Karsten IF

Chapter 5: Whale's Fog

Karsten If

Chapter 5: Whale's Fog

"You don't have what it takes to be a soldier."

An old tale was read to him by his mother once he had turned sixteen. She wasn't the warmest of people, especially when it came to her husband's bastard son, the black sheep of the family, and her greatest disgrace.

The Od had made him so that she could learn humility.

She chose to learn her lesson with the attitude of a child.

So whenever he would misbehave or step out of line, she wouldn't abuse him or even give him punishments. No... A bastard wasn't worth the effort of employing such sadism in her eyes.

Instead... She gave him tales. As ridiculous as it sounds, his father's wife was no warm mother toward him, unless he had misbehaved and needed guidance.

It was the only time she had told him a tale of her own free will. Without needing an excuse because he broke a plate, behaved inappropriately towards one of their noble guests, or fought with one of his highborn brothers and sisters in the family whilst forgetting his place as a bastard.

The one time she walked into his room, and sat him down with a look in her eyes that screamed a sense of indignity and torture. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to speak with him for no reason.

His turning into a man finally grown upon that day wasn't a good reason for his father's wife to do this. So he must've done something wrong, he thought.

There must've been a reason why this old tale, in particular, was important for him to hear the moment he could wield his sword with responsibility.

"The story goes on..."

After she had told him the old fairy tale that was taken from some of his father's old books, she hadn't left him alone to think about what he learned from the story. No, she stayed at his bedside, wishing to keep him company as he dealt with afterthoughts about the tale.

She didn't stay because he needed company or because she wanted to make this a special moment.

In a moment of realization, the bastard realized that his father's wife wasn't here for his company or to give him a memory he could rely on as he set foot into manhood. She was too proud a woman for that.

His mother needed a son to send as fulfillment for a debt his father had entailed from their liege lords at the Karsten Estate.

She chose the boy who was nothing but a reminder of her husband's inadequacy as a faithful man. The one thing inside of her home that had never been chosen by her with approval, from the couches to the servants serving them.

"...About a man who kept enacting the same task, over and over again."

The boy was laughed at sooner he arrived toward the preparation halls, he had armor that fit a boy of low nobility even if he was a bastard. He would soon start pacing around when he realized that most of the people around him were not entirely of noble birth like his trueborn brothers and sisters.

There were demihumans in the hall... Beasts and abominations were always cursed upon whenever his father or uncles would train him and tell tales of their deeds in the great war.

They were not his enemy, of course, but he stayed away nonetheless.

He was forced to spend time with more of the human side of the occupants in the hall, however. And by the Od's hand, he wished he didn't. If they were noble spawns, they were arrogant and dismissive toward him as soon they heard his house name. If they were oldened knights or veterans, they would show him compassion and give him wisdom on how to hold his weapon which made him feel uncomfortable and inadequate when he realized their warmth was haunted by memories he could not ask about.