I sighed inwardly and bowed to the duchess. As befitted a noble of her standing, she acknowledged my greeting—with a nod so slight I nearly missed it. Then I turned my gaze to the people beside her.

Beyond the two boys, whose expressions were no different from a few days ago, stood a young girl and a woman. They were my older sister, a year ahead of me, and the duke’s second wife.

Elena de Gresia.

My sweet sister gave me a little wave when she saw me. Unlike those two obnoxious brothers, she and I got along fairly well.

Of course, her mother was only a viscountess, but she was a noble all the same. Unlike me, Elena was unquestionably the duke’s daughter. Perhaps thanks to her mother, though, she still treated me well enough.

I bowed to the woman standing behind Elena, and she smiled at my greeting.

Maria de Gresia.

The second duchess was the youngest daughter of the Ibiza viscount’s family, which held a small rural estate.

Unlike the first duchess, she was a quiet, kind noblewoman who was remarkably considerate of others. Even now, she didn’t discriminate against me for being an illegitimate son. That might simply be her nature, though. Or perhaps, since she had only a daughter, she saw no reason to worry about me.

Hmm. Thinking that way made me sound rather twisted.

I shook off the foolish thought and looked ahead. My father, the duke, stood directly in front of me. Beside him were the elderly head butler and a priest summoned in case anything went wrong.

But the duke’s glare held me captive. It was rather frightening.

“Come here.”

The duke called to me in an even voice as I stood behind Mother. I took a deep breath, and thankfully, the stiffness left my body. With Mother and the maids watching me anxiously, I walked forward.

My small footsteps were the only sound in the stone chamber. They fell silent as I stopped before the duke. He studied me for a moment, then spoke.

“On Alex’s sixth birthday, I hereby begin the awakening ceremony.”

I forced my furrowing brows to relax. Even at my awakening ceremony, he called me by name and nothing more. As I’d thought, what he’d said years ago had meant nothing like accepting me as his son. He had only promised to protect me until my awakening day. An illegitimate son would have a hard time becoming part of the ducal family. Holding the ceremony at all was merely a matter of hoping I might prove useful.

‘Does he think he’s giving me a chance?’

I scoffed inwardly. In these circumstances, awakening would only bring me trouble. I wouldn’t mind failing to awaken. I had learned all too well that being a duke—or any noble—was as dangerous as it was powerful.

“At the founding of the kingdom, our ducal house of Gresia branched off from the royal family. We inherited the ability of Sir Carlos, who was once among the heroes...”

That took the last of the tension out of me. I let the duke’s ceremonial speech wash over me and waited for it to end. When I had listened to the whole thing with a straight face, he gave me an odd look. I ignored it and waited for the ceremony to proceed. His expression soon vanished, and he continued.

“I will begin the awakening.”

The duke raised his hand, his face stern. At last, the moment had come.

Awakening. The moment an inherited ability was brought forth. But I had one more thing I was hoping for on my awakening day.

It had already been years since my autosave point was set. If I died from now on, I was certain I’d return to the point where I’d last died—back when I was a one-year-old baby.

Fuck.

I shuddered. Going through infancy again? Learning to walk and talk, getting potty-trained... I absolutely refused to do all that over again!

But I couldn’t simply kill myself along the way, either. Unlike being killed by someone else, I had no idea what would happen if I took my own life. My life might just end, or a new point might not be saved. In the end, I had held out until now because I was counting on my awakening day.

The duke—my father in this life—placed a hand on my head.

“Now I will awaken the ability passed down from our ancestor.”

As his gruff voice sounded, the hand covering my head grew a little warm. Warm like a father’s love... My ass. Heat was literally pouring from his palm.

Hot!

“Don’t move! You were told it would be hot! Bear it!”

The duke barked at me when I flinched. But no one had told me it would be this hot. Damn it, had someone left that part out, too? Even my awakening had to come with another nasty surprise. Despite the pain, I couldn’t help clicking my tongue.

I endured the heat and straightened my body as it threatened to collapse. The heat from his hand enveloped my head, then pressed deeper and deeper inside it. My vision blurred, and my consciousness began to fade. Pain stabbed wildly through my head while the heat burned through my entire body.

But I held on. It was tremendous pain, yet compared with dying, the pain and heat were nothing.

And then—

WHOOSH!

The pain disappeared. At the same instant, a sentence appeared before my eyes.

[Awakening successful. A new ‘save point’ has been set.]

Nice! Just as I’d hoped. If autosaving was meant to help me, there was no reason saving should require repeated deaths. Unless this ability was a punishment, I’d figured there would be a chance to set a save point along the way without dying.

And I’d been right. On my sixth birthday, I had gained a new save point.

At the same time, I felt something deep in my head that hadn’t been there before. It wasn’t a physical thing like my brain, but it felt as though a new organ had formed inside my head.

“!”

I opened my eyes to find the duke staring at me in surprise. Even without that new organ in my head, his expression told me the answer.

To my delight—or perhaps to my regret—I had awakened.

* * *

“You’ve awakened.”

When the duke declared it with certainty, everyone stared at me in surprise. The first duchess had gone rigid. Simon, the eldest son, frowned, while Manuel, the second, gaped. The second duchess looked astonished, as did my only sister. Unlike the others, though, Elena looked at me with delight. The priest and head butler waiting nearby were plainly surprised too.

Apparently, none of them had expected me to awaken.

Lastly, Mother wore a deeply conflicted expression. Worry and joy mingled on her face, along with relief and pride. I felt much the same. The result was nothing like what I had expected. Before I’d begun thinking about another path, I would have been overjoyed. Now my feelings were complicated. What’s more, the ability I had awakened was an ambiguous one.

Once that new organ formed in my head, I understood what my ability was—as naturally as if I’d recovered a hand I’d lost. I knew at once what it did and how to use it. It didn’t seem to have a special name, but I had a rough idea what to call it.

It was an ability that strengthened my body as I trained and gained experience in combat.

Tsk. Put like that, it sounded no different from an ordinary person getting stronger. But it wasn’t the same as what happened to commoners. Both the rate and the limits of my growth were different. I would grow faster and become strong enough to surpass human limits.

Not that I could keep getting stronger forever. Still, however lousy it sounded, the ability wasn’t completely lousy! It really was an awkward one to judge.

“Well? What ability did you inherit?”

The duke himself asked me a question. It was the first he had ever asked me, and there was even a trace of warmth in his voice. Of course. The moment I seemed useful to the family, his treatment of me changed. That put me in a foul mood.

I offered the duke an apology first—in my head.

‘Sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be much use to the family.’

Then I gave an answer well beyond my years.

“It appears to be a physical enhancement ability. Training seems to be much more effective for me than for an ordinary person.”

My voice was still that of a child who had just turned six, but I looked the duke in the eye and answered clearly.

“Pfft!”

Someone beside me snickered. I heard a quiet sigh of relief as well. It was obvious who had laughed at me, and the sigh had undoubtedly come from the first duchess.

The head butler stroked his white beard and tilted his head. “Physical enhancement? An unusual ability. I believe our ancestor, the hero Sir Carlos, possessed something similar among his abilities, but...”

I thought I understood what the head butler meant. I had studied diligently in that library-sized study, and after years of effort, I had a rough grasp of our ancestor Carlos’s abilities.

First, there was [Mana Sensitivity], passed down through the direct royal line. The books said that those who awakened it could sense and manipulate the mana in the world and within their bodies as clearly as if they could see it. The current king and his two princes possessed that ability.

Then there was [Mana Circuit Construction], passed down through the ducal house of Gresia, a branch of the royal family. Commonly called a [Heart Method], it was a mana-circulation technique used to project mana outside the body in tangible form. Sir Carlos had possessed four heart methods, and members of the Gresia ducal family had inherited them in turn.

Of course, across its long history, there had been people who inherited other abilities of Sir Carlos’s. But as far as I knew, not one of them had received an ability like mine.

‘And it looks pretty lousy, too...’

It seemed to be an ability that grew stronger over time, but training and time made other abilities stronger as well. Nearly all the abilities nobles used were based on mana. Magic used refined mana, and the sword aura projected through a blade was mana from within the body given tangible form.

The royal family’s ability let them handle the very foundation of mana. The ducal family could do something similar, though only within the body; that was why they held such standing among the nobility. My physical enhancement, on the other hand, had nothing to do with mana. I might reach the level of a knight if I did well. It seemed unlikely that would be enough for people to call me a noble.

‘No, wait. Maybe a lousy ability isn’t so bad?’

I quickly looked around. The surprise on everyone’s faces had turned to relief, and Mother didn’t look too upset either. Yes, this wasn’t bad. It was an ability perfectly suited to an illegitimate son like me: just enough to keep me on the fringes of the nobility without being cast out as a commoner. If things went well, I might become lord of a tiny village and live comfortably.

‘I’d be grateful even for a minor noble title.’

Even with an inherited ability, I could hardly dream of becoming a viscount or anything higher.

‘Good. I’ll keep my head down. I’ve survived five years; now I just have to hang on until I die of old age!’

Satisfied, I raised my head and looked ahead. The duke was watching me.

“So you inherited [Physical Optimization].”

He had muttered it quietly, but I was close enough to hear. Apparently, [Physical Optimization] was the proper name for my enhancement ability. The name didn’t matter much. The problem was the duke’s expression. His habitually impassive face had changed.

A chill ran over my whole body. The look in his eyes reminded me of a wolf with a tasty morsel right in front of it.