The next week and a half was peaceful and quiet.

Irwin spent mornings and nights enjoying good service from Melissa, good food and training.

He practiced the swordsmanship movements from the memory left to him by his predecessor, killing wolves on the forest whose extracted energy he used it to create outfits and modify his sword.

Having sword memories from his predecessor was basically a skill in itself, but he learned that he had no muscle memory so the skill was not easy to perform , the body responded to his movement with much difficulty.

But he had melissa make him an outfit with the pelt that came from the beast wolf he killed and added the passive skill " Aura of Nobility " on it which basically improved his image in the eyes of people everytime others looked at him.

The sword Edgar had left behind was also modified to such an extent that Edgar himself would struggle to recognize it .

He spent LP extracted from 7 wolves just to change its appearance into that of a dark red blade, to make it lighter and add the skill "Anti-mana Slash" that took 2 lp to activate which would cancel mana attacks thrown at him .

He made sure all the skills are fueled by life energy so that he isnt found out by the main family which forbade the use of mana artefacts during the competition .

" Master, the carriage from the main family will be here in 1 hour "

Melissa notified him but she now had a completely different attitude towards him, she was submissive and respectful so much that even Irwin had forgotten her previous attitude.

They had both agreed on the same story describing Edgar's death as self defence and because he was afraid of all bad treatment he had given to Irwin.

She promised Irwin undying loyalty in return for his protection and Irwin found her to be smart and useful so he agreed on that.

His best choice would have been to kill her but honestly he just wasnt ready to give up on her ' nightly service ' !

" Thanks Melissa I will be downstairs in half an hour"

She bowed and left the room.

" This is the last thing I need to survive the competition, are you ready brother parchment? "

The parchment flickered and the skill creation ability was optimised .

Name of the skill : Green Webs

Skill Description : Turn dripping blood that drips from host or enemy into green webs that explode at host's will, each explosion consumes one LP .

Passive skill: when the area is filled with 5 or more webs all enemies have a decrease in agility .

Skill activation cost : 1 LP

" After meditating for 12 days straight my LP has reached 17, I can hopefully hold my own now "

After each meditation his energy pool gained one more point, which he thought was a bit whack but after a lot of research he found out that you only needed 20 mana points to become a mage disciple, so it was quite decent seeing as those disciples trained all their lives compared to him only training for 13 days.

After creating his last skill, he wore his modified outfit, sheathed his sword and went downstairs to await his carriage .

As notified, 30 minutes later a carriage with the orange emblem 'S' showed up in front of his house.

The S stood for Stenly which could become his last name if he does well in the succession battle .

Bastards werent allowed to carry the last name Stenly, so seeing that emblem sort of made him emotional .

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The carriage door was opened and an old butler accompanied by a knight that looked to be in his mid 30s came out, the butler's attitude was respectful while the knight ignored him completely.

" pleased to meet you lord Irwin, you look as noble as the lord viscount himself "

He responded to the butler's greeting but before he could jump inside the carriage, the knight spoke.

" I dont feel any mana around, where is Edgar ? "

Melissa lowered her head and hid behind Irwin in fear, but Irwin boldy answered:

" Edgar is dead "

The butler showed surprise as well and asked how he died without even imagining what had truly happened .

" I killed him "

The knight went into rage and grabbed him by his neck, pulled out his sword and was ready to kill him.

He had learnt how to feel bloodlust from slaying wolves in the forest, Irwin knew he was about to die if he didnt do something .

" How dare you kill a knight you inferior bastard, the crime for murdering nobility is death by a thousand cuts "

" He has locked me up my entire life and told me I would be assasinated by the main family, however when we got invited for the succession contest he got scared I would tell father and tried to kill me.

Not my fault that a trash knight cant kill a young man like myself who was kept locked up all my life.

I did our house a favor by killing such a trash knight undeserving of his status "

Irwin was really enjoying how unsightly the knight's face was becoming, and while he was lost in rage he disarmed him by punching his arm and placed his blade on his neck.

" If you dont apologise for disrespecting me, I will kill you too "

The aura surrounding him that came from his outfit's special skill was making Irwin look noble, the butler felt as if he was watching Irwin's father.

However he soon had to snap out of it because he knew, if Irwin did harm the knight called Lucius, he would be in massive trouble. Lucius was specifically sent by the madam to make Irwin's life difficult, so if he died the Madam would have Irwin killed .

" Why are you stuttering mister knight, did this inferior scare you? How about you disrespect me again so I spill your blood right here? My sword hasnt seen blood since I killed Edgar, I apologise for it being thirsty "

Lucius had fought enough battles to know Irwin wont hesitate to kill him, and even if by some chance he escaped his grip and turned it around, he would not be able to kill Irwin without getting punished by the lord . Besides this damned Butler Wilson was specifically sent by the lord to not allow him to murder Irwin, just why was a bastard getting such protection ?

Understanding that he couldnt do anything about it, he closed his eyes and apologised to Irwin.

He was smart enough to walk away from a lost battle, and decided to patiently wait for the time he got orders to kill this impudent bastard.

Wilson was relieved to see the situation not escalate any further, so he urged Irwin and Melissa to enter the carriage with the excuse that he didnt want them to be late for the succession contest .

Irwin obliged and they immediately hit the road, territory of a viscount was decently large so it was going to take 4 hours for him to make it to River Clouds Town, where the main family was located.