Ch.21. New Beginning (1)

# 1. A New Beginning (1)

There was a phrase I always used to say during this time.

“It’s too hard, I can’t do it.”

Too hard to do, huh.

Looking back now, it was such a pathetic thing to say.

How many things in this world aren’t difficult?

Even tasks that seem easy come with their own hardships for those who do them.

Any task will cause suffering, either physically or mentally, or both.

And if you want to gain something, you need to pay with your money, time—in a word, effort.

But during this time, I didn’t know that fact.

Actually, whether I knew it or not doesn’t matter now.

In the end, I lacked effort in any form, and because of that, I had to live a gloomy life.

But now it was different.

Even though I’m still “me” from this time, now I know.

I know what effort is, how important it is, and how to apply it.

And I also know what I should do with the results gained through such effort.

“Huff… huff… huff…”

I was desperately running on the treadmill, breathing heavily as it operated without pause.

Not only the household servants but even my parents looked at me strangely.

“The young master has gone beyond ten days.”

“My goodness, this is unbelievable…”

“Still, he’ll probably quit soon.”

Originally, most of my efforts would end after about 4-5 days.

But since this behavior was unprecedented for them, they seemed to find it even more fascinating.

And while most people viewed my transformation positively, there were those who didn’t.

They didn’t say it outright, but I could tell just from their eyes.

The back of my head burned from their mocking gazes that seemed to say, “How long do you think you’ll last?”

In the past, I was excessively conscious of these stares, but not anymore.

I already knew these gazes held no value for me and brought me no benefit.

That’s why I could focus on my diet regardless of how much they glared or what they said behind my back.

“Still though…”

Being young was definitely good.

My body tired quickly, but my stamina returned rapidly, and the fat on this pig-like body was disappearing at an unbelievable rate.

‘My stats are improving nicely too.’

Normally, working out doesn’t raise your level much, but given the current situation, even light exercise was steadily increasing my level.

Name: Albert Veros Race: Human

Level: 17 Traits: Desperate Person, Obese, Shut-in, Loser, Returner

HP: 9/9 MP: 8/8

Strength: 7 Magic: 4 Agility: 1 Defense: 3 Magic Defense: 2

Skills: [Mortal’s End (Unique): F+], [Blade of Darkness (Unique): F-], [Unwavering Faith: B], [Reinforcement: E-], [Haste: F-], [Desperation: E+], [Absolute Loyalty: B+], [Regeneration: B-], [Killing Intent Detection: F-], [Killing Intent Release: E], [Returner’s Privilege (Unique)(5): SSS]

It was a pathetically shabby status window, but I was quite satisfied that I still had skills left, and the Returner trait that helped with growth was also a consolation.

Still, it seemed I’d have to work hard to raise the skill ranks.

‘Almost all of them are F.’

I thought they had dropped too much, but thanks to that trait I mentioned earlier, that thought somewhat faded.

[Trait: Returner]

[Leveling up, skill acquisition, and skill rank-up become much easier.]

[Also grants the skill ‘Returner’s Privilege’.]

[Returner’s Privilege(5): SSS]

[Designate one person and randomly acquire one of their skills.]

[Designation is only possible through physical contact.]

[Cannot designate someone who has already been designated once.]

[Can only be used 5 times, and acquired skills start at the lowest rank, F-.]

Not just the trait, but this “Returner’s Privilege” skill was also incredibly overpowered.

Though it says random, being able to acquire someone else’s skill…

I could acquire difficult skills without any cost, and with luck, even unique skills from the designated person.

Although starting from the lowest rank would make them difficult to use immediately after acquisition, it was clearly an absurdly powerful ability even considering that limitation.

I had a few people in mind, but they were all people I couldn’t meet right now.

Still, if I entered the Royal Academy as planned, I would be able to meet some of them.

If possible, I’d like to use this skill on her too.

Since she’s two years older than me, I’ll be able to see her at the academy during the year she spends as a third-year student.

Although she was royalty, unlike other royal family members, she hid her identity within the academy and lived as an ordinary student, which would make it somewhat easier to approach her.

Right now, I need to lose weight and build up my skills with the goal of entering the Royal Academy.

The Royal Academy can be seen as the epitome of the Kainis Empire’s meritocracy, valuing only ability.

Everything from admission to treatment within the academy, graduation eligibility, and career paths after graduation is determined solely by ability.

That’s why simply being a Royal Academy graduate is an incredible achievement.

If you can graduate from the Royal Academy, you genuinely have outstanding skills and perform well in your work.

‘Indeed, those with good credentials did work well.’

There’s a reason credentials are valued.

Rather, those with poor credentials tend to have excessive pride.

The saying “position makes the person” exists for a reason.

Of course, I didn’t have good credentials…

Last place in a third-rate academy.

Thinking about it again, it was an embarrassing dark history that made me hang my head in shame.

While I was feeling embarrassed about my dark past, someone approached me.

“Working hard again today, I see.”

It was my mother.

Her name is Ellie Veros.

The moment I saw her, my emotions surged and my eyes grew moist.

I gritted my teeth to hold back the tears that threatened to fall and answered her.

“I need to work hard now, I’m at that age.”

“Don’t overdo it, take breaks when needed.”

“Yes, of course. I won’t overdo it.”

Mother gave me a gentle look of concern before leaving the gym.

Though it had been 20 years since I’d seen her, my mother looked no different than she did 20 years ago.

She had accepted me, a hopeless case, with warm hands, and even when I became an adult and endured all sorts of hardships by the Empress’s side, she offered me various comforts and advice.

Seeing her again like this naturally made me emotional for a moment.

At the same time, seeing my mother gave me strength.

As she said, I won’t overdo it, but I’ll work as hard as possible within my body’s limits.

Of course, it’s already tough, but it doesn’t seem to be straining my body yet.

***

“Wow… I’m really dying here.”

After exercising for about two more hours, my body was screaming at me to stop.

I decided to obediently listen to that voice, so I stopped working out and was taking a short rest on the bench.

But then…

‘Who is it?’

I could feel someone’s gaze watching me as I lay there without any particular thoughts.

“Wow, you’re at it again today?”

It was my sister’s voice, which I found quite annoying.

For some reason, just hearing her voice irritated me.

When I left this world…

I hadn’t seen her for about three years, so I thought there might be some emotion when meeting her again.

But a sister is still a sister.

“But aren’t you going to die doing that?”

“I won’t die from something this trivial.”

“I don’t know why, but you seem quite different from before? Like you’re a different person.”

As expected, she has incredibly sharp intuition.

“It’s just your imagination.”

“Well, I guess so. Keep it up. Tell mom I’m going out to meet a friend.”

My sister put down the water bottle she was holding and picked up her phone.

“Sure, thanks.”

“Hey, so where are we meeting?…”

She left the house while talking to someone on the phone.

‘Come to think of it, she had a lot of friends.’

Now that I think about it, she was actually quite good-natured.

Both my sister and my parents were people with decent social relationships.

‘I was the only mess.’

I felt embarrassed again about my dark history of having only online gaming friends.

While resting on the floor, I was looking up various things on my phone.

‘Academy entrance exam… equal weight on written and practical tests…’

I was definitely confident in the written part.

In my previous life, as the captain of the Empire’s knights, I had to acquire various knowledge.

Thanks to that, there was no way I couldn’t solve problems meant for 16-year-olds entering the academy.

As I was looking up information about the current situation of the Empire and the Royal Academy…

-Katalk!-

Suddenly, someone contacted me through KakaoTalk. It was that gaming friend I mentioned earlier.

-Did something happen? You haven’t logged in once for a week.-

To think that not playing the game for a week would make him think something happened…

Setting aside such gloomy thoughts, I left him this reply:

-I probably won’t be able to log in much from now on. I have some things I need to do.-

Now is not the time to be playing games.

Not entirely, but games were a significant factor in why that time in my life turned out the way it did.

Well, it’s a poor excuse, but back then I needed such excuses.

After all, I didn’t have the courage to place all the blame on myself.