"I want you to train me!"

How would a knight react if a six-year-old suddenly appeared and said that? Especially when the child was an illegitimate son of the ducal house the knight served.

The answer stood before me. Sir Miguel's eyes darted about, his expression troubled. He looked as though he wanted someone to help him, but every knight nearby looked away from us. I laughed to myself at his bewilderment. Miguel really was more innocent than the other knights.

"You're still so young, and I'd need permission from the commander and the others..."

He answered hesitantly, but I'd come prepared. "I've already obtained the knight commander's permission."

Miguel looked even more uncomfortable. He was a kind, innocent knight, but he wasn't oblivious. Unlike in my previous life, I wasn't a son who had the duke's hopes pinned on him. I was merely an illegitimate son the duke had lost interest in. If Miguel took charge of my training, his future as a knight could well become uncertain. But I couldn't ask the other knights, who were all pretending not to see me.

"Whew. If the commander gave his permission, I suppose I have no choice."

In truth, the knight commander's permission had been conditional: I could train only if the knight assigned to me agreed. There was no need to tell Miguel that.

"You really are too young... But since you have an inherited ability, let's begin with the basic training squires receive."

I trained without complaint. The grueling runs and sword swings that made my arms feel ready to fall off were just as hard as they had been before. But I knew I could get through them, and that made the pain bearable.

My skills grew rapidly. The people who had initially ignored my training began stealing glances at me. That was all, though. Unlike in my previous life, when I'd shown growth beyond what an ordinary human could manage, I now looked like no more than a diligent, talented candidate for knighthood.

"Have you thought about becoming a knight? If you keep this up, I think you'll make an exceptional one."

Miguel was delighted by my rapid progress. But I wasn't showing him everything I could do. The training I did in public wasn't even half of my daily training. I kept going after I returned to my room. It was large, and I still remembered the indoor exercises I'd learned in my previous life, so I could work my muscles to exhaustion there.

I panted for breath. Once I'd finished training in my room, drenched in sweat, I said, "Now, shall we move on to the next step?"

I called to Flora, who had brought a chair over beside the door and fallen asleep in it. "Flora!"

"Yes?" Startled, she sprang to her feet. When she realized it was me, she sighed in relief. "Are you done exercising? Please don't overdo it. You're still young."

Embarrassed at having dozed off, she put her hands on her hips and offered that worried advice. But I stared pointedly at the chair, and her face went bright red as she opened and closed her mouth. Enough teasing. I got to the point.

"I don't think I can sleep in this room. I'll have to use a guest room tonight."

Flora looked around. Water was pooled across the floor, and my training had left things scattered everywhere.

"Oh, you've made quite a mess today. Very well."

It was far messier than usual, and she left to prepare somewhere else for me to sleep. Fortunately, she hadn't noticed the oddity: the room was far messier than before, yet she'd managed to sleep through me making that mess.

From that day on, I used my training as an excuse to keep changing bedrooms. I moved between the mansion's guest rooms and vacant rooms, and Flora and the other maids grew increasingly unhappy with my sudden behavior.

"Are you feeling unwell from all that training? If you're going to keep moving from room to room, come sleep in my room with me."

Mother expressed her concern over tea, but I shook my head. Sleep in the same room as Mother? Absolutely not.

As I kept changing where I slept, rumors spread through the mansion. The illegitimate son who had awakened was doing strange things every night. Some said the awakening had affected my mind; others said I had begun sleepwalking. There was even talk that I wet the bed every night. And when people heard that the maid I told where I was sleeping changed daily, they could only shake their heads.

Another month passed. Then, one night, an uninvited visitor came to one of the mansion's empty guest rooms. Clouds hid the moon and stars, and with the lamp out, the room was pitch-black.

CREEEAK.

The window opened with a faint sound. A man dressed in black, his face covered by a black mask, climbed inside. Despite the darkness, he seemed able to see the room clearly. After looking around, he advanced toward the bed without a sound. Something bulged beneath the covers at its center.

He stared at the bulge, then suddenly pulled back the covers. On the bed lay a pillow and another blanket, rolled up tight. He studied them for a moment and gave a soft laugh.

"Clever. So that's where you were hiding?"

He drew the sword at his waist and drove it into the bed beside the rolled-up blanket.

THUNK!

At that moment, a small figure burst out from under the bed with a low cry. "Ugh!"

A child. Me. I'd been hiding under there. Pain shot through my leg. A glance showed that my pajama trousers were torn and a puncture wound in my leg was bleeding.

"You dodged that? Impressive."

The masked man pulled his bloodied sword from the bed and looked at me.

"I even held my breath... How did you know?"

"You think holding your breath hides your presence?"

I could almost see him smirking beneath his mask. But the humor soon vanished from his eyes. "After that move, and the way you're bearing the pain, I shouldn't treat you like the child you appear to be."

'I'd be perfectly happy if you did.'

I muttered to myself, gripping the sword I'd hidden behind my back.

"There's something I'd like to know, though." He took his time speaking as he watched blood run down my leg. He seemed entirely at ease. "Changing rooms every night, sleeping under the bed... How did you know I was coming?"

I couldn't see his expression, but he sounded intensely curious. This was no time to act my age. The pain made it hard to worry about that anyway.

I'd known an assassin would come because the message about an "autosave point" hadn't appeared. I trained at the grounds alongside the knights, so I couldn't be attacked there as I had been in my previous life. An attack inside the duke's mansion during the day was unlikely, too. Unless I went outside, the assassin would have to come for me at night. I'd kept changing rooms to avoid him, the way I'd seen people do on TV in my previous life, but he'd found me in the end.

I had no reason to tell him any of that. "If I asked who ordered you to kill me, would you answer?"

The assassin's eyes curved. "What an interesting child. If I'd had more time, I might have enjoyed playing with you."

At once, I felt as though my entire body had been bound tight. I couldn't move a finger. It was exactly what I'd felt before my last death. That time, I'd been lucky enough to break free just before I died. This time was different.

Fighting through the pain, I began to awaken the power hidden inside me. The power I'd sensed before dying: mana, a power my awakened ability had made no mention of. Over the past two months, I'd worked as hard to awaken this power as I had to strengthen my body. I was still young, so I couldn't achieve anything extraordinary in so little time, but I'd awakened it enough for what I needed.

CRACK.

Enough, for a start, to shatter the assassin's power wrapped around me.

"You broke it?"

As his eyes widened, I swiftly moved the hand hidden behind my back.

WHOOSH.

The assassin rushed at me like lightning, and I hurled the sword in my hand—not at him, but toward the window.

CRASH!

Glass shattered as the sword shot outside.

WHIIISH!

Charged with mana, it cut through the night air with a sharp whistle no one would expect from a child's throw.

At the same instant, the assassin's sword struck my chest.

CLANG!

Sparks flew from my chest, and I was thrown backward.

"You blocked it?"

The assassin stared at his sword in dismay. It had broken, leaving only half the blade.

I coughed. After striking the wall, I spat blood onto the floor.

Damn it. Apparently that trick only worked in movies. A tray hidden against someone's chest could stop an enemy's bullet on-screen. I'd worn protective gear beneath my pajamas and even tucked a steel plate inside it, yet I'd still taken a nearly fatal blow. Even allowing for my child's body, it made all that training seem pointless. And the assassin hadn't even used mana.

A faint glow began to seep from the remaining half of his sword. Mana. If an ordinary sword had done this to me, I doubted I could block that.

"Could you just leave me alone? I think I'm going to die anyway," I muttered, blood spilling from my mouth.

"Are you really six?" He gave me an incredulous look but kept walking toward me. "I need to make sure you're dead."

Damn, what a conscientious man. I wasn't joking. Even a priest would have trouble healing this wound. I'd stopped the sword from piercing my chest, but the inside of my little body was already a wreck.

"You should hurry up and run, though..."

The shattered window and the sword I'd sent flying had caused an uproar outside.

"An intruder!"

"Search the grounds, now!"

Lights came on in the mansion's rooms one after another, and the guards and knights on duty were running this way.

"I have plenty of time to escape," the assassin said calmly. But I could laugh at him, too.

"Do you?"

Why had I insisted on a guest room? Because the guest rooms were close to the duke's study. He'd been working longer hours lately and spending his nights there. There was no way he could have missed a commotion like this.

BOOOOM!

In the distance, I heard a door break apart.

THUDTHUDTHUD!

Someone sprinted down the corridor. The sound reached my door in an instant.

BANG!

The door burst open.

"Damn it!" The assassin threw away his broken sword and lunged for the window. At the same moment, the duke stepped into the room.

He quickly surveyed the room. When he saw me propped against the wall, he flinched. He took a step toward me, then stopped at the sight.

His young son sat against the wall in a pool of blood. The left side of his chest was caved in, and a sword was lodged in the right. His son stared back at him blankly.

For once, the duke's face wasn't the expressionless one I knew. Regret, pity, sorrow, darkness, conflict—a tangle of emotions passed over it. In the end, he turned away.

"An assassin! Alex has been attacked!"

After that thunderous shout, he looked at me once more and leaped out the window. As he disappeared, I coughed up more blood.

"Cough... I'm still your son. Are you just leaving because you don't think I can be saved?"

Even if he'd looked sorry at the end, I didn't think I could forgive him after this.

"Aah! Young master!"

Flora rushed in after him, wearing only her nightclothes. She screamed when she saw me.

"A priest! My lady! No, what do I—"

I called out to her as she floundered. Neither a physician nor a priest could heal this. There was something I needed to ask before I stopped breathing.

"Who did you t-tell I was sleeping here?"

Because I kept moving rooms, an overnight maid had once again begun sleeping next door, as one had when I was little. I told only that maid where I would sleep, so she was the only one who could know my room on any given night. That way, if the assassin came, I could find out who had let the information slip.

But tonight's maid was Flora.

Could it have been her? No, impossible. The last time I'd died, I'd seen her stabbed with my own eyes. If she hadn't been stabbed to death in that life, I might have suspected her now.

Flora shook her head frantically at my question. "No. Don't talk. You can still get better."

She wasn't answering me. I shouted, "Tell me, now!"

Her face pale, she stammered, "L-Lady Elena asked me..."

She trailed off, turning white as a sheet. "It... It can't be."

Damn it. My sister? I couldn't believe it either.

My vision grew darker. Flora's shouts faded, and in the final moment—

THUD.

The masked man's severed head landed in front of me. Behind it stood the duke. Unfortunately, I could no longer make out his expression.

Everything went black.

[You have died. Restarting from the autosave point.]

* * *

When I opened my eyes, the duke was looking down at me, his face expressionless. It was the third time I'd reached my awakening day.