Today was the big day!

I tried to prepare myself mentally for this moment, but since I had no mirror available, I couldn't repeat my lines in front of it. In the end, I used a bunch of lined up dressing mannequins aunty Eliza carved for me as an impromptu audience. But even after I managed to convince myself that there was no way I was going to mess this up, I still found myself to be a nervous wreck. I was in a worse state than I was back on Earth when I had my first interview for a big company.

The most frightening thing in the world?

If someone were to have asked me this several years ago, I would have answered: To face a dragon in a battle!

Now, I would answer: To see my wife and children in harm's way.

It so happened that my birthday was coming up. I was going to be nine years old now, just another one, and I would be ten. Then it was off to school with me and my sister.

Our family was a bit different from other noble families when it came to celebrate the birthdays of its members. These parties were kept at a modest level and focused more on having fun together with everyone than on trying to impress someone. We didn't bother inviting special guests or using this event to brag about our latest achievements. We ate some cake or pie, then we offered a small gift of appreciation to the celebrated one.

When one was bought as a slave, they could forget all hope and dreams they had before as a free man or woman. Every second, every minute, and every hour from that day on was to be offered to their new masters.

That was the law and truth of this world.

Today was the big day!

After reaching the age of seven, aunty Eliza was finally going to teach us how to cast our very first spells. Despite this being the first time when we were actually going to do it, both me and my sister already read several tomes of magic from beginner to intermediary level. In theory, we already knew the incantations for several spells. However, knowing and doing were two very different things when it came to magic.

My older brother had two hobbies. One was tailoring and the other was annoying me to no end by trying to get me to wear cute clothes... or rather what HE believed to be 'cute'. Mother too, she loved them and often plotted with big brother to force me to wear them, but I wanted to be like aunty Eliza. She was beautiful, strong, and the way she looked clad in armor was amazing! A true warrior fit to stand on the battlefield just like all those heroes from the books I read.

At the moment, we were not the esteemed ducal family we once were in the past, for various reasons. In our society, me and my husband, excluding any other previous family members, were known by established noble families as fallen nobles, while the general populace referred to us as average or common nobles. For me and my husband, this status was exactly what we desired to hold in order to properly raise our children, but even so, we couldn't neglect invitations from a noble family of a higher rank. Our current titles were only those of Baron and Baroness, after all.

My new extracurricular activity was seen as being a tad bit weird by my little sister, and at times as something curious. This was because I didn't spend as much time playing with her as I did before. Of course, I wasn't practicing for several hours a day, just an hour at most.

I always knew my little sister's sense of fashion was a bit... different, but I still allowed myself to believe that I could do something to change it for the better. After all, I got the shivers every time I imagined cute little Cassandra becoming a macho woman wearing an armor fit more for a Demon King than a lovable princess.

Thus, I was determined to make her like frilly things and dress up cutely even if it was the last thing I did! That was her destiny as dictated by her older brother! By no means was she going to become a copy of our aunty Eliza, who was a half muscles and half armor creature most of the time.

Two years went by in a flash, and now I was a healthy five-years-old boy who was currently on his way to Briston together with his family. The carriage was moving at a regular speed of around 15-20 km/h, so it wouldn't be long before we reached the small town. There was no special meaning behind our trip, just a regular visit to the shops in the hope of finding something interesting to buy. Only our maid was planning on restocking some of our supplies, like spices and such.

What could I say?

The 'ritual' was indeed something that took me completely by surprise and dealt a serious mental blow. Seeing my own mother, aunt, and even our maid hop around us while pretending to be bunnies was mentally devastating for me, but not so much for my little sister.

The horror... I thought.

“I think we broke him.” aunty said as she poked my left cheek with her finger, and I wobbled like an elastic band when she released the pressure.

One evening when we were practicing our Magic Energy control inside because outside was raining cats and dogs, our aunt suddenly got up and left us there alone without saying a single word as to where she was going and when she was coming back.

This wasn't the first time when she did something like this, but usually she would tell us to stop and wait for her to return. We took that time as a break. My guess was that she went out to hunt something or someone, seeing as she more than once returned with a few drops of fresh blood spilled on her armor.

I haven't seen my older sister, Melissa, for almost four years now, but we would send each other a letter every two months or so. Unlike me, she was what many would call a Perfect Noble Woman. Beautiful, kind, generous, cunning, smart, talented with magic, elegant, well-mannered, and with an overflowing aura of authority surrounding her.

Three weeks have passed since aunty Eliza came to our house.

Strong, determined, beautiful from certain isolated points of view, a proud warrior, and a bit of a mage, she was the human(?) woman who took up the role of both a devoted tutor and a bodyguard until we were to reach the blessed age of ten years old, when we would be sent off to different schools.

“So when your mother asked me to be your teacher, how was I to refuse?” said our giant aunt with a smug look on her face.

I was narrowing my eyes at her, who was casually stuffing her face with our food like some hungry predator that was set loose upon a herd of helpless sheep. Meanwhile, mother was calmly drinking a cup of tea, father was writing a letter, and Cassandra was admiring her with big sparkly eyes.

As days came to pass, it was finally time for me and Cassandra to meet our famous no-good aunt, or how our father used to describe her: a high-spirited adventurer with a tendency to attract trouble.

Even our slave maid, Luthecia avoided my gaze when I asked her if she knew this strange person. Our aunt's reputation and impression of her was getting worse by the minute. My sister, on the other hand, was listening with big eyes as if they were talking about some great hero.

[Binecuvântarea a 118 Zei]: 118 different Gods of different worlds in different Universes have merged their individual Blessings into one to offer it as a gift to a single soul. The effect of this Blessing differs depending on the situation, but it guarantees the wellbeing and happiness of the individual as long as they will it to happen.

After we received our Blessings, mother and father had to complete some paperwork, while we waited patiently on one of the benches inside the church. Not far from us were several people who were praying with their eyes closed at the statue of goddess Sapherya.

I didn't see any reason in this separation from our parents, but at the very least the High Priest made sure we weren't left alone over here; one of the priests was diligently watching over us.

While things were going South for my Little Sister Pampering hobby, father brought me over to the altar and placed me on the same spot. The letters vanished when the High Priest released the spell earlier, and he was now preparing to give me the same ceremony. Since we were twins, I had a feeling they had high hopes for me too.

“Let us begin!” the High Priest declared as he started to chant.

A Blessing, huh? I thought as I was looking at the altar, while mother was preparing Cassandra.

As far as I knew, Blessings were often the gifts offered by the gods of a fantasy-like world to the heroes destined to save it from some unfathomable evil. However, judging from what the priest just told us, in Sapherya's world, anyone had a chance of receiving one, no matter their destiny. The tone of the priest's voice suggested that it wasn't such a big deal if we did. At the same time, if I understood this properly, then every child was going to receive a temporary Blessing that was going to increase the chances of them reaching adulthood.