Three years. Three years had passed in this world since he was reborn as Kael Eralith. Three years since I obtained the Legacy on that roulette. Three years preparing for what I knew would come in the future.
I sat on my bed, my legs hanging off the edge. At three years old, my body had finally developed enough coordination to do more than just crawl and walk clumsily. I could run, jump, and most importantly, I could begin to train properly.
I closed my eyes and etched into my mind the scenes from the manhwa I had read in my previous life. The first pages showed Arthur as a baby, training obsessively. Doing push-ups impossible for a child. Meditating for hours. Practicing sword movements with anything he could hold.
If Arthur could do it without memories of how magical training was supposed to be in this world, I can do it better. I have the Legacy, and I know how it is supposed to work.
I had been absorbing mana passively for these three years, but tonight I was going to do something different. Something more active.
I slipped out of bed silently. My parents slept in the east wing of the palace, and Tessia in her room at the end of the hall. No one would bother me.
I sat on the floor in the center of my room, crossing my legs as I had seen in the manhwa. Lotus position, or as close as my three-year-old body could manage.
Good. Time to do this properly.
I closed my eyes and extended my mana sense throughout the room, trying to feel every mana particle.
Immediately, the world exploded in color behind my eyelids. It wasn't darkness that I saw, but an ocean of bright lights of every imaginable color.
Mana particles.
Blue ones floating near the water pitcher on my nightstand. Green ones gathering around the potted plant Tessia had given me. Red ones dancing near the unlit candles. Yellow ones drifting in air currents. And the rarest ones, floating occasionally like small white stars.
Beautiful.
I recalled the scene from the manhwa. Arthur sitting, drawing particles toward his core one by one, slowly filling it.
But I have the Legacy. It should be different for me.
I extended my consciousness, like an invisible hand, calling the nearest particles.
Come to me.
The reaction was instant.
All the particles in the room turned toward me simultaneously. As if I had shouted in a room full of people and all of them had turned to look at me at the same time.
And then they began to move.
Not one by one like with Arthur. Not in a steady trickle. But in an avalanche.
Blues, greens, reds, yellows, whites, all converged toward me from every direction. The air in my room began to glow with multicolored light as hundreds of mana particles swirled around me like a miniature tornado.
Wait, too fast!
But I couldn't stop it. It was like opening a floodgate and now the water was flowing without any control. The particles entered my body, flowing toward my core in a deluge of pure power that I couldn't control.
My core, which had been in the solid orange stage after three years of passive absorption, began to glow intensely. I could feel it expanding, the contained energy walls pushing outward.
Heat. I felt so much heat.
My body began to sweat. The air around me rippled with the amount of mana being absorbed. If anyone with mana sense passed near my room, they would definitely notice.
Stop! I must stop it!
I fought against the flow, trying to close the connection I had opened. But it was like trying to shut a door against a hurricane.
The particles kept coming.
And then I felt something new. Something I had not expected.
One of the white particles, brighter and denser than the others, entered my core. And the moment it did, something inside me… changed.
I saw a flash of… something. A vision. A memory that was not mine.
A girl with blond hair and golden eyes, smiling as mana particles danced around her like obedient pets. Cecilia.
The vision vanished as quickly as it had come, but the impact shattered my concentration.
And with that, the flow stopped.
The remaining particles dispersed, returning to floating normally around the room as if nothing had happened. I remained there, sitting on the floor, drenched in sweat and trembling.
What was that? I saw Cecilia. The Legacy showed me a memory of her. Was it supposed to be independent, or is it some kind of help from that supposed god?
I didn't have time to fully process it because I heard hurried footsteps in the hallway.
Oh, no.