While Estelle received as many attentions as one could get from one’s clan, it was widely different in Vince’s case. Since he wanted nobody to know that he awakened at four, he kept on training his body, while he could only cultivate secretly.

But the most pressing thing for him was not revealing his cards as much as possible. After reading those few books from von Sideria’s library, he understood how big this world was.

If he showed his whole hand immediately, he had no hope of going forward. One should only use all his cards when in a dire situation. That was Vince’s way of doing things, his modus operandi.

Currently, he stood at the extreme eastern border of “Human Domain”, the only one of the three continents with humans as its rulers. There were at least two more known continents, both bigger than the one inhabited by humans. And to finish it off, he was in one of the most barren lands of this continent.

He knew that he was just in a backwater country and that anyone deemed as strong here was bound to be considered weak elsewhere. There wasn’t a single major sect operating in this area. He couldn’t even begin to fathom what sorts of monsters could reside in those places.

Just a few tens of thousands of miles away from the Flossen Kingdom stood one of the Twelve Forbidden Regions, the Eternal Darkness Forest. To protect human lands, a few million years ago, a great wall was built.

The Eternal Darkness Forest was called in such a way because there’s only darkness once inside, as the hundreds of meters tall trees cover the sky completely. Countless monsters roam inside this Forbidden Region, making it not only a no man’s land but also a threat to nearby human settlements.

In ancient times, before the wall was built, all of the adjacent lands had to face periodical monster tides. And although there’s now a fifty metres tall wall, sometimes it happens to get breached. Each and every time, the entirety of the Eastern Region nearly faced annihilation.

The only reason why the Eastern Region was still existing today and is not monsters’ land was thanks to the Central Region’s major forces’ intervention. In the legends, the Central region is the land where most of the mightiest powers reside, and each of those powers is unfathomable.

According to Vince’s speculations, the major sects probably avoided developing in this area for this very reason. If a breach occurred again, widespread destruction was bound to happen.

Nobody sane would build a house at the base of a Volcano, would he? The same concept applied to sects in this case.

Even though most of the stories about those Sects of the Central region are legends, Vince was sure that all of them were not existences to be trifled with. Knowing this eased a bit of his heart, as he now knew that he still had a considerable amount of time to prepare for the upcoming chaos. All of those major powers should have deep foundations, making it almost impossible for them to fall in a short amount of time.

He nonetheless kept training earnestly, as he wanted to improve his strength quickly. Vince knew that even with all of his knowledge and advantages as a reincarnator, he wouldn’t be able to effortlessly achieve his goal.

Having finished pondering his situation, Vince started his training like every other day.

‘Today, I want to do at least one thousand push-ups.’

‘Most people in this world disregard physical training, but I think it’s still essential.’

‘Even though one can use Mana to have a better physical performance, the control over one’s body can’t be achieved by only practising mana.’

Thus, he started doing physical training. By now, he was almost five years old. Most people merely thought of him as a hyperactive kid who couldn’t wait to start cultivation. People like that tended to do all kinds of training beforehand in the hopes of awakening earlier. Most people considered it just wasted efforts, as it was common knowledge that how far one could go in cultivation mainly was based on talent.

But, all of those people would wear shocked expressions right now if they knew the truth. This kid had already awakened, and yet, he was still training as a mortal would. Who would do something that stupid?

Nevertheless, Vince kept making his way towards the training field. Even though his talent was considered a bit lacking, he was still highly regarded in the family because of his “noble sacrifice” of becoming something close to a slave.

Most of his siblings would look at him with pity and a bit of empathy. Such emotions were rare in this kind of context as there was a really harsh competition among siblings. Still, Vince was already considered a neutralised threat, as he would effectively leave his family in two years.

And, that was indeed the truth, as he would even give up on his family name once he became an attendant. Since it would be unbecoming of a noble house to have one of its children be an attendant, they would make him give up on his name. As per tradition, as long as Vince served the von Sideria well for many years, he would receive the von Sideria family name instead.

Therefore, he would stop relying on Dawmond’s resources and tap into von Sideria’s instead. Because of that, all of his siblings could easily have a friendly relationship with him without worrying about him backstabbing them and stealing their resources.

One might think that such a thing was very harsh for a bunch of children, but this was a very effective method. Putting them ever since childhood in an environment filled with competition would grant them a more comfortable life once they ultimately entered the world of cultivation. Plus, it was more logical for the family to nurture only a restricted number of individuals, as in this world, individual strength mattered more than numbers.

And it was even more so in the Higher Realms, or so it seemed from what Vince knew. The stories he had read all had a thing in common. Wars were rarely fought between armies, but only between a limited number of individuals.

Troops were necessary to enforce laws and hunt bandits rather than actually fighting other armies. In this world, one could say that a single individual could even shape the entirety of history by himself. And such a thing indeed happened in the past.

Once he was in the training grounds, he found them completely empty. He was a bit confused, as he didn’t know the cause. When he saw two young attendants running on the path that went around the house, he rushed towards them.

“Hey, do you know why there isn’t anybody here today?”

“Young master, don’t you know? Two of your older siblings are currently fighting at the Arena!”

“Oh, really? Are you two also going there?”

At this question, both attendants showed embarrassed expressions as they were supposed to be working right now. But they slipped away to see his two siblings fighting.

Vince, not caring at all, said: “It looks like it. I’ll tag along too!”

“Yes, young master!”

Having realised they were overthinking it, the two started running once again, but with a boy following them now.

Once they were at the so-called Arena, which had nothing more than a few stone steps where one could sit, they saw a vast crowd currently surrounding it. Vince thus started to slip through the crowd. Every now and then, somebody realised what the kid was doing, but after recognising him as their Young Master, all those that were angry could only stay silent.

‘Hehe, being a Young Master sure has its benefits. Too bad I won’t be one for long…’

Once he finally reached the forefront of the crowd, he grouped up with a few of his siblings, who were also watching.

“Hey, big brother Harlan, why are older brother Maximilian and older brother Roland fighting?”

“Don’t you know? The girl Maximilian liked was betrothed to Roland instead! Therefore Maximilian challenged Roland to a duel over the girl.”

“A duel over a girl, huh. What an unimpressive reason.”

“You’re still young, Vince; you can’t understand. Remember these words I’m about to tell you. A man can swallow their pride in front of everything unless the girl they love is getting snatched by someone else. That is the only situation in which a man can’t bow.”

‘What a bunch of idiots. I even doubt that is true love. They both are merely around fifteen years old. What are the chances of this being the love of their lifetime? And even if you beat him up, it’s not like it’s going to change anything. This marriage was clearly decided by the elders, so, if you wanted to choose your partner, you should have put in the effort and earned the right to do so.’

Vince kept making fun of these two in his mind, knowing he would never do something as foolish as a life-or-death duel for a girl he knew for a few years at best. Suddenly, the two stepped onto the well-built stone stage. And, the slightly taller of the two youths started shouting.

“I, Maximilian Dawmond, challenge you to a duel! The winner shall be the one to have Sophie’s hand. I already received father’s approval. Do you dare to accept, Roland?”

Maximilian amplified his voice with Mana while saying these words, making the whole crowd tremble. He also showed a letter with his father’s insignia in it.

‘That’s probably father’s approval of this duel. I didn’t think he had prepared this well. At least he’s not risking his life over nothing. I wonder what the other will do, though.’