Meanwhile, the report of Zeke defeating Reina reached his siblings, William and Abel. William was freaking out because he did not want to believe it, but Abel urged him to calm his nerves. He asked when the blessing rite was, and William told him that they had a month before the rites. Abel was pleased to hear it, and he decided that this was the right time to visit the family. William was shocked, and Abel revealed that Zeke had already caught his attention, which was why he was interested in knowing what Zeke would awaken with.
Zeke, on the other hand, returned to the training room after defeating Reina, while the whole cradle was still in shock. In no time at all, a month flew past.
It was the day of the blessing rite, and Zeke still ended up training that very morning. Sweating heavily, he wondered how he had ever attained the level of a red knight in his past life with such a poor body. Zeke then opened the status window and realised that he had gained a little mastery in some of his skills. Some of them had moved from E rank to D rank, and this would only continue to increase the more he trained. Zeke was pleased that he had managed to increase the mastery of the skill he had gained during the duel, which was swift step.
Suddenly, he noticed another presence close by, and he worked out that it was Decker. He immediately asked Decker what he wanted, and Decker informed him that they needed to leave in two hours. Zeke acknowledged this, telling Decker to get everything ready because he would join him soon.
Shortly afterwards, Zeke arrived at the main Draegar estate in a carriage. This was an estate located within the Duchy of Troy, even though the family's main residence lay in the heart of the continent. Nonetheless, the blessing rite was always held at the main estate, where the legend of the dragon slayer had started. Alongside Zeke were the other students who had just graduated from the cradle, and the house was packed.
In addition to the students, there were spectators hanging around the corridors. For the first time, Zeke noticed that the spectators were all famous ladies and gentlemen, and he was fairly sure that his family had sent spies to keep an eye on him. Zeke believed that whoever the spy was, they would give up on their mission the moment they saw him fail the awakening.
Suddenly he noticed Abel among the spectators, and it riled him up. Zeke and Abel ended up staring each other down, and the animosity between them was clear. However, Zeke managed to calm himself, because he had no chance against Abel as things stood. He knew that in his past life Abel would never have come to the blessing rite, and Zeke was worried that his own actions might have changed the future.
Since that was the case, Zeke decided to make the most of the opportunity. After all the preparations were out of the way, they declared the blessing rite open. One of the students, Aaron, was the first to be called out. He stepped up and pushed his hand into the water, puncturing his palm on a needle set below the water tank.
It immediately produced a crazy reaction, giving off a blue light. The rite was meant for those in the bloodline to awaken their sealed aura when it was time for them to leave the cradle. It was a fast method, unlike ordinary knights, who awaken their aura after the age of twenty. However, there were rare cases where someone would awaken a trait of the dragon slayer known as mana inhibition.
In those cases the lights would turn red, which was a sign that they would be at a yellow knight's level at the very least. There were also some who had rivalled the red and black knights by undergoing a pure blood awakening. Among the rare cases was Reina, whose awakening turned the lights red, and the instructor immediately ordered that they bring her the special gloves.
The special gloves were needed for everyone who underwent mana inhibition, or else they would not be able to live a regular life. The Draegar name is conferred on those who are able to prove that they are of pure blood descent. Along with the name, they are given the immense support of the family and loads of benefits.
After everyone else had gone through the process, it was finally Zeke's turn to take part in the blessing rite, and everyone was wondering what his awakening would look like. Zeke walked to the front, where the statue stood. The last time Zeke had done this, he had been left in a state of utter shame. However, he believed things would be different this time around, because he could heal and could even manipulate ether.
In addition to everything he had endured, Zeke left his fate in the hands of the statue, hoping that he would come out of it with something tangible. Zeke pushed his hand into the water with excitement on his face, but the statue suddenly stopped moving, which had never happened before. The crowd was left wondering what might be happening, and Abel in particular had his eyes peeled.
Zeke slowly pulled his hand out of the water, looking totally disappointed, because nothing had changed. Zeke was furious with himself for having become so confident just because Abel was present in the room. The crowd started murmuring, talking about how trash Zeke was, given the result of his rite, even though he carried the blood of the head of the family. Some wasted no time in assuming that he had only been able to beat Reina by using a trick.
Zeke was disappointed too, but he lifted his spirits with the thought that there were other ways for him to get stronger without the awakening. Just as he was about to walk off the stage, he received a message on his status window. The system apologised, saying there had been an error during the process, which was why the message had reached Zeke late.