The Black Iron Glory
Dawn

Chapter 6

Dawn

Claude lived in the attic while his parents, younger brothers and sisters, lived on the second floor. His older brother Arbeit Ferd on the other hand stayed on the first floor. There was a living room and study room on that floor, but the study room was only for her father and elder brother to use and she had to have one of their permits before she could enter.

There are bathrooms and toilets on the first and second floors. Claude usually went to the first floor because there were too many people living on the third floor.

When he reached the first floor, he saw Arbeit coming out of the restroom while stroking his chin in satisfaction. It seemed that he had just shaved and was quite satisfied with the result.

"Morning, Arbeit," said Claude.

Arbeit simply glanced at him and hummed his answer before heading down.

Claude did not mind and went to clean the restroom.

Claude did not have a good relationship with his older brother. Especially, it was because Arbeit did not consider it high. In terms of studies, Arbeit was the pride and happiness of their father. She has graduated with first place from the academic school at the Whitestag City national high school and is recommended to be the only private secretary of the national house, Sir Yarisla Fux.

( Author's note: The lord is not a formal noble title, but only a knight or baronetcy honorary title usually granted to citizens who contribute to the kingdom, but not enough to be granted an honorary noble title. All members of the national house were granted Knight baroneties and baronets were also known as pseudo nobles because most people who were given noble titles by kings or queens were chosen from them.)

In addition, Arbeit has always considered himself the heir to the Ferd family and has no close ties to his three siblings. Perhaps in the eyes of the future head of the household, his brothers were rivals for the assets he would inherit and become a burden for the household.

In some ways, Arbeit perfectly inherited Morssen's selfish and petty personality, but he was young and did not know how to hide it well. Unlike his father, who could disguise his selfishness and pettiness due to having great vision and intelligence, Arbeit also did not learn about the basic concepts of investing; he did not; that good fish can only be caught with decent bait.

Perhaps, the former owner of the body felt a sense of fear towards his elder brother as a result of the difference in their academic abilities. Claude is currently on the other hand, feeling nothing for his siblings and instead thanking them for their distant relationship. That prevented his identity as a transmigrator from being exposed, a scenario he feared most.

Given how busy Morssen was, he never paid much attention to his second son, even at the time he fell seriously ill. In fact, he even burst out in anger when Claude fell ill and scolded him loudly. His mother, on the other hand, spoiled him a lot. But he still considers Claude's strange behavior and speech as a symptom of his illness. Because he was so attentive to Claude's younger siblings, he ignored the oddity as Claude recovered. As for his two younger siblings, they were still young and still did not realize what it was. So, Claude's performance as a transmigrator was still decent in that regard.

The ground floor of the building is where the kitchen and dining room are located. Claude saw his father and older brother sitting beside the table. Her 12-year-old sister, Angelina, brought their mother's cooked food from the kitchen. Arbeit even told him to bring salt and butter to him.

"Good morning, father," said Claude.

Morssen put down a copy of the Whitestag Dawn Edition and furrowed his brows at Claude, before slightly nodding. After that, he took out a plate of eggs and sprinkled salt on it before he started to enjoy his meal.

Arbeit picked up the newspaper his father had placed on the table and began to read as he spread butter over his bread.

The Whitestag Dawn Edition is a newspaper consolidated by the wealthy tycoons of the city. They hope their publications can replicate all three in the prefectural capital to give them a profit and a good reputation. Unfortunately, although there are more than 60 thousand permanent residents in Whitestag City, only about a thousand people subscribe to the paper, which is enough to cover the bottom line of publications.

And so, the publication of the newspaper that had been going on for three years remained on the brink. To save costs, publishers retired many of their journalists and editors and used newspapers from the prefectural capital as news sources. As such, most of what was reported in it was old news from the Baromiss newspaper, with only one local news page.

It said the investors were looking for people to buy their shares despite the losses. Although they asked Morssen if he was interested, he still considered whether he should buy it.

Claude enters the kitchen and sees his sister Angelina taking milk with a copper spoon from a copper pot to put in a glass bottle.

"Let me do it, Anna," Claude said as he lifted the pot to pour milk into the bottle, "Where's mom?"

"Bloweyk made a ruckus in bed and he calmed her down" Angelina said.

Bloweyk is the youngest child in the family, who is only six years old. Morssen himself is nearing the age of 50, which means that his wife, Madam Ferd, has given birth to the child at the dangerous age of 40. With such a risky delivery, she was considered lucky enough to survive. That's why both Ferds loved their youngest child so much and spoiled him so much. He is the little boss of the family and gets whatever he wants.

"alright. Anna, go eat. You have to go to school as well after you finish breakfast" Claude said before he brought a glass bottle of milk to the dinner table.

"Pour full for me," Arbeit said as he pointed at the glass in front of him.

"You have hands, right?" Claude did not care about her and stopped the little girl from doing so. He pulled her into his chair and said, "Disregard her. He really thought he was the young master of this family. You are his sister and not his servant. He has no right to rule you like this."

"What did you say?" snapped Arbeit while putting the newspaper and bread in his hand.

"You didn't hear what I said? It's a pity that you became deaf at a very young age. I'm really wondering how you even run your duties as Sir Fux's personal secretary. Perhaps you should check his ears by the priests of the moon temple. "

Claude stared back fearlessly as his hands continued to butter the bread nonstop.

Angrily, Arbeit stood up ferociously. "You ... you .. you"

"You what? Oh, are you standing up to argue with me? I truly admire your courage," Claude sneered without restraint.

Ever since the transmigration, Claude has tried his best to keep the guise of an obedient child, much to the surprise of his parents, who think that their son has turned a new leaf after illness. His relationship with his two younger siblings has increased even more than before. Only their eldest son, Arbeit, who continues to antagonize Claude, chooses everything he feels he can and never agrees with him about anything.

There was a time when Claude wanted to get some books to read from the study room when their parents were not home. However, Arbeit stubbornly refused to let her in. In the end, Angelina speaks out against Arbeit's behavior, causing him to be slapped for anger caused by embarrassment.

Seeing his sister being given a slap, Claude who was blinded with anger. Although he was still recovering, he jumped up and grappled with the Arbeit. The ages of the two of them were four years apart and Arbeit was a head taller than Claude, but the latter seemed to be much stronger. Claude initially thought he would be beaten, but he didn't think that Arbeit was all barking and not biting and couldn't take care of himself once Claude approached. After receiving several heavy blows, Arbeit staggered onto a nearby sofa while calling for help before curling up into a ball and letting Claude take his way with him.

Apparently, the former owner of the body was talented enough to fight. Her memories were full of scenes of her fighting with other children. The more the transmigrator was hit, the better she felt, and she ended up beating her older brother into a bloated lump of meat.

Although he was scolded by his parents after the incident, he had no longer feared the Arbeit since then. Instead, he felt a sense of superiority over him. From that day onward, whenever they argued about something, Claude would involuntarily show his fist. 'If I can't beat you with words, my fist must do', that's what it seems to say.

And every time that happens, Arbeit will make a strategic retreat. She was traumatized by the beating her brother gave her and asking for her parents' intervention would not be embarrassing. As usual, Arbeit carefully sat back down. "I won't hold it against a savage like you."

Morssen coughed twice as he could no longer ignore the scene in front of him. It was not the first time his eldest son had come into conflict with his second son. Although he had disciplined them before, nothing had changed. No matter what the occasion was, as long as the two brothers were together, they would start fighting for the longest in ten minutes.

"Your mother cooked too many eggs today" said Morssen, pretending not to know about the argument the brothers had just made, "Claude, pour me a glass of milk."

Claude obediently lifted the glass jar and filled his father's glass full of milk. He then took the initiative to ask, "Do you want to add honey to it, Dad?"

"no need. Milk tastes best after it is heated. Adding honey will make it too sweet and bad for the teeth" Morssen said.

“I want honey.” The little girl did not seem to mind the damage that honey can bring to one's teeth.

"Remember to gargle after breakfast. Dad's right. Candy is not good for her teeth" Claude said, adding two tablespoons of honey to her milk.

Morssen slightly shook his head. Ever since his son fell ill, it was as if he had turned into a completely different person. Not only did his grades improve, he also often read at home and never played around with his friends like in the past. Also, he pampered his younger siblings greatly. The only bad thing is the deterioration of his relationship with Arbeit. He couldn't wait to pounce on his older brother and teach him another lesson.

"Arbeit, your brother is right. You have hands and limbs, so do things that you can do yourself. Don't wait to be served by others," Morssen reprimanded at a shocking and rare moment, "While your brother's worth can't be compared to yours, at least he was a good older brother who took care of his younger brother rather than treating him like a servant. "

Morssen always regarded his eldest son as his pride and joy having inherited most of his intelligence, as evidenced by his good grades. Ever since she became Sir Fux's personal secretary, she performed very well and was very relied upon by him. House members praised Arbeit's talent before Morssen on several occasions.

However, he soon realized that his eldest son was rather petty and materialistic. His relationship with his three siblings is not so good either. Although Morssen had reminded Arbeit of it several times, it seemed clear that he had not followed his advice. Recently, the dispute between him and his brother Claude was even exacerbated.

And the deeper their hostility became, the more Claude tried to provoke him. Claude was looking for an opportunity to give Arbeit another blow like before and it was something that even Morssen could not do anything about.