The day of the engagement celebration neared.
As far as Francis knew, the invitations for the party had been sent out to several noble families including the families who housed the main characters of the game. He supposed it was only normal considering his father's position as Prime Minister.
Though, part of him hoped that he wouldn't have to meet the characters so early on.
He wasn't ready to meet them. And he was fairly certain they were all assholes in real life. Blame his intuition for assuming that.
Their default personalities were nothing special. If anything, they all seemed rather…arrogant? Pretentious? Entitled? Or was it all three combined?
Either way, Francis doubted their personalities as children would be any better. For all he knew, they could be much worse.
'But then again, I guess all children born of noble lineage are the same' he thought to himself.
Sitting inside the library, Francis was currently hiding from Emily who was trying to force him to try on outfits from the engagement party.
'Come to think of it, I should be able to purchase some skills now for my Wind Magic.'
Opening the system interface, he looked at his accumulated SP bar.
SP: 50
"My SP is higher than I had initially calculated. Probably due to the addition to my daily tasks."
After Francis had unlocked the AP stat, he received a new daily task of swinging his sword, or any weapon rather, whilst activating his aura. This task was a bit more troubling than the first one as it couldn't be completed within his room.
So far, he'd been sneaking out at night to complete the task when everyone else was asleep. But, he knew it wouldn't be long until someone caught on.
'While I do consider the workers here my family, part of me still doesn't fully trust them.'
They were, after all, under the orders of his father - Lord Taron. For all he knew, they could be reporting every little detail about him to his father. If he told them that he'd received his mana core, there's a chance his father would learn of it and immediately summon him back.
'And if I'm summoned back, there will be a chance I'll be forced to enter the inheritance battle.'
That is if his father would accept the fact that his youngest son, who was diagnosed by many skilled priests and mana experts, suddenly awakened his mana core. There was no recorded case of such a thing ever happening in all of history.
The suspicions that would be raised were countless and the troubles that Francis were enough for him to grab his head in a headache.
No. He couldn't let anyone find out about his mana core until he was powerful enough. Thankfully, his system allowed him to increase his strength faster than everyone else. He just needed to be patient.
"Open system store," he said.
The system flashed and the interface changed to show the store. Francis tapped on the skills column which opened to show the purchasable skills.
[Wind arrow: 10 SP]
[Wind Whip: 20 SP]
[Whirlwind: 30 SP]
[Tornado: 40 SP]
"I have enough for the tornado skill but then I'd only have ten points left," Francis contemplated on which one to buy. He hummed for a minute before finally deciding to purchase the cheapest one.
"Let's start off small."
[Ding! You have purchased the 'Wind arrow' skill for 10 SP. Remaining balance: 40 SP]
'Nice.'
Francis rolled his shoulders and held out his hands in front of him aiming at a wall. He wanted to try it out right away.
"Wind arrow!"
*Whoosh*
His palms glowed a minty green light before a gust of air shot out of them and pierced the wall before dissipating. And then it was silent.
Francis let out a breath that he was holding and walked closer to inspect the wall. As he neared, he spotted a tiny crack that had formed on the sturdy wall.
"Eh? It's that strong?!" he muttered in shock. One blast of that was enough to severely harm or even kill a human being. "Is it supposed to be this strong?"
He inspected the wall a bit longer before opening his stats to check his MP bar.
"As expected…"
MP: 95/100
If it took 5 MP to fire one shot, that meant that the maximum times he could use this skill was 20. But he didn't worry that it would be too little. If one wind arrow was that strong, he may never need to use the full 20 shots.
'I read in a book that Wind arrow is the weakest skill of them all and does minimal damage. However, it appears that due to the fact I have a platinum-rank mana core, the intensity of the skill is multiplied.'
"...Did you guys hear that?"
"A bang?"
"It came from there!"
A flurry of voices drifted from the entrance of the library all of whom Francis recognized.
It was Emily, John, and the new maid; Jane.
"Ah shit," cursed Francis. He glanced at the crack in the wall and bit his lip.
How was he going to explain that?
.
.
In the end, he never explained how the crack came to form because he hid the damage before anyone found it by placing a painting on top of it.
****
The day had finally arrived.
The main Taron estate was bustling with scurrying workers who ran around in preparation for the engagement banquet that was to be held tonight.
By lunchtime, the banquet hall had been thoroughly cleaned, and by noon, the decorations had been put up. All that was left was the food and desserts.
When Francis arrived at the estate, he was led directly to a guest room where Emily assisted in dressing him much to his chagrin. He could dress himself thank you.
Seeing how the preparations for the banquet were carried out, Francis couldn't help but snort.
'If anyone else saw this, they'd think Lord Taron was doing this because he cared for his youngest son so much.'
The truth, however, was that it was all for show.
Discrimination against those who lack mana cores is common but is looked down upon and is often done in secret. While most of the nobles invited to the banquet share similar views to Lord Taron, they wouldn't dare advertise it. That's why Lord Taron was making sure everything looked perfect.
'I bet no one outside the estate knows that I live separately from the rest of the family,' thought Francis.
Well, that was fine.
He was good at acting. He'll play along for the sake of his peace.
****
A/N: Bleh~