3 The Calm Before the Storm (2) - 2

Three more years passed, so we were 8 now.

She now had her own bedroom, but still insisted on sleeping with me once every week.

On regular days, I would have to go to her room and wake her up as she was definitely a night owl, a habit she probably kept from her office days in her last life. But on the days that we slept together, she would have to wake up first and get dressed before I opened my eyes, as that was the etiquette that we had to follow as nobles.

Today, we were getting ready to attend the coming-of-age party for another duke's child.

There were 4 dukes in the kingdom of Mecansa and each had a plethora of lesser nobles as their followers.

Currently, the Endendyk house was contending for the top spot between the duke houses, and was close to reaching that goal, having already pushed out two of the other dukes with its great power.

From all the snippets of plotting that I was hearing around the house, I was almost sure that us attending this party of the last duke's daughter would somehow allow our father to get the top spot in the kingdom, making our family almost as powerful as the king.

Back to the present:

"Ah, come on Charlotte! Do I really have to wear all of this?"

I pulled at the collar of my suit, trying to stop it from choking me to death.

"Just fucking put it on Lysander."

"But it's choking me!" I whined.

The other maids gasped at her harsh words, directed towards her lord, whilst using his actual name, but it didn't matter to me, I mean, I had heard a lot worse things during my tour in Iraq.

'Wait, when did I do that?'

I fell in a fit of agony for a minute or so, falling to my knees, clutching my face, while a pain raged in my head before I could finally compose myself again.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha." I panted.

"Young master, are you alright?"

It seemed like the thing that had been keeping me off of the floor had been Charlotte's arm that had rushed to my side the moment my abnormality manifested.

"I'm fine Char, please... just... leave for a second."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! All of you leave right now!"

Hearing my harsh command, the maids and Char quickly hurried out and I was left alone in my room.

(A/N: Just saying, as it annoys me, but it's pronounced "Shar", not "Char" like in "Charmander".)

Clutching the right side of my face with my hand, I opened up my fingers a little and looked at myself in the mirror.

"What the fuck is that!"

I hurried back so quickly in horror that I crashed into a chair and fell over on my back.

I looked back at the mirror to confirm that I wasn't tripping.

'My eye! Why is my entire right eye completely black?'

Charlotte must have been standing diligently at the door, as she immediately rushed in when she heard the crash.

She assessed the scene immediately, but before she could rush to my side, I stopped her with a wave of my hand.

"Don't come closer." I said through gritted teeth.

"But young master, you're hurt!"

"Does this look like I'm hurt!" I yelled.

I slowly turned my face towards her, revealing my pitch black eye.

"Char, what the fuck is happening to me?" I asked, looking torn in horror.

I watched as she slowly walked up to me and... slapped me, hard, on the cheek.

"Please refrain from using those types of words again, young master."

She then kneeled down in front of my shocked face before pulling me into a tight hug, reminiscent of my mother's.

A second wave of shock rolled over me, before I hugged her in the same tight fashion, feeling at home.

I couldn't stop the tears as they fell from my eyes.

'Crying even though you're a grown man, how pathetic.'

You see, in my past life, I had been an orphan that was good at nothing. All the other kids at the orphanage had bullied me every day, calling me a good for nothing and such, telling me that that was probably the reason that my parents had left me at the doorstep that dreadful day. Of course, now that I was an adult, I understood that the bullying was probably to assuage their own fears about why their parents left them, but it wasn't an excuse to ruin my childhood.

And now, as I was being comforted by somebody that could love me unconditionally even though she wasn't related to me, it just made me so happy.

We stayed like that for some time, feeling the warmth of each other in the comfortable silence.

Who would have known that this would be the incident to push all things over the edge?

...

In the afternoon, I finally finished cleaning myself up, and I had managed to somehow feel a little bit comfortable in my formal suit with all those parts in it.

It was a blue suit that perfectly complimented my long purple haired that was tied with a simple ribbon behind my back.

I had red ruby earrings that hung down from my ears on simple silver chains. My face had been dusted with a powder that somehow made it shinier? I really didn't understand this, I mean, I was never a fashionista in the first place.

I also wore blue dress pants that matched the suit and had black dress shoes on, and the weirdest part of my outfit was the red cloak fluttering behind me, the Endendyk house insignia imprinted largely on the back of it.

As I walked out of my dressing room, I couldn't help but look back at the two small stains on the floor that were the result of my crying.

One was the usual slightly darker than the rest of the carpet from the wetness, but the other had dyed the carpet pitch black.

'Truly what the fuck am I? And why can't I seem to remember a large part of my last life?'

With these questions burning in the back of my mind, I stepped out of the room.