Novel's Extra: I Awakened The Strongest Physique From The Start

The awakening ceremony is supposed to be a very important event as it gives one an idea of what they have within their body.

The tens of children who were sitting in the hall were supposed to be the children of the maids and butlers who worked in the manor.

Their children didn't have the luxury of having a personal awakening artifact, so they had to wait for a particular day when the awakening ceremony would be conducted every year—which was Alex's birthday for this year.

All of the children in the hall respected Vanessa just like their parents, as she was the strongest warrior of the empire, well known for her powers and heroic tales; she was like a hero to them.

That was why, the moment their eyes fell on Alex, Vannesa, and Mira walking into the hall, they hurriedly ceased their chatter and stood.

Vanessa, however, just ignored them and walked toward the stage that had a statue of their goddess situated atop a pedestal.

"Your grace."

There was a man who seemed to be in his late 20s standing right next to the statue of the goddess, wearing white priest's clothing with golden borders, bowing his head, greeting Vannesa, and the woman nodded her head at him.

He was an archbishop from the church of the goddess they worshiped, or at least the people of this empire worshiped.

Alex was never a fan of these religious things, so he wasn't a worshiper of the goddess, but he couldn't show it out in the open.

The church would normally send a priest for such events, but this time, it was an archbishop who came here.

Alex could already sense the temperature of the room getting lowered as his mother's mood was foiled again.

The presence of the priest here was probably because they wanted to keep an eye on the awakening ceremony of Alex, the son of the strongest person in the empire.

"Pay your respects."

But it was not just Alex who could sense the tension in the air; even the archbishop could tell that Vannesa was not happy with him being here, but what could he do?

He just hurriedly spoke, gesturing for all three of them to bow toward the goddess, wanting to just run away from here after he was done with his work.

He himself didn't want to come here, but he drew the short straw as he was the only archbishop free in the empire.

Mira, Alex, and Vannesa, who heard the archbishop's words bowed to the goddess, and the man started to chant some prayer.

It was only when he was done with the prayer that he turned to look at them.

"Rise."

He spoke, but the moment Vennesa's gaze moved to the guy, the guy's body trembled before he quickly moved toward the stand made of special crystal placed at the center of the hall.

The children in the hall, on the other hand, were still standing in their spots, as it was considered disrespectful toward authority if someone with a higher rank was standing while you were sitting.

The archbishop turned toward them and then commanded.

"Pay your respects!"

His voice reached every corner of the hall, echoing throughout the area, and the children of the maids and butlers of the manor hurriedly bowed their heads in unison.

The tone of the archbishop's voice was assertive when he spoke to them; unlike with Vannesa, at that time, his tone was subservient.

The people from the church were supposed to be arrogant, and they were, but only in front of the people they knew wouldn't be able to touch them, and Vannesa was not one of them.

*Rustle*

The ones in the hall kept their heads bowed until the archbishop ordered them to get up.

"Rise."

With that, the archbishop again turned toward Vannesa, but unlike last time, he looked calmer right now, as right now was the moment he needed to be really serious.

Vannesa, who saw the archbishop's expression, frowned a bit; her always-cold expression turned harder, and although the archbishop seemed to be fine on the outside, he just wanted to run away from here.

"Your grace, who is the first one to go through the ceremony?"

The archbishop, whose name was Lucious Ignatius, questioned Vannesa as he looked straight into her eyes with much effort.

"I can handle the rest of the ceremony. You may take your leave."

Vannesa, however, waved her hand instead of answering the guy's question, causing a sharp glint to pass through his eyes.

"I cannot do that, your grace." Lucious shook his head, his tone unwavering.

He was sent here to observe the potential of Alex Drakathor and determine if he could be useful or not; he couldn't go back without doing it.

Although he didn't want to get on the bad side of Vannesa, he couldn't sit back and watch another monster as strong as Vanessa rise without the church's knowledge.

They had already made this mistake once; they wouldn't do it again.

"Am I to take that as defiance of my words, Archbishop Lucious?" 

Vannesa, however, wasn't going to take this lightly; her brows frowned as her palm moved toward the reaper she carried around.

She wasn't going to risk her child's safety just because of the empire's politics.

If things got out of hand, then she would just make the church vanish from the face of the world.

"No, Your Grace; I'm simply doing my job, and it is the church's job to oversee any and every awakening ceremony—"

Lucious shook his head in a hurry, one of his arms moving behind his back, with a black-colored stone suddenly appearing in it.

The stone had a red button-like mark as if one were supposed to press it.

The archbishop had that piece of stone clenched hard in his hands, as if hesitant to use it.

His words, however, were cut short, but unlike one would think, it wasn't Vannesa who interrupted his words; it was Alex.

"Mother, Archbishop, could you two please listen to my words for a moment?"

Alex could see that the situation was escalating, and from what he knew from the game's plot, Vannesa would kill the guy, but by the end moment, this guy would turn into a demonic beast, killing everyone in this area.

Of course, after making sure that Mira was alright, Vannesa would kill it, but by then, it would've killed every child in this room.

This event also caused a lot of political problems for Vannesa, who found it all annoying to deal with.

Alex had thought of a way to avoid it without causing any problems, so he stepped in, causing both Vannesa and Lucious to turn toward him.

Vannesa had a frown on her forehead as she looked at Alex questioningly, but Alex just passed her a reassuring smile, causing her frown to disappear before both of them turned to look at Lucious, who was staring at Alex with his eyes squinted.

"Of course, Master Alex; speak your mind."

But as soon as he felt their eyes on himself, Lucious gave Alex a friendly smile; inwardly, however, he wore a solemn expression as he recalled the many things he had heard about the little devil called Alex Drakathor.

"Good! So..."

Alex, on the other hand, smiled in delight as soon as he got Lucious's permission before he began.