Heir to the Throne

Josiah always thought he would be kept in the dark regarding his consciousness of that new life, as his mind was still stuck in the Josiah of the modern era, however having lived for a sufficient number of hours, things were starting to come back to his head.

They were mostly phrases… Excerpts of conversations he overheard. Perhaps they were sentences said by those around him when he was still inside his mother's belly?

Emperor Eneris and Mirild used to be close to each other. Four months ago she was supposed to be the consort, the one who would bring the birth to the new emperor of Bucoa.

"How is he doing?"

"He is moving. He does it all the time. He won't stop moving. He is going to be a very energetic little emperor."

"You bet he is."

"Do you think he is really going to be a 'he'?"

"The doctors said that. There is no mistake. You are going to give birth to the next supreme leader."

Josiah remembered his mom's voice and the other one was familiar as well. The whole conversation came very clearly to his head.

'My mother did mention about me bringing sense into emperor Eneris' head. If she used to be the one to marry him, what happened between them?'

As soon as Josiah asked this question to himself, the memories came back to his head with a little headache.

It was all the fault of someone named Lars.

Lars was an important figure within the council. A renamed group consisting of a handful of bureaucrats, known to advise and assist the emperor himself, knowing what is the best for the kingdom. The council was made by thirteen people, each with the task of dealing with a different matter. Lars was one of them.

Josiah kept muttering that name to himself: 'Lars'. And as he did, the image would come to his head. He did not seem to be the brute, armored, and weapon-wielding kind of man. In fact, he looked pretty old and shriveled. His eyes did not picture him as the trustworthy kind of guy, though. He has those big light blue eyes that looked thirsty for ambition.

'It's odd how I keep remembering phrases and even images like this if I try hard enough, like I lived them.' Josiah thought. 'I know I have the mind of an adult of another world, but wasn't I born yesterday? How do I know how a person looks and sounds like?'

"You are so quiet, little guy. You've gone without milk for a while, heh? I know, I know… But we have to get as far from here as we can, you know…" Thomas said while swinging Josiah's baby body.

Josiah was still being carried around by the tall servant with grizzly hair. It seemed even he didn't know where he was heading to. After his mother's death, everything seemed a bit vague and uncertain. Thomas was also being a silent one himself during the whole way.

'I'm hungry…' Josiah wanted to say. It came out as a "heh."

'I could cry and demand food, but even I find baby cries annoying. I'm going to save my baby pleading privileges to when I really need them. I can handle a couple more miles without any food…'

"I'm not going to disappoint your mom, little one. You are going to grow to beat Raphaella and her treachery. Also 'the count'. And your father. Yes. Why not? Everyone."

Josiah could tell Thomas held a grudge himself against all of those people.

'Raphaella…? There's that person too. Who was her again?'

Josiah forced his head to remember. An image came to his head: a young beautiful lady coming from a distant land. Being found as a victim of the violence of the war, being taken care of in the valet's area for what was supposed to be only a day… Then a week… Then a month… Slowly becoming more and more attached to Eneris.

It seemed that Lars himself, or 'the count', as Thomas referred to him earlier, was coincidentally the one who found her first.

She was now the favorite to be the emperor's companion and bringer of the future heir to the throne.

However, Mirild and Thomas suspected that Raphaella was a fraud. It was all a plot of 'the count' to try to get control of the kingdom of Bucoa on his own, without having to persuade the emperor himself.

Who knows what could happen to Bucoa in the future, if they allowed Lars and the likes to dictate the orders?

'Treachery…?' Josiah thought to himself. 'Thomas mentioned treachery earlier. So does this mean something concrete has already happened? Do we have evidence that the count is trying to overtake the kingdom under the curtains?'

An episode came to Josiah's mind: it happened when Raphaella was already in the castle but when Mirild was still the favorite, there was a swindle.

In this world, it is not common even for people holding the highest power to have multiple partners, therefore after a new girl started talking to Eneris there was this gossip around the castle about the emperor willing to turn Mirild down and switch her for the new lady. Mirild herself had been spending a lot of time together with Eneris, and as she thought she knew him, she believed his word and did not mind the hearsay at all.

But then Raphaella acted on her own. She simulated an attempt at murdering herself. Murder by poison, a very woman-like way of killing an unlikeable someone. And thus, the suspects came over Mirild. With all the stories about her on the verge of being abandoned and switched by the refugee inside the castle, it was hard to believe something like that wasn't plotted by Mirild in order to ensure her place at the side of the emperor.

Eneris couldn't believe what Mirild supposedly did, they fought and so their relationship started falling apart.

She who was once the favorite consort of the supreme leader descended to a mere aristocrat lady, having to herself only a small room and a couple of servants on the valet's area of the castle.

Mirild withstood and kept inside the realm, hoping for a chance to prove herself and unmask Raphaella and the count's conning plans.

"By the sacred heavens, won't we ever find a place to rest, little master?" Thomas let out in a sighing. "My hands are surely starting to feel numb already."

The sky was getting darker and darker, son there was going to be a thunderstorm. Josiah and the servant had longed crossed the fields and were far from the delimiters of Central Bucoa.

Thomas found a small house belonging to one worker in the nearby fields. The worker was an old, calm man with eyes almost totally closed by his wrinkles. The house owner was found all alone by the side of the entrance.

"Any chance you can shelter me and my son during this upcoming storm? You see, we are pretty far from the town and…"

"Humm… It's going to be hard, my wife is almost arriving, you see…"

"It's only for a while. Nothing for free, of course." Holding the baby around the dexterous arm, Thomas used the other one to catch a coin. It was not made of gold or anything that looked too valuable. After seeing it Josiah could conclude people used actual currency instead of valuable items for trading in that world.

The eyes of the old man got bright and almost opened. Apparently the coin held pretty high value.

"Come in."

"Oh, finally. We are going to find you some milk to drink, little master."

The rest of that afternoon passed in a slow fashion, inside the calm kitchen of that modest house. Josiah finally got to drink some cow milk, which Thomas fed him from a bottle.

Josiah sat there quietly, the whole time. Contemplating the unfair turn of events. He couldn't forgive those guys for what happened to his mother. Nor could he forgive those soldiers for having him witness her death like that.

Josiah started devising an ambitious plan for fulfilling the last wish of his mother in his mind:

'It would be good if I used my developed adult intellect to help myself learning everything about this world as soon as I can. If I have the mind of an adult I should be able to develop myself far quicker, right? Even though this world is all different... If I ever want to become strong and well-respected enough in order to take the throne of my mother back, I should strive to learn everything different from this world and get used to it… I should learn what does this world doesn't have that mine had… So that I can make the most with the knowledge I have from a modern otherworldly place. I need to learn how to fight, how to become stronger… I need to figure out that level system they were talking about and figure a way to become strong like mom because since I am an emperor child on the run there will be surely plenty of people after my neck... I need to figure out this world and learn how to apply the skills I have to get the most advantage.'

With the faithful company of the deceased mother's loyal servant, the journey of Josiah's ascension to the throne of his birthright had begun.