I looked at the baby in the bed, he certainly looked human but he was powerful, you could tell from a distance that he had power, similar to our mathematical wizards. Something destroyed the door of the capsule and it wasn't his arms.
"And how do I raise a baby?" I had never had the experience raising a child, much less a baby, it seemed like an easy mission given to me by my father. But the lack of experience made it more of a problem than anything else. Nor could I leave him in the care of servants. That would show my ineptitude.
The first thing would be to see how I fed him, of course I didn't even know if he had teeth or not. And I don't even know if he consumes milk. I can logically assume it looks human and the same rules apply until proven otherwise. Yes, that would be the best course of action.
I reached over, removing the black glove on my hand and lifting the baby lips, seeing that he had teeth. Which meant he could eat solid things.
"Well, babies cry when they are hungry so I'll wait for him to cry before I feed him."
I held him in my arms and looked into his eyes. He was bigger than a baby and was actually quite heavy, but it was no problem for me to pick him up.
"Well, let's go to the royal tailor to give you clothes and to the royal registry to give you a name".
A name, what name to give him... That was the question, a simple one or a complex one, follow the family naming tradition? I bit my lip as I walked with the child in my arms.
The palace corridors were plain, hardly any decorations, no pictures. So much so that the only interesting things were the windows that had well made patterns that gave the sensation of a certain beauty that within the austerity there was a certain complexity.
"Kurt, nice but plain, Kurt von Krieg, sounds like a good name" I said, inspired by the palace to decide on a name, also a distant memory of an ancient world, the second one, the one that started everything. I smiled a little bit. Rudesdorf was a good friend.
—-
As the days went by I realized something, the baby never cried, he was growing extremely fast and for some reason he didn't need to eat. As a macabre but necessary test I didn't feed him for a day but he didn't seem to mind in the least. Which gave me some concern.
I held him in my arms as I went to the research site where I spent months investigating the capsule. I wanted to see the inside of the capsule, when I arrived I confirmed my theory. The inside of the capsule seemed to be made to raise him, so it would be something like an incubator?
Some being was raising this child, that it looked so much like a human but at the same time seemed anything but human in the way it existed was a concern. I didn't know if it was aliens trying to mimic humans and failing or if there were more humans in this galaxy. Either that or Being X likes comedy.
—-
Kurt was on the couch next to me while my brothers and sisters were talking. We were a family of 4 brothers and 2 sisters. My parents were foreign to the concept of not overdoing it and you could tell by the sheer number of siblings.
I was the fifth sister, being one of the youngest in the family but that was never a problem because unlike in other royal families respect between siblings was taught from the beginning and there was a certain honor between us. I also noticed over time how no one was particularly interested in power. Although I don't know if that is natural or a false mask to appear more dignified in the eyes of my father.
"Your adopted son is strange," said the oldest brother, Wilhelm, 43 years old, a war veteran and currently in the government, working in the finance ministry.
"In case you hadn't noticed, he literally fell out of the sky" I said sarcastically, the brothers laughed and continued talking about the situation.
"Isn't he a god sent from heaven?" asked my younger sister, who was currently in the academy.
"He is so beautiful and perfect despite being a baby that he is probably the son of one," said my other sister, who was 30 years old.
"The concept of God is invented to explain things we don't understand, that such a child falls from space and we explain it by giving him divinity is only proof that it is an invention. If he was the son of a god why was no one informed of his coming? No religious figure? No politicians? No one?" I said. I was tired of religions. They had always been there and I had always hated them in all my reincarnations.
"Yes, yes Tanya, we know, you're an atheist, you don't need to remark it every twenty minutes" Said the third oldest brother, Frederick.
To further prove my point I picked up the child, placing him on my lap and holding up his little hands.
"Behold mere mortal beings, the little hands of the son of a god, capable of destroying planets and healing the sick. Of multiplying bread and fish and forgiving our sins" I said, using sarcastic criticism as a way of explaining how ridiculous their claims that he was the son of a god sounded.
"He's a human, maybe a bit strange and with strange origins, but a human" I said, and almost ironically I thought of striking the final blow.
"Let the table break in two if my son has powers worthy of a son of a God" I said wryly. The sound of wood cracking with plates and cups falling to the floor, along with a vision of the table right in front of me broken in half, startled me.
"Oh my God," said my older brother, getting up from the chair he was sitting in. The rest of my brothers looked at Kurt with wide eyes and some began to pray.
I looked at Kurt too and then at the table, which seemed to have broken as if a large heavy object had crashed into the centre of the table, breaking it in half.
"Kurt, did you do this?" I asked to which the baby just gave me a smile.
What the fuck?
"Son of a god" Said my little sister again. Almost excited. I on the other hand looked at the baby and his inner power. Which reminded me in part of my own.
Being X... what have you done? What have you created?
—-
Months passed with relative peace, and soon a year passed, a year at a normal age for a baby would end with the baby starting to eat solid things. Here however, Kurt was reading the latest scientific journals published by the Krieg Academy. The most important educational center in the entire Krieg Empire.
"Mom, this theory is wrong" He said, I looked at the theory, it talked about atoms.
"How do you know it's wrong? I asked curiously. Kurt had knowledge that seemed to come from nowhere, which made me more curious. Eventually I accepted his strangeness and continued to raise him with the naturalness of a stork raising a human baby. But it was better than nothing.
"I don't know, but I have the knowledge in my head and this theory is wrong, I want to go to the Krieg Academy to discuss this theory, it's just stupid".
I ran my hand through his hair, raising a son took me away from my military duties at the front, forcing me to basically dedicate myself to handling logistics. As Supreme General in charge of logistics for all of Krieg I automated as much as I could in this backward system but eventually I realized that I had plenty of free time on my hands. So what time I didn't have for myself I spent raising Kurt.
"I have nothing to do all day so let's go" I said. Moving him to my side and standing up. He quickly got to his feet, following me around the palace. As we passed, when the servants saw him they made a quick gesture as a form of religious submission to the figure that was my son. Despite my attempts to maintain that he was neither a god nor his son, no one paid me any attention.
"Kurt, what are you?" I asked, since he began to speak like a functioning human being I began to distance him from the idea of any divinity.
"A human, mom, why?"
I smiled and nodded. "Today I'll ask the chef to make your favorite meal".
Kurt also for some reason ate a lot. To say he never felt hungry he devoured one kilo steaks with more eagerness than a dog forced to be vegan by his idiot masters.
"Thank you mother!" he said as he walked at the same speed as me. When I saw him in profile I felt a little, expectant. How big will he grow? What else abnormal things will he have?
Fear of what he might be together with curiosity was a bad combination for a mother for sure. But what could I do.
—-
The rector of the academy, Albert, was reading the academy's management documents when someone knocked on the door. With a simple "come in" he gave permission for the knocker to enter the room, revealing himself to be Colonel Adler in charge of the academy's security.
"Her Royal Majesty Tanya von Krieg, conqueror of the Rim Peninsula, victor of twenty-one battles and Supreme Commander of the Logistics Apartment will be at the Academy in twenty minutes. Her son Kurt von Krieg is coming with her. I have deployed the 7th brigade to protect the academy due to the royal visit".
After saying his report Colonel Adler left the room of Rector Albert, who put all the documents in order and left his chair to go out into the corridors of the academy. He took a stroll before welcoming the princess and her son.
"I wonder what the reason for her visit is, I am aware that Princess Tanya personally requests a copy of every scientific journal published by the academy. But such a sudden visit from her... Unlike her other two sisters she was never interested in entering the scientific academy and entered the military academy".
After taking a walk in the clean air of the academy, Adler began to walk towards the main entrance.
"Thank God the academy is free from the smoke of the industrial cities, the capital is still keeping in tune with nature instead of devouring it in its war industry".
Albert was a scientist of great renown but he never liked industry, he always denounced the transformation of nature into resources to be consumed in such an unnatural way. Of course it was always a personal opinion.
When Albert arrived at the entrance to the university he saw two lines of soldiers, one on each side of the road guarding the entrance. With a heavy sigh he walked to the centre of the road, seeing a black car enter followed by a convoy of 20 mounted soldiers.
The car stopped and the mounted guard stood still after a few metres into the academy. The driver got out of the car and opened the car door. Out stepped a boy in an expensive but austere suit, simple but efficient as the royal family tended to do. Behind him stepped out Princess Tanya. With dead, golden eyes that frightened Albert.
Tanya was in a military outfit with a military cape, military boots, white gloves and an officer's cap. Instead of wearing the royal dresses Tanya wore the military ones.
Albert thought to himself.
"That she wears military uniforms so far from the front and with her son must mean that she is only interested in the war. It's normal that she hasn't shown up at the academy. It's also obvious from her title that she's very good at war".
Every general was obliged to be named after his victories as a form of respect. For example, if a general attended a party, the person in charge of informing the tickets had to know his name, surname, affiliation and most importantly, his defeats and victories.
When it was said that someone had 21 victories. It didn't mean that he had 0 defeats, it meant that the defeats he had were subtracted from his victories.
That's why often the most prestigious generals had 10 to 15 victories.
To have 21 victories had rarely been seen.
Colonel Adler at my side raised his rifle upwards, on the tip of which was the academy flag. Tanya quickly raised her eyes to the flag and continued her pace. She stood in front of the rector next to Kurt.
Kurt was a boy of 5 years old, yet he had remarkable muscularity and mass. He had blue eyes and golden hair like his mother. Alfred was surprised that it had not been announced that Tanya had a son until recently. Rumor had it that Princess Tanya had an affair with a soldier from her personal elite division. Alfred cared little about that, however.
"Welcome to the Krieg Academy, I thank you for your visit," Alfred said, bowing as a sign of respect. However Tanya raised her hand.
"Please rector Alfred, no one who teaches should show reverence to the royal family, you are the future of Krieg as much as we are the royal family, so at least with me there is no need for such bows."
Alfred, who had expected a war hardened general who ignored the relevance of education was surprised by a princess who respected the scientific and educational sector of Krieg.
"Understood," he said quickly, smiling. Kurt noticed this interaction, etching it into his brain.
"I'm here because my son is talking about a scientific theory that is apparently incorrect and has insisted that I bring him to the Academy. If you could talk to him about it."
Alfred found himself confused, the five year old didn't seem to have any scientific knowledge to believe that a scientific theory was incorrect. Was she asking him to explain an advanced scientific theory to a child? In part he felt insulted. But he soon got over it because the child's interest in science at such a young age could be a good recruitment for the academy in the future.
"Of course, if you'll join me in my research room," Alfred said with a sympathetic smile.
—-
Tanya was talking to Colonel Adler, who stood in front of Tanya while Tanya sat in a chair waiting for her son to leave the room with Alfred.
"I miss some of the glory of the battlefield," Adler said, he and Tanya had been having a conversation about the army for an hour now to kill time.
"I understand your sentiment, but it's a great honour to protect a place more important than any war industry, this is where the scientists and engineers come from that keep our armies winning.
Adler had always felt a bit of an outsider in society as he did not participate in the war either as a civilian or as a military man, something that in Krieg society was more or less frowned upon. However, Tanya's words lifted his spirits.
"Is it really that important to protect the academy?" asked the colonel. Tanya nodded with a smile.
"The rifle you now carry, far more advanced than those of our enemies, was invented by someone who came out of this academy, imagine if enemy assassins were to sneak in here and kill all the students. What a disaster that would be! The inventors who would give our army better weapons! The inventors who would give our industries new advances!"
The Colonel nodded, thinking about how what Tanya said was true.
"Thank you very much Supreme General and Princess Tanya von Krieg. I was unaware that my position was so important to the future of Krieg. You have opened my eyes," he said. Tanya chuckled at the unnecessaryness of saying the whole title but despite much insistence the coronel refused to cease this practice.
The sound of the door opening made Tanya stop her laughter and look towards the door, from which Kurt came out with a grin from ear to ear while the scientist Alfred came out sweating and with dozens of papers in his hand. As if he had discovered the galaxy.
"I've been wrong all this time" Alfred said, unlike other scientists who when their theories failed refused to back down Alfred recognised that he had failed and accepted it when Kurt proposed the correct one.
"We have revolutionized a new age of technology with this," Alfred continued.
Kurt approached Tanya, proud of what he had done. Tanya smiled at him and stroked his head as a token of personal affection.
"So, was my son right in the end?" asked Tanya.
"And more than right, his scientific theory is going to revolutionize Krieg. In that matter I would like to ask if you would be interested in admitting your son Kurt von Krieg to the academy?"
Tanya looked at her son, who smiled back at her, showing without a word that he did want to join.
"Four hours a day my son will study at this academy, it will be after breakfast and he will leave at lunchtime. Is that okay with both of you?"
Kurt hugged Tanya very tightly and Alfred went back to his desk, putting all the papers on the table and picking up a new one along with a pencil.
"Perfect" Alfred said, "Let's fill out the papers and from tomorrow you will attend university, your knowledge is advanced but tomorrow I will test you to see how far you can go" Alfred continued.
Tanya clapped her hands together with a big smile and looked at Colonel Adler.
"Would you mind taking your best men to protect my son here every day?" asked Tanya.
Adler didn't even think about it and put the butt of the gun on the ground, giving a military salute.
"I'd be honoured," he replied.