In the morning, Corin woke up around nine o'clock.
He threw off his blanket and left his bed.
With sparkling eyes, he ran to the nearby well, washed his face and hands, and dashed back home.
Inside, his mother was preparing breakfast for the family—his father, himself, and his mother.
Corin also had a sister, four years older than him, but two years ago, a demonic beast had emerged from the ground and kidnapped her.
Soldiers stationed around the village found the monster and killed it, but it was too late—his sister had been half-eaten.
After that, Corin had resolved to become a soldier, determined to protect the border between the Demon Lands and the Empire, so that no child would have to lose their family like he did.
Today was his—and several other children's—awakening day.
The village, located near the border, had about five or six hundred people, and Corin had high hopes for this moment.
It would decide his future.
If he awakened even a D-rank skill, he might become a soldier, even if only a common one.
If he awakened a C-rank, chance of awakening one-in-a-thousand, he could become a captain of ten or twenty soldiers, with the freedom to choose his own posting.
He was thrilled.
The moment he entered the house, he shouted,"Mom! Dad! When are we going to the village chief's home?"
"Corin, don't shout," his mother replied."After we have breakfast, we'll go. The ceremony is around noon, so don't be impatient. Even if we left now, we'd have to wait there."
His father added,"If you finish everything on your plate, I'll personally go with you to your friend's house. We'll go there together."
Corin's eyes lit up."Really?" he exclaimed, showing off even the radishes he usually hated the most.
The village was not poor—by the standards of other regions in the Empire, everyone lived comfortably.
A rare iron mine was located nearby, and nearly all the men worked there, while most of the women stayed at home—or could work at the mine if they wished.
Corin's father was one of the miners, and hearing that his son planned to attend his awakening ceremony instead of going to work made him very happy.
After breakfast, father and son began their journey to the other side of the village, to Corin's best friend Lio's home.
Lio's father was one of the two commanders tasked with defending the village from bandits and demonic beasts.
He commanded fifteen soldiers and possessed a C-rank skill called Partial Wolf Transformation.
With it, he could transform his hands and legs into wolf-like claws, increasing his speed several times that of a normal human.
With claws nearly ten centimeters (about four inches) long and wolf-like agility, his overall strength could rise to roughly Blade rank for several hours.
They reached Lio's house, and Corin shouted,"Lio! Are you up? Let's go!"
A moment later, he heard Lio's voice, and then saw him coming out of his house with a loaf of bread in his mouth.
Looking at his friend, Corin said,"Did you stay up late last night?"
Lio replied,"You can't blame me! I was really excited yesterday."
Corin waved and greeted his friend's father."Hello, Uncle Tavin."
"Hello," Tavin replied, nodding his parents as they prepared to leave Lio's house.
After gathering Lio, they headed to the village chief's house.
There, they noticed a soldier they had never seen before.
Only thirty soldiers guarded the village, and everyone knew their faces, so the sight of an unfamiliar one made them uneasy.
The soldier spoke briefly to the village chief, and the chief's face suddenly went pale.
He shouted,"Corin! Lio! Call everyone in the village to my house and arrange the seating! The son of our lord is coming!"
Corin and Lio ran as fast as they could, shouting at everyone along the way:"The village chief is calling everyone to his house!"
They didn't know why the lord's son was coming to their village, but they obeyed immediately.
No one dared upset him after all, the lord's word was law in their territory, and the next lord was arriving and the next lord's arrival demanded respect from everyone.
After bidding farewell to Seraphina, Kael requested his parents' permission to go to the border of the Demon Lands.
At first, his mother disagreed, saying it was far too risky.
"There are simple forests nearby where you can hunt minor monsters like goblins and kobolds," she argued.
But Kael persisted for two days without stopping, insisting,"I won't cross into the Demon Lands. I only want to observe and return after one week."
Finally, she relented—but only under heavy guard.
Now he found himself surrounded by hundreds of soldiers, most of them Blade-rank, and among them were two knights with B-rank skills.
They moved like a tortoise.
Kael was placed in the center of the formation while scouts went ahead to look for bandits or monsters.
Several kilometers ahead, he spotted a village and expressed a desire to visit it.
When he mentioned it, Night Galven sent a soldier ahead to inform the villagers, and then the group adjusted its course.
Entering the village, Kael noticed the streets were empty.
"Why is there no one here?" he asked Galven.
"Everybody is in the village center, waiting for you, Young Lord," Galven replied.
Kael rode to the front himself.
The moment the commoners saw him, they knelt immediately, pressing their heads to the ground.
He observed them for a moment—several hundred people, mostly women and children.
Then he remembered the nearby iron ore mine, which could channel mana through itself, explaining why most of the men were not here.
Kael dismounted from his horse and said,"Raise, everyone."
The villagers stood and lifted their heads, but none dared meet his eyes.
"What were you doing before I arrived?" Kael asked.
The village chief, Harven, stepped forward and lowered his head to the ground.
"My lord, we were preparing for the awakening ceremony of some children in the village. If you wish, we can begin immediately," he said.
Kael agreed.
He had never witnessed someone's awakening ceremony before except Seraphina's.
He knew most commoners only awakened E- or D-rank skills, but he was curious to see what abilities these children would manifest.
They brought him the most luxurious chair they could find in the village, but for Kael, it was just a simple chair.
He sat there, waiting for the village chief to bring the E-rank core stone from his house—a stone the Ravenor family had given to the village to awaken their unique skills.
Kael glanced at the children lining up to touch the stone.
About six of them stood in line, some of them visibly excited.
The presence of the real lord at their awakening ceremony was a moment they could boast about for the rest of their lives.
Curious about their abilities, Kael activated his skill, Corrupting Gaze, but immediately stopped its mana-absorbing function.
He only wanted to see how much mana these people had by looking through his eyes.
He often used this skill during the day; while the glow of his eyes was subtle in daylight, at night it shone like sparkling gems.
With constant use, the skill's mastery rate increased by about 0.01 percent per day.
The first child touched the core stone and stepped back.
Kael examined him and noted his mana was very low.
He asked,"How much mana do you have?"
The child answered,"108 points."
Kael thought for a moment.
108 points… In the novel, the average mana for an ordinary civilian was around 100, so this was nothing remarkable.
The second, third, and fourth children touched the stone.
Their mana ranged from 80 to 120, the highest being 230.
Then Kael noticed a girl step forward—a girl with black hair and striking red eyes.
Is it her? he wondered, immediately locking his gaze on her.
No… not Fenra.
Just looks like her description.
Fenra was a wolfkin, with wolf ears and a tail, not a human.
She should be in the lands of Tharok, training to get the head position of the wolf tribe.
But the moment the girl touched the core stone, Kael saw hundreds of times more mana coming from her body compared to other children with his skill.
Others didn't notice but he did.
"Interesting," Kael murmured.