Vanessa...

Dante tried to recap what he heard the system say. He moved his body over and sat on his bed loosening himself from his tense stance from earlier.

"Awaken Mana... Body Modification... What the hell is that?" Dante holds his hands to his chin as he desperately tries to search his old memories in his past life to see if a person had ever mentioned this to him.

None.

He could not remember this ever being mentioned. He knew how those who were privileged and rich could purchase something that could help them train and even though some could say Dante's background was privileged, there is an incredibly low chance that his family would ever waste money to help out someone they cared very little for.

He sighed as he remembered the only reason he was even able to awaken mana was due to a teacher taking pity on him, she become a professor at quite a young age despite being only 4 years older than Dante.

It was an incredibly painful process to go through. It had felt like he was sitting in a room filled with flames and every part of him was burning alive. He shuddered at the thought of it. Why would he want to go through it again?

As he asked himself that question, he suddenly remembered a vision which made his face turn cold as bloodlust took over his eyes.

The humiliation of Edward killing him. How weak he was. Edward's smile and taunting words. All those who betrayed him and he trusted...

"That's right..." Dante said in an ice laced tone. It was as if the entire room was filled with frost due to his attitude alone.

"Trust is no longer a luxury I can afford..." He stared down at his right hand palm, it was soft and smooth. The complete opposite of what it was just a few hours ago: Large amounts of callouses due to his hard work and filled with blood.

Slowly Dante stood up and looked outside the window once again. His thoughts began to wander over his previous life.

To relive this life would be like repeating hell itself. Just when he was just given the sweet taste of release, he was pulled right back into his hellish existence. He gritted his teeth thinking about the future. The weak is destined to be under the strong...

However those emotions were not the only ones within him. Inside the barren snow filled land which was his heart and mind, lay an ember. The ember slowly built into a spark which became a flame growing stronger.

"To be cruel to others is easy... To be ruthless to one's self is difficult." He muttered in a low voice as his crimson eyes reflected the sun in the vast horizon.

Dante's face no longer had a sad look nor a happy one, all that remained was the cold expression that he felt quite familiar with, as for the last 5 years of his previous life, it was all he wore.

No longer will he wish to abandon everything... If he was fated to die and was deprived of what he deserves by the world.

Dante would refuse it all.

"If the world wants to reap my life..."

A demonic smile came upon his face as his ruby like eyes regained their lost vigour.

"Try and take it..."

Dante turned around as the orange light of the sun hit his back.

It was time for him to work on awakening his mana.

Dante began to remove his shirt and trousers, heading towards the mirror.

____________________________________________

20 mins later, in Dante's room.

"Shit..." He said as he lifted his leg.

There were extremely low muscle tissue on his body, It had been decades since he saw his younger one. Although he didn't look sickly and skinny, it also didn't look too muscular.

He had no doubts about it.

If he went through mana awakening now he would die straight away.

He wouldn't even be able to make it through the beginning parts before his veins burst and blood started to come out of all his pores.

Dante put on his clothes once more and sat down on a shabby desk and table. Even though the family is wealthy, Dante had always been given used and low quality equipment. The reason was always the same, because of his lacking talent and he would always use to accept it.

For some reason today it really irritated him to sit on something this shitty. Even the guest bedroom were far better yet he was put on the furthest part of the mansion, on the highest floor where no one went toward.

He took out a piece of paper and began writing and planning over what he should do to increase his chances of success towards the mana awakening. The rest would just be up to him and the strength of his willpower.

After a few minutes Dante concluded the best way to increase his chances would be to strengthen his physical body, as well as practice weapon techniques. So this would mean going out to the training grounds tomorrow and conduct training in the location, despite many eyes being on him there.

As he was finalising his plans as few large knocks were heard upon the wooden door.

Dante turned his head towards it and furrowed his eyebrows. He could vaguely guess over who would be coming at this time. After all it was most likely to be one of 2 people and since it was almost night it would be Jason.

"Come in."

Jason opened the door, he was wearing a butler's suit and had brown hair. He was quite tall and lean. If Dante remembered correctly he was about 22 years old and a D class awakened at this point of his life.

"Tsk." Jason clicked his tongue as he looked at Dante in disgust, no matter what he would always be reminded of how unpleasant it was to just stare at someone so useless. Even he was worth more than him and most of the servants were too. The Demiscue family mostly hired awakeners to serve them.

"The Head has requested your presence for today's dinner. It is to celebrate the young miss's achievement into crossing the low stage of E rank."

Without waiting anymore Jason did not ask for permission to be dismissed and just walked out the door closing it with a thud.

Dante looked towards his desk once more as he thought. When his sister became an E rank it was March 24th 2023. Therefore there would be roughly less than a year before the academy began and he would have to face the rest of the world after.

He decided to forget about it for now and begin his evening training, the dinner would be in 2 hours and in order to awaken his mana he would need to make sure everything was planned correctly.

He started with push ups.

"Hahh... Ah.." His body could barely do 10 in a row, but after about 40 minutes he had managed to do 100 in total.

"Fuck..." Dante struggled to say as he breathed heavily in and out, lying down on the floor face up. His body was weaker than he remembered, he forgot how difficult it was to train it again.

Nevertheless, Dante withstood the feeling of throwing up and sat up after resting for 5 minutes. He repeated the process but this time with sit ups and next with squats.

By the end of the training his body felt fatigued and worn out. However, in his previous life Dante was consistently at this state so he had learn to mask it well.

He stood up and put on the same expressionless face as he slid his arms through his shabby old blazer. His father, Salazar, required him to dress up well for the dinner as did his brother and sister. To them family dinners were cosy events, yet to Dante he absolutely despised the event as they would never even acknowledge his presence.

His arms felt like they would fall off, yet Dante just clenched his teeth and remained expressionless. There would be worse pains in the future and he had literally been tortured in his previous life so this slight fatigue was nothing.

Dante stared up on the wall to see a clock, it was 18:55, 5 minutes before the event. It seemed to be the right time to head out.

He stepped out of his room and into a wide hallway which after walking for a minute led to a 3 floor wide spiral staircase. In the middle which hung above the hole was a large chandelier.

He began to walk down the stairs refamiliarizing himself with the memory of his household. Dante could still remember each floor and even the injury he once had in his previous life from his sister pushing him down the stairs. She got away without a punishment whilst Dante got grounded for letting her hand get scratched on his coat.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs he stepped off the red carpet and onto the tiles of the floor which was polished so much he could see his reflection from them. The servants really were diligent here and thanks to the help of mana everything was more efficient.

Before he could walk towards the dinning hall, Dante heard a familiar voice call him his "name".

"Oi... Parasite."

Dante turned his head and stared up with an frozen glare. His gaze was met with a flaming hot stare filled with contempt and hatred. Sparks were flying in between their eyes as none of them said a word.

Finally he broke the silence as he replied in a low tone only saying her name.

"Vanessa..."