Unreasonable wife.

Lee's stepparents didn't actually live in the palace. They had a nice, two story residence nearby, still on the palace's grounds.

Upon returning home they had a heated discussion on how to proceed, and weighed options ranging from telling the emperor the truth about his daughter, to running away and never returning. In the end, they decided that for now there was no actual threat and things could remain as they were.

Unsurprisingly Tess stated that she can't be in one room with that bitch, and from now on will focus on their son – something Alan also should do.

When he asked how exactly that was supposed to work and what his actual duties should look like, she threw a little tantrum about him not caring about her anymore now that she had a child, but before the nightfall was back to usual, playing the role of the perfect wife, except one with a really bad mouth.

From that day on Lee could finally work on his physical development. Since Tess didn't let him out of her sight, he had no choice, but to actually start talking. Of course, he tried to sound foolish at first and stretched out the learning period for a few months, but no matter how one looked, he was a brilliant child.

There was a condition though – nothing extraordinary happened when other people were present, but Tess kind of accepted it already in Bearlington city. Now, when Lee actually said in clear word she was not going to speak with anyone, but her, Tess gladly accepted it.

Her only worry was that her beloved son refused any contact with other children, but soon she persuaded herself that he was too smart for that. Of course, she kind of missed out from being able to show him off to other mothers, but she new that her looks of a lady in her late fifties, or early fifties if one was generous, fit more the status of a grandmother, or even a great-grandmother.

With days going by, Lee's exercises become more complex and confusing, but fortunately the stepmother stayed silent like a trained spy. Even when he, being barely over a year old child, asked her to teach him how to read and write, Tess gladly accepted the duty. Soon enough she got used to Lee's otherworldly comprehension abilities and nothing he did surprised her.

Meanwhile Alan spent most of the time in the palace, working. From what Lee overheard his stepfather created some kind of revolutionary approach to healing during warfare activities, whatever that meant, and was trying to implement the advanced system in a couple of cavalry's regiments.

Lee's idea of taking revenge within few years turned out to be completely unrealistic. While he did have occasional visits to the palace and from time to time strolled around the city hand in had with Tess, not only he had no opportunities, he was way too small and weak to go against the princess or the young nobles.

From the moment he grasped the basic concepts of writing, Lee spent large parts of his days going through father's notes. And, even though he couldn't understand most subjects, he learned quite a bit. Tess did try to push him into reading more fun stuff, according to her understanding, of course, but he was set on finding what herbs Alan fed to the horses in Maryport – the idea of making Victoria going berserk amused him to no end.

The problem was that every time he began to read descriptions of different plants and their properties, Lee's eyelids automatically shut and he woke up only after a healthy nap. The subject was so boring he decided to put it aside for now and focused on training his physical abilities. To practice general strength was way too early, but the flexibility and coordination one gained in the early childhood was irreplaceable.

His father, the one from the very first life, was a huge fan of the legendary Lee Jun Fan, also known as Bruce Lee. Either it was because of the same family name or the father's obsession with the martial arts, he even named his firstborn son Brandon, just like his idol did. Lee hated the name no matter how cool his father thought it was and he hated the Jeet Kune Do practices even more.

Of course, to watch the goofy kung fu movies was one thing, but getting punched on the nose by the other kids on a daily basis was completely different. And while for the father's peace of mind Lee was ready to acknowledge Bruce Lee being the greatest martial arts master of all times, he tried to skip every practice session any way he could. In the end he even broke the old man's heart, and went to the art school instead of the army.

When another year later father found out Lee was forbidding everyone to call him by the given name, the disrespect was followed by the punishment of expelling him from the clan. Of course, Lee never gave a fuck and welcomed the newfound freedom with open arms. His mother died when he was fifteen, and the so called clan was only his father's relatives. Thus it didn't have any value his eyes in the first place.

After many years, or rather, another life, Lee understood his father's reasoning and kind of agreed with the logic of forcefully pushing the son towards the proper direction, but in his case it backfired. Being a broke student of arts, in order to earn some easy money, he mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Not that he regretted it, exactly the opposite – otherwise he would've never met Lisa. Well, if he listened to his father they wouldn't have met and later prematurely died, but to think about any what-if's was a useless waste of time. The twenty eight months they spent together was the greatest adventure of all of his lives, too bad it ended abruptly. But the fat Russian payed for it, although the payback took another lifetime.

Right, just like in his second life, Lee began to train even before learning how to crawl. He had forgotten many details from the Jeet Kune Do classes, but compensated it with experience and the common sense. He didn't expect to become an amazing martial arts master or anything like that – he practiced only from the perspective of the general development.

The reason why Lee didn't have an illusion of killing Victoria in a direct confrontation was that from Alan's notes he learned that she possessed something that was considered a phoenix's soul and gave her almost perfect compatibility with the fire spark.

He didn't know what it meant exactly, but vaguely remembered the phoenix-like pillar of fire that signaled the end of the Pine village, and knew that a regular human couldn't go against it.

Even more, several other youths from noble families were said to own sparks as well, and it meant that Lee had to deal with all of them the dishonorable way. In this case, obviously, he couldn't care less about the concept of honor, because nothing honorable was about destroying a harmless village nor threatening his stepparents. But no matter what, for now all he had to do was to learn and wait for an opportunity.

***

Surprisingly it didn't take too long for one to arise. Only a bit more than four years passed since the little family returned to Sunwell. At this point Lee considered himself being around five years old.

One evening Alan came home and told Tess he had to join another expedition. He was visibly sad and she did get upset, but Alan tried to calm her down, telling that it was only for a month at most, and was absolutely safe – even a couple of other members from the Imperial Council were tagging along. Lee's eyes immediately lit up, but he quickly hid the excitement.

He said, "Mom, I want to go with dad!"

Stupefied, Alan was trying to say something, but even though he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, no sound came out. Tess was similarly stunned, but, as expected, her reaction was more fiery.

She grabbed Lee by his little shoulders and shook him, "No way in hell I'm letting you go! You'll stay at home!"

"No!" He immediately objected, "Don't leave me alone! I want to be with my family!"

Inevitably another moment of silence followed, a longer one, though. This time both parents blanked out, doing their best to process Lee's train of thought.

"We weren't …" Alan intended to explain, but Tess didn't care.

A smile bloomed on her face and the earlier tight grip transformed into a hearty hug.

She said, "Of course, we won't leave you! We'll all go together! It will be great! Come to mommy ..."

As expected, when Lee was put to bed, the discussion continued. But after a lengthy battle of emotions and logic, the unreasonable wife won.