Ez felt a powerful presence looking at him, he looked up to see the emperor walking towards the front. His physique suggests that he should be in his fifties. But because of how well maintained and smart he looks and dresses he seems charmingly in his early 30's. His pepper hair blends in well with his clean sharp face. He could still see part of a fading smirk pasted on his face,
Hmm, that is quite interesting. The emperor taking an interest in me. It is an open secret to everyone that the emperor is known for his general lack of his interest in kids. He seemingly doesn't care enough about his children, it was because of this Stella's friends had to beg the emperor to protect John, and that too at a great price. So an emperor who could give rat's tail about his children was looking at me to the point where I could feel his gaze.
Could it be he found something unusual about me? But that is not possible, even though God is lazy during his holidays if he says he will do something he will make sure to do a thorough job when doing it. Along with that so far I have not acted out of character, except for not wearing that vest, so there should be no reason for him to be suspicious of ...
Oh feather of Archangels, I screwed up big time. Not only did I forget to rearrange the bedsheet after the struggle I had with the assassin, but instead I gave a reason for Smith to go and check on me, by not wearing the stupid vest. He must have seen the way the bedsheets have been aligned in my room and concluded that there must have been an assassin trying to kill me. No wonder his face was furious when I saw him later.
Wait does that mean they think I am an animated dead person because there is no way a scholar like John, who has no award to survive an assassination attempt. Then instead of killing me why have, they let me live. That means they have conclusive proof I am a living person, and they believe I must have survived somehow, or they are trying to catch the person who animated me and trying to find the motive using my actions. If it was me I would say the likely option is the second one. You have got to be kidding me. Not even been 24 hours and this body has been killed, raised back from the dead to be sent along to buy a ticket to visit death again.
My bad luck meter must be exploding right about now from the overcharge. This is why I should have taken a guardian angel, stupid me and my procrastination. I should have just stayed here for a few years with my guardian angel and just went back to heaven the normal way. But instead, I had to try and attempt a shortcut.
Now I must find a way to escape this situation or I am done for. Oh, hang on the memorial stone, that is it. Any award that is related to the dead is classified as necromancy award. Necromancers can raise the dead, even raise those who have awakened their award, and form a formidable undying loyal troop of award users. But anyone they raised who has not awakened their award can never awaken it, no matter if they have memorial stone or not.
The memorial stone can prove that I am alive and not a dead person by showing everyone that I have an award. But the problem is my award itself. If they come to know of my award then I am bound to be the slave of the emperor. So, the choice I got to face is whether to not use a memorial stone and get killed by the emperor for a possibility of being undead or show my award and become a slave for the next 25 years. Obviously, the choice is being a slave, it's a no brainer as I have no intention of dying.
"I thank everyone for gathering here today for the awakening of the younger generation..." The Emperor started with his speech and went on for 5 minutes, concluding with
"Now, I would like each of the 11 people to come forward one at a time and awaken their awards." Then he went off the stage back to his seat inviting another person with a white robe up to the stage. It was strange seeing someone wear a robe as most people here are wearing a suit (which is the result of God implementing his fashion sense in this world again I believe). He didn't speak anything as he just waited there for people to come forward.
The order to receive the awakening wasn't set, as anyone can go up first. I decided to go first, might as well get this done and over with instead of worrying and stressing about it while the other 10 participants awaken.
I stood up and went Infront the man. There was no need to waste formality on kneeling or praising the emperor, as the emperor along with the nobles are all more anxious in finding out what the awards awakened today are.
The man then took out a small white square stone tablet, the size of a adults palm, out of nowhere and said without any emotions "Place a drop of your blood on the stone, after that hold the stone with both your hand.". then he passed me a needle to prick my finger. Once I placed the blood on the smooth surface of the stone I held it with both my hand.
I don't know if I should feel for some mysterious force or close my eyes or the usual cliché things that happen in novel or shows. So I stood there awkwardly for 1 minute while everyone was staring at the stone. After 1 minute everyone started to gasp and whisper to the person next to them, soon the hall started to get noisy. I knew this was the moment where the emperor probably says silence, and I officially start my journey as a slave.
"SILENCE!" ordered the typically predictable emperor. "Magi Jacob are the results of the memorial stone true?" the emperor anxiously questioned the person next to me, so his name seems to be Jacob. I turned around to face him and nearly laughed. He was all serious a moment ago, and now his face is wide open with eyes bulging out.
Recovering out of his shock he replied "My lord the stone cannot be false. I have never thought I would see this in my lifetime."
'Lifetime'? What is he saying? Has a similar ability to mine appeared before?
For the first time since I dropped my blood on the stone, I looked down to it. What I saw stupefied me? It was the same stone with no changes.
"He is Awardless my lord" replied Jacob, and his reply caused all hell to break loose in the hall.