3 A New World?

Rich sunlight streamed into the room, through the silk-curtained windows—colored gold—and the exposed balcony, enriching the room with its stellar brilliance.

The wind that flowed in through the windows saturated the air with the thick scent of seawater and the mild mixed scent of fecal matter and urine but the bouquet of bright-colored flowers placed at vantage points helped to lessen the foulness.

The room was large with brick-red stone walls painted in soft pastels and subsequently adorned with murals and tapestries that depicted vivid legends, with high ceilings.

The floor was covered with patterned rugs, and the room was furnished with luxurious items, including a large canopy bed with crimson sheets, silk drapes, and a golden headboard.

There was a fireplace at one corner of the room, near the arranged gilded table and chair that held up baskets of assorted fruits and expensive treats that would've made the mouths of even the most satisfied run water.

My mother's chamber deeply embodied the wealth, opulence, and power she held. A room truly fit for a Queen.

"My little lion, have I told you the story of our ancestor? The founder of the House Lannister Of Casterly Rock?" My mother asked softly, her voice as sweet as honey with a smile on her pretty face, staring down at me as enjoyed the milk that filled her firm round breast taken out of her dress, my little arms gripping the fabric of her dress.

She was seated at the edge of her bed, donned in a soft silk cotte of a golden color that enhanced the beauty of the golden diadem resting on her golden-colored head.

It felt weird the first time I was put to the breasts since I was essentially an adult trapped in a child's body but probably because of the instincts that came with this body, I adapted and acclimatized.

And it also didn't help that the Milk tasted so heavenly as if it was the fabled Ambrosia...

Cradled in her lithe soft arms with a piece of white thick cloth covering my weak body, my lips pressed around her exposed pink nipples, I responded by just looking up at her.

Her smile broadened and as a small gust of wind blew in through the balcony doors and made the drapes flutter, she started.

"Our founder was called Lann The Clever, an adventurer, and explorer of Andal roots who existed in the Age Of Heroes, thousands of years ago. He came to Westeros...."

Even though she thought, I didn't understand her words or whatever she was saying at all, she still told the story slowly with a gentle voice radiating with love, behaving as if I did.

It had been three days after my birth and I was still fascinated by what I was seeing. The love and care my mother radiated and glowed with in response to just my presence, on a daily basis, still baffled me.

It was like I was her sole reason for happiness, the only anchor holding her in place in a raging storm and in the past few days I've stayed practically glued to her, I have seen the intensity of it rise steadily at an obsessive rate.

I had never experienced such intense emotion directed towards me before, not even from my mother in my past life. Only Anna came close to what I was feeling from her but comparing the two of them was like comparing the moon to the sun...

She placed a whole new meaning on unconditional love and I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by it. Just looking at her felt like I was looking at Anna but a better version of her, a version who wouldn't despise or abhor my existence but would forgive me no matter what I did and still cherish me.

One of Anna's wishes for me, before I died was for me to find peace wherever I found myself but at that time, I only smiled because it was only in death did one find peace.

But maybe, I had truly found peace. Peace as the son of Queen Cersei Baratheon nee Lannister. Only time could tell...

"...Using his cunning mind, he swindled the Casterlys out of their home and took it for himself, creating the House Of Lannister who then ruled as Kings Of The Westerlands before the advent of the Targaryens." She finished with a smile and I removed my mouth from her nipples, leaving a glistening trail of saliva.

"Did you like it?" She asked, a nice smile plastered on her smooth face. I forced a giggle out of my small mouth and immediately, her green eyes lit up with joy.

"I knew you'd like it. After all, you're my little lion." She giggled softly, her voice ringing in my ears like a melody as she used her index finger to poke the tip of my nose playfully.

There were a lot of things I noticed during my two-day stay and what I was assuming to be the palace and one of them was the distinct amount of cultural differences between my old time and the new one.

For example, the name I had and the titles that came with it. I was given the new name: Joffery, a name of Germanic origin that means God's Peace.

This wouldn't have been an issue if the language I heard all around me wasn't modern English. A variant that did not match the medieval aura and tone of everything around me depicted.

I couldn't recall the origin of the name Baratheon so I chalked it down to it being a name native to this society or culture.

The interesting part about all this was the fact that I was the Prince of the Seven Kingdoms and the heir to the Iron Throne, both concepts that did not exist during the medieval or any period in European history.

Westeros, which I assumed to be the name of either continent or Empire didn't exist either on any geographical map from where I was from.

England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, or any of the British Isles never had anything called; The Seven Kingdoms, The Iron Throne, and even the names of the royal family.

The only one I had heard that was remotely similar was the Lannister which resembled the name Lancaster, a branch house of the Plantagenet dynasty that ruled England during the medieval period.

Even their historical figures and time periods were foreign, like The Age Of Heroes, Lann The Clever, and The Targaryen Dynasty which going by my mother's words were the ruling power before my father's ascension.

The whole place felt foreign and everything just felt too distant and different. It made me have doubts about whether I had really time-traveled into the past. I wasn't even sure if I was on Earth anymore...

That was when, like a flash of light, something popped into my mind: The many-worlds interpretation. A theory in Quantum mechanics, coined by Hugh Everett, suggested that the universe constantly branched into multiple parallel realities, each corresponding to a different outcome of any possible event.

This meant that for each event that occurred with an outcome, an opposite or different outcome would take place at the same time that would create another reality or universe related but parallel to the former.

The Multiverse theory it was also called.

This was a theory one of my associates who was a serial killer was deeply passionate about it and this in turn, based his whole philosophy around it.

He explained that since he had made all the choices he had ever thought of or dreamed in another reality and that there were a nigh-infinite amount of variants of everyone in the infinite Multiverse, then it didn't matter if he or anyone else lived or died because, in some other universe, they were living their dream lives...

I indulged him in his belief because it was in line with my plans but frankly, it sounded farfetched and unreal to me so after he outlived his uses, I shelved the theory to the back of my mind, never forgetting it.

And now, that was the theory that shed some light on my situation. It was the only thing that could perfectly explain all the similarities and differences between my old and new worlds.

So after reviewing all the things I knew again, I came to a staggering conclusion. I was in a world parallel to Earth, a world similar but also very distinct with possibly different laws of physics, in an alternate universe.

A conclusion as fascinating as it was shocking that filled me with a new kind of excitement that agitated my bones. After all, this was a whole new world I could play with till I please...

Suddenly, a loud knocking sound brought me out of my thoughts and my mother turned the door, raising an eyebrow in annoyance.

"Come in."