"I really was fucking pathetic now that I think about it."
The body I was born with was total trash.
It was frail, unable to put on muscle, and every single movement put me at risk of injury. It also wasn't given any godly blessings. And on top of that, it didn't have a mana core.
Three essential elements to becoming powerful.
It's easy to say that if anyone other than me had been inside that body, they would have found an early death, killed in training or on the battlefield.
But I didn't. I didn't die.
I pushed through and managed to turn myself, through sheer effort and trickery, into one of the most valuable assassins of the Ikerson Family, the strongest martial family to have ever stepped foot in the Universe.
More than that, one of the children of the Patriarch, Calix Ikerson, even recruited me into his personal secret army, giving me all kinds of tasks that I executed with perfection every single time, never once asking a question.
Time passed, and after more than ten years at his service, Calix had done it. He had been chosen to become the next Patriarch of the Ikerson family, earning the immense fame and power that came along with it.
Truth be told, I had been the one doing most of the work, completely annihilating his brothers' and sisters' plans, making sure that only Calix could rise up to the task.
But I quickly came to understand that all my efforts had been for absolutely nothing.
Because not long after becoming the Patriarch, Calix asked to see me, alone, in the middle of the Ikerson Forest, a sacred place which only pure bloods have the right to enter.
At first, I thought I would be rewarded for my hard work.
A new dagger.
New dagger techniques reserved only for pure-blooded.
Who knows really what I was expecting?
It honestly doesn't matter, especially since that meeting was the day where I died, assassinated by the only person that I ever considered a friend.
I can still remember it as if it was yesterday, the look in his eyes, looking at me with pure disdain and ridicule, spouting all kinds of things at me.
"Did you really think that I cared about you?"
"You're nothing but a fucking hunting dog."
"And you've run out of use."
That night, anger like I had never felt before rose inside me.
As I felt the life draining from my frail body, I knew there was no coming back from this.
"I-I can't die like this…" I murmured to myself as I slowly but surely used every single bit of energy within me to stand up.
I pushed through the pain just like I always did, and I dashed forward, aiming straight for that son of a bitch's neck.
And… it almost worked.
A few millimeters to the right and I would have killed the bastard.
A small cut to his neck; that was the extent of the damage I inflicted on him before falling onto the ground once and for all.
I thought it was the end; I really did until a deep, mystical voice called out to me as I fell into the emptiness of the void for an unknown amount of time—years, millennia, who knows.
"Child of &!$#@#%(, come to me."
Some of it sounded like gibberish.
Within seconds, I felt my soul being pulled in a different direction, and the voice sounded clearer and clearer.
And then, I met him, a strange-looking man with a white patchy beard and a monocle on his right eye, staring at my soul with a hidden grin.
"Are you angry, Child of &!$#@#%(?"
I frowned, confused.
"What did you say?"
Once again, gibberish came out of his mouth.
However, looking at me, he just shook his head as if realizing something and changed the subject.
"You must be wondering why you're here," he said. "Well, it's quite simple: I have decided to give you a second chance."
"What? Why?"
I could barely make sense of any of this.
Everything was just so sudden.
For maybe years, I had been stuck in this darkness and now… a strange-looking man was offering me a second chance at life?
Where was the trick?
"You don't need to know the reasons yet, nor would you even understand them."
"Who are you?"
He shrugged. "A god, a forgotten one."
I wanted to ask him: "Why are you helping me?" But before I even realized, no more sounds could come out of my mouth; I could only listen to him while moving my arms angrily.
He sighed. "Much better."
He snapped his fingers and swiftly wiped his fingers from his forehead.
"Whew. That was one nasty curse, eh?"
I frowned. 'Curse? What is he talking about?'
"Well, everything should be good to go."
He moved his fingers, and my soul was once more dragged toward a strange-looking cannon.
"Impressive, right? I call it the Second Life Cannon! It sends your soul straight back into the body of a newborn."
Within seconds, I found myself inside the cannon, waiting to be cannoned into another existence. I wasn't sure how I felt about taking someone else's body, but it's not like I had any other choice here.
-Boom!
I blinked, and I was no longer surrounded by darkness.
Instead, it was bright—so bright that I could keep my eyes open.
More than that, I could hear the sound of an annoying baby crying really loudly.
'Can't that baby shut up for a second? I'm trying to figure out where I ended up.'
After a few seconds of getting used to this new light intensity, I realized that I was inside a very luxurious room. It was probably ten times the size of my previous room as Calix's assassin.
I also realized that I was the annoying crying baby, waiting to be comforted inside my mother's arms.
As if capable of hearing my thoughts, a beautiful, busty woman with piercing red eyes appeared before me and immediately grabbed me in her arms, whispering my new name.
"Everything will be just fine, Yike…" She repeated over and over again until I finally stopped crying.
Once I did, she let go of me, and I looked at her face once again, finding it strangely familiar.
And that's when it clicked.
Red piercing eyes.
Only one family has those.
The Ikerson Family's nemesis.
The Solmere Family, the strongest magic family in the universe.