Edward’s voice was quiet.
"Awakened? How is that possible?"
Alex kept his head up.
"I don’t know, Father. It happened this morning. I woke up, and it was simply there." He paused. "Maybe I’m a late bloomer."
He had no idea whether the old man would swallow it. Edward’s gray eye did not leave him.
"A late bloomer, you say."
He said the words slowly.
"I have never heard of such a thing. It has never happened. If a child has not awakened by the age of twenty, he is unawakened for life. That is how it has always been."
Alex did not flinch. He did not get shy or defensive, either. He only bowed his head slightly, and his voice came out calm and respectful.
"Then there is a first time for everything, Father. And it seems I am the first."
The hall was silent, Alex waited, and watched.
The old man’s face did not change. But his gaze sharpened and slid across Alex from head to toe. Alex could not feel what Edward felt. He only saw the effect. The faint crease at the edge of the scar. The slow stillness of a man reading something that no words could argue with.
’He can sense it. He strongly wants to doubt me but he can’t.’
The seconds stretched. Then Edward closed his eye.
He drew a long breath through his nose. His broad shoulders eased by a fraction. When the eye opened again, the hardness in it had loosened.
It was not a smile. Edward Vance was not the man for that. But his beard moved at the corner of his mouth, and something warm lit the gray.
Alex understood it perfectly.
"Your mana..."
Edward’s voice was lower than before.
"I have never seen a newly awakened with so much. Not even I had so much when I awakened, and I was called a prodigy."
Alex raised an eyebrow, letting a faint smile show.
"Isn’t that what you wish, Father? For your son to surpass you?"
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the old man let out a deep breath through his beard, and it might have been a laugh.
"Hm. Impudent."
But he did not sound displeased.
’That settles it.’
Alex straightened.
"Father, there is one more reason I came."
"Speak."
"I would like to undergo the awakening ceremony."
Edward’s eye narrowed.
"I know the main ceremony is over and I already missed it." Alex kept his voice steady. "But I want to go through the process again. I want to know what class I have awakened."
Before Edward could answer, the doors behind him crashed open.
BANG.
The sound rolled through the hall like thunder. Alex did not need to turn. He knew the footsteps already and there was only one person besides himself who could barge into Edward Vances’s hall like in this world.
"Father!"
Daniel strode down the aisle.
"Father, there is a mana, a strange one, I felt it from the east wing. I have never sensed anything like it. There is no one in this house with that much..."
He stopped. His eyes had landed on Alex. For a second, his face went completely blank.
His voice cracked.
"You. That mana is coming from you?"
He took a step forward.
"You of all people? You, a disgrace who couldn’t even light a candle? How the hell..."
"Daniel."
Edward did not raise his voice. He only said the name, and Daniel’s mouth closed.
"He has awakened."
Daniel’s lips parted, and a muscle jumped along his jaw. His fist tightened at his side. But he said nothing more.
Edward turned back to Alex.
"Very well."
His voice was calm and plain.
"It is the custom. A man who has awakened his mana must then determine his class. I will allow it."
Alex bowed.
"Thank you, Father."
"Daniel."
The younger twin stiffened.
"Go and summon a conjurer. Not the old one."
Edward’s eye hardened.
"I no longer trust her. If there was an error at the last ceremony, it may well have been hers. Send word to the head maid instead. Call her back from the task I gave her. She is to come and conduct this herself. Immediately."
Daniel stared at him. His jaw locked so tightly that Alex could see the tendons stand out in his neck, and the word what was written all over his face.
’He’s being sent on an errand for me.’
Alex almost laughed.
But Daniel only lowered his head.
"Yes, Father."
Alex smiled, bowed once more, and let his eyes drift to the throne.
’Appraisal Eye.’
A faint blue ripple crossed his vision.
[APPRAISAL EYE ACTIVATED]
Edward’s figure shimmered, and lines of pale text unfolded beside him.
[Name: Edward Vance]
[Class: Magic Swordsman]
[Level: 5,000]
Alex’s breath caught.
’Level five thousand is crazy. That’s some last boss stats.’
He waited for the rest. Strength. Agility. Mana. Nothing came. Beneath the three lines, the rest of the window had turned flat.
[Skills: LOCKED, LOCKED, LOCKED...]
’Of course. A man like that doesn’t open for a Level 1.’
He let the ripple fade.
"Thank you again, Father."
He turned and walked down the aisle.
Daniel stood a few steps away, his eyes fixed on the floor. Alex did not speak to him. He did not even look at him. He simply walked past.
As he went, he activated the eye.
[Name: Daniel Vance]
[Level: 15]
[Class: Swordsman]
[Skills: Iron Fang Slash (D Rank), Phantom Edge (D Rank), Steel Tempest (D Rank), Flash Draw (D Rank)]
Alex kept walking, a smile touched his lips.
’He is still at level 15, well that’s good but not too far off from me. Good to know.’
The great doors closed behind him with a soft thud, and the corridor opened out before him.
’That business is done. Now I wait for the conjurer. The head maid.’
He pictured her. A woman who ran every servant in the estate. A woman who, he now realized, had to be a mana user, or Edward would never have trusted her with a ceremony like this.
He stopped.
’Wait. The head maid is a mana user.’
His smile widened.
"That’s the third one. So all targets are locked in."
He started walking again, faster this time.
And at the back of his mind, one question lingered. The goddess had forced him to go through this, threatened to shrink his dick for refusing. And he already knew his class.
’I’ll soon find out why she wants me to attend so badly.’
"But first thing on the list now, Lena."