Chapter 2
Recap from where we left off: Rudeus realizes that he's been reborn in a fantasy world and he's still a baby. Riveting story telling, I know.
Without further ado, let’s open the chapter.
Lilia used to be a royal handmaiden for the Asura Palace
harem. In addition to her usual duties as a lady-in-waiting, the role also called for her to act as a guardswoman. She’d been expected to take up arms and come to her master’s defense should the need arise. She was devoted to her duties, and carried out her job as handmaiden without flaw or fail.
Man, this alone sounds like a far more interesting plot than what we have.
It would be great if the author could have organically introduced Lilia’s backstory, whether it be via conversing with Rudy’s parents or maybe she just trauma dumps onto him.
When it came to her role as a fighter, however, her skill with a sword was merely adequate at best. As a result, Lilia found herself wholly outmatched when an assassin struck at the newborn princess, her opponent’s dagger catching her in the leg. The blade had been coated with poison, the sort meant to kill even a member of the royal family, a troublesome toxin that could not be cured by purifying magic.
Cool story, but that should be reserved for another book, no?
Thanks to the wound being promptly tended to by Healing magic, and a doctor’s attempts at neutralizing the poison, Lilia had managed to survive, but there were lingering aftereffects. They didn’t pose an impediment to her daily life, but she could no longer run at any real speed, her gait reduced to a clumsy stagger.Lilia’s life as a warrior had come to an end. The palace promptly discharged her from her position. Lilia understood why perfectly well. It only made sense to lose a job she was no longer able to perform. Although this left her unable to pay even her basic living expenses, given her position in the court, she considered herself lucky not to have been executed in secret. And so, Lilia left the capital.
You're
still going with this exposition dump? And why would the court execute her for being terrible at her job so bad that she got hurt? Do they live in a dystopian kingdom that has a ruler who disregards his subjects
that much?
Let’s see if this becomes relevant to the plot of this book at all.
The mastermind behind the princess’s assassination attempt was still to be found. As someone familiar with the palace harem’s inner workings, Lilia was well aware that she was a likely target. Or perhaps—had the palace set her free to lure out whoever was behind this plot? When she’d been brought into the court, she’d been curious why they’d taken on a lowborn woman such as herself. Perhaps they wanted to hire a simple maid who could easily be disposed of.
That kind of answered my earlier question, but not to my satisfaction. Also, it’s now been a full page of nothing but
exposition. I’m at the point where I am wondering whether I'm reading a book or a fucking wikia page due to the way this information is being shoved down our throats.
For the sake of your time and my sanity I’ll sum up the next four pages: Lilia lives in some place called Fittoa and eventually finds a job posting in Bueno village that piques her interest. She is interested because she previously knew Paul (Rudy’s dad) and figured it'd be a great idea to work for him. He's also her former master’s top student or some shit like that.
But once he was born, the child did not cry. Lilia broke into a cold sweat. The infant’s face was expressionless, his nose and mouth having expelled amniotic fluid, and he made no sound. For a moment, he looked like he might have been stillborn. But when Lilia reached out, she could feel the baby’s warm pulse and the movements of his breathing. Still, he did not cry. Lilia remembered something she’d heard from one of the handmaidens who’d taught her: Children who didn’t cry at birth tended to have a host of abnormalities. At that very instant, however, her thoughts were interrupted.
“Ahh! Waah!”
The baby turned his face toward Lilia, his expression slack,
burbling random sounds. Relief washed over Lilia.
And we are still continuing with more exposition dumps. But this time, its just the birth scene from the last chapter told in a different point of view.
The child was given the name Rudeus, and what an unsettling child he was.
I wonder what gave that away.
once he was born, the child did not cry. Lilia broke into a cold sweat. The infant’s face was expressionless, his nose and mouth having expelled amniotic fluid, and he made no sound. For a moment, he looked like he might have been stillborn. But when Lilia reached out, she could feel the baby’s warm pulse and the movements of his breathing.Still, he did not cry. Lilia remembered something she’d heard from one of the handmaidens who’d taught her: Children who didn’t cry at birth tended to have a host of abnormalities. At that very instant, however, her thoughts were interrupted. “Ahh! Waah!”The baby turned his face toward Lilia, his expression slack, burbling random sounds. Relief washed over Lilia. She didn’t quite know why, but it seemed like things were going
to be okay.
Is there a reason this couldn't have been covered in the previous chapter? We are only in the second chapter of this peak fiction story, and already getting a recap via exposition?
The child was given the name Rudeus, and what an unsettling child he was. He never cried, and never made a fuss. It might just have been that he was physically frail, but that notion was soon proven false. Once Rudeus learned to crawl, he began to make his way anywhere and everywhere around the house—the kitchen, the back door, the supply shed, the cleaning closet, the fireplace, and so on. Sometimes, somehow, he even made his way to the second floor. As soon as anyone took their eyes off him, he was gone.
I could have sworn this was also established in the previous chapter. This chapter is starting to feel pointless aside from name dropping the maid and giving us several pages of lore dump.
Rudeus was always smiling. Whether he was in the kitchen staring at vegetables, or at the flickering of a candle in its holder, or at unwashed undergarments, he was always burbling under his breath, chuckling as an unsettling grin rose to his face. It was the kind of grin that viscerally repulsed Lilia. It reminded her of the smiles she’d gotten from a particular cabinet minister as she made her way between the harem and the royal palace in the past. He was a bald man, his smooth head gleaming in the sunlight and his corpulent belly wobbling as he walked. Rudeus’s smile
resembled the grin on the minister’s face when he eyed Lilia’s chest. A smile like that, coming from a mere baby.
This was all I pictured as I read that paragraph. Can't tell if that makes it better or worse.
What happened when Lilia picked Rudeus up was particularly worrisome. His nostrils flared, the corners of his mouth drew up, and he’d start panting and bury his face against her bosom. His throat would twitch as he made weird, gleeful little giggles. It was enough to send a chill down Lilia’s spine, almost to the point where she wanted to reflexively hurl the boy to the floor. The child showed absolutely no affection. That smile of his was, quite simply, creepy…the same smile as that cabinet minister, who was rumored to have purchased a number of young women as slaves. And this was an infant, smiling like that. Nothing could be more unsettling. Lilia felt she was bodily at risk from a baby. She could only wonder why this child was so strange.
I'm
certain that's there's a million ways that this information could have been conveyed to the reader without the lore dump. You could
show us that Lilia finds the child unsettling through a variety of things… like body language and dialogue. Or she could mention it to Zenith or Paul.
Or maybe have a scene where Lilia’s nervousness is noticed by Zenith and she (Zenith) inquires as to what the problem is. Then Lilia could explain why she's in a state of unease, and then Zenith could give her a gentle reminder that Rudy is only a baby and cannot harm her. Maybe have it end on a wholesome note, with Zenith saying that she doesn't blame Lilia for finding Rudy’s exaggerated expressions uncanny.
At least it would feel like
something is happening in the story.
And so, Lilia lived in fear for the first year or so. At some point, however, Rudeus’s ever-unpredictable behavior changed. Instead of disappearing and reappearing at random, he stayed holed up in Paul’s study in one corner of the second floor. Well, perhaps ‘study’ was a generous word for a simple room that housed a few books. Rudeus would shut himself in there and not come out. One day, Lilia took a quick peek and there he was, staring fixedly at a book and muttering to himself. What he was saying didn’t sound like words. Not words from the common language on the Central Continent, at least. Besides, he was too young to be talking already, and certainly nobody had taught him to read. Which meant the boy was just looking at the books—not reading them—while making random sounds.
Its getting repetitive of me to point out that this chapter is pretty much an exposition dump. But it fucking is. Unlike most fantasy books, where the lore dump at least gives us some lore, this is one is just a lot of showing and not telling.
For it to be anything else would just be weird. Even so, Rudeus sounded like he was speaking with an actual,
meaningful cadence for some reason, and it looked like he
understood the content of the book he was looking at. That’s so strange, Lilia thought as she watched secretively through the crack in the door. And yet, she strangely felt none of her usual revulsion toward him. Ever since the boy had taken to hiding away in the study, his hard-to-define, unsettling oddness had abated a fair bit. Oh, he’d still occasionally laugh or smile creepily, sure, but Lilia didn’t get chills whenever she held him anymore. He had stopped burying his face in her chest and panting. Why had she been so unsettled by him, anyway? In recent days, she’d gotten a sense of earnestness and diligence from him that she was loath to interfere with.
Thank fuck this chapter is almost over because I'm not sure how much of this I am in the mood to deal with for the day.
Lilia spoke with Zenith about it, and she’d apparently gotten the same impression. From that point on, Lilia figured, it was best to leave the boy be.
At least the author told us that happened.
In the end, Lilia decided to leave well enough alone. Any
interference might cause the boy to revert to the way he’d been before.
It’s fitting that the chapter ended on a redundant sentence, because it fits.
That's all for chapter 2. We have nine more chapters of this to go through. Maybe my expectations will be subverted and it'll tell an interesting story from here on out. My hopes aren't that high, though.
Until next time.
