"Then... what will his name be?" After a long moment of quiet serenity, the mother looked up at her husband.
"Temorsth!" Without a second of hesitation, the man declared with a proud smile.
"What does it mean?" Seeing his sly, mischievous expression, Elah raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
"In my language, it translates to Terror," Xalier explained, his red eyes gleaming. "While Temorst means Fear."
"T—" Elah opened her mouth to protest, her eyes wide with shock, but her husband cut her off with a triumphant grin.
"This was our promise!"
"But..." Elah gripped the blanket. She remembered their pact clearly: if their child was a boy, Xalier would choose the name; if it was a girl, she would.
But naming a beautiful, innocent newborn Terror felt absurd. Looking down at her baby, she sighed. "IF... if he likes it, then I will accept it."
She cupped her son's cheek, looking down at him with deeply affectionate eyes. "My baby, do you like this name?"
'Our language? Wait, I think they're deciding on a name,' the infant thought.
Since he couldn't understand a single word they were saying, and he did not think of the system, he could only guess based on their expressions.
'My name...? I don't want Mom to choose.'
He glanced at his mother's ethereal, angelic face and assumed she would name him something terribly cute or delicate. He didn't want that. Turning his head, he looked at his father, who looked incredibly cool and imposing.
Hoping to sway the vote toward a cooler name, the baby reached his tiny hands out toward Xalier.
"Good! Then it is decided!" Xalier laughed, taking the gesture as absolute acceptance.
Suddenly, the familiar blue panel materialized in the baby's mind.
[Notice: The Host has acquired a name!]
[Congratulations: The Host's name is Lear Olendriant Temorsth.]
'Uh? This is my name?'
[Notice: The family name of the host is the family name of the rulers of a race in the world, Ananterra!]
[Notice: The family name of the host is the family name of the rulers of a race in the world, Ananterra!]
'Twice? Is this a bug...?'
He didn't have time to process the supposed glitching system text before a cascade of notifications slammed into his vision.
[Notice: The existence who has given the name is a Middle-High-ranked existence!]
[Potential increased!]
[Your luck has increased!]
[Your Existence Rank (ER) will increase more easily until you reach the Middle-High Rank!]
[Your 'self' is strongly influenced by the namesake's abilities, meanings, and traits!]
[The more your name is known around the world, the more powerful you will be.]
[Good luck to the Host!]
'Ah, what is—'
Before Temorsth could comprehend why Aidana had forced this permanent name change, a terrifying surge of raw, primal power exploded within his infant soul.
His entire existence began to violently evolve.
'What is this shadow...?'
An oppressive, pitch-black force erupted from the left side of his soul, embracing him in darkness.
'What is this light...?!'
Simultaneously, a blinding white light flared from his right side. Because the light was smaller than the shadow, the darkness instantly tried to crush it—but the light fought back fiercely, refusing to be consumed.
[Warning: The two extremes of darkness and light inside the Host's body are violently opposing each other!]
'YOU DON'T SAY!?' Temorsth screamed in his mind. An unbearable, agonizing pain ripped through his tiny veins. It felt as though his body and mind were being physically torn in two.
"No! We must hurry!"
Outside the veil of his mind, his parents instantly recognized the volatile collision of energies.
"Why is it appearing now?!" Xalier roared, his face pale with panic. "It shouldn't have manifested until he unlocked his Mana!"
Having prepared for a crisis like this, both parents unleashed their respective auras. Exotic herbs, glowing crystals, and rare monster parts materialized from thin air, summoned from their storage magic.
"No... I didn't probe before... his body is filled... baby, why do you already have Mana?" Elah wept, her blue eyes filled with dread as she began weaving a stabilization spell.
"Son, why did you have to be so talented...? We gave birth at the minimum development just because of this..." Xalier muttered. He manifested three pitch-black halos that glowed with a crimson hue, driving his dark energy into Temorsth's thrashing body to suppress the rampaging shadow.
Temorsth's mind dissolved into pure chaos, his newborn body wailing in agony.
Elah waited until Xalier's halos absorbed the worst of the shadow before she summoned three rings of radiant, gold-green light. She stabilized the white energy, carefully balancing the two opposing forces until they began to nullify one another.
'Ugh, finally...' After a brutal minute, the burning pain began to ease. Through tear-blurred eyes, Temorsth watched the floating magical materials dissolve into a shimmering, silvery liquid.
"Thankfully, we fully prepared just in case..."
"Now for the last step... we seal it away," Xalier whispered.
The silver liquid divided into six perfect spheres and shot toward the baby's body, anchoring at his ankles, his wrists, and both sides of his neck.
The six halos of light descended right behind them—the three black halos on his left, the three white halos on his right.
'It burns...'
As the liquid sank into his skin, the halos fused with his flesh. The blinding light faded, leaving behind intricate, tattoo-like marks. On his left side wrist, ankle, and neck, the marks formed solid black bands with a sharp red outline. On his right, they were pure white with a yellow-green trim.
[Notice: Much of the original racial energy of the Host has been successfully sealed.]
'Uh... I'm so tired...'
Just as Temorsth allowed his exhausted mind to relax, a final, chilling prompt appeared.
[Warning: The Host's physical vessel cannot withstand the latent power of the opposing energies. The Host's body will completely break down within six years, and the soul will suffer permanent damage!]
'This...! Why...?' An immense wave of rage and helplessness washed over him.
He was barely an hour old, and he was already cursed with a death sentence. His weak, newborn brain couldn't handle the stress.
Darkness swallowed him as he drifted into a deep sleep, his mind spinning with the duality of his newfound royal power and his looming expiration date.
Time marched on.
Temorsth couldn't afford to obsess over the system's warning; the daily realities of being a helpless infant took priority. He spent his days learning to control his uncooperative limbs and listening intently to his parents.
Learning was a nightmare. His parents didn't speak the same language, forcing him to decipher three entirely different languages simultaneously: Common, Elven, and the ancient dialect of the Vampires.
By his fifth month, Temorsth was finally able to crawl. It was during this time that he managed to catch a glimpse of his reflection in a polished metal plate.
His features were almost identical to his previous life—pitch-black hair and striking blue eyes—but there was a stark difference.
'My skin... It's completely pale. Like a corpse.'
He also realized how easily his infant biology could hijack his mature mind. He had a notoriously short attention span and a powerful, insatiable curiosity that often left him distracted by the simplest things.
"Oh, my beautiful baby boy..."
To his own internal embarrassment, he actually enjoyed playing with his parents.
For the first few months, at least one of them was always by his side. But after his fifth month, they began disappearing for hours at a time.
To ensure his safety, Elah used high-level magic to construct automated wooden golems that would protect, watch, and feed him if they were delayed.
Left alone with his thoughts, Temorsth slowly pieced together his parents' identities. 'Dad is a vampire—I knew that—but to think he's the literal King of his entire race... and Mom is the Queen of the Light Elves.
This isn't just a romance; it's a literal Romeo and Juliet nightmare.'
'And since Dad's full name is Lear Xalier Yi-fan, I'm guessing he has some oriental ancestry from Earth's lore. Am I right, Aidana?'
[I do not know everything. Do not ask me.]
'And Mom... Elahnleth Eilthyra Olendriant... my tongue breaks just trying to think it. If she's a Light Elf, she must be a noble subspecies of the High Elves.'
"Go on, son! You can do it, come to Papa."
"Good job!"
By his eighth month, Temorsth had finally mastered the balance required to stand and take his first clumsy steps.
"Dad..." his voice squeaked out. The vocal cords were still too immature for full sentences, but the word was clear.
Xalier's eyes widened in pure delight. "Ah! He said it!"
"My baby boy..." Elah pouted playfully, kneeling down on the floor. "Call Mommy too..."
By his tenth month, crawling and walking were no longer enough to satisfy his burning urgency. The six-year curse was always at the back of his mind. He needed information on how to balance his core before his body broke down.
With Aidana's systemic guidance, he quickly mastered reading the script of the Common tongue, and they immediately moved on to the complex characters of the Elven language.
"Hm? Why are you in here, baby? Oh... books?"
One afternoon, Elah caught him pulling a heavy scroll from the lower shelves of the study. Delighted by his early genius, she tried to teach him the absolute basics of magic theory.
It ended in a complete disaster. The moment he tried to perceive the ambient mana, his sealed inner energies destabilized, causing a violent backlash of agonizing pain.
"No! Baby cannot go into the study anymore! The books will hurt you!" Elah cried every time he tried to wander in, terrified for his health.
From that day on, he was strictly forbidden from entering the library.
'Well... they aren't home right now,' Temorsth thought a few days later, using a wooden golem as a step-stool to sneak back into the study. With Aidana acting as a lookout, he continued his secret research.
He even weaponized his infant body for the times he did get caught.
"Ah, no! Why are you in here, sweetie?" Elah sighed, catching him red-handed.
Waaah! Temorsth instantly burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably and clinging to the carpet. Knowing how fiercely his mother loved him, he shamelessly abused her maternal guilt whenever she tried to drag him away from his books.
After a month of watching his wife stress over their son's stubbornness, Xalier finally intervened.
"If he is so adamant about it, why not just let him do it?" Xalier urged his wife over dinner, giving Temorsth a subtle wink. "At least if you're the one teaching him, you can supervise him and ensure he doesn't try to cast any real spells."
Elah looked between her husband and her son, both of them sporting identical, sly grins. She threw her hands up in defeat. "You cannot deny he is your son! The resemblance in your scheming is terrifying."
Xalier innocently shook his head. "Why would I ever deny my own flesh and blood?"
Temorsth waddled over, tugging on Elah's skirt. "Mom... pretty please..."
Looking down into her son's massive, pleading blue eyes, Elah's resolve completely crumbled. She let out a dramatic groan. "Ugh, fine! We will study. BUT! Absolutely no spells or incantations. I am only teaching you pure magic theory!"
"Thank you, Mom!"
Temorsth threw his tiny arms around her legs. Sensing the genuine, unfiltered joy radiating from the boy, a warm, beautiful smile broke across Elah's face. Xalier stepped forward, scooping Temorsth up into his arms and pulling Elah into a tight embrace.
As his parents shared a loving kiss, Temorsth leaned his head against his father's shoulder, a deep sense of warmth settling into his chest. For all the curses and dangers waiting for him in this world, he was profoundly grateful to have been reborn into this family.