Struggle as they might, little children, especially little girls, had no way of fighting against me. I was more powerful than them. I had the strength and speed of an adult body as well as more Blessings than they believed anyone could ever possess. A total of 64 were at my disposal, and now I was going to steal three more.

Who could stop me? No one!

It came as a surprise when this brat shouted like that. She should have been under the influence of my [Blessing of Charm], which I stole some time ago from a wimp of a priest of the temple of the Goddess of Love Shanteya. It should have brought everyone around me under my control, having their hearts and wills bend as I pleased. It should have worked, it always did!

Yet, this brat screamed for help, just like they spoke up against me when we first met. What was up with that? How could my Blessing have failed?

The moment I started running towards the Chedelle Forest, where my sister was taken, my whole body screamed in agony. My muscles felt like they were being pulled apart by trucks and every step I took sent waves of pain rushing through my nerves.

Even with my ridiculous regeneration power, I wasn't fully healed yet, but if I stopped now or showed any signs of weakness or pain in front of aunty Eliza, then she would spare no second to rush over to my side and stop me from going farther.

When I came through, I was in the middle of a forest. The trees were skipping past me in a flash, and I felt like I was flying or more like my mind was being carried away towards some unknown place by some unknown force.

It took me a moment to realize that I wasn't alone. I was being carried by someone.

He was fast, and a strange red aura covered his body. It held a similar feeling to the one aunt Eliza let out when she activated her Blessing. That was why, at first, I thought that it must be her, but then I saw his piercing cold eyes shining in the pale light of the moon.

I couldn't afford to waste any more time. The longer I lazed around on the floor trying to heal, the lower Cassandra's chances of survival were.

I had to hurry...

I had to catch up with that bastard and save my little sister from him.

“What are you doing, Leonidas? Your body... It's not healed yet!” aunty Eliza said with tears in her eyes when she saw me struggling to get back up on my feet.

When I heard the scream of my niece, I knew that something was wrong, but the first to act wasn't me, it was my nephew, Leonidas. The little boy ran so fast, I thought I saw a blur. I gave chase after him, but when he reached the door of their room, he was attacked by the kidnapper.

I didn't see what happened to Leonidas, but a powerful wind pushed me back, almost making me stumble back down on the stairs. I managed to grab hold of the rails in the nick of time and held onto them like my life depended on it.

Aunty Eliza's magic training was the same as always. She made me circulate Magic Energy between my palms without letting it overflow or go out of control. Even for an expert user, this was still a rather difficult exercise to go through as it tended to make use of almost of his focus. That was why my senses were currently peaked at their maximum. I could even hear Luthecia's humming, who was washing the dishes in the kitchen, which was on the other side of the house. The door was closed too.

Brother was acting silly. Of course, there was nothing to be sorry about! The one to blame was the scary man, Alexandre Damascus. I couldn't see him as an ordinary knight, there was something strange about him, something... scary.

The moment I saw him, there was a dark fog floating around him, which, from what I could tell, only I could see. In the time of a flick of a candle, it spread to everyone in the room, but when it tried to get close to me or my bother, it wasn't able to touch us. There was something scary about it. I didn't understand what it was, but it made me stand still, frozen in fear as I watched it circling around me, trying to reach me like a fox that prowled around a locked-up hen in a cage.

There was a graveyard silence in our carriage while we were headed back to our estate. For once, I was actually regretting not being able to hear the sounds of a diesel engine or the neighing of horses. This silence was simply unbearable...

I kept staring at the floor of the carriage because I was unwilling to look my family in the eyes. Somehow, I felt like I did a bad thing back at the Earl's house. Cassandra didn't say a word about it either.

One of the reasons why I came all the way to this little town in the middle of nowhere was because I heard there were some promising children here. If their Blessings were rare, I planned on stealing them. After all, why bother to hunt for adults who could properly use them when children were far more vulnerable and easy to catch?

“If I am not mistaken, then these two must be Baron Drakarys' children?” Mister Dejun asked.

“Yes, the boy's name is Leonidas and the girl's name is Cassandra.” father replied to him with a smile.

“It's a pleasure to meet you both.” he smiled and bowed his head in front of us.

“The pleasure is all ours.” we replied at the same time and bowed respectfully.

The one who was accompanying the so-called Royal Knight was the teacher from the prestigious Gallyater Royal Magic Academy, where Cassandra was supposed to be enrolled this year. He didn't have such a frightening air about him as the knight did.

We spent another half an hour or so in the company of Earl Rupert Levias of Briston. Father entertained him with various political and economic subjects, while mother and the two of us children took part only as listeners to this conversation.

For Cassandra, this conversation wavered between boring and annoying, which was shown on her face. The Earl noticed this as well, but he took it only as a little girl who wasn't used to 'men talking'. It was far from what went on through her head though, most likely only brutish armors and stories of battle heroes.

A pig... In front of me was a creat... a man with the face of a pig and enough body fat to put a blue whale to shame. Yet, this pig-faced man with short red curly hair, long mustache and fancy red clothes decorated with all sorts of jewels and detailed golden embroideries was none other than Earl Rupert Levias of Briston, the Lord of this small town.

“Welcome! Welcome! I've been expecting you – oink!” he said with a big smile on his face and his palms rubbing together like a greedy merchant who was aiming for a good deal.

Our tenth birthday was going to be one of those special events we were supposed to remember for the rest of our lives because it was supposed to mark the very first step we took into our adult lives.

Normally, for me this was the second time I reached the age of ten, but I didn't really remember that much about the birthday I had back on Earth. My childhood memories were all a bit fuzzy, but I had the feeling I could summarize it into one word: normal.

We were beat.

We were broken.

Aunty Eliza's training was by far the worst yet! My whole body was aching, my thoughts were unfocused, it felt like HELL, a merciless torture, a nightmare! Aunty was a DEMON!

“Ungh... body hurts...” Cassandra groaned.

“You can still move, so you are doing better than me...” I said as I laid down on the grass while looking up at the sky.

This was going to be a historical day for me and my little sister!

For the first time in our lives, we would witness someone using the active power of their Blessing, and with a bit of luck find out how to do it ourselves.

With a smile to show her overwhelming confidence, aunty Eliza took a stance and began to focus on an enemy only she could see. It was the so-called shadow boxing training technique, only here it was better to call it shadow sword fighting.

“Rise and shine!” aunty Eliza shouted at 6 AM in the morning while standing in the door with a big toothy smile on her lips and her hands on her hips.

Both me and my sister woke up with a startle. We looked at each other with sleepy faces and then at the cause of this racket, the big muscle-head.

“It's too early in the morning!” I voiced out my complaint.

Ten years seemed to have gone by in a flash, and it was only one year ago when I requested my dear father to release Luthecia from her slave contract. Now, she was living together with us as our legally employed maid.

I was happy that I was able to help her regain her freedom. Without a doubt, the gods had something good in store for her. Maybe an unexpected meeting with a handsome prince or a role as someone who was going to change this country? There were quite a lot of opportunities to choose from, but in the end, most them were only my overzealous delusions.

In a sense, I acted exactly like a child my age who misunderstood something. Unable to see or think outside my own box, I hoisted all the blame on my shoulders and acted as the sole culprit of this whole situation.

In their eyes, I was probably just a small child who believed that the one who should be found at fault for my sister being unable to journey through the world as an adventurer similar to aunty Eliza was none other than me, who had only one Blessing. That this very difference we couldn't control was to blame.