Almost a year had passed since I made that decision.
“Hmph… hmph… hmph!”
Since that day, I had been training my body every single day without rest. And today, I was once again practicing my daily sword swings.
When I first started training my body and practicing with the sword, my rotten father and my insolent younger brother mocked me relentlessly. And even after a year, my rotten father and the others still sneered at me.
“Training your body instead of studying magic?! Are you really that foolish? You were born into the prestigious Alfeid family, yet you barely make an effort to study magic… Don’t you feel any shame toward our ancestors, who devoted their lives to magic research?”
“That’s right, brother. Indulging in such a barbaric act of swinging a stick around—it’s a disgrace to the esteemed Alfeid family, don’t you think? And someone as incompetent and worthless as you could never become strong, no matter how much you wave that sword around. Hehe.”
I had to listen to such irritating remarks from my rotten father and brother almost daily. They were seriously twisted.
My rotten father also held daily magic training sessions, and recently, he even started using me as a punching bag for Schwartz’s magic practice as well.
Thanks to that, I had accumulated quite a few injuries lately. But I didn’t care about any of that.
After all, I needed to gain the strength to defeat the bandits as soon as possible… I couldn’t be bothered with those bastards.
If I got captured by bandits, I’d end up in a horrible fate—abused by a depraved noble, losing my sanity, killing people uncontrollably, joining forces with a demon lord, and eventually being executed. To avoid that nightmare, I had no choice but to push myself to my limit…
(I mean, come on, I didn’t reincarnate in another world to end up abused!)
And so, I endured being my rotten father’s punching bag every day and continued my training without complaint.
Despite having trained for only a year, I had already gained strength, stamina, and reflexes that were beyond what most eleven-year-olds could achieve. No wonder I’m on track to become one of the strongest characters.
At this rate, I felt confident I’d have a decently strong body by the time I was sixteen. I’d continue training, trusting I would only grow stronger.
“Phew… I guess that’s enough for today.”
With that, I ended today’s training, wiping off my sweat with a towel nearby and changing into a fresh set of clothes.
Since I had no personal maid or attendant, I had to prepare all my towels and clothes by myself. But seriously, why should an eleven-year-old have to handle everything alone…?
“Sigh, really… I’m only eleven, and life’s already set to Hard Mode…”
I muttered that with a sigh. Life was tough in many ways, but the hardest part was dealing with the people around me. This family was truly messed up.
Over the past year, I learned that noble families in the Sword Fantasia world practiced polygamy.
I suppose in any world, noble families prioritize bloodlines, so having many descendants is an important duty. Even I understood that.
“But that doesn’t mean you can justify abusing your own flesh and blood… they’ll go to hell for sure.”
I muttered bitterly, clearly aiming that remark at my rotten father.
Anyway, to get back on track, my rotten father, being a noble, had two wives. He had a first and a second wife.
My mother was the first wife, and Schwartz’s mother was the second wife. So Schwartz and I were half-brothers.
My mother passed away from illness a few years ago. Losing my real mother at the age of eleven was undeniably painful. And on top of that, I was in the worst situation, neglected by my rotten father.
Still, over the past year, I’d come to understand that the Alfeid family was an extraordinary family of magic users.
So, as the eldest son of the prestigious Alfeid family, with no magical talent whatsoever, I could somewhat understand why my rotten father, the current head, might see me as a disgrace.
After all, nobles do tend to care a lot about appearances.
“But even so, isn’t blood thicker than water?”
Sure, maybe I was the disgrace of the Alfeid family, but even then, wasn’t I still family? No matter how useless I was, treating your own child so harshly was definitely wrong.
And it wasn’t just my rotten father who treated me poorly. All the maids and servants in the house treated me with the same contempt, mocking me every chance they got. It was obviously all under my father’s orders.
And so, all the maids and servants in this household sided with that bastard father of mine. Not a single one would treat my injuries or help me with cooking, laundry, or any of the daily chores.
“Haah, if only my stepmother was always around the manor, maybe things would be different…”
But even for me, there was one person in the Alfeid family who had been on my side. That person was my stepmother, the second wife, Rain—Schwartz’s mother.
Rain was incredibly beautiful, but she always had this cold and intimidating aura about her, like the archetypal “evil stepmother” from a storybook or fable. She looked a bit scary, to be honest.
But, contrary to her appearance, Rain was a kind stepmother who treated me, her non-biological son, as her own. And even before my reincarnation, when Seras was still an infant, I have faint memories of her showing me a lot of affection.
But after my birth mother—the first wife—passed away, Rain took over all diplomatic relations with neighboring territories alone, leaving her so busy that she could only return to the Alfeid household once or twice a year. Right now, too, she’s away on a diplomatic trip to nearby territories and other countries.
So, as it stands, there’s no one in this manor who’s on my side.
“Seriously, no eleven-year-old should have to endure a crappy environment like this…”
But if I keep spending every day in this miserable environment, well, Seras’s spirit will just sink lower and lower. Then he’ll end up attacked by bandits, tortured daily by a depraved noble, and… yeah, I can see why he’d lose his mind…
“When I think about it that way… maybe Seras was a bit of a tragic villain after all…”
In the main storyline of the game, Seras’s time as a noble was hardly touched upon, and from the player’s perspective, he was nothing but an utterly repulsive character. But maybe he was really just a pitiful enemy…
“…Alright then, in this world, I’ll make sure he doesn’t fall into madness or give in to darkness!”
And so, for the sake of Seras, who had lived such an unbearably difficult life, I set this grand goal for myself.
