The Awakening Ceremony(1)
The days passed like a blur. It's nearly been a month since Ellara vanished. I had been doing nothing but training and training. And it's finally tomorrow, the Awakening Ceremony.
The awakening ceremony will be carried out in the Awakening Chamber of the Draven Family. Tomorrow all the kids of the main as well as branch families turning 17 will be gathered in the awakening chamber. The awakening chamber is just a room filled with various protection magics, as awakening is a difficult process in this world.
The awakening is not just a simple process like you just get up and awaken on the first day of the year; it's more like you have to earn your awakening.
On the first day of the year, exactly at noon, every person turning 17 will be transferred to another space—well, not physically, but virtually. Not much was known about why it happened only on the first day of the year. On this day, anyone turning 17 that year would fall unconscious, as if their strings were cut loose. They will be transferred to their Awakening Trial.
Not much was known about the awakening trial either, as those who underwent trials cannot utter a word about what they did or what they saw in the awakening trial.
It's not that they don't want to tell; it's just that they cannot, as the system puts restrictions on sharing any knowledge about awakening trials.
Only some general information was known that the awakening trial might be an individual trial or a trial involving many people, and it might last for a day at shortest or more than 10 days at longest.
There is always a hidden quest in the awakening trial from which a person might awaken a soul ability. But most people didn't know about this, as they think a person might awaken a soul ability just by chance, a bit rarer than a special ability.
But this is not the truth, and only those who awakened soul ability know about the existence of the hidden quest.
Why did I know, you ask? Because the protagonist awakened his soul ability after undergoing awakening. That's why I also know a bit about trials too. Mainly individual trials, as the protagonist underwent an individual trial in the novel in which he had to face his past trauma and all that shit. Well anyway, individual trials are different for each individual. So I don't think my knowledge of novels is going to help me in trial.
"Well, I guess that's enough thinking for today." I muttered in a tired voice.
I was tired from all the training today…. I laid down on my bed as I yawned, trying to sleep.
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The Next Day
The sun rose in the sky as the sunlight peeked into the room through gaps in the curtain. Sunlight fell softly on my face as my eyes started to move before opening a bit.
I yawned before getting up from my bed, dragging my body to take a cold shower. As the cold water poured down on my body, my sleep vanished without a trace, feeling wide awake.
As I got out of the shower after a long shower, I wiped his body and wore a lavish dress prepared for me by Alice. After all, even if I was an illegitimate son, I was still a child of the family head.
After wearing the dress, I stood in front of the mirror.
"Damn, do I look handsome?" I admired my looks with a smirk, my voice carrying a hint of narcissism.
My jet-black hair shone like a midnight sky, my pale skin looked healthier than before, and my body well built, totally different from how I was when I first arrived here, my crimson eyes shone like blood with a small tinge of blue at the centre.
But this time looking at the blue tinge didn't make me sad, as I had accepted Ellara's death, and I knew Ellara wouldn't have wanted me to be sad... I had to move on and keep moving forward.
Just as I was done admiring myself, the door to the room opened, and Alice came inside, looking at me approvingly with her same impassive expression. "Young master, it's time to eat." She said as she carried a tray filled with food on the table.
As I was eating, I looked at Alice, and my mouth curled a bit as I recalled how Alice tried to console me after Ellara's vanishment. She didn't know what happened, but she still tried to lift my mood in her own awkward way...
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As Alice left after my meal was done, I just kept browsing through smartphone,well It is called ManaSync in this world as time passed a bit, and it was just one hour before the initiation of awakening.
I heard a voice. "Young master, it's time."
I got up and smiled, "Let's see what the future holds." As I got up and followed Alice out of mansion.
The awakening chamber was situated quite a distance from the main family estate in the forest behind the family estate for safety purposes.
As we walked out of the mansion, a black car was waiting for us. I followed Alice and sat inside the car.
I couldn't help but admire the car. It wasn't much different from cars on Earth, but it operated on mana instead of fuel.
The car didn't have any gears; the driver just had to control the flow of mana to control speed and all.
The car was sleek and luxurious inside and was much more spacious than it looked from outside, as space compression was at work here.
As I was just admiring the car, the driver sped up, and within minutes, we arrived at our destination.
"We've arrived, Young Master." The driver said in a polite tone.
"Thank you," I thanked him as I exited the car with Alice following me behind.
Soon we reached the entrance of the awakening chamber.
From here on only the individuals undergoing awakening are allowed, so Alice had to stay behind.
"I will be going now, Alice." I spoke as I started to leave.
"Best of luck, Young Master." Alice said as I widened my eyes as I saw her trying to smile.
Her smile was awkward, almost unsettling, but it still warmed my heart.
"Thank you, Alice," I said, returning her smile.
As I pushed the door and entered inside....