Chapter 3:childhood(Karna's POV)

I later learned that I was born very beautiful, to the point that I think I should exercise humility. Trying to not be narcissistic but still being, let's describe myself. I have a beautiful forehead, a beautiful face, beautiful hair, beautiful everything. I also have long wide lotus yellowish-brown eyes.

I was also the most fragrant baby in this world, to the point where my mother would carry me around to improve the palace smell like I was a fragrant incense. I did not want to disturb people here by crying without need, but I have to cry every time to change my diapers. Because even if my mother is lifting me and sniffing my diapers, she will not be able to feel the shit's smell.

I was glad that I was not ashamed of all this normal baby caretaking I have to receive, like having my diapers changed and being fed breast milk. The second was done mostly by Kunti. I knew all of this was necessary and unavoidable, and to my surprise, I acknowledge and accept that.

I was a big baby when I was born and I am glad my mother did not have any complications after. To be specific I was a tall and somewhat muscular baby, with a nearly defined abdomen. I was also born with Karna's natural armor (Kavach) and natural earrings(Kundal).

Different from a normal baby, I was able to perfectly see since I was born and could hear as well. Though, I could not understand the language at the beginning. At first, I was sure that I would have the same fate as Karna being abandoned by my mother, but she ended up creating a reckless ploy to allow herself to raise her child without having a bad effect on her reputation. Although she was named Kunti, she was not the same Kunti biological mother as the original Karna. Her personality was very different because, in no way, I imagined Kunti being a tomboy.

It seems like that innocent questionnaire, which I forgot about a while after filling it, was much more than what I expected. It somehow has a reality-warping ability, with limits that it clearly expressed on that long list.

As there was no Karna figure in this world, it ended up creating a version of Karna in this world by manipulating events and changing the world a bit. It may have even created a version of Surya here by what it seems. Though, it somehow respected free will as the people around me(Kunti) actions were not controlled to have their desired results.

That seems to explain, why my Kunti mother has quite a different personality and she took a different decision filled with risks, but that by her careful preparations and a lot of luck worked flawlessly. Her decision was surely influenced a lot by her circumstances being quite different as well. If her plan fails, the consequence would be much less than the original counterpart.

She seems hurt to have to lie to her parents. But felt that ensuring the child and her future was more important than the truth. So here I was as the adoptive son of my own biological mother, which was surely funny in my eyes.

"This child was surely a blessing from mother Rhoyne. The princess seems to have gradually gotten rid of her depression and she became much more responsible. I was even hurt that some servants heard the great court wizard praising the young miss because she has gotten more responsible in her studies." a female servant said to another while changing my diapers.

"Yes. She seemed quite attracted to the child. She even wants to do all the work of caring for him on her own, but her highness has her duties to attend to. She has been ignoring her sleep lately. " said the other female servant showing concern.

" Poor girl. She is trying to take everything on her shoulders again. Similar to that time a foreign prince insulted her younger brother and she beat the shit out of him."

The other servant smiled a bit.

"Yes, our tomboy princess surely has her moments. She became a caring mother now. She is growing up." the servant woman said, crying a bit from happiness.

No one suspected that I was Kunti's biological son because I was too handsome. My mother was very beautiful as well, maybe the most beautiful woman in the Thoyne or the world; but I was completely at another level.

After three days, I relearned how to walk, guess it's a perk of being born a demigod. Soon after, I began to be seen a bit as a problematic kid, just like my mother was, as I adventured quite a lot around the palace.

When I was one, I already was able to communicate, although clumsily. After pestering my mother, I was able to start learning how to write at two years old. I was a bit tall for my age when I was three, so I started to pester my mother again to teach me how to fight, which even she, of all people, denied. So after much effort, I was able to start training after I was five.

My mission was hard and I cannot waste time, so my childhood was very uneventful. I studied with the great court mage, who did not want to teach a child of unknown origin and thought I probably have no talent for water magic after my mother's subtle threats relented. Guess what? I was, although a sun demigod, pretty good at it. I also learned that there has not been any valyrian-rhoynar war yet, but the tension between both sides increased quite a lot already.

Why at this time? At the beginning of Valyrian expansion to the west, they only bothered to have conquest planes in the weak magicless region( Andalos region), which ended up with them losing a lot of useful slaves for both new colonies and their mines, after the Andals fast massive ran away.

Seems that valyrian arrogancy got to them. They have lost a lot of good slaves, because they seemed to think people would be too scared to even run away from them, twice in the original history. First by the Andals' quick escape and the Nymeria one. The Rhoynar received the Valyrians well because they think simply that their great holy river can fit more people.

Valyria, before getting a firm foothold at the place, was worried about their food supply. It was something that a massive slaver empire like theirs truly needed because to have production in the mines they have to at least be able to give half a flour bread with sand, to not empty their treasures buying more slaves every week.

As they turned the survivors of the Ghiscari empire into their slave providers and f***ed up their food-supplying ability, they lacked a food colony previously. As the Valyrian Penisula was better fit to raise cattle like sheep than produce food and the valyrian lords preferred to focus on mining and high-class manufacturing(like glass, valyrian steel, obsidian daggers, and fabric making), they have no local great food grower.

Before the free cities have grown enough, the rhoynars were their main food providers making, so having good relationships with us was important. Now that the free cities have grown enough, they want to sell their inferior quality manufactured goods to each other, but the not much more expensive rhoynar goods were on their way to wealth. To make matters worst, the rhoynar products were even competitive with the freehold ones.

I preferred archery much more than magic. Not to imitate original Karna coolness... Maybe a bit. But seriously, archery was such an underrated art. It has such a treating grace and at the same time was so peaceful. Training with my mother was quite hard, but also fulfilling, as she knew I was much more resistant and mature than a normal child, she trained me as a warrior, not as a child. I learned to fight with several different weapons.

In this life, I started to dedicate myself to yoga practice much more. Instead of the little yoga, I did previously, I started to actually practice and meditate on mantras every day. I started to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, which was not easy as I actually adopted a whole diet for this, not simply stopped eating meat, as some reckless and unexperienced people that start veganism do. Avoiding meat surely improves the flow of prana quite a lot.

It was a very calm childhood and adolescence until the first storm came.