Time flies quickly, and before he knew it, Alan was already 10 years old.
"This is much harder than I thought it would be..."
While he was quietly contemplating what he had been doing for the past three years.
Over the past three years, he spent the absolute majority of his time training his mana core and affinity, trying to break through to core rank 2.
His mana core has a much larger capacity compared to when he first awakened.
But he needs something else to break through to rank 2, experience.
Over his past ten years, he has never once left the annex he had been growing up in, other than to steal, mainly because he just didn't have a reason and was more focused on growing stronger.
His body was still growing, and he didn't want to potentially harm his body development, but now he is far too impatient for waiting.
Realistically, Alan shouldn't be complaining, the average person awakens at age 15, Alan is quite the anomaly for awakening at age 7.
In the higher noble clans, the people carrying the clan's bloodline tend to awaken around age 10 to 12 and already considered geniuses, and those who awaken before age 10 are held in even higher value.
But no one found out about the fact Alan awakened because he never left the annex, also because no one comes to the annex.
Despite the annex being right next to the main building of the estate, not a single member of the main family has visited in the past 10 years.
And this was enough to already piss Alan off.
"Though I guess my half siblings should have awakened by now, huh?"
The patriarch of the Zevril clan, Alaric Nyx Zevril has two wives.
The first wife has a son, who should be of age 15 by now, and the likely heir to the estate.
While the second wife gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, just a few months older than Alan.
That's right, the great patriarch had an affair with a maid while his wife was pregnant, nothing that man does will ever change Alan's view of him being an absolute scumbag.
In fact, that man hadn't visited Alan even once, the last time would be when he was born to give a name, but even then, he left immediately after and never appeared again.
However, Alan also understands he is almost never at the estate, being one of the strongest in the continent he is never home and always attending to businesses.
Even now, he isn't at the main house but out somewhere.
Alan could honestly relate, in his life as Leon he was also almost never home and the majority of his time was just spent travelling to different countries.
"Alright."
Alan stopped his thoughts and stood up to look in front of him.
He was sitting in front of a giant gate, which was the entrance to the annex he had been living in.
And for the first time in ten years he was going to make his appearance outside the annex.
His destination? To the Zevril knight order.
Why? Because he needs a new place to terrorise, over the past five years, all the maids who had been trash talking him have disappeared, replaced by young inexperienced maids who actually respect them.
These young maids never express any dislike towards his mother and him, instead his mother had been building friendships with them.
Seeing his mother happy, made him happy.
But now he needs experience to become stronger.
And so Alan approached the gate, but just as he did.
"Alan!"
His mother appeared, running after him.
"...Are you going now?" She asked.
"Yes, mom, I'll be back before dinner."
"Sniff... you don't have to go..." Miya had tears in her eyes looking at her son.
The baby she had cradled was gone, in his place stood a boy nearly as tall as her shoulder.
His hair, a deep onyx with hidden violet undertones, had grown past his ears to graze his shoulders.
He was wearing an elegant black and dark purple outfit suitable for nobles to wear, it fit him perfectly while framing the amethyst necklace he wore.
He still wore the necklace she got him on his 7th birthday, just seeing that made her smile.
The outfit was something she bought for his 10th birthday, as she knew he needed something to wear outside.
Yesterday, Alan told her he was going to the knight orders to train.
And she reluctantly agreed, she already knew her son was extremely talented to be awakening at a young age, but she still didn't want her son to go into battles.
But she still agreed, knowing confining her son's potential would only harm his future.
"It's okay mom I'll be back before you know it." Alan gave her a reassuring smile, then walked out the gate.
Even after he left, Miya remained standing there watching the gates with an emotional face.
After a while.
"Lady Miya." A young maid approached her.
"Lana..."
It was a young maid, 17 years of age, by now she had become the closest to Miya as a friend.
"It'll be okay, he'll be fine." Lana encouraged Miya.
"I know... but I can't help but worry, I just don't want him to get hurt." Miya sniffed.
Lana sighed with a smile, then said. "How about we have some desserts."
"Desserts?"
"Mhm, Our chefs are quite good, they recently made some chocolate cake."
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try..." Despite trying to sound as if it didn't matter to her, she couldn't hide her rising grin.
"Well then, let's go, my lady."
Before she even finished speaking, Miya already dashed off in an extremely unladylike manner.
***
The sun was still high in the sky as Alan reached a massive training ground.
A running track spanning across five kilometres circled around a flat concrete ground, where hundreds of soldiers trained.
Many ran on the track, others were sparing, some were training their bodies and skills.
With a smile, Alan entered the training grounds.
And collectively, everyone stopped and looked at the new arrival.
Everyone noticed the elegant clothes, but it was the violet eyes that made everyone stop, the trademark of every Zevril clan members.
Instantly, everyone gathered before Alan and knelt.
At the foremost of the group was a man with light-brown hair and looked young, but Alan could immediately tell he was much older than he looked, and the strongest of the bunch gathered here.
The man's blue eyes stared at Alan as he raised his voice.
"I, Gavin Vandal, commander of the 3rd battalion of Zevril knights, greet Alden, the young lord of the Zevril family."
Alan blinked. 'Alden? Who the hell is—'
Before coming to a realisation.
'Did they mistake me for my half brother?'
Alan did indeed have a brother that should a few months older than him, if considering that it made sense.
Realising this, Alan burst out laughing.
Gavin tilted his head. "Young lord?"
"Haha... oh man, that's funny." Alan wiped a tear from his eyes. "Look again, I'm not Alden."
"What...?" Gavin was momentarily confused, then narrowed his eyes as he scrutinised the boy.
And indeed he was different from the Alden he met a few years prior, the hair was too long and the eyes... the pupils didn't have circles, they were vertical slits.
"Young master... Alan?" Gavin said his name, his voice laced with disbelief.
Alan was the name of the illegitimate son of the Zevril family, a bastard so to speak, his existence was treated more as a gossip and most people just believed him to be a sheltered nobody.
It's to be expected, over the past ten years he never made an appearance.
'But this is insane.' Gavin was having a hard time believing his eyes.
He himself was a core rank 5, a demigod, as such he can see things others normally can't.
And the mana and impression he was feeling from Alan was something no one his age should have.
The other soldiers instinctively sensed Alan wasn't normal.
"Ah, yup, that's me!"
The soldiers started rising from the floor, having realised who he really was.
And the lower ranked soldiers who didn't sense Alan's capabilities immediately started whispering.
"The bastard of the Zevril family..."
"Pfft, what's he doing here."
"Does he think he is a real Zevril?"
Not so subtle whisperers filtered the surroundings.
Unlike the lower ranked soldiers, Gavin and other soldiers didn't belittle him.
"What has the young mas—"
"Drop the formalities." Alan cut him off. "Honestly, it's such a hassle."
Gavin smirked. "Alright, what do you want us to call you?"
"Alan."
Gavin hesitated. "That's a little—"
"Just call me Alan." Alan cut him off again. "After all I'm just a bastard aren't I."
The field went silent, he sheer bluntness of the statement caught everyone off guard.
Gavin was about to say something, but saw how unbothered Alan's eyes were. "Alright, Alan. Why are you here?"
"To get stronger."
"Pfft."
From behind Gavin soldiers started laughing loudly as if wanting to be heard, but Gavin didn't he simply stared into Alan's eyes.
"I see." Gavin smiled, he quite liked his attitude. "Alright then, first we should see your current level."
Gavin was intending Alan to go through some simple exercises to test his limits.
As he was wondering, a young soldier stepped up.
"Captain, allow me to test him."
Gavin narrowed his eyes at the soldier.
It was a recruit, Edward, the son of a count's family, 15 years of age and newly awakened.
Messy blonde hair and blue eyes, along with the arrogant sneer of someone who recently discovered their powers.
In this continent, nobles volunteering to be a knight for a higher noble clan was nothing to be ashamed of, in fact, it was a great honour to be knight of a grand duke's family.
Edward took great pride in his nobility and the fact he is in the Zevril knight order.
As such, he looked at Alan with great disdain, he found his very existence to be a stain in the grand duchy's history.
"How will you test him?" Gavin asked.
"I suggest a spar."
Edward's intentions were rather obvious, he couldn't even hide his mocking eyes that looked down on Alan.
Obviously, Alan didn't miss his intentions, instead found it really stupid.
"How childish." Alan scoffed.
Edwards eyes twitched at that, but before he could say a thing, Alan spoke again.
"I accept, a spar with zero restrictions." Alan declared with a confident smile.
"Hmm." Gavin seemed to consider his proposal, while Edward seemed ecstatic.
"Alright." He gave his approval. "Clear the grounds!"
Instantly every soldier around them dispersed, circling Edward and Alan in a wide circle.
"I'll be the supervisor." Gavin stepped next to Edward and Alan.
Alan nodded and turned to Edward. "Sup! You'll be my first opponent!"
"You mean your last?" Edward scoffed loudly. "What can the son of a whore even accomplish?"
Some soldiers begun snickering in the crowd, while Gavin looked at Alan.
'As expected.' He thought.
Alan's face was blank, his gaze cold, all his previous playfulness vanished like it never existed in the first place.
Such abrupt changed momentarily made Edward flinch, before he quickly regained his composure.
"What scared all of a sudden?" But all he received in response was an icy silence.
Instead, Alan turned his eyes to Gavin.
Gavin nodded. "Start!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Alan lunged forwards, the ground beneath his feet caved in and fractured from his takeoff.
'What' Edward panicked, Alan was much faster than he thought.
Alan reached Edward instantly, forcing mana into his arms to strengthen his muscles, he launched a right hook.
Psst
The punch was fast, too fast for a child to be capable of, yet Alan did just that, his punch cut through the air like a blade.
Edward desperately moved his arms to block the blow aimed at his head.
But it was a feint.
The whistle of his fist still echoed in his ears, but the impact hit elsewhere.
Alan pivoted mid-motion, driving his left fist into Edward's exposed solar plexus.
The air left Edward in a pathetic wheeze as he folded forward, his body buckling around Alan's buried fist.
Before he even took a breath, Alan's right fist collided square in the jaw with a sickening crack, snapping his head to the side.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Thump
Edward collapsed unconscious.
By a boy five years younger, and smaller than him, Edward was defeated practically the moment the spar started.
Alan's blank expression didn't change, he shook his hands out with a flick of his wrists, then slowly turned his gaze over the crowd of soldiers.
The laughter that had filled the air moments ago died in their throats, Alan's cold violet eyes scanned every soldier who mocked him.
Then in a flat voice, devoid of emotion.
"Next."