“The food is delicious as always, Maria”

As the sound of my father’s compliments echoed across the dinner, no one spoke.

Even though everyone greeted my father with enthusiasm and sympathy he was a powerhouse whose presence was enough to pressure a person without magic or low-ranked one into submission.

Of course he is nothing compared to the people of the capital.

However, for those who lived 24/7 with him, we develop a small pressure immunity, the same goes for the families of high-nobility.

Incapable of withstanding the silence, my father spoke, startling Claire and Julius.

“So, kids. Do you want to hear a story.”

“A story?”

“Yes.”

“Oh god.”

I already knew what a “story” meant, a lecture.

“I don’t mind hearing a story, what about you, Julius?”

“I don’t see why not. Let 's hear it.”

Well, they brought that fate to themselves.

“Keuem, John you should pay attention as well, I haven’t told you this one.”

“Uh?S-sure.”

“So, do you know how people are able to receive their runes?”

“Yes!”

Claire waved her arm excitedly as she stood up.

“Claire, dear. Stay seated, please.”

“Ah, yes.”

She seated again and recomposed herself.

“Well, it's the people of the church that use their magic to give us the runes, right?”

“Not quite.”

“They use an artifact that was given to us by the celestials.”

Celestials? Dad never taught anything about that.

“Celestials?”

Pushed by curiosity, I spoke. In response, my father grinned.

“Tell me, John. What are the religions of this continent.”

“Uh?There’s the Holy Church, the Draconic followers and the ones most common in small villages, the Brotherhood of Celestia, huh?”

Brotherhood of Celestia.

While the Holy Church was by far the most known, their sphere of influence was focused mainly on the big cities. Opposing that definition, the Brotherhood of Celestia is most prominent in the rural areas.

This same village was one of the many whose main religion is the Brotherhood. My own mother is a full-fledged believer, she really believes what they say, almost blindly.

“Are they connected to these celestials?”

“Indeed.”

“And who exactly are they?”

“The Celestials are similar, at least by both the Holy Church and Brotherhood standards, to  gods.”

That sentence startled me. Why the hell would some priest have an item that belonged to the gods, besides the fact that those same items were so common.

“Well, if they are gods, it’s not for us to decide, but it’s true that they exist. In the initial stages of the human discovery of mana, the number of registrations of their appearance surpasses the hundreds.”

So it’s not a belief, but rather an organization meant to show veneration to them.

“But why are they similar to gods?”

Julius posed an interesting question.

“They were said to be able to use all forms of mana as well shape the world itself.”

With that much power, how come they are only ‘similar to’ gods. I’m pretty sure that altering the world is something only gods are capable of.

“The Celestials were the ones who created the runes and gave us the ability to bestow them to our children.”

This time it was my mother who talked.

“So they’re the one who allowed us to wield mana?”

“Yes.”

To have so much power that you are able to give power to hundreds of generations, and in them were some people whose power was so dreadful to the point where their tumbs exuded a feeling of danger even though they were dead for dozens of years. At least that’s what the books say.

But there’s one question on my mind.

“What’s the difference between the Holy Church and the Brotherhood of Celestia?”

“I’ll have to leave that to your mother to explain.”

“You see, dear. Us the believers of the Brotherhood of Celestia, truly believe that one day in the future, the Celestials will descend from their realm with an army and save us from the demons.”

Demons. While a lot of people only saw them as stories to scare children. True believers of certain religions and well cultured nobles, like me, were the only ones that knew the truth. They do exist, proof of that is the monsters that exist around the world.

Monsters are in fact, descendants of normal animals that were tainted by corrupted mana, the counterpart of the mana that us humans use, the celestial mana.

Such a phenomenon was already proved.

How does that prove the existence of demons?

Well, for starters, just like us humans use celestial mana, demons use corrupted mana. They’re just born like that.

But the demons were said to be banished to the Underworld, how the hell were they supposed to harm us?

Believing that the Celestials would save us wasn’t the same thing as believing that the demons were going to invade us?

What a weird religion.

“The Brotherhood of Celestia will be the ones bestowing you your runes, so it makes sense that you know them a little, right?”

My father said with a smile.

Geez, do you really need to find an excuse to show-off your knowledge? Do you feel good proving that you are smarter than six year old children?

“Is brother having bad thoughts about daddy?”

“Uh?N-no.”

Damn Lily, do you read minds or something?

Anyways, the information that I learned today is really interesting.

The Brotherhood of Celestia and the Celestials.

“John. When you finish eating I would like you to study this.”

He slid a piece of paper through the table until it reached me.

Opening the piece of paper that was folded in half, I felt the corner of my left eye twitching.

What the hell?

In the paper was all the ranks existent and how much they multiplied our physique and magical power.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magic Multiplier:

-Dormant Rank 1 times multiplier

-Awakened Rank 2 times multiplier

-Transcendent Rank 4 times multiplier

-Master Rank 8 times multiplier

-Knight Rank 16 times multiplier

-Saint Rank 32 times multiplier

-Paladin Rank 96 times multiplier

-Sacred Heart Rank 192 times multiplier

Physique Multiplier:

-Dormant Rank 1.5 times multiplier

-Awakened Rank 3 times multiplier

-Transcendent Rank 6 times multiplier

-Master Rank 18 times multiplier

-Knight Rank 36 times multiplier

-Saint Rank 72 times multiplier

-Paladin Rank 144 times multiplier

-Sacred Heart Rank 288 times multiplier

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Only my father could come up with such a study session, and what’s up with these numbers, they’re so precise, how the hell do they even convert power into a numerical value?

I really don’t see the point of giving these to me. I’m not planning to ascend to a higher rank than Awakened Rank, perhaps Transcendent Rank, but nothing higher like Paladin Rank.

I’m not even going to talk about the Sacred Heart Rank, the only human to reach such power died 100 years ago.

Truly a monster.