Without Vera…

I didn’t want changes! None! My life suited me perfectly. I gnawed my place in the world out of Fate—and honestly! No parents or other relatives contributed to my rise in wealth. In ten years, I rose from being a construction worker—an illegal immigrant—in Spain to becoming the owner of my own construction business, holding an investment portfolio with Asian securities worth several million, and a citizen of the European Union. There were money, a position in society, excellent health, and the appearance of a young Dolph Lundgren. And now I’m thirteen again, a nobleman of an ancient family… and that’s where the good news ends.

The brief characterization given to me by the gymnasium “pedel” (assistant caretaker) — “slightly below average!”—is very accurate, even though it’s humiliatingly banal. My father drinks and gambles, my mother ran away from him and lives separately, my sisters are fools with ambitions, and with money there’s a complete disaster!

Ah yes! It’s 1914 on the calendar, and with the Revolution approaching, I’m no longer sure whether my nobility is a bonus or a problem?