This chapter is dedicated to qdeanna of tumblr, who drew a beautiful short comic of a scene in this fic! I'm using one of the panels as the cover image.
We see the 'ra' sound a lot in noble names. We also see –el, which is associated with angel names but actually means god, multiple times… which would make Ra-el the most unimaginative noble name possible. Yay for Ragar's parenting.
Frankenstein had managed to avoid worsening his punishment a third time - although the image of Master's shirt cuffs soaked through as he washed the windows haunted him. Poor Master, who was always so particular about his clothing! The stack of work that had piled up served as a target for his frustration: once he eliminated it, then he could consider how to extend Master's lifespan. Master had taken so much damage fighting Muzaka that his soul was no longer able to heal: how did that mechanism function? Could it be restored?
The first priority was creating a buffer so Master didn't do more damage to himself. He could be more ambitious once Master had a safety net and Frankenstein had some idea of what he was doing. Frankenstein couldn't test these treatments on himself: he wasn't a noble, let alone a noblesse. Using untried procedures on Master smacked of the Union's definition of 'experiment,' but desperate times and desperate measures.
"Ah, good," he said when Rael arrived, standing up to put one of the stacks in his hands. He was almost glad to see the noble because it meant the removal of paper from his desk. It would be brought back later, and he would have to go over it, but for now his desk was marginally cleaner. "What is it?" he demanded when the Kertia didn't get moving.
"The humans were doing something while you were gone."
Frankenstein had work to do; he did not have time for Rael's nonsense... but instincts honed over centuries kept those words from passing his lips, being thrown in the boy's face. Rael had come back from the school... perturbed on the second and fourth day. He'd wanted to speak to Frankenstein on the second, but listening to complaints was work, so Master had told him to speak to Takeo. "Takeo couldn't help you?" Which meant Tao couldn't either. Or possibly wouldn't.
"He kept them away the day before yesterday, but he had other duties yesterday and the humans did it again."
Was Takeo running interference out of consideration for Rael, or to protect the school? "What are they doing?"
"They keep touching me!" Rael complained, blushing furiously.
And yes, he should be furious. Frankenstein straightened, instantly giving the noble his full attention. "Not the staff." On most issues Frankenstein preferred to be the lovable, bleeding-heart eccentric Chairman-slash-principal, but on that one he kept them appropriately terrified.
Rael shook his head.
"Who, and where?" he asked, eyes narrow, tone serious but very little anger showing. He could be angry later, when it wouldn't be scaring a young man.
"The visitors to your office, especially the aging ones." Not 'old people,' not when Rael was over five hundred. It wasn't just lack of respect that made him forget to use honorifics, when his downloaded knowledge of Korean said those honorifics were for people older than him, not younger. The fact that according to that knowledge of the language the humans kept addressing him rudely wasn't helping the pureblood noble. "My cheeks, or my hair! They keep saying my hair is cute!"
Frankenstein winced in sympathy. The worst was ruled out, but he had to show he took this seriously, both for the sake of managing Rael and because it was serious. "That's why I refuse to wear my hair beneath a certain length." He'd cut his hair since Master awoke, but also straightened it, so it wasn't especially wavy except around his shoulders. At least he and Rael didn't wind up with ringlets, but…
…wait a minute. "Lean forward," he told Rael. "I want a look at your hair."
Noble genetics weren't noble genetics. They almost certainly could make their own gene complexes, but that would be work. Their eyes were an exception, likely created by someone who refused to put up with the downgrade to human senses. It might also be worth it for the sake of self-expression.
Frankenstein wished he hadn't had to destroy all the samples he'd taken from the Central Order Knights he'd captured to keep the data out of the hands of the Union. There was so much someone could learn about human genetic history by scanning their DNA. How many genes from lost races, lost species of hominids were kept 'alive' on Lukedonia, the relics of contractors long past?
He wasn't certain what the unspoken rules were (so much was unspoken on Lukedonia and children were precious and anything to do with them was automatically guarded), but he had to wonder about Raskreia's resemblance to Master. A matched set? The Previous Lord had asked Master on multiple occasions to come to the palace and live as Raskreia's older brother… an attempt to lay the groundwork for his plan to make Cadis Etrama di Raizel the Lord instead of Noblesse, in hindsight.
Every so often, Frankenstein cursed himself for letting that chance to get a blood sample from the Previous Lord slip through his fingers. Of course he couldn't have gone back and asked for it later: asking for it as a favor or 'appreciating his generosity' would have meant he had to be grateful to a noble who wasn't Raizel. Jumping on the verbal opening the Previous Lord gave him would have let him think he'd come away the victor with a well-earned prize.
Then again, would the advancement of science really be worth having no idea he'd played right into the hands of that irritating noble?
What was he thinking.
Given Ragar Kertia's… it certainly resembled a crush on the Previous Lord, Frankenstein would have expected his children's hair to be even paler than Ragar's, and where had these waves come from?
Who were Ragar's other options, if he hadn't just used his own blood? Krasis Bluster commiserating on their mutual unrequited crush on the Previous Lord was a possibility. Heaven forbid Edian Drosia: she was Ragar's intellectual peer, certainly, which meant they were suited for each other in one sense, but think of the children who would inherit that double dose of stupidity! Ragar did have the occasional moment of insight, so it wasn't impossible for him to have a child like Rajak, but Edian was Urokai without the emotional problems or ability to notice Raizel's feelings.
Which might explain Rael, true, but wouldn't explain the hair.
Ridiculous, but it would only take a minute for a DNA scan to settle the matter after they got home, and having Rael's data might come in handy in future. For now, "I'll have the Health teacher make up and strategically position a poster. That should handle it: report anyone who doesn't get the message to Tao." There would be no unwanted touching on his campus (Frankenstein's own dislike of being touched had nothing to do with it), and he had more students than just the nobles who looked unusual one way or another. He couldn't have adults coming into his school and providing a bad example. The reserve of Master, Seira and Regis warded off unwanted contact, but now that Frankenstein had stabbed most of the pride out of him, when Rael wasn't in 'I want to stab something' mode he tended to look lost and in need of hugs and/or doing his best to pretend that he was all grown up and absolutely not in need of any hugs or pity, which could be even more endearing.
…for a moment Frankenstein worried what it meant that he preferred having noble children in his home to human children, but noble children didn't leave crumbs everywhere. And turnabout was fair play: if nobles were going to insist on finding humans cute, then they deserved to have humans feel the urge to reassure them and give them lollipops.
Tao and Rael were staring at the screen waiting for the DNA scan results, fairly wide-eyed at the very idea. M-21 was trying to pretend he hadn't heard that possibility and focus on watching Muzaka and the monitoring equipment.
Frankenstein was going over some Union data that might not be completely useless, so he didn't turn around to look at the results until he heard Rael squawk.
...He'd meant it as a joke, Frankenstein thought, slightly dazed. He'd revealed the possibility in the living room, in front of Master, so Rael had to choke back how he couldn't possibly be related to a human (even if all nobles were, genetically at least). Since Rael took family seriously, the possibility might have made the manchild think. Helped get it through his thick skull that humans were people.
It had to be a joke, he thought for a moment, and almost asked Tao if he had tampered with the results to play a trick on Rael, but there simply hadn't been time. No, Tao wasn't going to fool around with that equipment, not when his life and the lives of his comrades might depend on it.
Then it hit him that this wasn't funny. "How did that goddamn ninja get a blood sample from me!" Frankenstein demanded, loud enough to make Rael, Tao and M-21 jump. He scowled, glaring at the screen. "The question answers itself." There were also all the times he'd bled all over Ragar and Kartas, but no need to mention that.
Someone had gotten a blood sample from him. Used it to create children... create children used in an experiment, with the divided soul weapon? It was the stuff of countless nightmares.
And it was those nightmares, all the contingency planning for this event, that let him maintain control. Do something now, rage later. "Rael," he said, each word solid ice. "Give me Grandia. I am going to melt it down." Rajak mentioning that Ragar had mentioned him 'often' after he left, Ragar's crush on the Previous Lord… The previous Kertia clan leader's type was intelligent blonds, wasn't it.
Not that foolish, Rael vanished.
Quite deliberately rolling back his labcoat sleeves, Frankenstein stalked upstairs… to find Rael taking refuge behind Master's chair.
Well, he certainly hadn't gotten that good sense from Ragar.
"Frankenstein," Master said calmingly as Regis stared and Seira stayed out of the way drinking tea, making it clear that this was none of her business. "It is something done to remember humans. Not 'sexual harassment.'"
"No," Frankenstein corrected him, "it is." He took a deep breath, flexing his fingers. They'd gone stiff curled into claws, and he made a very deliberate effort not to summon his tainted aura to coat them. "But I couldn't have expected him to know that."
Ragar and Gejutel hadn't known the first thing about how Frankenstein's experiments or human enhancement worked. He'd checked, tried to catch them out. If Ragar took Frankenstein's blood for the sake of power, the noble would have drank the stuff, not used it for this. The Previous Lord would have known: if that cunning spider in gadfly's clothing had put Ragar up to this... So his daughter would have an intelligent and perhaps principled Kertia Clan Leader at her back.
Intelligence, he thought. "I was the one complaining about nobles not thinking." Humans were still evolving for intelligence fairly rapidly; if most of Lukedonia's genes were outdated… "I suppose that's where Rajak got his drive to surpass his limitations."
He turned away from them so Rael could relax. "Miss Seira, I will be putting together a report on current medical ethics and laws to consider. I'd like you to send it with your next report to Lukedonia, for the attention of the Lord." He already had Seira and Regis' genes on file. It wouldn't take long to run the comparison – Regis was more likely, but if Gejutel had included 'something borrowed' in Rousare, it could have been part of what the Loyard clan leader copied from Rousare when they were designing their pureblood 'siblings.'
Had he really been so careless with his blood on Lukedonia, in the land of the nobles? Had he been that confident in his ability to fight off even clan leaders' blood-backed mind control?
Was it that he'd been desperate to practice controlling Dark Spear in combat, or had he really trusted Ragar and Gejutel that much? It wasn't as though the nobles, even the vampires he'd fought before, hadn't tried to get their hands on his blood during the fights!
Turning away, he took out his phone and began to type a text to Gejutel as he walked towards his home office. "Please tell me you didn't use any of my blood to make Rousare."
Gejutel had picked up Korean on his visit to the country, but Frankenstein should probably make up some keyboards with Lukedonian characters and send one over Air (or rather Foot) Rael. He enjoyed using subtle insults on nobles, and nuances could be lost in translation. Lukedonian was amazing for delivering stealth insults, which made sense for a language (or more a creole, really) developed by a number of very powerful and touchy beings stuck with each other on a small island. While living among the nobles, Frankenstein had found it almost impossible to have a conversation in Lukedonian without insulting someone.
…Although it could just be him, true.
The time it took Gejutel to respond fit a shocked reaction instead of a guilty one. "Frankenstein, I am insulted that you think I would risk my child inheriting your personality. Where did you get such an idea?" Who had slandered the good name of Gejutel's dead son?
That text was followed thirty seconds later, those seconds probably spent in horrified denial, with, "Please tell me Ragar didn't."
Another pause. "He did, didn't he."
Fairly quickly after that came the message, "Well, that explains Rael."
Gejutel's next message arrived while Frankenstein was drafting a letter to Rajak. "I suppose it could be worse. He could have requested it of the Previous Lord. No, not after the Previous Lord rejected Krasis' request."
"Is that why the Previous Lord had equipment for taking and storing blood samples on hand?" Frankenstein asked, only half paying attention.
"No, he invented that equipment himself. He took a great many trips to the human world over three thousand years, searching for humans with particular outstanding qualities for his daughter's sake."
"And then he just used Master's blood."
When there was no immediate response, Frankenstein added, "He did, didn't he."
Even Gejutel had to admit that, "That does sound like something he would do, yes."
Absently Frankenstein was wondering if he should think about 'back birthday presents' for Rael and most likely Rajak (no, or else he would have to pick some out for the other children and that would remind them of the debatable nature of their ages and the years stolen from them) and if he owed the Kertia Clan child support (no, but he was going to send the full four hundred years' worth just to make the point that humans had a right to be involved in what was done with their blood).
"Thank goodness the Lord was created before your arrival. Given how highly the Previous Lord thought of you, Frankenstein, we narrowly escaped a terrible fate."
'Terrible fate?' Oh, yes! That reminded him. Not that he might have ended up with a chance to gain parental authority over the princess, which would only have been of benefit to humanity, but "By the way, Gejutel, how soon can you come visit? I want to chop off pieces of your soul."
But instead of an entertaining response, what he got was, "I see you've finally realized the Previous Lord's true intention behind leaving Ragnarok in your master's shrine. It's not like you to be this slow, especially when your master is involved."
What.
The blood drained from Frankenstein's face.
That was… then… that meant…
A portion of the Previous Lord's soul, and he'd let Master give it to Raskreia! With his blessings, because he hadn't wanted anything to do with the Previous Lord stirring up trouble. It was a miracle she hadn't absorbed it into her own Ragnarok on the spot!
Even if he got her to try to give it back to Master, Master wouldn't take back something he'd given freely to its true owner. It would be inelegant. Ideally, the Lord would never personally fight, but with the Noblesse in South Korea at Frankenstein's school? Raizel would feel responsible if Lukedonia was attacked while he wasn't there. He wouldn't consume Ragnarok when that would leave Raskreia with an incomplete soul weapon and a brood of young clan leaders to protect!
The only way to make Master accept Ragnarok now would be to force him to absorb it, and who on earth could make the Noblesse just stand there and let something like that happen?
"Master, I deserve to die!" he screamed internally, collapsing back into his office chair, proper posture forgotten.
While he stared in horror at the screen held up over his head, Gejutel remained oblivious to the fact that the genius Frankenstein hadn't figured all this out ages ago. Good, his reputation was intact, at least. "I thought that Sir Cadis Etrama di Raizel would absorb Ragnarok to replace the power he used helping the Lord practice her abilities." Serving as target practice, Gejutel meant… Or rather providing a powerful enough enemy that Raskreia would be forced to risk damaging her country trying to draw out more of Ragnarok's power without unleashing its more devastating attacks.
So when Raizel didn't see any need either to absorb Ragnarok or enter hibernation, of course Gejutel had reason to think that Raizel had recovered during his hibernation. When in fact he simply didn't want to live at the expense of anyone or anything. Raskreia. His life here in Korea. Was his life really worth so little to him? Of course, when there was so little of it left, and he saw his life as something to spend instead of something worth saving. Worth cherishing.
"Just don't take the entire thing; my grandson needs a complete soul weapon."
Oh no Gejutel did not just… "Your grandson needs his grandfather more. Didn't you hear how he acted when he thought you had been sentenced to forced eternal sleep? He knocked half the Central Order Knights unconscious!"
"That was to protect them from finding themselves fighting you, Frankenstein."
Well, Frankenstein thought, smirking despite himself. In that light, Regis' actions weren't so foolish after all. "Your grandson has good instincts and an admirable determination to protect his comrades."
He could picture Gejutel harrumphing at the phone, knowing there was a stealth insult concealed in there somewhere and probably unable to find it because the insult was to the Central Order Knights, who still needed a child to protect them from the scary human despite having centuries to train, instead of to his precious grandson. "I am more concerned with the fact he took advantage of Karias' honorable impulse to assist a child to land a blow. You are a terrible influence."
Frankenstein snorted. "Please. I have never taken advantage of a noble's mercy to the weak in combat, because what mercy?" Despite their claim to help humans, the only noble to ever try to ensure that Frankenstein survived a battle with him (other than for the sake of capturing him and exploiting his knowledge to better exploit humans) was… Ragar Kertia, in his first battle against the clan leaders. "Regis has no subtlety: he takes after you. If he pulled off a sneak attack before he had the benefit of my training, Karias has no one to blame but himself. He's the Bluster clan leader, for goodness' sake." They had a very acute ability to detect when someone was plotting against them. Frankenstein had quite a lot of fun verifying and testing that particular ability using Krasis Bluster's reactions.
"That clan has always been excitable. By the way, Frankenstein, what is this I hear from Karias? He told Rajak that Rael's behavior was almost tolerable while he was keeping watch over your Master and his household for you. Mind-controlling those enhanced humans, my grandson and a clan leader wasn't enough for you? Now you're adding another pureblooded noble with a soul weapon?"
"You are completely wrong, as usual." It was probably Frankenstein's fault for not reminding Gejutel that Lagus Tradio was a lying liar who lied, but the real reason he hadn't cleared his name with Gejutel was that the old man was so much fun to tease. "Even if I was mind-controlling Rael, why are you complaining? It's not as though he doesn't deserve it."
"No, of course he doesn't deserve it," Gejutel typed. "If you were anyone else, I would be touched that you're going to so much trouble to reform Ragar's son. Since it's you, all I can do is be grateful for Ragar's sake that you'd rather turn him into a weapon for your Master's defense than kill him yourself before he can waste any more of Sir Cadis Etrama di Raizel's life. What concerns me is that you are the Bonded of the True Noblesse. Are you certain that you won't draw on any of his power to keep Rael under control? Ragar did give him a soul weapon," Gejutel added, probably trying to avoid implying that Frankenstein was weak.
"Your head has gone even softer in your old age than I thought if you think I would waste so much as a single second of my Master's life on saving a noble like Rael Kertia," was the immediate response, but then Frankenstein had to blink down at the phone and reach for the computer before remembering that of course his noble anthropology notes weren't stored on this computer. He'd have to go down to the lab.
He should have realized something was up when Gejutel thought Frankenstein was controlling his precious grandson and Miss Seira and just remarked on it, as though he was scoring some kind of point by telling Frankenstein he knew what the human was doing. Nobles took trespassing on someone's will very seriously, and Gejutel thought Frankenstein was the sort of person willing to experiment on children. Gejutel should have tried to make him stop controlling the members of the household, even though the Noblesse's presence implied that Frankenstein wasn't doing anything too terrible.
Instead of accusing him of harming the children, Gejutel had gone so far as to more or less ask Frankenstein for parenting advice, when it came to Miss Seira. So he must have thought that Frankenstein was handling the children not just properly but admirably.
Gejutel predated language: nobles would have had to instruct their children in proper behavior using mind control when he was growing up. By walking them through certain situations? For example, letting them feel how much force they needed to apply to wash dishes without breaking them.
Had the old noble been complimenting him on his ability to be a good parent to that many children at once during that exchange? Then why was there a note in his voice implying that he was insinuating something, or had Frankenstein imagined it?
Frankenstein tried to recall what exactly Gejutel remarked on: two enhanced humans washing dishes, another entertaining guests (when the proper courtesies were so important to nobles, so Tao would have required a lot of instruction if the enhanced human wasn't a natural), Seira cooking, Frankenstein using Gejutel's grandson as a maid… Ah. Regis. That was it.
It would have exhausted even a clan leader to keep specific control over that many people at once, including another clan leader. Here Frankenstein, the noble-hating human, was working his mental fingers to the bone to properly nurture and instruct two noble children? One of them Gejutel's grandson, when Frankenstein had always made such a point of reminding Gejutel that they were not friends and he certainly hadn't gone to tell Gejutel that he was leaving the island and going into hiding to keep Gejutel from worrying about him when he vanished.
"Don't think this means we're friends," he typed, purely to test if his theory was correct, before thinking better of sending a message like that and deleting it. 'I'm not looking after him for your sake,' perhaps. He could say that it was his duty as an educator to properly instruct children, implying that he had to do extra work because Gejutel's instruction was inadequate...
Gejutel's response had arrived while he was theorizing. "That's a relief. My apologies for the insult: I know that you won't act improperly when your Master is involved, Frankenstein."
The old noble knew better than to tell the human anything along the lines of, 'don't strain yourself.' Frankenstein could see through this roundabout way of asking if he was alright without implying that he wasn't up to the challenge. Unfortunately, he couldn't call Gejutel out on it without looking as though he was really reaching to find something to be offended about.
"Perhaps it just amuses me to have a third pure-blooded noble doing servants' work for me."
"That sounds more like you," Gejutel's response came quickly. Probably relieved by the return to normalcy after finding out that Lukedonia somehow miraculously survived two children with Frankenstein's blood, soul weapons and a lack of adequate adult supervision. "Next you'll have Rajak in one of those pink aprons you made the enhanced humans wear."
"Now there's an idea."
…Come to think of it, did Rajak know how to cook, clean and manage a household? Yes, as the head of the Kertia Clan he would have servants for that, but an adult who didn't know how to function as an adult reflected very poorly on their parents – see Rael. He would have to ask Rajak to include a list of the housekeeping skills he possessed in his response to Frankenstein's letter, and any deficiencies in his education could easily be remedied by forcing Rael to do more chores.
Rael stared after Frankenstein's back as he left. He couldn't believe that the enhanced human had calmed down so quickly instead of trying to extract Rael's father's soul from him! He shouldn't have doubted Cadis Etrama di Raizel, he scolded himself. Truly, the Noblesse was wise!
"Frankenstein and the previous clan leader of the Kertia were playmates," the Noblesse said, picking up his teacup again.
Regis, who had also been staring after Frankenstein, turned to stare at the Noblesse, a puzzled look on his face. Rael glared at him, but Regis must have realized that he was questioning the Noblesse and quickly composed himself.
"If Frankenstein did not care for Ragar, then he would not have helped him learn," Raizel said calmly. It was the same kind of deceptively simple statement that he had given Rael when Rael asked about the enhanced humans.
When Raizel said that Rael was like his bonded.
"Then… then he does not mind adding his strength to the Kertia?" Rael asked the Noblesse, who frowned slightly.
Honored was what some human should feel, but then again Frankenstein was the Bonded of the Noblesse. What if he had thought that Ragar's action was stealing from his Master! Rael would be careful not to summon Grandia in that human's presence, just to be on the safe side. He might go crazy.
"He does not mind lending his strength to a friend, or to children," the Noblesse corrected him gently.
"Grandfather said that Frankenstein told him that they would only see him again after he found his master," Regis said, not quite to Rael. "I'm sure the former head of the Kertia clan would have informed Frankenstein of Rajak's existence when he returned to Lukedonia with the Noblesse."
Rai sipped his tea. "Frankenstein would not create human children. The Union would want them." And he would not put them in danger of being forced to betray humanity. "But he has always cared for children, and to have a family is… not bad." He sighed. "The Previous Lord was a very difficult person, which is why he was an excellent Lord."
That didn't seem to follow from what he'd said before, but there had to be a reason… or was that last sentence meant to be a conclusion? Maybe it was just one more piece of data, and Cadis Etrama di Raizel was assuming that they could put the pieces together instead of insulting them by telling them what to think?
The duty of the Noblesse… No, a Noblesse's child would only care about that duty, while Cadis Etrama di Raizel was so indulgent of the children who flocked around him, like Regis. It would surely sadden the Noblesse that his child wouldn't stay in this home, or that he would never have a child to care for… not a child of his own, but when the Noblesse so enjoyed taking care of the children of others? Even Regis and enhanced humans.
The children of others.
Rael's red eyes widened in shock.
When the Previous Lord had wished for Raizel to have a longer, more enjoyable life. The same Lord who worked with Ragar to create a soul weapon for Rael. A second soul weapon for the second child.
A second child. Who still hadn't had his ceremony of adulthood when Ragar went into eternal sleep.
If Frankenstein had found his Master and returned to Lukedonia sooner, when Rael was younger, then surely he would have helped his friend's son Rajak train and discovered that Rael… Was not alone, but…
Being Frankenstein's child, at least the way humans saw things… when Frankenstein was the Noblesse's Bonded, did it make him also Cadis Etrama di Raizel's?
It seemed… farfetched, but the Noblesse had mentioned the Previous Lord, and it was the duty of the Lord to make plans like that, to determine the future of the nobles. If the Previous Lord was concerned with Cadis Etrama di Raizel's happiness, and Rael's father was concerned for Frankenstein's happiness, when the human had assisted him…
Was that the reason for Rael's strange existence, a pureblood who should have had no chance of ever having a soul weapon of his own, or a clan to care for? Ignes was convinced he should have resented his existence, tried to get his brother's soul weapon for himself, but was there a reason for his creation other than trying to take the clan that rightfully belonged to someone else for his own?
His very existence weakened the Kertia, weakened his brother. But, if he did exist for the Noblesse's sake, then that was… that was not something to be ashamed of.
Because it was funny, and a family-focused fic seemed the best place to stick the Rael idea. As people have remarked, Frankenstein has a lot of traits that are normally villain traits, but he has a very firm moral code and sense of priorities. Rael had Ignes' influence, and there's a reason Lawful Good can become dogmatic condemnation – Rael blames all humans for some humans (but mainly the traitor clan leaders) being responsible for a genocide… and then turns around and gloats about how he's going to personally finish off one of the clans targeted for that genocide, because he's a hypocrite.
Rael is 'and then Seira will be with me forever once I kill the only family she's got left,' instead of 'Seira will murder me if I murder a child she's responsible for in cold blood after admitting to her face I'm doing it to hurt her like the traitors did.' Wow, he just does not know her at all despite having had two hundred years to learn what she's like – more evidence that whatever he's so obsessed with, it's not Seira.
As for Raskreia, in this 'verse the Previous Lord did understand human taboos and why we have them better than that. She's not carrying Rai's genes, her father just wanted them to look like a matched set because plans.
The Previous Lord offered Rai Ragnarok and a family: Rai refused both, and the Previous Lord told him that he might have refused Ragnarok for now, but the Previous Lord had other ways to get what he wanted. In the end, Rai did end up absorbing Ragnarok... and Rai also ended up with a family. Just As Planned?
There is a fic on this site that is just Gejutel and Frankenstein texting: it is hilarious, go read it.