Brightstar Estate

The boy Valen knew as 'Laden' was actually known by the name of Haden.

Haden Vorro was a servant in training under Valen's siblings' servants. He just turned 18 and was finally allowed to work as a servant within the Brightstar estate for a trial period.

Haden began cleaning the building, taking the chores of all the other servants upon himself. He worked tirelessly and kept everything spotless.

'I need to keep my job no matter what.' Haden thought determined to support his commoner family.

His parents worked hard as mediocre merchants to support his little brother and sister but it was hard to keep up.

Thanks to a rare opportunity, Haden was able to come under the tutelage of the master servant of the Brightstar Family. But to keep his job, he couldn't disobey the servants he was put under to learn.

He needed to secure the income which came with being a servant of the esteemed Brightstar Family.

Haden's mouth watered as he swept idly.

Valnyc Brightstar, the patriarch of the Brightstar family, is known to be one of the 10 pillars of the Morva Empire.

In the Kalinx Kingdom, he was looked up to as the leading figure of the three Duke houses.

Overseeing the progression of his house from a relatively young age, he closed the gap between the Morganna Family and the Brightstar Family within a generation and was predicted to overtake them before he abdicates his position to a successor.

However to Valen, his father was a slimy politician who let his sword rot at his hip.

Bang!

The door to the underground storeroom burst open and a black haired boy stepped out.

"Hieee!" Haden squealed, dropping the broom in a fright.

Valen stopped at the top of the staircase and sent a dangerous glare his way.

However he later averted his gaze and made his way upstairs to his room.

Haden's teeth couldn't stop chattering as he saw the ten-odd servants in tow, beaten and bloody. Tied at the wrists in a line, they walked shamefully with their heads down.

…

Clunk!

Valen clapped the dust off his hands.

He had just barricaded the servants in his walk-in wardrobe.

Why he did it?

Because they wouldn't shut up.

"Stay quiet in there!" Valen repeatedly kicked the bookshelf blocking the door to his closet.

It seemingly worked as Valen successfully sat in a meditative posture on his bed, uninterrupted by noise.

'Wow, I don't even remember how to progress in this technique anymore.' Valen thought dumbfounded as he surveyed the inside of his body.

A bright shining star of an almost platinum silver hung in his heart, nestling its beat with a warm shower of silver mana.

If he wasn't mistaken, this should be the Mana Heart Technique of the Brightstar family: [Steel Star Heart].

It worked to accumulate mana in the user's body by forming stars at intervals of the technique.

Currently Valen was 16 years old at 1 star. This was objectively seen as pathetic not just within his family, but as a universal standard.

Normally children, at least human children, would start magic training at age 10 when their bodies and minds were suitable for it.

Only scions of noble families with specialized methods could afford to begin training from childhood.

Taking this into account, Valen was still on the first layer of the technique at the age of what was legally considered an adult.

It was only normal for him to be deemed a defect as that servant had quite rudely stated.

"Tch." Valen clicked his tongue. He couldn't continue like this.

He got up and scowered his room. He overturned everything and didn't leave a drawer unopened, or a surface unturned.

His once neat room quickly devolved into a chaotic mess.

Ten minutes later, an assortment of items were sprawled onto a clearing on his bed.

A sheathed sword, a scarlet pendant, a potion in a flask, and a towel. After much effort, Valen gathered items he deemed necessary to succeed in his plans for the very near future.

He sat on his bed in meditation once more as he sunk into the recesses of his mind. Mobilizing the star of mana in his heart.

Mana washed through his body as an image was slowly built in his head. Quickly, he grabbed the potion and unscrewed the glass stopper and emptied the flask.

The red liquid washed down his throat with a warm sensation similar to alcohol and settled in his gut. A minty taste was left in his mouth as he felt energy welling up inside him.

He quickly threw the flask to the side and rolled the towel to his side taut.

Swiftly raising it to his mouth, with his eyes still closed, he bit down hard and locked his jaw.

In Valen's mind's eye, he could see a foreign mana spreading throughout his body without exception. It slowly worked from the inside to the outside extremities of his body like a misty fog.

Valen focused his will and directed it towards the mana in his body. His silver mana slowly wrapped around the foreign mana and intertwined with it, like a massive snake constricting its prey.

The rumbling cloud of mana slowly began converging towards his heart at a snail's pace throughout his body.

No, it might've been even slower. It felt like he might have to give up a second life before he was able to accomplish anything significant at this rate.

With his perception heightened and internalized, Valen lost his sense of time and was unfortunately subject to the agonizing slow pace at which he could integrate the mana.

'Come on!' Seconds crawled by and accumulated into minutes…

Pah!

It was almost two hours before a servant nearly spoke up when a small explosion from beyond the door curbed his growing frustration.

Valen's talent with mana sensitivity had always been extremely poor. He didn't explicitly know why his talent was so shit in this aspect, but in retrospect, he might have an idea about it.

Which was in direct relation with Valen's second item.

Valen reached for the scarlet pendant on the bed as his mana heart technique shattered, shooting pain throughout his body.

"NNNNGHHHH" Valen grunted through the towel.

He sharpened his mind and forced the pain down. He began to clasp the chain of the pendant so hard his hand whitened.

But something shocking occurred next.

Tendrils of dark red mana lurched from the pendant like a hungry parasite. They stuck to Valen's hand and hungrily sunk under his skin.

"MNNNNN!!!" Valen screamed many multitudes higher than when he shattered his mana heart technique.

If anyone was in the room with Valen at the moment and witnessed what he had just extracted from the pendant, they would probably go pale faced before scrambling for the authorities.

That's because this murky dark energy reminiscent of blood, was demonic energy. A type of mana found in the demon world that had sinister abilities.

The demonic energy gushing out from the pendant caused a gust of wind to push out against the boundaries of the room.

Red cracks ran through the body of the pendant and it completely fractured, revealing an oval picture that slowly swayed to the ground.

On it was a man in a coat with shining emblems, on his side was a beautiful woman with black hair and golden eyes, in the middle of them both… was a young Valen.