บท 2: Growing Up In A Home, The Streets Seem Cold

A YEAR LATER

I had absorbed much more of the world of the novel around me, further solidifying the large amounts of knowledge I already had, but only what I could hear as I couldn't read nor speak the language yet.

I had a different advantage though.

"Status Tab.".

A translucent blue panel appeared in front of me with white writing on it:

NAME: Alistair Cassian Fellsword

(John Avery).

STATS: Physical-2 Meta-Physical-0

SKILL: none

'Nothing has changed yet, and it's been so boring, I can't wait to be able to read again!' I nearly shouted.

I sat and began to compile information.

I was in the kingdom of Grayheaven as the second son of a fallen ducal family in the city of Bordeaux. The Fellsword family consisted of me, my older brother, two older sisters, and one younger sister who was a year younger than me.

As described in the novel, the Fellsword family was in a large monetary debt to the empire, and the one in charge of it was another duke who happened to be an annoying, greedy bastard.

The biggest problem was that the strength of our estate was lower than it should be, and in a world where strength was first, we were in a greatly disadvantageous position.

"How am I going to get us out of this?"

I took in a deep breath.

'The year in this world would be around the start of the Victorian era on earth, I wonder how the main character is doing right now,'

I summarized and crawled to the wall to support myself.

'I need to return to Mother before she comes to look for me, so let's give walking another try,' I planned with conviction.

I pushed myself off the wall and controlled my infant body slowly. As a grown man pretending to be a normal child, my movements were impressive.

"Let's keep going, I can't fail now!"

I walked each step slowly until I broke my record of only one.

Suddenly a scream sounded.

"Ahhh!! My baby's walking! Johnathan, he's walking already!!"

My mother and father were looking for me and found me slowly walking while making unconscious baby noises. Not a man's proudest moment to say the least.

"That's my son, he's already strong!"

"He takes after you!" said my mother.

Their faces of pride and joy made my heart experience new waves. A near desolate land though it was, the pride of new-found parents still counted as a drop of energy to bring back its liveliness.

Suddenly, a notification panel appeared to me.

[You have achieved [Walking] a skill choice will be granted!]

[All stats +10]

[Please choose your first skill!]

"Oh! I got something for the first time! But what is this?!"

5 square panels appeared spread out in front of me, each with a different word as a title.

The first:

[Passive: Calculative Mind.]

The second

[Passive: Magic Heart]

The third

[Passive: Sword Heart]

The Fourth:

[Passive: Beast Master]

The fifth

[Passive: Martial Artist Physique]

"A passive? like those in games? None-active skills. Let's choose carefully."

[A choice will appear every time an achievement, checkmark, plotline, quest, or event is completed.]

"I should check each one before making a choice."

[Passive: Calculative Mind: Incredible memory and the ability to think intricate and complex thoughts and judge situations carefully, all within milliseconds.]

[Passive: Magic Heart: An amazing talent for magic.]

[Passive: Sword Heart: An amazing talent for the sword.]

[Passive: Beast Master: an amazing affinity with beasts allowing easy taming and control.]

[Passive: Martial Artist Physique: An amazing talent for martial arts and physical disciplines.]

"All of them concern talent, other than the mind one that stands out. Considering the novel's world, I should choose either [Magic Heart] or [Sword Heart], and yet it doesn't feel right. I think maybe the obvious choice isn't always the best one."

[You have selected [Calculative Mind].]

In an instant, my mind transformed, with a tiny bit of focus I could almost glimpse at the world in a slowed manner—no I almost saw the world at a full stop. With every thought I considered ten possibilities, with every possibility I thought of a hundred more, an endless web of thoughts, ideas, plans, and considerations all done within less than a second.

'How amazing, this was definitely the right choice!'

Time quickly flew by after that.

FIVE YEARS LATER.

After I learned to walk my mother held me in her arms for the majority of the day so I couldn't look for books to read. She did it out of love but it led to an incredible amount of boredom.

Usually, I would listen to their conversations and try to learn things of use but they were mostly just chatting about miscellaneous things around the lunch table so I zoned out and checked my status.

"Status tab"

A rectangular panel appeared before my eyes:

NAME: Alistair Cassian Fellsword

(John Avery).

STATS: Physical-12 Meta-Physical-10

SKILL:[Calculative Mind].

'[Calculative Mind] is amazingly effective, my mind is already beyond human limits.'

Suddenly the subject of the conversation around me changed.

"The academy's envoy will be here tomorrow to escort you, my children."

The Royal Academy was a place that any man or woman in the world would dream of entering, but my family seemed a bit unhappy about it.

My older brother, Liam, in particular seemed unwilling to go.

"Father, Mother, do we have to go? Those Redvein bastards will harass us like always!"

The Redvein ducal family, their name was always somehow involved when my family was in trouble.

"I'm..sorry, my children, if only I was not injured, my strength would surpass that bastard and we'd be free of the debt and harassment… but you must go because of the king's invitation." My father lamented.

My mother spoke up and consoled them.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad, you'll make some good friends and grow stronger so just ignore their harassment and learn as much as you can! And your shadows will also be with you, so don't worry too much."

"I wanna go too mommy!" My younger sister Ella shouted acutely while grasping at my mother's dress. As a four-year-old, she served as a distraction from the family's problems, something I couldn't do due to my mature mind.

…