Once Asta's subordinates got to know how to fill the newspapers and write catchy titles, he wasn't needed to constantly help with creativity and innovative business ideas and deals. Especially William, he was his top subordinate and Asta trusted him because the head butler John was trusted by his parents and they were comrades as well so he was trained to be efficient and he was strong too. A 3-star swordsman at the age of 23 years old is a great talent and he'll probably become 4-star when he starts experiencing battles. And he was great at paperwork and handling things, so when Asta started talking about creative ideas and his future goals, he was immediately impressed and was fired up.
Dorothy took care of the information sorting procedure and handling the personnel side of things. He had thought her how to recruit people who were on the last straw of their lives and could now be bought on their wagon while making them indebted. Of course no hardcore propaganda, yet. He needs to grow stronger for it so people can actually look up to him. While William was like a curious child, Dorothy was like proper maid, she followed instructions to the T. Plus she was good looking, 20 years old and a good looking body with jet black hair and stern face, an eye candy never hurt anyone.
After taking care of all these procedures, Asta finally had time to rest and decided to recharge by playing with his siblings.
Asta POV -
While I was busy for almost a year, I stayed at home mostly and just sent orders like a good boss does. This also made my siblings follow me around everywhere.
'Honestly they're just way too adorable. Playing with them puts my mind at ease always. Benjamin is always serious and wants to learn everything, though it only cute hehe. Abigail on the other hand is extremely mischievous, she always manages to piss Ben off and scurries off to hide behind mom. Watching them play around is really peaceful' I thought as a chuckle escaped my mouth.
Just in time Ben came inside my room and started gloating
"Bro, I learnt all the alphabets faster than Abby today, how did I do?"
I could almost see his nose pointing upwards with his smug smile. Abby also rushed to the room panting heavily,
"Don't listen to him, he cheated and took dad's help" she pouted
Ben immediately stuttered "H-how did you know?"
I smirked seeing this, while Ben was definitely talented, Abby was extremely smart. Then again mischievous people are very smart. I looked at them both and said
"Listen both of you, cheating is very bad, means you're not good enough to do such a task"
Ben visibly deflated and I could see Abby about to tease him however I cut her off
"But if you do find something difficult and you want to cheat, do make sure you don't get caught. Cheating is allowed as long is it not too important and you do it well enough, do you understand"
They both nodded seriously. While I understand my brother being very enthusiastic about honour and stuff, I do want him to be more flexible so he doesn't get into trouble later on. Abby on the other hand is too playful, but for now I'll let them be, they need to enjoy their childhood. I didn't enjoy my childhood partly because of me not wanting to get annoyed and partly because the whole family has been busy. But now that I think about it, the neighbouring region, Wilson County is apparently a good friend of my father, and he's visiting with his family next week. They have two daughters, so both of them will have some friends at least.
Then they started playing around which immediately turned into a pillow fight somehow, using my pillows on top of both. I sighed seeing them, maybe I'm being too soft, oh well I don't mind. Thought I was pretty busy this year I still managed to train in the mornings and evenings and my stats have boosted up.
Status -
Name - Astarot levathian
Race - human
Age - 7 years
Title - Young master of the levathian house
Stats :-
STR - 9
VIT - 11
DEX - 7
MIND - 12
PER - 6
Traits :-
Zephyr Eyes (locked) - unlocked when MIND crosses 15
?????? (locked) - conditions unknown
Affinity :-
Unlocks at age 8
Inventory :- 5 slots - empty
( unlocks more depending on the affinity)
My training with mana has been progressing well, I can coat mana on things and myself and ny stats shoot up when I use mana. I can fight normal soldiers and knights when I start using mana and even defeat some of them. People have already started calling me genius and what not, but I know just how much of a monster my father is when he's just a peak 6-star sword master. He can fight all of them together including 3 of the 5-star swordsmen. It was an eye-opening experience for. Now I wonder how strong mom is, she's a 6-star mage, however she has water, earth and wind affinities. Each one of them is versatile and she graduated from the Heka academy as well. Two days later is my birthday and I'll finally know my affinities, and then I can start training for real. if I don't have affinities I can still train in swordsmanship with pure mana so I'm not worried.
'I've learnt the basics of using swords, like stances and attack, defence and parrying. Although mana is much more difficult to control and manipulate, I think I can use the watered down version telekinesis since I can move certain objects using mana, though it's useless for now. I definitely want some affinities that are versatile so I can focus on fusing it with swordsmanship too'
I have finished up with my newspaper agency and now even adventurers are providing information for spare change, so that's going well too. I'll need to make sure the the magazines are up and running as well, though it's not an immediate priority since it's main customers will be nobles and rich merchants, I've already told mom and William to look to buy some places in different regions where we can set up branches of our agency, for now though we need to show profits to attract investments, I'll leave that to mom.
General POV -
Two days passed by In the blink of an eye. The whole estate of the Levathian family was excited today as it was Asta's 8th birthday and also the day where is affinities will awaken. Usually when affinities are awakened, the mana capacity starts growing exponentially and the body hits a growth spurt. This was definitely good news for Asta since this will allow him to grow up quicker to get some actually training done.
Asta woke up early in the morning, freshened up and all the maids and butlers were running around for preparations, though he didn't like it, his parents were adamant that as nobles it was important to advertise this event, there'll even be a few nobles and messengers of other nobles attending the evening party.
The affinity awakening happens naturally so to check it all they needed was a high grade mana stone from a B-ranked beast which wasn't too difficult to find with two 6-star powerhouses in the family. When mana is injected Into this stone, depending on how many affinities a person, it breaks into that many pieces with different colours representing different affinities.
Red - Fire
Blue - water
Green - Wind
Brown - earth
Yellow - lightning
These were the basic affinities that most people would have, except for lightning, since it's only present in a few people in the Novath kingdom and no other kingdoms or empires. There was once a whole family of lightning affinity users who were really strong but were almost annihilated during the last great war because their attacks were devastating. Though that's a story for another time.
Asta POV -
'Phew, I'm nervous. I can feel it my bones that it will be a turning point for me. I hope I get something useful, I've been kept in the dark for way too long, even if they hide it from any longer, the system can provide information about it'
I made my way to the underground training hall and I noticed everyone was present except for my siblings. My mother looked at me and smiled warmly
"You don't need to be so nervous, remember whatever happens, we're very proud of you and I have no doubt in my mind that you will be strong "
I was surprised my mother was mother was able to feel my nervousness but I nodded nonetheless. I walked up to the mana stone and I noticed how different it looked from the ones we use at the printing warehouse, this one seemed more, powerful. Before I could inject my mana, mother put her hand on my shoulder and said
"Try to feel your affinities first, I'll guide your mana you'll immediately notice a different form energy from my mana, concentrate on that type in your body and release that to the stone"
I nodded and after I felt my mothers mana, I noticed something, something more minute, something within the mana, which felt natural.
After that I focused on my own mana and noticed the difference as well and I can feel it much clearly, I had an inkling to my types instinctually, still I needed to confirm. I placed my hand on the stone and injected mana while adding the new affinities as well.
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