Being awoken by servants Alister didn’t know in a room where the bed was far too large for him and far more comfortable than any he had slept in recently was startling. It wasn’t like he minded the help, but at home the servants were less doting than this. Here, it was a whole other world all over again, and he was getting exhausted with the trip.

Breakfast was a large ordeal with a lot of food and a lot of relatives, most of whom he had never met.

Felthinus, his uncle, sat near Blas, his father, who was sitting at the head of the table. Across from the two, along the corner, was Alliana, his mother, and a woman who Alister barely remembered as Susanne, Felthinus’s wife. She was the one with curly blonde hair and yellow eyes.

Then there were Felth’s mistresses; Sathy, Abigail, and Amira, who were all seated nearby, but not as close as his wife.

Saria and Paul, the ones that they had met up with on the train, were seated with their two boys, chatting away with Seanna and Thomas. Saria was only one year older than Seanna, so the two sisters were thick as thieves. Thomas and Paul, the poor men, looked lost and like they wanted to just enjoy their food.

Carlin was there with his wife, a young half-elf girl named Juliet with short, striking amethyst hair, but no one was looking at him favorably since he was 29 and she was only 16. They already had two babies, even, and while everyone was sweet with Juliet they had a bone to pick with Carlin.

The youngest adult at the table was Leah, and she was 26, with her husband who looked very out of place, Brethin.

And then there were the kids to take into account!

Felthinus had a lot of kids.

With his wife there were four. Megan was the oldest at 19, the one with the newborn, and she was there with her husband Darren who was 22. Then there was Morgan who’s 16, who looked like she didn’t wanna be there. Rachel, 14, and Felthinus IV, 12, who were being rowdy and playing with other kids at the table.

With Sathy there were three girls. Xantia who was 13, Trinity who was 12, and Holly who was 7.

With Abigail there was only one, a boy 11 years old whose name was Belgi.

Thankfully Amira had none so far.

Darrius and Decan - Saria and Paul’s kids - were playing with Seanna and Thomas’s kids; Peter who was 12, Varia who was 7, and Turk who was only 2. Mostly it was Peter playing with the two brothers and Varia trying to butt in as the little sister.

Carlin and Juliet had their two infants, sons, James at 2 and Nathan at 1. They were being loud.

Leah and Brethin only had one child, a little boy named George who was only 4.

There was only one member of the main branch of the family who wasn’t here - Reese Severin, 30, who owned a brothel company in the nation’s capital. Apparently he was a bit of a black sheep of the family, and had married a beastkin woman named Marabell, 32. He supposedly had two girls, twins, Olana and Harriet who were 10.

Alister’s head was spinning just trying to remember names of these loud people. Having such a large family was so strange. It seemed he really was the outlier for being an only child.

All of the kids had the same Severin grey eyes. Most had black hair. A couple of them had white hair like Alister. The rest had shades of grey in between, usually tinted with another color.

It was strange to think that his family was so human-heavy. He was an eighth elf from his mother’s side, but was otherwise human. It was a little unfortunate to not see more diversity. Alister ate his breakfast without talking to the other kids as much as he could, and left to find Wisteria.

She hadn’t wanted to join for breakfast - there were far too many people - and so she was exploring the house and the servants’ area. Wisteria was still working hard to save up enough for a decent gun, but his father had told him to find her and bring her to his office.

He found Wisteria after wandering for a half hour and getting very lost in the mansion. It was built in a confusing fashion that he was sure had a point, like for defense, but it was a pain since he wasn’t used to the place. She was in one of the kitchens, the largest of them in the eastern wing, and was happily chatting away with staff about foraging options nearby when he walked in.

The staff bowed as soon as they saw him, all conversation suddenly over. Alister wasn’t sure that he’d ever get used to such treatment, but arguing with them over it was pointless. He imagined his uncle Felthinus was a stickler for servants having proper etiquette.

“Wisteria?” he started, and she hurried over to him, “My father wants to meet in his office now that breakfast is over.”

“Oh! Yeah I can go. Gimme just one second,” she said, scrambling back to what she was doing, which seemed to be helping with coal, as her hands were sooty. Wisteria finished that and wiped her hands as clean as she could before continuing on with Alister.

He gave a soft hmm as they walked, “You know you don’t have to do things like that.”

“I know. I’m choosing to do it anyway. I don’t want to be a mooch,” she said, sighing, “Besides, they’re very nice people. It’s fun to get to know them.”

He glanced up at her, a little jealous. They’d never be comfortable around him.

His father Blas was sitting at a desk with Felthinus beside him, fingers in his hair and an annoyed expression on his face. Felth was motioning to places on a map. They glanced the kids’ way when they came in but didn’t stop.

“One moment, Alister, Wisteria. Fel, you’re saying this area’s been having monster troubles? That’s right near Tytherlich. They’re usually calm around there, that’s why there are so many mines near there.”

“The county’s been having trouble with getting ore out of the area, even. I sent a letter but I think you may have already been traveling. So far I’ve been handling it by hiring a handful of adventurers - gods know they’re keen for it. I’m just concerned that since it’s an important export of the region, I think we should do something more aggressive about the monster increase. Thus far the reason has been inconclusive. Some think it’s a powerful monster that’s moved in and caused a stir, others say it might be a new dungeon.”

“Neither are good for the mines… Mm. We can take a look on the way back if we take the western route.”

“I’ll come with.”

“Alright. Now then. Wisteria!” Blas’s attention turned to the girl with a big smile as he set aside the map, “I have something for you!”