It felt good to finally be home after such a long time dealing with those idiot nobles, and just in time for the kids to finish their first evolution too.
The timing of it all couldn’t be more perfect.
My plan was going along much better than had expected it to, at least if Tresha’s reports on the matter were to be believed.
Norman in particular had been showing exceptional results even before his evolution took place.
If I wanted to nurture someone with that much talent properly I would need to push him to his very limits.
As my father would say “The clearer the diamond the harsher the conditions needed to make it shine.”
I pushed the doors of the mansion open without even trying to hide my excitement screaming “I’m home” in a loud and boisterous tone for all to hear.
As I entered my home I heard the shuffling of the maids in the kitchen, as well as my three cute children, walking down from the top floor to greet me.
I put my hat and coat on the rack next to the door. The maids would come and pick them up soon enough to clean them and replace them with the ones I would be using on my next outing.
I never asked them to do so but Tresha had a way of just finding the little inconveniences in my life and fixing them for me before I even realized they were there.
This allowed me to just go with the flow a lot more than I was used to and I was truly grateful for that.
I entered the dining room, sat at the head of the table, and tried to control my excitement to the best of my ability, keeping a stern look on my face.
First impressions were important and I needed to set the example of a calm and serious parent.
This would be a new experience for me and I wasn’t someone who dealt with new very well.
After a few moments, the three siblings entered my view but they stopped at the front of the entrance to the dining room.
They just stood there staring at me, more than likely unsure of what to do next.
I returned their gaze, both Rina and Emma couldn’t meet it so they quickly looked downward nervously.
Norman on the other hand kept my gaze without so much as a flinch.
Unlike the curiosity and unease I got from the girls, he seemed more absent-minded and bored than anything else.
His next move shocked me. He slightly pushed Rina ahead of the rest of them, a weak prod but enough to make her stumble on her feet.
He then gestured his hand forward. She sent him a glare that was mixed with both anger and embarrassment, she was obviously about to say something but held her tongue when she turned to look at me.
She then moved cowardly towards the closet chair from where they entered which was the furthest away from where I was sited.
I was already proud that at such an early age she was aware of how important first impressions were not wanting to embarrass herself in front of me when we had just met.
She showed a great amount of restraint and etiquette which were two traits worth fostering.
Emma for her part quickly moved to her sister's side walking with her until they reached the table.
They then sat down right next to each other waiting for some directions on what to do next.
Norman stayed back waiting, the moment my mouth twitched he replied purposely cutting off my speech before it came out of my mouth.
“Good morning father, I hope you had a wonderful and safe trip, may I sit down,” He said with the kind of sweetness only a young child could produce.
He even gave a toothy ear-to-ear smile to go with it before returning to a normal-looking grin.
My opinion of the boy diminished greatly, he was trying to pull something here but I wasn't sure of his intentions yet.
His sisters looked back at him with betrayal in their eyes. They then quickly stood up greeting me and asking if they could sit down as well after apologizing.
I waved my hand and said that everything was alright.
After that, the two girls sat back down nervously. I expected Norman to sit next to his sisters but he moved to where I was. He then sat on the closest chair to my right.
He was definitely the furthest along and the smartest of the bunch just based on my interactions with him so far however his personality was unbecoming of a noble.
He would need a lot of correction if he was to live up to our family's legacy and frankly I didn't care for his immature behavior so far.
I didn’t know what he was trying to do but I took a deep breath internally and started to get to the point.
"I'll start this momentous occasion by saying congratulations to all of you on the results of your evolutions," I put a smile on my face and looked at them evenly.
"Especially you Norman, your results were exceptional, and I will be expecting a lot from you in the future" I looked at him my face was smiling but my tone was a warning.
"Our family is well renowned in Silacia because of our unique and powerful family ability which each of you will be inheriting but only one of you will be able to unlock in full."
"In any case, that is not something you will have to be worrying about today”
“For now, what I want to do is give you a general idea of what you will be doing until your next evolution so that you can get as much out of it as possible"
“This is when you will be receiving your first Class and is, therefore, one of the most important decisions of your life”
"You all have a long and difficult road ahead of you but if you apply yourselves and listen to your instructors it will be well worth the struggle due to the amazing benefits you will receive once it is all said and done with.”
“But again, before any of that do you have any questions?"
One of the maids slowly walked out of the kitchen and made her presence known to me.
When I noticed her she sent me a signal indicating that breakfast was ready.
I gestured back telling her that we were ready to eat.
While the maid and I had our quiet conversation Norman raised his right hand in a quick motion.
After I acknowledged him he asked a surprisingly basic question.
"What’s your name, you haven't introduced yourself and I didn't have a chance to ask any of the maids about it before we came to eat breakfast," He asked in a calm tone before giving a strange look at our reactions.
That was a bad habit of mine I was too focussed on what I was trying to do that I completely forget about the little things.
It was quite rude of me as the leader of the house, the eldest in the room, and most importantly their father not to introduce myself when they entered.
“My first name is Andrue, but for the most part you will be referring to me as father and nothing else do you understand?” I started casually, “I didn’t realize that I hadn’t told you my name yet, my apologies.”
“Any other questions?” I added finally.
While we were talking, the maids entered the dining room with plates and served us our breakfast.
“Yes, me again,” Norman raised his hand this time, not bothering to wait for my acknowledgment. I didn't like that small show of disrespect.
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He at least waited for me to take the first bite of food before he started eating unlike his sisters but I doubted that they knew any better in the first place.
“On my status page it says that I have the Polluted Soul Trait, I want to know what that’s all about if you don't mind” He was also beginning to speak more casually to me as well which annoyed me further.
I tried to calm myself down. They were children after all, fresh from their first evolution these small mistakes could be ironed out later.
“That is a bit concerning but not a major problem” I reassured him.
“Traits are given based on what you have done between evolutions which means you can lose any negative traits during your next one when you are five years of age”
“This however also goes for the positive Traits you have gained so remember to keep up any good habits you may have unknowingly built already,” I replied.
It was good to be educational and precise with children, getting straight to the point without too much fluff in-between.
More than likely as they grew older they would forget most of the knowledge given to them but it was much better for them to only keep good information that they could build upon rather than a cacophony of useless noise.
This was why I never believed in selling kids fairy tails and the like. As I child, I feel for one too many of those lies and paid greatly for it.
“So why did I get it in the first place if it’s based on what you do?” he continued this time without even raising his hand, “Do my sisters have it as well?”
While the two girls mostly ate crudely using their hands. Norman to my surprise used the utensils to it in a manner befitting a noble he even had good pasture and hand movements to really sell the look.
I had no idea why the maids would even bother to teach him that but was impressed that he managed to learn it before his first evolution.
For all of his faults, he truly was a genius.
His talent was quickly going from something I was impressed by to something which sowed envy deep into my core.
Talent was something that I had been lacking since the very day I was born.
“It was a mistake on our end, you see, the room you were in had a much high concentration of mana than is normal for the surface,” I exclaimed surprisingly excited at giving my first lecture.
“This was by design, of course, it was so that all of you would get the Mana Starved Trait something you all received, correct?”
They all nodded their heads.
“While this is widely considered a negative by the commoners and the system itself it is incredibly useful for quickly learning magic and developing your body at an early age”
“The problem for you Norman was that your mana conductivity was much higher than that of a normal child”
For the first time during this conversation, his confidence seemed to falter for a bit but he quickly to a spoon full of rice to hide his shook and swallowed as if nothing happened.
“Ah, you wouldn't know what that means, right, I was caught off guard a bit due to how well-spoken you've been so far, the maids have done a wonderful job with you three.”
All I got in response was a slow slightly confused nod.
“Mana conductivity is at its most basic, how easy it is for mana to flow from your body to your soul and vice-versa”
“It is also highly correlated with how well mana flows through your body and soul in general but it's not the same thing”
I especially liked talking about this topic as it had to do with the soul which was at the core of our family’s ability.
I could almost feel a connection between myself and my ancestors whenever a topic related to it was brought up in conversation.
“So basically, I've been overdosing on mana,” He asked for clarification in a slightly confused voice.
“But the system told me that it was due to my soul and body being incompatible with each other” he challenged my explanation which prickled at me more than I liked to admit.
As his father, he should have taken my word as gospel and simply moved on.
His disrespect was annoying but it was formed from ignorance so I let it slide.
“Those two things are basically the same, we will teach you how mana conductivity works once you have a bit more foundational knowledge under your belt, for now, an in-depth explanation would be far too complicated for you.”
He gave me an offended look before I moved on, he was definitely my most expressive child.
This was both a good and a bad thing in my opinion.
This kind of relaxed vulnerable attitude in a safe environment is a sign of weakness but in a tense situation is a sign of overwhelming confidence.
I wasn't sure which one of those he thought he was currently in but considering how reserved his sisters were, this being the first time their meeting their father and all, gave him a slight air of authority.
Being the calm one of the three made the other two look at him with a bit of respect.
Now that I was seeing the results of his actions made me realize what was more than likely his goal.
“Ok this question isn’t for you father but for Emma, did you get the Crawl skill at birth like I did, or did you get it later because both of you started doing it long after I did.”
I was honestly very surprised he remembered that far back.
Emma looked both surprised and confused.
“I have no idea when I got it or that I had it in the first place, everything from before our evolution is a blur to me,” she replied nervously.
“I can answer that one. You were the only one to receive that skill when you were born” I jumped in.
“The others got it at the normal time for humans which is six months after they are born”
Rina almost spits out her drink.
“That’s not fair, why did he get it early and we didn’t” Emma shouted before remembering where she was and quickly calming herself down.
“It's a mix of your heritage and just random chance, some children are just born with certain skills and abilities while others aren’t,” I answered calmly.
“Furthermore if anyone should be complaining about how unfair that is, it should be Norman as he got the short end of the stick in that regard.”
“What do you mean?” Rina asked with a couple of drops of sweat going down her forehead.
They all looked at me with curious expressions.
“Well, you were all born with higher base stats than a normal human child which is about one to three per stat except for Intelligence which should be around fifteen,”
“You and Emma have higher stats than Norman in every attribute besides Intelligence where he has an astounding 29 in just that one stat”
This was amazing for him because Intelligence was singularly the best stat to help in learning skills and information which would be the majority of what they would be doing for the next four years.
“Emma was born with both the Minor Influence and Minor Manipulation skills along with just generally high social stats while Rina was born with the Minor Strategy, Minor Battlefield Awareness, and Minor Planning skills, as well as the highest stats total of anyone of you, spread quite evenly among each attribute giving her more flexibility.”
“Any further questions”
We were finally raping up with our meals which were just perfect timing.
“Well, with that finally out of the way let's move on to the presents, it is your birthday after all”
Rina and Emma looked excited while Norman just looked bored.
The maids took away their plates and quilty reminded them to wipe their hands and mouths with their napkins.
They then gave each of the children a black box with our family’s crest on the front in gold print.
The children opened it to find a silver necklace with our family’s crest as the pendant.
I already knew what they would be seeing right now as it was something that I had also experienced at their age.
[Pendant of the Venificous Family Teir 1]
Name: Venificous Family Pendent Tier 1
Type: Accessory
Quality: Basic
Stat boost: +5 Intelligence +5 Willpower
Abilities: Fire Manipulation
Description: A family pendant containing a weak soul who has long been deceased.
Requirments:
Be a part of the Venificous Family
Have the following minimum stats:
Will 5
Intelligence 10
“For the next year, your education will be divided into two sections physical education and academic education.”
“You will be required to do both of these on a day-to-day basis until you have a foundation of knowledge down.”
“The year after that you will be working primarily on weapons training.”
“The last two years until your next evolution will mainly consist of sparing and practical exercises.”
"Your First assignment is to see the full form of the soul trapped inside that necklace and to get it to follow basic instructions."
“Do you understand?”
This was the last set of nods I got from this conversation
“Your main teacher will be my right-hand man over there, Kent ” I pointed at the man right next to me.
…
As we left the hall after talking to our dad for the first time and eating breakfast.
Which was delicious by the way I never thought bread could taste so good to me.
We began speaking to each other on our way back to our rooms.
"How the hell did you do that?" Emma asked me in a shocked voice and with wide eyes.
"What exactly did I do?" I replied a bit confused.
"The way you were able to talk to our father so calmly" Rina stated.
"Yea, it was like he wasn't even there. I had so many questions, like where has he been what’s he been doing, where are our other family members and so much more but couldn't even say anything," Emma stated excited patting me on the back.
“Why didn't you ask more questions?” Rina pouted making an expression so bitter that it could only look acceptable on a child.
"If you had things to ask you should have asked it to him yourself, don't rely on me for that" in actuality I just didn't think he would answer does types of questions from the way he was talking.
I grabbed my sisters and put them in a tight embrace. They were both shocked at first but grew more comfortable as I began speaking.
“We’re all siblings right?” I knew it must have sounded weird to ask that question but they still responded to me with a weak nod.
“Then we should care about one another and do anything in our power to help each other.”
“I mean I'm your big brother after all and that's what big brothers are for,” I said in a cocky tone.
Rina didn’t like the tone I used but seemed to be happy for whatever reason while Emma gave me a suspicious glance before returning the hug in full.
I've learned from experience that a good group can not be maintained if it doesn't have a clear power structure someone needs to be at the top before strong bonds can begin to form.
Since I knew more about life in general than these two that responsibility had to naturally fall to me which was what all my power plays at the dinner were trying to achieve setting myself properly as the “older brother” of the two.
I didn't have a good relationship with my family in my past life so really wanted to change that in this one.
I hugged the two even tighter. I didn't want to let them go, that emotion-filled my mind more than anything else.
I looked up at the quest we got after our father gave us the pendants.
I promised myself that I wouldn’t let something so insignificant come between me and my new goal.
Major Quest - Family Head
Difficulty - B
Description - You have been accepted into the prestigious Venificuas Family which has a long and rich history of producing some of the strongest combatants in the world along with two other siblings.
Prove yourself above the rest and become the Head of the Venificus Family to truly obtain their powerful ability.
Requirements - Become the head of the Venificus Family.
Time Limit - None
Rewards:
* + 50 free Stat Points
* + 10 Family Points
* + 1000 Souls
* + 10000 Exp
Hidden Rewards: 5
Penalty For Failure - None