A knock at the door pulled him from his thoughts.
"Young master."
The voice was kind, yet strained. Forced. A reminder of his status.
Maxi sighed, closing his book and pushing up his round glasses.
when he opened the door he saw his maid, a young girl 12 years old, he assumed due to her hight. she had red hair and wolf ears and a tail. She had a soft delicate face, which Maxi believed was just a cover up and disguise for real rough personality, or Tsundere personality as he liked to call it.
Maxi assumed all this on the bases that her hair was red, and no woman with red hair would ever be just nice; there had to be something underneath, he just knew it but couldn't prove it.
I mean he had red heads in his world so why would it be any different here.
Maxi then sighed, knowing that if she became one of his friends in the future, the amount of punches on the head he will get will be many.
He chuckled at himself, and his stupid sense of humor.
Maxi then shook his head, as he also shook off the stupid stereotype.
But, just in case it came up later, he put it in the back of his mind.
He followed the maid through the palace halls, and as quickly as he got pulled out of his thoughts, he just as quickly returned.
He walked through the hallway, his steps echoing in the silence, his fingers idly tracing the mark on his palm. Five years in this world, and he had learned much—too much.
His mother wasn't just any maid. She was the king's personal maid. His father's maid.
The man who scoffed at him and dismissed him with a single word—
"pathetic"
—had loved his mother enough to betray his 9 wives. A secret affair. From what he heard, it was a well-kept secret, until one of the king's 9 wives' servants secretly saw them. Then it all went down in flames, figuratively and apparently literally.
From there, the details that he had before were vague and less reliable, but thanks to his mother constantly mumbling under her breath and the conversations she had with her friend,
Maxi was able to fill and solidify the gaps of knowledge he was missing and was unsure of. He learned that after everything went to flames, his mother was about to be fired, whether literally or figuratively he did not know, but when his mom revealed that she was pregnant with him, things became complicated because then royal blood was involved, and royal blood mattered a lot from what he could tell.
From what he learned, royal blood grants the person who has it the family name of the royal family which the royal blood comes from.
And family names really matter, why he also doesn't know, but he does know two things. First of all, it protected his mother from being killed and made it so she could keep her job. Second of all, he knew the name itself.
BloodHeart
It is a name that is revered and feared throughout this world's lands. Every member of his lineage is blessed by a god that goes by the title.
The Blood God.
With this god's power, their power could shape mountains, command warriors, topple rulers, and create demons and monsters among their bloodline.
But for some reason he was the exception.
He was different. Unblessed. An anomaly.
Maxi then wondered how they knew he wasn't blessed.
Perhaps it was the mark on his hand, the three-eyed grin that set him apart.
Or
Maybe it was something deeper, something instinctual and unspoken within their sacred bloodline.
Or
Even more worrisome, it could have been the fault of those 3 entities. It could have been the cause of their cosmic plan, making him now a pawn on their divine chessboard.
But overall that didn't matter, because in the end,
they knew somehow, they knew he wasn't blessed. And surprisingly, they didn't care—well, "didn't care" wasn't the right word. They did care; in fact, they cared enough to put him in this castle, isolated from the rest of his siblings, but the fact he wasn't blessed by the Blood God didn't take away his family name, which meant his blood mattered more than the gods' blessing, but the gods' blessing mattered in terms of strength and his status in the family.
Because his status in the royal family was clear.
He had twenty siblings, and they ALL treated him as less than an insect, with the exception of one. Some hated him outright, others ignored him, and a few tolerated his existence only because they had to.
But just one, just one cared for him. In fact, he even became his trainer. Did he want to get trained? No. Did he have a choice? Also no. Was it the thought that mattered? Yes, because he did say the main reason he wanted to train him was so Maxi could get stronger.
But the worst person overall in his life was his new father.
The King.
The king refused to grant him more than the bare minimum to survive. No tutors, no luxury, no privileges beyond his right to a roof and food. He wasn't even allowed to leave the palace, even for the smallest of things.
The king made him feel how low he was in his family status.
But lucky for him, his mother was a saint and allowed the bare minimum to be provided by her, and thanks to that, his mom was able to buy him a few things that he wanted.
So of course, at first he asked for little things, like decorations, then for furniture, like a small table and chair.
After that he wanted to have something to do, and what can you do in a middle evil-like fantasy world? Well, the only thing you can do: read books.
The king didn't care if Maxi buried himself in knowledge. If anything, it most likely amused him. A weak child reading about strength he could never have.
Maxi smirked bitterly.
They had no idea.
He had asked his mother to spend every coin given to him on books about history, politics, and most importantly—the world itself.
Languages, dimensions, gods… this world was vast, terrifying, and filled with power beyond comprehension. And soon, he would be getting more than just books.
His mother had convinced the king to grant him a tutor. A living book, as Maxi liked to joke. Someone who would teach him not just knowledge but how to survive.
A step forward. A chance.
How was he able to even understand this world's books? Well, the answer to that is exactly the same as how he was able to understand the language of this world in the first place: by just learning and understanding.
He didn't understand this language at first, but surprisingly, he found it quite easy to understand. Maxi, in his previous life, wasn't particularly good with language. Even though he traveled a lot, his English and Chinese were good, but all the other languages he learned in his previous life were either barely considered average or just straight-up terrible.
He knew a lot of languages, but he didn't know them well. With this world, it was different—it was like learning English all over again, but this time as an adult. He was able to understand and see all the patterns: how every word that meant multiple of something had an "S," how past tense usually has an "ed" at the end of a word. Of course, other languages had these patterns as well, but with this world's language, it just felt easier to catch and understand.
So he was able to quickly learn how to read, write, and speak in this language.
The language itself was quite peculiar in the way it is spoken. It kinda forces you to switch between a deep and soft tone, and it also has this authoritative way of speaking that just naturally flows out with short or even single-worded answers, while longer, drawn-out answers give a respectable and honor-heavy tone.
Which this way of speaking affected the way Maxi read the books, which made him surprised at how well his books incorporated the way the language is spoken. In fact, it kinda made him excited at learning more of the advanced and complex side of this world's language, which would open his doors to the more advanced books of this world.
It was the first time in while maxi was excited about learning.
Maxi's maid's steps suddenly stopped, which snapped maxi out of his thoughts
they had stopped and arrived at a wooden two-sided door, his maid sighs. As she looks liked, like she was contemplating opening the door, but eventually she come to a decision.
She opened it.
Inside, a man lounged lazily in a chair, legs spread wide, arms draped over the backrest. A black cloak covered most of his form, fastened by a single pin—a crimson shooting star.
His presence alone made the air feel heavier.
Maxi took a step in, and the man's eyes snapped to him. A smirk tugged at his lips as he stood up.
"So, I'm guessing you're my student?"
Maxi's breath hitched.
The moment the man moved, he felt them.
A looming pressure. Five distinct presences. Gods. Strong ones.
His body trembled instinctively.
Who… no, what is he?
Swallowing his nerves, Maxi forced his voice steady. "Who are you?"
The man's smirk widened as he pulled back his cloak.
Beneath it was a scarred face, an X-shaped wound cutting across his cheek,a face straight out of some cocky adventurer's tale, His jaw strong, his cheekbones sharp, giving him a rugged, almost chiseled appearance that only seemed to enhancing his cockiness.
His red hair was slicked back and faded into purple at the tips. The loose strands alluded towards the man's personality, wild and untamed. His eyes burned with excitement, like a man who lived for chaos.
Then, with a sharp grin, he answered.
"My name" he chuckled
"Is something you don't need to know, but if you don't want to call me something, call me by my birth name"
Maxi thought "Wait isn't your birth name your real name."
The man smirked as he said
"Call me"
"Tangen."
Two authors notes in a row. crazy right.