I had thought that the brutal training I had received this morning would be the worst part of my day but then noble studies had to come along, 2 hours of the intricacies of noble society being drilled into my head will never be fun. But I am thankful its over and now 3:30 so I have plenty of free time before dinner with the family at 6 and just as I was about to make my way to my room Rafael stopped me. “Where are you going, Do you think training is over with just one session?“. As my face slowly turns to that of horror as I realize he's not joking, “ Don’t worry its just some light exercise to work up an appetite for you dinner”. I am beginning to truly regret the day I chose him as my attendant. 1 and a half hours later and its fair to say I have truly worked up my appetite, surprisingly my training was just flexibility and form, so you could say I am looking at Rafael very graciously right now but hes just ignoring me. As I enter the hall I see that everyone is already seated and is waiting for me so I quicken my steps to my seat to join them. As the head of the table my father decides to start the dinner, “ Its good of you to join us Joseph usually you just sit in your room reading, to be honest I was a bit worried about your physical abilities with you being such a bookworm but it seems I was worried for nothing, hahaha.” As my father points out my neglectfulness I look to the floor in embarrassment as my sibling join my father in laughing at me. Only my mother comes in to help my situation, “ Now now you three its about time our family had someone who wasn’t a muscle-head, Noah when was the last time you looked at a book outside of lessons then.” That seems to shut them up as Noah can only laugh sheepishly, and Anita puts on a face of being hurt, “ But Mum I’m always doing extra reading outside of lessons”. “ Romance novels don’t count”, but mothers stone cold rebuttal causes Anita to feel the same shame I did. “ Thanks mother, without you I wonder who would be here to appreciate all my hard work.” Mother puts on a warm smile as she faces me, “ What have I told you call me Mum in private, Mother is only for formal places. ‘sigh’ This is why I said he’s too young to be learning noble studies look at how we’ve polluted his mind, he won’t even call me mum.” “But look at how refined he is, I’m afraid that he might outshine Noah at his coming of age ceremony.” Father then shoots a look at Noah who was starting to slump in his chair to which he quickly sits up correctly. As soon as the chatter ends the head maid Ann announced that dinner is ready to be served as the doors swung open and a line of servants carried out a selection of meals each seemingly more lavish than the last. The grill seared Bambouflage that was placed in front of me let me see the difference between food that is served in the city and food served to nobles, as the Burukku is a rank E beast while the Bambouflage is a rank D the difference in nutritional value these meals is massive and the worst part is I can’t even reap the benefits as I haven’t awakened any or my cores yet. Needless to say the meal was much nicer than the meal at Bren’s bar, but I couldn’t say whether it was because we had a private chef or the difference in meat made the difference, but the meal was quiet as we all just sat and enjoyed our meal it wasn’t until we finished our meal and it was cleared away that anyone spoke. “ I heard you went to the lower city today Joseph, how was your time there?” asks father abruptly, I turn to face him and I see that Noah and Alice are looking to me with unbridled curiosity, come on your 11 and 8 surley you’ve been down to the city once. “ Yes Father I paid a visit to Dastreal and ordered my first weapon” I answer with a smile plastered all over my face. “OOOOHH Joseph what did you get, how much did it cost?” “I heard Dasteal is a dwarf is it true that they smell of fire?” Without even giving Father any time to speak I was assulted with questions and they never stopped, as soon as I went to answer one another one came my way, with every question they asked I could see Fathers face getting redder and redder. Eventually the questions became so stupid my Father couldn’t bear it anymore. “I heard dwarfs have no hands and instead they have hammers for hands thats dumb is it true?” “AHEM” It seemed that poor Alice put the nail in the coffin with this question, I mean who was telling my siblings something so dumb. “You two have met Dastreal before for your first weapon can you not hound your poor Brother with dumb questions you already know the answer to.” Father says while massaging his head, Ah so it was me getting fooled, I look to the pair of trouble makers to see them happily giggling away. Those bastards always do this but I’m a big boy I can’t get mad at children at least a Decade and a half younger than me. So I grit my teeth and ponder my existance, how has my life came to this getting abused by children. I shudder thinking about what will happen to me when I join Training with them, will my stubby legs even be able to run away from them. “Anyway now you’ve got your fun out the way back on topic Joseph what else did you do down there?” “Will we be going to War?” It seems I killed the atmosphere with that one, but I had to know. In my past life I was a soldier and while there wasn’t any major conflicts while I was in service I was one of the unlucky bastards that got to fire my weapon. Taking a life back then was something that still followed me I felt like I have a ghost train behind me and I don’t want anymore passengers. “What did you hear son.” Father was the first one to speak, I look up to the rest of the table Alice just looks abit confused while Noah looks scared, I guess thats fair Father Said he’ll be joining the army soon, but this isn’t a look I have ever seen on his face. Mother looks solem but she is just looking at me waiting for my answer. “I was at Bren’s bar for lunch and overheard somebody say there has been skirmished between Osoerde and us, they also said they’re getting more common.” “sigh they aren’t wrong tensions have been growing recently and Osoerde have been pushing for more of an expansion inland, but don’t worry even though you and your siblings might be sent into the army while we’re at war we aren’t monsters and you are our children the Duke will happily place you in the reserves to join in with the training and other duties” He then puts on a reassuring smile to try and calm everyone down but I can see he is looking towards my brother who was due to enroll soon. “Now I think that is enough for tonight everyone’s up early tomorrow for training and I know I’d like a good nights rest” Father then stands and mothions for everyone to head out, as I make my way out I feel a hand on my shoulder, looking up I see the usual pair of kind eyes stairing back at me. He dosen’t say anything but just rests his hand there and I can’t move, I see my siblings stairing back at me confusion on their face but they are ushered away by mother as she leaves with them. It is just me, Father and our attendents left and the homely atmosphere that was here has long since gone and I can’t help but feel tense. I’m racking my brain as to why I feel scared as hes never done anything but love me and he proably wants nothing more than a convesation with his son but here I and slowly starting to shiver. “Rafael and Gabrial you can leave.”