Life Goes On

From that day onward, the Hrodger family would movine on to their designated tasks.

Edward spent his days managing the details and supply chain for the deal with Count, Sophia began socializing to rebuild their family reputation, Mirabelle took to educating and disciplining the children, and Amaia stayed glued to Edward's side. 

Everyone knew Mirabelle had the hardest job after instilling discipline in Conrad proved so troublesome. While she tried to focus on incentivizing good behavior,, Mirabelle hardly hesitated to use corporal punishment when necessary. Conrad's behavior changed drastically after the first few days, but his attitude remained. Rather than try to force her willful charge to change his outlook, Mirabelle allowed him to say whatever he wished, so long as his language was neither crass nor violent. She firmly believed that trying to forcibly alter someone's personality was dangerous, as well as morally unjustifiable.

Conrad would go from being self-centered and demanding to being... more respectful about how he demanded his self- serving desires become fulfilled. He became accustomed to the word 'no', despite dispising it, and could respect rejection with a modicum of grace. He came to understand that he was not the most important person in the world, and would still have to show deference before nobles and royals. However the! The only people he would yield to were nobles and royals! And Mirabelle! He was terrified of the thought of getting on her bad side.

Gareth, on the other hand, spent most of his time reading and sleeping. He was quiet and polite, but he wasn't particularly active. The servants believed it was because he was avoiding conflict with Conrad, and they found this attitude commendable. The library was one of the few rooms Gareth could expect Conrad to avoid, after all. Gareth usually chose storybooks appropriate for his age, but he was also known to feequently fall asleep reading more advanced compositions.

Edward would go on to reap profits far beyond his projections, and manage them wisely for the sake of his family. He made sure to make enough time, and more, for his beloved wives. His relationship with Amaia blossomed during this period. Legally marrying Amaia would bring more trouble to his house, so he settled for treating her as lovingly as he treated his other wives. Though she insisted on calling him "Master Edward" to keep up appearances. Outnumbered three two one, his nightly activities left him thoroughly exhausted, but he found comfort in his wives' happiness.

Amaia would find herself feeling like she was living in a dream. She had a family that treated her like someone precious to them. She lived in a house where everyone was kind, and no one came to harass her when they were bored. Most importantly, she would be able to spend each and every day with the man she had happily given herself to. If this new life of hers was a dream, she never wanted to wake up.

Sophia would successfully bring the family's reputation to a neutral level through her own efforts. She made the truth of their misunderstandings clear to their friends and neighbors. Sophia staunchly defended her husband's decisions to society at large, including his decision to recognize Gareth. Shortly thereafter, the Count would urge several families associated with his faction to form connections with the Hrodger family. Some of these families had children of similar ages to Conrad and Gareth, and several of those children would go on to be close friends with the Hrodger brothers.

Mirabelle would begin incorporating lectures and quizzes into her daily schedule to ensure the boys understood the fundamental knowledge required to study and comprehend the world around them. Conrad typically scored marginally better than Gareth, which left the her thoroughly confused. Mirabelle would have liked to motivate Conrad by pointing out Gareth's intellectual talents that should have allowed him to compete or surpass his older brother.

Even Sophia sometimes wished Gareth would outperform Conrad more often. She believed it would be healthy for them to build a friendly rivalry. Gareth spent so much time reading, Sophia would almost swear he was scoring low on purpose for some reason.

As for why Gareth was spending as much time as he could asleep...

---

"Checkmate!"

"This is Smash Bros, not Chess!"

"Skill issue."

Gareth was abusing his ability to visit Daniel's workshop. Daniel had recreated fully functional computers, consoles, and televisions, complete with a semifunctional network connection. The devices could share information with each other and 'download' information from the Record, but lacked the capability to 'upload' information. This made online play or communication impossible over the Access Point, so Daniel was happy to have someone else to play with during his downtime. Lex thought it was all pointless.

Even you realize how suspicious you're being right? Children should be outside, tasting bugs and hoarding rocks or whatever it is you people do. Spending your time sleeping, and reading to fall asleep, is making the adults wonder about you. Your decision to underperform in your studies makes them even more suspicious because of your reading habit!

"Calm down Lex, we're working on it. If the kid suddenly started scoring significantly higher, that would attract too much attention. Gareth will be outperforming Conrad within the month, right buddy?"

"Yeah," Gareth said as he pumped his fists. 

Totally adorable, Daniel thought. He was glad he had recently learned to keep some of his thoughts inside again.

"So far, Gareth has only been tagged as a precocious child. The kid has also agreed to spend more time outside. I'm limiting his game time to one hour an evening, and we will only hang out while he is dreaming during acceptable sleeping times." 

After addressing Lex's concerns, Daniel turned to Gareth,

"Remember, if you don't behave, I'll be backing your mama Mira's decisions. If she grounds you, you're grounded here as well."

Gareth didn't need to respond. He would never get on his mama's bad side. He knew that he didn't want her to get scary with him like she did when Conrad tested the boundaries she set.