““That’s right!”” Sister Celestia and sister Daisy chimed in together, their voices filled with excitement.
Father chuckled before speaking, “Alright, so, he has the same hair color as me and Celestia. His left eye is also the same shade of navy blue, but his right eye matches Mom and Daisy’s crimson.”
“Yes. His eyes look really unique and so cool.” Sister Celestia nodded and praised my appearance.
…Wait.
This is the first time I’m hearing about my appearance.
Mother and Father never mentioned it before, and since I’ve spent most of my time in bed, I haven’t had the chance to look into a mirror either.
So I have navy blue hair, like my father and Celestia… and my eyes are two different colors—one navy blue, one crimson?
Heterochromia?
If I had this in my previous life, people would definitely call me a chuunibyou.
Mother’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
“His eyes are truly unique. Normally, people have only one eye color.”
“Yes,” Father nodded, looking thoughtful. “But I see it as a sign. His eyes represent his connection to us, to our family. He wants to love and be loved by us. But the difference of their colors… perhaps it symbolizes his refusal to be bound by the norms of this world.”
…Wow.
Father, you sounded really cool just now.
You interpreted my colors perfectly—as if you had peered into my soul.
Father continued, his voice steady.
“His status is different from ours as well. Normally, children inherit elemental affinities from their parents. But he didn’t.”
He sighed, then smiled.
“That’s why… I believe he doesn’t want to be shackled by the norms of this world.”
His gaze softened.
“He was born on the first day of spring, as if declaring that he wants to break free from the harshness of winter.”
He placed a hand gently over my tiny chest.
“He seeks freedom from shackles… and I want to grant him that.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
Then—
Father smiled.
“So, I want to name him Freed. A name that embodies the freedom he desires, and one that may be blessed by Goddess Libertas—the Goddess of Freedom.”
Mother’s face brightened immediately,
“Freed… That’s a wonderful name. Mom loves it!”
“Freed! I like it too!” Sister Daisy grinned.
Sister Celestia turned at me, her voice gentle,
“Freed… Hello, Freed. Nice to meet you.”
Her tone held an undeniable warmth—a quiet acceptance of me as her younger brother.
Freed, huh…
I like it.
No, I love it.
It carries a meaning that resonates deeply with me.
Before I realized it—
A soft chuckle escaped my lips.
“Look! He’s laughing!” Sister Daisy pointed at me, her eyes shining. “He must like it too!”
Father let out a small laugh, clearly happy seeing that they agreed.
“Then it’s decided. From now on, his name is Freed.”
【System update complete.】
【Designation 'Freed' has been registered as Master's name.】
【Status window available for review. Would Master like to access it now?】
Suddenly, Azadia’s flat, mechanical voice echoed in my mind.
But—
<“Not now. I want to cherish this moment a little longer.”>
【Acknowledged. Status review postponed.】
Yes.
I want to engrave their smiles into my heart.
Their happiness—this moment—will be my reason to keep moving forward in this world.
The next day, Mother sat by the window, cradling me in her arms.
Outside, sister Celestia and sister Daisy trained with Father. It was my first time witnessing live combat training.
In my previous life, my body was accustomed to office work—fighting was something I had only ever seen in movies, anime, or games.
But now?
It felt real.
…And a bit exciting.
I watched closely, intrigued by their movements.
Ah!
Both of them collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.
Sister Daisy noticed me and waved enthusiastically, her usual energy never fading. Sister Celestia then followed suit.
…Cute.
They were training hard.
Maybe… for my sake?
It was evident they aspired to become stronger, perhaps to shield me.
The thought made my chest tighten.
Another morning came, and it was time for my sisters to return to the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Freed! See you next week!”
“Freed, be a good boy, okay? See you soon!”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Before leaving, they both played with my tiny hands, ruffling my fingers gently. I watched as they disappeared through the door.
Now then…
What should I do?
I woke up earlier than usual, and I wasn’t sleepy at all.
…Oh, right.
There were a lot of things on my status screen that caught my attention!
<“Azadia, open the status window, please.”>
【Command received. Displaying status window.】
A familiar blue holographic screen appeared before me.
? STATUS WINDOW ?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Freed
Age: 0
Race: Great Human
Title: Otherworlder
State: Normal
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
? Essence ?
Mana: 0 / 1
Aura: 1 / 1
Vitality: 1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
? Attributes ?
Strength: 1
Magic Power: 1
Mental Power: 1
Agility: 1
Dexterity: 1
Magic Resistance: 1
Mental Resistance: 1
Status Points: 0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
? Element Affinity ?
-
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
? Skills ?
— Active —
Immortality Bonds, Appraisal (1)
— Passive —
Language Comprehension
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
? Innate Talents ?
Immortal, Double Natural Growth Rate, Status Manipulation, Elementalist, Learning Acceleration
Ohh!
There it is—my name officially inscribed on the screen!
Now, let’s check something that’s been bothering me.
<“Why am I labeled as a ‘Great Human’ instead of just ‘Human’? What does that mean?”>
【Generating response.】
A new popup screen materialized.
? Great Human ?
The higher race of humans. Great Humans transcend human limitations, achieving immortality and possessing abilities beyond the confines of the human body. They may feature natural body parts absent in ordinary humans and more.
To most observers, Appraisal will only display "Human" unless they suspect otherwise.
I lack extraordinary abilities at this point due to my current feebleness.
While I'm intrigued by the idea of possessing some kind of unique body trait, I doubt I have one
So, is it because I'm immortal?
The word surfaced under both Innate Talents and Active Skills…
<“Could you provide an example of a ‘natural body part’ that a normal human doesn’t have?”>
【Query recognized.】
【Historical records examples include:】
【Angelic wings】
【Additional arms】
【Flesh-based tentacle appendages】
【Other anatomical variations documented in past Great Humans】
…Wings might be cool, but tentacle hands? That’s straight out of a villain’s backstory.
Oh, hold on a moment.
<”Why didn't you search for this information first, as you usually do?”>
Yes, usually it would say something like ‘retrieval’ or ‘analysis complete’ first.
It's perplexing how it can furnish information immediately.
So suspicious…
【This data was pre-analyzed. Initial status assessment and information retrieval were completed two days ago.】
I see… so she had already checked everything when I first inquired about my status.
She really is a useful assistant.
Okay, back to the topic at hand.
Ugh, I don't want to admit it, but…
<“Azadia, am I labeled as a ‘Great Human’ because of my immortality?”>
【Correct.】
Damn.
This is the worst, isn’t it?
Watching everyone around me grow old and die while I remain untouched by time.
What was that Goddess thinking when she granted me immortality!?
I wanted a fresh start, not an eternity of loneliness!
Ugh…
While I'm tempted to scrutinize my status one by one from the top, the allure of understanding this immortality overshadows all else.
<”Reveal the Immortal innate talent.”>
? Immortal ?
A being impervious to the ravages of time, untouched by old age, and capable of preserving the vitality of youth. However, immortality does not mean invincibility—death can still come through other means.
I see. So I just can’t die due to old age. It’s not like I want to be killed either in this magical world.
But retain youth, huh?
Sounds like elves in fantasy novels who look young despite being hundreds of years old. I hope I will have a handsome face like an elf too later.
<”Reveal the details of Immortal Bonds.”>
… And what shows up is a long explanation.
? Immortal Bonds ?
Bestows the gift of immortality, elevating the recipient to a superior race. This boon extends to both allies and familiars. Activation requires mutual consent between the caster and the recipient, with a prerequisite of a deep bond and unwavering trust.
Offspring born from the union of the caster and the recipient inherit the gift of immortality under the same conditions. The skill wielder retains the ability to duplicate and grant this ability to their progeny.
Restrictions:
- Immortality bestowed upon the recipient remains even in the event of the caster's demise.
- Removal of the immortality requires the mutual consent of the caster and the recipient, or the sole agreement of the recipient in case the caster has perished. Notification is dispatched to all entities connected to the original Immortal Bonds skill upon such an occurrence.
- Immediate termination of bestowed immortality follows if the recipient harbors malevolent intentions that surpass the established threshold towards any individuals or familiars who share this immortality. Notification is disseminated to all entities linked to the original Immortal Bonds skill under these circumstances.
- Individuals or familiars losing their immortality due to the caster's or their own agreement will succumb within 10 minutes if their age surpasses the limitations of their respective race, unless they procure an alternative form of immortality within this timeframe. They remain subject to the restrictions of this skill during the 10-minute interval.
- Those stripped of immortality due to malevolent intentions will be instantaneously teleported either to the caster or the individual targeted by their malicious designs only if the caster has already perished. A 1-hour constraint is imposed on their actions, during which they are compelled to speak truthfully about their malevolent intentions and genuine feelings. Any impediments restricting honest communication are forcibly lifted. Demise is inevitable within 1 hour, irrespective of age, unless they acquire an alternative form of immortality from the caster or secure the consent of the target of their malevolent intentions only if the caster has already perished. Acquisition of another form of immortality through alternate means is prohibited.