Rise of Shaun Rodriquez, the Baron's Illegitimate Son

Chapter 4: Adjusting to the New World (3)

[I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you into trouble.]

Shaun sighed. "That's enough. I get it. I don't want to hear you whining."

This isn't what he expected after waking up in another world with two sets of memories. It felt odd to be two years younger. He had been twenty when he died. Well, he had almost been twenty one. Now he was eighteen again. The idea made him grimace, as he didn't have any fond memories of that age. If he had to pick an age, he would rather be twenty one or twenty two despite never reaching either age.

[Well, I heard what your father said. He wanted you to help prepare gifts that are supposed to be sent to the heroes.]

"I see. The nobility want to butter up the heroes," Shaun said.

That made sense. Since the heroes were so important, it meant that they needed to do whatever they could to earn their favor. The heroes were supposed to be stronger than the average human, so getting on their bad side would be a bad idea. Shaun considered purposely messing up to turn his family into a joke. It would be great to see them kicked down a notch and become a running joke among the elite.

It wasn't like it would affect him that much. He couldn't be looked down any further than he already was. However, the beating he would get wouldn't be worth it. Honestly, he was a bit surprised that his father would even ask him to help with such an important event. It would have been one thing if he was told to pack the gifts. It was another to tell him to prepare them.

This wouldn't be the first time he was forced to do servant work. He couldn't count the number of times he had been forced to clean and fetch things. Of course it would never be in public where it would negatively affect the family. Or at least it wouldn't be presented as servant work. They would make it sound like a request when it was actually a demand.

In any case, his father should want him to keep out of the situation so he wouldn't somehow ruin their reputation. It should be his siblings determining the gifts that should be presented. The whole thing didn't make any sense, but he decided not to think too hard about it. Trying to make sense of their thoughts was pointless.

[The user doesn't seem to have positive feelings towards his family.]

He snorted. That was an understatement. In his eyes, they were all trash. Even his deceased mother was garbage, from what he remembered. She had crawled into the baron's bed, hoping for a chance to elevate her status. Of course, her plan failed horribly. She was treated poorly by everyone and cursed him as she died giving birth to him. She didn't deserve to be called his mother.

There was only one mother and father in his heart, and they certainly weren't the ones in his current life. Thinking about them made his heart ache. He hadn't had the heart to tell his parents that he was being bullied by the rich kids at the college. Shaun hadn't wanted to worry them and thought he could deal with it on his own, but he died in the end. He couldn't imagine what they must have felt after finding out about his death.

His hands curled into fists as his face darkened. It wasn't fair. While his bullies got away scott free, his parents would have to bury him. If only there was a way for him to go back or at least have his final words with them. It would even be better if he could take revenge on them for killing him. Unfortunately, he didn't think he would ever get the chance.

If it was like all the webnovels he read, he would never be able to go back to his previous world. He had to let it go and focus on his current life, which meant figuring out what to get for the arriving heroes. Considering his situation, he couldn't really gift anything worthwhile. It seemed like his "father" was setting him up for failure. Sometimes he wondered if his so called family had anything better to do besides harassing him.

[Does the user need assistance?]

"No," he immediately said, unconsciously holding a hand to wave it off.

Shaun didn't want to take any chances of the system causing him bigger problems. It had already gotten him in trouble once today, and it was only morning. If it tried helping him again, he was afraid to see what would happen.

[Does the user not trust me?]

Did he need to answer? It had said it itself that it was a new system that had no idea what it was doing. While he was keeping his expectations low and wasn't expecting much, he wanted it to at least not cause him any trouble. 

[The system understands. It'll take the user's lead in such matters.]

He sighed. "Okay, please don't interfere unless I ask you to."

[Okay. The system promises.]

Staring at the message, Shaun felt as if he was a father lecturing his child. He was far too young to have a kid, much less an inanimate thing. With another sigh, he set off to find anything of value to pack for the heroes. As he expected, the servants weren't making it easy for him, constantly finding excuses to stay away or accidentally stopping him.

It was only after repeatedly telling them that he would report them to his father for trying to sabotage the family that they finally relented. Once everything was settled, he watched as his family prepared to leave for the castle to greet the heroes. As he watched from the sidelines, he planned to set off to make his own plans when the system popped up.

[The quest. The user must complete the quest.]

Shaun had forgotten about that. "What do you expect me to do? I'm not invited."

[The system has already provided the Invisibility Ring.]

After a moment, he asked, "How effective is the Invisibility Ring?"