Reincarnated as a Genius Prodigy of a Prestigious Family - Chapter 8

Bout Thermion—the ‘Black Wave’—the man who rose to the status of hero together with Arken Sogres—the ‘Blue Whirlwind’—in the war against the Drenik Empire.

He had not left the capital and journeyed to the far south simply to celebrate the seventh birthday of Dane Sogres, the youngest child of Count Sogres.

‘Hm. It seems bringing up an engagement in today’s conversation would be fine.’

His eldest son, Owen Thermion.

The top student in the Altheon Imperial Academy’s swordsmanship department.

The true reason for the Duke’s current visit was to discuss the marriage of his eldest son.

The target of that engagement was Arabella Sogres.

Who was, likewise, the top student in the Altheon Imperial Academy’s magic department.

‘If the two families were to be united, wouldn’t a powerhouse so strong that not even the royal family could touch it be born?’

Duke Thermion did not care so much for politics.

In this aspect, he was similar to Count Sogres.

However, after the war, there was a need to handle the royal family who was keeping each noble family in check as their power and authority rose.

And the way to do so was through marriage.

Of course, he was not trying to ask for a forced political marriage. He just wanted to find a way to bring it up since he had already come to see his close friend.

Count Sogres was also not the type to blindly follow others’ commands.

So Duke Thermion had decided to thoroughly enjoy the southern area’s atmosphere for the time being.

“The morning air is quite good. As expected of the air here in the south.”

Duke Thermion was crossing the castle’s courtyard, lost in various thoughts.

“Mmph.”

He heard a strange sound.

What he was hearing was not the sound of dewdrops forming or of insects chirping but rather the sound of air splitting and of energy-filled exclamations.

They were very faint, but he could tell.

He thought that perhaps the guards of the Sogres castle were doing morning training, but what his ears could detect was the sounds of only one person.

Duke Thermion walked in that direction instead.

He thought that if it were Count Sogres, he would find a way to discreetly bring the subject up.

There was no time quite like the crack of dawn for one’s head to be any clearer.

“Hum.”

However, Duke Thermion could not help but exclaim once he found the source of the sounds.

It was not Count Sogres.

It was the youngest son of Count Sogres, Dane Sogres.

“Haap.”

A short and abbreviated shout powered a stab through the air.

Even though he was only seven years old, the angle of his stance was correct and the thrusts of his spear always stopped at the same exact spot.

‘Oh ho.’

Duke Thermion was admiring Dane’s movements and concentration that did not befit a mere seven year old.

How was this even possible?

As if he had been born to hold a spear, the stabbing skill executed by Dane’s tiny hand was excellent.

Even if one were to quibble that it was merely a stabbing skill, he was executing it at a level that seasoned spearmen with a few years of experience on the battlefield would have a hard time achieving.

‘Count Sogres has finally found his successor, I see.’

Duke Thermion had heard news that Count Sogres was extremely worried once his eldest daughter Arabella chose to walk the path of a mage and his youngest daughter Clare chose to walk the path of a summoner.

However, it looks like the count has absolutely no need to worry about that now.

From what the duke could see, the youngest son of the count, Dane Sogres, was exhibiting sufficient enough potential and talent from the stabs of the spear he was showing.

“And he supposedly had already demonstrated incredible amounts of talent at the mere age of one…”

He had considered it to be a rumor only, but it turned out to be true.

Then suddenly Dane’s stance caught the duke’s eye.

Duke Thermion narrowed his eyes.

“Did he learn swordsmanship…?”

At this young of an age, he had even learned swordsmanship?

But for some reason he felt he had seen it somewhere before.

Where could he have seen it?

‘I am pretty sure I saw it somewhere…’

If that kid was holding a sword instead of a spear at this very moment, he was sure he would be able to recall where.

“I don’t know who you may be, but it would be better for you to come out into the open than to hide.”

At that moment a spunky voice rang out.

After being momentarily bewildered, Duke Thermion soon burst out laughing and stepped out.

“That was really cheeky of you.”

Once Dane discovered it was Duke Thermion, he demonstrated his manners and bowed at his waist as if he had been waiting.

“I, Dane Sogres, greet you, Duke Thermion.”

It was clear he had been properly educated.

It was also impressive how his body, which had been completely covered in sweat from practicing, showed no signs of shaking, either.

He shouldn’t have been able to form a mana core at that age yet, but he was somehow still an interesting kid.

“After realizing I was witnessing the rarely seen practice of Sogres’ specialty this early in the morning, I was temporarily captivated and lost my senses. I did not intend to sneak a peek, so please forgive me.”

“I forgive you.”

Duke Thermion broke out in laughter once more. The spunky kid in front of him was beginning to grow on him.

“Your stabbing skill is excellent. You’ve inherited talent in it, I see. Hm. And the spear you are holding is not a typical one, either… May I take a look?”

Unexpectedly, Dane extended his spear without any hesitation.

Not the blade end but the handle.

Duke Thermion smiled widely.

It was clear Dane knew how to hand over a weapon properly, as well.

“This is a well-made spear. I can feel Count Sogres’ love through it.”

“I know my father had put in quite a lot of effort preparing it so I am grateful you can appreciate it.”

That was a superb answer.

While his own son Owen would certainly not be overshadowed anywhere in his manners or skills as the eldest son of the duke, he was not at a similar level in his youth.

‘Will I have to consider marriage involving him, as well?’

While his youngest daughter is easy on the eyes, she was too young to be considered for marriage, but given the chances, it would be a good opportunity to keep the future in mind ahead of time.

Of course his daughter would have to agree, as well.

“My daughter is also training in swordsmanship. Since you two are of the same age, I’m sure you two will be close friends if you enter the academy. Ah, since we’re returning tomorrow, it would be nice if you two could meet and converse before we leave.”

Dane did not unnecessarily mention that he had already met Leila in the courtyard the previous day.

“Yes, Duke. I will make sure to.”

“Haha. I like how prompt you are at responding. Anyhow, you’re in the middle of practice and I’ve held you up for too long.”

Even though he wrapped up the conversation with that, Duke Thermion thought back to Dane’s stance and movements from earlier.

So he asked out of curiosity, “Did you perhaps receive any swordsmanship training?”

Dane’s hands, which he had placed politely when speaking, trembled. But soon after, Dane shook his head as if he did not know.

“I have read about swordsmanship in a book but I have had no training in it.”

“Hm. I see.”

However, what Duke Thermion had seen in Dane’s spearmanship were signs and habits of someone who clearly had experience with swords.

He could tell there was something more than meets the eye.

As in… something that he would see only on the battlefield, perhaps?

‘There is no way that is possible.’

To think he would see signs of the battlefield in this kid who had just turned seven.

Duke Thermion chuckled at his straying thoughts which had really strayed too far.

‘Well, if he does not want to tell me, I am sure he has a reason.’

Duke Thermion decided to pretend he did not notice.

“Oh, my. I’ve delayed you for far too long. Then, I will see you later when we are departing.”

“Yes, Duke. Please enjoy your walk as you head back.”

“Indeed. And should you have any reason to visit the capital, come find me. Since I’ve partaken in the hospitality of the count’s castle here and have developed a personal interest in you.”

Interest.

Dane flinched at those words but did not show it and responded, “Yes, I will definitely stop by.”

Duke Thermion left Dane with his head bowed as he departed the training grounds.

He had a pleased smile on his face.

‘Looks like I’ve discovered something more interesting than a marriage discussion.’

Getting to know a boy named Dane may be the biggest fruit he harvested from this trip down south.

* * *

Reaper Scans

[Translator – Kyuri]

[Proofreader – Alissa]

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“Wow…”

Duke Thermion was overwhelming.

I am not implying he would brandish magic against a young child. But he knew instantly from just looking at my stance that I was familiar with swordsmanship.

Of course, I have no reason to hide it.

However, when you are learning something new, you have to hide your existing habits.

And that is why I spent effort making sure the habits from my past life did not surface when learning the stabbing stance from my father. Who would have thought he would latch onto that faint sign.

“The duke is a duke for a reason.”

One of the only six hexa-class in the entirety of the Altheon Empire.

The man who was judged to be the strongest of those six—in a group that included my father.

That Duke Thermion had just laughed heartily and spoke with me just now like he was my friendly neighbor.

‘Would he remember me?’

He had popped up so out of the blue that I was unable to ask him, but I may have been able to find out if I had been practicing with a sword instead of a spear.

And maybe that is why—

Why my heart was beating so fast.

‘I will win this time in this life.’

What I felt was not a feeling of revenge.

I guess I can call it a type of additional goal I have?

Fighting the man I had lost to and winning.

“I can do it.”

I just need to calmly take one step at a time.

Since I have been placed in an incomparably much better environment than my past life.

In any case, what could Leila be doing?

I thought of Leila’s strangely lonely looking face as she saw me receiving gifts from my family the previous night.

Given that her older brothers were at the academy according to what I had heard, could she have been feeling lonely?

Not that it is something I should be hazarding a guess on…

“Maybe I should go find her before they go back.”

But first, I am going to train.

Anyway, I later stopped practicing my stabbing skill after I got it to a satisfactory level.

“Whew.”

When I suddenly felt a presence, I turned around to see Herman standing there.

It looks like I had been concentrating too hard that I failed to sense his presence earlier.

“Herman. Were you waiting for me?”

“My duty is to serve you like a shadow at any time.”

It feels like he should be the one receiving assassination—no—stealth lessons.

With those thoughts in mind, I wiped my sweat with the cloth Herman had extended to me.

“How are things? Everyone’s pretty busy, right?”

“Everyone is running around trying to prepare for the second part of the celebration tonight.”

Herman added, “And it looks like other nobles have also arrived. It is difficult for all the nobles to arrive on the appointed day, after all.”

For reference, over 30 noble families had come to Count Sogres’ castle for this celebration that was for my birthday.

Given the distance, only nobles whose personal circumstances allowed them could come visit. If you included all their servants, that added up to an incredible number of people.

“Ah, your older sisters have said that they arrived back safely.”

“Ahh.”

After only getting to give me my gift and a brief reunion, my two older sisters left together at dawn.

This time, they had left cooperatively for the academy by opening a teleport gate.

The younger of my older sisters looked like she would cry over wanting to ride her wyvern on the way back but one order from my mother to return together instead quickly squashed that.

Given that the mid-term examinations at the academy were right around the corner, she did not have much of a choice.

Since I had time on my hands, I should take a look at the gifts my sisters had given me.

“Let’s go, Herman.”

I returned to the main castle with Herman, took a bath, changed into a clean training uniform and left my room.

I did not forget to take my short spear with me.

If I cover it, it does not pose much of a threat. And it was my father’s advice to always carry a weapon on me.

It would have been acceptable for me to rest before the evening banquet as I had done for the banquet on the day of my birthday, but I wanted to practice manipulating the magic as my eldest sister had told me.

“I’ve been practicing from time to time, but… I guess I should invest a lot more time into it?”

Having overflowing talent is a problem in its own way, I still am not sure what to focus on.

I am practicing them whenever the need arises, but I have not yet made any ‘great progress’ in either magic or summoning.

Although at this age it is common for people to be unable to even feel magic or contact any summons.

And so today I was going to try and analyze floral magic as my eldest sister had told me.

She told me that the source of magic is nature and that the largest source of magical energy in nature are ‘flowers.’

“Here we go.”

I took a look at the flowers in the courtyard that had drunk in the energy of spring and bloomed in their full glory.

In my previous life, I would look at a flower and wonder whether or not it could be used medicinally, I was really quite something back then.

“So this is floral magic.”

When I walked past them without paying any attention, it wasn’t noticeable, but now that I am concentrating, I can see a faint flow of magic.

This was proof of Dane Sogres’ body’s high affinity for magic. What others can feel through energy I could actually see with my eyes.

“She told me… to incorporate this into my own flow, right?”

I took the short spear off my back and set it to my side and focused my whole mind on it.

Nature’s magic.

Taking its flow and making it one’s own was the true start of training in magic.

When I was much younger, I had not really followed in my sister’s footsteps as a crazed maniac for magic even with my high affinity level.

I focused on the flow of magic in the flowers. Who would have thought such a large flow would be gushing out of such small flowers?

Once I feel the flow of nature’s magic, make it my own, and then have it finally settle inside my body, I will form a magic circle.

Of course, that is easier said than done. My eldest sister had said that only a minimum number of people can manage to achieve that.

But I had a feeling I would be included in that set of people.

Naturally, having a high affinity for magic was an incredible advantage for me.

Not much time had passed after I first encountered floral magic that I managed to almost fully grasp their flow.

“If I… do this…”

And then finally.

“I’ve done it.”

I had surprisingly easily traced the floral magic I could see and positioned it on my hand.

“So this was it.”

A quiet sense of delight spread over me.

The faintly visible magic had now become clearer.

If I take each one like this, it would not be an issue forming a circle out of it.

‘What will happen if I form a circle and a core at the same time?’

Well, I will think about that later.

What was important was to not let my talent languish and develop it to my heart’s content.

“Let’s try that again.”

I was bending down to try it on another flower when I heard someone talking.

“Ah, this is so boring. Since we arrived, Father has been busy talking. What’s with that? We took a whole month to get here too.”

“But isn’t the garden here pretty?”

“And here we have a man like you going on about a garden being pretty… Ah, I’m bored out of my mind. Isn’t there anything fun to do?”

I could hear two youths talking further in the garden.

My hands soon started shaking.

Those guys were stepping on the flowers.

Plod, plod.

The flowers I had been tending with care were being crushed mercilessly.

“Hey, that doesn’t seem like a path.”

“So what? Who would care if I stepped on some of this?”

I laughed hollowly.

“Ah.”

It seemed they were children of nobles who were visiting the castle today.

“In any case, where does this damn garden end? It’s not some maze so where in the world is the exit?”

“Isn’t this the way?”

“Ah, you idiot. We just came from there!”

“Ah, that’s right. Hehe.”

And as soon as they spotted me, they shouted, “Hey, you there! Looking at your attire, a servant? Or maybe… a gardener? Whoever you are, show us the way out!”