Chapter 6: Awakening

"Oh, look at those cheeks! He looks so cute today, so precious!"

"My turn, my turn! Lord Neo, look over here! Look at the shiny rattle!"

Neo let out a long, exhausted sigh that just came out as an adorable little huff of breath. He was currently trapped right in the center of the mansion’s massive playroom, a space made specifically for him to play in, surrounded by a giggling group of ladies wearing the black-and-white uniforms of the estate maids.

It had been nearly five years. Five whole years since he had been reborn into the chaotic, death-flag-ridden world of Shattered Crown. In just a few days, he would officially be hitting the big 5—well, just five. His fifth birthday.

And yet, his greatest daily adversary wasn’t an assassin, a monster, the anime’s side characters, or the actual protagonist. It was his own unbearable cuteness.

He didn’t know if it was a side effect of his parents’ outrageously good genetics or if he was just born as a blessed child, but he was undeniably adorable. He had his mother’s silky silver hair, his father’s sharp but soft features, and those striking, deep sea-blue eyes. Because of this, he literally had no free time.

If his father, the terrifying Demon of the Battlefield, was home from his border patrols, Cassian would immediately shed his armor, scoop Neo up like a rare treasure, and refuse to put him down for hours. If Cassian was working, Sylvia had him right on her lap. And if both of them were locked in the office managing the massive dukedom? He was thrown to the wolves. Well, the maids actually, who practically competed with each other by engaging in intense matches of rock-paper-scissors just to decide whose turn it was to play with the young master.

It was a total nightmare for his secret training.

Neo had spent the last five years living a double life. By day, he played the role of the perfect, giggling, oblivious toddler. But by night, when the estate finally fell dead silent, he sacrificed his precious sleep. He would lay in his bed, slip into his Inner Sanctum, and absorb the ambient mana of the world.

No one suspected a thing. Well... almost no one.

Sylvia, befitting her status as one of the Empire’s most powerful mages, eventually noticed the strange accumulation of mana that always seemed to hover around her son’s room in the mornings. But thankfully, parental bias was a hell of a drug. Instead of suspecting her infant was secretly practicing advanced, forbidden breathing techniques, she completely misunderstood the situation.

"Cassian, it’s incredible! Neo is passively drawing mana toward him just by breathing! His innate affinity with the mana of the world... he’s a once-in-a-millennium genius!"

Neo had sweated buckets that day, but he quickly realized he could use her massive misunderstanding to his advantage.

Whenever Sylvia was around, Neo would deploy his Ultimate Weapon: his adorable puppy face paired with striking eyes. He would point at a candle or a book, babble excitedly, and his mother’s heart would melt entirely.

She would snap her fingers, and a brilliant, warm sphere of Light Magic would illuminate the room.

His most amazing experience, however, was witnessing Wind Magic.

A gentle, localized tornado would form under his feet, lifting him a few feet off the carpet, making him float in the air while Sylvia manipulated the wind with an excited, beaming smile. Seeing real, practical magic being cast right in front of him filled Neo with breathtaking amazement. It wasn’t just an anime show he used to watch on his TV anymore; it was real. He could physically feel the temperature of the light and the pressure of the wind. He absorbed every single visual detail and every hand movement, slowly understanding the basic mechanics of spellcasting.

But right now, the magic lessons were on hold. The Draven estate was especially busy with event planning. His fifth birthday was on its way, and it had been arranged as a grand ball where thousands of nobles from the Velkrath Empire were invited, including the royal family themselves.

His father was respected all over the empire, not just for his immense power, but for his formidable position as the Duke of the Draven family, one of the most renowned lineages spanning centuries. So, no one would let such a golden chance slip away to make a connection with the heir of the Draven family and introduce their own children.

Practically speaking, Neo was going to see many beautiful faces from across the empire coming specifically to see him. Some of the cute children among the guests, especially the little girls near his age, would be eyed as his potential future consort.

Since the maids and other servants were currently busy with the upcoming event, it was the perfect time for his secret training.

Because of the constant presence of someone at his side, and the many times his parents made him sleep right between them, his training had been delayed significantly. This caused him to require much more time for his awakening. Still, he didn’t feel disappointed. Rather, taking it slow was for the best so they wouldn’t get suspicious of him doing something fishy.

Just as the maids were called by another servant for some immediate work, they nodded reluctantly. Feeling disappointed that such a good opportunity to squish his soft cheeks had slipped through their fingers, they turned around and walked out of the room. They locked the door properly so he could securely stay inside without any danger.

After the maids were gone, Neo immediately took his position and sat cross-legged in the center of the bed.

’Finally, it’s time to train.’

Inhale... Exhale...

He slipped into his Inner Sanctum with the practiced ease of his years of training. The silent room suddenly melted into the dark void, where his consciousness safely severed from the outer world.

But it wasn’t a completely dark void anymore. When he had first visited this place on day two, it had taken immense effort just to summon a dozen tiny specks of mana. Now? It looked like a vast galaxy. Thousands upon thousands of brilliant, glowing white specks of mana drifted lazily around his consciousness. They didn’t need to be coaxed or tricked with a low-pressure vacuum anymore. Over the years, his body had gotten used to absorbing nature’s mana that it developed a natural instinct for it.

As soon as he manifested into the space, the mana swarmed him like a pack of excited puppies, happily floating toward him and absorbing right into his center.

Just as he continued absorbing for a few minutes, he finally felt it. The wall holding back his awakening. The bottleneck.

Immediately, he focused his whole concentration and will solely on compressing the mana in the middle. Time skipped by, and with every passing second, sweat dropped from his forehead. The mana gathered in the center, beginning to take shape into the form of a sphere. Right then, he chose to shift his focus, forcibly directing the concentrated mana to push outward. As the energy started to flood chaotically inside his body, he tried to control the wild mana to the bare minimum.

He pushed to expel the mana outward, and suddenly, the invisible wall preventing his awakening thinned. He moved just a step closer to forming a circle, but then, all the darkness around him vanished. He suddenly appeared in a blinding white space where no hint of darkness was visible.

He looked around, finding no one. As he looked down at himself, he realized surprisingly that he was in his physical body, not just the manifestation of his soul inside the Inner Sanctum.

’What the heck?! Where the hell am I? Am I in heaven? Did my awakening actually fail and my core just overload? Am I dead?!’

Just as he was panicking, a figure emerged from right behind him, almost startling him out of his skin. A figure wrapped entirely in pitch-black darkness and wearing a dark crown stepped across his path. The figure’s face and shape were incomprehensible, hidden perfectly behind the shadows. A dark, oppressive aura emitted from his body, giving Neo an eerie feeling that getting along with this so-called being was only going to bring him serious trouble. Trouble he wasn’t actually fond of.

"Hey, who are you? How did you enter my Inner Sanctum? And what the hell is this place?"

The shadowy figure remained silent, ignoring his questions as if they were irrelevant. Just as Neo felt like the being wasn’t going to speak at all, the figure finally said something. It didn’t speak with an actual voice, but with a sound that resonated throughout the entire white space.

"You are going to repeat the same mistake..."

Neo stared at the figure in pure confusion, not understanding the meaning behind those cryptic words.

"What mistake? What are yo—"

Before he could finish speaking, his vision suddenly blurred. The white space vanished entirely, and his eyes forcefully snapped open into the real world before he could even comprehend what had just happened.

*BOOOOOOM!*

***

The explosion was deafening. The whole mansion began to shake violently, and the decorations and planning for the birthday ball suddenly halted. Servants and maids looked up toward the first floor in horror. The sound had come exactly from where the children’s playroom was situated. Everyone began to panic.

The duke’s office door burst open as both parents, who had already sensed the sudden havoc, rushed out toward the room without caring about anything else. Their faces turned pale, not knowing if it was a targeted attack from an assassin or something worse.

Sylvia started sprinting climbing the staircase, praying frantically in her mind.

’Neo. Neo is in there. Please, gods, let him be safe!’

They reached the first floor to find the corridor filled with thick smoke and fallen debris from the playroom. The door had been blasted right off its hinges, resting broken near the wall. Without wasting a single second, both Cassian and Sylvia burst into the room, ready to wage a bloody war against whoever dared to harm their child.

And then, they stopped dead in their tracks.

The sheer terror that had been drowning them evaporated, instantly replaced by a massive wave of disbelief.

The playroom was a literal disaster zone. The furniture around the edges had been turned into dust, and the wall facing the window had been completely blown off, letting the warm evening light fall onto their figures.

And right in the center of the room, sitting on the remarkably untouched bed, was the source of all the devastation.

Neo.

He was curled up in the center of the soft pillows, fast asleep while sucking his thumb. He looked completely, unbelievably unharmed. But that wasn’t what had Cassian and Sylvia frozen in shock.

Surrounding their sleeping five-year-old child was a dense, visible aura of mana flowing steadily out of his body. It was a sign they were both very familiar with.

Cassian looked at his son in utter shock. He couldn’t explain it or even believe it.

"Sylvia, can you check him?"

Without replying to his words, she dashed toward the bed and scooped up her sleeping child in her arms. She held him protectively, gently stroking his back.

"He... He really has awakened. I already told you he soon would."

Cassian didn’t even try to refute her words. She had told him countless times that Neo was a genius, but he had just taken it lightly. He already believed his son was smart, without a doubt, but seeing her words literally blow the roof off the place made him feel incredibly proud.

"Well... It seems I now have to change the birthday gift I was originally planning to give him."

Sylvia looked at him with a curious face, tilting her head.

"Hmm... What were you planning to give him?"

Cassian looked back at her calmly, a teasing smirk tugging at his face.

"Nah, I’m not going to tell you. You might just tell our Neo, so it will be a secret for both mother and son."

Sylvia couldn’t help but shoot him a sharp glare.

"I’m not going to tell him. Trust me, spill it."

Cassian walked casually toward the bed, taking a seat beside her as he looked down at Neo’s peaceful sleeping face.

"There is no way I’m going to believe that. You always spill my dark, embarrassing secrets in his ears. Even the one about how I gave you those marks on your neck, telling him, ’Your father has bitten your mama red, so he is not allowed to sleep on the bed!’ So my final answer is no!"

Sylvia pulled away, shifting Neo to her other arm so he would be further away from Cassian, frowning at her husband as if he was nuts.

"Cassian, Neo is just a child. Do you really think he understands any of that? How could he possibly know what those marks even mean?"

She pouted softly while stroking Neo’s hair, looking at Cassian with the exact same adorable face that Neo had inherited from her.

"Please, darling?"

Cassian couldn’t help but get caught off guard by his wife’s cute expression, even knowing that it was just a playful act to get her way.

"Sigh... So you really want me to say it?"

Sylvia’s eyes sparkled as she nodded quickly, eagerly waiting for him to spill the beans and satisfy her curiosity.

Cassian looked at his wife affectionately. He tucked a loose strand of her silver hair behind her ear, leaning forward to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. Then, he whispered in a voice filled with love.

"My pretty wife, you will just have to find out during the birthday."

He immediately pulled back and stood up quickly to make his escape out of the room.

"Cassian!"

Suddenly, a magic spell formed behind him as sharp ice shards shot straight toward his back. But as the ice hit his body, it simply shattered into several pieces, falling harmlessly to the floor without leaving even a single scratch.

"You cannot hurt me, I’m strong!" Cassian laughed, immediately dashing out the door before he had to face his wife’s serious attacks, which he was actually quite afraid of.

"Hmph... It seems I will have to beat you up again just to make you know your place," Sylvia grumbled playfully.

She turned her eyes away from Cassian’s departing figure and looked back down at Neo’s sleeping face. He looked so harmless and lovable that she couldn’t help but gently squeeze his soft cheeks. It had become a comforting habit of hers; whenever she felt stressed or overworked, she would squeeze his cheeks, and all her stress and tiredness would just vanish. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead, standing up to walk out of the destroyed playroom.

"My dear Neo, don’t worry. Mama is going to protect you. You don’t have to be strong; you just have to be our little child. That is enough for me."

She rocked him gently while walking through the corridor to enter the main hallways. As the panicked servants saw her figure descending the stairs holding Neo securely, they finally sighed in relief. They went back to preparing for their young master’s upcoming birthday party, though one nagging thought still held them curious.

What exactly was that blast?