[ PROLOGUE: HOUSE BOGGS OF CRACKCLAW POINT; THE HEIR OF THE HOUSE ]
[ 'I... I really did die, huh.' ]
Lloyd thought to himself as he tries to remember the way he died. Something that might sound dumb to nother, but was noble at the very least. He was killed in a suicide bombing; he wasn't the perpetrator, but is the reluctant hero in the story.
He remembered how some skinny idiot was screaming in the park where there was an event going on. He, a naturally curious college boy, went and personally saw the short mayor of his city talk about the new policies being implemented. Then, chaos erupted as someone revealed they had a bomb strapped under their trench coat.
Not wanting the guy to kill others. Any senior citizens, public officials, chuldren, or even students like him. Lloyd's instinct kicked in as he made a ninja-like move, doing the heroic thing. Being the closest to the weirdo, he jumped the guy and pinned him to the ground, long enough to at the very least give time to others to run away.
But sadly not enough time for him to do the exact same thing. As the countdown ultimately hit zero, New Year sadly came two months early for him, as the said bomb exploded point blank range. Boom!
[ 'Where even am I? I can't see a thing.' ]
It had been months since then, probably years. But what he does know is that he didn't feel any pain at all in the subsequent bombing. Instead, he felt darkness cover his vision as he then fell into an abyss for what felt like eternity.
The only thing he had was his mind. He now doesn't have a body to feel or control, a sense of taste, a sense of smell, not even a sense of sight; he was sure he wasn't seeing darkness but rather what blind people see. But in once having vision for years, he filled in the blanks and thought of it as darkness to some extent instead.
That doesn't sound right; it doesn't sound normal at all. Nothing had been going normal to Lloyd. As someone who played around with his faith, he knew he'd be going to Hell after death. But this place wasn't the lava-filled place he expected where he'd suffer for eternity.
Nor the stone-cold Hell written about by some poet in 1321 AD— Dante Alighieri. No, instead, Hell to him, or this place is tested and proven to be nothing but a lonely place, one without God. Something that was devoid of life, form, or even either physical or spiritual substance, except for sounds that Lloyd would occasionally hear from time to time all around him.
Those gruff, yet sometimes soothing noises, from different sources most probably, were the only reason he had never gone insane, even after being in the darkness for so long. As a natural gossipy boy, he would sometimes listen closely and try to decipher what the noises meant.
[ 'I still don't know what those noises actually mean.' ]
Except for some, like "mama" and "dada," and some basic words that he knew. Syllables that were basic and spoken in any and all languages. But no matter what he did, he couldn't fully understand every single bit of shit that was spoken, especially with the noise being so far away.
He found his peace in this darkness. Even though he couldn't sleep, he couldn't eat, he couldn't drink. He couldn't feel a thing, not a single thing. Even though that was happening to him, he didn't complain. To him, this was better than suffering in either the fiery sea of Hell or the other interpretation of Hell, which was cold.
Either way, this worked well for him. As he lived life as a sinner, died like an idiot... He meant, like a saint, or an evildoer that did something good for once. Even though this wasn't Purgatory, it felt all right to him... Or so he thought.
[ 'Why the fuck is my consciousness wildly shaking?' ]
[ 'Why the fuck are the noises outside so loud?!' ]
[ 'WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT LIGHT?!' ]
He felt his whole being being pushed out of something. As the darkness then was conquered the more he got... pushed(?) none the wiser of what exactly was going on to him, Lloyd was both confused and excited as he felt something new. The voices, which sounded like... English, in his ear, got closer and closer.
The more he listened, the more he could hear a lady groaning behind him, an older lady and many others encouraging her with words like: "keep pushing," "the babe is almost there," "my Lady, don't worry!" In hearing those familiar yet unfamiliar words again after what felt like eternity, Lloyd finally realized where he had been all the time, as he cried out;
[ 'S-shit, am I in a goddamn womb?!' ]
...
[ "WEEEEH!" ]
[ "I got the baby, my Lady, I got the babe!" ]
Bellinda, the Midwife, had never before encountered such a unique situation. Usually childbirth is a painful process that takes either half an hour at best or an hour at worst. In some weird cases, it would take more than an hour, but that was rare.
In all her life working as a Midwife, she had never before encountered such a quick and efficient birthing process, only going about for a quarter of an hour at the very best. Possibly shorter than that. She glanced at the other Midwives and Helpers beside her, and those that understood the situation widened their eyes in disbelief.
[ "The babe is blessed by the Seven!" ]
[ "It's a young Lord, my Lady! A boy!" ]
[ "Lady Boggs has fallen asleep. Please, we must take care of the future Lord." ]
About to cut off the umbilical cord, the other Midwife, Margarette, wasn't able to do so, as the scissors in her hand became unsteady due to the abruptness of the door getting kicked open by the Seven knows what. So Bellinda turned, ready to criticize and bombard the barbarian with insults.
[ BANG ]
But the words caught inside her throat as the old seasoned Midwife realized who it was that rudely entered the room. All eyes landed on the same sweating, gruff, dirt-covered man— all of the conscious people inside the room, aside from the wailing unnamed babe, recognized the man, as he was after all their employer.
And he was the Father of the baby that had been born, Husband of the Lady. He was Lord Mortimer of House Boggs of Crackclaw Point; unrelated to the other House Boggs. At the moment, he looked undignified due to him rushing from wherever he came from. His worried, pained, panicked expression turned soft as his eyes then landed on the crying baby in the hands of the main Midwife. A crack in his voice.
[ "My... baby...?" ]
[ "It's a boy, my Lord, congratulations." ]
[ "A-and my wife?! I-I need to know—?" ]
[ "Merely resting, my Lord. She is all right. Please do not panic." ]
There was often a class divide between Nobles and the Common People. Rude language or cutting off a Lord's language would usually result in punishment at best or beheading at worst. But Bellinda never feared such things because she was wise and respected, and also because she helped give birth to this worrisome Lord.
She knew well his mannerisms, and she knew that he much rather preferred it blunt than engaging in wordplay. As this Lord was a softie when it came to family.
[ "Thank... the Gods!" ]
In hearing those words, Lord Boggs finally calmed down as he collapsed on the ground. The weight around his shoulders finally disappeared.
It seemed they weren't needed at all, as Bellinda merely glanced at the others while holding the babe in her hand. The umbilical cord was finally cut when she ordered the other Midwives to do so.
In hearing the baby cry louder and louder, seemingly without a pause, Bellinda became even more amazed as she approached the tired Lord on the floor.
[ "The young Lord is gifted by the Gods, Mortimer. Do you want to hold him?" ]
[ "I-I... can I?" ]
[ "Don't think about it too much; you are, of course, his father. You are more than worthy to hold your baby." ]
Bellinda knew the worries visible in the face of the old, tired Lord. He was a weird one, as he saw himself unworthy of anything. "Because of the blood in his hands," he said, "he could never be worthy to hold anything..."
That all sounded rubbish to her ears, so she didn't care and forcefully gave the small baby to him after a few seconds of the Lord wiping his hands on his clothes to make sure they weren't dirty.
[ "My... son! I-I have a strong son!" ]
...
[ 'SHIT!' ]
Lloyd felt a headache whenever he heard someone speak. He could understand due to it being in English, albeit with a little difficulty as he hadn't heard someone else speak it for eight or nine months, if he weren't wrong.
All the cursing inside his head came out of his newly-born mouth as crying, a wail so loud that it made anyone who heard it happy... probably. He and about 99% of people on Earth love babies, so who wouldn't?
With all his might and power, he tried to speak in English again, this time not with thoughts, but instead using his mouth. But he couldn't, as everything came out as wailing. So he tried the next best thing and reached out using his hands.
He also couldn't do that, except for opening and closing them. So he tried the next best thing and opened his eyes. Although difficult, even more difficult than talking to an extremely attractive girl, he was able to do so with much difficulty.
[ 'FINALLY!' ]
[ 'WHY IS EVERYTHING DEPRESSING?!' ]
Which he regretted instantly, as everything was in a hazy gray color. Except for some random, rare, probably colorful shade that was mostly gray in his eyes, he couldn't see a thing, but enough to distinguish what was what, which-is-which.
Even though he couldn't look properly, he could see a gigantic face of someone staring down at him, the man's eyes being distinguishable enough for him to confirm that it was, after all, a person. A giant!
He thought that was already surprising, but what came next was even more surprising. Despite his poor vision, there suddenly appeared something that changed all of it. Instead, it was in a color that Lloyd recognized aside from the depressing grey: a dark green panel that blocked his vision.
[ DING ]
[ WELCOME PLAYER! ]
[ CONGRATULATIONS ON RECEIVING THE ULTIMATE SYSTEM! ]
A... System? He stopped cursing inside his head; in turn, he stopped crying loudly. Instead, he became happy in reading the panel that appeared in front of him, causing him to laugh as he realized that he was probably a novel protagonist.
...
[ "Bellinda, does the baby hate me?" ]
[ "Absolutely not, my Lord." ]
[ "But why is he crying even louder when I held him?" ]
[ "That is how newly-born babies express their emotions, my Lord. He is, on the contrary, actually happy." ]
[ "Look, my Lord. The young Lord is looking at you, smiling as he does so." ]
The Lord, known for his brutality and calculative mind, someone who was respected and feared in the Crownlands, could be seen panicking because of a baby that wasn't even a day old yet, which was extremely amusing to Bellinda.
[ "What would the young Lord's name be?" ]
[ "I-I... I'll name him after my great-grandfather who brought great honor to our house. He'll be named Lloyd II Boggs, from Crackclaw Point, Heir of the House!" ]
[ "Great decision, my Lord." ]
...
[ 'FUCK NO!' ]
[ 'NOT THAT NAME AGAIN!' ]
The happy giggling of the young Lord turned to cries again, which the others seemed to not notice as they instead congratulated the Lord. His protests fell on deaf ears due to it being unintelligible and not understandable to anyone.
[ 'NOOOOOO!' ]
[ ULTIMATE SYSTEM DOWNLOADED! ]
[ 'YESSSSSS!' ]
The cries then turned to giggling again when his eyes landed on the System panel that appeared from thin air.
[ ——— ] [ ——— ] [ ——— ] [ ——— ]
[ 07/04/2025 ]
[ 07/05/2025 ]
[ AN: This is primarily inspired by The Greatest Estate Developer and Game of Thrones: House Dayne. The latter blue balled me, so here, I'm writing about it even though I don't know a thing about GOT ]