Neville Archduke was alone in his little private backyard. There was only a collection of tiny and very well maintained bonsai trees, plus a small pond along with a stream of water, like a small river which enhanced the aesthetics of the place. From how it was maintained, the person who took care of it had done it with a lot of thought and effort.

Now, Neville was seriously tackling one of his bonsai, a type of plant from the citrus family. Its main stem slanting to one side and the top hanging down like a waterfall, but not water, just branches, and leaves.

Its roots weren't buried deep in the ground like usual but snaked out. Its strongest parts gripped a big chunk of pitch-dark ash rock. It looked tenacious. If the appearance was not miniature but enlarged hundreds or thousands of times, that would look so magnificent.

Despite all that, Neville still seemed dissatisfied with his craft. He solemnly looked at the dwarf thing. He looked at it from various angles thoroughly. Circling it, squatting down, and tilting it to one side to check the bottom part which certainly would not be visible.

Seeing an old man enthusiastically pursuing his hobby, was a little funny to see. As if nothing could interrupt his time with his toys.

“Patriarch, Lady Alisa, and her family have arrived.”

A maid whose voice was kept as soft as possible, slightly distracting Neville. Usually, he would feel unhappy if his time with his baby was disturbed, but not this time. Because who came was much dearer than this collection of these little things.

Without thinking much, he immediately rushed to the main door with hurried steps. Almost there, he was found by his beloved granddaughter who ran to him first when she saw her grandfather moving closer, ahead of the rest of her family.

“Grandpa, I missed you!”

Rosalind immediately rammed her grandfather with her much smaller body than his, not forgetting to give him a hug with all her might.

“Haha, grandpa also misses his beautiful granddaughter. Be careful, this old geezer's bones can't withstand this powerful blow of yours!" Neville joked, looking down at the short body that was holding him tightly. He was so cheerful with his spoiled granddaughter's enthusiastic greeting.

"Grandfather, it's bad to lie," Rosalind made a funny face, looking up at her grandfather with an eye-to-eye grin, "My grandfather must be a strong man like daddy!"

"Of course! Your grandfather is stronger than your daddy," Neville snort at once, not wanting his impression on his granddaughter's eyes to diminish a little, even with his son-in-law.

"Look at you now," Neville continued, "You've grown a lot bigger than the last time Grandpa saw you. You will surely grow up to be a beautiful young lady, just like your mother.”

"You'll be blowing up her ego if you compliment her like that, Father," Alisa's voice was heard. She and the others were already approaching. "Father, how is your health?"

Alisa greeted her father, while not forgetting to give him a warm hug. Garreth also greeted his father-in-law.

"So where's my other grandson?"

Aria, who was trailing behind his father, felt it was his turn to greet the old man. Showing up from behind his father, his eyes immediately caught the old man. All the hair on his head and face had turned white. With wrinkles here and there, his age was quite advanced. However, like his father, his grandpa's body was still healthy and fit. Hmm, he should be a role model for the old men in the world.

“Hello, Grandpa!”

"Oh, what a short greeting!" Neville smiled, noting that this grandson was quite different from the others. How should he put it, like he had a lot on his mind, a thinker maybe?

"Hmm, Grandpa. I want to ask you something, may I?”

"Oh?" he became curious, “What is it?”

"I'm starving, can you give me some food?"

Neville was stunned for a moment, did not expect to receive such a request.

"Ha ha ha ha…"

Neville laughed loudly, while the others were speechless at Aria's request.

…..

Aria now had retreated to his family's temporary resting place. This place used to be occupied by his mother when she was young, before marrying his father.

He was alone there. His father accompanied the old man for a leisure tea time in his grandfather's backyard. His mother was chatting with his aunts, maybe they had started gossiping from A to Z.

His sister, well, who knew where she made a ruckus with their cousins. She made good friendships with some of them. At first, he was invited, but he made all sorts of excuses not to come, causing his sister to pout and grumble a lot before he left her. He didn't know his cousins much, and again he didn't want to be bothered with that group of snotty little kids.

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“Ah, those foods are so delicious. If it's not my stomach can't be filled up anymore, I want to just keep eating,” he lay down, burping now and then. His stomach needed time to digest all that food.

He was also pondering, with regular physical exercise, perhaps he could speed up his digestion. Although improvements from modifications had been obtained, external stimuli might be able to make a significant difference. With a faster time, more could be processed.

What's more, he also felt the effects immediately. It was clear that his eating session just now was enough to make the rest of his family astonished because he ate a lot more than usual. His mother almost wanted to stop him, scared he would have indigestion. Meanwhile, his grandfather happily continued to offer him various kinds of delicious side dishes, to the point that his mother gave her father a sharp look.

And, what was different was the accumulation of energy. That one session alone added one point. Of course, not only the quantity, but the quality of the food also had an effect, he assumed.

Even though he still couldn't devour all kinds of foodstuffs that contained spiritual energy as doing so would be harmful to ordinary people. Humans were not the only race that could manipulate spiritual energy, some animals and plants too. They were called spiritual beasts and spiritual plants. Many said there were other humanoid races in this world, such as elves in fiction. The proof? The Archduke Clan itself. All right, that's for later.

Again, even though all the meat he consumed still came from ordinary animals, they had almost crossed over to become spiritual beasts. This made them even more valuable than a spiritual beast that just crossed over.

Animals like this were very useful for ordinary people, especially children who would undergo the soul enlightenment ceremony. Their physique would increase greatly as if they were consuming top-level elixir.

Because of this, Archduke Clan was currently preparing such meat for their young participants. Their younger generations gathered, preparing for their important day, and of course, they wish them the best.

And that's a lucky thing for Aria, he was able to enjoy this sumptuous treat, and of course, he wasn't going to miss it.

Aria was determined to do simple physical exercises to help his stomach shrink, at least he hoped that was nothing left in it so that he could enjoy filling it up again.

He forced his body that a little tired and sleepy at the same time to move.

“Ah, this is also the effect of overeating. Do I need to modify my lungs to increase oxygen intake? Maybe my blood flow so the absorption process can be faster?” muttered Aria. There were so many considerations and possibilities in his mind, but all of it boiled down to his internal organs.

Perhaps, it could increase his metabolism efficiently. Circulation of oxygen and blood now was part of his priority. Moreover, improving performance in related organs was deemed so hard, almost impossible just relying on exercise. The increase only occurred over a long time, along with the body's growth and development.

"Later, after I have extra points," he thought.

Inside the room, he took off his top clothes. With a fat body, he tried hard to do various exercises that he could. Push up, sit up, squat, anything he thought, he did it until his body was dripping with sweat.

Less than an hour later, he was no longer able to do anything. His body lay on the floor panting for breath. His sweat made a small puddle beneath him. The muscles all over his body seemed to be struggling, crying to stop. They seem to twitch occasionally here and there, due to forced extreme activities.

“Huff... huff... Ah... this pain... is killing me,” Aria couldn't even move his small arms because it was so sore, almost numb. A moment later he just lay there without moving, forgot about cleaning himself, he didn't even let himself cover his top before falling asleep.

Later, when he wake up, he got an earful scolding and a long lecture by his mother.

…..

The next day, after breakfast, Aria and his family headed for the main hall. The main hall was the place where the ceremony will be held.

Along the way, they met several other relatives with the same goal. They also greeted each other, parents between parents and children between children. Only Aria didn't look that excited.

What could he do, he just devoured the same portion of food as his parents ate. Too much to eat, he seemed very unenthusiastic about the people around him, only slightly nodding and shaking his head in response to anyone. Meanwhile, his sister had started to mingle with her familiar peers.

Arriving in the hall, there were already several people on the podium. Some of them were elderly, the same age as his grandfather, only a few who looked younger, but still far above the age of their parents. And of course, Grandpa was there too, right in the middle.

His family immediately found their seats, together with Rosalind who had separated from their bunch of cousins.

"So that's your boy friend?" Aria who looked in the direction where his sister had come from, found several boys among them. Without any specific characteristics, he did not bother to distinguish them apart, aside from their clothes, height, and hairstyles. Once Rosalind got close enough, he decided to make fun of her while waiting for the show to start.

"Huh?" Rosalind was stunned for a moment as if processing what she just heard.

“What?! What do you mean?! I don't…” her eyes went wide and her words were unclear. Especially after her parents also looked at her, she started to stutter. Her face blushed in embarrassment.

Aria who saw it became speechless. His sister's reaction was more than childish. There were indeed some boys who looked very familiar with his sister, but that was typical of someone like Rosalind, who's so bubbly and cheerful.

“I mean, your friend is that boy, right?” Aria continued.

Rosalind fell silent with her eyes wide open at her brother's clarification. Only then did she realize that she had been toyed with by him, after seeing his cunning smile.

"You..." Rosalind was embarrassed by her reaction just now. She put on a fierce look and tried to take revenge by tickling this brat.

“Alright you two, this is not the time to fight. There's a lot of other people here, stop it, you two,” Garreth felt helpless, once again having to mediate between the two. They didn't care about the circumstances to make a ruckus.

“Okay, boy, you need to stop teasing your sister. She will definitely bring her boyfriend to the house and introduce him to us. So, just be patient, okay?” Alisa's saying just making it worse for her daughter even more.

“Mom!!” Rosalind was getting more and more embarrassed, her tears almost flowed down from the corner of her eyes if it weren't for her mother's direct persuasion.

"It was just a joke, honey," Alisa smiled as she hugged her daughter, kissing her forehead, "I'm sorry, smile for mommy, ok? It's your day to shine, so cheer up."