Chapter 4

Chapter 4. I Became a Genius (2)

Once the tiresome explanation ended, the scribe, or rather my culture instructor, looked at me and asked,

"Do you have any questions?"

There was something regretful about the way he asked, something almost disdainful.

It was an expression that made my awkward position all too clear.

Naturally, I had a question.

"As you said, almost all nobles on the continent today gain their inherited abilities through the Awakening. And our ducal House of Gresia has also inherited the abilities of Sir Carlos the Hero."

"That is correct."

The scribe nodded. His expression looked slightly satisfied.

"But then how have abilities passed down for five hundred years been continuously inherited? Even if we assume one generation is thirty years, that would already make around thirty generations. In all that time, there must have been at least thirty marriages. Wouldn't that reduce the probability of displaying the same abilities as Sir Carlos to only a few chances in tens of thousands?"

Even if both spouses were nobles, the probability of continuing to inherit only one side's ability would still be one in two.

Even if repeated intermarriages happened along the way, after thirty marriages in succession, the probability would still fall to only a few hundredths or thousandths.

"And among siblings, the ability could manifest in more than one child at once, or there could be siblings who inherit only the mother's side instead. So how has it continued without interruption?"

Did they just keep committing incest or something? They do not look insane, though.

The scribe's eyes widened. The look of disdain vanished completely, replaced by an awkward expression.

"Hm. I do not think it is time for you to learn that yet. You will probably hear of it separately after your Awakening."

He spoke as though there were some hidden secret, but that expression made it obvious he did not know anything at all!

Was Mendel's laws of inheritance still too much for the people of this world?

Still, with my Awakening Day right around the corner, it was a very important matter to me.

Until a thousand years ago, this world had not been all that different from medieval Europe on the Earth of my previous life.

There had been no magic that could burn the world, and no knights who could split stone and shatter castle walls.

Priests had not been able to use holy arts, and alchemists had been little more than frauds.

But after the great cataclysm that occurred a thousand years ago, this world became utterly different from the Earth of my previous life.

A thousand years ago, black gates appeared all across the continent, and monsters poured through from a world called the Demon Realm.

Ordinary animals were transformed into monsters, and even a being called the Demon King appeared to lead them.

Just as the world was racing toward destruction, there also appeared among humanity those who wielded extraordinary power.

Those who were called Heroes.

People who split the sky with their swords and burned the sea with magical fire.

They saved humanity from the brink of ruin, drove back the Demon King, and sealed the gates to the Demon Realm.

Humanity survived thanks to them, but afterward the world was completely transformed.

The creatures that came to be called monsters remained scattered across the continent, and the Heroes' powers were passed down to their children, forming a new ruling class.

Those now called nobles.

And the day on which those nobles gained the powers of the Heroes was called the Awakening Day.

The birthday on which one turned six.

It was two days away.

After the lesson ended, I followed Flora out into the corridor.

I could move about perfectly well on my own, but there was no way they would allow me, an illegitimate son but still the duke's son, to wander alone.

Fortunately, I had worked very hard over the years to win the maids over, so moving about with them was not especially inconvenient.

At times, having them with me even turned out to be helpful.

Like now.

"Hey, mongrel."

I came face to face with a group of people in the corridor.

Two boys were walking along with their attendants.

The smaller of the two picked a fight with me the moment he saw me.

He was a child about a head taller than I was, pointing at me with an arrogant expression.

The older boy, who had been walking beside him, merely glanced at me and passed by with a blank face.

The older one ignored me and kept walking, while the younger one stayed behind to provoke me.

Though they clearly did not think of me as a brother, they were my brothers.

Simon de Gresia.

Manuel de Gresia.

The two sons of the duke's first wife.

Unlike me, an illegitimate son, they were the proper heirs of the ducal House of Gresia.

The eight-year-old brat sneered at me with a haughty face.

"Your Awakening is in a few days, right? But can you even Awaken at all?"

It was mockery I heard every time we met, but this time his words stung quite a bit.

Because the brat was right.

Those two had both already passed their Awakening Day, and both had Awakened properly.

Little brat Manuel kept taunting me, sparks crackling between his fingers.

Unlike the eldest, Simon, who was looking this way from farther off, the second son, Manuel, had Awakened to the abilities of his mother's side, that of the First Duchess's family.

A type of ability belonging to the line of mages.

Because of that, he had taken a step back in the succession to the ducal house, but it might make it easier for him to gain support from the Duchess's side.

But my mother was a commoner who possessed no abilities.

Her family was a respectable merchant household in its own way, but as long as they possessed no abilities, that meant nothing to nobles.

According to what I had painstakingly investigated in the library, the gene that granted inherited abilities was close to being recessive.

A gene that was difficult to express.

In the end, since my mother was a commoner, my own probability of Awakening was only one in four.

So my ability to return to the past upon death really is not an Awakening, then?

Or perhaps remembering my previous life was the Awakening.

Hm. Contrary to what I thought, I might actually have quite a lot already.

My thanks once again to the nameless god.

Well, the ability to revive was not something I Awakened to on my Awakening Day anyway...

If the ability I possessed now was my inherited ability, that would actually be very inconvenient.

It would mean I had no more abilities left to gain, and on my Awakening Day I would receive nothing at all.

Once my Awakening Day passed, I might be pushed down to the level of a commoner and, at best, end up living as some scribe or administrator in a remote corner of the territory.

Wait...

As my thoughts reached that point, my mouth fell open.

"Not Awakening might not be such a bad thing after all?"

"What?"

Manuel looked bewildered at the words I had carelessly let slip.

"Hm, I feel like it would be much safer that way..."

Life had not been too bad after gaining the duke's protection, but before that, I did not even know how many times I had repeated death.

If I had not possessed the power to come back to life, I would surely have become a tiny corpse long ago.

"What in the world are you talking about!"

Manuel shouted furiously right in front of me, but I could not hear him at all. I was too busy weighing the difference between Awakening and not Awakening.

Maybe I have been looking at things from only one side all this time.

Because I had repeatedly faced the danger of death, I had kept longing for power that would let me avoid dying.

And in this world, the only power I could gain was through the Awakening. That must have caused my thinking to become lopsided.

But now that I reconsidered it, perhaps not Awakening would actually be better.

After all, the duke's protection lasted only until the Awakening Day. Once it passed, I would surely be hounded by the threat of death again.

But if I failed to Awaken, I might instead escape the danger of death altogether. I might be able to spend my life as a quiet bureaucrat.

"Thank you, Brother!"

I suddenly seized the brat's hand.

Crackle!

A sharp jolt of static ran through my hand.

His ability was still weak because it had not developed yet, but my entire hand prickled.

Even so, the faint pain that ran through my hand filled me with nothing but joy.

"What are you doing all of a sudden!"

Manuel shouted angrily, but only with words.

Simon and Manuel were both properly educated children of the ducal house.

And in the corridor, Flora and the other servants were all watching us.

It was not easy for a duke's son to commit physical violence in front of the household servants.

After waving to Manuel and to Simon, who had been watching from afar, I turned and walked off in the opposite direction.

Manuel's face was cycling between red and blue with rage, while Simon frowned as he watched me.

But I had no intention of squabbling with ten- and eight-year-old brats.

"To take the Second Young Master's words so calmly, Young Master, you are truly remarkable."

Flora's sudden admiration reached me from behind, but I was simply delighted that my worries over the Awakening had lessened.

The Awakening Day came quickly.

On the morning of the day itself.

Once I had been dressed in splendid clothes, Mother pulled me into a tight embrace before I left the room.

"Even if you fail to Awaken, it will be all right. You do not need to worry about anything. You are my truly precious son."

Her voice filled my chest with warmth.

With my body made young again, it seemed my heart had softened as well. Besides, unlike the duke, Mother truly loved me.

Even if I remembered my previous life, a mother was still a mother.

"Yes. I love you too."

At those first words from me, the arms around me stiffened.

Her embrace tightened even more, and my face turned blue from lack of air.

Dangerous. I nearly died.

A short while later, as I walked through the corridor with Mother and the maids, I continued the thoughts I had been turning over for days.

If I failed to Awaken, I was still worried about Mother.

A child who possessed no inherited ability.

Naturally, such a child could not become a noble, and a mother who had borne a child useless to the ducal house might well be cast out as well.

Well, my maternal family is not exactly poor. If it comes to it, I can just live with her and support her.

She would have to separate from Father, but leaving this manor, thin as ice beneath our feet, might actually be better for her too.

Still, it is not as though I know nothing about economics and trade.

Since I had experiences from my previous life, working with my merchant relatives on my mother's side did not sound too bad.

In any case, nothing had been decided yet. Once the outcome was decided a little later at the Awakening Ceremony, I could think about it then.

I steadied my thoughts and followed Mother onward.

The place we reached after our brisk walk was the family mausoleum in the rear gardens of the manor.

An underground stone chamber where the stone coffins of the direct line, from the founding duke who had risen above dukes as the king's younger brother down to my grandfather, were enshrined.

The innermost depths of the mausoleum could be entered only by the duke, making it a secret place of the ducal house that was the subject of endless rumors among the manor's servants.

But the place where Alex stood was the outermost stone chamber, where various ceremonies were conducted.

The stone coffins in the mausoleum were hidden behind stone walls draped with flags and ornaments.

In this chamber, aside from the banners and decorations hanging on the walls, there was only a massive emblem drawn upon the floor.

People had already arrived inside the chamber.

On one side stood the two brothers who had picked a fight with me a few days earlier, along with the duchess.

Duchess Brivia Gresia.

The eldest daughter of the Marquess of Lansarote, whose house still flourished in great power even now, and the duke's first wife. The lawful wife.

She gazed ahead with her usual calm expression.

She was beautiful and looked remarkably young. Anyone who saw her would know at a glance that she was a noble of the highest order, so elegant was the air about her.

She really suits the duke perfectly...

At a glance, she and the expressionless duke looked like a match made in heaven.

Is she really the one who tried to kill me?

She was the person closest to being the culprit, possessing both the position and the power to want me dead.

She was someone capable of stopping even the duke from pursuing the culprit, and someone who could make the maids who had tried to kill me disappear without a sound.

But I have no proof...

Well, judging by the way the duke handled things, even proof might not mean much, and it might have been nobles serving under her who carried it out rather than the woman herself.

All she would have had to do was quietly turn a blind eye.

My death was nothing more than that sort of matter to her.