I thought the brutal training I had received this morning would be the worst part of my day, but then noble studies had to come along. Two hours of the intricacies of aristocratic society being drilled into my head will never be fun.

But I am thankful it's over, and now it's 16:30, so I have plenty of free time before dinner with the family at six, 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 realise he's not joking, “ Don’t worry, it's just some light exercise to work up an appetite for your dinner.”

I am beginning to truly regret the day I chose him as my attendant.

----------

One and a half hours later, and it's fair to say I have genuinely 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 he's 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, “ It's 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 siblings join my father in laughing at me.

Only my mother comes in to help my situation, “ Now now, you three, it's 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 Alice puts on a face of being hurt, “ But Mum, I’m always doing extra reading outside of lessons.”

“ Romance novels don’t count,” but Mother stone cold rebuttal causes Alice to feel the same shame I did.

“ Thanks, Mother, without you, I wonder who would be here to appreciate all my hard work.”

Mother smiles warmly 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 ended, Ann announced that dinner was 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 of 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 at me with unbridled curiosity. Come on, you’re 11 and 8, surely you’ve been down to the city once.

“ Yes, Father, I paid a visit to Dastreal and ordered my first weapon” I answered with a smile plastered all over my face hoping that this would be enough.

“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 assaulted 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 Father's 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 that's 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 troublemakers 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 existence, how 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 weren't any major conflicts while I was in service, I was one of the unlucky bastards who got to fire my weapon. Taking a life back then was something that still followed me, I felt like I had a ghost train behind me and I didn't want any more 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 a bit confused while Noah looks scared, I guess that's 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 solemn but she is just looking at me waiting for my answer.

“I was at Bren’s bar for lunch and overheard somebody say there have been skirmishes between Osoerde and us, they also said they’re getting more common.”

“sigh, they aren’t wrong. Tensions have been growing recently, and Osoerde has 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 night's rest.”

Father then stands and motions 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 staring back at me. He doesn't say anything but just rests his hand there. I see my siblings staring back at me with confusion on their faces, but they are ushered away by Mother as she leaves with them.

It is just me, Father and our attendants 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 he's never done anything but love me and he probably wants nothing more than a conversation with his son, but here I am slowly starting to shiver.

“Rafael and Gabrial, you can leave.”