3 Years Later.
Marvin was in the arms of his wet nurse. He was dressed in his best clothes, a black suit-like robe adorned with golden buttons and accessories.
His hair was weaved into straight cornrows with beautiful hair clips attached to them. He looked so dashing that one might think the day is about him.
But today is not about him. His wet nurse was standing beside his mother, Lady Vena. The two of them were standing together with the array of guests that had come to celebrate this wonderful day for the Dyson family.
So he is just a guest. He is also an unwilling one.
He didn't come here because he wanted to. He came because he had to.
He is a child, so he didn't have a choice in the matter. But now that he is here, what he has seen has made him begin to rethink how powerful the Dyson family is.
His tiny eyes were constantly moving about, taking in everything he could see and reassessing his understanding of the world.
They are currently in the hall of ceremonies. It is a large structure built with hewn rocks and stone pillars. The hall was designed like ancient Greek temples.
The guests are more than two hundred in number. He can't be sure about the number, but he is certain that all the guests are rich or at least pretending to be rich.
This judgment is based on their attire. They were wearing clothes no worse than his. If they are anything like his mother, who made him dress this way, then they too must be trying to look their best for the occasion.
He could also tell that some of them had transcended the first mortal coil. They had the same brightness in their eyes that his father possesses, and their footsteps are always loud. As if they are giants pretending to be humans.
Yet, these rich and powerful people had taken time out of their schedule to visit the Dyson family and celebrate this wonderful occasion with them. He couldn't help but think that the Dyson family was impressive.
The guests occupied the sides of the hall of ceremonies. They left a large gap in the center of the hall for people to pass through. This gap is where all the action is at.
Most of the guests are standing by the side and watching the ceremony. But once in a while, the guests will walk through the gap and to the front of the hall where the true celebrants are.
The celebrants are three people. He happens to know two of them.
One of them is a blond and handsome young man. Marvin has only seen him twice in his life, but he has a good memory, so he remembers the man and recognizes him as his father.
The second celebrant is his father's wife. He has seen her on many occasions. She frequents the outer court, so he has encountered her by chance when he runs around.
The first time he saw her was during the wedding ceremony she had with his father two years ago. That was also the second time he saw his father.
He had been forced to attend that wedding ceremony just like he was forced to attend this one too. Except today's ceremony is a naming ceremony.
He has never seen the third celebrant because it is a newborn. So today is all about his stepbrother.
The guests that walk up to the three celebrants say nice things for the baby and wish him well. Then they give the baby nice things.
That's what the whole celebration is about. The guests are literally standing around and waiting to give their gifts to the celebrant.
Some of these gifts are precious too. He doesn't know that for sure, but he guessed it from the way the guests exclaim in shock and surprise.
Sometimes, he hears interesting tidbits when one of them gets carried away and speaks loudly in their discussion.
Sometimes, he didn't eavesdrop to know that a gift was highly valuable. The time someone used a precious elixir on the baby in front of everyone is a good example.
Everyone had exclaimed and spoken about how precious the elixir was. But he hadn't needed the commentary because even his ignorant self could tell that it was precious because his mind was uplifted despite the fact that he was a considerable distance from the drop of green liquid.
The drop of green liquid had been placed in the baby's mouth, which caused the tiny bundle to glow for a while.
The light show had taken Marvin by surprise. But what shocked him was that there were many people looking on with longing and open jealousy.
Those occasions were rare, though. Most times, he needed to hear others talk about how valuable something was before he could tell.
Unfortunately, that is happening less and less around his location because of his mother. The people around them were becoming more silent as the ceremony progressed.
Marvin glanced at her face briefly. He could tell that his mother was pissed. She was still smiling and looked charming. But he could see pain in her eyes.
Maybe the others noticed something in her rigid demeanor or the way she had the same smile on her face. Either way, they decided not to rub salt in her wounds by openly appreciating the gifts that the baby was receiving.
He thought to himself in pity, "Maybe she was forced here too."
He can think of a lot of reasons for why his mother would put herself in a situation she clearly doesn't enjoy. But the most likely one he can bet on is that she had to attend the ceremony since she was a mistress of the family.
She is an unfavored mistress forced to witness what she could never have. But things got worse because she had to go forward, say nice things about the baby, and present a good gift too.
But his mother must be a bigger person than he thought because she smiled, laughed with the couple, and traded good banter with the wife.
Lady Vena wished her baby well and presented her gift. Then she returned to her position with a look that indicated that it was her blessing to be present on such an occasion.
In view of everyone, the baby was named Tyson IV Dyson. It was an honorable name that had been passed down through the family. It indicated his status as a true son of the Dyson family.
The ceremony ended, and the celebrants, together with the other core members of the Dyson family, saw off their guests. Then they returned to the inner court.
Meanwhile, Marvin returned with his mother to their house in the outer court. They returned with his wet nurse and the two maids that had been waiting in the server's quarters for them.
The compound of the Dyson family is so large that it will take an hour to move from one edge to another. It is more of an estate with many individual houses on the property.
A street in a city in his past life can't even be this big. So they had to use a carriage to move from the hall of ceremonies to their house.
It was a horse-drawn carriage, as there was no electricity or advanced technology in the world of Ethera. That meant that it was a bumpy and uncomfortable ride, but it wasn't his problem for now because he was sitting on his wet nurse's lap.
There were five people in the carriage, but there might as well have been none because of the silence. In fact, no one was moving or breathing too loud for fear of angering Lady Vena.
Only Marvin had the leisure to look around and ask questions. But his wet nurse wasn't in the mood to indulge him. She was always shushing him and forcing him to sit still.
Eventually, Lady Vena broke her silence. She said to the wet nurse, "Geltra, you don't need to force him to behave. In fact, you don't need to force him to attend his lessons anymore. Let him do whatever he wants from now on."
Geltra bowed and said, "Yes, my lady."
Marvin didn't take things so well. Of course, he was happy to be given so much freedom, but he was also shocked beyond words that his mother would say something like that.
He wasn't shocked that his mother didn't want to breastfeed him and wasn't shocked when his mother neglected him for most of the time.
He didn't care that none of his parents paid attention to him because he had seen worse parents in his past life and because he was a grown man who didn't need fatherly and motherly love.
He was content with good food, nice clothes, and a roof over his head. It was actually a good thing that he wouldn't be constrained by his parents.
But that changed when she began paying attention to him when she heard that he was intelligent. She had become strict with his studies ever since she found out that he could walk and talk earlier than normal.
He wasn't surprised that she suddenly had great expectations from him. It is pretty common for parents to have great expectations for their kids.
During the two years since then, she had pushed him to study and repeatedly told him that he needed to work hard to achieve anything in life. Every time she did so, he could see that hope and desperation in her eyes.
So he was surprised when she had a sudden turnaround now and decided that he didn't need to attend the daily 8 hours of lessons anymore.
It made him look at her in surprise and ask, "Why?"
He didn't say much, but she understood what he meant.
She was still looking ahead as she replied, "Because it doesn't matter anymore, Kraven. Nothing matters. You should just try to live a happy life from now on."
As if that wasn't enough to drive the point home, she shook her head and said with bitterness, "I don't know what I was thinking. I must have been naive. If the Dyson family could be beaten, why would I have worked so hard to join them?"
Then the carriage returned to silence.
This time Marvin didn't make a fuss or ask any questions. It is because he was too preoccupied with his thoughts to speak.
He knew what she was thinking when he began paying attention to his training and lessons. She was hoping that he would achieve something that would make his father regret abandoning them.
She would have been content if his father had simply paid attention to them. But it seems she had given up on those goals now.
That meant that she had given up on him too. She had said it nicely that he should try to live a happy life. But all he heard from her tone was that it didn't matter if he was mediocre or excellent.
In his attempt to figure out why she had given up on him, he thought about the ceremony that he had just attended.
"Are those gifts that significant that she would give up on me at the sight of them?"
Maybe it was because he was ignorant that he didn't know the full implications of what happened today. It is not surprising since he doesn't even know the value of money.
Even if someone says a particular gift is worth 100 gold coins, he can only tell that it is a lot. He can't tell just how valuable 100 gold coins are.
As he was thinking of this, he remembered that he had never had a ceremony like that, and he never received gifts.
In fact, not many people know of his existence and his relationship to the Dyson family. So he felt some loss.
"If those gifts are so important, then I must have missed out on a lot."
His father doesn't care for him and refused to acknowledge his existence. Now his mother has also given up on him.
But he wasn't discouraged too much. It is because he has something else to rely on.
He looked at the screen in front of him that only he could see and thought to himself, "I guess you're all I can count on now. I hope you won't let me down too."
He didn't try to convince his mother not to give up on him, but he clenched his tiny fist secretly and promised himself not to become mediocre.