From the beginning, Kael knew Nay wasn't the one who poisoned him. If she had, she would've panicked upon seeing him alive when she entered the room carrying food—or worse, she would've finished the job right then and there. After all, Kael couldn't move at all.
He deliberately showed Nay the poisoned food because right now, she was the only one who could act as his hands and feet.
"If it wasn't you, then who else could've slipped poison into my food?"
"I'm sorry, Your Highness… I truly don't know." Nay's voice trembled, and a soft sob escaped her lips.
"Alright…"
Nay stopped crying. Through her sobs, she looked up with tearful eyes, confused by the meaning of that simple word—"alright."
"I trust you," Kael continued. Nay's expression softened slightly.
[Ding! Affinity with Nay +5]
Kael raised an eyebrow. "That easy?" he thought.
"Open Nay's status!" Kael said in his mind.
A transparent status window appeared to Kael's left.
...
[Name: Nayara (Nay)
Talent: Archer
Aura: Inactive
Status: Potential Companion
Affinity: 5
Disposition: Friendly (1/5)]
[Potential Jobs: Assassin (F) | Chef (C) | Maid (B)]
[Will you choose this person as your companion? Yes | No]
...
Kael studied Nay's potential jobs carefully. He was slightly surprised to see Assassin listed. How could a seemingly innocent maid from a humble background have assassin as a potential job?
In Kael's system, the [Weakest to Strongest] System, it generates a person's potential jobs. If Kael wants to make someone his companion, he has to choose one of those jobs—whichever he picks will be the path they develop from then on. The jobs seemed random at first glance—but they weren't truly random. There were rules.
The first potential job was passed down through family or ancestors. People from the 21st century would call it genetic inheritance.
Nay's first potential job was Assassin. According to the original Kaelum's memories, her parents were just ordinary farmers in a small village. Her entire family came from that village. So which of her ancestors had once been an assassin? Maybe nobody knows.
This first potential job was present from birth. The second potential job usually emerged by the age of ten, influenced by a person's interests or hobbies. It wasn't as random as the first.
The third potential job was the clearest of all. It appeared around age fifteen and reflected the job the person did most frequently. In Nay's case, she had worked as a maid in this mansion for three years.
But Kael's [Weakest to Strongest] was a unique system. It gave the best results when the lowest-ranked job was selected. The lower the rank, the greater the potential to upgrade it. Just like the name implied—from the weakest to the strongest.
Kael looked again at Nay's status window. In his mind, he murmured, "Assassin. Yes."
A new section appeared at the bottom of her status panel:
...
[Job: Assassin
Rank: F
Level: 0]
[Mission 1: Thread a needle 100x
Reward: Your Agility +5, Perception +5; Nay's Agility +5, Perception +5, Experience +10]
[Mission 2: Complete Mission 1 first]
[Mission 3: Complete Mission 2 first]
[Mission 4: …]
...
"Nay, stand up," Kael ordered.
Nay rose to her feet shakily, a hint of fear on her face.
"First, throw out all the cooking ingredients and spices in the kitchen. Then go buy fresh ones. Make me a meal. Do it all quietly. Lock the mansion doors—don't let anyone in."
Nay nodded quickly.
Just before she turned to leave, Kael added, "After preparing the meal, bring a needle, every type of thread you can find, and some scrap cloth."
"Yes, Your Highness."
She left and gently closed the door behind her.
Kael let out a breath. Just speaking a little already left his body drained—especially since he hadn't eaten.
"Open status!"
A new transparent window appeared before him.
...
[Soul: Kaelric Thronehart (Kael)
Body: Kaelum Arcthelion (Kael) / Weak
Talent: Swordsman
Aura: Sacred
Companion: 1]
[Stats
Strength: 1
Agility: 1
Mana: 0
Dexterity: 1
Endurance: 1
Perception: 1
Intelligence: 0
Faith: 0]
...
Kael had expected this body's stats to be low, considering how frail it was—but not this low. Three of his stats were flat zeros, all of which were connected to his Sacred Aura.
Still, Kael didn't think the boy whose body he now occupied had been entirely unfortunate. Children like this usually didn't survive a week after birth.
In this world, everyone was born with a Talent—either Swordsman, Archer, Mage, or Saint/Saintess. But a Talent was meaningless unless it awakened an Aura. Aura awakening happened at the age of twelve, during a sacred ritual known as the Aura Bestowal Ceremony, conducted by a Saint or Saintess.
Each Talent had three potential auras. During the ceremony, if a child possessed aura, their body would glow in the color of one of those three. For a Swordsman, the expected aura colors were crimson for Valor, silver for Blade, and gray for Aegis.
But Kaelum's body glowed light blue, the color for Saint's Aura, Sacred. And because of that, the king deemed him useless. What happened to Kaelum was rare, but not impossible.
Truthfully, Talents weren't limited to three auras. But the human body couldn't handle the violent clash of an Aura that wasn't aligned with its Talent. Children born with conflicting combinations of Talent and Aura typically died within a week of birth. Their bodies simply couldn't endure it.
Yet, as Kael thought, Kaelum's fate hadn't been entirely grim. His mother had been a Saintess—known in memory as the most powerful Saintess to appear in a thousand years.
This wasn't Kael's belief, but a fact drawn from Kaelum's memories. Kael suspected Kaelum's mother had foreseen his fate and sacrificed herself to pass on her protective power to him. That sacrifice had kept him alive.
Even if Kaelum hadn't been poisoned, he would've died soon. No matter how powerful his mother had been, once the Sacred Aura fully awakened, it would've been too much for any external force to contain.
No one else knew this truth—because children with conflicting Talents and Auras never lived long enough to reveal it.
Only Kael knew. Because Kael had once been just like Kaelum. A Swordsman with a Sacred Aura.