Chapter 5

Chapter 5. I Awakened (1)

I let out a sigh inwardly, then bowed my head toward the duchess.

As expected of a noble lady of true rank, the duchess acknowledged my greeting.

After confirming the duchess's nearly imperceptible nod, I shifted my gaze to the side.

Past the two boys, whose expressions had not changed at all from a few days earlier, stood a young girl and a woman.

My older sister, who was a year older than I was, and the Second Duchess.

Elena de Gresia.

The cute older sister gave me a small wave the moment she saw me.

Unlike those two infuriating brothers, she was fairly close to me in her own way, an older sister just one year apart from me.

Of course, her mother came from no more than a viscount's house, but she was still a proper noblewoman.

Naturally, unlike me, she was the duke's legitimate daughter, but perhaps thanks to her mother, she still got along with me reasonably well.

I bowed my head to the woman standing behind the girl.

At my greeting, she smiled warmly back at me.

Maria de Gresia.

She was the Second Duchess, the youngest daughter of House Ibisa, a viscount's house that governed a small rural territory.

Unlike the First Duchess, she was a quiet and compassionate noblewoman who was deeply considerate of those around her.

Even now, she did not discriminate against me despite my being an illegitimate son.

Of course, that might simply be because of her personality, but perhaps it was also because she had only a daughter and thus had no reason to concern herself with me.

Hm. Thinking like that makes it seem as though I am rather twisted.

Shaking my head to chase away the stray thought, I looked forward.

Directly ahead stood my father, the duke.

Beside him I could see the elderly Head Steward, and also the priest they had brought in case something went wrong.

But my attention was seized by the duke's gaze as he stared at me.

It was rather frightening.

"Come here."

In an even voice, the duke called me over from where I stood behind Mother.

I took a deep breath. Thankfully, the tension in my body eased.

Receiving the worried gazes of Mother and the maids, I walked forward.

Tap, tap.

Inside the stone chamber, only the sound of my small footsteps could be heard.

When my footsteps stopped, I halted in front of the duke.

After looking at me for a moment, the duke spoke.

"On the occasion of Alex's sixth birthday today, I will begin the Awakening Ceremony."

At the duke's words, I forcibly smoothed out the frown trying to form on my brow.

To think that even in the Awakening Ceremony, only my name would be spoken.

As expected, what I had heard years ago had meant something entirely different from being accepted as the duke's son.

It had only meant that he would protect me until the Awakening Day.

An illegitimate son truly did have little hope of becoming part of the ducal house.

Even so, the fact that he was holding the Awakening Ceremony at all meant he still entertained some slight expectation.

Does he think he is giving me a chance?

I snorted inwardly.

In a situation like this, even if I Awakened, all that awaited me would be hardship.

I did not mind even if I failed to Awaken. I had learned to the bone that the position of duke, of noble, was as dangerous as it was powerful.

"Since the founding of the kingdom, our ducal House of Gresia, which branched off from the royal family, has inherited the power of Sir Carlos the Hero, one of the Hero's companions from ages past..."

Thanks to that, all my tension vanished completely. I let the duke's ceremonial speech pass by one ear while I waited for time to move on.

After I listened to the entire speech with a composed face, the duke looked at me with a peculiar expression.

Whether he did or not, I only waited for the ceremony to proceed.

The expression that had briefly surfaced on the duke's face disappeared at once, and he continued with the rite.

"I will now begin the Awakening."

The duke raised his hand, face set. At last, the moment of Awakening had come.

Awakening.

The time when one awakened an inherited ability.

But there was one more thing I was aiming for on my Awakening Day.

It had already been several years since the "autosave point" was set.

If I died in the future, I would surely return to the time of my last death. Back to when I was a one-year-old baby.

Insane.

My body shuddered. To go through infancy again. To learn to walk, learn to speak, learn to control my bowels...

I would absolutely not repeat that ever again!

And I could not simply kill myself in the meantime. Unlike being killed by someone else, I had no idea what would happen if I committed suicide.

My life might simply end, or the point in time might fail to save at all.

In the end, the reason I had dragged things out until now was because I had been counting on the Awakening Day.

The duke, my father in this life, placed his hand atop my head.

"From this moment, I will awaken the power handed down from our ancestors."

Along with the duke's brusque voice, the hand covering my head grew a little warm.

Like the warmth of a father's love... what nonsense.

Heat was literally pouring from his hand.

Hot!

"Do not move! You were told it would be hot! Endure it!"

The duke barked at me when I flinched.

But no one had told me it would be this hot.

Damn it, had they left out the important part again?

Even through the pain, I could only click my tongue inwardly.

Enduring the heat, I straightened the body that wanted to collapse.

The heat spread from his hand and wrapped around my head. It gradually burrowed deeper into my mind.

My vision blurred from the heat, and my consciousness began to swim.

Pain stabbed savagely through my skull, and the heat seemed to burn through my whole body.

But I endured it.

It was tremendous pain, but compared to dying, it was nothing much. Nothing but heat.

And then, the very next moment,

FWOOSH!

The pain vanished.

At the same time, a line of text rose before my eyes.

[You have successfully Awakened. A new 'save point' has been set.]

Nice! Just as I had hoped.

If this thing called autosaving truly existed to help me, there was no way it would require me to repeat death in order to save.

If this power had not been given to punish me, then I had thought there would surely come a point where it would save in the middle even without my dying.

And that thought had been right.

On my sixth birthday, I gained a new save point.

At the same time, I felt something deep within my head that had never existed before.

It was not a physical thing like a brain, but a new organ had formed inside my mind.

"!"

When I opened my eyes, the duke was staring at me in surprise.

Even without that organ newly formed in my head, I could tell from the duke's expression.

Happily, or perhaps regrettably,

I had succeeded in Awakening.

---

"So, you Awakened."

When the duke declared my Awakening as fact, everyone stared at me in astonishment.

The First Duchess had gone rigid, and the First Young Master, Simon, had furrowed his brow. Second Young Master Manuel stood there with his mouth hanging open.

The Second Duchess also seemed greatly surprised, and my only older sister wore a startled expression as well. But unlike the others, she was looking at me with delight.

The priest standing by and the Head Steward also plainly looked shocked.

It seemed that none of them had expected me to Awaken.

Lastly, Mother wore an especially complicated expression. Worry and joy were mixed together there, along with relief and pride.

I was no different from Mother.

This result was nothing like what I had expected. Before those new thoughts had occurred to me, I would have been overjoyed, but now my feelings were simply complicated.

More than that, the Awakening ability I had received was an extremely ambiguous one.

After that new organ had formed inside my head,

I was able to understand what my ability was.

Like finding a hand I had once lost.

I knew at once what sort of ability it was and how I was supposed to use it.

It did not have any especially distinctive name, but I had a rough idea of what to call it.

It was an ability through which my body gradually strengthened as I underwent training and accumulated combat experience.

Tch. Put that way, it sounds no different from an ordinary person.

But even so, it was not the same as ordinary commoners. The speed at which I could grow and the limit of that growth were both different from those of normal people.

It was an ability that allowed me to improve more quickly and become strong enough to exceed human limits.

Of course, it would not let me grow stronger without end.

In other words, even if it looked pathetic, it was not entirely pathetic!

Even so, it was still an awkward ability.

"So then, what sort of ability have you inherited?"

The duke standing before me personally asked me a question.

It was the first question he had ever asked me. And his voice even carried a trace of warmth.

As expected, the moment I looked as though I might be useful to the family, my treatment changed at once.

That made me feel utterly foul.

I offered the duke an apology first, in my heart.

I am sorry to say it, but I do not think I will be all that useful to the family.

At the same time, I gave an answer far too composed for my age.

"It appears to be a body-enhancement type. It seems that my training gains will become much greater than those of an ordinary person."

Though the voice that came out was still the youthful one of a child who had only just turned six, I answered crisply as I looked straight at the duke.

"Pfft!"

I heard a mocking laugh from the side. Along with it came the sound of a faint sigh of relief.

It was obvious who had laughed, and the sigh had surely come from the First Duchess.

The Head Steward stroked his white beard and tilted his head.

"A body-enhancement type? That is a rather unusual ability. I do know that among the powers possessed by our ancestor, Sir Carlos the Hero, there was a similar one..."

I had a good idea what the Head Steward meant.

That too was thanks to the years I had spent studying diligently in the library-like study.

Thanks to those years of effort, I had come to understand, in broad terms, the powers possessed by our ancestor Carlos.

First, there was [Mana Sensitivity], which had descended through the direct royal line.

The records said that once one awakened this power, one could perceive and control the mana in the world and within one's body as clearly as if seeing it with one's own eyes.

The current king and the two princes possessed this ability.

And then there was [Mana Circuit Construction Method], the ability that had descended here to the ducal House of Gresia, a branch of the royal family.

It was a mana circulation technique commonly referred to as a [circulation art], a method for releasing materialized mana outside the body.

Sir Carlos had possessed four circulation arts, and the members of the ducal House of Gresia had inherited those arts in rotation.

Of course, throughout the long course of history, it was not as though no one had ever inherited one of Sir Carlos's other abilities, but as far as I knew, not a single person had ever gained an ability like mine.

And since it looks rather shabby as well...

It did seem to be a growth-type ability in its own way, but the other abilities all became stronger with training and time anyway.

Almost all the abilities used by nobles were based on mana.

Magic, too, was used by refining mana, and even the sword aura released through a blade was the manifestation of mana within the body.

That was why the royal family's ability, which could govern the very foundation of all mana, was so powerful, and why even the ducal house, though limited to the body, was still recognized so highly among the nobles for dealing with that same foundation of mana.

And yet mine was a body-enhancement ability entirely unrelated to mana.

At best, might it make me something on the level of a knight?

At this rate, it would be difficult even to be acknowledged as a proper noble.

No, wait. A shabby ability is not necessarily a bad thing, is it?

I quickly glanced around.

The shocked expressions had turned into relieved ones, and even Mother's expression did not seem so bad.

I see. This is not bad at all.

It was the perfect sort of ability for an illegitimate son like me.

An ability that would let me remain on the fringes of nobility without being cast down as a commoner.

If things went well, I might become the lord of some small village and live a comfortable life.

I would already be thankful if they granted me nothing more than the standing of a minor noble.

Even with an inherited ability, a rank of viscount or above was out of the question.

Good. I will hide within this. I survived for five years. From here on, I will endure until I die of old age!

When I lifted my head with a satisfied look and faced forward, the duke was staring at me.

"So you inherited the ability [Physical Optimization]."

The duke's low murmur reached my ears from where I stood close by.

Apparently, the original name of my enhancement ability was [Physical Optimization].

Well, the name did not matter much, but the real problem was the duke's expression.

The duke, who was always expressionless, now looked different.

A chill ran all over my body.

The look in the duke's eyes resembled that of a wolf gazing at a particularly delicious piece of prey right before it.