Different Paths

The family of Lovel had been a cornerstone of the Kingdom of Camelot, ever since it's inception over 5000 years ago, as one of it's most loyal vassals. The Lovel's produced some of the best healers in history, hailed as those closest to the Gods, as the ability to heal ran through their blood. 

The type of magic you are able to use, is heavily influenced by your parents, and so nobles would reproduce with people who had certain magic types. 

My name is Theodore Lovel, the 11th son of the current Lovel patriarch, and the only person in 5000 years of history to be unable to use healing magic.

Yes, completely inept at healing magic, and so I was ostracized for it. I was sent to a corner of the mansion, with just one personal servant, and a meager personal allowance. My siblings would relentlessly bully me for my lack of magic. Especially my 10th brother, Darrian Lovel. If I wasn't completely incapable of using healing magic, he would have very likely been the weakest, and perhaps he would be in the same position as me.

The only people who were kind to me, showing any semblance of humanity, were: the head butler, my personal maid Mary, and my late mother.

It had been almost ten years since my mother passed away, which happened when I was seven, but it still hurt me deeply. My mother was always kind to me, even after it was discovered I was unable to cast healing magic. I remembered the kind words she would whisper to me when I would come crying to her, with clear signs of beatings from my family. She would use her healing magic to heal my bruises and cuts.

"I know it is hard... But Theo don't carry around your grievances. They are incapable of being better..."

My mother was kind to me, and showed me a lot of love.

But she was not kind to others.

"So you have to crush them like ants, Theo."

She would show me the most pure smile in the world, while saying these things.

"Build up your strength and make them submit. Then they will have to be nice to you."

My mother was nicknamed the Blood Duchess. She was an incredible healer, but she was also different as she would use her healing magic to attack her enemies too. 

She would accelerate the cellular growth in a person, and that would be incredibly painful. She was responsible for torturing numerous spies, and was feared by Camelot's enemies on the battlefield.

However she was executed, because she lost her mind and began to go on a killing spree. I knew my mother was a bad person... 

But she was my mother.

I was self aware enough to be able to control my violent thoughts, but it was a lot of pressure. I was constantly worrying that if I showed even a modicum of what my mother imprinted on me... That I would be the next person to be executed.

So I just put up with the beatings and all the snide comments people made. I was currently walking towards my room, which was located at the far West side of the mansion, when I started grumbling to myself.

"That asshole Darrian... He broke my fucking nose... It also took him forever because he is so weak..."

As I pinched my nose, tilting my head back while I did, I ran into something hard.

"AH FUCK!"

Blood had fell and stained my shirt, I looked down at it angrily.

'I can't afford a new shirt.. I'm just gonna have to put up with the blood stain for a while...'

I thought to myself, before peering up at what I had run into. I looked up slowly, and only saw a solid wall in-front of me.

"I... Ran into a wall?"

I was laughing at myself, for running into a wall, when I noticed that there was a space around the wall. I got up, and walked around the wall, and saw there was a secret hidden stairway where the wall used to be. I walked closer, and saw there were lights along the stairway, leading down to who knows where.

From my memory, the mansion didn't have a basement? The only place that was below the ground floor was the storage beneath the kitchen. However I was all the way in the West wing, the kitchen wasn't anywhere close.

Curiosity ended up getting the best of me, and I descended the stairs. I walked down the stairs for a couple minutes, before a space opened up before me. There was a large room, filled to the brim with books, and random pieces of paper strewn across a table.

I walked over slowly and began to look through the papers.

'It's all in my mother's handwriting.. Is this perhaps her secret study? What was she researching that she had to hide it?'

I began to skim the papers, when I found the answer to my own question.

[Hereditary Magic]

[Magic: Nature vs Nurture]

[Advanced Magic Pathway Theories]

All the papers and books were about magic, more precisely if there were ways to gain magic after birth. All this was done for me.

I felt a pang in my heart as I thought about how my mother always cared for me. I set down the papers and was about to leave when I saw a glint under a stack of papers on the desk.

I picked up the papers, and saw a bright red crystal. It was beautiful, and when I touched it I felt a huge amount of mana emanating from it.

'This looks like a mana crystal, but it's red? What does that me-'

My thoughts were abruptly halted, as a drop of blood fell from my nose, and landed straight on the crystal.

"Oh, oops. Let me wipe that off."

However the crystal suddenly started vibrating. I subconsciously let go of the crystal, but instead of falling it floated in the air in front of me. It then started to vibrate faster and faster, until it started to cause the air to hum. The frequency was getting higher and higher, when suddenly it slammed into my chest, and shot me back up the stairs behind me.

The wall started to close, but I couldn't be bothered with that since I could feel the crystal vibrating in my heart.

I felt as if my chest would explode, but I couldn't stay conscious long enough to find out. The pain became so unbearable that I fainted. My vision turned black while my last thoughts were me begging to stay alive.

****

I woke up groggily.

"Ugh... Where am I?"

I thought aloud. Unexpectedly, I received an answer.

"You are in your room, Young Master Theodore."

It was a low and deep voice, but there wasn't any disdain laden in the voice. Because of this, I knew it had to be the head butler Alan. I sat up slowly, and looked towards the voice. 

A tall man with short slick backed black hair was standing by the door, with a black suit and white gloves.

"What happened, Alan?"

"Mary found you in the hallway, passed out, so we brought you to your room. You've been asleep for almost a whole day now, but it looks like you're alright. I just came to check up on you since I had some time, but I'll let Mary attend to you."

As Alan was about to leave I suddenly felt the need to call out to him.

"Alan, wait!"

Alan turned around slowly, one of his eyebrows raised slightly.

Awkwardly, I began to ask him a question.

"My mother... Did she.."

I saw his expression darken for just a moment, before softening slightly.

"Did she ever talk about my lack of healing magic?"

Alan seemed to think of something for a moment, before he nodded slightly. He came to his own conclusion that I was asking because I missed my mother.

"She defended you fiercely... She never let anyone get away with talking down on you. Even until she died."

Although my question wasn't answered, I couldn't think of another reason to keep Alan any longer. So he promptly turned and left.

I was alone again, and I began to think about everything that had happened.

I found some hidden room, there was a strange crystal, and it flew into my chest knocking me out in the process.

I first lifted my shirt, and looked at my chest for any wounds. However there were no wounds. Puzzled, I began to feel around for any changes, but there were none. I was perfectly fine.

I mean, PERFECTLY fine. My nose wasn't broken, and I knew that no one here would bother casting healing magic on me, so it was unexplained how I was without injury. I stood up and checked myself in the bathroom mirror.

My long silky black hair hung all the way down past my shoulders, and my striking black eyes matched my hair well. I had fair pale skin, but I didn't look frail. I was actually very muscular. I honed my body since I didn't have healing magic, because if all else failed I would try to become a knight. Aura was able to be developed by anyone, but it was hard.

It also took a very long time, so I had to make that commitment early in life. I was standing at an imposing 6 foot 8 inches, and I was all muscle while only being 240 pounds.

I wasn't proud of much, but I was proud of my body at least. It was a direct reflection of the work I had done for the past decade. After admiring myself for a while, I decided I should go train. The one thing I never did was take a day off my training. If I slacked off, I would only fall further behind my peers, and strength was everything. 

I made my way to the training hall, which was a separate building from the mansion, and saw that Darrian was already inside training. He was practicing his swordsmanship, so I tried to sneak by while he was distracted.

I grabbed a large, two handed war axe, and walked towards an open field. I was almost to the field, when I heard an annoying voice come from behind me.

"Hahaha, why do you even bother? You'll never be anything."

I glanced briefly at Darrian, who was standing behind me with his sword on his shoulder, sneering at me.

"I don't know what you want from me Darrian, but I don't need to be anything."

I shook my head and started to walk away, but Darrian said something that made me furious.

"The only person who could ever love you is your psycho mom."

He then began to laugh, but I had stopped moving. I was gripping my axe so hard that my knuckles felt like they were about to pop. I had the urge to swing my axe directly behind me, and pin this asshole to the wall.

However I just held in my anger. Afraid to move because I would act on my instincts. My body felt like it was burning from the inside, and I could hardly contain my anger.

Thankfully he left the building while laughing loudly.

Once he was gone, I roared and slammed my fist into a nearby training dummy. I expected my hand to break upon contact, however the result was vastly different.

The head of the dummy was crushed against the wall. Flat like a pancake. This would be normal if I were a knight, and used aura, but I hadn't awakened aura yet.

I stared at my fist, where there was a mysterious red energy around it. I looked, and saw that the energy was surrounding my entire body, not just my fist.

"This... This isn't aura. What happened to me?!"