Chapter 6

Chapter 6. I Awakened (2)

Unlike the Duke’s expression, which had left me feeling vaguely unsettled, the rest of the time passed without anything particularly unusual.

There were Simon de Gresia and Duchess Brivia Gresia’s dry words of congratulations, the brat Manuel’s indifference, and my older sister and the second Duchess, who at least praised me properly.

Even the Head Steward and the mansion’s servants offered their congratulations with ambiguous expressions.

"Do not be too disappointed. Simply awakening an ability at all is already something truly remarkable."

When I returned to my room, Mother embraced me tightly and tried to comfort me, but I did not particularly need comforting.

If anything, I was extremely satisfied with the result.

'This could be even better than not awakening at all.'

Safety was important, but in an age like this, being cast out as a commoner would make life far more difficult in the future.

If I had an ambiguous ability that did not go so far as to encroach on my brothers’ territory, then it would surely help my future while still keeping me safe.

'Well, to be honest, I already awakened, so I do not really have a choice except to console myself like this.'

Even an ambiguous ability was still an inherited ability.

Now that the Duke’s protection had ended, danger might come crashing down on me again.

'I cannot let my guard down. I have to stay tense. Stay tense.'

After greeting Mother and returning to my room, I let out a sigh.

In any case, I had been allowed to remain in the ducal house, so now the time for tension was beginning again.

'Now, the goal is to establish a cadet branch! I am throwing away the genius act and turning into someone vaguely useful instead!'

While I was making that resolution, I heard a knock at the door.

'Flora?'

"Come in."

But contrary to my expectations, the person who opened the door was the elderly head maid.

"You are to come to the training ground behind the mansion early tomorrow morning."

She spoke the moment she stepped into the room.

"The training ground?"

"Yes."

I tilted my head. Why the training ground all of a sudden?

I asked again.

"Who gave the order?"

"The Head Steward, sir."

The Head Steward...

If the Head Steward had given me an order, that meant the Duke had given the order.

And if I was being summoned to the training ground, then there could only be one reason.

"I am supposed to meet a knight there, am I not?"

"Yes. You are to meet Knight Commander Alonso."

At the head maid’s words, my expression turned awkward.

'The Knight Commander is going to be rather difficult to deal with...'

Knight Commander Alonso.

Unlike the other knights, he was a former commoner who had awakened an ability and risen into the nobility, and he did not think very highly of me, an illegitimate son.

Even though I was still the Duke’s child, whenever we passed each other in the corridor, he would pretend not to see me and ignore me.

I could not refuse the Duke’s order, and I also needed to find out something for myself.

Just how useful my awakened ability really was.

The next morning.

I headed for the training ground behind the mansion, following behind Flora.

Of course I already knew where it was, but there was no way they would let a child who had only just turned six wander around alone.

To reach the training ground, one had to walk a little way along a narrow path behind the mansion.

In the small training ground surrounded by trees, I could see no one but two men.

It was a private training ground used by nobles who disliked showing their abilities to others.

It was mainly used by my father, the Duke, and my half brothers.

Today, however, neither the Duke nor my half brothers were there.

Instead, two knights were standing in the center of the empty training ground. One was a middle-aged knight, and the other looked to be in his early twenties.

The sharp-featured middle-aged knight was Knight Commander Alonso, who did not like me, while the younger-looking knight was a face I had never seen before.

'Who is that?'

Keeping that question to myself, I stepped in front of the Knight Commander and greeted him.

I straightened my body and placed my hand over the left side of my chest. It was the greeting a noble gave to someone he trusted.

"I am Alex."

Though the greeting was polite, it was also aristocratic enough to make both the Knight Commander and the young knight flinch.

It was not the sort of greeting one expected from a child who had only just turned six.

"I am... Knight Commander Alonso."

The Knight Commander’s response came a little belatedly.

"By the Duke’s order, we are here to assess Young Master Alex’s... abilities."

As expected, it clearly seemed very uncomfortable for him to speak to me so respectfully.

It seemed I would have a hard time ever becoming close to this Knight Commander. Still, thanks to the proper greeting I had given him, he would no longer be able to look down on me so easily.

Respect for another person begins with words.

Though it had created a certain distance between us, he was not someone I particularly wanted to be friendly with anyway, so I decided to be satisfied simply with the fact that he no longer took me lightly.

That aside, just as I had expected, they were here to examine my awakened ability.

The Duke’s expression yesterday had been rather frightening. Did he have some hidden agenda?

The thought crossed my mind, but for now I had to deal with the stiff old knight standing before me.

"Then what should I do?"

At my question, the Knight Commander handed me a wooden sword.

It was a practice sword cut down to suit my size. Judging from the traces of use here and there, it was not newly made, but something that had once belonged to someone else. Was it a sword Simon or Manuel had used?

'Am I getting castoffs here too?'

That pitiful thought passed through my mind for an instant before I tried moving the hand holding the sword this way and that.

As expected, I felt nothing at all. In my previous life, I had never held a sword, nor had I ever attended a fencing academy, so there was no reason I would suddenly feel something the moment I picked one up.

Watching me swing the sword around haphazardly, the Knight Commander spoke.

"You have absolutely no fundamentals, so we will begin with basic training first. Miguel!"

"Yes, sir!"

'There is no need to say it so bluntly. It is not as though I could possibly have fundamentals when I am holding a sword for the first time.'

While I grumbled inwardly, the young knight standing beside him stepped forward at the Knight Commander’s call.

"I am Miguel, a sworn knight."

He was a thick-armed knight with a gentle-looking face. That was a relief. He did not seem like the sort who would torment someone on purpose.

The Knight Commander stepped aside, crossed his arms, and watched the training. It seemed he intended to observe from the side rather than train me himself.

"For today, we will proceed with the apprentice knight training regimen. I will adjust the pace according to your stamina and physical condition, so I ask that you do your best."

"I understand."

It was only for one day anyway. I was just as curious about my inherited ability, so I had every intention of doing my best.

"Then let us start by running, shall we? This training ground is on the small side, so let us do only fifty laps."

Fifty laps? Had I heard him wrong?

My mouth fell open at the knight’s words.

Compared with the training grounds used by actual knights, it might have been smaller, but it was still a training ground. One lap was well over a hundred meters. Fifty laps meant five kilometers.

What kind of lunatic tells a six-year-old who has never exercised to run five kilometers? Are you an assassin or something?

"Begin running. You only need to keep going until you collapse from exhaustion. We have also prepared a healing elixir, so you need not worry about your body."

It seemed they intended to test my limits.

I let out a sigh. If they had prepared this much, there was no way I could refuse to run.

"Hold the sword while you run. If you drop it, you will start over from the beginning."

At the knight’s words, I began to run.

'I should have exercised a little if I knew this was coming.'

Grinding my teeth while listening to the young knight’s shouts, I kept running.

I ran and ran, until I reached the thirty-second lap.

And then I lost consciousness.

---

"You do have perseverance."

When my senses returned, an unexpected voice reached my ears. It was a voice I had never anticipated hearing.

A cold, hard voice. It was the Duke’s voice.

"It certainly does seem that he has gained an ability. This is not the stamina of an ordinary six-year-old child with no training."

This time, it was the Knight Commander’s voice.

It sounded as though the Knight Commander and the Duke were speaking to one another.

Had they carried me back to the mansion?

But above my nose drifted the scent of the forest. My back and limbs, pressed against the ground, could feel the rough, uneven dirt beneath me.

I was still in the same training ground where I had collapsed.

But not ordinary stamina...?

So it really was that, then?

There had been a moment in the middle of running when I wanted to give up from sheer exhaustion. My vision had gone yellow, my arms and legs had started trembling, and stomach acid had risen in my throat.

It was right then that strength surged up from somewhere deep within my body.

A little earlier, while I was running, I had thought it was what I had heard about in my previous life as 'runner’s high'...

That physiological phenomenon where, if one exercises to the point of near death, drug-like hormones are secreted and strength wells up.

But was it not that after all? Come to think of it, it had felt different from the 'runner’s high' I had heard about in my previous life.

It did not feel as though I had forgotten my fatigue. It felt more as though the strain had lessened slightly, or as though my limits had been stretched further.

In any case, thanks to that sensation, I had been able to keep running beyond my limit. Of course, I had still ended up fainting in the end.

"It seems he is awake now. His recovery is not bad either. The ability itself has been confirmed. However... from what I can see, it does not appear to be such a remarkable ability..."

There was no answer from the Duke to the Knight Commander’s words.

Instead, I heard footsteps. Footsteps gradually moving farther away.

I slowly opened my eyes.

I could see the Knight Commander standing a fair distance away, and the Duke’s back as he walked toward the mansion.

Did that inherited ability improve hearing too?

The Knight Commander had been standing quite far away from where I was lying.

Neither Flora, who had been letting me rest my head in her lap, nor the young knight Miguel standing beside her seemed to have heard their conversation.

As I watched the Duke walk away, I pushed myself upright.

"Are you all right? Please lie down a little longer. There might be aftereffects. I was about to call for help, but..."

Even without Flora finishing, I understood what she meant.

Since the Duke had come, what could she possibly have said? All she could do was stand there and watch.

"I am fine."

I truly was fine. Nothing hurt, and my mind was perfectly clear.

The muscles I had suddenly forced into action were aching, but for someone who had collapsed and then woken up, I felt strangely normal.

Still, there was something far more important than the fact that my body was unharmed.

The Duke had come here.

That was something I had never expected.

Had he simply been passing by? Had it been a momentary whim?

There was no way. If he had been that sort of man, there was no way he would have avoided coming to see me all this time.

There was something here. Something about this test. Something about my insignificant awakening.

There was a reason the Duke had taken notice.

"It does not seem as though you have any aftereffects. Would you be able to continue training?"

The Knight Commander came over to me after I rose and asked whether I wished to go on.

Perhaps because the Duke had come, the Knight Commander’s expression was better than before. Flora still looked worried, but I nodded.

"I will continue."

I had to find out why the Duke had come. He did not seem likely to tell me himself, so I would have to discover the reason on my own.

And though I had thought I had given everything up, perhaps that was not true after all. A small hope writhed inside my chest.

I needed to know exactly what sort of weapon I now held in my hand.

The young knight Miguel stepped in front of me again.

"Ordinarily, we would continue with physical conditioning, but since confirming your ability comes first, we will begin your swordsmanship lesson."

Unfortunately, it was not as though I was about to learn some extraordinary sword art.

I kept bringing the sword down in downward strikes, and when my muscles began to tremble, I was made to swing it left and right instead.

After watching the training for quite some time, the Knight Commander left his place. It seemed the rest of the tests had been confirmed as well.

But my training was not over.

After eating the lunch Flora had brought, I trained in swordsmanship all through the afternoon.

By the end of it, the strength had drained from my arms so thoroughly that it was hard to tell whether I was practicing swordsmanship or dancing.

By the time the sun dipped beyond the forest behind the mansion, the training finally ended.

This time I did not faint, but I was so exhausted that I almost wished I would.

It was foolish of me to keep going this far, but any knight who would work a child who had only just turned six that hard all day was even more foolish.

"Well done. Even if you have gained an ability, you have overworked your muscles today, so have the maids massage you and rest well for at least a full day."

After giving his farewell to me where I lay exhausted, the young knight Miguel left the training ground.