The Secondary Family

Being a baby has its advantages.

Throughout these past months, I've been thinking about how to make the most of my potential in this new life. I've pondered countless times on when and how I would start training my body and mind, now that they are brand new. Despite that, this lazy life of sleeping more than half the day seems like a dream come true for my former self...

I can barely remember the days when I could sleep more than two or three hours. I needed a mission to feel alive. Often, I found myself thinking about what I left behind – the interactions and friendships I missed out during childhood and adolescence, the lost chances. There came a point in my life when nothing made sense unless I was absolutely exhausted. Of course, these thoughts also came with resentment. I became who I am because of what happened; I couldn't regret it, but I couldn't dismiss it either.

I matured faster than other kids, if I could say so – well, I guess in this life, that's absolutely the case. But I immersed myself in training until I realized... Well, maybe that was the life for me. Martial arts, weightlifting, running... There were days when that's all I did, training more than three times a day. I didn't spend my time studying; I even skipped school to go train.

Considering the situation I'm in now... Maybe the lack of technology and science isn't so bad for my lifestyle. I mean, what could be more important in a time like this than being a great warrior? Nah, maybe I'm just generalizing. Not being able to do many things really occupies the mind, makes me daydream.

...

"I'm glad our knights didn't slack off in my absence." Heinrich wanted to make up for lost time, walking with me through the courtyard. Outside the castle, there was a training ground for the soldiers. Some new recruits were still learning. Guided by a mustached and grumpy instructor, the typical sergeant, while the rest practiced their battle formation with spears, something quite similar to a phalanx. That was the place I visited the most lately. I tried to show pops that I was really interested in that kind of environment.

I thought I'd be fine with all the martial experience from my past life, but medieval fencing never entered my repertoire. Actually, it made me quite worried. The worst part was the horses. Apparently, the armed men of the Sigmaringen Family were notorious knights; our cavalry had a good reputation, or so I heard. Of course, they would boast about themselves; they aren't reliable narrators.

"I notice you like watching my men train, little Mika." My father smiled. He wasn't wrong; maybe I was too transparent with my expressions. I loved fights and battles. It felt infinitely more comfortable for me than the gardens or the city. A barracks shouldn't be so comfortable... But do I really want to pursue this path again?

Thinking about it, I guess a noble doesn't have many options... The occupation of the nobles is war, to defend their land.

"Hey, want to see something cool?" My father opened a smile for me. That was kind of scary. He handed me over to a servant and took off his coats and shirts. "Alright, men, line up!"

It was the first time I saw him without his refined attire. He was sturdy and tall, to say the least, with a couple of scars, very little fat; you could see the definition of his abs, but it wasn't excessive. He looked at me with a smile; I think he wanted to put on a good show for his son, but, well, I guess if I hadn't reincarnated, it wouldn't be something that would stay in my memory. But now... Let's see what he's capable of!

"I want a series of five duels with my best men. Don't go easy on me just because I'm the prince. If you do so, you'll regret it." He picked up a wooden sword and swung it in the air a few times to check the weight and reach. Then he turned to his men. "Alright, introduce yourselves."

Wait, prince? Aren't I the prince? I thought he was the king.

Before I could think more about it, a man, even larger than Heinrich, maybe around two meters tall, stepped forward. He was broad, fat, but extremely muscular, weighing at least around 130 kilograms, and carried a war hammer. Considering that the armor is custom-made, I think he's a man hard to afford, as it was just practice, of course, he wouldn't be in armor against a man equipped with a wooden sword. Nevertheless, my father seemed confident.

When the signal was given to start, both stood where they were, studying each other carefully, only moving to change their guard and leg stance. The big guy couldn't let his guard down; due to his size, he should be very slow at least. He had no choice but to make his size work for him and not let Heinrich close the distance. For Heinrich, his victory was only guaranteed if he closed the distance, but if the big guy extended his arm and stopped him, he wouldn't reach him, which meant he had to take advantage of his agility. Either way, both were counting on a counter-attack at this point.

Heinrich advanced, in a classic fencing step, which alerted the big guy, who swung his war hammer without hesitation, but Heinrich simply retreated again, and both returned to their starting positions. The big guy was extremely fast with his arms, but... With this feint, the winner was Heinrich. He had mapped his speed, not only reaction time but also the speed of his blows. Once again, he repeated what he did before, but this time without stepping back, just ducked to avoid his blow. The big guy thought fast and stepped back with a careless swing downward. At first glance, you might think, well, the big guy won; there's no way to dodge or parry a blow from a crouched position like his; his face would be crushed. But he was too agile.

In the blink of an eye, Heinrich jumped over the blow with a acrobatics worthy of monks. He spun, twirled, and returned to his place; at that moment, he could have hit the big guy, but... He looked this way; of course, he wanted to show off. But was this a poor choice of weapons, right? With a spear, he could do much more.

He turned to his opponent again, who was running towards him with the hammer, and before he could strike, Heinrich's sword stopped his momentum, inches from his throat.

And so went the rest of the afternoon. Heinrich was quite impressive; in his second duel, he faced a lancer, then two swordsmen. In all cases, he chose weapons that would give him disadvantages against his opponents. Always changing weapons so that his opponents would outclass him in reach, he was never fighting seriously, while his men left quite injured if they did the same. It was only when the mustached sergeant intervened as the fifth challenger that Heinrich sweated. This time, he chose a spear. It was the first of the five duels where he decided to have the advantage of distance, and by the look of the mustached sergeant, he would need it. Not only that, but both were using real weapons. That was at least concerning.

"I hope I haven't rusted, Hainz." Heinrich positioned himself with the spear.

"How could you?" Hainz, the mustached sergeant, attacked first.

Heinrich spun the spear and deflected Hainz's strike to the side. He started circling around Hainz, who followed him only with his eyes. Heinrich thrust and struck twice, both times Hainz dodged and countered immediately, making Heinrich step back.

Hainz didn't take it lightly; he advanced with a thrust that was parried with the spear. Heinrich spun to the side with impressive foot agility and struck from above, only to be parried by Hainz. The spear spun and struck downward, trapping Hainz to the ground, who quickly defended another attack from Heinrich by just lifting his sword. Again, using his superior agility, he pinned Hainz's sword to the ground, and Hainz thought he would try the same trick again, repeating his movements. However, Heinrich was already behind him, delivering a blow with the spear's shaft to his head.

Truly admirable.

Hainz just turned, spinning his sword to strike, one, two, three attacks, all parried and dodged by Heinrich before he moved away with several somersaults. At this point there was no winner. The crowd of soldiers applauded and cheered.

Hainz took the initiative again and struck Heinrich with such force that his blow stopped only on the ground, with Heinrich's evasion. Another unsuccessful attack by the sergeant after this, but this time, Heinrich used the sergeant's own weight against him, making him walk away with his attack.

With another charge from Hainz, this time, Heinrich attacked, thrusting and striking Hainz, who took the opportunity to kick him, shortening the distance. When Heinrich decided to take the initiative again, Hainz struck with the sword on the spear's shaft and broke it, then struck again towards my father's torso.

For a moment, I was worried, but the fight was too fast for that. And once again, with his superior agility, he gracefully dodged the sword and a soldier throwed another spear to continue the match. He grabbed it and spun the spear incessantly before striking one, two, three times, but with no effect. Hainz took advantage of this shortening of the distance and threw him away with his own hands. On the ground, Heinrich was getting up when Hainz threatened a strike from above, only to be surprised with the spear's tip inches from his face. Both were panting and smiling.

"Hahah. I think we can call it a day." Heinrich got up with Hainz's help, who scratched his head and greeted him.

"What's this, Your Highness? You fought against four men before me, and still showed no sign of fatigue. Very good, very good! But I almost got you."

They laughed a lot, and Heinrich returned to the servant holding me.

"Let's go home; your mother must want to see you."

...

Well, it didn't take long for me to start walking or even talking. Time started to fly by. My routine as a baby hadn't changed despite that. My biggest problem was indeed the archaic methods of hygiene, especially when it came to going to the bathroom... But well, you get used to it.

I must be around four years old now, and I wasn't wrong about why I stopped sleeping in the same room as mom. In the meantime, she got pregnant twice, losing the baby in the first pregnancy, and the second one didn't survive more than a few months. Now she's pregnant again. Well, hopefully, it's a little sister. So far, she has proven to be a strong woman.

"Daddy, I heard from the maids that we'll have visitors."

"Hm? Oh, yes, on the Fifth Day of Your Name, several guests will come, especially the Bradleys. Try to behave during the visit; they are great friends of the family."

Bradley? I feel like I've heard that name before.

"Can I listen to the conversation?"

"Well, it's never too early to learn a thing or two about the world, as long as you stay quiet, it'll be fine." He spoke in a serious tone and ruffled my hair. It's hard to act like a child.

I feel like I've been attracting a lot of attention in the last four years. As soon as I had the ability to lift at least a wooden sword they gave me last year, I started going to the barracks every day and imitating what the soldiers did. They even tried to give me some kind of toy spear. Not only that, but I spent many of my days trying to do push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. Sometimes I tried to find any minimally heavy object to do more elaborate exercises. It was certainly a problem to adapt to such a small and fragile body; I had no coordination since I had spent the previous twenty-five years in a completely different body. Martial arts were almost out of the question, but I tried anyway. But I always ended up tripping over myself; I don't know if there has ever been a more clumsy child in the world.

I also tried to listen to as many conversations as I could. Since I was the prince, walking around politicians, guards, and... Well, the ruler of the castle himself wasn't a challenge. I tried to learn anything I could by listening, but now and then I was dragged to another place.

The traditions of this world seem extremely similar to ours; I remember being baptized in the city church in the first year of life.

I don't know if I got all the parts right, but if my father is a prince and is the ruler, then this means that the Sigmaringen family rules a Principality. It's distinct from a kingdom because it's basically a microstate, or maybe we don't have complete sovereignty over the territory. At least that's what I deduced at first before getting my hands on a history book.

One day, I thought about sneaking around to get a book, but then I remembered... I'm rich! And then I asked them to bring me a history book. Of course, they didn't believe a child could read, so my father tried to hire a tutor, and it was all bureaucracy. So, I asked my mother to read it to me. That way, I managed to go unnoticed.

Apparently, we're in a country called the Holy Roman Empire of Magnum and Hohenzollern. Very different from what I thought. The religion and culture are extremely similar to those of my old life, but considering that it's not the Holy Roman Empire, I presume I didn't go back in time.

There were no signs of magic in this story, which is a bit disappointing for my nerd side. But what can I do? Apparently, the empire we're in, occupies the German and Italian territories, but the official language is German. Further west, there's the Kingdom of Aquitaine, in the French region, and in Iberia, there's Hispania. What was more different were the British Isles. Ireland was united with England in a rather strange geography way. Anyway, they were all united under the flag of Albion. What a cheesy name!

And the book itself confirmed it further ahead; Aquitaine spoke French, Albion spoke English, and Hispania... Latin... What the hell! Okay, I speak almost all the languages of the continent, so it's still a good thing. Perhaps something similar to Rome existed, right? Maybe later I can research more about it. But leave it for another time.

I closed the book and threw it on the floor. I wouldn't be able to put it on the bedside table, so I just gave up, lay on the bed, covered myself, and went to sleep.