Tak, tak!
He heard a knock on the door. Both guards tensed up.
He motioned one guard to open the door. The right guard opened the gate and then looked back at him. "Sir, it's your assistant. He is calling you for something important."
He got up and walked out of the hall. Outside, he saw the old assistant with a man in a green suit standing beside him.
The old assistant rushed toward him, "Young sir, someone wanted to talk to you." The old man pointed to the man standing behind him.
He stared at the man. "Who are you? "
The person walked up to him, stared up and down for a moment, and said, "Young master, I am William the assistant advisor that works for Lady War Champion." he looked around, "My lady sent me to tell you something."
His pupil expanded at this. He did not believe his mother, who had ignored him for the past 16 years, was finally showing some interest in him. 'What going on here?' Suppressing many questions coming to his mind, he said to the man, "Let's talk inside the hall."
The man nodded and both of them went into the hall while guards and an old assistant stayed out.
Inside the hall, Drake sat back in his chair surrounded by books while William dragged a nearby chair and sat in front of Drake.
Drake sat there with a poker face, examining the person in front of him. The guy had brown hair, with light brown eyes. He had this one small scar just below his right eye and had a skinny body.
William had this weird atmosphere around him that made Drake tense. He saw how William had this emotionless smile plastered on his face from the moment they met. It was weird.
He asked William, "What do you want to say?"
William asked him, "Young master, before that can you tell me how much you know about the inner meeting that was about to start in a few hours?"
"Inner meeting…" he shook his head, "nothing much. Is there anything special about this meeting?"
William nodded. "Yeah, the bench for the selection of the Young head will form today."
[Young head!]
"Young head!"
Both Drake outside and Kane inside exclaimed at this.
William asked in doubt, "Young sir, you know about the family dynamic, right?"
He rubbed his forehead. "Are you talking about knowing members of my family? Yeah, I do know that my father is the family head, my mother is the second lady and my stepmother is the first lady for the house."
"What about your sibling?"
"I know that I have a stepsister, but never saw her in person."
"Wait, what about you younger brother?"
He shook his head. It had been a long time since he stopped caring about his family, so hearing about this unknown younger brother was nothing to him. If not for his stepmother mentioning her daughter many times while beating him, he might not know about his stepsister.
William's smile faded at this response. He asked in an uncertain tone, "What about the supporting families?"
He once again shook his head. "Never heard of them."
William placed his palm on his face. "this makes no sense," he peeked from the finger gaps, "What she want telling you nothing…." William started self taking.
William stopped self-talking. "I am sorry for this young master."
"no problem."
William looked up into his eyes, "Young master, my lady sent me here to clarify some of your doubts regarding the family situation. There is also this offer, but I believe it will be better to talk about this after I explain to you a little about the family."
"Sure."
William said, "I believe you know nothing, so let's start with very basic. The Duisberg family is not just one simple family but made up of 100s households and thousands of members."
"So big!'
William nodded with pride, "Out of 100s households there are 11 inner households, while others are outer households. Inner house hose is further divided into 1 main house household that leads the family with 10 supporting households that have control over different areas like trade and other areas within the family."
"Mmmm, I believe I am part of the main family."
"Correct. The current leader of the main household is your uncle, while your father is the current master of the Duisberg family."
"Okay."
"There are two important positions in the family. The family head and the young Lord. From the name alone, you can understand how powerful these positions are. Now it's time to appoint a new young Lord, but the selection process is very complex. The first thing is the formation of the bench."
"Oh, you were talking about this bench earlier. The inner family meeting is about forming this bench, but what does that have to do with me?"
"Young master, the members of this bench will be 10 elders, one from each supporting household and the old family head. They will be part of the old generation. Then there will be 3 leading army generals they represent the current generation."
"Old generation and current generation."
"yeah and finally the new generation. In this, there will be one kid from all 10 supporting households, one kid from each of the 3 generals, and the candidates for the young Lord position."
"wait what about the leaders of the inner households?"
"They have no saying in the selection of young Lord."
'Interesting.' Drake realized his family was not that simple, but a massive giant. He realized getting out of their control would not be simple. He asked, "Counting so far, there are 20 people from the support family, 6 from the army and the old head. Then what about these candidates?"
"Young master, this time there are 4 candidates for the lord's position. 3 direct descendants of the current family head, and the one recommended by the main family, your cousin."
"oh, so 31 people will be part of this bench."
"Yup, and every one of you will have one vote. Every year, there will be a meeting where each member will give a vote to one of the 4 candidates. The condition of becoming the young Lord is to get 70% of the votes."
"70 percent. That…"
William said in an understanding tone, "It is close to impossible through normal voting, but there are few roundabout ways."
"What ways?"
William ignored this and said, "Young master, you should stop worrying about those, but focus on saving your position."
"Wait elimination of candidates possible."
William nodded. "There are many criteria and one of them is strength. Let me tell you tell you interesting stats from the past. The survival rate of candidates who lost their position on the bench is 0. Compared to them, the survival rate of those who lose by votes is more than 80% percent."
He sat emotionless, saying nothing.
William said with a smile, "Young master, you must be thinking, 'Increasing strength will not be a problem as you are about to join the academy.' Hehe, but only if everything is that simple."
He tilted his head at William. "What do you mean by that?"
"It's simple. Surviving in the academy will require resources, connections, support, and several other things. I will say this clearly: the chance of your survival there without and sponsor is very low."
Kane's voice came, [he is right.]
At Kane's confirmation, he said in a monotonous tone, "I want to live."
William frowned at this lackluster reaction but then the smile came back on his face as he said, "No need to tense, young master. My lady understands the problem you are in and she does not want you to die. That is why she offers to sponsor you if you agree to follow every command of your younger brother."
A smile formed on his face. "Becoming a slave for my survival, is it?"
"ah, it's not slavery. You will be just a good older brother."
"hehe," Drake started laughing. He could not believe his situation, 16 years. He dreamed for so long to move out of the room, to get freedom but here not even a day passed he had multiple death threats looming on his head as well an offer to become a slave.
He always believed how cold his mother was, no he was wrong. His mother was not cold she had warmth, the maternal love but it was not for him. If only she cares a little for him he might not need to go through all that.
Truly a laughing situation.