Chapter 5: After 7 years
Chapter 5: After 7 years
Steeline Dukedom.
Sari City, Steeline Castle.
17th December, 1000.
A young boy with golden blonde hair, green eyes, and snowy white skin, who was an exact replica of his mother, was walking down the hallway that connected the training grounds with the housing area of the castle.
He was saturated in perspiration and was dressed in a blue vest and black shorts even though it was the winter season, clearly signifying his great exhaustion after a rigorous training session.
Exactly!
You guessed it correctly,
It is me, Luke, heading into my room after finishing my daily workout regimen, which I completed earlier than usual because today is a special day.
Today marks the seventh anniversary of my birth in this world known as Arcedia, as well as the start of a new era, a new millennium for this world.
It was a very significant day for me, since it was the day I would meet my supposed future fiance, AKA the first heroine, Selina Greenberg, who would be attending my birthday celebration tonight.
In the novel, Luke's bad luck also began on this day, after he encountered Selina at the party and instantly fell in love with her.
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Two hours later
After taking a shower and eating dinner, I was finally able to relax a little as I laid down on my bed in my room and got lost in thought.
In the last seven years, not much had happened, but at the same time a lot happened.
I was able to walk, run, and talk fluently by the age of one, and I could write and read before the age of two.
Although I understood the language from my previous life, I had to play the part of a child and show everyone that I was learning everything from scratch, which was even more difficult than actually learning English back on Earth.
As a result of which, word of the genius Steeline house's heir's intelligence and his ability to read and write flawlessly at the young age of two quickly travelled throughout the entire Steeline castle like a wildfire in a forest.
And for a mother who adored me and a father who treated me as if I were his most valuable treasure, discovering that their son was a genius was a dream come true.
Since then, my mother has personally taught me everything about a variety of topics, including history, geography, magic theories, etc.
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I already knew a lot of the information from the novel, but learning it in greater detail helped me understand the world better and dispel many of my doubts.
Father also always kept me close by while he worked so that I could pick up something from how he did things, no matter how negligible it was.
Which resulted good for me as my father permitted me to browse through the Dukedoms' files when I asked about them on my fifth birthday.
Maybe he only intended to quell my curiosity, thinking that even if I were a genius, I wouldn't be able to comprehend the workings of the dukedom from the files and would eventually abandon them after getting bored.
But he was proven wrong as my interest grew with each passing day.
Father was pleased that I was interested in managing the family, which was a good thing because I was the family's future heir.
Many things that occurred in the novel actually made no sense at the beginning to me, but the more I lived in this world, the more I realised that there was a hidden reasonone that was not explicitly stated in the novelbehind all of the events that took place here.
When my father noticed my interest in the family business, he began to show me more and more files, and that's when I realised that there was a problem.
or many big problems.
Embezzlement of money, illegal slavery, various crimes against women, taking loans from the Royal family in the name of Steeline, etc.
All this work was done by people who were close to my father.
My father was depicted as a cruel, nasty, and evil person in the novel.
But tell me who has achieved success in this world without killing or scheming.
No one! not even the protagonist, Kevin.
However, unlike him, in reality, my father was a man who adored and cared deeply for his family and the individuals who worked for him.
But that was also his weakness.
Maybe he might not have been able to see it because the managerial and financial management systems at this time were not as developed, or he did notice them, but he thought of them as his own people and turned a blind eye to what they were doing.
I didn't know what the real situation was.
But, as a reader of the novel and someone from modern society, what I do know is that these people were filthy scumbags.
They were the leeches that were slowly sucking the lifeblood of our family from the inside.
Furthermore, they were not acting alone in this.
I saw a few references to the Greenberg family and how some of their members worked with members of our family on similar projects.
However, the Greenberg family had always gotten along well with our family, so I knew my father had no doubts about them.
Actually no, wrong! I can't blame my father.
Doing these things was commonplace worldwide because corruption exists in every kingdom, community, and empireit is even present in the modern world, where police and government officials accept bribes despite everyone's knowledge of it.
Similarly, if done within limits, embezzlement, crimes, and corruption were common.
However, what these guys were doing was preparing a long and subtle trap for our family, because these people were aware that "it" was typical and common, and if they kept it subtle, they would be able to easily bypass the Duke.
These people were quite clever in their jobs, and if I hadn't read the book and known about what would happen, even I might have fallen for their tricks and ignored them.
"A bunch of filth, you just wait for me; I swear to god, I will eradicate your existence and let you and your family suffer for eternity."
However, I am aware that there isn't much I can do against them right now, but don't worry; many things will be clear after tonight.
Tonight I will officially start the countdown to their happy days.
"Ah! Water?"
Thinking about all these things made me thirsty, so I got up from my bed and poured some water from the jug into the glass.
Gulp!
And when I was drinking water from the glass, suddenly, a thought clicked in my mind.
What if it was also the Greenberg family's plan from the beginning to let Selina seduce Luke and make him fall in love with her with some dirty means, then later propose a marriage contract, and finally destroy and annex our family from the inside?
F*ck! Why did I never think about it?
"What a b*tch!"
My blood boiled as I cursed and gritted my teeth.
As the sudden possibility took root in my head, I threw the glass on the floor in anger.
Smash!
"Young Master Luke, is everything alright? do you need some help?"
Hearing the sound of glass shattering, my maid, who was standing outside of my room, shouted and asked me in a concerned tone.
"Yes, Daisy, my glass slipped and broke; please clean it up."
Hearing my command, Daisy, my beautiful and personal teenage maid, came inside and asked.
"Are you alright, young master Luke? Did you get hurt anywhere?"
"Hehehe, Nope! I am alright, see! The glass just slipped from my hand as I was thinking about something"
I extended my hand to her while chuckling after observing my adorable maid's concern.
After confirming that I was alright, Daisy quickly cleaned up the broken glass and took her leave after telling me to be careful.
"Such a cutie."
Well, atleast now I was calmed down because of her, and this even also served as a warning for me.
"I must control my emotions, or they will only cloud my judgement in the future."
Saying that to myself, I once again took a deep breath and thought about the issue at hand more calmly.
The novel didn't reveal much about Selina and Luke's past, but Selina's actions in requesting different critical information, property papers, and other valuable stuff from Luke, despite being from the Greenberg family herself, were obviously questionable.
And, while she justified it by saying that she just wanted to exact revenge on Luke in whatever way she could, her act of not even once properly terminating their engagement was a huge red flag.
Also, no matter how stupid Luke was or how beautiful Selina was, it doesn't make sense in a realistic world for someone to fall so deeply in love at first sight.
Even if the gods descended and danced in the streets, I could believe it.
But Luke falling so hard for Selina, and so naturally, without any outside influence, I'll never believe it.
"What a bunch of nonsense love at first sight, humph!"
Those are just fantasy tales where people say that they fell in love at first sight.
In real life, people are much more sensible, and no matter how much of a pervert Luke later became, he was just a 7 year old in the novel at this time.
For a 7 year old dumb Luke to fell in love,
Spit!
Its absurd! and, no matter how much I think about it, the most probable scenario is that maybe, even in today's party, there were some hidden tricks at play.
However, I was also not some dumb lamb waiting to get slaughtered.
I was a dragon that was cunning like a snake.
It was too early to go after the people who were working with Greenberg, because those people were my pawns in this game.
They had to play their part well in the future before I could send them to sacrifice themselves.
However!
"Selina Greenberg! If what I am thinking is true, then your end would definitely not be good."
I said this as an evil, sadistic grin appeared on my face.