Chapter 1: Forgotten Birthdays

Jason could remember when he was much younger, when his dad reacted totally different towards him. He could remember sitting on his dad’s lap, riding on his dad’s shoulders, and accompanying his dad when he went visiting the farms and factories in the barony. That closeness evaporated suddenly around Jason’s seventh birthday.

His dad’s behavior changed fairly suddenly; his dad always acted in his normal strict and aloof manner towards both Jason and his mom whenever they were all three together. When there were others present, like when they went to the capitol of the planet and met up with Jason’s grandpa and his uncle, aunt, and cousins, then his dad acted nearly friendly towards him, while still having that weird aloof reaction to his mom. Without really thinking about it, Jason got the impression that his dad was scared of his grandpa, which was relatively normal since he was a scary old man.

The times when Jason and his dad were alone was when the sudden dislike came through most clearly. Then his dad would either blatantly ignore him or openly snub him. His mom seemed to take it in her stride. She never made a fuss out of his dad’s reaction.

Jason thought he knew when his dad suddenly changed towards him. He had no idea what triggered it except it was when his other cousins and his other aunt came for a visit. His other aunt was his dad’s sister and she had two kids. Reginald was the same age as Jason, being born a week later than Jason, while Roxanne was two years younger than Jason. On that specific day Jason’s dad took the two boys to go swim in the nearby stream on the estate.

It was something that didn’t happen very often and when it did happen it was mostly unplanned except for that day. Like they usually did when it was just the guys, his dad suggested they strip out of their clothes and swim in the nude, ‘since there were no girls around’. Jason and Reginald stripped and started splashing in the water while his dad sat on the edge watching them. When they all walked back to the house, his dad held Reginald’s hand but refused to take Jason’s hand. Jason felt hurt but sucked it up and waited patiently for his two cousins and their mom to go back home. His dad never again did things with Jason after that day. Jason had no idea what he did wrong, and had no idea how to even ask about it.

At the age of seven Jason knew he was not a commoner like the other kids in his class at school. He knew his dad was a baron. Not only did he knew that his dad was a baron, he also knew that his grandpa was the duke, the ruler of the whole system. His mom was the duke’s second child. His mom’s brother, Uncle Richard the Third, was the duke’s official heir. Uncle Richard had a son and two daughters. That meant that some horrible catastrophe had to hit the family before Jason could became eligible to inherit the title of duke. Jason was aware that as the only son of a baron he should eventually become the next baron since he had no brothers or sisters.

It was the custom that members of the nobility formally appointed an heir at a certain age. This custom was practiced throughout the entire empire. The formal appointment to the position of heir usually happened on the twelfth birthday of the oldest son. Sometimes this appointment only happened when the oldest son turned sixteen, if the nobleman happen to have a secondary title to pass on to his heir.

Sometimes the oldest son were not appointed as the natural heir as all. That usually happened when the oldest son was not mentally capable of acting as the nobleman he would need to become to fulfill his future duties. It was even possible for a nobleman to withdraw the appointment of natural heir, if the heir end up being disqualified, by being a criminal or by becoming mentally unstable, but at age seven none of that was even known to Jason.

Jason had learned in school that in the early days of the empire all nobility were appointed by the emperor, and was usually based on some deed a person had done to promote the stability or progress of the empire. As time progressed some of the barons got promoted to higher titles for various reasons. With titles being hereditary it meant if a baron became a viscount or a viscount became an earl, or an earl became a duke, that nobleman kept his original title as well.

That was what happened to Jason’s uncle, his mother’s brother Richard the Third. He was appointed as natural heir of the duke only at age sixteen when he inherited the honorary title of Viscount Moorefield, the duke’s minor title. Since Duke Richard the Second of Grendel inherited that title from his sire, Duke Richard the First, the title was purely an honorary tile with no lands or responsibility associated to the title.

If there was a minor title of baron, Jason’s other cousin, Rick (officially Richard the Fourth, and don’t dare call me ‘Dick’), the older grandson of the duke, would have inherited that title when his dad announced Rick to be his natural heir. Since there was no title for Rick, he could be declared the heir of his sire at age twelve but received no title at age sixteen.

Jason knew all these things, he learned them in school. He was also the only son of a baron on Grendel who attended the public school, and suffered badly for it. Normally the offspring of noblemen didn’t get bullied since they were taught by private tutors, but in Jason’s case he was treated differently. Once the school bullies realized that his dad the baron was not going to interfere, they bullied him, for a while.

Jason was not in the habit of complaining or of using his dad’s title to get special privileges. He thus also didn’t tell anybody that he was being bullied at school. He ended up with a number of bruises which was noticed at home but nobody said anything about them. Once Jason started fighting back the bullying stopped, again without any repercussions.

That didn’t mean Jason’s live in a public school was any easier. The teachers still expected a lot more of him than from his classmates. He also ended up getting uncomfortable attention from the girls in his class. He was seen as the future baron and thus a prime target until they got taught that most sons of noblemen ended up in arranged marriages, and that commoner girls had no chance of ever marrying a nobleman, or son of a nobleman, even if she manages to trick the son into getting her pregnant.

The attention from the girls didn’t go away completely; the lesson on noble marriages included a section on concubines, which meant a nobleman could take a commoner as a wife. Even with Jason being a bit young for that type of activities, the girls in his school still flirted with him, and he still ended up being an outsider, one who could not attend parties or take part in team sport, or go to school dances. As the son of the baron, he never received any invitations.

As a matter of fact, Jason was not really looking forward to his twelfth birthday. He might have felt a lot more excited about it if his dad treated him like he did when Jason was six years old but since then Jason had develop a negative attitude about himself, seeing himself as inferior and unworthy of the love and attention of his dad.

Jason noticed the stressed relationship between his mom and dad and assumed he was the reason for that as well. His parents didn’t share a bedroom, never has, but Jason thought that was normal among the nobility, especially after overhearing a servant girl gossiping about spending the night with the baron. At least his mom still acted loving towards him but more often she seemed to have a sad mood surrounding her, a mood that didn’t lead to hugs and spoiling at all.

“What do you mean you are not going to announce him as your heir?” Jason was about to step into the dining room and came to an abrupt halt. He was still far enough back to be unnoticed but could make out his mom and aunt already sitting at the dining room table while his dad was standing at the head of the table. Jason could not see his two cousins but suspected them to be there already since Jason was the last one to make his way to the dining room. It was the evening before his birthday, a birthday he was not really looking forward to.

“I have been suspecting for a long time that he is not my son” Jason’s dad said. Jason heard two distinct gasps coming from inside the dining room. He leaned slightly forward and peeked around the edge of the door. His dad looked as moody as always while his aunt had a shocked look on her face. His mom looked more worried than surprised. “I realized the truth when I saw him and Reginald standing next to each other in the nude. It is obvious that they are not related. As a matter of fact, it is very obvious that Jason is not related to me at all. He is twelve and he is already a head taller than Reginald, and with black hair. Nobody in my family has black hair, at least not in that specific color.”

“I thought you knew all along” Jason’s mom exclaimed. “Didn’t my dad explain it to you when he asked you to marry me?”

“No, he didn’t!” Jason’s dad hissed angrily. “He made me drunk, drunk enough to pass out from it, and told me the next day that I have dishonored his only daughter and that he was expecting me to man up and marry you.” This time the shocked look on Jason’s mom’s face echoed the shocked look on his aunt’s face. Jason leaned in a bit more and noticed both his cousins sitting at the table, looking confused.

“So you did end up spending that night with that officer” Jason’s aunt hissed at Jason’s mother.

“No need to get all uppity about that” Jason’s mom responded. “You did exactly the same as I did.” Jason’s aunt shot a nervous glance at Reginald, who still didn’t seem to have a clue what all the fuss was about.

“Except I never hid the fact that it was an imperial marine who did it” she hissed back as she glared at Jason’s mom.

“And I thought my dad told Oscar the truth” Jason’s mom responded.

“If you thought that I knew, why have you never said anything about it since then?” Jason’s dad asked hiss mother.

“Because I didn’t want to embarrass you anymore that you must have been already” she said. “I would never rub it in that Jason was not your biological offspring.”

“Well, since he is not my biological offspring, and since your dad never told me the truth, I have decided.” Jason’s dad said. “I decided to appoint an heir that is actually of my blood.” Jason watched as his aunt’s eyes shot towards Reginald while his mom jumped up from her seat.

“Doing that will not only insult Jason, it will also act as a blatant insult to me, and to the duke.” Jason’s mom said.

“That is just too bad. Jason’s...,” the baron started to say.

“You leave me no choice but to move back to my father’s home” Jason’s mom said as she turned towards the door.

“Don’t let me hold you back” the baron thundered at his wife as she headed out of the dining room. Jason had barely seconds to move out of the way and around the corner to avoid being discovered by his mom. He watched as she just about ran down the passageway to her rooms, sobbing as she went.

Jason suddenly didn’t feel hungry at all. He understood a lot more than he suspect Reginald did. He knew he was suddenly even more of an outsider. He was a bastard, with the duke as his grandpa, a viscount as his uncle, and no hope of ever achieving anything worthwhile.

He didn’t meet anybody on his way to his room, not that the baron had a lot of servants around the house. The Baron of Sand Harbor was not one of the well-off and powerful barons on Grendel, and was not a particularly clever business man either. They lived in a fancy house on the vast estate on the barony but there was no luxury around the house, no money for more servants than the cook and her helper, and the butler, who doubled as the baron’s secretary.

Back in his room Jason started assembling his personal belongings. Since there were no servants to do those things he usually packed his own stuff whenever they went to visit his grandpa, or moved to the baron’s city house during the season. He usually just kept his luggage in the back of his closet. It didn’t take him long to pack all his stuff into the single smallish trunk. He had just finished when his mom slipped quietly into his room.

“You are already packing?” she asked in surprised.

“I heard everything” Jason said as he looked his mother in the eyes. He suddenly realized that he was as tall as she was.

“Oh my dear darling” Jason’s mom said as she sat down on the edge of his bed and pulled him down next to her. “I was planning to tell you the truth, but not yet. You are only turning twelve tomorrow.”