Capítulo 4: Infancy
So started my second life as Aelius Alkimos Cala, the second prince of the Holy Order of Alta. I don't know how, but I can understand my parents' language as if it were my mother tongue. It certainly is a great blessing to skip all the time needed to understand the language of this country. The time period seemed to be similar to the middle ages, but the clothing, materials used in the buildings, and even the physical traits of the people didn't help me pinpoint a specific time period or location. Though the lack of glasswork, variety of food, and the basic habits of the people around me made me think of the early period of the High Middle Ages.
After my father declared that I was blessed by the Goddess, a great number of clergymen, which I later figured out that my father ruled over as their king, visited me and held until they themselves cried in awe and joy, and some in sweat and anger. The great number of people I interacted with in my first life gave me all the experience I needed to make such simple deductions and arrive at a correct answer. It certainly wasn't pleasant to be looked at by so many people, but I am glad that I had the experience as I saw the faces of my future subjects and enemies firsthand. This will certainly come in handy.
Apart from the old clergymen, I mostly interacted with the servant girls, who adored me and complimented me throughout the day. At one point, I thought I'd rather listen to the prayers of the fanatic clergymen than be made a toy of teenage girls. Throughout those experiences, I could sometimes hear the giggles of Lady Goddess, which gave me a strange comfort. I often found myself praying for her to watch over me. I didn't expect support from her, but the fact that she was watching my journey gave me joy and comfort.
Interacting with my new mother was certainly difficult at first, but considering the fact that only my memories were transported and my soul is practically a new one, I decided to just interact with her through sheer instinct of this infant body that naturally sought his biological mother.
One thing that bothered me was the sheer lack of hygiene. I understand that science is not developed and the association of diseases with hygiene and the sheer notion of hygiene itself was not developed until later on, but I couldn't help, but be bothered by it. I mean, they don't even wash the cloth diaper most of the time. They just dry clean it and then use it again. At some point, I just decided to bury this as a black history in my mind. By the way, throughout the whole time, Goddess was laughing at me, which was quite embarrassing.
Another thing that was noticeable was that people in this world, well at least in this country, use the lunar calendar. This surprised me as I thought the region I was in was most similar to parts of Europe, where they used the Julian calendar, which was a solar calendar. I noticed this when they lifted me up out of nowhere and carried me to an audience room similar to the one we housed the clergymen before and my parents and a few of their vassals celebrated my birthday.
When I was first lifted up by the smiling maid, I protested by flailing my tiny arms to no avail. I thought I had a bit of time left, but I then realized that they were using a lunar calendar, and what they celebrated was my "nameday", and not my birthday, this too resembles Europe of the Early Medieval Ages.
At the end of the celebration, suddenly the doors opened a teenage boy, with blonde hair and brown eyes, and a woman with the same features entered, followed by their bodyguards and the atmosphere of the place suddenly changed. It was my first time seeing them and the fact that they and their bodyguards were dressed in kaftans with a red sash on their waists. They were all humans.
The teenage boy had a creepy smile on his face.
"Father, I am quite heartbroken to have not been invited to my baby brother's nameday. You must surely have known that I am dying to meet him."
My father looked like he aged ten years in less than a few seconds, but recovered his calm and responded:
"You're welcome to attend, Fir."
Aha! So that's the first son of King Lustinus and my older brother. I was wondering why no one mentioned his name and even thought that he might have died, but perhaps the truth is different than what I thought. The king, my mother, and their loyal vassals don't seem to be fond of the prince and his mother, who is the legitimate queen of this state and thus she and her son have a better claim to the throne than me, who is a son of a concubine. However, my father seems to favor my mother and me, so that might be a cause of conflict. I have to observe more and analyze better.
Fir then walked towards me and tried to lift me up with the same fishy smile, but stopped upon seeing my mother strengthening her hold on me. He then sighed and brought his face near mine.
"So this is the famous blessed child? After such a big fuss, I was wondering if he had anything special, but I suppose parents like to overestimate their children. Tsk tsk."
I was simply observing the obviously provocative behavior of my older brother. The clear self-image of supremacy and the lack of caution to one's behavior, as well as the emotional immaturity he displays, makes me arrive at a single conclusion: he's trash. Losing interest I turned my head towards the baby food prepared for me and pointed my finger to it to my mother.
My father, mother, and the rest of the vassals found the action of me ignoring Fir funny, and laughed at him.
Fir's face turned red with anger.
"I will teach you manners later on, don't worry little brother."
After saying that, Fir left.
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