“Other-worlder?”

“Yes. Korean, specifically.”

‘So that’s why mom’s name is Hayan…’

Due to her not looking like an Otherworlder, I assumed that her parents were just a bit eccentric and named her as such.

“The… screen you’re seeing right now, it’s the power given to only Otherworlders and people with mixed otherworldly blood.” 

Seeing that I was still staring at her blankly, she continued. “With it, you can grow stronger faster than those without Status. But… let’s worry about that later. We need to treat Fenris. You saw how bad he’s hurt in the Status, right?”

I nodded.

Smiling, she took my hand and led me back into the mansion; Leinart following us close behind.

***

Hayan was surprised to see that Nova was strangely adept at dressing wounds. After patching Fenris up, she watched as Nova played (stared blankly at) with Fenris; his hand still holding the stick that he apparently found near the tree.

When Hayan inquired him about it, he only answered, 

“It’s a sword, not a stick.”

‘Huh… I thought he wanted to be a mage…’

But Hayan just shrugged such thoughts away. Whatever Nova decided to do, she would support it. It was sad but… Herald, his father, didn’t care that much about him, so he could pursue his own dreams without much pressure from the main House.

‘I’m just a lowly 5th wife anyway.’

After a while, Nova started yawning, and he fell asleep on Fenris soon after. 

Fenris merely lifted his head up and looked at Nova weirdly before falling asleep. 

Though normally, Hayan wouldn’t dare to leave her son alone with a wolf, the fact that Fenris was registered as Nova’s familiar in Status gave her peace of mind. After all, there had been no recorded case of a familiar attacking its master. Even if Fenris started attacking Nova, Leinart was here, and he wouldn’t let his grandson be the first casualty of such a case.

Leaving Nova behind in his room, Hayan made her toward the guest room, where Leinart was staying at. As soon as she entered the room, she got on her knees and begged.

“Please, father! W—”

“Hey hey, stand up!” Leinart quickly forced his daughter up. “I know what you’re going to ask me. I’m not that much of an asshole to make my own daughter beg me.”

Hearing this, Hayan heaved a sigh of relief and smiled. “Thank you, father…”

“Hah, no problem. You probably just met Herald so I’ll forgive you this time. But next time, don’t lump me with that bastard, okay?”

“Okay…”

As they settled themselves on the comfy couch, Leinart started the conversation.

“You want to know what ‘curse’ little Nova has, correct?”

Hayan nodded nervously.

Sighing, Leinart continued,

“It’s called [Seven dawn] constitution. Legends say fragments of the broken Sun God embed themselves in certain children, causing this condition. With enough Mana or Aura control and Fire affinity, this constitution can be a useful source of power.”

“W-What if Nova doesn’t meet the requirement…?” Hayan gulped.

“Then the ‘curse’ will melt him from the inside out.”

Before Hayan could faint in shock, Leinart quickly continued,

“Ah, but don’t worry too much! Even if little Nova turns out to not have Fire affinity, I have some elixirs that would at least ensure his survival. Plus, if he awakens to Frost or Water attribute, he will naturally counteract the ‘curse.’ Though, his strength would decline as a result.”

Hearing the assurance from her father, Hayan heaved a sigh of relief. However…

“Sorry to dump this on you right now but… the current patriarch ordered little Nova to come to the Awakening ceremony in 3 years.”

“Nova?! What is Herald thinking?!” Hayan shouted.

It was understandable. After all, he hadn’t even met his son until today!

Leinart picked his ear with his pinky finger and snorted,

“Who knows what goes on in that snake-like brain of his? But, to make a guess, he’s probably betting on Nova’s Aura having Fire attribute after he saw his constitution.”

“W-What if Nova doesn’t have it?”

In response, Leinart slit his index finger horizontally over his throat.

“Then, Herald will do whatever it takes to kill little Nova before he could ‘disgrace’ the House.”

*

*

*

“You don’t need to be too alarmed, of course,” Leinart said. “He won’t stoop so low as to kill him outright. Though, assassinations and framing Nova for crimes he would never commit isn’t out of the question for him.”

Hayan’s face paled and she started weeping.

Leinart sighed. All he could do right now was comfort her until she regained her calm.

***

A few weeks had passed since Herald’s visit.

Somehow, mom was even more clingy than usual.

‘I guess Leinart told her about [Seven dawn].’

But no matter. I was confident I could overcome the curse. 

‘And maybe even use it to make myself stronger.’

That asides, I shouldn’t have gotten so excited before since every time I took Fenris out for a walk, Ria and mom watched over me.

This time, though, was different. Mom and Ria had some emergency businesses to attend to, so they could only say, ‘don’t get too far from the mansion!’ before rushing away from me.

‘Yeah, right, don’t get too far,’ I snickered as I observed my surroundings.

Bare trees that towered over my 5-year-old body,

Rough ground that was dotted with leafless bushes here and there,

And a violently-flowing creek that seemingly separated the land; its water flowed so fast that the creek couldn’t freeze like the ground around it.

Yes, I was in the forest behind the mansion without anyone’s knowledge. For some reason, my Aura amount wasn’t increasing anymore, so I figured that hunting Monsters would fix it.

‘Plus, I need to find food for Kirion anyway,’ I thought as I looked at Kirion, which was held in my hand. It was still in its stick form since I hadn’t got the chance to feed it.

On my left was Fenris, who was sniffing the ground. I actually didn’t need him to hunt, but apparently, he could find where Monsters were by scent, so I let him tag along.

We walked along the creek for some 30 minutes before Fenris woofed at the other side of the creek.

“Monsters there?” I asked.

Fenris growled as if telling me, ‘are you really asking that?’

“Did you forget who saved you, sly wolf?”

Seeing that Fenris was still acting arrogant, I knelt down and pulled his cheeks. 

“Cheeky wolf, just do your job. Bickering can wait until we return to the mansion.”

As I was still quarreling with Kirion’s emergency snack, I suddenly heard rapid footsteps coming from the other side of the creek. Lifting my head up, I saw a girl wearing a hooded cloak, around 4 years older than my body was, carrying a bloodied sword in her hand and running toward me.

‘What is s— oh… she’s running away from something.’

Soon, that something was revealed. From the bushes on the other side of the creek, a bear as tall as two human men rushed out. Its left eye was bleeding—probably the girl’s work. That also explained why it looked like it wanted to rip the girl apart; not eat her.

The bear, although clearly a 1-star Monster, was fairly powerful. Even Fenris was glowering and slightly shaking in fear.

Alternating my gaze between the bear and the girl, I asked Kirion,

‘Perfect time for a snac— no, this is a full-course meal, am I right?’

Whir.

Exhaling, I gripped Kirion hard and focused Aura in my legs.

[Star steps]

Two star-like platforms appeared under my feet. However, due to my limited strength, the most I could do was take 3 steps.

‘Well, that’s more than enough.’

With the first step, I propelled myself off the ground and halfway across the violent stream of water. The second, I kicked off the air diagonally, gained some height, and made my way right above the bear. On my third step, I stopped myself from going further and muttered,

[Meteor sword]

Kirion and I fell through the air like a meteor.

However, the bear managed to notice my attack and changed its direction. But, it was still too late, as its right front leg was severed by my attack; my eardrums nearly burst due to the bear’s loud growl of pain.

Not wasting any more time, I infused my Aura into Kirion to make it sharper and struck the bear. To my surprise, Kirion bounced right off the bear’s thick hide.

‘...What? I’m sure that was enough!’

That was when I realized that the bear wasn’t normal. A red, transparent fog covered its entire body as its eyes turned red.

‘It can use Aura?! Did it break through to 2-star just now?! What’s this bullshit?’

Panicking mentally, I threw Kirion toward the bear to distract it just for a split moment and made a mad dash for the girl, who was staring at the battle in awe.

“I’ll borrow this,” I said in a flat tone as I snatched the sword out of her hand.

Just as I took the sword, the bear knocked Kirion flying toward a nearby tree with its claws, snapping the tree in half, but not Kirion, and turned its rageful red eyes toward me.

‘Too late, fucker.’

I focused on the sword, yet I never took my eyes off the bear at the same time. As the bear rushed toward me with wild abandon, I willed the ambient Aura into the sword.

Let Aura take shape of a grindstone,

Sharpening my blade with precision and zeal.

Like a blacksmith dedicated to his craft,

Make the best out of this shoddy sword,

Make it worthy to be in the presence of a Swordsmaster.

[Aura sharpening]

Immediately, I could tell that the effects of [Aura sharpening] were much more potent on this bladed sword than on Kirion, which was blunt right now. With cold eyes, I pointed the sword, whose edge was surrounded by thick blue strands of Aura, toward the bear.

As soon as the bear got in range, I—

“Die, food.”

—Slashed. My sword cut through its Aura like a hot knife through butter.

Just a simple slash was enough to handle a beast of this caliber. Although normal swordsmen might scoff at such a slash, they wouldn’t know that I intentionally avoided major arteries.

Thus, with a clean cut to its heart, the bear collapsed onto the ground without spilling any blood on me.

‘Hah, no blood on my clothes. Now, mom can’t know what happened.’

Feeling smug, I picked up Kirion again and stabbed it in the body of the now-dead bear. 

‘Come on Kirion, drink up.’

Blood from all over the bear’s corpse flowed to the tip of Kirion. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, it all disappeared. However, I wasn’t alarmed. I’d seen this thousands of times before after all.

‘Had your fill?’

Whir.

Kirion vibrated happily.

Then, I observed my blood-drinking sword for change. It looked less like a stick now; though, not quite a sword either. The best way to describe it was a wooden training sword made by a woodworker that had no experience making a weapon.

‘Well, at least you got an edge now, Kirion.’

That meant using [Aura sharpening] on Kirion would actually be worthwhile now.

I then turned my attention back to the girl and held her sword out.

“Thanks for letting me borrow this.”

“I—”

The girl inhaled, but covered her mouth before she could say anything meaningful and just received the sword with a nod.

Before the atmosphere could get more awkward, Fenris suddenly appeared and rubbed its head on the girl’s legs, making her yelp in surprise. 

“Oi Fenris, how did you even get here?”

It didn’t answer and instead tugged on the girl’s cloak with its mouth, eventually ripping it from her.

“Fenris, you’re barely bigger than my arm. Go find a female cub.”

But he didn’t pay any heed to my remark and continued to ravage the poor cloak. 

Sighing, I ripped the cloak away from Fenris and forcibly hugged him to my chest with my left arm.

“Sorry about that,” I said as I finally looked at the girl again.

Without her cloak, I could see her features clearly. Black hair, purple eyes, and a face that looked every bit as expressionless as I was. I didn’t know if her face was so stiff because she was too scared or if that was just how she normally was.

As I was still inspecting her, Fenris got away from my arm and jumped toward the girl to nudge its head against her legs again.

“How cute…” The girl said in a flat tone as she crouched down to pat Fenris’ head. Somehow, I could tell that she was genuine in her compliment.

‘Well, shit, I didn’t know Kirion’s snack was attracted to human women… and vice versa.’

After patting Fenris for several seconds, she stood up again and bowed.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“...Weren’t you hunting the bear? Didn’t I just steal your prey?”

“...I was, but I u-underestimated its strength. If you weren’t here, I’d have d-died.”

“Mmmmm…”

‘What do people normally say now… I guess introductions?’

It was probably not wise to disclose my identity as a noble, so I decided to just tell her my first name. Extending my hand out, I said,

“My name’s Nova. What’s yours?”

Taking my hand and shaking it, she answered,

“...I’m Ihwa.”