We walked to where the commemoration was taking place and quickly found our seats at the front. As the lord of the area, my father was highly respected by everybody and had the highest position. When we got to our seats, I was left with my mother and grandmother as my father went around talking to people and socializing.
Some people came to grandmother and mother to offer their condolences, but the vast majority stayed away. It was a public convention after all and no ordinary person could just walk up to the mother of the lord. Only the people who knew my grandmother personally would dare to walk up to her.
There was nothing I could do in my current situation so I sat on my mother's lap quietly cultivating until everything began. I had found that a better way of slowly cultivating was to incorporate mana particles into your soul one by one.
Normally to increase your mana core rank, you gather enough mana in one sitting to combine with your core then you compress your core, however, that isn't the only method. The other method is to add mana particles to your core over time and once you have enough built up, to compress your mana core. This way is much more efficient and saves time.
Another thing is that over time as your core gets bigger, it takes much more mana to upgrade, and gathering that all in one sitting is impossible. Right now, I can take in 200 mana every second manually, and 1 mana every 15 minutes automatically.
I could hold all the mana in my body and then advance, but that would take all of my strength to do. I dared not push this body too much as I wasn't sure what could happen. I was just a month and a half old. The best option for me was to slowly build my mana core and advance when no one was looking.
I had already started hearing the worry from my parents as I crawled at such a young age. They saw my behavior of reading as especially strange for someone at such a young age. It was figured as me just randomly flipping through books at first, but the methodical way I flipped through made them wonder if I could truly be reading. I didn't want to break minds further by showing that I had awakened.
After 30 minutes of cultivating, I heard someone initiating the commemoration. I looked up at the stage to see a balding old man with a long black cassock and a purple overcoat indicative of a bishop. It appeared this world had a church as well with similar colors.
"My brothers and sisters of god, we stand here today to honor the fallen heroes who have sacrificed their lives to protect this city. Let us commemorate their glory and remember their feats..."
I quickly dozed off. I could never bear to listen to religious preachers in my past life anyway. My family had always been religious, but I never really got into that. I followed their rules when I lived with them, but I was always an atheist.
I woke up a while later when it was time to pay our respects. My mother had gotten up to lay flowers and was taking me with her. Not wanting to be disrespectful, I motioned for my mother to give me a flower to lay as well.
"Do you want a flower, Alex?"
"Yee," was the response I managed to make out.
"Alright hold this and place it on the memorial okay."
"I nodded my head(to the best of my abilities) and grabbed the tulip from my mother. We moved over to the gray andesite slab that served as the monument and as my mother leaned down, I also placed my flower.
"Good job, Alex."
We returned to our seats and waited for the rest of the people to finish paying their respects. While waiting, I decided to enhance my eyes and look around. Enhancing my eyes allowed me to see the flow of mana and even its elements. Natural mana was often a mix of all elements with dark elements being the least abundant as no one used it.
People could absorb all the elements of mana, but could only use the ones they have an affinity for. Mine was a special case where I could use all the elements.
As I looked around I saw the usual stuff I saw in the manor. People sucking in mana, mana coursing through people's bodies, and the natural mana always moving around in the air. This was when I noticed something out of the ordinary. With my mana eyes, I could see the cores of people, and that was when I noticed a blob of red in someone.
This mana core wasn't anything special, but the person it belonged to was unusual, to say the least. This red core belonged to a toddler that couldn't have been more than two years old. Avery had told me most people don't awaken until at least five or six, yet this kid could use mana at two.
Well, actually that wasn't correct. The kid couldn't use mana yet, and his core was surrounded by a dark veil dampening the light from his core. The core had not been fully formed yet and the body was still building it.
I realized that I had caught a genius in the waking. Once the kid awakened, he would be an orange core at the latest and (Bright Orange) at best. The kid looked normal with black hair and black eyes and even blended in so much that it would be difficult to pick him out in a crowd, yet this unassuming kid was a genius.
He was currently being held by his mother and had noticed me staring at him. Judging by their clothes and location, I could tell that they were average citizens and were quite poor but getting by. They had ragged clothes but were healthy-looking and fed.
That was another thing about this world I had noticed. Despite being situated in the Middle Ages, there were no paupers and fewer beggars. The few beggars that there were also seemed to be decently fed and not starving. I chalked this up to magic and being able to accelerate plant growth with it.
While I was in thought the kid had disappeared from my view with the crowd blocking the way. I was sure I could find the kid again though just from his unique core.
After everyone had paid their respects, my father came up to the stage and spoke.
"These people were heroes. They protected their people when the need arrived and sacrificed their lives for us. Never before, in the history of this nation has a smaller force of humans won against beasts. But we did it, the soldiers here today, and those who have not made this possible.
We went up against beasts far stronger than us, faster than us, more dangerous than us, and we won. We won with a price, but that price was acceptable. It was the price to stop even more people from dying.
My father-in-law, who I am proud to call my friend and comrade. Laid down his life to end a battle that otherwise would have consumed us. It is only with the sacrifices of these brave souls, that any of us are here today.
So let us remember them. Let us memorialize them. Let us never forget their sacrifice. Let us toast to their honor and praise their glory."
With that rousing speech, my father left the stage and joined us at our seats. We were getting ready to leave when a wheezing man suddenly came up to my father.
"They're here sir. They were asking for you."
My father groaned and turned to us.
"Sorry Kathy, but this some urgent business came up. You guys return home, and I'll be there soon."
"What is it, John?" asked my grandmother.
"The neighbors, mother, the neighbors."
My grandmother also groaned at the answer.
"Alright, go deal with them. Just try to keep your head around them. We'll be at the manor."
We said our goodbyes and left on the carriage to head back home. It was the same route back and only this time, it was Mary who paid the man operating the portal. The sun was still high in the sky and it looked to be afternoon. We headed back home and I headed off to the world of dreams.