The awakening ceremony.

It was something every young man or woman—only those who haven’t yet had an awakening ceremony—had been excited and nervous about.

Excited as they would be eager to learn real magic and maybe become strong enough to achieve their dreams.

Nervous, as there was no surety that they would awaken something good if they were talented enough to get themselves up to a certain level. If they would be able to survive in this world. If they would get the respect they wanted, and many such doubts, making them tense.

But no matter what one thought of, everyone who had reached the age of 16 would have to go through the awakening ceremony.

It was a compulsory thing.

No matter where you lived or what you did, you would have to get yourself registered under the kingdom that you lived in by the time you turned 16. If you didn’t do it, then you’d get punished accordingly.

The soldiers and mages of the kingdoms conduct an awakening ceremony every year on a fixed date for those who don’t have money to afford awakening ceremonies at the churches or buy an awakening artifact for themselves.

Alex, however, was the son of the archduchess of the Drakathor Empire—someone who was hailed as the strongest in the empire—so he would just have his mana awakened by their personal artifact.

Now what was the awakening ceremony actually?

It was not something that awakened mana within one’s body, no artifact was powerful enough to awaken mana within one’s body, even if there was, it would be so rare that only one or two people would ever be able to use it.

All the awakening ceremony did was help one identify the elements they had awakened and the level of talent they had.

Alex didn’t know anything about what kind of talent he had or which element he was going to awaken.

He didn’t even have time to get to know the functions of the system he had received, much less open the gift pack that Sophie told him to open.

He was still busy processing the information about the novel he had received from Sophie.

But that was all going on in his mind; it didn’t hinder his movements or activities.

*Knock**Knock*

He was standing in front of his mother’s chamber, knocking on the door with a face full of smiles.

“Come in.”

As if waiting for the knock, a voice came from within the moment he was done, causing his smile to widen.

*Creak*

He pushed open the door, stepping into the room that gave out a calm natural scent—one that could cause your body to relax—his eyes scanning the interior of the room.

It was the same room he used to sleep in some years prior, only stopping when he entered his teenage.

It was a large room with nothing but bookshelves placed all around.

Its silver walls brightened the room by reflecting the natural light that came in through the window.

The room wasn’t decorated with paintings or any other stuff like that, only a large chandelier hanging down the ceiling.

“Happy birthday, Alex.”

Just then, he heard a voice—cold yet tinged with gentleness—and the next thing he knew was that he had his head stuffed into two large buns.

It was hard to breathe, but he just smiled and patted the back of the one who was responsible for this.

“Thank you, mother.”

Alex had good height, which made him reach higher than the ones around him, yet his head was stuffed between two cushion-like things because his head was forcefully pulled down even before he could move.

The one who had hugged him finally let go, letting him breathe again as he stood up straight, staring into the frosty blue eyes shining with a gentle light, belonging to the woman he called his mother.

She was the one whom he got his looks from, as she had the same white hair as his; it was just that he was a bit more inclined toward the silver shade, while hers was snowy white.

Their eyes were the same, although both of them had blue eyes, Alex’s were electric blue, while his mother had icy blue eyes.

Her height was around 179 centimeters, not small but not too big as well.

Her figure was something that could be called voluptuous and perky at the same time, as she was a warrior who had trained since she was 5, just like Alex was doing.

She wore a light blue gown with dark blue edges and a collar, giving her the perfect appearance of an ice queen, which was her title in the empire.

“What do you want as a gift, my son?”

His mother questioned in a caring voice, her cold palm cupping Alex’s cheeks with love, but her face reflected none of it, making it all seem forced.

Alex, however, knew better than to take things at face value.

He knew the reason why she was like that, and now that he had the information about the novel, he knew ways to make it go away as well, but that was for later.

For now, he just smiled at her, his warm palm covering hers as he clutched it, resting his head on it.

“Just… don’t work too hard, Mom.”

He smiled at her, his eyes serious yet gentle, and it was not fake, his mother knew that as well, and that was why…

*Swoosh*

Alex again found himself between his mother’s breasts, causing him to sigh helplessly.

“I love you, my boy.”

His mother, Vanessa Drakathor, muttered as she hugged him tighter.

Alex, unlike last time, when he patted her back, telling her to let go in a silent gesture, this time, his arms enveloped her, his head getting pulled out of her mounds, and letting her head rest on his chest as he spoke.

“I love you too, Mom.”

He could feel his mother’s arms clutching his fancy white shirt—one that he was supposed to wear during the awakening ceremony—creasing it, but he didn’t care about it, he just hugged her tighter than before.

He had never experienced familial love in his past life; there was only one person he loved there, and it was Sophie.

That, however, changed after he was reincarnated.

It was a fresh new start for him. He had a mother and a father, both trying to dot on him in their own ways.

But he knew how much his mother had struggled—how much she tried to show her love to him, only to scare his younger self away.

She could never show her emotions since she was a child, but she still tried her best to not frighten Alex away when he was just a child—she tried to smile for him.

All of that, however, seemed forced.

People even started saying that Alex was just an unwanted child, causing both Alex and Vanessa to bleed inwardly.

But Alex, who matured earlier than his peers due to a certain incident, finally realized how much his mother loved him.

Since then, he had noticed how hard she worked for to find a cure for herself, all so that she could show her child—the only one in this world she really loved—how much she cared for him.

She wanted to tell him how comforting it was when he hugged her when he told her that he loved her.

This was all she ever wanted, and Alex knew that.

That was why he wanted her to go easy on herself.

One wouldn’t know how grateful he was that his memories only returned now.

If they had been there in his mind since the start, then he probably would never have seen his mother’s real side—something he feared more than anything.

His cold and ruthless side, which was honed by the years of struggle he did in the previous world, would’ve just made him push his mother farther and farther away—so far that one day, even if he wanted to, he would never be able to get closer.

However, nothing like that happened; he had his mother in his arms, and he could feel her love even though all she did was rub her cheek on his chest.

That was until the sound of the doorknob’s clicking was heard.

*Click*

It was the door to the inner chamber, or the bedroom to be precise, and Alex, who could pretty much guess who it was, just sighed…

‘How bad is your timing…?’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep