This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

‘Soreia Eyeris’ was actually born under a different name, to no one of importance—just another orphan taken in by a mysterious organization.

No. She wasn’t adopted—not legally, anyway. The real, biological Soreia Eyeris was long dead. She’d died around the age of five—though everyone except for her ‘parents’ in the Eyeris family remained unaware of that fact.

The Eyeris family was unique as far as beast-tamer families went. In most noble families, a person’s status among the next generation was determined by the quality and potential of their affinity.

Cassian, for instance, was considered a cut above his competition for the throne due to his broad and powerful affinity with multiple high-ranking dragon species. It was why he had been prematurely named crown prince before even advancing to the level of a 5-star beast-tamer.

However, the Eyeris clan—whose influence within the imperial government had been built not on brute strength but on their unusual precognitive and psychic abilities—operated differently.

Their status within their respective generations was based far more on their gifts than their affinities for contracts. Gifts related to prediction, perception of fate, and the manipulation of luck were held in far greater regard than any beast-tamer affinity, no matter how rare or powerful.

Heck, someone could have a D-quality affinity—barely good enough among commoners—and still rise to become heir to the Eyeris family, so long as their gift allowed them to peer into the future with enough consistency and accuracy.

Fortunately for the clan, while the average family rarely saw gifts manifest in their bloodline, the Eyeris family was an exception. Across the Empire, fewer than 10% of beast-tamers would awaken a gift.

When looking at graduates and current students from the Empire’s top five elite colleges—a concentrated pool of the Empire’s best young talents—the percentage can rise to about 40%.

Similarly, members of most noble families also would awaken gifts around 20-40% of the time—depending on the family.

In contrast, the Eyeris clan maintained a staggering 60 to 70% gift manifestation rate.

Of course, not every gift was particularly powerful… or useful.

One cousin, for example, had the ability to predict the exact date and time they would die, helpless to change it—rather than a gift, that one was more like a curse.

Another could sense when someone within a 10-meter radius would become pregnant.

One particularly awkward relative had a gift that let him pinpoint the single most ‘auspicious’ moment to conceive a child to improve not only the odds of conception, but the talent of the child.

As can be seen, many gifts within the Eyeris clan weren’t particularly… great.

Still, within the Eyeris clan, even the most absurd or socially inconvenient gifts were revered—because they were gifts. And no matter how potent someone’s beast-tamer affinity might be, those without a gift were relegated to the fringes of the family’s influence.

So what were Soreia Eyeris’ parents to do when it was predicted that neither of their biological children—a boy and a girl—would awaken gifts?

They weren’t from the current clan leader’s direct line—merely niece and nephew. A low-tier branch family with little influence.

But they were ambitious. Ambitious enough to believe that, one day, they could rise and seize control of the entire clan. Unfortunately, that dream had little hope of coming true, given the mediocrity of their own abilities.

The mother possessed a modest gift—the ability to detect whether someone had, or would awaken, a gift in the future. Just that they would awaken one—not even when or what the gift was…

The father’s gift was even less impressive. He could foresee the outcome of 50-50 gambling events, such as coin flips. And only in gambling events were the odds were perfectly fifty. Meaning most gambling games didn’t even meet the criteria for him to use his gift to earn some money…

Their last-ditch attempt to strengthen their bloodline had involved marrying each other as distant cousins, hoping that inbreeding might amplify the family’s signature bloodlines and gifts.

They were wrong.

The mother sensed that neither of their children would awaken a gift when they came of age. And when their daughter—the real Soreia—died in a horrific accident, they hadn’t even mourned.

There had been no tears. No funeral rites. No shrine. Just a quiet decision made in a quiet hallway: replace the failure with something more promising.

They saw an opportunity. A chance to replace her with a fake—a child promised by a secretive organization to have a gift suitable enough to blend in with the biological Eyeris clan, but also powerful enough to gain influence.

The mother’s ability had verified it. The child would indeed awaken a gift. As for the finer details, the organization assured them everything else would fall into place.

As for the girl now known as ‘Soreia’? She didn’t know much about her origins. Just that, from infancy, she’d been raised under strict observation in the facilities of the organization. A group that claimed to serve a noble cause: to strengthen the Empire by helping the giftless awaken gifts, strengthening existing gifts and affinities, and even enabling those without affinities to become beast-tamers.

They operated in the shadows. They had spent decades weaving their influence into noble houses, military ranks, and even the imperial court itself—all for the sake of their ultimate goal. But their motives were clear. They had long foreseen the return of the Abyss, and sought to prepare the Empire for the coming war—by any means necessary.

When she came of age, they contacted her again. Not as a ward, but as a recruit. They guided her rise in the clan, providing resources and connections to bolster her social standing.

More than that, they promised her parents the one thing they still desired: that their giftless son—their remaining biological child—would also one day awaken a gift, using the organization’s latest experimental procedures.

They just had to remain loyal and fulfill the missions given to them…

And this inheritance was one of those missions.

Perhaps the most important one yet…