Hidden Forces

Inside a well-decorated room, Deon and Ophelia sat opposite each other, with a small table dividing them.

The celebration is still ongoing however Ophelia suddenly called him out to talk in private.

*Clink*

"Thank you," Deon smiled at the maid who gave him a tea. The maid politely smiled in return before giving Ophelia her tea as well.

"So what does Lady Kagenoh want to tell me?" Deon asked before he took a sip from his cup. The mellow taste danced inside his mouth. It was an excellently brewed tea but he still preferred wine.

Ophelia signaled the maid who took the cue to leave the room leaving the two alone. She didn't answer immediately and also took a sip of her tea.

"...It seems Lord Hart isn't fond of pleasantries. Then I will go straight to the point," Ophelia stood up and walked over to a bookshelf where he pulled one book and a mechanism opened a small space in a nearby wall. She then took a box from inside before returning to her seat.

She put the box on the table and pushed it toward Deon. He looked at it with curiosity but didn't grab it. He waited for her to speak first.

"This is something entrusted to me by the previous Count before they left for the capital. I was asked to give this to you if something happened to them." She stopped and sipped on her tea.

"..." Deon stared at the box. It seems his parents' death in this world isn't as simple if they left something like this. It is as if they knew they'd die on their journey to the royal capital.

He would be lying if he said he wasn't suspicious of the woman in front of him. Nonetheless, he still opened the box. Inside was an envelope with Count Hart's official wax seal sealing it. Another thing was a small ceremonial dagger.

He took the envelope first and opened it with a letter inside addressed to him. He read the contents and some emotion fluctuated inside his eyes. After reading the contents, he took the ceremonial dagger and kept it inside his breast pocket beneath his clothes.

Then he turned his attention toward Ophelia who stayed silent throughout the ordeal, calmly sipping her tea.

"Thank you, Lady Kagenoh." It was a sincere gratitude toward the woman. As expected, his parents' death isn't as simple.

However, Ophelia isn't a culprit, the letter mentioned about some shady group moving in the shadows. It was first discovered by his great-grandfather and this is also when their family started declining.

Subsequently, those who tried digging deeper were met with an accident or a sickness before dying. It was the same with his parents, they tried digging deeper.

Deon knew the likelihood of Ophelia being part of this group was low. After all, if such a group extremely valued their secrecy then she had no reason to hand him the letter left by his parents and risk revealing the existence of the group.

"It seems it isn't as simple as I expected as well," Ophelia noted after observing his expression.

"...Please stay silent regarding about this letter otherwise you're family might be implicated," Deon warned.

"Don't worry, Lord Hart. Nothing that happened here will get out of this room. It will only be between us," Ophelia reassured him.

"Wise choice," Deon nodded.

"Now that's all out of the way. Why don't we discuss something else?" Ophelia showed a sly smirk. Her eyes gleamed with curiosity and playfulness. "What do you think of my daughter, Count? Isn't she excellent, I'm sure she'll grow up to become a fine woman."

Deon almost spat out his tea after being taken aback. His calm demeanor faltered slightly before he regained his calm.

"Are you implying 'that'? However, wouldn't that be impossible? She is the heiress of the Barony." He stated as a matter of fact. 

"Fufufu~ You didn't disagree. Besides wouldn't the two territories just need to merge?" Ophelia chuckled. Of course, she was only partly serious about her offer. Her daughter's feelings are still more important.

"Hmm, certainly."

The two territories border each other so it certainly isn't impossible. They just need to report it to the royal family and it would smoothly proceed. It would also solve most of the problems regarding the County.

However, Deon shook his head.

"As tempting of an offer that is, I would politely refuse."

"Fufu~ No worries, I merely said it in passing." That was the end of that topic. Ophelia's gaze keenly observed the boy opposite her.

He doesn't act the way most of those his age would. He was mature and even his words were not that of someone his age. If she hadn't talked to him upfront, it would have been an unbelievable thing.

However, perhaps it was because of his innate talent and his parents' death that forced him to mature quickly both in manner and conduct. She did hear rumors of him being smart since he was still a child.

*Knock* *Knock*

"My lady, the banquet is coming to a close. The Lord has ordered me to call for you," The voice of the Kagenoh head butler was heard from outside.

"It seems this is where we stop our conversation, Lord Hart." Ophelia smiled at him as she stood up.

"Mm," Deon nodded as he finished drinking the last drop of his tea. He also stood up and followed Ophelia out of the room.

.....

The celebration was finally finished. Deon was now in a room inside the Kagenoh Manor where he would stay to pass the night before leaving tomorrow. The other noble guests were also offered temporary rooms inside the manor.

As for the others, they could only stay in nearby inns or hotels they booked in advance. They would also leave tomorrow since it was already night.

"Almost a week and only a small portion of my blood was converted," He was in deep thought. Among the skills he picked was Blood Magic which he was given high mastery.

As for what he was doing with his blood, it was simple. He was planning on converting his blood into magical blood through blood magic. The process was simple as he only needed to compress and store mana, or magical energy as it was known in this world, in his blood. Then through his blood magic, he would transform his own blood into magical blood allowing for some useful abilities.

One of these was giving him immense amounts of magical energy as his blood would essentially become a generator of said energy.

Another thing was it would strengthen his body as a whole since magical blood permeating every inch of his body is equivalent to him having passive magic reinforcement on all the time.

There were other essential and useful abilities but that's for the future. He has just started this process and it's already showing results. His body was slowly getting stronger. However, such a complicated process takes a long time to finish.

"It seems I need to proceed with the second choice," He muttered. It seems he would need to hunt some monsters in the coming days to refine their blood.