Chapter 9: Ambition
It was currently the middle of the night; Mark was sitting with his father and mother.
They were relaxing after his birthday party.
"Son, you have made our Rose family proud again!"
Charles Rose, Mark's father, praised Mark without hesitation.
Luna Rose too gleamed with joy as she spoke to Mark.
"Mark my sweetie! You have been named a God's Knight! Only few families can get this glory."
"Because of you, the Rose family will have a Knight sitting on top, for the upcoming century!"
Mark smiled; yes, that was true. The stunt his father pulled had secured the Rose family a position in the top families.
The God's Knight all came from different families, these families were generally known as the top families.
Of course, it's all an unofficial ranking. But everyone knows that if a choice has to be made, a God's Knight will always choose their own family.
"I am happy that my deeds have brought glory to Rose."
"Worry not, although all celestial dragons are one, I'll keep the Rose family in my mind as long as I live."
Mark declared seriously, but deep down he wasn't sure if he could do it; he didn't know what Im did to make the God's Knights so subservient to him.
It could be memory manipulation, or forced submission; maybe even a strong king's haki was responsible. Only time will tell.
If it was anything extreme like that, Mark will not be able to help himself, much less the Rose family behind him.
'I can have everything in the world by becoming a God's Knight.'
'Glory, power, authority, everything! And all it would cost, is bowing down to Im.'
'All it would require is to give up my freedom and live my life according to Im's wishes…'
Mark paused his thoughts; he involuntarily clenched his fists.
'Is that okay…? Am I going to give up my freedom for everything in the world?'
'While Luffy becomes the freest man in the world, am I going to dedicate my life to Im for a position of absolute authority?'
Mark's eyes became slowly shadowed.
'No.'
'I will not bow down to you, Im.'
'I'll make myself so strong that neither your Haki nor your devil fruit will work on me, and if the chance presents itself…'
Narrowing his eyes dangerously, Mark thought something that was blasphemous for a celestial dragon to think.
'If the chance presents itself, I'll replace you, Im. There can only be one top dog, and that will be me.'
'Mark Rose.'
As soon as Mark made this declaration, something changed.
Something was unleashed from within him; he could feel it; he could project his ambition, his will, outwards.
But Mark kept this feeling in check and didn't do anything; he was currently with his parents, foolishly releasing whatever this was would only result in unnecessary attention.
"Mom, Dad, I am tired; I want to rest. Excuse me."
Mark had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to keep his emotions in check for long, so he excused himself immediately.
His mom, though, was startled; Mark never wanted to leave in the middle of their family time.
He must be feeling very tired.
"Sweety! Do you want me to call a doctor? How dare the guards let this happen to you!"
Charles became incredibly angry as well.
"Don't worry, honey, I'll execute all of them immediately!"
"Mark, my son! Do you want me to call a doctor? I'll call every doctor in the Holy Land!"
Although his parents words were brutal, Mark felt warm seeing them losing their cool for him; it was clear that they would do anything for him, but this was a little too extreme.
He didn't really feel tired; it was a simple excuse to avoid harming them by accident.
"It's okay, Mom and Dad; I just want to rest."
But his dad shook his head in denial.
"No, Mark! How could it be okay?"
"Servants! Come here, take Mark to his room, and give him the best care there is!"
The maids and butlers in the room started running towards Mark as if their lives depended on it.
Bringing a luxurious carriage up to Mark, they bowed down and made a path for Mark to walk towards the carriage.
'These people are way too overkill.'
Thought Mark while walking towards the carriage.
A butler helped him up, and a maid quickly got inside and started fanning him.
"Set off! Immediately!"
His father, Charles, roared, and they ran like the wind. Their destination? Mark's room is on the opposite side of the villa.
Yes, they were moving Mark through a carriage inside of his house.
"This is overkill, right?"
Mark twitched his lips and asked the maid beside him, who was currently fanning him.
But the second Mark looked at her, the maid felt so stressed she passed out directly.
Speechless, he looked around everywhere. Seeing that nobody had noticed the girl fainting, he decided to wake her up, or she would be really screwed.
_Pat pat._
Mark lightly patted her face, causing her to frown.
After a few seconds passed, she opened her eyes.
"Huh?"
The first thing she saw was Mark looking at her unamused; she was confused for a split second, and then memories came rushing in.
"No... Saint… Saint Mark…"
"Forgive… please forgive!"
Quickly closing her mouth with his hand, Mark gestured at her to shut up.
"Do you want to die? First you fainted in the middle of critical work, then you yelled after waking up. Are you slow?"
The maid quickly closed her mouth and stopped her terrified ramblings.
Mark's harsh words were like honey to her ears, because this confirmed that she was not given up!
Saint Mark not only didn't tell anyone she fainted due to the immensely dangerous question presented.
He also made sure nobody actually saw her making this critical mistake!
"Saint Mark, I… I am sorry…"
"I won't do it again, I promise!"
Mark nodded silently, and he gestured at her to get back to work.
He had already shown great tolerance by not letting anyone know that she messed up; if he was actually sick and needed help, and she happily fainted that time as well, it would be him who dies.
She was quite unfit for caregiver work at the very least; Mark will arrange for her somewhere she can actually achieve her worth.
'Sigh, where was I? Yes, now that I have managed to escape my parents, it's time I see what the feeling of ambition was.'
Mark wasn't completely certain but was almost 80% sure he had awakened his conqueror's Haki.
Almost all powerful celestial dragons have it; no reason he won't have it too.
His desire to not succumb to Im must have triggered his awakening; that was Mark's current thought on the matter.
'My ambition made my body react to it; if I have king's haki, many things will become much easier.'
Mark knew that in higher-tier fights, conqueror's haki is a necessity to even damage your opponent.
Having conquerors Haki made things way easier for Mark; he wouldn't have to look for different ways to make up for his damage output anymore.
Chapter 10: Conqueror's Haki
Mark had gotten off the carriage with the help of the clumsy maid and was now sitting on his bed.
His posture was straight and his attitude was serious; he was finally going to unleash whatever this new feeling was.
"I'll try to control the range within my room; or I might knock out everyone."
"Alright, here goes nothing."
_Vroom_
A tremor spread throughout his room with Mark as the center; a constant shockwave-like aura was released from his body.
Looking at the slowly vibrating room, Mark was sure this was indeed conqueror's haki.
"I can somewhat control the range; training nothing but observation haki for a decade has made me very adept at grasping distance."
Mark had just unlocked his king's haki; he didn't have a good control over it, but grasping the distance was still possible because of his strong observation haki.
This was why he was confident in keeping the effects to his room.
"Huff"
Letting out a breath, Mark felt the changes within him.
To understand this feeling completely, he decided to keep releasing kings haki for a while longer.
'How long can I release it?'
Mark thought as he steadily kept emitting kings haki, an overbearing aura was constantly covering his entire room.
"I am feeling a bit lightheaded."
"This feels like observation haki overuse… I am losing strength the more I use it."
"Haki is a limited resource after all; I am probably running out of steam while doing this."
Realizing this, Mark stopped releasing his conqueror's haki and took a deep breath.
He didn't want to push himself too hard.
Luffy had shown in his fight against Doflamingo what kind of disastrous things can happen when you overuse your Haki and it runs out.
Mark wasn't about that life; he was the type to take things as they come.
"I see, king's haki is way harder to use when compared to observation haki."
"But I am confident I can use it without much trouble."
Throughout the years Mark had read many books about Haki; he already knew how to use this particular type of Haki efficiently.
There were a lot of neat tricks he could do with King's haki, but before he did any of that, he wanted to do the thing he was waiting two whole decades for.
_Clap clap._
As soon as Mark clapped his hands, the doors opened, and a graceful maid bowed to him.
"Within 10 minutes, I want a steady stream of food to my room."
"Make it meat and vegetables; keep it coming until I ask you to stop."
No questions were asked; the maid bowed again and left the room immediately.
Mark, meanwhile, took a deep breath and prepared himself for the upcoming ordeal.
"Let do a practice run first."
Whispered Mark, as his hair began to flow upwards, his spiky hair was moving like it was experiencing wind currents.
But curiously, his room was without any direct wind; this odd phenomenon was the result of life returning.
"I can perfectly control my hair; this shouldn't be possible; hair has no muscles for it to move, but I know why I can do this, Haki."
Only haki was something which was inside every part of his body; it was an easy conclusion to reach.
Mark kept playing with his hair for a while longer, before he raised his hand and made a claw shape.
_Wiggle_
Immediately his hand began changing; it was morphing to suit the image he had in mind, taking the shape of a tiger claw.
"Thick curved nails, claw-like shape, life return is so damn cool."
Mark smiled and decided to revert his hand back to normal.
It too happened automatically; his body obeyed his command without questions.
Make smiled and simply stopped his experiments because he could feel the maid was back with his food.
Next was going to be a long session.
_knock knock_
"Come in."
Mark elegantly asked the maid to enter.
She pushed the door open, and a chef came from behind her while pushing a cart of food.
"Excellent."
"Keep it coming."
Mark praised their efficiency with a nod; the chef in question bowed with pride visible on his face.
He then left the room to prepare more food; other chefs were also preparing their shares; he too needed to go back.
Mark, meanwhile, removed his upper garments, and the maid swiftly kept them in place.
"Alright, I need to build muscles; life return will do that, and the raw material will be the food I will consume and quickly digest."
Mark's upper body currently didn't have any visible muscles. Physically speaking, he was just a regular man.
He never bothered to train his body, because he knew he would do this when the time came.
So now, Mark was building everything from scratch.
"Let us begin."
Mark started cutting the steak before him and put it in his mouth; chewing it silently, he gulped down the food.
'Life return.'
He willed it to be digested, and in a few seconds, all the food was broken down and absorbed into his body.
'Life return.'
As soon as Mark felt that happen, he willed his body to become stronger.
Yes, his entire body, not just his muscles.
Because here's the thing: from the scholar, he understood something important: balance was essential.
"This way my entire body—bone density, muscle mass, nerve response, everything—will be upgraded."
_Wiggle_
Mark's body soon wiggled slightly, but nothing happened after that, visually at least.
But Mark could feel it; he was indeed getting stronger and better; he was pretty sure his eyes could see a little clearer too.
His observation haki practice had given him the ability to analyze this level of detail.
"Yes, this is the way; it's equivalent to training the entire body with the best possible efficiency."
"Skipping the recovery part and getting straight to the strengthening part."
Mark kept eating, digesting, and willing his body to become stronger by the second.
This process was slower than only increasing or decreasing muscle mass, but this was also better overall.
"Keep it coming."
Mark ordered the maid, and she gave another signal; one more chef entered the room.
'I am going to keep doing this until my body reaches its maximum potential.'
Mark thought while chewing his food.
He could already see the faintest signs of muscle were starting to appear on his arms.
And he could feel his body was now much more dense as well; everything was being upgraded, even his brain.
Mark was walking towards a path nobody in this world had walked before, a path made from ingenious use of life return.
To what extent this will lead Mark to, only time will tell.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
27 Power
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