“Have you heard? Young Master Dali’ang actually chose that blind girl as his maid.”
“I have no idea what he was thinking.”
“Isn’t he afraid she’ll knock over hot milk and burn him during breakfast?”
“She probably can’t even tell milk from olive oil, let alone brew black tea!”
After you chose the blind girl Dai Ya as your personal maid, such gossip was inevitable.
Some people even speculated that you had some special fetish.
Only your father, Mo En, clapped and laughed, saying that you were truly his son.
“I never thought I’d encounter something here that I couldn’t predict.”
‘How important it is to have a parent who doesn’t spoil the mood…’
On the other side, from Dai Ya’s perspective, she originally thought no one would choose her.
‘Even if no one chooses me, I still have to fight for this opportunity.’
Her father had told her when she was little: when an opportunity comes, don’t let go even if your hands bleed from gripping.
With that complex mix of anticipation and despair, she finally arrived at the ceremony that day.
When the head maid grabbed her hand, she had almost completely given up.
Then she heard that the universally admired young master, Lord Dali’ang, had actually chosen her.
In that moment, she felt like she was dreaming and would wake up any second.
But it actually happened.
The skills she had worked so hard to train were finally going to be put to use.
Even though she didn’t know why Lord Dali’ang had chosen her, she was filled with gratitude.
She knew Dali’ang was an elegant and handsome young master.
This gave her a faint, almost hopeless hope, but more than that, she was determined to serve him perfectly without any mistakes.
……
In any case, your life with Dai Ya began just like that.
As a blind girl, there were some tasks Dai Ya simply couldn’t handle.
The good news was that most of the time, she was no different from a normal person.
Almost indistinguishable from other maids, she prepared your breakfast every morning without missing anything.
Your bed and clothes were always neatly arranged by her, and the room was spotless.
However, you knew that sometimes she would get scalded by hot water, or bump her head and feet.
But when you tried to show concern, she stubbornly insisted she was fine.
Just as you were worrying whether she could handle all this work, she had already begun to adapt.
After several months, she somehow completely memorized every corner of your room.
Her eyes always stared straight ahead and never met yours.
But now she seemed able to see, without needing to fumble around, she could find anything easily.
It was worth mentioning that although Dai Ya was blind, she had a cute face.
Even if she weren’t a maid, she could probably marry some minor noble.
Seeing that she could manage her daily tasks, you felt relieved—no need to worry about her every day.
As for the mana within her, you never found the cause.
From what she told you, she had lost both parents at a young age, and they were said to be fleeing farmers.
Long ago, the Kingdom of Edgar had suffered a locust plague.
So any clues about heredity were lost.
In the end, Dai Ya was just a competent maid.
And you didn’t pay much more attention to this episode.
After that, you began your daily studies and life.
At eleven years old, you finally filled up the proficiency of your Double Slash through the duke’s hunting.
[Congratulations, Host, Double Slash proficiency has reached the maximum. Please choose an evolution path.]
[Six Light Slash (Purple): Unleash six sword lights toward a single direction simultaneously. Each sword light deals 60% of your original attack’s damage.]
“Six, huh… This looks like an area attack that focuses on one point.”
Facing this option, Lai En’s heart was tempted.
However, the next evolution path immediately made him abandon Six Light Slash altogether.
[Lightning (Purple): Launch five rapid attacks against a single target. Each attack deals twice the damage of the previous one. The first attack deals 10% of your original attack’s damage.]
“This is an exponential attack, and a noble one at that!”
“If I stack all my attribute boosts, this skill will be absurdly powerful.”
Lai En didn’t hesitate at all and directly chose the latter evolution.
[Selection complete. Double Slash (Blue) has been erased. Lightning (Purple) has been successfully learned.]
[Lightning (Purple): Proficiency 0/10000]
“How much?!”
Lai En counted—the proficiency required ten thousand points.
It had taken him ten whole months just to reach a thousand points for Double Slash. How was he supposed to achieve ten thousand?
“Sigh… This isn’t something I can evolve in a short time.”
[At twelve years old, your “Lightning” made you famous far and wide.]
[The duke’s family was about to produce the next Sword Saint—every noble understood this without saying it.]
[This year, you received Mo En’s meticulous guidance. He taught you everything he knew.]
[One day after practice, he suddenly spoke up.]
[“My Dali’ang, I wish you were my eldest son. Unfortunately, you are not.”]
[In his gray pupils was endless hope for you.]
[“Go ahead, Dali’ang. I will grant you a few wishes as compensation for not being able to inherit my title in the future.”]
[In the face of his words, you naturally felt some disappointment.]
[Even if Mo En liked you as much as he did, he couldn’t really break the rules and make you the next duke. That would throw everything into chaos, possibly causing massive upheaval, even threatening the very order of Grayheart Castle.]
[You also understood that a prodigy was optional for a family; the true family always stood above the individual.]
[So, though saddened, you quickly accepted reality.]
[“Father, I want a Battle Technique Scroll, and I also want to learn magic at the same time.”]
[Both of your statements moved Mo En.]
[“Dali’ang, you are a clever child—wiser even than some of my advisors.”]
[“I’ll write you a letter later. Take it to the Book Chamber and choose a Battle Technique Scroll for yourself. These things are of great value; even our Grayheart Castle doesn’t have many in reserve—only a few dozen.”]
[“As for magic, I don’t mind my children walking the path of magic. But you are already twelve. If you start learning magic now, you might…”]
[Before Mo En finished, he saw confidence in your eyes.]
[“I see. Then I’ll invite the kingdom’s Archmage to teach you.”]
[After this conversation, you no longer had any desire for the title.]
[Taking Mo En’s letter, you arrived at the Library.]
[Grayheart Castle’s library was ancient and vast; some bookshelves reached over ten meters high.]
[A spirited old man led you through layer upon layer of shelves to the deepest part of the library.]
[Here were all the Battle Technique Scrolls and spellbooks—a hundred or even a thousand years of Grayheart Castle’s accumulation.]
[Any single one taken out would trigger a frenzy of bloodshed.]
[And now, you could choose one.]