26. Bastard of direct bloodline
[ Do you wish to copy the Dark flame ]
[ YES/NO ]
Edward silently chose yes, and focused on Aldrian.
Aldrian who was looking at him with curiosity asked a question.
"do you wish to take part in a succession war?"
this question surprised both the father and son.
"father he can't!"
Draven declared, he had no intention of pushing his son into any dangerous situation and succession war was a VERY dangerous event, although not life threatening it would still make some losers crippled.
Aldrian looked at Draven and understood his concern for Edward, but he still continued.
"why can't he? although he is your illegitimate son, he is still as qualified as any other child of this family to take part in this competition. After all he has Alastair blood flowing through his veins"
while Aldrian and Draven were in serious discussion Edward's mind was somewhere else.
'with the power I have right now my chances of winning succession war aren't high, but if I am able to show good enough potential i could get acknowledgement from the rest of the family.'
while these thoughts were running in his mind, Aldrian suddenly approached him and asked a question.
"it is useless to argue among ourselves what matters is what this child wants. so tell me Edward do you wish to partake in the succession war?"
Edward took a deep breath and looked at his father who was also looking at him and with the firm resolve in his mind he answered.
"yes, I do wish to take part in the succession war!"
as soon as he said that Aldrian expression brightened up and Draven looked even more depressed.
"Good!good! someone with my bloodline should have at least this much courage!"
**
Edward was currently standing on a marble platform along with 50 other people.
after he said that he wanted to take part in the succession war his grandfather sent him here without any other instructions.
'what am I supposed to do here?'
Edward thought but then he remembered that he had already copied another flame and he could use another function of his arcane ability.
wondering how he would use flame merging power of his and then another prompt showed up.
[ Do yo wish to merge the flame of empowerment and dark flames ]
[YES/NO]
Edward chose yes.
[ Warning! : once you merge these flames you will never be able to copy them again, Do you still wish to continue?]
[YES/NO]
Edward once again chose yes and a warm feeling started spreading through his body and another prompt greeted him.
[ You have successfully merged the flames, do you wish to give this new flame a name?]
[Warning! once you give it a name you will not be able to change it even if you merge it with other flames]
Edward fell into deep thought as his mind flared up to find a fitting name for these flames.
Divine flames
After racking his brain for a few minutes this was the best name he could come up with. Because his flames were ever evolving he firmly believed sooner or later they would become the strongest of them all.
After giving the name to flame Edward remembered one more thing.
'I actually never opened my status window'
with that Edward opened his status window.
__________________________________________
Name: Edward Alastair
Race: Human
Arcane power: [ Flame Seeker ]
↓
[ Divine flames SS+]
Rank: F
Strength: F
Agility: F
Stamina: F+
Mana capacity: F+
Mana quality: SS
skills:
[Flame copy]
[Flame merging]
[Divine flame Aura]
__________________________________________
★ there might be some imbalance in power ranking that's why I'll make an individual status window of some important characters later.★
'as expected all my stats other than Mana quality are trash, but I did have skill and they were actually three functions of my ability.'
As Edward was looking at his status he noticed a bunch of people approaching him. at front was a boy with short red hair and behind him three obnoxious looking dude.
"Hi, my name is lenn and they are Simon, Fulchard, Hadley and Lamar we were wondering which branch family were you from since you look bit younger to be here."
Edward knew where this was heading to but he still answered.
"I'm not from any branch family."
"W-what that means you are from a direct bloodline!?"
Edward didn't answer and just continued to stay silent, and silently prayed that they would leave after knowing this much.
then as if he came to realisation he asked again.
"A new face and from direct bloodline at that, then are you perhaps Eric?"
Eric was famous among young masters of branch families for his personality.
He almost never attended any event organised by their own family or by other three main families of Midgard. And recently he was famous because his status as heir of one of the four family of Midgard have been removed by his grandfather, therefore giving opportunity to everyone between age 19 to 25 a chance at leadership of family.
"no I'm not…. I'm his brother."
"but Eric only has one brother and that's Drake. then that means…"
lenn's sentence trailed off as a smug expression soon appeared on his face.
"then doesn't that entail that you are a
bastard!?"
Edward remained silent and endured. it wasn't like he didn't know how people would react after they knew that he was an illegitimate child.
"huh? why aren't you answering you bastard are you really the illegitimate child of Sir Draven!?"
As lenn's voice increased it attracted attention of everybody on platform.
Edward still remained silent which gave lenn's ego another boost. it had to be known that direct descendants had way more power than mere branch families, but it was entirely different for illegitimate children they have to prove their worth to even stay in family, that's why it was not uncommon for people From branch family to bully a illegitimate child. but Even that had limits as no one other than direct bloodline were ever allowed to hurt illegitimate child of direct bloodline, if even a drop of blood was spelled the whole family of that person would be wiped out of the face of planet. after all Alastair put their bloodline in very VERY high regards .
But Edward currently didn't know any of that and just remained silent.