Chapter 1
Today was the day of my Blessing Ceremony, I, Elymas Edvaughn.
My relatives had gathered in the Edvaughn family hall, quietly watching over me.
A Blessing, also called a Class, is a power granted by the gods so that frail humans can stand against monsters.
Those who receive a Class have their physical abilities enhanced and gain various powers known as Skills.
Classes include things like Magic Swordsman and Black Mage, each with its own fighting style and role.
The first day of the year after someone turns fifteen is the day of their Blessing Ceremony.
It is said that a person's Class is influenced by their bloodline, words, and destiny, and that the fifteen years leading up to the ceremony are when the gods discern the nature of a new warrior.
The head of a noble house's Class also has a great impact on the family's authority.
For generations, the Edvaughn family had possessed the Sword Saint, a powerful Class in the sword-wielding line, and used it to protect and guide their lands.
Naturally, as the next head of the family, I was expected to fulfill that same role.
“Don't worry, Elymas. I know very well how diligently you've trained all these years. You're my son... The god of swords will surely grant you a powerful Class.”
My father, the head of the Edvaughn family, placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Yes, I understand, Father. There's no need to worry.”
I gave Father a small bow and headed toward the elderly priest.
Normally, the Blessing Ceremony is held at a church, but Father had gone out of his way to invite this elderly priest to our estate for my ceremony.
And not just any priest—he was the highest-level priest in the city, 【Lv: 50】.
A priest's quality probably wouldn't affect the Class I received, but it was a sort of prayer born of a father's hope that I might get an even better one.
But... what was this? I had a strange sense of déjà vu.
Ever since I was young, whenever I learned or saw something, I sometimes felt as if I'd known it for ages.
Well, it was probably just my imagination...
“Then, young master, if you'll excuse me. Baptism!”
The moment the elderly priest spoke, pale blue magic circles appeared around me.
I felt something... settling into my body, taking root as power.
Baptism is a Skill belonging to holy magic. It can awaken a Blessing—a Class—in someone who meets the requirements.
“That completes the ceremony. You should now be able to use Status.”
Status is a power that anyone with a Class can use.
It projects information about your Class into the air as text, allowing you to check it.
“All right, then... Status!”
The instant I said the word, light gathered and Status took shape before my eyes.
When I saw it, I gasped.
I knew this.
Five years ago—or no, even further back... Yes, before I was born.
This world was exactly the same as Magic World, the VR-compatible online game I'd poured my previous life into.
It was hard to understand, but there was no other way to explain it.
There were days I'd spent twenty hours playing that game, and I knew every inch of it.
If I had to put it into words, perhaps my obsession in my previous life had transcended the boundary between reincarnations.
In that moment, I felt both joy and the certainty of victory.
The joy came from finding myself inside the game world I'd been so absorbed in.
And my confidence in victory came from knowing every Class and Skill in Magic World, as well as the nature of its monsters.
In Magic World, during character creation, the god of that world asked you nearly twenty questions, then generated a character with a Class suited to your answers.
In this world, it seemed your Class was decided by the way you lived until you turned fifteen.
A newborn couldn't exactly be interviewed about how they'd lived, so perhaps this was a change brought about by reconciling the game with reality.
I was confident I could make any Class work, but more than anything, I wanted that very Class I'd always used in Magic World.
I prayed as I looked at Status.
――――――――――――――――――――
【Elymas Edvaughn】
Class: Heavy Knight
Lv: 1
HP: 10/10
MP: 4/4
――――――――――――――――――――
The moment I saw the display, a smile spread across my face.
I did it... Heavy Knight, the broken Class hailed as the strongest in Magic World.
Heavy Knights specialized in defense, drawing enemy attacks and protecting their allies.
At least, that was what people said for a while after the game launched.
But compared to other defensive Classes, it was inflexible and had few ways to shine. Its attack power was so low that leveling up was a struggle. People called it not just an underpowered Class, but a fundamentally broken one.
In Magic World, the most important part of building a character was leveling up as efficiently as possible.
At that point, Heavy Knights, who couldn't attack on their own, were considered so unsuited to the game's design that the game itself had abandoned them.
Even so, there are always people who take an interest in the unusual. A while after launch, an analysis team appeared, determined to thoroughly test the Heavy Knight's capabilities.
When everyone says something is useless, human nature makes you want to use it all the more.
I got interested too, so I made a Heavy Knight as a secondary character and helped with the analysis.
As a result, we discovered that the Heavy Knight was an astonishingly technical Class hiding behind its defensive specialization.
It demanded a vast amount of knowledge, skill, and ingenuity, but if you could meet those demands, it had the potential to overwhelm even the other top-tier Classes.
We didn't discover that until a full five years after the game launched.
I even abandoned my longtime main character and switched to my Heavy Knight alt.
In a way, it was only natural that I'd gotten Heavy Knight.
If the gods were judging me, there was no way they'd assign me another Class after I'd devoted so much of my previous life to analyzing and building Heavy Knights.
“I did it, Father! I got Heavy Knight!”
In a one-time chance with no do-overs, getting a broken Class I knew inside and out was a huge advantage.
I reported the news, bubbling with excitement.
But Father stared at me with a stiff, strained expression.
“W-What did you just say? Y-You said Sword Saint, didn't you?”
Seeing Father's expression, I remembered too late.
My memories of my previous life had gotten mixed up with this one.
In this world, the obvious powerful Classes were celebrated, while late-blooming or technical Classes were held in low regard.
It was probably because no one had thoroughly analyzed and tested the Classes yet.
“No, um...”
When I faltered, Father approached me with a face like a demon.
“Show me... Show me!”
He stood beside me and peered at my Status.
“H-Heavy Knight?! What is the meaning of this? Your Status is low across the board, and you don't even learn any decent attack Skills! It's nothing but a wooden dummy... This is unquestionably a dud Class!”
Father spat the words at me, spittle flying.
I couldn't process what was happening.
Father could be selfish, but when it came to me, his own son, he could also be kind, even if he was strict.
I never imagined he would change so completely.
“P-Please calm down. My Status isn't low across the board. My HP and defense are among the highest...”
“I don't care about that! Y-You've made a fool of me! How am I supposed to explain this to the other noble houses? For someone of the Edvaughn bloodline to get such a dud Class! It must be because of your laziness and rotten character! There can be no other explanation! You useless wretch!”
Father grabbed me by the collar and threw me to the floor.
I slammed into the ground.
“Khah! Cough, cough...”
I hit my side, and the impact forced the air from my lungs.
He'd probably held back, but I'd taken a blow from my father's strength—he'd fought on the front lines and hunted monsters many times—while I was still 【Lv: 1】.
I was lucky to be alive. He could easily have killed me by accident.
“Hah... hah... Tch! I never expected this, but at least we held the ceremony inside the estate! What would become of the Edvaughn family if we'd suffered this humiliation in public?”
Father shouted, then roughly scratched his head.
“Ah, it was a mistake to have ever trusted someone like Elymas! My misfortune is that I haven't been blessed with another child after this failure! I should've taken action sooner!”
My relatives had fallen silent, watching us.
Some of them looked down on me just like Father did.
A few seemed to pity me, but none of them spoke up.
In the Edvaughn family, the head's word was absolute.
More than that, in this world, where Class and Level ruled everything, nobles and people in power wielded far more influence than they did in Japan, the country I'd come from.
The heads of the great noble houses were all heroes among the strongest of humanity, with powerful Classes and overwhelming Levels. It was a society where commoners could never defy them.
It hadn't been quite so extreme in Magic World. Perhaps this was what happened when the game was reconciled with reality.
“Um, I'm supposed to have my Blessing Ceremony too. Is that okay?”
A black-haired girl broke the silence.
She had wide, bright eyes and long eyelashes, with fair, beautiful skin.
Her features were delicate, but her blank expression and limp, overgrown hair gave her an unsettling air.
She was the daughter of a branch of the Edvaughn family—in other words, my uncle's daughter. My uncle was Father's younger brother.
Her name was Malice.
I remembered playing with her a few times when we were little, but Father had always seemed to dislike the two of us meeting and tried to keep us apart. For the last five years, I'd only seen her from a distance, and we'd barely exchanged a word.
“B-But, um, right now...”
The elderly priest, hurried along by Malice, said that and glanced at me.
He probably wanted to put her off until Father had calmed down.
“No, that's fine. Begin the Blessing Ceremony at once.”
But Father suddenly changed his expression and gave the priest the order.
At that moment, I had a bad feeling for some reason.
The elderly priest immediately cast Baptism on Malice, just as he had on me.
Malice opened her Status, twisted her lips, and smiled faintly.
“Sword Saint... I see. Sorry, Elymas-sama. It seems I stole your talent.”
My bad feeling had been right.
Father was proud and arrogant.
He often looked down on the people of the branch family, hurling insults at them and giving them unreasonable orders.
If he learned that one of their daughters had received the Sword Saint Class, Father's already foul mood would only get worse...
“Magnificent, Malice...! That's what I'd expect from someone of the Edvaughn family!”
Father wept with joy and embraced Malice.
“Malice, from today on, you are my daughter... the heir to the Edvaughn family!”
I was stunned. I could only stare at the scene.
The others were just as shocked.
As Father embraced her, Malice watched his face with the same impassive eyes as always.
Then she glanced back at me, and our eyes met.
She twisted her lips again, wearing a faint smile.
“Elymas-sama... no, Elymas. I've thought for a long time that becoming the next head of the family was too much for you.”
When Malice said that, Father finally seemed to remember me. He let go of her and turned toward me.
“Get out, Elymas! You've betrayed my expectations, and you're no longer my son. Having a Heavy Knight in the main family is nothing but a disgrace! Leave this estate at once!”
“F-Father, surely you can't...! Heavy Knight is a strong Class! I'll make the Edvaughn family...”
“Silence! Do you think I'm being cruel, Elymas? No! You brought this on yourself! Don't ever show me your face again! And don't use the Edvaughn name outside this house. If you do, I'll cut off your head!”
Father ranted like a child throwing a tantrum, refusing to listen to a word I said.
I was given only a little money and driven out of the estate that very day.