At times, Adrien wondered if the world was out to get him. Or perhaps it was just his mind conspiring against him. Like right now, when it would not let him sleep. Not that there was time to sleep anymore.

The night had already gone past, it was almost time to wake up.

Groaning as he sat up in his bed, Adrien blinked, his eyes hazy as they gazed into the darkness that covered the room. Then he turned his head, staring at an orb that lay on the side table.

The blood-tester.

The item that had declared his fate so long ago. This was the final day it could change its opinion. After today, it would be set in stone. Adrien stretched out his hand, gripping the translucent sphere and bringing it to his face. The Blood-tester glowed white, its glow bright enough to hurt his eyes, but he did not turn away, searching instead for any sign of color.

There was none to be found. Just as it had for the last fifteen years of his life, the blood-tester remained the same, telling the entire world what he was. A bastard. The illicit child of a Noble and a Commoner. The result of his father breaking the Vow, for which there was only one punishment.

The ancestors would ensure that Adrien and any children he had would receive the worst Bloodline Ability his ancestors managed to think of. Adrien’s cousins could be warriors, mages, and healers, but the ancestors demanded that he be nothing.

Groaning again, he let himself fall back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling and the far too-bright orb held in his hand. The blood-tester lit the entire room, thrumming with power that it detected within him. Adrien slammed it onto the side table, glad to see the light fade away once he let it go. Two other orbs stood next to it, not glowing but still thrumming with power.

The experiment. An inadvertent grin took to his face as he eagerly picked them up, sensing at them with his mana sense. The ancestors had taken his Bloodline Ability, but he still had a basic human’s mana. Even if no human had managed to do anything close to a Bloodline Ability with mana, there was a chance.

Adrien just had to be the first.

Taking the orbs into his hands, he looked at them, comparing the mana within them. The experiment was simple. Mana had a certain frequency to it, a thrum to its power, and that allowed two spells to merge if he could cause resonance between the spells.

Adrien had already managed to merge two candle-lighting spells together. If he could merge larger spells together, it would allow an entire army to cast a single massive spell.

There was just one problem with that.

The resonance broke down when it reached a certain amount of mana. Adrien just couldn’t get it to stick. This was his fifth time trying it. This time, he had let the mana accumulate over the night, letting the orbs’ mana reserves grow while they were synchronized in theory, which should keep the two stores of mana in sync.

The two orbs vibrated together, almost in sync. But that ‘almost’ was still too much difference between the orbs. A spell would not pass on in this case. The experiment was a failure.

Another groan escaped him as he kept the orbs back in their positions. Perhaps the ancestors would give him a groaning power. That was suitably useless for a bastard’s power. Just what he deserved.

The door to his bedroom creaked open, and Adrien sat up, staring at the figure that stood in his doorway.

“Mother wants you to get ready.” his cousin Ron’s voice echoed out.

Adrien squinted at him. “The awakening isn’t till evening.”

“Just get ready,” Ron growled out, sounding tired for some reason. Adrien frowned, wondering what had his cousin so annoyed. Did he not get any sleep, too? There were a few possibilities that came to his mind, and none of them were good.

But he knew his cousin well enough to know not to bother asking. If Ron was going to tell him anything, he would volunteer the information.

“Father called for reinforcements again,” Ron said, still standing in the doorway.

“Is he fine?” he asked, now worried. This was the fifth time this year that his uncle had to call for reinforcements. Another situation whose blame could squarely be laid at his and his father's feet. Adrien’s father was the Duke, and he had run away, leaving his brother to pick up after him.

To make things worse, he had Adrien. The power of the bloodline was concentrated in the eldest child, and that meant that Adrien had the most Bloodline Power of all his cousins. But he was a bastard whose Bloodline Ability was bound to be useless.

The entire duchy, even the Kingdom itself, was in trouble because of that. The six duchies protected the Kingdom from the goblin advance, but now one of them had no heir or duke. Tens of thousands had died since his father abandoned his post, and hundreds of thousands would lose their life if the duchy fell.

“The king was able to be reach in time, though Father will not be able to attend your awakening. Father sends his regrets.” Ron continued, sounding more relieved than apologetic. Adrien was sure his cousin thought he was to blame. Aunt Veena ensured that people didn’t say it to his face, but he could read between the lines.

After all, he was to blame. The duchy might still have survived if he hadn’t been born.

“The King will be here in about half an hour. Mother has made new clothes for you. Wear them.” Ron said, turning to leave.

Adrien wondered if his cousin thought he had forgotten he had new clothes. Of course, he knew about them. Aunt Veena had personally come to deliver them to his room.

Still, the King was coming to his awakening? Even Ron only had the Crown Prince in attendance. Adrien didn’t know why the King was coming, but he hoped it wouldn’t change anything. There was still a chance that someone might decide to kill him.

There had been suggestions that killing him might give one of his younger cousins more Bloodline Power. Adrien wasn’t sure why the King hadn’t taken the chance.

Sighing, he headed for his wardrobe. As expected, the clothes hung right where Aunt Veena had put them. A red dress shirt with black trousers, and a black suit jacket to go with it.

The colors of his clan. The Conjuring Shadows Clan.

Adrien quickly changed his clothes, his thoughts still heavy with what lay ahead of him. Ten minutes later, he was out of his room, staring at the servant girl waiting for him. The servant girl he had not expected.

There weren’t many servants in the palace, and even those who were there tended to be quite busy. That was why he was surprised to find one of them loitering in front of his door.

“The Duchess Regent requests your presence in the grand dining hall, my lord.” the girl said, awkwardly shifting her feet with her head lowered. For a second, she looked up, staring into his eyes, and then abruptly lowered her head, trying to act as if nothing had happened.

Adrien pursed his lips, knowing what had just occurred. Another of the ancestors’ gifts was causing him problems.

“Of course,” he answered, following her as she began walking. The ancestors hadn’t just taken his bloodline ability. They had decided to play with his hair, too. As he grew older, his red hair turned lighter until it became bright pink. Even the color of his eyes had faded until he could barely make out his pupil from the surrounding sclera.

That apparently made him a special ‘specimen’ that some servants thought was very special, and others considered scary. Adrien could not understand why it was so interesting. The hair might make him look like a girl, but really it was just hair. And as for his overly white pupils, well, they were just white. Not like it was a particularly rare color in an eye. The rest of the eye was white, too.

The journey to the dining hall was quite awkward, with the girl fidgeting with her dress and Adrien not knowing what to say. Interacting with people was not his strong suit, so he preferred silence. Aunt Veena was the only one who would scold him if he kept silent; just about every one of his cousins would scold him if he spoke.

The barely audible thrum of power that hummed through the building was much more welcoming. Adrien did not know what powered the ancient palaces and fortresses, but they liked him. The palaces would open doors for him and guide him whenever he got lost.

An oddity considering how much the ancestors hated him. But he supposed the palaces weren’t actually sapient, they were built to help the duke and his heirs and Adrien was currently the heir to the duchy.

Even if the position only brought him more hatred, the ancestral rules handed it to him by right of blood. Adrien wished he could give it back. Perhaps then the ancestors would hate him less.

The two of them stepped into the dining hall, the girl scurrying to join the servants at the room’s edge while he looked at the table. The King was already seated at its head, though his cousins were still taking their seats. Aunt Veena, in particular, was missing.

“Adrien!” the King called in his loud, boisterous voice. “Come! Sit next to me. Tell me, are you excited for the day?”

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Adrien’s heart skipped a beat as the King gestured for him to sit in Aunt Veena’s chair. Cause of course he did.

“With respect, your majesty, that is Aunt Veena’s chair,” he said, trying to put a smile on his face as he angled towards a farther seat.

The King raised an eyebrow. “And? Am I not the King? Or did my sister seize the throne while I wasn’t looking? Perhaps I should kill her.”

The room froze as everyone turned to look at him. Adrien rolled his eyes. The King was like this every time. The powerful mage had heard someone call him a dictator once and had been joking about it since.

The smile slipped off the King’s face as he realized the icy atmosphere that had formed. “That was a joke. A joke. Come sit down, Adrien. I doubt my sister will mind.”

Aunt Veena would not mind. There was another person that scared him far more that would. But the King could not be so easily denied. Adrien made his way to the seat and sat down, trying to stop his feet from shaking and tripping him up.

Cousin Nari was going to kill him. No, not kill him, that would be too merciful. Nari might convince Aunt Veena to not send him to the magic academy. The girl knew he wanted it, and she hated letting him get what he wanted, especially if that something was going far away from here.

As if called by his thoughts, Nari entered the room. The girl immediately turned to glare at him, her glare intensifying as she saw where he was sitting. Come on, this was technically his birthday. Could she not give him a break for just one day?

The fire in Nari’s eyes told him that the answer was no.

“Brother.” Aunt Veena said, coming up behind her daughter. The grin on the King’s face grew even wider, something Adrien had not thought possible.

“Veena!” The King called out as his gaze landed on his sister and then slid down his body to the baby held in her arms. “And is that my little nephew? Why I haven’t seen you -” The King froze as Aunt Veena stepped out from behind Nari.

Adrien shuffled down his seat, trying to appear as small as he could manage while the smile slipped off the King’s face.

“I see that you are pregnant again.” the King glared at his sister, and Adrien was sure it would spill into an argument. Aunt Veena had gone out of her way to produce as many children as she could. Just to increase the chances that one of her children would have a bloodline power and strength worthy of a duke.

Because Adrien wouldn’t be able to give that. The King was…not happy about her health.

There were bags under her eyes and her skin looked unnaturally pale as it hung off her face. Still, she was looking better than before. At least she was able to stand.

The two stared at each other, their gazes raising the surrounding temperature. The King may have been far more powerful than Aunt Veena, but she was still quite powerful herself—more than even Uncle Rowan, her husband.

If it had not been for her repeated pregnancies, it would have been her defending the border. Well that and the fact that her power was countered far too easily by the goblins.

“Have you mastered time magic, brother?” Aunt Veena said, breaking their staring match. The King’s face morphed into a scowl, glaring at his sister.

“What are you on about now?”

“The Captain of your guard tells me that you only have half an hour to spend here. Perhaps you should use that time to do what you actually came here to do instead of whining about my choices.” Aunt Veena answered, sounding smug.

The King turned around, looking behind him at the giant of the man who was trying to hide behind one of the other guards.

“Wilder, have you been complaining to my sister behind my back?” The King asked, though there was no real bite to his words. Adrien had seen the King actually use his power once, and he did not want to be on the receiving end of the man’s anger.

“I have no idea what you are speaking of, your majesty. I simply informed her grace of your availability.” the captain said, not meeting the King’s eyes. “But I fear that I should inform your majesty that only twenty minutes remain.”

The King glared at his captain for another moment before turning to Adrien, a smile once again taking up his face.

The captain rolled his eyes behind the King and stepped forward to stand beside him. Adrien opened his mouth and then closed it, unsure what he should say as the King took out a small ring box and placed it on the table.

The room grew silent as they stared at it. The recording orb in Nari’s hand began to glow as the servants drew the curtains close, recording today's events. Adrien had known that it was coming, but it still seemed too sudden.

The Vow. A binding promise that every inheritor of Bloodline Power was supposed to make before their Awakening. The same Vow that his father had broken to give birth to him, landing him in this mess.

Adrien did not know why, but that made him feel…almost afraid of it, like he would accidentally break it and put them in an even worse position. A silly thought, really, but it still came to his mind. There really wasn’t a point in making him swear, either.

The Vow was sworn to ensure that even if a noble got excessively powerful, they would still be bound by the laws of the kingdom. That there would be consequences if they broke them. This was old magic that served to guard the Kingdom, cast by the ancestors and monitored by the System.

Still, there was little chance of Adrien becoming powerful enough that the Kingdom would not be able to handle him. There was little point in Awakening him, either. The entire thing was just another humiliation.

But the King insisted that it was his right to be Awakened and that he had to go through it.

“Do you see?” the King asked, and the whole room began to thrum with power. There was still a smile on his face, but his words had no mirth in them anymore. Adrien’s heart sank as he felt words appear in his mind.

The words came to him, unbidden and unwanted, but they still appeared in his mind. Just as they had come to every ducal heir since the Conjuring Shadows clan took their position.

A position he did not want. Ron would be better suited for it, and he wanted it. But of course, it was Adrien who had these words in his mind, not his cousin. The ancestors really did hate him, didn’t they? Why did they insist on making him heir but refused to give him the power he needed to guard the duchy?

“In spirit and in magic. In light and dark. In heart and mind,” he spat, the words tasting bitter. There was meaning to the words, to every word that he and the King spoke. Magic, old, inhuman magic had bound itself to these words since before the Kingdom even existed.

The box began to glow, opening slowly to reveal a simple black coin, roughly the size of a ring. The coin floated out of the box to float in front of him, darkening the room with its very presence.

“Do you then vow to follow the Laws of Magic, in letter and in spirit?” The King asked as heat was sucked out of the room. The coin began to spin slowly, shadows dancing on the walls, visible under what little light remained.

“For as long as my magic flows,” he said, the words coming out of his mouth before he could even think of them. A heat spread across his body, tingling under his skin as pressure appeared behind his eyes. Adrien let his senses spread wide, hoping that he would catch something.

The ceremony was crafted by one of the Manevorus, the otherworldly creatures that had granted the Seven Clans their Bloodline Power. This was the kind of magic that he would need if he wanted to unravel the ancestor’s restrictions and save the Kingdom.

“Do you vow to hold yourself to the Right of Blood, in thought and in deed?”

“For as long as my blood runs true.” The pressure intensified, and Adrien was suddenly very aware of his heartbeat. The room seemed to spin as he focused on the coin, its rotation mesmerizing him. The coin pulled his thoughts towards it, not allowing him to think of anything else.

“Do you vow to follow the laws of this kingdom, in mind and in body?”

“For as long as my honor shields my thoughts.” Adrien frowned, something tickling at the back of his mind. A thought that he should pay attention to. But for the life of him, he could not focus on it right now.

The coin held his attention.

The spinning, revolving creature of darkness seemed to consume him, its mana touching, spreading across his body - Adrien felt something touch his forehead, his mind emptying of thoughts at once. A single voice echoed through his mind, repeating itself over and over.

“Then, in the name of the Seven Clans of Humanity, and in the name of the Clan Manevorus that gave us this power, I name you ready.”

The last word repeated itself over and over in his mind as he felt his head spin for what seemed like hours. A hand tightened around his shoulder, grounding him as he opened his eyes. Adrien did not even remember closing them.

“So -” the King’s voice echoed even as Adrien blinked repeatedly, attempting to clear his eyes and focus himself. For some reason, the King had three faces. A golden light flared in his vision, followed by a flash of pain as he felt air gush into his chest.

“Wha-what,” he spluttered, coughing as his vision cleared.

“Take a deep breath.” the King instructed, his tone firm. “Bloodline Power can be a bit difficult to adjust to. Do not worry. There is plenty of time.”

Adrien saw the captain open his mouth to say something behind the King, but the man stopped as Aunt Veena glared at him.

“The-there is no ne-need, your ma-” Adrien coughed, unable to complete his words. “I can do it.”

The King looked at him for a second before taking out an orb.

“Then pour your Bloodline Power into this.”

Adrien took the orb from the King’s hand, channeling his Bloodline Power as if he had been doing it his entire life. The action simply seemed natural to him. The orb filled, quickly taking on a white coloring as it did so.

A third, then half, the glow suffused the orb with no intention of stopping. The King took out another orb and placed it in Adrien’s other hand just as he finished filling the first one. That was enough for him to realize what was going on. Or rather remember what was supposed to happen.

The King was testing the amount of Bloodline Power he had, and he had just filled an entire orb. Adrien knew that Ron had not filled a tenth of a single orb. Uncle Rowan had filled four-fifths of it. The King had filled nine-tenths of his second orb. A record-breaking measurement at that time.

Adrien had already filled half of the second orb. The glow crept up the orb, its slow advance contrary to his heart that was beating a thousand times a minute. There was no limit to the Bloodline Power a family could hold, at least none that had been proven, but there were trends.

The most dependable trend was that whenever a single person in a bloodline had a large amount of Bloodline Power, everyone else in the generation was lacking. Adrien had expected this to be the case, but it still pained him.

With every bit, the Bloodline Power rose in the orb, and his heart sank. The ancestors would give him the most useless bloodline ability they could manage. What was he supposed to do with this much Bloodline Power?

Why was he given so much of something he could not use while his cousins were given so little? Aunt Veena’s eldest son had died on the frontlines because he ran out of Bloodline Power.

The glow reached three-quarters of the second orb and seemed to slow down. Adrien heaved a sigh of relief as the King took the first orb from his hands, placing a third empty one in its place. Thankfully, it was slowing down. This was already too much Bloodline Power for him.

As if to mock him, the glow jumped at that exact moment, filling the second orb. Adrien’s eyes widened as he looked at the third, noting a slight growing glow within it.

“The blood runs true.” the King pronounced. “I hereby witness that Adrien of the Conjuring Shadows Clan has become the second in history to breach the third orb.”

Adrien was still staring at the third orb, watching as the glow climbed it with renewed vigor.

“…and that he has broken his father’s record for Bloodline Power Capacity.” the King muttered as the glow finally came to a stop. Just a bit past the halfway line. Adrien had filled two and a half orbs with power.

The King looked at him and then brought out a crystal, the final artifact that completed the ceremony. At least this one should not cause any issues.

“I now pronounce him worthy of the System, and for the power granted to us by the Clan Manevorus. May the ancestors judge him kindly.” the King finished his part of the ceremony, the words spilling out of him without any emotion attached to them.

Adrien felt more than saw the crystal activate as a blue box covered his vision.

System activating…

Fetching class…

Ancestral Condemnation detected…

Changing ability…

Compiling profile…

Profile complete.

System activation complete. Bloodline ability is now available.

Welcome to the System, Adrien of humanity.

May you shame your ancestors no more.

Adrien looked at it, finding little that was unexpected. The System had acted just as he had expected it to. A relief, that.

There was just one thing still left to do before the ceremony was truly over. Adrien took a deep breath, letting his body relax as he prepared himself. Whatever came next did not define him.

The ancestors might hate me for some ridiculous reason, but he would prove them wrong. There would be a day when he would be great. There would be a day when he would fix what his father broke. Then he went ahead with it before he could hesitate some more.

System, display bloodline ability.