If I stare out the window long enough, I swear I would hear the long drawn-out noise of a cicada. The Sun hits this side of the Manor just right, like a clear picture-perfect marmalade.
Looking out the window is all I could do to ignore the awkward tension of waiting for my sibling's birth. Luckily, or unfortunately for others, I am the only one waiting. My brothers and Father are preoccupied with other matters. Not only am I stirring in awkward tension, but I'm also slightly nervous. What if the wet nurses didn't do their job right, what if they weren't proficient enough? Snapping the neck? My eyesight intensely focuses on the dust particles slowly floating and gleaming in the sunlight. I'm about to reach out to see how they would sway only to be interrupted.
"Young master, The Duchess has ordered your presence," the woman is quite old and gangly, her facial features sharp. She holds herself with experience and pride, making direct eye contact with me. Given the context, I'm off-kilter, so I quickly excuse the interaction altogether. I nod and approach the double door, it's already opened for me. I ignore the surrounding luxuries of nobility and easily find Mother with a tilt of my head. She's clearly exhausted but still finds it wise to gesture with her hand for me to come near. I shouldn't be surprised when she slightly shifts a bundle in her left arm to reveal a baby but I am.
"Is my sibling a girl?" I find myself immediately saying, it sounds hesitant. The question lacks propriety and I should know better as a noble but it's all lodged out of my throat before I can control myself. I would believe it to be self-preservation but there are subtler ways to go about gaining information and I suppose I'm in a panic no matter how seeming it was. Luckily, in a moment of endearment or Mother being an unorthodox noble herself, she finds it okay to indulge my question.
"Well, it's a boy."
Her smile was full of adoration and her happiness seemed it wouldn't falter anytime soon even with the lack of family to celebrate around us. Her movements were graceful as she shifted the bundle in her arm again and gently caressed the blue tuff of hair on the baby, redrawing my attention to why I had a slight slip up. The baby's hair was blue.
I unceremoniously find myself outside the room again but not close enough to the windows to be dipped in the golden hues of the sun. What started as a nostalgic event left me with a sick sinking feeling in my gut. I consciously followed in the shades of the hallway avoiding the warmth of the sun only allowing myself to stare. I was in a predicament. To feel nostalgic in the first place I had to have experienced something similar in the past but the thing was I had never had a brother born in June. Not in this life at least. I never sat long on the ideas or thoughts of why or how I was here and I wouldn't start now either. The thing I did give myself time to focus on was the settings of my lifestyle. It now held a mix of the middle ages and glimpses of modern technology or ideas. That fantasy was a more immediate possibility was oddly enough the only thing that siphoned the slight dysphoria I occasionally felt. I've also put more weight on tropes or dubious coincidences because after living this life for nine years, I've learned nobles don't do coincidences. Sure it was fun to read about transmigration and isekai but when you're in the situation it all feels more cutthroat. I feel my observation skills and awareness constantly dying in the interactions I have with these people. I slightly shake my head in an instinctive movement.
Mother had just successfully given birth to her fourth child but for most nobles having more than two children is always troublesome. Realistically speaking or not at all... anymore. I slightly scoff at my humor, looking up at the ceiling, reminded of how intricately appealing and clean it is just like the floor. The movement of my head is harsh when I realign myself to look straight ahead of me, I feel slightly annoyed. The clothes on my body are now tight instead of snug. Nobles.
Anyway, my brother has blue hair. It may sound silly but it's a very serious tell for my future. It does sound silly. My ascot and collar start to feel unreasonably hotter and tighter. I want to make a move to shift it but past experience tells me otherwise. The sensation rises to my face and it all starts to feel like a numb silicone plate resting on a metal pole. My face is numb in place. I don't have a destination in mind but muscle memory has me walking to my room.
In the perceived safety of my room, I bring my hand to my face. The pressure is a relieving sense. Maybe I'm being a narcissist but It's not a coincidence that I get a new sibling in a similar time fashion as my last life. I'm eight and it's June, everything is blue. Even with my dragging hand across my face, the skin is taut. I can't bring myself to express my humor in the situation. A feeling of unexpected homesickness hits me. I've never felt homesick in this life, I feel like I just looked something demented in the eye and I can never turn back.
My brother's hair is blue meaning he has the potential to be a magician and based on the feeling I'm getting from this whole situation he may be a reincarnate too or something of a similar variation. I let out a sigh of resignation, sitting precariously on the edge of my bed.
"Maybe I'm just crazy," my whisper is faint and weak.
It's late afternoon when I'm broken from my stupor and called to reconvene with the rest of my family members to rejoice in a successful birth. Father sits by the bedside bathing in Mother's pleasantries and the baby is in her hold again, breathing softly. Besides my father, my two other brothers wait patiently to interact with the new baby. Everyone is proud and happy but as I'm staring at the three heads of golden locks, I can't help but find the situation dreadfully humorous. I'm always reminded of golden ducks one after another whenever I see them side by side. It's a distracting thought to my dilemma in the shape of a new sibling though. Being awkward and coming across as socially inept has been my default around this noble family so I'm not too awfully worried about it. My younger brother, Tennyson turns to me.
"Isn't he cute, I'm an older brother now," he says as a fact. I almost roll my eyes at the obvious statement. I smile slightly instead and stare down, making eye contact with the seven-year-old. His eyes are like mothers, a soft brown, a golden hue to them.
"Of course," my response comes out pleasant matching the situation. After everyone has had their fill of cooing and awing over the new addition to the family and Mother starts to get tired, we're all dismissed, the only exception being Father.
YOU ARE READING
Isekai dump
خيال (فانتازيا)crappy isekai MC's that don't have progress, so, I call them one-shots, despite having an outline and plot that I don't want to write out. "What up. It's me, truck-(put honorific here), the god. it was never about how many people I crashed into, i...
