Interlude: Aspiring Grandmother & Heinkel's Sober Days
Interlude Part 1: Aspiring Grandmother
Subaru was another od dammed Wilhelm case. Well, at least this kid was cuter and way more easy-going than Wilhelm. I just finished my first month along with my husband and it was needless to say a … eventful one. I had to spend a month to get permission to squeeze his chubby cheeks. For an old lady like me playing with small children felt natural. I tried it on Reinhard but he had no reactions. Well, I wasn't going to pick favorites and Reinhard needed attention so I decided to spoil them a bit … just a little bit…
[Carol: Who wants a slice of my personally made cake?]
[Subaru: Me! Me! Me!]
[Reinhard: I would like some as well, aunt Carol.]
[Subaru: You can't get a cake like that Haruo. You have to show you reeeaaly want the cake.]
[Reinhard: Me, Me I guess?]
[Subaru: ehh… Close enough…]
A smile formed on my face seeing two kids interacting with each other and od know they needed it. Reinhard still blamed himself for what happened to Theresia thanks to Wilhelm's … reaction and Heinkel falling into alcoholism and despair did not help. Subaru was in a somewhat similar state as well. He still had frequent night terrors. He also developed noticeable habits. He always cleaned his mouth by touching repeatedly with a handkerchief. He never holds the handkerchief on his mouth longer than a second. He also started to train with Reinhard furiously to a point it started to remind me Wilhelm of the demi-human war. Well unlike Wilhelm's twelve-hour a day training the kid only trained six hours … then studied to read and write for another six to read that book without Reinhard's help … does this kind of people know how to rest? Unlike Reinhard, he is not even related to Wilhelm. I was still wondering how he ended up being more similar to Wilhelm than Reinhard. They even had the same cold gaze. Well, the kid's gaze was more intense than Wilhelm's because of his eye's eternal glare look. At least the kid was smarter than Wilhelm so It was fun to watch him figure out or imagine something. Most of the time at least … I still haven't forgiven him for the … ketchup incident. The new sauce itself might be nice but It wasn't worth the chaos it caused in the kitchen… or declaring himself the sauce king… and throwing ketchup at me… I need to do something about his somewhat brash attitude. After I give him and Reinhard some cake of course.
[Carol: Here's some cake for two young gentlemen.]
[Subaru: Thanks, auntie … ow ow ow my cheek hurt this time.]
[Reinhard: Thanks aunt Carol. Well, mine doesn't hurt so don't worry please.]
I realized my husband was chuckling while watching me treat the kids. Why he was chuckling? Did he think I was spoiling them? Well, he might be right so I decided to show my stern attitude a bit;
[Carol: Subaru, eat more carefully or I will make you clean the table after you eat.]
[Subaru: EEEEHHH… But I only spilled the cake a little bit.]
[Reinhard: Subaru … quarter of it's on the table…]
[Subaru: Whose side are you on Haruo?]
[Carol: Well well, play nice or I will be mad at you.]
[Subaru: Mad?]
[Carol: I will …]
I had to think for a good punishment but it needed to be fair. I didn't want to be that strict grandparent. I think threatening with extra training should be enough… It would also be payback for his attempt to cast that weird fog spell on the sheets.
[Carol: If you continue being brash young men I will force you to train in Remendis sword style. It's a very hard thing. Even most men fear doing it.]
[Subaru: Train … men fear it … Would you do it if I do one more bad thing?]
[Carol: That's right if you do … don't you dar…]
[Subaru: Shamac!]
I stared into the black smoke that was covering the window, preventing the light from coming inside the room. I need to think of more appropriate punishments…
[Carol: way to go carol … way to go…]
I murmured to myself while glaring towards the, now mischievously smiling, nasty-eyed kid. My husband on the other hand was rolling on the floor while laughing.
Interlude Part 2: Heinkel's Sober Days
If there is one thing that I hated more than being drunk, it was being sober. It's been more than a month since my last drink and it was horrible. While my order came I was too disgusted with it to drink since the Flander's incident. I was even considering fully quitting it after Grimm scolding me for over an hour. He even had to rest between his scoldings. He was right but still … still … I don't even know what to do anymore. I really didn't want to drink while a kid traumatized because of my incompetence. At least he seemed better now. If you manage to ignore his occasional screams at night. I started to walk towards Louanna's room to pay her another visit. Well, at least this was the good side of being sober. I opened the door to see her sleeping face. I know that's what I would see every time I opened the door but there was still a little piece of remained within me to see her waking up.
[Heinkel: I'm back Louanna.]
There was no answer like always.
[Heinkel: I'm sober over a month now … no forty days I guess. You would've been proud if you saw me.]
She would've been disappointing seeing me drink. I wouldn't be drinking if she was awake … well I wouldn't be doing a lot of stuff that I do if she was awake.
[Heinkel: I … I stopped a gang you know … They were hurting a lot people and know they are too weak to try anything again. You probably would've organized a banquet just for that … heh… you always found an excuse for both of us to dress up formally.]
She was beautiful with everything she wore but that didn't matter to me right now. I would do everything to see her wake up again. I wondered how she would feel if she witnessed her family right now. My father was a mess since my mother's death. I was breaking my personal staying sober record by a measly forty days. Reinhard was … I started to remember the incident that happened years ago. I think it was time I had to convince Marcus to remain in the Royal guard … or rejoin I can't fully remember. At night a lot of armed men arrived to take … Reinhard and I had to defend him …
"I'll tell my son about his power! He will never use it again!"
He did use it again but it was for saving the kid so it wasn't important.
"So please! Reinhard is good!"
Pffft … Yeah … Yeah how can he be…
"He's a sweet boy!"
Define sweet Heinkel …
"He's Louanna's boy!"
I … I … I was a foo…
"He's a treasure to me and Louanna!"
What … what have I done all those years. I was still thinking foolishly… I … one day I will repent for what I have done. I swear … I will make our family whole again Louanna but I don't … know … how.
After these thoughts, I broke down near her bead. I cried until there were no more tears to shed.
Well, that was something I guess.
This two is going to be two of the three interludes I will write I know they are short and technically they are supposed to be
my view on interludes is they are short stories that show what happened between time skips.
While I believe I handled the Aspiring Grandmother part really well but I'm not so sure about Heinkel's Sober days
It somewhat felt a bit rushed to me even with the built-up I did from Heinkel's PoV in AI-Arc 1
While he is not going to be the father of the year he will start working on self-improvement so there is that I guess.
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I also want your opinions about my somewhat improved and changed writing style. I think this way is better to show about the character's PoV's
Anyway, I hope all of you enjoyed this short interlude.
There will be one more interlude with a longer size that includes the older version of our loveable fool.
Sword Demon and the Young Instigator
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I also got a surprise for everyone at the prologue of AI-Arc 2
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Let's just say we will see someone who knows the way of the lady.