When Samuel woke up, he could hear buzzing noise in his head, shaking his head to get out of his dizzy state, he felt memory of last night.

Last night nightmarish pain and helplessness, seems to left lingering effect.

Headache, muscle pain, thirst and hunger were only it's physical aspects.

Above all he was confused, asking himself what was last night?why it happened?and was it going to happen again?

Too much questions and no one to answer them, extending his hand he picked up water glass besides the bed, gulping it down in one go, he felt better.

Getting up to get something to eat, he noticed that his leg where wobbly and he couldn't stand properly.

Sitting back he waited for a minute till he could stand up.

He walked out of his bedroom, and went to mansion kitchen.

When he reached there he saw the chef and kitchen staff were busy preparing lunch.

This made him realize what time of day it was.

(I slept till noon, huh)

Picking some few snacks under rather strange gaze of kitchen staff, he went to place he was supposed to be, classroom.

One of kitchen staff, seeing him already left, commented.

“did young master sleeping habit worsened?”

Other one responded “seems so, but today is a record.”

“yeah, but his luck isn't bad, today grand madam didn't come and children class was called off”

Samuel reached the class while gnawing on snacks.

Inside, he found no one.

Left with no choice, he moved to the training ground.

Seeing only his mother there. 

Wearing simple training attire, practicing her sword like always, she didn't even noticed that Samuel was there.

Samuel didn't disturbed her either, sitting on bench, he gazed at her refined swordsmanship.

Although he was too young to know anything about sword and swordsmanship, his feeling told him that it wasn't ordinary at all.

As he watched he noticed her swinging speed was growing faster, fasnacited by sight he tried to count how many swing would she do before she get tired.

But what he saw in following minutes was beyond his understanding. 

Speed growth wasn't what he thought, he assumed that she sped up as she was absorbed in her practice but it was different, each swing was faster than last because of her innate talent.

It's wind attribute related unique skill, [successive Strike], the same thing which Harold detected in her and decided to become her mentor.

Interesting thing about her skill, was that it wasn't shown up in her status in time when she received her status system.

Unique Skills sometime doesn't shows up in status, this are what people refer as hidden talent.

(I'm an entire hidden talent itself) making a tasteless joke about his condition he continued watching …tried to but couldn't.

Her speed was already far beyond what he could see, what he saw was moving blurry figure with a sword.

After some time training was already over but admiration was already sewn in Samuel eyes. He dreamed about a day he could be the same, strong enough for his peers to look up to.

When Emma put the sword away Samuel eyes was fixated on it.

That sword was a normal broadsword, nothing ornamental was attached to it, something you can't find in nobles hand as they disdain something like that.

Taking a notice of her son presence, she wiped her sweat with a towel and walked to his side.

Standing up his sparkling eye was talking enough for anyone to know what he was thinking.

Petting his head with lovely gaze she said “you want to learn sword seriously?”

Looking upward at her,  he nodded in response.

But his thoughts wasn't something he should have. 

(will be able to do it?am I capable of it with my condition?)

“it doesn't matter ” Her mother word hit him as if she could see right through him

“whether you have talent for it or not, isn't most important, what matter the most is your heart and mind, by other words, emotion and reason.”

While Samuel looked rather fine this one week after ritual, for his mother, it was visible that jealousy and inferiority was hidden in him.

He tried to hide it, to ignore it, to supress it, it is fine for now, since he didn't know how much difference he and his brother had.

But how could Emma not know, when Simon reached age of 17, neither she nor James would be able to easily win against him, they who trained from age 12 for Emma and 6 for James, for total of nearly 30 odd years, for him would only take 10 years.

And all that because stat are limited before age of 17, when body reaches maturity, first limit are from 6 to 10 year old, and last one from 10 to 17.

At that time, will Samuel be able to overcome emotional hurdle?only time could tell.

(I won't leave my son future in hand of fate and chances, I'll help him to best I can, no matter the cost) Emma made up her mind to nip his problem in the bud.

Future is uncertain, no one can say for sure what it'll bring you, even considering existence of Gods like Apollo God of music and prophesy and Moirai.

So she wants to help him make his future instead of waiting for it.

Hiding what is in her heart, she gave something akin to a hope.

“so try to find your emotions and reason for it, if you find them and strive for it.”

Pausing a little she continues “then you'll achieve your goals, same like feats your father reached.”

Even while giving hope like this she knows that pure hardworking might not accomplish what he desired, it's not meaningless but might not be as grandiose as he dream it.

“I'll find them mother, no matter how long it takes” Samuel replied with determined expression.

“you'll, for that I'm certain, but …” Giving him a sudden kiss on forehead she said in low voice “…when you did make sure to not lose it”

Samuel was dumbfounded a little, why suddenly do something this embarrassing.

Feeling shy he step away a little from her.

Looking at his movement, Emma made a heavy frown.

“Samuel, did hurt yourself by any chance?”

“Huh?” Her question was unnatural in Samuel mind but after initial confusion gone, he replied “no mother, I didn't”

Emma had told them to not train heavily as it isn't good for undeveloped body of a child.

But in her eye, she saw his hand would shake from time to time and his walking was unsteady, like a person with heavy muscle pain.

“you sure of it?” she didn't believe, thinking that he wants to conceal it.

“Yes, mother, I'm sure”his eyes was sincere and he showed no hesitations, obviously not a lie.

“Just that, last night something strange happened.” not wishing to hide it he told her everything that happened last night.

Listening to his explanation, she felt something stuck in her throat, her son had suffered but she didn't even noticed.

Even worse she didn't know what had happened even.

She inspected his body, for a likelihood that she could notice something and she did.

“this state of muscle is the same as weakening status effect that I had seen before, just with difference of not being status effect.”

“you had a level up yesterday right?”

Nodding in response, he also noticed her meaning.

“mom, you say it's because I leveled up?” although strange but quite believable for him, as his level up wasn't ordinary at all.

“it's possible but it's we need to test it to make sure.”

After that they left for lunch with rest.

In mealtime, Simon poked at Samuel record break.

Passing the day, before going to sleep he tried his routine, just to find abnormality.

Last night he filled the glass three time but now it was two, same as what it was before level up.

(so last night I lost everything I gained from level up, huh)

As he found out a new ill condition in himself, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry at his situation. 

But why I didn't lose the mana increase before?does it only happens when I level up?

Concluding his conjunction, which was truth, he slept in a expection for finding reason that his mother told him.

That night his usual dream returned to him as it stayed like broken record in next two months, except when he leveled up in the day.

The two months passed while Julie and Emma guided their growth.

Julie mood was way worse than beginning day, causing childern to tremble in her presence. 

The trio leveled up 30, confronting with simple monster like slime, goblin, kobold which was considered low-tier, or E-rank.

For Samuel this was an unpleasant time as he understood that no matter how many level up he does, their effectiveness only remain till when he sleeps, neither mana nor physical stat would remain.

He called it, the " leakage”.

It was absurd and painful, he couldn't accept it, but he didn't spoke up about it and asked his parents that they don't inform Simon about it.

His last ray of hope was that at least when he fully used his mana, it would still grow and wouldn't be lost, same was true for physical state of him.

Although waiting and potion were useless, he used afternoon nap as little boost to his training, tasking zeth to awaken him in half an hour.

And his efforts weren't fruitless by end of two months number of time he could use magic to fill the water glass reached ten time.

So he changed his training a little, using his power to water the flowerbed and sleep right in garden, or sometimes using wind to clean leave of trees from ground.

For mansion employees, it was strange but that wasn't something dangerous or perverted, so complaining about it was just a mean move and they didn't find any twisted joy in bullying the innocent kid.

Julie once saw his training from afar, and she was shocked a little.

What shocked her was his mana, mana carry person emotion and mentality with it, in other word, it would reflect the owner inner emotion and capable magician can determine other people state of mind from it, some advanced magic needed certain emotion to be used, for example healing needed compassion, curse magic needed malice and hatred and so on.

But Samuel mana was tranquil, like there's no emotion in it.

“Just what is wrong with this child?” for her silent question, no one had an answer.

Time of capital banquet reached, but mansion residents didn't have much motivation for participating in it, for Julie imperial capital was a place of bitter memory, for Emma was a place she to exchange petty pleasantries with haughty noblewomen, for Simon it was going to visit the one who supposedly have better status than him, even Carolina disliked it as she couldn't be with her friends. 

Lastly was father and son due which was apparently uncaring, but to rest of group eyes it was obvious that their way of hiding anxiety was exactly identical.

They set teleportation circle beforehand and went to capital one day before banquet.

But they didn't expect outcome of this celebration, nor they expected effects it'll bring to their happy family.