ALL NOVEL Chapter 16: The System
Mel POV
My name is Melanie Byron, second daughter and third child of Viscount Byron. Due to my status, I had given up any hopes of inheriting the title and fief. That all changed one day, the day day I turned 5.
On the morning of my fifth birthday, I woke up to a strange sight, I saw numbers and words floating above my maid's head. Being frightened, I quickly got up and stormed outside my room. As I passed by our servants, I kept seeing those floating words . After I was surrounded by my family's servants who all approached me out of concern, I started crying and calling for my mother.
Once my mother had arrived, she had asked me about what happened. I told her about the floating words and numbers that I kept seeing. After listening to what I experienced, she looked at me and said
"My dear Melanie, this is nothing to be afraid of, in fact, you should be joyous. You have awakened our bloodline's unique ability." (Viscountess Byron)
"We have a bloodline ability? I've never heard about it before." (Mel)
"Melanie, I cannot explain it to you as I do not know the whole story, but someone else who does will tell you all about it, so go and eat your breakfast. After you are done eating, we shall go visit the person who is supposed to explain it to you." (Viscountess Byron)
"Ok." (Mel)
After I had finished my breakfast, my mother had quickly ordered the servants to prepare a nice dress for me to wear. After that, we had gotten on our personal carriage. Because I was tired, mother had told me to sleep for a while since it would be a long ride. When we had arrived, I realized that our destination was Duke Harmonia's mansion. I knew this because I had visited this place last year. I was unable to forget the beauty of this mansion, so of course I would recognise this scenery.
I was puzzled as to why mother had brought me here as we were a mere Viscount household and we were intruding upon one of the five great Dukes' property without an invitation of any sorts. I was pretty nervous about this entire thing. As those thoughts were going through my head, a beautiful woman welcomed us. If I recall, she is Duchess Harmonia.
"Welcome Viscountess Byron, and this young lady must be?" (Duchess Harmonia)
"This is my daughter, Melanie." (Mrs. Byron)
"So what brings you and your daughter here uninvited?" (Duchess Harmonia)
"Forgive me Duchess Harmonia for coming here uninvited, but I have important news, Melanie has awakened the ability." (Viscountess Byron)
"My goodness! Is this true?" (Duchess Harmonia)
"Yes, it is. My daughter told me that she woke up to floating words and numbers above the heads of our servants." (Viscountess Byron)
"Young lady, what words did you see? Could you write it down?" (Duchess Harmonia)
"Un." (Mel)
When the servants handed me a quill and a sheet of paper, I wrote down the word "Affection". I then said that some numbers followed after the word but I couldn't remember them.
"So it is true! Young lady, please come with me. I need to speak to you about your power and what it means." (Duchess Harmonia)
As I nodded in agreement, Duchess Harmonia led us to a room. When I entered the room, I realized that mother was still outside.
"Isn't mother coming?" (Mel)
"Young lady, your mother cannot come inside as what I am about to tell you should only be known by those who possess the ability." (Duchess Harmonia)
"Don't worry Melanie, I won't leave you here. I'll wait until you get back." (Viscountess Byron)
After that, the doors closed, and both me and Duchess Harmonia are alone in the room. In the center of the room, there was a round table with four chairs. She then sit on one of the chairs and told me to sit on the chair opposite to her. As we faced each other, she then started to speak.
"First of all, I would like to introduce myself." (Duchess Harmonia)
"But I already know who you are so why would you introduce yourself to me?" (Mel)
"Because there are some things that you might not know about me, therefore I will be revealing such things in my introduction. I am Marie Harmonia, the first daughter of Louise Harmonia, and your aunt." (Marie)
"Aunt? But I have never heard that before." (Mel)
"Well you see, the Byron family and the Harmonia family are distantly related. When you trace our lineage, you can see that at one point, a member of the Harmonia family separated and found the Byron family. There are three more.branch families, but among the three your family, no, you are the only one who has manifested our unique ability. So if you please, think of me as your aunt." (Marie)
"Ok Aunt Marie!" (Mel)
"Yes, and I will call you Mel-chan." (Marie)
"Mel-chan?" (Mel)
"Yes, that is the nickname I am giving you, do you not like it?" (Marie)
"N-no! I like it!" (Mel)
"Good, now to continue. Our bloodline ability is called Status Check. Apparently, our great ancestor, the first Harmonia, had the ability to find out information of a person/being just by looking at them. When you think about wanting know more about a person, the so called Status Screen will appear. The status screen will show you various things about the target. There would be 4 things that would appear, personal information, attributes, titles, and affection.
Personal information would refer to the target's name, gender, age, height, weight, etc. Attributes would refer to the capabilities of a person. This would be represented by 7 characteristics, strength, agility, intelligence, dexterity, hit points, mana points, and magic power. These characteristics are measured and are reflected as numbers. This would also show you the target's specific skills such as how proficient they are at swordsmanship.
Titles would refer to both titles given to you by other people such as nobility ranks and social standings and titles that the world has given to you due to achieving something big or being a unique existence. Some examples would be the Swordmaster and Archmage titles that are automatically given once a person becomes one even if they are unknown.
And lastly, the affection level. The affection level shows you the target's affection for you. It ranges between -100 to 100. The higher the affection level, the more the target likes you. Depending on the target, each affection level will result in their views on you as a person. For example, when a boy who likes you has an affection level of a hundred, it means that he is very much in love with you, but the same can't be said for a close female friend who has the same affection level. It might mean that she just sees you as a really good friend. The affection level is the most important part about our ability. The reason is because whenever a daughter who has this ability marries and has children with their true love, their family will be guaranteed to be prosperous and happy which brings me to this point.
Do what you want to do. No matter what it is you want to do, the Harmonia House will always support those that awaken our bloodline ability. Even if it is out of malice or greed, we will prioritize your desires. We can only hope that it doesn't end up that way, but we cannot stop you as doing so will bring the House itself to ruin. I can only hope that you will grow up to become a splendid adult. With all that out of the way, how about you try your ability on me. To activate it, you just need to think about wanting to use it." (Marie)
"Un." (Mel)
As soon as I thought of wanting to use my ability, a projection had appeared showing me all the details that Aunt Marie had told me about. All except for one.
"Aunt Marie, I don't see anything that looks like the attributes that you told me about. Instead, I see something that says 'inner thoughts'." (Mel)
"W-w-what! Mel-chan, please draw what you see." (Marie)
I then draw what I am seeing on a piece of paper that Aunt Marie had given me. When she took the paper, she had suddenly made an expression that looks as if she was astonished.
"Mel-chan, what does it say now?" (Marie(
"It says 'in disbelief and excitement'" (Mel)
"Fascinating! Hmm, ah it all makes sense now! Mel-chan, it seems as if your ability is a variant of the ability. It seems that in exchange for the attributes panel, it tells you about the target's inner thoughts!" (Marie)
"I-is it bad?" (Mel)
"Don't worry Mel-chan, it may not be necessarily good, but I am very sure that it isn't bad at all!" (Marie)
"R-really?" (Mel)
"Yes, really!" (Marie)
And that was the day I had awakened my bloodline's ability.