Judge opened his eyes, he had fallen asleep in his mother's arms again, he'd been sleeping a lot lately. As if sleep was afraid that he would cheat on it. The little children who were sharing his parents were nowhere to be found.
Today was the day Judge would begin his grand plan. Step one? Establish dominance. And what better way to start than with the very basics: eating, sleeping, and screaming at anyone who dared interrupt either activity. Though there was no one he could scream at.
But first, he needed to learn more about his surroundings. His family was obviously rich, like ridiculously rich. The kind of rich that made him wonder if the chandelier was an heirloom or just casually picked up during a shopping spree.
The Victorian-style room, the ornate furniture, and those darn golden accents on everything were like screaming, "Welcome to your new life of luxury, little overlord!"
His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the morning disturbance—a group of maids, all wearing the same red and gold attire as yesterday. Their horns were slightly less alarming now, but Judge was still cautious. He wasn't quite ready to trust them yet. After all, trust is earned, not given, and he had seen far too many betrayals in his past life to be naive about this one.
One of the maids approached him with what looked like an absurdly plush towel. She was smiling in that way adults do when they're about to do something you absolutely hate but they think is adorable. Judge's instincts were on high alert—he knew what was coming.
"Bath time," the maid cooed, reaching for him. He was starting to understand a few commonly used words, at least the words commonly used around him.
He let out a cry that could rival a baby... yeah it was not much to write home about. It was a strategic move though, a well-placed strike in his ongoing battle to assert dominance. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect. Instead of scaring the maid away, she giggled and said something in that indecipherable language that was quickly becoming his mortal enemy.
Judge quickly turned on his enhanced cognition, hoping to decipher something, anything. But the only thing he managed to figure out was that "bath" that he had already gotten from his previous attempts
Without being able to put up much resistance, he allowed the maids to baptize him, in the golden ornate baby bathtub. He still couldn't get over the gold ornate home decor that was everywhere. It was like they went to see an internal decor expert and he suggested they just put up gold wherever they want, cause they can.
After the bath, which, despite his earlier protests, was actually quite relaxing—Judge was dressed in a fresh set of baby clothes that were now his own set of royal robes. He took a mental note: Even if I'm stuck as a baby, at least I'm a stylish one. Thanks, money!
Once he was back in his crib, Judge began his next mission: deciphering the family dynamics. It was clear that his new mother was deeply attached to him, which was a huge relief. He would need her on his side if he was going to navigate this world. His father, on the other hand, had yet to make an appearance. And then there were the siblings—Amber and Liam, as he had overheard from his mother.
He wasn't sure what to make of them just yet.
Amber, with her red hair and overly affectionate nature, seemed like the type who could become either a strong ally or a formidable opponent. Judge wasn't taking any chances. He needed to keep a close eye on her, maybe write up a contract to keep her in check.
As for Liam, the blue-haired brother, he seemed more reserved, almost cautious. Judge could respect that. He acted like a two year old, which judge supposed he was, and judge was not going to trust someone just because they were only born two years prior.
As the day wore on, Judge tried to wanted to try activating his Scriptwriter ability, but to no avail. It seemed that creating contracts was a bit out of reach for a baby who couldn't even hold a pen. He made a mental note to revisit that once his motor skills caught up with his scheming.
For now, Judge focused on honing his enhanced cognition. Every sound, every movement, every word spoken in that foreign tongue was analyzed, categorized, and stored away in his rapidly developing brain. It wouldn't be long before he cracked the code of this language and could start making real progress.
Soon evening approached and he woke up from his sleep again, seems sleep never intended to leave him alone, but it went on a trip across the whole of Asia when he actually needed it. He swore to make a court for people negatively affected by sleep if it was possible.
He looked over to his left and saw his mother, who was reading a book, she was glancing at him every now and then. Once she noticed that he was awake, she put the book away and came towards him, once she was close, she called a maid and said something to her.
The maid came close to his crib and took Judge in her arms and began to undress him, caught by surprise, Judge could do nothing but cry. Why was he, as a grown man inside, crying? He felt crying as a natural response to anything he didn't like, is this how babies always feel?
His anger quickly turned into humiliation as he understood, why he was getting undressed. He had pooped in his expensive baby clothes. He bit down his humiliation as he allowed the maid to wash his bum and change his clothes. He could almost hear the deity who'd sent him here laughing.
He was put onto his mother's bed as good as new. As a matter of fact, he was indeed new, just a few days old. even an idiot would know that he was new. He had once been a powerful man, feared and respected. Now, here he was, reduced to a whimpering infant who couldn't even control his own bowels.
He decided that he needed to do something in order to learn the language as quickly as possible. After all, how could he conquer the world without even being able to order a steampunk cheese pizza?
Just then his mother ordered the maid standing beside her something and the maid hurried out. "Good job, Mom! You knew I wanted to be alone with you." Judge cheered for his mother, though he couldn't understand what she said, he still cheered for her.
Let's say what he did was a mistake of misunderstanding, the maid came back. This time, with something square and golden in her arms. Of course, why wouldn't it be golden? He never once thought in his life that he was going to get tired of seeing gold.
Judge watched in growing disbelief as his mother took the golden object and opened it. "A golden book? Seriously? What kind of family spends this much on a children's book? How rich are we?" Judge mused. All of his amazement from seeing all of the gold was gone and was replaced with disbelief.
He had thought it might be some kind of heirloom, a treasure passed down through generations. But no, it was just a storybook. And a very shiny one at that.
Even the pages were made of gold, He tried to imagine the kind of person who would think, "Hey, let's make a children's book out of gold!" and failed miserably. He had clearly underestimated his family's 'Passion' for extravagance.
His mother started to read the book, but all he heard was a lullaby that was making his head dizzy, like he just had a dozen of sleeping pills— however, this was not unhealthy. Though he did not understand the language, he understood that his mother was using ether to put him to sleep, but he didn't hate the idea as the lullaby was just too sweet, like an opera where the money was worth your time.
Just then, the golden ornate door burst open, making his tiny heart almost jump out to see the intruder, but his ribs ensured its secure placement. A red-haired man stood at the room's entrance, his mother happily said something to the intruder.
But this was anything but happy, the guy was covered in blood and had a sword on his waist. And he even had two horns on his head. It was different from the maids, this one came in red.
As the figure got closer, judge's initial suspicions turned to dust as he understood the figure—it was his father. But why was he covered in blood? Also, what's up with the sword?
The answer would have to wait, but one thing was certain: life in this family was going to be anything but boring.