A YEAR LATER
I had absorbed much of the world around me, further solidifying the knowledge I already had. My main issue was still with reading the books around the mansion because the language was too far removed from anything I recognized.
Thankfully I had a different advantage.
"Status Tab."
A translucent floating panel appeared in front of me:
NAME: Cassian Gray
STATS: Physical-2 Meta-Physical-0
SKILL: NONE
'Nothing new. And it's been so boring, I can't wait to be able to read again!'
With nothing else to do I went through everything I had gathered, and began to compile information.
I was reborn as the second son of a fallen ducal family in the East Wind Kingdom's city of Bordeaux. The Gray family consisted of me, my older brother, two older sisters, and one younger sister who was a year younger than me.
As described in the novel, the Gray family was in a large monetary debt to the empire, and the one in charge of it was another duke who happened to be an annoying, greedy bastard.
The biggest problem was that the strength of the Gray estate was lower than it should be, and in a world where strength was first, we were in a greatly disadvantageous position.
'How am I going to get us out of this?'
The way I saw it, the quality of my life in the new world was completely linked to the status of the family, so I had to put my knowledge to use in order to help them.
'The year in this world would be around the start of the Victorian era on earth, I wonder how the main character is doing right now,'
I summarized and crawled to the wall to support myself.
'I need to return to Mother before she comes to look for me, so let's give walking another try,' I planned with conviction.
I pushed myself off the wall and controlled my infant body slowly. As a grown man pretending to be a normal child, my movements were impressive.
"Let's keep going, I can't fail now!"
I walked each step slowly until I broke my record of only one.
Suddenly a scream sounded.
"Ahhh!! My baby's walking! Johnathan, he's walking already!!"
My mother and father were looking for me and found me slowly walking while making unconscious baby noises. Not a man's proudest moment to say the least.
"That's my son, he's already strong!"
"He takes after you!" my mother added.
Their faces of pride and joy made my heart experience new waves. A near desolate land though it was, the pride of new-found parents still counted as a drop of energy to bring back its liveliness.
Suddenly, a notification panel appeared to me.
[You have achieved [Walking] a skill choice will be granted!]
[All stats +10]
[Please choose your first skill!]
'Oh! I got something for the first time! But what is this?!'
5 square panels appeared spread out in front of me, each with a different word as a title.
The first:
[Passive: Calculative Mind.]
The second
[Passive: Magic Heart]
The third
[Passive: Sword Heart]
The Fourth:
[Passive: Beast Master]
The fifth
[Passive: Martial Artist Physique]
'A passive? like those in games? None-active skills."
[A choice will appear every time an achievement, checkmark, plotline, quest, or event is completed.]
"I should check each one before making a choice."
[Passive: Calculative Mind: Incredible memory and the ability to think intricate and complex thoughts and judge situations carefully, all within milliseconds.]
[Passive: Magic Heart: An amazing talent for magic.]
[Passive: Sword Heart: An amazing talent for the sword.]
[Passive: Beast Master: an amazing affinity with beasts allowing easy taming and control.]
[Passive: Martial Artist Physique: An amazing talent for martial arts and physical disciplines.]
'All of them concern talent, other than the mind one that stands out. Considering the novel's world, I should choose either [Magic Heart] or [Sword Heart], yet it doesn't feel right….I think maybe the obvious choice isn't always the best one…'
[You have selected [Calculative Mind].]
In an instant, a warmth covered my head and my mind transformed, with a tiny bit of focus I could almost glimpse at the world in a slowed manner—no I almost saw the world at a full stop. With every thought I considered ten possibilities, with every possibility I thought of a hundred more, an endless web of thoughts, ideas, plans, and considerations all done within less than a second. A qualitative change to my mind.
'Amazing!, this was definitely the right choice!' Feeling the changes in my mind, I was amazed.
Time quickly flew by after that, my body grew, my knowledge grew, and my connection to the rest of the family deepened.
FIVE YEARS LATER.
After I learned to walk, my mother decided to hold me in her arms for the majority of the day due to her protective nature, so I couldn't look for books to read. She did it out of love but it led to an incredible amount of boredom.
Usually, I would listen to their conversations and try to learn things of use but they were mostly just chatting about miscellaneous things around the lunch table so I zoned out and checked my status.
'Status tab'
A rectangular panel appeared before my eyes:
NAME:Cassian Gray
STATS: Physical-12 Meta-Physical-10
SKILL:[Calculative Mind]
'[Calculative Mind] is amazingly effective, my mind is already beyond human limits.'
Suddenly the subject of the conversation around me changed.
"The academy's envoy will be here tomorrow to escort you, children."
The Royal Academy was a place that most men or women in the world would dream of entering, a direct path to strength and status, yet my family seemed a bit unhappy about it.
My older brother, Liam, seemed particularly unwilling to go.
"Father, Mother, do we have to go? Those Redvein bastards will harass us like always!" They all said.
The Redvein ducal family, their name was always somehow involved when the family was in trouble. Whether it was a lost carriage, a merchant contract broken, or harassment from street thugs.
"I'm..sorry, children, if only I wasn't injured…we'd be free of the debt and harassment." My father sighed. "But now you have to go, because of the king's invitation."
"I'm sure it won't be that bad, you'll make some good friends and grow stronger so just ignore their harassment and learn as much as you can! And your shadows will also be with you, so don't worry too much." My mother spoke up and consoled them.
"I wanna go too mommy!" My younger sister Ella shouted acutely while grasping at my mother's dress.
As a four-year-old, she served as a distraction from the family's problems, something I couldn't be due to my mature mind.
…