The world had shifted. The silent, desperate performance within the castle walls continued, but now Leo carried a secret warmth inside him, a small, defiant flame against the chill of scrutiny. The memory of the forest, of the silvery fur and the trusting amethyst eyes, was a treasure he held close. He found himself gazing out his window towards the dark line of trees, his heart whispering a question into the silent air. Are you there? Are you healing?
Days bled into one another, each a careful pantomime of childishness. He stacked wooden blocks only to knock them over with a forced, gurgling laugh. He mashed food into his face with deliberate clumsiness. He endured the baths and the changings, his mind a thousand miles away, in a sun-dappled clearing by a stream.
It was during one of these empty afternoons, as he sat on his rug listlessly pushing a carved wooden horse, that the world broke for the second time.
It began not with a sound, but with a flicker at the edge of his vision. A shimmer, like heat haze on a summer road. He blinked, thinking it a trick of the light. But the shimmer did not fade. It coalesced, sharpened, and resolved into something impossible.
Transparent, like clearest glass, yet perfectly defined. It hung in the air before him, a rectangular pane of light that held no reflection. And on its surface, words glowed with a soft, blue-white intensity.
[ Anomaly System v.0.1 - Online ]
[ Welcome, User. ]
Leo froze. The wooden horse fell from his limp fingers, clattering on the stone floor. His breath hitched. This was not magic as this world understood it. This was not some shimmering spell or elemental force. This was… an interface. Cold. Digital. Profoundly, terrifyingly out of place.
His first, primal instinct was denial. A hallucination. A stress-induced phantom from my past life. He squeezed his eyes shut, counting to ten. When he opened them, the screen remained, unwavering.
[ System Initialization Complete. ]
[ User Designation: Leo von Eldoria. ]
[ Soul Signature: Anomaly. ]
[ Scanning Host Parameters... ]
Text scrolled, a silent, clinical waterfall of information he could not stop.
[ Strength: 0.7 ]
[ Agility: 0.9 ]
[ Constitution: 0.8 ]
[ Intelligence: ??? ]
[ Mana Core: Inactive/Locked ]
[ Primary Affinity: Undefined ]
It was a character sheet. A video game prompt superimposed onto reality. A wave of nausea washed over him. Was this all some elaborate, cosmic game? Was his suffering, his loneliness, his rebirth, just part of some higher being's entertainment? The thought was a deeper violation than any scrutiny from his parents.
The screen updated.
[ New Quest Available: 'First Steps' ]
[ Objective: Take 50 unassisted steps. ]
[ Reward: +0.1 Strength, +0.1 Agility ]
A quest. A reward. It was so mundane, so ludicrously gamified. Rage, cold and sharp, joined his confusion. He was not a player. He was a person. This… this glitch was an insult. It was the final, definitive proof that his existence here was a cosmic accident. The System was just another part of the error, a piece of faulty code trying to integrate him into a world where he did not belong.
He would not play its game.
He focused all his will, all the frustration and fear of two lifetimes, into a single, silent command. Go away. Leave me alone.
The System did not react. It simply hung there, patient and indifferent.
He tried to swipe at it, his small hand passing through the ethereal screen without resistance, leaving no ripple. It was a phantom, a ghost in his vision.
[ Quest 'First Steps' is now active. ]
[ Progress: 0/50 steps ]
"No," he whispered, the word a dry crackle in his throat.
He shut his eyes again, refusing to look. He focused on the memory of the forest, on the feel of moss under his knees, on the empathic warmth of Kitsune. He built a wall in his mind, brick by brick, to block out the invasive light.
Minutes passed. The silence in the nursery was absolute, broken only by the frantic beating of his own heart. Slowly, cautiously, he opened one eye.
The screen was gone.
Relief, swift and dizzying, flooded him. He slumped forward, his forehead touching the cool stone of the floor. He had rejected it. He had won.
But the victory felt hollow. The System's brief appearance had poisoned the air. The world now felt thin, like a painted backdrop, and he had just seen the scaffolding behind it. The love of his parents, the beauty of the castle, the mystery of the forest—could it all be just part of the program?
His father's words echoed in his memory. "You are an Eldoria. Your strength will be their shield."
Strength. The System offered a cheap, numerical shortcut. +0.1 Strength. It was a crutch. If he was to earn his place here, if he was to be worthy of the love he was given and the duty that awaited him, he would do it through genuine effort. He would train his body, he would study magic, he would learn the sword. He would do it the hard way.
He would not be dependent on this glitch. He would not give it the satisfaction.
A nursemaid entered, her smile bright and vacant. "Time for your walk, young master!"
She lifted him, and as she carried him towards the door, a new screen flickered into existence at the edge of his vision, transparent and mocking.
[ Quest 'First Steps' - Progress: 3/50 (Assisted) ]
Leo turned his head away, staring stubbornly at the wall. He would not acknowledge it. He would not read its prompts. He would treat it as the unwanted hallucination it was.
But deep down, in the most secret chamber of his heart, a new fear had taken root. The System was a part of him now, an uninvited tenant in his soul. And he knew, with a chilling certainty, that it would not be ignored forever.
The ghost in the machine now had a voice. And it was starting to give him quests.
To be continued...