Chapter 2 - First emotion

Darkness opened his eyes and everything around him was so sparkly. He could hear a voice saying,

"Your majesty, your baby has been born."

The person talking handed his small body to a woman who smiled.

"Welcome to the world, my child. I am your mother."

As the woman held him tightly, he felt strangely comfortable and warm. As Darkness looked at this person called mother, he felt something in his eyes. He felt water.

"Isn't this body supposed to be made of flesh and blood? Why are tears flowing out of it?"

He tried to hold back the tears, thinking that it was this body's instinct to cry. Unable to stop, he cried for the first time ever in aeons.

"So this is how crying feels."

Darkness finally felt something different from loneliness. He was grateful, but he still wondered about something.

"What family was I born into? Looking at how the maids were treating this person called Mother, I seemed to be born into a noble family."

Darkness knew a little about those in existence. First, there was a concept called noble and commoner. Nobles were somewhat more important than commoners. The world he was currently in had many kingdoms. There was Avalon, the kingdom of light; in the south, there was Vardand, the kingdom of elements; in the west, there was Gnosis, the kingdom of knowledge; and in the east, there was Gratia, the kingdom of mysteries. While he knew that there were many more kingdoms in existence, he only knew of the four big ones.

Suddenly, a voice declared, "Announcing the arrival of His Highness Raegis von Avalon, the son of the Avalon Empire."

A handsome man entered the room, wearing an attire that looked beautiful yet simple. The man walked up to him and his mother.

"Are you feeling well, my empress?" he asked with a worried look.

"I'm feeling well, majesty. But may I ask you something?" said the woman called mother.

"You may, my empress," the man said.

"Why do you smell so weird?" the woman supposedly my mother asked.

"My empress, his majesty used all of his perfume to smell good. He wanted to smell nice for the crown prince," one of the maids said.

"Just how much did you use, your majesty?" she asked again.

"I don't know. I thought the more I used, the better it would be, so I used all of it," the man said.

No matter how many ways I looked at it, the man, though looking so good, sounded so stupid. I couldn't imagine how such a person led such a big country.

"Have you decided on a name for our prince, my empress?" the man asked.

"How about Claude, your highness? Claude von Avalon. What do you think?" my mother said.

"Then it is decided. From today onward, the prince's name shall be Claude von Avalon. Let the prince's name be known to the entire empire," the emperor declared.

And so, the empire of Avalon welcomed the birth of its crown prince. Every citizen of the empire celebrated their prince's birth. The emperor even declared that from today onward, the date would be a public holiday for all citizens of the empire. They were invited to the main capital to enjoy the festival that was held to celebrate the new son of the empire. A banquet was held at the palace and the nobles from around the empire were welcomed to attend and meet the prince themselves.

I was a bit annoyed, but seeing how all these people rushed to prepare for the banquet, this banquet must have been important.

"Isn't this a bit too much??" Claude thought to himself. Suddenly, a maid came.

"Prince, we need to prepare you too," said the maid, while other maids smiled wickedly.

"Help!!" Claude, aka Darkness, scream in his mind.