The Eclipsed Order

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: The World Was Far More Interesting Than I Expected

By the time I reached the age of five, I had already learned that my new life was going to be considerably more troublesome—and considerably more interesting—than I had originally expected.

The first few years passed rather quickly.

At first, I spent most of my time simply trying to understand my surroundings. I learned the language little by little by listening to my parents, servants, and the people who lived around the estate, and once I became capable of speaking properly, I began asking questions whenever I had the opportunity.

Naturally, I couldn’t exactly tell them that I was a reincarnated assassin trying to understand the world I had been reborn into, so I had to be somewhat careful about what I asked.

Fortunately, children were allowed to be curious.

That made things considerably easier.

My name was Ares D’Averon, and I had been born into the D’Averon family, a noble household ruled by my father, who held the title of Count.

My father was a swordsman.

That alone wouldn’t have been particularly surprising in a world where nobles were expected to know how to fight, but my father wasn’t simply someone who carried a sword because it looked appropriate for a nobleman. He was genuinely strong.

I realized that when I was still very young.

One afternoon, while walking through the estate with my father, I happened to see several knights training in the courtyard. One of them swung his sword toward a large boulder that had been placed nearby for some reason.

The sword struck.

The boulder split.

I remember staring at the broken stone for quite some time.

That wasn’t normal.

At least, it certainly wasn’t normal according to the world I remembered.

I had spent most of my previous life training my body beyond what ordinary people were capable of, yet even I couldn’t casually cut through a boulder with a sword.

Apparently, the people of this world had decided that common sense was optional.

That was when my interest in the world became considerably more serious.

I began spending more time in the library.

Fortunately, the D’Averon estate had a rather impressive one. It wasn’t the largest library I had ever seen, but there were enough books inside to keep a curious child occupied for years, and I intended to make full use of it.

I read about the history of the kingdom, noble families, neighboring territories, knights, monsters, magic, and the various techniques used by swordsmen.

That was where I learned about sword aura.

Apparently, certain swordsmen could extend their physical strength through an energy known as aura, allowing them to perform feats that would otherwise be impossible for an ordinary human. More advanced swordsmen could coat their weapons or bodies with it, while some particularly talented individuals could develop their own specialized techniques.

There were also people known as magical swordsmen, warriors capable of combining swordsmanship with magic.

My father belonged to that category.

My mother, on the other hand, was not a fighter.

She came from another noble family and had received the education expected of a noblewoman, but she had never possessed the same talent for combat as my father. As far as I could tell, she was perfectly ordinary when it came to magic and swordsmanship.

I didn’t mind.

Having one ridiculously strong parent was already enough.

Still, the more I read, the more obvious it became that this world was nothing like the one I had left behind.

There were monsters living beyond human settlements, dangerous creatures that could grow far stronger than ordinary beasts. There were demons, corrupted beings, and other existences that I hadn’t even encountered yet.

And then there was magic.

That was the subject I was most interested in.

For as long as I could remember in this new life, I had felt something strange inside my body.

At first, I had assumed it was simply because I was different after reincarnation, but the feeling never disappeared. It was like having another sense that I couldn’t properly understand, something that existed beneath my physical body and responded whenever I concentrated on it.

Naturally, I tried to figure it out.

Whenever I was alone, I would close my eyes and attempt to feel whatever was inside me.

At first, nothing happened.

Then something did.

It was faint, almost impossible to notice, but I could feel something moving whenever I concentrated hard enough. It wasn’t quite like the sword aura I had read about, and it wasn’t anything described in the books either.

That made things rather interesting.

I tried controlling it.

The first attempts were terrible.

Sometimes the sensation disappeared completely. Other times, it gathered somewhere in my body before suddenly dispersing, leaving me wondering whether I had imagined the entire thing.

I kept trying anyway.

After all, I had spent my previous life training until even the smallest movement became instinctive. I wasn’t about to give up simply because my new body refused to cooperate.

So whenever I had free time, I practiced.

At night, after everyone had gone to sleep, I would sit quietly in my room and concentrate on that strange power.

Whenever I was allowed to wander around the estate by myself, I would find somewhere secluded and try again.

Little by little, I began to understand it.

The strange energy responded to my thoughts.

It wasn’t exactly magic in the way the books described it, but it was connected to the same mysterious force that existed throughout the world. The more I experimented, the easier it became to draw that power out of my body.

At first, I could only make a small amount gather around my hand.

Then I discovered that I could shape it.

It wasn’t fire.

It wasn’t water.

It wasn’t wind or earth.

It didn’t seem to belong to any of the ordinary elements described in the books.

The power was darker in appearance, carrying a faint silver-black glow whenever I managed to concentrate it properly.

I decided to call it Eclipse.

I didn’t know whether that was its real name.

There was no book that mentioned a power like mine, and there was certainly no teacher who could explain it to me. I simply needed something to call it, and Eclipse seemed appropriate enough.

At five years old, I still understood very little about it.

I could strengthen my body with it, make small weapons from the energy, and manipulate its shape to a limited degree.

That was all.

For now.

But even those few abilities were enough to convince me of one thing.

This power wasn’t ordinary magic.

And if I was going to spend my second life in this strange world, I had no intention of leaving that power unexplored.

After all, I had already died once.

It would be rather embarrassing to waste the second chance I had been given.

By the time I was five, I had already become accustomed to life in the D’Averon household, although there were still plenty of things about my new family that I had yet to discover.

One of those things was revealed to me during dinner.

The dining hall was much quieter than I had expected. A long table occupied the center of the room, with several servants standing at a respectful distance while my father and mother sat at opposite sides of me. The meal itself was far more elaborate than anything a five-year-old needed, consisting of roasted meat, vegetables, freshly baked bread, soup, and several other dishes that I hadn’t bothered trying to remember the names of.

I had become used to this kind of food by now.

My previous life had taught me to eat whatever was available without complaining, so I wasn’t particularly picky. Besides, having a proper meal prepared by professional cooks every day was hardly something I was going to complain about.

My father was quietly eating while occasionally glancing in my direction, and my mother seemed much more interested in having a conversation.

"Ares, how was your day today?"

"It was good, Mother."

"Did you spend most of it in the library again?"

I paused for a moment.

"How did you know?"

She smiled.

"Because you’ve been spending almost every afternoon there lately."

I looked toward my father.

He was still eating, but there was a slight smile on his face.

Apparently, they had noticed.

"I just like reading."

"That’s good," my mother said. "But don’t spend all your time reading. You’re still young, and you should spend some time outside as well."

"I do go outside."

"Walking around the garden while carrying a book doesn’t count."

I quietly continued eating.

She had a point.

My father finally spoke.

"Let him read. There are worse things a child could be doing."

My mother looked at him.

"You say that because you were exactly the same when you were young."

My father stopped for a moment.

"...Perhaps."

I almost laughed.

It was strange seeing my father like this. From everything I had learned about him, he was a powerful swordsman who commanded considerable respect within the territory, yet at the dinner table, he was apparently just another husband who had been reminded of something embarrassing from his childhood.

My mother looked back at me.

"Actually, since we’re talking about your studies, there’s something you should know."

I lowered my fork.

"What is it?"

"You have two older brothers and an older sister."

I stopped eating.

I had known that my parents had other children, but somehow, I had never actually realized there were three of them.

Perhaps because they were rarely mentioned during my childhood, or perhaps because they simply weren’t living at the estate.

"Three?"

My mother nodded.

"Your eldest brother is currently studying at the Royal Academy in the capital. Your second brother is there as well, and your sister is also studying at the academy."

I thought about that for a moment.

So I had three older siblings, and all of them were studying in the capital.

That explained why I had never met them.

"What are they studying?"

My mother smiled.

"Your brothers are both studying military and magical subjects, while your sister is focusing more on history, politics, and magic. She has always been interested in those things."

My father finally joined the conversation.

"Your eldest brother is also receiving swordsmanship training while he’s there."

I nodded.

That didn’t surprise me.

The D’Averon family was apparently rather serious about producing capable people.

Then my mother casually added something that made me look at her.

"When you turn twelve, you’ll go to the academy as well."

I stared at her.

"...Me?"

She nodded.

"Of course."

"Why twelve?"

"That’s the usual age for children from noble families to begin their proper education at the Royal Academy."

I considered that information while taking another bite of food.

So I had seven years.

Seven years before I would have to leave the estate and travel to the capital.

That wasn’t particularly bad.

In fact, it might be useful.

The capital would undoubtedly contain far more information than the library here, and if the academy gathered talented people from different noble families, it would also give me the opportunity to learn more about the world.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!