3 A Good Mother?
<<Carla POV>>
A few hours after my disciplinary actions, I began to feel bad for my eldest. Well, looking at Karl, who was rubbing his butt as he walked might look funny, but not to me.
Even then, what can I do? It's not like this was first time that he ran off his mouth in front of others.
Just last week, he called the shopkeeper a "fat cow" because the prices were raised, and the week before, he called a 4 year old a "piss head", causing him to send the poor girl crying.
Grisha just laughs it off and calls it a child's tantrum, but I disagree. What if Karl picks up the habit and becomes a ruffian? What if Karl never learns where to draw the line and get's into trouble? Won't I regret it then?
Whenever I speak about this to Grisha, he says not to worry and just believe in Karl. Seriously, where did the responsible and considerate man I married go to?
Well, I only do this because Karl is special. I know that every mother thinks their child is special, but trust me, my Karl is really special!
I'm sure if Eren does the same things I wouldn't be as harsh as I was. Its just that sometimes Karl shows this exceptional intellect that you can't see him as a three-year old!
I mean, he learnt the alphabet and numbers up to a thousand in just 4 days! Isn't my son great? And he once caught a sneaky pick-pocket red handed by quietly calling Hannes' squad. He was also able to calculate my total shopping expenses faster than the shop-keeper himself!
And also, he often displays maturity, far beyond his age, when he speaks or addresses people. And then again, there's today's incident...
Sometimes, I just can't help but feel that he does it on purpose, as if he wants me to scold him, like it reassures him or something. What kind of three year old would feel reassured from being spanked?
It might just be my imagination, but there's one thing I'm certain of.
My Karl is surely a great prodigy. I can just tell that, in the future, he will do great things and make us all proud.
If he uses his great intellect for the good of the people, there is no doubt that he could achieve things that would be spoken for years to come and it is my duty to mold him into such a man.
But, even if Karl turns out to be an ordinary child, I would still be proud. Simply because he will always be my dear little son.
Still, I will act as a guide no matter what path he wishes to take. For whatever he will do, I'm sure he would do it just fine.
I just hope that he would one day understand the reason for my strictness...
As I finished washing the vessels, I turned to see a sleeping Eren still seated on the chair. Grisha just smiled as he slowly picked up Eren in his arms and pointed to the door.
Then he silently headed for the stairs, with slow steps so as to not disturb my youngest sleeping in his arms.
I made my way to door and opened it to find Karl sitting on the ramp. Before I could say anything, he quickly turned to me and bowed.
"I'm sorry, mom, I shouldn't have said such mean words to Uncle Hannes. I swear I will behave from now onwards." He quickly apologized before I could say anything.
You see, this is why I'm proud of him! He realized his mistakes without even being told to and even apologized on top of that!
With pride swelling in my chest, I slowly walked towards him and patted him on the head.
"Good job. For realizing your mistake and apologizing for it as well. Now let's get you to bed." Karl nodded as he looked down.
Just as I was about to turn back, I felt small tug on my skirt. Turning back, I saw my son acting hesitant.
He then slowly stretched both his arms out to me, beckoning me to carry him, and as I did, I swear I could hear him sniffle. As he silently hugged my neck and leaned on my shoulder, I couldn't help but think that he could still be so cute.
Well, I just continued to pat him on the back as we made our way to the stairs and then to the twins' bed.
After tucking him to sleep with a good night kiss, I quietly left the room, turning a blind eye to his obvious attempts to not cry.
In times like these, I just cant help but wonder if I'm being a good mother, but watching my children learn and grow like that, I feel like I'm doing just fine.
<<Karl POV>>
With a pained butt and heavy heart I was tucked in bed by my aggressor. But instead of anger, I surprisingly feel happy.
I can understand that Carla reprimanded me because she cares for me but, it still hurts like hell, Damnit!
And so, for an indefinite amount of time, I tried to find the best position possible to soothe my burning butt. Sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes we laugh and sometimes we cry… no wait what am I singing? I can't remember clearly…
And so, most of my night was wasted on such thoughts until I heard a beep in my head. I smiled as I opened my eyes to be greeted by a beautiful red box in front of me.
'Finally! I got the Power babeee-!!!' I internally screamed with unbridled joy. I might've done a victory dance if only Eren wasn't sleeping here.(and if I knew how to dance)
[System Registration Complete. Accessing User Memories. Processing 0%...1%...]
And so, the percentage slowly increased as I waited with bated breath. With this godly system, my great sense of humor and extremely handsome looks, even the god of this world can do nothing but keel over in jealously! Mwahahahaha!
And, with another beep, my Custom System was up and running
[System Integration Complete. Custom Titan Shifter System Now Accessible.]
[Greetings. Host is advised to pick the name for the Custom A.I.]
A red box and a blue box simultaneously appeared. It seems that there is a distinction between the System's auto messages and the A.I. messages.
'A name you say? Hmm… What should I pick?' He sounds a little bit like that Death Spirit did in his monotone accent, no I didn't even know that guy's name… After a few minutes of contemplation, a golden idea struck me.
'I'll call you Isa, as a tribute to one of my role models.' Well, using the Mangaka's name should be fine, right? Then, the blue box popped again.
[Name registered. Isa greets Host.]
'Great! Now, Isa, show me my status window.' I said with palpable excitement. This was a moment that would definitely go down in my biography!
<+>
[Name: Karl Yeager]
[Bloodline: Eldian]
[Gene Points: 10]
[Level: 00 (0/10)]
[Stats ;]
[Health: 44/45]
[Stamina: 25/27]
[Strength:04 (0/50)]
[Physique:05 (0/60)]
[Agility:04 (0/50)]
[Skills ;]
[Shop ;]
[Quests ;]
<+>
'Neat. Just like I planned. Isa show me the skill window.' I asked my trusty robot cat-no, my trusty robot A.I.
[Very well.]
<+>
[Skills ;]
[Titanization, Mental Defense, Reinforced Anatomy, Titan Martial Arts, Titan Hardening, Extrasensory Perception, Bloodline Awakening]
<+>
[Most of the pre-registered skills have been sealed. User required to obtain certain qualifications for further use.]
'Well, thanks for clarifying that Isa. Which of these skills can be use now?' If I'm not wrong…
[Mental Defense and Extrasensory Perception are available to User, as of now.]
'Show me the details, please.' As expected. Most of my skills were useful only in Titan form, so I wasn't disheartened at all. In fact, I was even more excited than when I first saw the status window!
<+>
[Mental Defense Lvl: 00 (0/10)]
[User has a barrier that can protect against psychological impacts that include hypnosis, brainwashing and also has certain resistance to disturbing external stimuli. Strengthens as Lvl increases.]
[Extrasensory Perception Lvl: 00 (0/10)]
[User can heighten his senses upon activation and also gains a faint sixth sense. Strengthening increases as Lvl increases.]
<+>
Everything is just as perfect as I first made it. Although they were a bit nerfed, I can still work with this.
To speak in layman terms, what I wanted was a simple system which used a single basic currency for any and all upgrades. This currency was simply dubbed as Gene Points. Using these points, I can increase stats, skill levels or even my own level which conveniently gives me extra stats.
But, the price for this is that I can't get a lot of gene points in a single quest. The maximum that the system can allot in a single quest was capped at 5000, which, honestly, wasn't a lot.
'Still, I can farm for points for the next few years anyway. So, it should be fine, right?' I cheered myself up.
There was still a long way to go and my epic was just getting started.
