‘Lloyd’ possessed two overwhelming talents.
The first was his heightened sensitivity.
This child’s body was alarmingly sensitive.
His sense of sight, smell, hearing… if he concentrated, he could even distinguish the different sounds of insects’ wings fluttering from afar.
When Lee Han first awoke in this body, he had to immediately block his ears and cover his eyes. He pulled the blanket over his head to escape the sensory onslaught that felt like a storm. The rough texture of the blanket felt like countless blades slicing into his skin, nearly sending him into convulsions.
This extreme sensitivity extended to ‘mana’ as well.
Lee Han could vividly feel the flow of mana around him. He discovered that the mana concentration in forests, cities, and even between indoor and outdoor environments differed significantly. This was surprising, even for someone as capable as Lee Han, who in his previous life had managed to capture the Demon King.
The second talent Lloyd possessed was his computational ability.
Magic doesn’t simply manifest by expelling mana. The arrangement and deployment of elements require computations so complex that they are beyond the grasp of ordinary minds.
This is the fundamental reason all mages have difficult personalities.
They all suffer from chronic headaches and glucose deficiency, and the widespread misuse of drugs among mages is no secret.
Lloyd handled this effortlessly.
The computations required during the magic output process flowed naturally and precisely for him. This alone made his abilities comparable to those that Lee Han had painstakingly cultivated in his previous life through countless trials and tribulations.
But the true extent of his abilities didn’t stop there.
The synergy of his ‘heightened sensitivity’ and ‘computational ability’ resulted in something extraordinary.
It is <Magic Calculation>.
Lloyd felt this acutely during his fight with Ortega. He could partially discern Ortega’s movements and strange techniques, which would have been imperceptible to an ordinary person.
This made Ortega even more terrifying, but nonetheless.
Unlike Lloyd, who couldn’t withstand these painful talents, Lee Han could manage them.
The constant irritation and tickling of his ‘sensitivity.’ The ‘computational ability’ that broke everything down into its essence.
For Lee Han, who had been betrayed by his comrades, witnessed their ugly truths, and died once, this was a bearable pain.
Therefore, Lee Han welcomed Lloyd’s talents.
He resolved to overcome even the blocked mana circuits.
“Hey, are you ignoring me?”
To explain the body’s talents, let’s use Hector, a noisy boy mumbling nearby, as an example.
Hector possessed ‘some’ magical talent. He could perform mid-level magic, enhancing his physical strength using earth-element mana.
If he continued with the Blood Cult, he might become an executive. If he pursued a normal path, he might barely make it into the academy.
Regardless.
Hector had gathered quite a bit of mana in his hand, probably to throw a punch.
Lloyd’s body was weak, typical of a mage.
But it was enough to dodge a predictable attack.
Swish.
Lloyd ducked his head.
They were running side by side on a muddy path.
Splat!
Hector, having missed his target, plunged headfirst into the mud. Lloyd didn’t bother looking back. He sensed a few strange mana orbs nearby.
He picked up two or three of them.
Revealing his magical abilities wouldn’t be beneficial. In the worst case, he might need to use magic to escape. Impressing the Duchess with political skills alone would suffice.
“Is it here?”
Lloyd stood on tiptoe to look at the tree branches. He felt grey mana somewhere around here. And as expected…
There was a cluster of dark, dense orbs exuding strong mana. He had heard that some cults consumed mana for growth. This seemed to be one of those types.
Not an appetizing sight.
— Whoosh!
A concealed weapon launched at an unexpected moment.
Lloyd tilted his head the instant he sensed it.
The weapon, which barely grazed his earlobe, embedded itself in a tree.
It was a dining knife.
— ‘Should I kill him? Are you just going to take it like a fool?’
Peeeeeeee.
The knife trembled in the tree.
Lloyd gritted his teeth and adjusted his stance.
He still had no intention of spilling blood with this body.
He didn’t know how Ortega, dormant within him, would react.
Instead.
‘I’ll make it so bad he wishes he were dead.’
He would handle this cleanly.
Thud, thud, thud.
Hector came into view, charging at him.
His eyes were bloodshot.
‘Idiot.’
A smart person would take a moment to think here.
Oh, he dodged the knife they threw.
He needed to understand his abilities.
But Hector couldn’t do that.
He was still too young.
‘Hand-to-hand combat is disadvantageous.’
Lloyd bit his lip lightly. Lloyd’s body had never experienced physical training. The pain in his muscles would be several times more vivid than it would be for others.
Moreover, his mana circuits were blocked, making it difficult to use magic. He recalled a few spells he could use with the circuits he had recently opened through meditation.
First, a simple earth-flipping spell.
“Argh!”
Hector, eyes rolled back, tripped over a mound of raised earth and tumbled to the ground, covered in mud. But still, he was a child who had enhanced his body with magic.
Rolling once on the ground, now with a bruised eye, he got up and charged again.
Swish.
Lloyd’s fingers moved as if conducting. This time, water spread thinly on the ground, creating a slick surface. Hector grandly slipped and crashed again.
“…You. No way.”
Only then did Hector seem to realize, but Lloyd didn’t care. Panic in battle leads to death. Lloyd kicked mud at him.
Thud!
The clump of mud struck Hector’s eyes accurately.
With his vision obscured, Lloyd planted his feet firmly.
Being physically weak doesn’t mean you can’t fight.
An endlessly sensitive body.
He controlled each muscle with precision.
— Thud!
Hector’s head snapped to the side.
“Ugh!”
Despite Hector’s scream, Lloyd didn’t stop.
He kicked his side to knock the wind out of him.
A blow to the chin sent him into a groggy state.
In this state, a few hits to the stomach would make anyone tearfully beg for mercy.
“Wait a minute!”
Hector raised his hand.
Well, he might as well hear him out.
Killing him here would only trouble Lloyd.
The moment Lloyd relaxed slightly.
Hector pulled something from his pocket.
And tore it open immediately.
— Rip!
“Sh*t.”
Lloyd swore unconsciously.
Suddenly, an overwhelming surge of mana filled the air.
It was a scroll.
‘Why does this guy have a scroll…?’
Scrolls, even the simplest ones, cost over a million Krone each. Seeing Hector suddenly use one was enough to startle Lloyd.
As mentioned before, panic in battle leads directly to defeat.
‘Is it a seed bomb type?’
Lloyd’s brain quickly calculated the magic.
The distance was too close.
The chance of avoiding it was almost zero. At least severe injuries were expected.
‘Damn it.’
The best way to minimize the damage was to lie flat on the ground.
Just as he lowered his head.
— Whoosh!
Something swiftly passed over Lloyd’s head.
And then.
— Boom!
Hector was sent flying far away by whatever had hit him.
Seed bombs exploded in the sky due to a miscalculation.
Lloyd bit his lip and looked up.
The blow that just missed his head.
That wasn’t an attack meant to help him.
It was meant to harm him.
And it wasn’t weak.
The caster of the attack immediately adjusted the power of the magic when it missed its target.
The person who had launched the precise attack on him.
Someone Lloyd was familiar with.
“…Ron?”
The butler who had come to serve him the night after the fight with Ortega. He nodded with a stern face.
“You’re luckier than I expected.”
“Is this how you serve people?”
“I intended to send you off so quickly you wouldn’t even realize. That was my mistake.”
His tone remained infinitely polite.
Lloyd swallowed and lowered his posture.
This man was strong.
Strong enough to hide his presence perfectly, and deliver a full-force blow even against a seemingly insignificant boy.
And simultaneously, he was good.
When his attack missed, he reduced its power to avoid causing unnecessary harm to Hector, even at the cost of internal injuries.
The blood trickling from Ron’s mouth proved this.
Thus, it was a mystery.
Why someone like him was serving as a butler for the Grey Duke’s household?
And why he attacked Lloyd?
As if thinking it was only polite to explain, the man spoke.
“My name is Edward Arno. I am a knight of the White Knights and currently undercover here.”
The White Knights were an elite group directly under the Emperor of the Britannia Empire, one of the two major knight orders of the empire and the most elite group.
Lloyd felt a bitter taste in his mouth. Arno had revealed too much information all at once.
“I will execute you for the Empire, Lloyd. You, King of the Underworld, who will drench the continent in darkness.”
