《Journey of a Noble》 Birth (l) "Almost there milady, a few more pushes and it will be all over. NOW PUSH!!" Said the woman who was helping deliver the child. "Arghhh!!" The pregnant woman''s shrill scream echoed through the room as she went through labour. "Good milady, do it one more time." ''she will not make it at this rate if takes takes any longer'' the lady thought. "Aargh!! I-I can''t do it anymore!" The cries and pleas of the woman came out as she gasped for air and cried in pain, the desperation and anguish in her voice clear as day" "One last time milady, one last time!" "Aargh!!!" "The baby is out! You two, one of you has go and call for the lord to come here and the other come and assist me! Quickly now!" Practically screaming at the other two ladies in the room as she lifted the new born baby out of it''s mother''s vagina. "Y-yes ma''am! Sarah, you go and call for the master I''ll stay here and assist." The older of the two said as she quickly moved to the side of her superior. "U-understood, I''ll be right back with the master!" Running out the door as fast as she could as she spoke. (5 minutes later) the door to the room was swung open revealing a man in his early thirties wearing finely made clothes with a simple, yet elegant design. Despite his young age, the man seemed as if he has experienced much in his life, much more than the average man and the calluses on his hands from years of weapon handling and the dignified aura of a warrior that he gave off proved this fact. "How is she! How is my wife, tell me Darla?! Were there any complications?! And what of my child?! Is it a boy or a girl?!" Rushing to his wife''s side to check on her condition, the man spoke and from the man''s mouth a genuinely worried voice came out, not something one would expect from a military man who spent his days vanquishing his enemies and getting covered in their blood. "She is alright milord, but the madam will have to rest for awhile to recuperate her strength. This took quite a toll on her body as compared to when she birthed young master Howard, Sir. Your child on the other hand is as healthy as a baby boy could be. Congratulations Lord Winston, its a boy." Much calmer now as compared to her previous state, Darla the head maid has returned to her much more poised and elegant self. Despite this, the excitement in her eyes could not be any clearer at the thought of her liege''s newborn and the changes he will bring to the lives of those in the estate. "Hahahahaha! I am truly blessed. Quickly! Bring my son to me." Trying to laugh quietly as to not waken his unconscious wife, yet failing miserably as the sounds of his laughter echoed through the room, luckily for him, his wife who was fast asleep had not been woken up by it. Mary, the maid that chose to stay behind assist Darla quickly went to her master carrying in her arms his newborn son wrapped in cloth along with her. "Here he is master." "Hehehe. A cute one isn''t he. Quickly bring Howard here, I want him to meet his new brother." Lifting up his son from the arms of servant, Henry Winston realized now would be the best time to introduce his now eldest son to his new brother. ''He looks just like his brother when he was born, small, cute and chubby. Now, what should I name him? No, I should wait for Josephine to wake up first before I decided on his name.'' Looking at son''s small unopened eyes, he started lamenting on the issues of succession he''ll have to experience later on in the future, whether he''d want to or not. ''Hopefully they''ll learn to love and care for each other as they grow older. I have seen and heard too many stories of brothers scheming against one another, all to be the one to inherit the title of their father. No, no, no. This is not how I should be thinking. I will raise them as I should and educate them the best I can. If they still fight to inherit my title, I can still say to myself that I did the best I could for both of them.'' Sighing, he waited for the maid to come back with Howard, his first born to appear so that he can introduce them to each other. Luckily Howard was still young, only 6 years old, to innocent and naive to think of the implications of having a sibling could have on the inheritance and title that would have solely been his if not for the birth of his new brother. In the middle of his thoughts and lamenting, the door was once again opened, revealing a young boy being led by hand, by Mary. Like his father, Howard possessed light brown hair matching with the bright blue eyes he had inherited from his mother. "Dad, dad! I have brother now?! Let me see him! Let me see!" Quickly rushing to his father''s side Howard nearly tripped on his own feet had it not been for Mary who still held him by the hand. "Hahaha! Be careful now, your brother''s body is still very soft and his bones haven''t properly set yet." Watching his son nearly tripping himself in his excitement had washed away the depressing thoughts that had been plaguing his mind for the past 10 or so minutes. "What''s his name?! What''s his name dad?! Why does he look so weird?" "Nothing yet, I''m waiting for your mother to wake up before I decide. And don''t call your brother weird looking, you should know that you looked like this too when you were born." "Awww! Why can''t we just name him now? Like John or Steve or something. And you should know dad it''s impossible for me to look like that, the servants in the castle said I looked very cute when I was younger." "No Howard, your mother worked very hard to give birth to your little brother. She''ll be the one to decide this time. Now go back to your room, I''ll wait here for your mother to waken." Smiling at his son and his little antics as he looked with great interest at his new brother who was squirming around in his father''s arms before leaving with Mary. A moment later, just as he was about to stand up to stretch his legs, he suddenly heard coughing noises coming from his left side. To his surprise and subsequent delight, it was none other than his wife, Josephine who seemed to be waking up from her sleep. After realizing this he immediately knelt back down to caress her head and gave her a light and gentle kiss on the forehead. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. "How are you honey? Are feeling ok? Do you need anything?" "Hehehehe. As worried for me as ever. Don''t worry Winston, I''m perfectly fine, I just some rest." "Hehehe. You can''t blame for my worry dear. When you gave birth to Howard, you were still strong enough to stay conscious and hold him in your arms" "Tell me, how''s our child? Is it a boy or girl?" "Don''t worry, our child is just fine and it''s a wonderful baby boy." "Luckily I did not disappoint you with a daughter.¡± Sighing in relief thinking that she did not disappoint her husband and was able to birth yet another boy instead of a girl. "You push yourself too much, we already have a male heir so a daughter would not have been too bad. In fact, it could have been a blessing in disguise." Remembering what troubles he may or may not face in the not too distant future, he thought of what could have been, had he gotten a daughter instead. ¡®It truly would have been a blessing in disguise.¡¯ "You comfort me too much you know. So, have you decided on a name yet?" Softly smiling, too tired and fatigued to see the bitterness and written all over her husband¡¯s face. "No, I haven''t decided yet, I thought of giving you the honour of naming him." Seeing his wife¡¯s smile and realizing how happy she was at the moment, he decidedly banished his previous thoughts from his mind and gently smiled back at her. "Thank you dear, give me amount to think." "Take your time." "Hmmm..." (Several minutes of silence later) "What about....Gabriel. I think the name would be fitting. It came from my uncle who used to give me gifts and take me out of town when I was still a little girl. He was a good man, sadly he died young, apparently his carriage was attacked while he was on his way to the capital by a group of bandits. I wish to honour him this way. Is it alright with you husband? "I think it''s a wonderful name, and your uncle would be very proud of you for doing this for him.¡± "Really? Are you certain?" "Absolutely, I was originally going to agree with whatever you decided on, and it''s really not that bad of a name anyways.¡± "Ok then." "Then it''s decided. Henceforth, he shall be known as Gabriel Winston son of Viscount Henry and Josephine Winston, and younger brother of Howard Winston." Handing the child to his wife, Winston quietly stood up patted the dust off his legs from kneeling and left the room so that the mother and son pair may bond in peace. ¡°Darla, Sarah! Tend to the needs of your mistress while I am away.¡± ¡°Yes sir!¡± ¡°Good.¡± ''Now that this is all over I should head back to work, it seems that a troop of marauders from the south have been terrorizing the land and targeting the merchants and caravans heading towards the town as of late.'''' *sigh* ''Too much work and too little time to spend with my family, such is my life.'' With that he found himself outside of his home a castle built of stone with a 11 metre high circular outer wall 5 metres thick with 14 battlements 18 metres high designed to withstand a sieges and beast tides, a rectangular keep at the very centre 30 metres high and 27 metres wide and long, 2 gates at the east and west points each having a barbican and finally, a courtyard with a radius of 70 metres on all sides from the keep to the outer wall. To the north and south were the training grounds for his personal guards completely loyal to him where the men practiced their craft be it sword, spear or bow and arrow. To the east and west were the barracks for the personal guards as well as a few more house for the servants such as the maids, butlers, cooks and gardeners, since only the personal servants, the family doctor, head maid and butler as well as a select few from the personal guard were allowed to reside in the keep along with his family. While it did not possess the same regal and elegant design that other castles with spires pointing towards the sky and bright colours had, it did make up for it in sheer practicality. In return for its lacklustre appearance as compared to other castles, this one boasted a much higher level of defence and was much larger overall since it focused less on aesthetics and more on practical design making it less costly to manage. Had it been the other way around, the castle keep for its size alone would have cost a lot more, more than it did currently. For Winston, this was the best castle that he could have ever hoped to have. It was comparable in size to the castle of Count Cerso whose territory was south of his . Luckily for Winston, the Count himself was not the type to get jealous over trivial things such as the size of ones castle nor did he view the Viscount as a threat to his reign and authority in the region. And for good reason, as the region they are in is the very frontier separating the kingdom from the untamed northern lands that belongs solely to the demons beasts that lived within uncontested for many millennia. Because of this the nobles in the frontier formed a collaborative relationship with each other with the Viscount Winston himself acting as a second line of defence in case of a beast horde appearing, like the one that appeared many years ago when he first came to these lands. It had caused so much destruction and loss of life that the nobles who were originally combating the horde with their own individual powers had to form alliances for their mere survival. Had it not been for the last minute alliance formed by the nobles and the timely arrival of the Duke and his armies the northern lands would have been reclaimed by the demons that very same year. And from this disaster came the rewards of survival. With tens of nobles dead or displaced and tens of thousands more peasants suffering the same conditions the Duke had to replace what was lost and give what was due to the worthy. From expanded territories, bigger fortifications, larger castles and a general redistribution of power to conferring of titles to fill in the gaps left behind by the deceased nobles that had fallen without a proper heir or had his/her entire bloodline extinguished during the crisis. All sorts of rewards were given by the Duke himself, Winston was lucky and was able to be conferred the title of Viscount for his actions in defending a small city long enough for the peasants and refugee nobles who lost their lands to flee to safety and gave enough time for reinforcements to arrive and retake the lost city. His title grant was a smooth one with the nobles and people he saved backing him up making it so that the Duke had no choice but to reward him greatly whether he liked it or not. Several years has passed since then, and it has been nothing but peace and quiet up in the north. News however, spreads amongst the people of a possible new beast horde coming causing nothing short of a panic amongst the populace as the memory of the previous horde is still fresh in their minds. Coupled by the fact that dozens of marauders have decided that now was the best time to act using the chaos spread amongst the people and rising prices of goods to their advantage. "Charles!" Calling for his right hand and leader of his personal guard, Winston was eager to get back to work. "Yes my liege." At the call of his lord, Charles a 50 year old man appeared and yet, despite his age seemed to be even more powerful than his master with grandiose muscles that seemed to bulge out of his armour specially tailored him and with eyes of a predator waiting for the moment to strike its prey. "We have work to do, let''s go." "Understood!" With no useless flowery words and chitchat they got on their horses and departed for the west gates, following behind them, a platoon of 50 or so men followed, each wearing armour similar to Charles'' and armed with long spears and sword for close quarters combat. That very same evening, the marauders who thought they could get away with what they have done were either killed or captured by the Viscount and his men to be later sold to slavers for some extra coin or put to work at the city to help in ongoing construction projects and such. Birth (II) (The following day) Waking up sore and groggy from last night¡¯s endeavor, Winston recalled what happened yesterday night. The night was still young and his men, more than eager to please their lord thus he passed the order to kill or capture all the marauders that have been nothing short of a pest to the inhabitants of his territory. It had been met with great success, with no casualties on his part and only a few marauders who ran away at the start of the battle left with their lives intact into the wilderness where they would most likely die at the hands of the demon beasts that roam the area. Now, he was having his breakfast consisting of soup, milk, hard bread coated in butter and a plate of 2nd grade demon beast meat served as a medium rare steak. Closing his eyes and feeling the minuscule amount of mana preserved within the meat entering his body turning into his own and revitalizing his sore body, Winston then opened his eyes and began to ponder over how his orders to Charles went. ¡°Damon, has Charles reported to you how the transactions with the slavers went yet?¡± ¡°No sir, though I do imagine you''ll be receiving his report later this evening alongside the regular patrol report, sir.¡± ¡°Thank you Damon, clean up the table, you are dismissed.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± Standing up he left the dining room as his head butler cleaned up the half finished plates and utensils he had used for breakfast with swift and practiced movements and then later left through a different door. Walking out of the dining room and slowly heading towards his study to ease the throbbing of his head. As he was walking, he saw Darla, his wife''s personal servant carrying with her some towels hanging on her arms and a tray with a teapot and cup with some milk and sugar on the side clearly meant for his wife. He walked up to her and asked. ¡°Tell me Darla, how is she?¡± ¡°She is doing alright Lord Winston. In fact better, she slept last night after breastfeeding young master Gabriel and then went to sleep with the child in her arms sleeping with her, and this morning she ate a full meal consisting of 2 boiled eggs, bread with butter on top, some tomato soup and a whole cup of milk. Right now I''m bringing her some tea for her enjoyment and the towels so that I can wipe the sweat and dirt her body has accumulated from yesterday and wrap the child in a new towel.¡± ¡°Hmmm. Very well, continue with your duties, if there is a need for me go to my study. And tell my wife not to stress herself, she may have completed the body compression stage and can lift boulders above her head in normal circumstances, but pregnancy takes its toll on all women who go through it, including her. I do not wish to see her collapse from exhaustion am I clear?¡± ¡°Yes sir, I will convey your words to the madam.¡± ¡°Good, be on your way then.¡± ¡°Very well, sir.¡± Doing a slight bow to her master, Darla then left to serve her mistress who was waiting for her in her room. After passing Darla, he continued to walk his study at a leisurely pace. Suddenly, as he was walking a wave nausea much stronger than the previous ones hit him causing is vision to blur and the world around him to spin. Unsteadily, he able to reach wall and use it as support as he leaned on it. ¡®Ughh, my head, how could have this have happened to me? Could this be because stress? Fatigue? Impossible, I''ve trained for years in the art of war, learned to cope with stress and I''ve certainly do my best to get proper rest for both body and mind, so it can''t be stress of the body nor mind. This can only mean one thing, poison.¡± ¡°It has been a long time since someone managed to poison me and caused me to be in such a state.¡± Winston mumbled to himself whilst trying to stand back up. Suddenly, from behind him a noise of someone clearing his throat entered his ears. ¡°Damon, perfect timing, call for the Doctor Xavier and have him sent to my room. Then go look for Charles and begin an investigation, I want answers by tonight. And have someone check on my wife and kids, I want to know their conditions. Afterwards, lock the castle down, nobody goes in or out, if this was the work of a intruder I want him captured and locked in the dungeon. Report back to me in my quarters. This is most likely the work of poison of some sort.¡± ¡°As you command!¡± And with that Damon dashed off as fast as he could go to search for Charles and have someone check on the madam and children. Looking at Damon¡¯s running figure, Winston sighed. He knew that his butler would do the job right, but he couldn''t help but worry at his current state and the safety of his family. Slowly, Winston went back to his room, got undressed, put on more comfortable clothing then, laid on his bed. He laid there for what seemed to be hours yet, in reality only a few minutes had passed, until a knock sounded on his door. ¡°Master, it is me Sarah.¡± ¡°Enter.¡± From the door Sarah came in, the same Sarah that had informed him of his wife''s successful childbirth. ¡°How are they?¡± ¡°They are alright milord, the lady also expresses her worry over your condition sir. She asks if it is serious.¡±The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Inform her that I am well, simply in need of rest. You are dismissed.¡± ¡°Very well sir.¡± With that, Sarah left the room only for someone else to enter, a young man only slightly older to Winston himself and certainly quite young for his profession. The figure was none other than Dr. Xavier who he ordered for Damon to call for. ¡°Dr. Xavier, it has been quite awhile since we last met in these conditions.¡± ¡°Indeed it has, indeed it has milord.¡± With their exchange pleasantries over, Xavier immediately went to work. He went to Winston¡¯s side and inspected his body for any signs poisoning as he was informed by the servant Damon. ¡°Tell me sir, but how do you think the poison got to you?¡± ¡°Hmmm, possibly from the food, it is not an uncommon tactic to poison the food of a noble to kill them. Surely you seen or heard of this before, have you not?¡± ¡°I have sir, but from what I have seen you do not suffer from any signs of food poisoning, or from any poison for that matter.¡± Frowning, Winston looked at the doctor with narrowed eyes for further explanation. ¡°Ehem, it seems that instead of poison, milord has been subjected drugs used to capture non-demonic beasts, a anaesthetic of sorts.¡± Winston, upon hearing the words of Xavier went into deep thought. On the other hand, Xavier was inspecting his lord¡¯s body that had small wounds and scratches covering it. ¡°Sir, are feeling any of this.¡± Prodding the areas around the wounds. Frowning at the weird numb sensation, Winston wondered as to what Xavier was doing. ¡°Yes, as numb and as slight as it is I can feel it.¡± ¡°Hmmm, it seems we finally have an answer to your situation milord. It is likely that the marauders that you had dealt with last night had their weapons coated in the anaesthetic drug. You probably did not feel the effects of it because of all the adrenaline rushing through your body. As for the after effects, it seems to only have taken hold now because of how strong your body is. That is probably why you are feeling so weak and disoriented, sir.¡± ¡°What do recommend I do to recover faster?¡± ¡°Rest sir, do nothing and rest for a few hours, the effects of the drug will naturally fade away. Afterwards, I recommend that you do not strain yourself too much, physically and mentally.¡± Sighing at the answer given to him, Winston asked again. ¡°Is there truly no other option?¡± ¡°There are, but I believe it is best that you recover naturally.¡± Sighing again at the answer, Winston told Xavier that he was dismissed. With that, Xavier left the room to perform his other duties. Now left alone and slightly assured for his and his family''s safety, Winston decided to finally get some shut eye. As he drifted to sleep, Damon finally found Charles who was at the northern training grounds training with the personal guards. ¡°Charles! Charles!¡± ¡°What is it? You are disturbing our training session.¡± ¡°Lord Winston says that he may have been poisoned, he ordered for an immediate lock down of the castle and castle gates no one is to go in or out. He also ordered for an immediate investigation. He wants answers by tonight.¡± ¡°This is very serious, let''s get to work.¡± ¡°¡°CLOSE THE GATES!!¡±¡± Suddenly, with his booming voice echoing throughout the courtyard soldiers began to move to carry out his orders, and not long after that both the east and west gates were closed, each with half a dozen soldiers guarding it. ¡°¡°I WANT EVERYONE NOT ON DUTY TO FORM ONE LINE, SINGLE FILE! WE WILL BE CONDUCTING AN INVESTIGATION AND IF YOU DON''T WANT TO BE ACCUSED OF TREASON I SUGGEST YOU FOLLOW MY ORDERS!!¡±¡± Without having to repeat himself, all those present not on duty scrambled to line up in front of him. Looking at the line Charles thought to himself. ¡®This is gonna be a long one.¡¯ (3 hours later) *sigh* ¡°To think this would happen to us.¡± In front of Charles and Damon 32 men who had suffered from the same symptoms as their lord laid in beds conscious, but suffering from severe migraines. One thing they all had in common with one another was that each and every one of them were part of the 50 men that their lord took with him to hunt down the marauders. ¡°It can''t be coincidence can it?¡± ¡°Damon, if this were to be a simple coincidence then our lord must have contracted some serious bad luck.¡± ¡°How do you think this happened?¡± ¡°The marauders must have somehow procured some slow acting drug one way or another, luckily it was meant to incapacitate, not kill.¡± ¡°Do you think they have a backer? Drugs like this are expensive and hard to come by, it is not something a pack of marauders can just pick up or find.¡± ¡°It is highly likely, though why they didn''t give a poison with a lethal effect does bother me. Regardless, our lord and the rest of the men aren''t in danger and that''s all that matters for now.¡± ¡°Hopefully this stays as nothing more than a coincidence. I''ll report our findings to Lord Winston, do you have anything else to add to my report before I go?¡± ¡°Don''t bother, I''ll be going with you. There are other matters I wish to discuss with Lord Winston.¡± ¡°Very well then.¡± (10 minutes later) Outside the door to their master¡¯s room both Damon and Charles hesitated to knock on the door as their lord seemed to be in deep sleep and they wished not to disturb his much needed rest. Speaking in hushed voices they argued whether they should awake their lord or not. ¡°Forget it, we will just inform him when he wakes up.¡± ¡°Not, so fast Damon. You know as much as I how our lord is as a person, he is not so petty as to get mad at us for disturbing his sleep.¡± ¡°Yes yes yes I am much aware of that Charles, but you should also know how little he actually rests despite what he says and how he acts. It has been a long time since I last seen him without bags under his eyes.¡± Looking back at Charles in the eye, Damon stood his ground as he firmly believed it was good opportunity for his master to properly rest his weary body, willingly or not. Just as Charles was about to open his mouth to refute Damon once more, the doors in front of them opened to reveal the slightly sleepy eyed Lord Winston. ¡°I appreciate the sentiments both of you, but you fail to remember that I have long since enhanced my senses with mana. I could practically smell they sweat coming off of you and your argument as clear as crystal.¡± ¡°¡±Lord Winston, we apologize for the disturbance.¡±¡± ¡°Stand up straight, both of you. Your apologies have been accepted. Now tell me, what has your investigation brought forth?¡± ¡°Sire, it seems that last night¡¯s marauders where in possession of a powerful, slow acting drug with no harmful effects other than severe migraines and loss of consciousness if the target is weak enough.¡± ¡°How did you come to this conclusion Charles, Damon?¡± ¡°There were 27 others who were suffering the same symptoms as you milord. All of which have accompanied you and myself last night to deal with the marauders. Other than that, we inspected the weapons taken from the fight and discovered traces of some unknown substance on the blades itself. We called for doctor to inspect the substance and received confirmation that it was indeed a drug that had no life threatening effects. We then proceeded to use one of the weapons and cut the palm of one of the slaves and have since placed the boy under strict observation. We will be able to confirm our conjecture by tomorrow.¡± ¡°Is that all?¡± ¡°No sir, we came to the likely conclusion that this maybe the work of someone else, some higher power, though whether this was a simple coincidence of marauders finding a powerful drug or they were purposefully handed the drug is still unknown to us. Whether this is a mere coincidence or the work of someone else, it will not hurt to have heightened security, sir.¡± ¡°Hmmm, it seems the findings of you two and those of Dr. Xavier are quite similar. As for the origins of the drug, I now recall Count Cerso had previously ordered a batch of sedatives to help in the capture demon beasts. Considering that the marauders also came from the south, it is possible that they stole the sedatives from Count Cerso before heading here. Have a messenger sent to Count Cerso and request an audience to ask about the sedatives.¡± ¡°What of the plan to tighten security, sir?¡± ¡°You may carry out your plan, have your men tighten security around the castle, have guards report suspicious activity in town and have patrol around town increase. Also, send word to the 2 villages to increase their vigilance towards anyone new that showed up recently.¡± ¡°¡±As you command!¡±¡± With that, Charles left to implement the orders to his men and Damon left for the servant quarters and homes to inform them of the new routines and changes to the castle that will be made.