I Have Awakened (2)
I Have Awakened (2)
Contrary to the Duke's expression, which had left a lingering, somewhat uncomfortable aftertaste, the time that followed passed without much incident.
There were the dry congratulations from Simon and Duchess Brivia, the blatant disregard from the little brat Manuel, and the warm, genuine praise from my sister and the second duchess.
Even the chief butler and the estate's servants offered their congratulations with awkward, ambiguous expressions.
"Don't be too disappointed, dear. Simply awakening an ability is already a truly wonderful thing."
Back in my room, my mother hugged me tightly and tried to comfort me, but I didn't really need comforting.
In fact, it was an incredibly satisfying result.
'This might actually be better than not awakening at all.'
While safety was important, being kicked out to live as a commoner in an era like this would make survival incredibly difficult.
An ambiguous ability that didn't encroach on my brothers' domains would surely help secure my future while keeping me safe.
'Well, to be blunt, I'm just coping with a bit of "mental victory" because I ended up awakening anyway.'
But even an ambiguous ability was still an inherited ability.
Now that the Duke's protection had ended, danger might come sweeping in again.
'I can't let my guard down. I have to stay alert. Alert.'
After bidding my mother goodnight and returning to my room, I let out a deep sigh.
Either way, since I was staying at the Duke's estate, another tense period was bound to begin.
'Now, the goal is to establish a branch family! Throw away the genius cosplay and transform into a moderately useful guy!'
As I made that resolve, a knock sounded at the door.
'Is it Flora?'
"Come in."
But contrary to my expectations, the person who opened the door was the elderly head maid.
"You have been instructed to come to the training ground behind the mansion early tomorrow morning."
She spoke the moment she stepped into the room.
"The training ground?"
"Yes."
I tilted my head in confusion. Why the training ground all of a sudden?
I asked again.
"Who gave the order?"
"The chief butler."
The chief butler...
If he was the one giving me orders, it meant the Duke had commanded it.
Then there was only one reason to go to the training ground.
"I suppose I am to meet a knight there?"
"Yes, you have been asked to meet Knight Commander Alonso."
At the head maid's words, my expression turned troubled.
'The Knight Commander is quite a troublesome opponent...'
Knight Commander Alonso, unlike the other knights, was a single-generation noble who had awakened his ability as a commoner, and he didn't particularly care for me, a bastard son.
Even if I was a bastard, I was still the Duke's child, yet whenever we passed each other in the hallways, he would pretend not to see me and ignore me.
I couldn't refuse the Duke's order, and I also needed to verify for myself just how helpful my awakened ability would be.
The next morning, I followed Flora toward the training ground behind the mansion.
I knew the way, but there was no way they would let a child who had just turned six wander around alone.
The training ground was a short walk down a side path behind the mansion.
In the small training ground surrounded by trees, only two people were visible.
It was a private training ground used by nobles who disliked showing their abilities to others.
It was primarily used by my father, the Duke, and my half-brothers.
Today, neither the Duke nor my half-brothers were in sight.
Instead, two knights stood in the center of the empty training ground: a middle-aged knight and a young knight who looked to be in his early twenties.
The sharp-looking middle-aged knight was Knight Commander Alonso, who disliked me, while the younger knight was someone I'd never seen before.
'Who is he?'
Burying the question in my mind, I stood before the Knight Commander and greeted him.
I straightened my posture and placed my hand over my left chest. It was the greeting a noble offered to someone they trusted.
"I am Alex."
At my polite, aristocratic greeting, both the Knight Commander and the young knight flinched.
It wasn't a greeting a child who had just turned six would normally make.
"I am... Knight Commander Alonso."
The Knight Commander's reply came a little late.
"By order of the Duke, we are here to verify... Young Lord Alex's ability."
As expected, using formal honorifics seemed incredibly awkward for him.
It seemed unlikely that I would get close to this Knight Commander. Still, thanks to my proper greeting, I wouldn't be looked down upon.
Respect for an opponent begins with words.
Although it created some distance between us, he wasn't someone I wanted to get close to anyway, so I decided to be satisfied with simply not being underestimated.
That aside, as expected, they were going to test my awakened ability.
The Duke's face had been quite terrifying. Did he have some sort of scheme?
Such thoughts crossed my mind, but for now, I had to deal with the stubborn knight standing before me.
"Then, what should I do?"
At my question, the Knight Commander handed me a wooden sword.
It was a wooden sword scaled to fit my body. Judging by the scuffs and marks here and there, it wasn't newly made; someone else had used it. Was it one Simon or Manuel had used?
'Am I seriously getting hand-me-downs here too?'
After that somewhat pathetic thought flashed through my mind, I moved my sword hand this way and that.
As expected, I felt absolutely nothing. In my past life, I had never held a sword, let alone attended a kendo academy, so there was no way I would feel anything the moment I gripped it.
Watching me swing the sword half-heartedly, the Knight Commander spoke.
"Since you have absolutely no basics, we'll start with basic training first. Miguel!"
"Yes, sir!"
'Hey, you don't have to point it out so bluntly. Of course I don't have any basics; it's my first time holding a sword.'
As I grumbled inwardly, the young knight standing beside the Knight Commander stepped forward at his command.
"I am Regular Knight Miguel."
He was a gentle-looking knight with thick arms. Thank goodness. He didn't seem like the type of knight who would deliberately torment someone.
The Knight Commander stepped aside, crossed his arms, and watched the training. It seemed he intended to observe from the sidelines instead of conducting the training himself.
"We will follow the apprentice knight training course today. We will adjust the pace according to your stamina and physical condition, so please do your best."
"Understood."
It was only for today anyway. Since I was curious about my inherited ability too, I planned to do my absolute best.
"Then, shall we start by running? This training ground is on the smaller side, so let's just do fifty laps."
Fifty laps? Did I hear that wrong?
My jaw dropped at the knight's words.
Even though it was much smaller than the training grounds the knights usually used, it was still a training ground. One lap was over a hundred meters. Fifty laps meant five kilometers.
To make a six-year-old who had never even exercised run five kilometers, what on earth were you thinking?! Are you an assassin or something?!
"Start running first. You just need to run until you collapse from exhaustion. We have also prepared healing elixir, so you do not need to worry about your body."
It seemed they intended to test my limits.
I let out a sigh. Since they had gone to such lengths, I had no choice but to run.
"Run while holding the sword. If you drop it, we will start over from the beginning."
At the knight's words, I began to run.
'If I'd known this would happen, I should have done some exercise.'
I gritted my teeth and kept running, listening to the young knight shout.
I kept running and running, until, on the thirty-second lap...
I ended up losing consciousness.
"He has grit."
As I regained consciousness, a voice I hadn't expected at all drifted into my ears.
A cold, rigid voice. The Duke's.
"It certainly seems correct that he has obtained an ability. This is not the stamina of an ordinary, untrained six-year-old child."
This time, I heard the Knight Commander's voice.
It seemed the Knight Commander and the Duke were having a conversation.
Had I been carried back to the mansion?
But the scent of the forest brushed past my nose. I could also feel the uneven dirt beneath my back and limbs.
I was in the very training ground where I had fainted.
But this wasn't the stamina of an ordinary child...
Was it really that?
There was a moment while I was running when it was so hard that I wanted to give up. It came when the sky turned yellow, my limbs trembled, and gastric juice welled up.
Right at that moment, power surged from deep within my body.
When I was running earlier, I thought it was the 'runner's high' I had heard of in my past life...
You know, that physiological phenomenon where exercising to the point of death causes drug-like hormones to be secreted, making your strength surge.
Was that not it? Indeed, the feeling was different from the 'runner's high' I had heard about in my past life.
It wasn't that I'd forgotten my fatigue. It was more like the strain had eased slightly—or perhaps my limits had expanded.
Anyway, thanks to that feeling, I was able to run beyond my limits. Even so, I still fainted in the end.
"It seems he is awake now. His recovery is not bad, either. The ability itself has been confirmed. However... from what I can see, it doesn't seem to be such a remarkable ability..." The Duke didn't reply to the Knight Commander's words.
Instead, I heard footsteps, growing increasingly distant.
I stealthily opened my eyes.
I saw the Knight Commander standing quite a distance away, and the Duke's back as he walked toward the mansion.
Did that inherited ability also improve my hearing?
The Knight Commander was standing quite far from where I was lying.
Neither Flora, who was giving me a lap pillow, nor the young knight Miguel, who stood nearby, seemed to have heard their conversation.
I raised my body while watching the departing Duke.
"Are you alright? Please lie down a bit longer. There might be aftereffects. I was going to call for someone, but..."
Even without Flora saying more, I knew what she meant.
Since the Duke had visited, what could she possibly have said? Watching silently was the most she could do.
"I'm fine."
I really was fine. Nothing hurt, and my mind was perfectly clear.
Although the muscles I'd suddenly used so violently were tight, I was strangely fine for someone who had just woken up from fainting.
Still, there was something more important than my perfectly fine body.
The Duke's visit here was completely unexpected.
Was he just passing by? Or was it a momentary whim?
There was no way. If the Duke were that kind of person, there was no reason he wouldn't have visited me all this time.
There was something to this. This test. My seemingly insignificant awakening.
There was a reason my awakening had drawn the Duke's attention.
"Your recovery seems fine. Can you continue with the training?"
The Knight Commander, approaching me as I stood up, asked if I wanted to do more.
Perhaps because the Duke had visited, the Knight Commander's expression was better than before. Although Flora looked worried, I nodded.
"I will continue."
I had to find out why the Duke had come. Since it didn't seem like he would tell me, I had to find out the reason myself.
And though I thought I had given up on everything, it seemed that wasn't the case. A small spark of expectation wriggled inside my chest.
I needed to clearly understand what kind of weapon had been placed in my hands.
The young knight Miguel stood before me once again.
"Normally, we would continue with physical conditioning, but verifying your ability takes priority right now, so we will begin the swordsmanship lesson."
Unfortunately, I wasn't learning some grand form of swordsmanship.
He had me repeat downward strikes, then, once my muscles began trembling violently, had me swing left and right.
After watching the training for a long while, the Knight Commander left. It seemed the remaining tests had been completed.
But my training was not over.
After eating the packed lunch Flora had prepared, I received swordsmanship training all afternoon.
Toward the end, my arms had lost so much strength that it was hard to tell whether I was doing swordsmanship training or dancing.
By the time the sun dipped behind the forest at the back of the mansion, the training finally ended.
I didn't faint this time, but it was so grueling that I would have rather begged them to let me lose consciousness.
I was reckless for pushing myself this hard, but the knight who ran a child who had just turned six ragged all day was beyond reckless.
"You have worked hard. Even if you have obtained an ability, you have overexerted your muscles today, so please get a massage from the maids and rest well for at least a day."
The young knight Miguel offered his greetings to me as I lay exhausted, then left the training ground.