Chapter 21: Young Master, Choose True Love

It was the first time since obtaining the System that Roel saw it flooding out notifications.

While holding his beloved sister tightly in his arms, he found his sight completely blinded by a frenzied outpour of green light. In just ten short seconds, he had already received 20 notifications.

Holy moly! This payout of Affection Points is almost enough to match the combined total I earned throughout the past month! Furthermore, it’s one thing for Alicia to go green… but why the hell is Anna going green as well?

Roel looked at his personal maid with question marks floating around his head.

While he was feeling confused about the bewildering situation, Anna was feeling deeply moved to see that the ship she had been rooting for all this while was finally moving forward.

As expected, such true love only exists between our young master and young miss. No matter how great the princess might be, she’ll never prevail in the face of true love!

The fanatic shipper, Anna, had actually been feeling quite uneasy too since Nora’s departure. Nora’s perfection left a lasting impression, not just on Alicia, but on the servants of the manor as well.

In terms of looks, both had their own strengths and charms, but Nora had a crushing victory in terms of background. On top of that, she had displayed formidable attack power earlier in the foyer as possible rival material. It was more than enough to rattle the hearts of the Roel X Alicia shippers.

They knew instinctively that there would soon come the rise of a rivaling power known as the ‘Roel X Nora Ship’, and perhaps, even the old master himself might have chosen to defect to that faction!

However, Anna decided to stand firm in her faith. She’d clasped her hands tightly together as she affirmed her beliefs in those two children again and again.

It was not without reason that Anna had such a deep attachment to the Roel X Alicia Ship. True love was simply hard to come by in this world, especially among nobles. Marriages were often pegged with a price tag, and couples were forced to marry one another without even meeting beforehand. To some, the freedom to love could be the most valuable and unreachable thing to them in the world.

Young master, I know that Nora is a perfect princess, and the Ascart House will rise to greater heights under the support of the royal family, but none of this measures up to the value of true love! You have to grasp your own happiness with your own hands, just like the old master!

Recalling the sorrowful fate awaiting herself, Anna looked at Roel with eyes filled with unwavering determination, hoping to give him the strength to push through the difficult route ahead with the sheer force of her gaze.

On the other hand, Roel was simply bewildered.

What is going on? Why is Anna staring at me so frighteningly? Did I do wrong? No, she’s still giving me Affection Points. All of the servants are giving me Affection Points…?

“Roel, what’s wrong? Why did Alicia cry?”

Carter, who had been immersed in his thoughts the whole time, finally noticed the anomaly with the two children and spoke up.

Roel quickly retracted his gaze from his surroundings and replied.

“Alicia suddenly recalled a story she read inside Origin of Magicians and got a little scared.”

“Ahh. There are indeed a few stories in there that are quite frightening. Alicia is still a little too young to be reading that.”

Carter nodded in realization.

Roel continued comforting Alicia while looking at his father. Suddenly, a thought came to mind. This could be a good opportunity to have some questions that had been lingering in his head answered.

“Father, I have been wanting to ask you a few questions regarding magicians. Would it be convenient now?”

“Oh? I didn’t think that you would be interested in this. Sure, feel free to ask any question that troubles you.”

Carter was more than delighted to hear that his son had some interest in magicians. He placed his fork and knife down and gestured for the servants to serve the desserts so that the father and son duo could enjoy a leisurely talk.

While the servants busied themselves, Roel began asking about the power systems in this world.

“Father, is there any tier classification system amongst magicians?”

“Tier classification?”

“Yes. I’m thinking of how there should be a tier classification for magicians in the same way bloodlines can be classified into Gold-tier, Silver-tier, and the sort.”

Carter widened his eyes in realization as he seemed to finally catch Roel’s drift.

“Ah, you must be referring to Degree of Assimilation?”

“Degree of Assimilation?”

“That’s right. Mana is the origin of all transcendental abilities in the world, and any being that is capable of utilizing transcendental abilities would suffer from the corrosion of mana. The very ability to utilize transcendental abilities means that one has managed to adapt to the corrosion to some extent. We call this process of adaptation ‘Assimilation’, and the Degree of Assimilation is what determines a transcendent’s strength.

“Going by the constitution of humans, there are basically seven stages to the Degree of Assimilation, ranging from the lowest Origin Level 7 to the highest Origin Level 1. Each increment in origin level causes one’s Degree of Assimilation to deepen, thus strengthening one’s transcendental abilities too.”

Carter sipped his tea as he explained the theories with a professorial tone. Roel, on the other hand, fell into deep thoughts.

The terms ‘mana corrosion’ and ‘assimilation’ sound like really bad news. Does becoming a magician mean turning into some sort of monster?

Roel turned to his father once more and voiced his concerns.

“Will the process of assimilation affect one’s body, like inducing weird mutations or something?”

“Hmm… That depends on the situation. However, the process of assimilation is more of an evolution than a mutation. It should perfect one’s body instead of warping it. Some even manage to significantly lengthen their longevity through the process of assimilation. Of course, if something goes wrong during evolution, there is indeed a possibility that mutations could occur.”

Carter shot a glance at the two children, but after some consideration, he chose to refrain from telling them the frightening consequences of a failed evolution.

Roel considered his father’s words carefully. It was likely that the seven tiers of the Degree of Assimilation, Origin Levels 7 through 1, corresponded to the System’s F-tier to S-tier. In other words, Roel’s current trashy talent. which was only barely capable of producing a gust of hot air, was at least in the classification.

“Father, are the members of the militia also part of this classification?”

“Of course. Most members of the militia are at Origin Level 6, which means that their strength is roughly comparable to that of a horse or ox. Most of them have limited talent though, so it’s unlikely for them to climb any higher than that.”

Roel heaved a sigh of relief. Carter’s response verified that the Origin Level 6 corresponded to the E-tier rating in the System, so it should be safe to assume that the two types of classifications corresponded to one another. If so, he could rely on it to gauge where he stood against others.

“Father, is there a vast difference between each origin level?”

“The difference between each level increases the more one heads upward, especially between the lower four tiers and the upper three tiers. To draw a comparison, it would be like the difference between an adult and an infant.”

“I think I understand.”

Roel’s tiny hope that ‘Maybe I’m not as weak as I thought’ shattered into a million pieces. Heaving a deep sigh, he continued asking another question.

“Father, our house is a magician house, right? Given that we have managed to produce so many generations of magicians, shouldn’t there be some sort of unique training method that our ancestors used?”

“Magician house?”

But surprisingly, Carter blinked his eyes in confusion upon hearing his son’s words.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s completely wrong to say that, but we’re more of a military house. My official position in the Holy Knight Order is vice commander, not Chief Magician. Commoners tend to generalize all transcendents as magicians as they know nothing about the true nature of supernatural abilities. Chief Magician is actually just my Evolution Pathway.”

“Evolution Pathway?”

“Indeed. It’s one of the few Evolution Pathways made available to me according to my Origin Attribute.”