Okay.
He could do this.
His mother was now the one to summon him. He gulped as he stood on the other side of his bedroom door, awaiting the arrival of his mother. He had some idea of what to expect and was already dreading the hardship of it. How he longed to be down again. Preferably for a few day. He at least wanted the expected neglect from his family that would allow him the chance to explore the new title his system had given him. He tried to resist. Something that was such an anomaly that it resulted in multiple servants trying to antagonize him out of bed.
Each one tried a different method. When the first servant, a butler had tried to force him out of bed with his usual barbs and insults, Illeuid just ignored him. When the second, a younger maid who may have been a recent survivor of his father's academy, tried to drag him out of the bed he just went limp. Once they all realized they could not force him to obey as they used to be able to a short while ago, they left him to his own devices. At least that was the impression they gave. He knew that they could only do so much to enforce him to follow their whims. They had even tried to use the threat of him facing his father's wrath. It did not work. They had no way of bringing the threat to fruition and none of them were suicidal enough to risk suffering from the head of Veilkerhurst's wrath.
"Your mother will be coming to check up on your health, young master as it is so troubling that her beloved youngest feels too ill to meet with her.." One of the servants told him after a few hours of him pouting. And with those words, Illeuid knew that his small fit of rebellion was over.
Illeuid was fairly certain that he would get a conniption if he had to face any of his mother's trials again. He had a much better idea of what she expected of her children. In his previous lives, she found value in pitting her kids against each other, testing their intellect to see who would be the best at the resolving the dangerous challenges. Being physically strong was important when it came to defending their Veilkerhurst family name and subduing their enemies. But brute strength was not their only means of survival. Mother was the one to personally oversee how each of the Veilkerhurst children would apply their intelligence when it came to stomping out a rebellion. Anyone could wipe out a rebellious village. If one could find a way to avoid destroying all of those extra resources, that was invaluable.
They had more than enough wealth to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. But that is what usually led to the downfall of powerful families of the pas. By not being able to keep tabs of the outside world, it was easy for those past nobles to be overpowered and destroyed. So Mother had to make sure that one could nurture and refine their intelligence to outsmart those who wished their downfall. A body can be broken. The mind could be nurtured. This was how she would weed out the intellectually weak.
In the beginning, Illeuid was happy to learn about this. As he was weaker than his brother, but not as intellectual as his sister, he figured that maybe he could use more modern knowledge to help progress the family. It may not get him to the top but maybe it could place him in the middle. He knew that the world was one that was inspired or was at least an alternate version of the late 1600s. His knowledge of the modern world would help them advance faster.
At least it would if it were not for the fact that his mother just did not think that it was worth listening to anyone who failed her challenges. Especially the outlandish ideas of a foolish child.
He failed in his fist lifetime gaining control in a small district in the outskirts of their land. He had been overpowered by more experienced commoners who were adept in magic. They would have not been much of a challenge for his siblings, but they found it to be a waste of time. It was something simple for the youngest. Not to prove himself. He just could not be so weak that he could not handle this insurrection. Then he was defeated by the insurrectionists. He had no mode of transportation as the rebels had commandeered his carriage. His weaker magic was easily sealed by a spell. He could barely stand up by the time Brakus and Priscilla had shown up, wondering why he was taking so long to squash a few insects. They arrived on the scene through a teleportation portal, Brakus 's sword already drawn; Priscilla . Then they saw the state the youngest was in.
Brakus had begun to laugh so hard he could barely hold himself up. Priscilla's upper lip curled in disgust at his pathetic state. She shook her head, promptly ignoring him as she released an onslaught of spells on the encroaching crowd, their screams filling the air as they scattered. Illeuid could only watch, his vision fading in and out as his siblings annihilated all of the dissenters. In no time they had cleaned up the every last bit of the rebellion. They gave order to the soldiers who had accompanied them in cleaning up the corpses and searching the scorched building for survivors.
Nobody paid attention to Illeuid at all.
After all was said and done, he had to find his way home. His weakened state addled his mind and made it impossible for him to recall a transportation spell. Giving up, he just cleaned himself up the best he could, using his silk clothing as temporary bandages as he scavenged for a disguise. Being outside of his father's estate made him vulnerable to further attacks. He did the equivalent of hitchhiking his way back home. His family had him wait for hours outside of the gate before he was given permission back home. Their harsh, silent judgement made him feel a shame so deep that he thought it would have been better if he had just allowed himself to die at the destroyed village. This was before he was subjected to the torture of his multiple rebirths.
This was when Mother found him not worth wasting her attention on.
He tried so hard to make it up to the family, especially to her. He had been used to being the apple of his first birth mother's eyes. She may had been hardened by the challenges of being a single parent, but she spoiled her last baby to the best of her ability. Maybe it was due to the loss of that affection that he tried to recreate it with this mother. When he was reborn for a second time and accepted that he would never see his first mther ever again, he made it his goal to cater to her wants. He was used to not having a father so he never fought for his attention. He was a mama's boy and had always had his mother's love. It took way too long for him to accept that he would never have her love. He began to learn by his third time regression and was resign by his tenth. His mother did not want him.
So what did she want with him now?
The door opened slowly. He scrambled back. Mother was not the type to strike out at her children. That was not how she got them. Reina was surprised by his response. Mentally she made the comparison of the boy who stood in front of her now to the one who existed a month ago. She was used to bracing herself to tolerate his hugs that she felt a bit of a remiss at his sudden change. She smiled at her youngest, almost chuckling by his suspicious look.
"Well now," she said to the cautious boy. "We must be on our way."
Illeuid gulped. He took his mother's still hand and let her lead him out of his room.