10 December, year 500 of The Amatarty calendar.

‘A familiar ceiling’

This is the first thing that came to Hetra’s mind after regaining concioussness. The simple and clean bedroom with ordinary looking single bed, a wooden wardrobe with a mirror on one of its door, and a short table on top of a carpet. A scenery that he have seen countless of times already.

Shortly after, an acute pain came from his stomach.

“gh-.“

Noticing Hetra’s pained voice, his second little sister, Jessica whose playing with something in the corner of the room ran up to his bed in great amusement, while carrying a bag of medicine.

“Wow, today’s record is the fastes, bro! You’ve only fainted for less than an hour! Now then, do you remember who you are?”

“Of course i remember! You need to stop watching those stupid dramas! People aren’t so fragile to get amnesia just because of fainting.”

“But you flew like a rag doll to the wall after mom’s last strike you know, she was like ‘did i went too far’ after that you know? You look so pitiful back then, bro!.”

“Heh! The fact that mom even get serious just shows how much i have advanced! Soon, i will be liberated from this hell and nothing can stop me!.”

Jessica rolled her eyes hearing my response and took out some salve from the bag.

“You don’t look convincing at all while lying down pitifully like that. Now then show me your stomach, brother!”

Jessica suddenly pulled up Hetra’s shirt!

“Hey! Ouch! Do it slowly!

 Then pulled up the bottle of salve’s lid and rubbed the salve on his belly.

“Stay still i’m the professional here ...and... done! You should be fine now!”

“*sigh*”

Yes, getting beaten up in a sparring with his mom is just Hetra’s daily routine. Even his meek second little sister, Jessica has long been accustomed to this by now. Hetra wondered how his meek and shy second little sister transformed into this person of great confidence. She used to get scared of almost every little thing she encountered, but now she even have her own personal lab in the mansion for her to test all kind of crazy things inside. Her medicine are very effective though, it is to the point comparable to high class healing magic, so The Grilrazz family don’t have to pay extra for a private doctor to help Hetra recover from his injury.

Not only on alchemy, Jessica is also well versed in magecraft, it is to the extend that even a renowned magic academy sent her a special enrollment invitation.

“Since you’ve woke up, i’m going to return to my lab now. Its already 2 p.m., so you should go down to eat, bro.”

“Alright...”

With great reluctance Hetra parted ways with his beloved bed and followed Jessica to the main hall downstairs. On the main hall Hetra noticed that the mansion was a bit different than usual.

“Jess, did something happened while i was unconcious?”

“Well, big sis is returning today so, mom and dad went to recieve her at the port. They should be back soon”

“I see...”

 

Hetra parted ways with Jessica and went to the kitchen to grab some food.

He searched the cabinet for the food that his mother usually left for him after training, and sat on the couch near the kitchen.

“Its been quite some time since Irena returned, hasn’t it?”

Irena, Hetra’s first little sister is a high priestess candidate of the Zankkiel church, the main religion of the the kingdom. Her affinity as Zankkiel high priesstess was revealed when she was just 14 years old. Father was really unwilling to let Irena took apprenticeship in the holy city, but finally let the priests took Irena back to the holy city after a serious convincing from mom and Irena herself, and also a little bit of pressure from the Kingdom. There can only be one high priest/priestess and a high priest/priestess candidate at a time, so the fact that Duke Grilrazz failed prevent his daughter from being taken away was an espected outcome.

It have been five years since the last time Irena came home, she will usually send some letters to stay in touch with the family. In some cases, the Grilrazz family will also go on a trip to the Holy city of Amatarty to check up on her.

Just as Hetra was about to finish his meal, he sensed that several people have just entered the main hall of the mansion.

“That should be them!”

Hetra left his meal on the desk besides the couch and proceeds to the main hall. There, in the main hall are his father, mother, Irena, Jessica, a servant that worked for the the family, and two familiar woman that work as Irena’s bodyguard. They have also noticed Hetra entering the main hall.

“Hey shorty! Its been a while!”

The shorty, Irena, glared at Hetra.

“What shorty!? I’m not short, you are short!”

Hetra felt really glad that his sister didn’t change much even after all this time. She is as short tempered as always.

“Ahaha, i’m glad that you didn’t really change, big sis! Brother, can’t you stop teasing her just for a little bit?”

Jessica quickly came in between Irena and Hetra, before Irena fell even further for Hetra’s provocation. In truth, the current Irena is not short at all, she just had a bit of complex because she was a late bloomer and had once been surpassed by Jessica in height, but that is just in the past.

‘This is how it usually goes in the past doesn’t it? I tease, Irena rages, and Jessica will come in between’ Hetra couldn’t help but reminiscence a little bit.

“Okay sorry, welcome back Irena.”

“Hmph!!”

Still a bit mad, Irena turned her face away from Hetra while crossing her arm. The scene causes Hetra’s urge to tease her to rise again. But before he can say his piece, his father came in to stop him.

“Alright Hetra, stop teasing your sister! You must be tired Irena, you can go rest in your room.”

“Okay father.”

Irena quietly went upstairs while glaring at me. Seeing Irena went to her room, Duke Grilrazz adressed her two bodyguards.

“As for you two, you can use the usual room you used previously.”

“Understood, my lord”

The body guards followed after irena upstairs.

Seeing Irena and her bodyguards going upstairs, Hetra returned to the kitchen to continue his meal. Noticing Hetra leaving the main hall, Duke Grilrazz called out to him.

“We’ll make a small party tonight since it is a rare ocassion...“

"Okay, i will help..."

“Only after you finished your daily training. I have some business to attend this afternoon, so you can go practice your blacksmithing by yourself!”

“Okay...”

That is the second part of Hetra’s daily live, the crafting lesson.

The Grilrazz family is a family known for its craftsmanship. It have a long legacy of Craftsman that can be traced from even the founding of the kingdom of Amatarty. Because of that, every heir of the house needs to learn everything from sewing and blacksmithing to ship building or even building construction. Of course, the heir doesn’t need to master all of them, they only need to learn the ‘basic’ of every field and then choose one which suited them the most.

Almost every generation of Duke have different area of expertise. The current Duke, Yerham Grilrazz is a master of ship building. He have created lots of famous ship than can operate on every kind of terrain, be it land, water, or even fly on the air! The current heir, Hetra on the other hand, is more intrested on golem creation, something that can be barely registered as craftmanship after Hetra debated with his father that Golemancy is indeed Craftmanship.

With this massive fame that have been build for generations, the land that Duke Grilrazz governed, especially on the City of Mytra, where The Grilrazz family lived for generations, have never been short of any kind of craftsman. Business is also very bustling since every kind of request always come nonstop from every corner of the kingdom, and even from the neighboring kingdom.

....................................

That night the Grilrazz family have a lavish feast, everyone in the neighborhood was invited. This action might seem weird to other noble families, but the Grilrazz family is very close to their subjects, namely, the craftsmans who served the family, since every lord and heir of the family worked and trained together with these craftsman and stay as colleagues on their long career.

 Amids of the cheerful atmosphere...

“Oh yes, before i forgot, the date for engagement party between you and the third princess have already been decided, it will be held at the end of the month on the Holy city. A very good birthday gift for you isn’t it?”

“Well, sure...”

...Was the nervous Hetra.

The matter of his engagement finally came to light.

Many would have been overjoyed by this, but Hetra became very nervous everytime this matter was brought up. Irena reacted first after witnessing his nervousness.

“What’s this? You don’t seem excited at all.”

Jessica then casually chimed in.

“You are not home back then when the Third princess came with a very complicated face when father announced their engagement. His expression back then is truly a sight to behold he was lik-“

Hetra hurriedly blocked Jessica’s mouth before she can finish her sentence.

“Shut! Don’t you dare make fun of this! What do you expect me to do? I barely interracted with any woman besides the both you and mom! The other party is the third princess who are famous for her arbitrary and unreasonable action! If the other party is just regular noblewomen i won’t even be nervous, but that mad woman is something else entirely!”

Irena and Jessica just chuckled hearing his response, which indirectly stated that he doesn't recognize the third princess as a woman, and gave him a...

“” Goodluck!””

Seeing their reaction make Hetra even more frustated.

“How can you say that when the both of you already know how she is? You should be helping me to crash this ship!”

To be honest, Hetra didn’t even consider the future where he might have his very own family. He always thought that everything will always stay as how it usually goes in his 25 year of life.