Chapter fifteen: the aspect ceremony

As the start of November came around there were many things going on around this end of the year - which, by the way, something similar to Christmas known as ‘Harmony Day’ existed; it was like Valentines and Christmas rolled into one, and people would cheerfully callout ‘Happy Harmony!’ or so I’ve heard. However, disregarding the festivities, there was a more important event coming up for the children of this world known as the ‘Aspect Ceremony’. It was common for people to not know about their own aspects upon birth, so with some special involvement by the church it is revealed to them, though if you ask me it’s rather a moot ceremony as eventually the children will figure it out on their own. My personal theory on this was that it was more for the parents and concerned members of the community, like those very ominous looking black-suited guests in the back row observing all the children with a keen eye. If I had to guess, they were most likely part of some agency and were here to scout out potential recruits for their own purposes.

Most people seem to regard this event as a coming-of-age type deal, so there wasn’t any harm in it. Being someone who knew about his aspect from the beginning there was no real excitement in it for me, but it was rather weird how anxious Sherry was about this ordeal. I wondered why her parents bothered, however if it really was being treated as a coming-of-age thing then it made more sense.

The ceremony would be held at a large local cathedral with all members of the community and interested parties being invited to observe. The moment I truly grasped the importance of this event in the eyes of the people was when I took a glance over the average level of the observers – especially those suspicious black suits. The upper average for those powerful individuals hovered around 50 to 55, and for clarity the power disparity between those people and common adults would be like the difference between a pre-schooler and a trained soldier in a mech suit. Compared to my previous world it was a lot less sensible, in fact I’m surprised this world hasn’t completely devolved into a survival of the fittest scenario. That said, if I trained Sherry hard enough I could probably get her to around level 60 by the time she enters high school, and if she continued in that manner I could easily envision her being in the upper 90s by the time she reached her peak – perhaps reaching three digits may not be impossible.

Speaking of, Sherry had been hiding behind my back ever since we got here. While she was with friends and family she seemed quite confident, but as soon as we brought her to a large public affair her timidity resurfaces. To be fair, it was a big improvement from the first time she was introduced to us where she hid behind a fence several metres away. Before making her more overpowered, perhaps I should be looking to fix that innately introverted personality of hers. Being an introvert wasn’t itself a particularly bad thing, however if she’ll be handling overwhelming powers then she’ll need to have a proper attitude attuned to maturely wield it.

“There’s… a lot of people,” she whispered while clutching onto the corner of my shirt.

“Yeah,” I responded half-heartedly. I’ve done my own research on aspects over the internet, but not once have I heard any mention of the ‘Human Aspect’ outside of it theoretically existing, even then their conclusion was that it wasn’t a useful aspect as there were no inherent abilities associated with humanity. If that was truly how people felt about it then I could foresee this ending in disaster for me.

All the participating children were brought to a special preparation room where we were given ceremonial robes to wear on top of our clothes and wait for our turn being called out on stage. The rest of our families were guided to the seats a little further away and watch from the sidelines. I could easily see the smiling face of my family eagerly cheering me on, to which I could wave back uncomfortably.

“You know, is there really a point to you partaking in this ceremony?” to break the ice I asked Sherry.

“Eh? But don’t all children have to attend?” she looked bewildered at my question.

It never dawned on me the possibility that she wasn’t even aware of what she was. She cautiously looked around the room over the children who had been staring back intently and suddenly hid behind me. I calmed her down and told her there was nothing wrong with her being there in the context of this being an important ceremony in a child’s life. It seems her parents wanted her to live a normal life despite being a rare Pure, a sentiment I could respect, despite ruining all chances of normalcy by making her slowly more overpowered.

“Well, if you’re fine with it then there’s nothing wrong with you being here. If I had to give an analogy, it’s like being given an excellent grade before doing the test; technically you can still do the test, not that there’d be much reason to. Still, if you just take this casually then you’ll probably come to regard it as a fun memory when you’re older,” I explained to her, but she didn’t really seem to understand.

“Uhh… okay,” given little choice I reached out and touched her ears as she devolved into a flustered mess. “Eh?! Co Corentin?!”

“You’re an Elf. A Pure Elf. These ears are the proof; how could you not know something so basic?”

"I never knew…"

On that note, it appears that the ears of an elf are their sensitive point. I doubt that information would have any practical use aside from it being an interesting little fact. In any case, while it was fine she attended the event it was also going to draw her a lot of attention by those black suits, which would be quite… inconvenient for me. There were still a lot of experiments… I mean, things I wanted her to learn, and with that thought I leaned in closer and whispered to her, “Sherry, be careful who you talk to during this ceremony. There’s bound to be a lot of people interested in your unique condition, so unless you have absolute confidence in them, don’t promise anything. Okay?”

I didn’t expect a five-year-old to truly grasp the severity of all this, but luckily she nodded to my advice.

The ceremony commenced with a lengthy history lesson about what exactly aspects were and how they were created through the world-tier magic known as the ‘Dusk of Harmony’. Overall, the story told by the high priest was similar to the one father explained to my at the hospital. The explanation took over an hour and a half with most of the children barely keeping up and some of them even falling asleep. Throughout the whole service I noticed numerous stares coming our way, or to be more precise, at Sherry. I tried my best to keep her oblivious to this by keeping her occupied and talking to her.

Once the stage was set the children were called up one by one and have their aspects revealed. The method to revealing the aspects was quite interesting: the children would stand up against a special mirror prepared by the church and have them touch it. Upon touching the mirror, it would faintly glow and reflected upon would a version of the child with their aspects drawn out. As my father once explained, all the children here at least were of a hominid race; the only ones I saw today were Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Beastfolk, Sylphs, Undines, and a unique race known as ‘Tyrants’. It seems these Tyrants in particular were an exceptionally rare aspect, and the one boy who possessed it drew a lot of attention. From what I could tell, they were a race most closely resembling the concept of a devil from my previous world: dark crimson skin and two horns upon their forehead. Apparently, they were descendants of an ancient race of red dragons, or so the stories went.

The ceremony truly reached its climax when Sherry was called out on stage. The entire cathedral came to a silence with only small whispers amongst the observers. The priest looked a little worried and turned to his peers for advice. One of them came up and whispered something in his ears, to which the priest then nodded and carried on with the event. “Please place your hand upon the sacred mirror,” he told her, and upon doing so the entire great hall lit up like Christmas fireworks. A flash of green mixed in with trace amounts of gold lights. “So, this is a Pure,” commented the priest with a tone of reverence. “Thank you. The mirror has determined your true ancestry,” he said despite there being no visible changes reflected, as to be expected. “You are descendant of the respected clan of the Elves. May you walk this world with your head held high knowing that you are being watched over by the Elven lords and gods.” As he said that, a thought wondered into my mind about the true form of ‘gods’ in this world. Were they like in my previous world? Nebulous existences that required faith with no real answers. Or perhaps they were more literal in this world. Now that was something I’d like to find out.

Already there were some unsavoury discussion happening in the back. Some of them even dared to approach Sherry’s parents and handed their business cards and whatnot. Obviously they looked troubled by all this, and we couldn’t have that. “Echo,” I uttered under my breath while ensuring I wasn’t within earshot of anyone. A slight rush of icy wind breezed past me, signalling that he was listening. While it was doubtful those black suits would do anything too eye-catching in such a public place, they were certainly being a nuisance. “Keep an eye on the people causing trouble for Sherry’s family and gently make them stop.” The breeze disappeared as I issued my order.

‘Echo’ was a unique… ‘entity’. Rather than a fully sentient personality, it would be more apt to call it a physical extension of my will. The true identity of Echo was actually a special legendary tier ring known as the ‘Crucible of Shadows’, which was an exceedingly rare drop from a notoriously difficult raid boss back when I played the game. In the game its function were manifested as a ‘hooded knight cast in dark armour with no discernible facial features’, and it would often aid the player in combat by spawning at random to attack the enemy. It also had a function to act as a scout by revealing the minimap and the locations of hostiles. That was the game, however in reality it was a lot more intelligent – though still taciturn – with a more flexible usage of its skills. As to how it was going to stop those black suits, it would probably cast an uncomfortable aura to approaching individuals with the intensity of that discomfort increasing as they got closer. Basically, it was more of a subconscious persuasion.

“Next person, please come up,” the priest finally called for me. I walked over to the sacred mirror and slowly placed my hands against it. Nothing different reflected on the mirror; it was still me, or that’s what it seemed like, but a small fracture formed across the moment I touched it. The priest was baffled for a second before turning back to his peers to discuss what was going on.

“This is strange,” he commented. “Is it possible this child carries no aspect? No, that couldn’t be…”

A strange atmosphere settled into the room. Amongst the observers, some voice opinions of pity, others scorned and mocked me, dubbing me a ‘null’. None of it really matter. “It is unfortunately, but you do not appear to possess any aspect. I am sorry, child,” the priest told me with a concerned gaze.

“I’m aware,” I replied and left the stage.