'This is bad, this is bad!' I panicked a little as the time of my speech was nearing because I began to feel more nervous than I expected. My hands trembled uncontrollably and I couldn't stay put so I walked around and talked to some of the guests before the speech.
My father and I went to a majestic edifice connected to the Royal Castle one hour before the ceremony and began to greet the important guests from other planets along with the envoys from the Holy Church and the Empire.
The location was more spacious than the other places so it was used for national public gatherings and other official occasions because there was what looked like a plaza next to it.
My speech would take place on this plaza, or more precisely on the edifice in front of it, and I had to face the eyes of hundreds of thousands of people. In addition to that, it would be broadcasted live so that the people who didn't come to the plaza could follow it from where they were.
"Talking about a nerve-wracking situation," I grumbled. "Well, at least for a former run-of-mill guy like me."
I more and more anxious as I tried to remember the content of my speech and then looked at the time. 'Only 30 minutes before it begins.'
Thirty minutes ago, guests arrived one after another.
Most of them were Lords of other planets and their families or nobles served as a substitute for the Lords who couldn't come.
As I looked around the room, I could observe some familiar faces which I couldn't match with a name around the room.
Most of them seemed to be taking part in a discussion with a group of people and some of them even tried to exchange greetings with many people as they could mostly because events like this were also a chance to build new relations.
As I expected, some people tried to talk to me and I couldn't ignore them.
"Good afternoon, mister Adam," Someone said.
"Good afternoon, miss," I answered back.
'This girl, what's her name again?' I thought as a girl who was around the same age as I approached me and tried to initiate a conversation. There were a lot of people who wanted to talk to me, and most of them was the daughter of Lords or the nobles, but since I didn't have the time to deal with them, I pretended to listen and replied curtly when needed then continued to wander around.
After all, I was constantly worried about what would happen if I messed up my speech so I didn't want to be distracted by something unexpected.
Besides, most of the topics of the conversations were about me since I was the subject of this occasion, making it a little bit uncomfortable to continue the discussion because they were asking about my age, the nature of my gift, my future projects, my type of girl, my preference, and other personal information. Honestly, it was very tiring and it didn't help to relieve my stress.
'Okay, let's get out of here for now,' I thought, feeling like I was more stressed as I talked to these girls.
Thus, I decided to stroll around the spacious area, and as I did, some people picked my attention. One of them was a woman who wore a nun attire that made her long beautiful blond hair and delicate face stand out and also emphasized her mature charms that only older women had. She introduced herself as sister Gracia.
Next to Gracia, there was a very intimidating priest wearing a black robe who didn't utter a word since their arrival.
The two of them had this mysterious aura surrounding them which made it hard for people to approach them, and as soon as they finished exchanging formalities with my father and me, they went straight to their VIP seats and never moved from there.
I made sure to take a mental note that these people were the ones who would assess my ability the next day because I had the feeling that they were already observing me.
One other guest that picked my curiosity was the level 8 Lord called Gordon because he looked like a dark elf described in these books that I used to read back on Earth.
I was a little bit surprised that some races had the same intelligence, maybe even more intelligent than humans in this universe. They were few compared to humans but they were not rare either, and since I had almost finished reading all of the books in the royal library, I was more knowledgeable about this world, so I theorized that Gordon was part of the race called Aniak. freew(e)bnovel
Gordon was supposedly the person who had ties with my father's former family, and from the look of it, my father's former family, the Raizel, was interested in me.
I didn't have enough information to determine if it was a good thing or not but I was interested in going to the empire so this might have been a good opportunity if nothing else.
As for a potential romantic target, no one picked my interest, because the girls that were present there, all looked like the typical prideful noble girls from these historical dramas.
'It's not the time for that anyway... I need to focus on the speech for now,' I thought, but as I strolled around, a lot of people insisted to talk to me so I began to feel thirsty and wanted to drink something.
Although I could see some maids walking around serving drinks, what I wanted was a special ice tea made with special tea leaves and fruit extract, a recipe created by my mother. Thus, I looked for the head maid and then requested her for that special ice tea.
After a few moments, the head maid came back and offered me something different from what I requested.
"Young Lord, your mother prepared this for you. She said that it will help you with your stress," the maid said, and after hearing her words, I took a look around and saw that my mother had arrived.
It seemed like she expected this situation and prepared something for me because she was always thoughtful.
'Thanks, mother,' I said to myself.
I drank the beverage that the head maid brought and it had a refreshing taste, making me feel refrigerated and revigorated. Even though it had a slight taste of mint, it was still tasty.
*****
Time passed quickly and it was already time for the ceremony to begin, so my father stood up in a charismatic manner and presented himself in front of thousands of people.
I was sitting next to my mother and the other important people sat behind us on the right and left sides.
I watched my father's actions because he was different from his usual at times like this and I felt like I could learn something from him.
This world had technology similar to microphones and cameras but more advanced. Using these pieces of equipment, my father's image was projected on two huge screens that even the people at the back could see and his voice was also amplified so that it can fill the whole plaza. However, it was also my father's charismatic voice and attitude that managed to grab the attention of these thousands of people, and their eyes were focused on him.
"My dear people, esteemed guests, it is with great joy and pride that I announce to you that my son will come to be an adult from today onward. So…" My father began to talk but I couldn't hear what he said.
I felt dizzy and my head was hazy.
'Was I this nervous?' I thought, messaging my palm a bit, but suddenly, I couldn't feel my legs and my mind went blank. 'This is seriously bad...'
'Huh!?' I felt something poking my arm, and I turned to look beside me, then I saw my mother gesturing for me to stand up.
It seemed like my father had already finished his speech and it was my turn, but for some reason, I couldn't even follow his speech.
Even so, I stood up and walked to the place where my father stood, but my mind went blank, and I couldn't feel my body as if my head was floating.
'What happened to me? This is not normal,' I wondered.
I felt my body temperature rising at an unnatural speed. 'Even if I am extremely nervous, I shouldn't be like this,' I thought and bad feelings began overflowing in my heart.
Little by little, I felt like I was suffocating I couldn't open my mouth as muscle was assaulted by agonizing pain.
I felt my strength leaving and I fell to my knees, but I still couldn't say anything so I used my sheer willpower to turn around and look at my parents.
However, before anyone could react to what was happening to me, a ragged sack containing a purple crystal-like stone landed in front of my mother.
Everyone was stunned, but when someone was about to inspect the sack, something inside made a breaking sound and a dark-purple rift appeared in front of my mother. In a question of a second, a dimensional portal materialized and monsters overflowed out of it literally like starving beasts.
'Damn it!' I thought, realizing that I messed up. It was said that an unknown phenomenon occurred and affected the whole universe, bringing monsters that came from different dimensions to this world through a dimensional portal.
The origin of this phenomenon was surrounded by mystery scholars and historians who have their theories about it, but it was said that everything fell into delirious chaos at that time and reality became something irrational that all living that possessed a certain level of intelligence began to question their existence. Of course, I thought that I would be prepared for such a thing but unlike what I expected, I was not fully prepared. 'What the hell is this?'
My father used his fire elemental power to prevent the monster from reaching my mother, but he was a few seconds late.
As if everything happened in slow motion, I saw a vicious black-wolf-like monster biting on my mother's right hand which she used to protect her face. However, the monsters that came out of the three meters wide dimensional gate were already close to her, and she was helplessly assaulted without a way to defend herself.
'Damn it!!'
My mother was already critically wounded before my father could fend off the monsters around her.
It all happened so fast that only a few people could react quickly.
Six flashes of light came down from the sky and obliterated six monsters, then Silvestre and Brad appeared next to my parents and began to use their elemental power.
People only began to shout and panic after a few seconds. "Monsters!"
As for me, I couldn't do much and I even tried to use my power, but I helplessly slumped down on the ground instead.
I could see my father panicking, holding my mother who was in a critical state and covered in red crimson blood in his arms.
"A healer! Quick, a healer… Is anyone here a healer," My father shouted desperately.
However, his voice was overwhelmed by the panicking people and the roar of the monsters that came out at an insane speed from the portal.
The royal knights and other soldiers began fighting the monsters, but as soon as they eliminated a certain number, other monsters already replaced them.
Furthermore, these monsters were level 4 monsters so even level 7 gift holders had a hard time fighting against multiple of them.
This is why portals were synonymous with disaster in this world because no one knew the exact number of ferocious monsters that awaited beyond them.
'I need to do something...' I thought, trying hard to keep myself conscious while bearing the pain, but before I knew it, chaos had already spread all around the plaza and people were running for their lives, and those who had powers began to protect themselves and their families.
Even though the royal knights fought against these monsters, they couldn't eliminate them all at once, and most of all, the biggest problem was the portal because as long it was open, monsters will come out of it.
'Portals could only be sealed using powerful artifacts or by masters who possessed the power of authority that can confine space and time,' I recalled, 'but with my power, I should be able to do something about it... If only I could ignore the pain and focus on activating my power... I need to try.'
I knew that only high-level artifacts could open portals since the primordial particles inside them came from the Era of Gods when the universe was still a pure form of energy.
Unfortunately, the tragedy didn't end there and when everyone else was battling monsters, their attention focused on the first portal, I saw a second rift appearing behind them.
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