Chapter 7: Love is madness (1)
The whole day had passed, and now even the night was fading, with the sun beginning to rise.
Naoki was still struggling.
The dark energy hadn't stopped. It continued to pour from the mark on his wrist, trailing down to his abdomen like an unbroken stream of smoke. It crawled under his skin, cold and relentless, draining him from the inside out.
It was consuming everything.
Naoki gasped.
Sweat poured from his skin. His body convulsed. Every nerve was set ablaze. His muscles spasmed. His bones felt like they were cracking from within. The pain wasn't ordinary. It was annihilation. Like his entire being was being rewritten.
Madness was the ink. Pain, the pen.
And still it continued.
Strands of hair darkened, one after another, until his entire head glowed with a blazing crimson red. A cruel red. A warning.
He collapsed, falling forward onto the cold ground, his body too drained to move, too broken to resist.
* * *
Naoki opened his eyes. He was lying on his bed. Only half a day had passed.
Slowly, he sat up, pressing a hand to his head.
"Ahh… my head hurts. Was that the energy of that black hole I encountered in that space... Before my Transmission to this world!"
As his vision cleared, he noticed someone beside the bed.
A young girl.
Lyra von Noctvain.
She was resting her head on the edge of the bed, fast asleep in a chair. Her small hand was still lightly touching his arm. She looked Just like Milly, his little sister from Earth.
"Brother… don't leave… me…" she murmured in her sleep, her voice trembling with the weight of a buried pain.
Naoki's expression softened.
She had lost so much.
Their mother had died the night Lyra was born, cursed by a Demon during childbirth. The entire estate had treated Lyra like a harbinger of misfortune. Everyone shunned her except their father and her siblings.
Naoki gently took her hand in his.
"Maybe this is fate," he whispered.
"I couldn't protect you back on Earth... but this time, I'll give you everything. Everything this world has to offer."
He smiled softly.
"You gave meaning to my existence, Milly...no...Lyra von Noctvain."
Naoki gently lifted Lyra from the chair and placed her onto the bed, careful not to wake her.
He stepped out of the room and made his way through the estate, heading toward the training grounds behind the main house.
It was quiet.
This place was reserved for members of the direct bloodline. no one else dared to enter without permission.
Inside the training hall, Naoki found a set of training clothes neatly folded on a shelf. He changed, then stepped onto the open floor. The air was still, heavy with silence.
Without using mana, he began practicing a basic sword form. a technique he had memorized from the ancient Noctvain family books.
Each movement was clean, precise.
Strike.
Turn.
Step.
Then, without warning, he stopped mid-swing.
Naoki took a breath and began circulating his mana while standing still. A surge of energy rushed through him.
Dark green light erupted from his body, twisting around him like smoke with weight.
"I knew it," he muttered. "This energy flowing through me... it's the same as the black hole I saw before transmigrating into this world. Maybe... I absorbed it."
He closed his eyes and focused. Slowly, he guided that mana into the sword in his hand.
Swish.
A burst of dark green light engulfed the blade. It pulsed with power, humming quietly.
This was Sword Aura.
An extension of one's will and mana, Sword Aura was a manifestation of mastery. where the blade no longer moved just with the body, but with the soul. It sharpened the edge beyond steel, increasing reach, force, and presence. Only those who had refined their spirit and their mana together could awaken it.
And now, Naoki had taken the first step into that realm.
While Naoki continued practicing, channeling his mana with unwavering focus, a figure watched him from afar.
It was the head butler of the Noctvain estate.
His aged eyes followed Naoki's movements with quiet reverence, arms folded behind his back, posture firm as always. But deep inside, a storm of emotion stirred.
"My lord…" he whispered to himself. "He truly is your heir, my lord… in strength and will alike."
Three years had passed since the patriarch of the Noctvain family vanished. No word. No sign. Only silence. Since that day, the butler had waited faithfully. Hoping. Praying. Watching the estate gates with the same hope he carried in his younger years.
But the patriarch never returned.
Now, standing in the shadow of the training hall, he watched Naoki Wielding the sword with purpose. With power. And with the weight of something far greater.
It wasn't just the technique.
It was the presence.
The butler felt it deep in his soul.
Perhaps… the one he had waited for had been here all along.
He bowed his head slightly
"Until the day the patriarch returns...or even if he never does, I shall devote myself to his son. To Young Master Aether. Even if it costs me my life."
Time passed as Naoki wrapped up his training. His body was soaked in sweat, so he headed straight for a shower. After freshening up, he made his way back to his room.
"This mansion is way too big," he muttered with a small smile. "Feels good to be rich."
But then his expression turned serious.
"If I want to survive here, I need to get stronger. I don't know what enemies I'll face… but I will protect you, Lyra."
Just as the words left his mouth, a loud scream rang out.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhh!"
Lyra's voice.
Naoki's heart pounded. Without wasting a second, he bolted toward the source of the sound. It was coming from his room.
He slammed the door open.
Inside, Lyra was screaming but not in fear. She was hugging something tightly with wide, excited eyes.
"Brother! Brother, look! Look!"
She held her hands out to him. In them was the egg. The same egg Naoki's older brother had gifted him before his transmigration.
"Look, brother! It's cracking!" she said, her voice trembling with excitement.
Crack crack!
A thin fracture ran across the shell.
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To be continued....