Moments

The Kingmaker - II

No way. No way.

Luke couldn't believe his eyes. And his other senses. He was floating. And he was breathing in water. He could only see red all around. Looking at his 'limbs', he could only come to the conclusion that was now a foetus. There was no other possibility.

Although he couldn't feel his heartbeat race, Luke knew he was agitated. He breathed deeply and slowly so that he could calm down. First, there were so many emotions he needed to get out of the way. A year of being hunted and chased had made him stressed and worn out. But it had also developed great patience in him. His personality had been honed and ground until he became so steady and stable that even veterans couldn't compete with his level-headedness.

So many questions were swirling around his head. Why was he here? How was he here? Was this what happened when people died? But the insane part of this was that he had retained his memories from his previous life!

After spending a long time pondering over these questions, Luke came to the main problem. What was he to do now?

Regardless of where he was born, Luke knew one thing that was absolute. Once he was born, he had to gain power — as much power as he possibly could. This quest for wealth and power might seem superficial to many, but Luke had experienced the punishment of not being in a position of power. The Skeleton's Smile could hound him for so long despite his genius. Why? Because that kind of power was beyond Lucas' as he always ran solo.

His sole agenda in this life, therefore, was to reach the peak, the pinnacle of existence in his life, all the while leading a calm, undisturbed, serene life.

Then he came to the question of what he was to do with the five-odd months he had within his mother's womb. An obvious answer came to him. In his last life, the reason he was able to calm his mind was because of a breathing technique he had learnt at the organisation when he was young. Luke had been an orphan, taken in and raised by the organisation. There, he had been able to climb up several levels up the ladder merely because he had been the quickest to learn this breathing technique, which, he was told, took years for others to learn.

Luke felt that practising the technique in the womb could not do any harm. So he began doing however little he could with his tiny body. Weeks passed as Luke practised this technique. He could feel his breathing become easier and smoother. He also knew that he was growing faster than normal.

Outside, Antonia's stomach was swelling up with alarming speed. Fabian, her husband was so anxious that he had her checked every four days. The doctors all had only one thing to say: "The child will probably go to full term a month early. Leaving the child inside the womb for even any longer would be dangerous."

The doctors didn't dare fool this man. Their country, Nova, had been a constitutional democracy for a hundred years now. An aristocracy existed. One of the most powerful men among the aristocracy was Fabian Crane, the Marquess of Thorne. His marchioness, Antonia had become pregnant four years after their marriage which was a cause for celebration. Fabian's parents, the duke and duchess of Adler, were looking forward to the child's birth eagerly.For something as abnormal as this to occur, the doctors had to be on their toes. It was because of this that Fabian had hired top ob-gyn specialists to be around his wife round the clock. Antonia nagged and complained and whined, but to no avail.

Fabian frowned once, gazing at Antonia's stomach. "This child is causing more trouble than it's worth," he said with displeasure.

Antonia slapped his hand away, snapping at her husband. "What do you know? My child is giving me a month's less burden. What more do you expect from him?"

Fabian opened his mouth to explain, but Antonia wouldn't hear of it. She even threw him out of the bedroom, making him sleep in the guest room. Finally, he had to speak to her ingratiatingly. "Yes, yes. Our child is extremely filial. There is no better child that will ever be born."

At his convincing, Antonia thawed and let him inside the room.

Antonia spent all her time trying to stimulate her child's brain from within the womb. She made him listen to everything from Beethoven to Mozart to Tchaikovsky to Bach. She read out many works of philosophy to him, not knowing that the child could actually understand what she was reading. She read works of pure literature and poetry, too. Then she ended up reading out and listening to anything and everything she thought was useful.

By that time, four months had passed since Luke gained consciousness. It was time for him to come out. On August 15th, Antonia's water broke. The supervising doctors took her to the hospital immediately, contacting the soon-to-be father.

Fabian dropped everything and ran to the hospital. He burst into her ward, pulled up a chair and sat by her bedside. Antonia was sweaty and red-faced. Her shrieks covered the entire corridor. She squeezed the life out of Fabian's hand, but he didn't even flinch at that. He was brushing the hair from her face and stroking her head, murmuring encouraging words.

Inside, Luke was doing his best to get out. He turned around, headfirst and tried to slide out of his mother's body. Within an hour and half of going into labour, the baby slid out. "It's a boy!" the doctor cried out.

Gender hadn't really been a matter of concern for anyone in the family. Regardless of whether it was a boy or a girl, the child would have been the heir to the dukedom of Adler. The boy was healthy and didn't look like a premature baby at all. He cried out loudly, much to Luke's chagrin. It seemed like crying was a reflex among children, something he could barely control.

Fabian's subordinates had all the registrations, the birth certificates, the entry into the Book of Nobility, etc. done efficiently.

He was named Lucas Kai Crane, the Earl of Orion, heir to the marquessate of Thorne, second heir to the dukedom of Adler.