CH 7 - Current Situation

Sunshine Coast, Norman Manor

Monday, 7th of February

14:01

I took a short look at myself within the mirror in front of me.

There was nothing special with the mirror. I was mostly looking at my reflection within the mirror. My black hair was wet as water slowly dripped off of it as I stared back at the glass intensely. My features were more defined for my age which would make me look 2 years older than I already was. As a teen, looking 2 years older than your age group was a huge difference. This is especially true within young men, as a 14 year old and a 16 year old could possibly have a height difference of a whole foot.

My eyes were sharp and were close to a crystal-like blue.

My nose was straight and tall, and I had sharp eyebrows with an equally sharp gaze to accompany it.

"Have I always looked like this?" I couldn't help but feel different after having slept in the car. I was kind of praising my own handsomeness.

"A gush of hormones during sleep?" I wasn't naïve to think of such a thing. But still... wow.

I looked at myself for at least 3 straight minutes before feeling a buzz within my pocket as a notification had been sent on my phone as my gaze broke from the mirror.

I was currently in the room allocated to me by one of the manor's head maids, Emma.

The head maid Emma was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair tied in a formal bun as she wore a classic Victorian maids' outfit. She had green eyes and defined yet innocent features. As a young man my blood couldn't help but boil.

In this regard, wasn't I now her master? Fuck. Amitabha, impure thoughts be vanquished!

I should really look into Buddhism...

After I had woken screaming with such an episode in the car for no apparent reason, I had made up an excuse of bad dreams to the two as the nodded with raised eyebrows as they almost just as quickly forgot about the manner.

Well, they couldn't blame me if it was true in that regard. For the instant I was a victim who had lost the only family that I knew of. Of course I would be a little shaken up.

Jonathan had just laughed and told me that I'd better not wake up everyone in the middle of the night in such a way. He sounded half serious and half joking.

When we had arrived I had just realised how large the estate was in it's entirety.

8 Kilometres. 8 Kilometres square worth of land was own by the Norman family and was used as their main residential area, this not counting their numerous other properties.

8 kilometres. This was bigger than a couple of small suburbs combined together. Big enough to be a very small city.

The property was huge within my eyes. The main manor, swimming pools, separate mansions and buildings with statues, fountains, and gardens.

There were even small scale courts, fields and possible sport venues.

There was even a maids and servant's station, where the family's servants lived.

Information flew into my mind as Jonathan had explained to me nearly everything within the few hours of touring the estate.

Like all of the influential families, it turned out that the Normans had an established 'hierarchy'.

The Normans were one of the top 10 families within Queensland and their sphere of influence spanned through from the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast.

They had influence within 3 cities which was a large number if you were to put in perspective which cities those cities were. The Gold Coast is a huge tourist destination thus has huge economical value to the Norman family.

However due to this, more powerful families within the top 10 occupied the Gold Coast as well, thus everyone had to share a piece of the pie, this in turn making everyone's influence maintained by the status quo. Therefore the Norman's influence in the Gold Coast was minimal but brought in huge assets and some revenue.

Brisbane on the other hand, was the capital of Queensland. In comparison, it wasn't the capital of the country, but the capital of the state of Queensland.

In that sense, the Normans' scope of influence there was also minimized and split amongst the families occupying the south east of the state of Queensland which was one of the most populated places in Queensland.

Therefore, only leaving the Sunshine Coast into consideration, it was the Norman's city of operation. It was the city within they had the most influence and was only shared with only two of the famous families.

The hierarchy of the Normans went as such according to Jonathan;

Oliver and Victoria are by rights the head of the family but usually remain hidden from family affairs and have let their children handle the family affairs.

Correct. Oliver and Victoria, both being in their 70's were the parents of Joseph, Robert, and Jonathan. They were the hidden elders... I mean my grandparents.

Then there are the official roles.

From the beginning, Joseph, Robert, and Jonathan were meant to be on equal grounds, but due to their preferences, different performances within the family business, differences in personality and temperaments the current hierarchy between the brothers had been established.

Lightly speaking, Jonathan was Robert's right hand and most trusted man. Putting it boldly, the gap between their abilities was so huge that Jonathan could be considered as Robert's most trusted lackey.

Robert and Elizabeth. Jonathan and Kathrine. Joseph and Kristen.

Those were the main branches.

Following that, under those branches, Robert and Jonathan each had 7 children.

7 children each.

I had been baffled by the amount, however I guessed that the rich could afford to have many children.

Apart from the two, Joseph only had 3 blood related children.

And unlike Robert and Jonathan, to my knowledge, I did not believe that Kristen loved Joseph purely for who he was.

Though this was an outsider's point of view, I would hide such a suspicion as making assumptions from nothing would just be fruitless trouble.

This was all that I could remember for the moment as I did not even want to delve into the children's children who would most likely be my age.

70's, 50's, 30's, teen's. This was the current structure through age group.

Leaving the bathroom and entering the bedroom which had been designated to me, I stared at the black suit and tie which was placed on what I would call my bed for the rest of my teenage years.

Long after my arrival, people had noticed Jonathan showing me around the estate. Whether it be the maids, the servants, or my 'cousins' who were in their 30's or their kids, everyone had noticed Jonathan, who in their eyes, being a senior who was only below Robert in seniority, were somewhat startled when we walked together.

"It seems we'll be having a family meeting within the next few hours. For now they just asked me to relax and to wait until the head maid Emma came to pick me up." I said while taking a stride and plopping on the king sized bed.

"Sigh... to think that these people had such crazy family politics, you'd think we were back in a feudalistic society." I couldn't help but lament at this fortune within misfortune which had turned out to be a misfortune with a fortunate opportunity.