommodating the slaves that were gathering resources in the harshest and most dangerous regions of the continent, even if the human nobles and humanoid races¡¯ elders and leaders didn¡¯t want to spend even a copper coin for accommodating such foul and cunning beasts. not to say anything about the general populace of the humanoid races, that had a share of their food stock, which managed to survive uninfected by the plague, rearranged to feed the kobold slaves, and what about other daily necessities? Because of their mostly furry bodies, the kobold slaves and captives were forced to live their lives naked, with no cloth, not even to hide their intimate parts. After reminiscing, Loki suddenly woke up from his peaceful daze, as he heard three steady knocks on the door to his room. - Hmm? Who the fuck dares to just come and interrupt my fun..?! (Loki) Loki twists his face into an annoyed expression, as an unwelcomed and unexpected visitor to his realm appeared. He didn¡¯t get much visitors, part of the reason being that only gods and deities could get into these realms, and even then, they need to have the realm god¡¯s approval to enter it, and the god¡¯s amount was limited, they were only about 50. More than half had such small amount of godly power, that they should only be called demi gods, and Loki was amongst the three most powerful gods, almost on the top of the gods¡¯ food chain. Moreover, because of his infamous conducts, and power, most of them decided to not get involved with him at all, if possible. Yet someone, probably a god, did the unusual ¨C interrupting the vile god¡¯s fun time of toying with the mortals of his assigned world. Still with an angry mood, Loki rudely said: - Go the fuck away, before I make your world mine, and kill you while at it. However, the door opened, to Loki¡¯s surprise over seeing someone who actually ignored his threat as if it was nothing, or maybe they were deaf? - Same as ever, huh, kid? (old man-like god) An old man emerged from the opened door way, completely unperturbed even if he did walk right into the third most powerful god¡¯s realm despite his threat, furthermore without his permission. - Huh, so it¡¯s you, old freak. What do you want? (Loki) - You haven¡¯t changed at all, eh? 20,000 years, and your personality is still the same. No, did it get worse? (old man) - Cut the crap, and tell me what you came here for. I know you don¡¯t come to other realms just for chit-chat. (Loki) Without minding his younger companion¡¯s rude behavior, the old man sat down on a couch across Loki, and smiled in a friendly manner. - Today, I came here to ask a favor from you. (old man) - Huh? Why would you need my help? Aren¡¯t you supposed to be the strongest? Or is your power dwindling..? (Loki) At the end of his question, Loki smirked, clearly showing that it would be something for him if it was true. - No, I¡¯m still stronger than you by about 5 times, so don¡¯t get cocky. Anyway, I want you to let a human to live in your world, as he always wanted to live in a fantasy world¡­ (old man) - Huh, but isn¡¯t your world fantasy themed as well? (Loki) - That was until 2,000 years ago, now it doesn¡¯t have any magic, and its mythical creatures have either gone extinct, or into hiding. It¡¯s dominated by this thing called ¡°science¡±, which says that fantasy doesn¡¯t exist. - What? So did Merlin die? And what about the other heroes? (Loki) - They were all humans, so they died of old age. Although Merlin lived for some 200 years, he was a special case. (old man) - Ah, then will you give me their souls?!? Pretty please?! (Loki) As soon as Loki found out that the old man¡¯s heroes are all dead, his behavior took a 180 degrees turn, becoming resembling the behavior of a child in a store, asking his grandpa to buy him a toy he wanted for a very long time. The old man smiled wryly, saying ¡°Nope, not gonna happen¡±. - buuh, stupid cheapskate! You¡¯re the strongest god, you don¡¯t need heroes, and yet you won¡¯t let me have them! (Loki) - *sigh*, you know I don¡¯t like to reincarnate heroes. So why should I let you do it instead of me? (old man) - Because I have more use for them, and in your case they are just left unattended, gathering dust in some shelf in your realm! I could get them some action! - Still, the answer is no. so, about the favor¡­- (old god) - Is he a hero? (Loki) Loki blatantly interrupted his superior¡¯s speech, asking a selfish question. - No, he is not a hero. (old man) - Then I don¡¯t want him. So, if you have nothing else, just leave already. (Loki) - I still want you to reincarnate him. (old man) - Huh, didn¡¯tcha hate reincarnating? What changed your mind? (Loki) - ¡­this one is special. He is different from normal humans, and different from the heroes. Therefore, I ask you to look after him, and make his life comfortable and peaceful. (old man) - Tch, I don¡¯t want just some random human. Ahh, fuck, just do what you want. I¡¯ll let him reincarnate in my world. (Loki) - thanks, I knew you¡¯d agree! (old man) when Loki gave his consent, the old man¡¯s face bloomed into a cheerful smile. That sight made Loki feel disgusted, but before he could voice his opinion on the old man¡¯s delight, he was interrupted by him, when he suddenly changed his expression and tone into a very serious one. - Loki (old man) - Yes, what is? (Loki) - Do look after him. This one is special; you shouldn¡¯t play with him like you usually do. I say this because of worry about you. (old man) - Huh, why do you care about him? For you to even worry, furthermore about me¡­ (Loki) Loki seemed confused, not understanding the old man¡¯s meaning. - Something smells fishy. Did you give him some of your power or something? (Loki) No, I didn¡¯t give him anything, aside from a promise to reincarnate. And don¡¯t worry, as long you follow my instructions, nothing will happen. So, here you go- (old man) The old man stood up, put a small statue of a 20-ish looking man wearing a suit unto the diamond table, and walked to the door. - See you, Loki. Take care of him for me. Also¡­ (old man) The old man turned back to look at Loki with a regretful look, and said, ¡°..do come visit us sometimes. I and the others miss you.. oh, But before that, don¡¯t remember to fix your bad personality!¡±, the old man cheerfully grinned, went through the door, and quickly closed it, just before a pillow had hit the door. - You, old geezer! How dare you to say that I should fix my personality! You should be the one to have himself fixed, for just wasting valuable heroes like that! (Loki) Loki continued his tantrum for another minute or 2, complaining about his superior¡¯s ¡°Bad¡±qualities, when he realized the old man is long gone, and there is no use for him to continue any longer. - That whimsical happy-go-lucky geezer, always with that unperturbed calmness¡­ *sigh*, nevermind, I¡¯ll just watch what¡¯s going on with the ¡°dog devils¡± (Loki) Loki managed to distract his mind from the old man, and wanted to return to observing the tragic end of the kobold race, which he had orchestrated. He turned his gaze unto his wide table, on which the strange TV screen was sprawled, which showed that the fighting have come to it¡¯s inevitable end, leaving only a few desperate and injured few kobolds, surrounding by the combined humanoid armies, still showing resistance. But instead of focusing on the kobolds¡¯ demise, something small, and almost unnoticeable, which was standing on the diamond table¡¯s far away corner, captured his attention. As he looked over the human sculpture, he remembered the content of his earlier conversation, and a wide grin sneaked up unto his face. - So you¡¯re supposed to be special, but not like the heroes, huh? Well, now that you¡¯re mine, I should take good care of you, and have you experience a lot of fun. (Loki) ***** chapter 2 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.Stolen story; please report. 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 ¨C not return ¨C 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.