Villain Steal the Heroines

"Today, on the auspicious day of my son's seventh birthday, I request that everyone bless my son for a happy and prosperous life. Please raise your glasses and take a sip for my son's great future."

As if being sentimental about his paternal love for me, my father raised his glass of wine with a proud face and then, under everyone's eyes, emptied the whole glass in one sip.

"May my son have a life full of good fortune," he wished as he set the glass down.

Watching my father's actions, the people below followed suit, and one by one, they raised their glasses and chugged down the whole drink in one sip like my father. Even though I was a little taken aback by their gesture, a feeling of pride and appreciation welled up in my heart.

Following that, there was a major increase in the volume of the crowd's hollering.

"Happy birthday, Luke!"

"Happy birthday, Lord Luke!"

"Long live, Lord Luke!"

....

....

Naturally, our own relatives as well as the vassal families who served under our dukedom played the most active role in this kind of cheering.

While the other guests, some of whom had the same hierarchical ranking as my father, just smiled and drank their wine leisurely.

However, they too raised their glasses to show basic respect and courtesy to my father and our family.

After my father was satisfied that everyone had wished me in such a grand manner, he smiled and turned towards me.

"Happy birthday to you, my son; this is a gift that your mother and I specially prepared for you."

With a sweeping motion of his arm, he tossed a blue pouch emblazoned with a golden dragon at me, which I caught with both hands.

All of a sudden, the music stopped, and everyone's eyes were focused on me.

Woah!

A commotion in the audience was sparked when people saw the pouch in my hand, and for a brief second, even I was a little perplexed.

It's safe to say that the commotion was not caused by the fact that the gift was unremarkable; on the contrary, the circumstances were quite the opposite.

How could Duke Brandon, who deeply cares for his son, celebrate his seventh birthday by giving him an ordinary pouch? It is impossible, which is why I had no doubts regarding the authenticity of this pouch.

"Dad this..."

"You guessed it right, son, this is a spatial pouch." After observing the look of confusion on my face, my father responded in a humorous manner.

He knows how much I love these magic artefacts, especially these types of spatial artefacts.

But because they needed aura or mana to work, I could never use them before I learned how to use aura.

And although after becoming an aura user I played with almost all aura artefacts that were safe to use for me, I never owned one myself because they were just that rare.

But now that I had one in my hands—and it was the one I had wanted for so long—I was a little excited.

For everyone to easily understand, a "spatial pouch" in this world is a storage device like those described in many novels back on Earth.

A "spatial pouch" in this world is a pouch made with extremely durable and rare mana conductive materials that are then enchanted and inscribed by wizards specialising in this field.

A standard spacial pouch has a volume of about 3–4 cubic metres, and since they are not enchanted for any other function, the holder must bear the full weight of whatever is stored inside.

However, from a glance at my pouch, which looked remarkably similar to the one that my mother has, I was sure that my pouch was far from average.

Furthermore, if my knowledge serves me correctly, this one that looks like my mother's has at least 10 cubic metres of storage space, magical weight reduction, and aura identification enchantments.

This would really make many of those old uncles jealous.

Just when I was gloating happily inside my head, my mother's next words brought me back to the present.

"Don't get satisfied just yet; this pouch is just a side gift; your real present is inside it."

"What!?"

To say that this pouch, which some wealthy families would keep as a family heirloom, wasn't even the main gift was a bold and surprising statement.

And even the people below couldn't help but have their eyes wide open at my mother's words, as if they couldn't believe what they heard.

But I never doubted the authenticity of my mother's words for a second.

It was just the excitement and anticipation of what was inside that made me behave like a kid who was getting his favourite toy one after another.

This wasn't my first time using a spatial pouch because I had already seen a couple being used by my mother and father, which is why I naturally knew how to use them.

So as soon as I heard what my mother said, I injected my aura into the pouch, which opened as soon as it identified my aura.

Presumably, my mother has already imprinted my aura on this pouch as the owner.

Because as soon as I injected my aura, I was aware of what was in the pouch.

This 10 cubic-metre storage pouch held only one item.

After inserting my hand inside the pouch, I reached in, grabbed the item, and easily extracted it from the pouch. What came out was a straight, beautiful black sword with a threaded hilt like a samurai sword and a magical green gem set into the guard.

It was clear from a glance that the gem was a magical object.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the blade of the sword was also etched with different symbols and intricate patterns.

"Beautiful."

It was the first word that came to my mind as I saw the sword, and even some of the high ranking people had their mouths wide open after looking at it.

They could still understand the gift of a spatial pouch, but they never thought that Duke Brandon would give an aura sword as a gift to his son.

Aura sword: what is this concept?

For people who don't know, an aura sword is one of the best swords that can be used by aura users below sword grandmaster rank. People say that even a simple aura sword can have a lot of power, which makes it a very valuable and sought-after weapon.

That means in the future, before becoming a grandmaster, I could use this sword without changing it or searching for another.

Just think about the fact that a sword master can put his aura into his weapons, creating a layer of aura coating around them that makes them sharper, stronger, and more durable.

And what kinds of swords are best for imbuing auras?

You guessed correctly: an aura sword is unrivalled in this field. It is made of materials that allow a smooth, unhindered flow of mana, much like gold and silver do for electricity. This allows a sword master to draw out the maximum potential of his aura, thus creating an aura coating that is more powerful and resilient than ever before.

The benefits, however, do not stop here because the aura sword can also automatically draw some aura from the user in order to make itself sharper. This occurs regardless of whether or not the user is a sword master.

Although such a process does not produce an aura coating and the effect is only 1-2% that of a true early-stage sword master's aura coating, it is important to remember that in a sword battle, even a slightly sharper edge can sometimes determine the outcome.

let alone a sword sharpened by aura.

Even a small amount of aura sharpening on a normal sword makes it better than a lot of precious swords on the market.

The materials used to create an aura sword are very rare, and sometimes, even if a sword master can bear their huge cost, he may not even find those materials in the market to forge one.

This is how valuable and rare an aura sword is.

However, who is Duke Brandon?

The richest and second-most powerful of the three dukes

Would he still need to struggle like normal people?

Absolutely not!

Just take out materials from the family's treasury and order the best blacksmith in the whole kingdom to forge a sword.

Huge cost? What is that?

No matter how high the cost, if you want one for your son, you must get the best one.

Such was also the case with this spatial pouch.

Although there were not many of them even in the Duke family's treasure vault because of their production process,

However, Duke Brandon could just pay a large amount of money to commission the wizards of the Magical Kingdom.

Even if those wizards seem rude and aloof most of the time, they have to bow their heads in front of a lot of money and make a nice spatial pouch for me.

After all, who made their research use so many resources?

Money to wizards is like matter to a black hole; no matter how much goes in, there is always room for more.

Due to this, Duke simply gave his son, aka me, the items—which were sufficient to cause a commotion in the outside world—as a gift.

That, too, when I was only 7 years old, not even an adult.

Such adoration radically altered the three views of the people below.

Some of them, although not as rich as the duke, still have enough wealth to have their next 10 generations live in luxury without lifting a finger.

However, if asked, how many of them can take out such extravagant gifts for their 7 year old kid?

No one.

If it concerns their reputation and pride, there might still be a few in the crowd, but if asked to give voluntarily, it is a different story.

Not even a single one of them would give such extravagant gifts to their 7-year-old kid, because not only is it actually very expensive, but it's also not optimal because, no matter how good a sword an aura sword is, in the hands of a 7 year-old, it's like giving a car to a person who just started to learn to ride a bicycle.

Of course, these generalisations don't apply to me because I'm already a middle-stage sword apprentice; others, though, only know of my early-stage sword apprentice rank.

who, although only a little bit, can still wield the weapon somehow.

"This sword."

"Did you like the sword? Isn't your mother's choice the best?"

"Really a good sword. Mom, you're the best, hehe."

And I ran to my mother and gave her a big, childish hug, laughing all the while.

"Ahem! Your father also put some thought into the gift, you ungrateful brat."

Unsurprisingly, the old man got jealous because I only showed affection to my mother and forgot about him.

I have to say he really is a Tsundere.

Anyhow, I still don't understand why his and my mother's relationship hasn't improved; there's a reason my mother has slept with me since I was born.

Even though they had a better relationship after I was born, it was still as if they were only fulfilling their formalities as husband and wife.

Amidst this, at least they are more like friends now because of their love for me.

Deep down, there's no real love between them, and although at first I tried to improve their relationship, later I realised that they really don't have that affection for each other.

And for some reason they were both extremely content with the status of their relationship, where they could not only love their kid to their hearts' content and live without the burden of their relationship but also work together to manage the dukedom and unite against anyone who threatened their interests.

It was really a weird relationship, but as long as they were happy, I didn't have any qualms with how they lived.

For me, they are my lovely parents, who love me more than their own lives, and for whom I can fight against the whole world.

"It's not like that, dad, and thank you so much for the gift."

After consoling my dad, I also gave him a hug, and only then was he satisfied.

"It's good that you like it."

Clapping! Clapping!

Watching the touching scene, some people couldn't help but start clapping, and once one started, others followed.

There was a big round of applause from the crowd, which I enjoyed with a smile.

Although my father claimed that the sword was a joint gift from him and my mother, I know that it was only my mother who bought it for me because she had mentioned a few days before that I needed a sword and that she liked this particular black colour because it suited her taste.

Now that my parents had given me their gifts, it was time for other people to do the same. Fortunately, these gifts weren't given to me directly in the hall but rather were placed separately and later taken away to be inspected for any illegal or dangerous items.

Nonetheless, this gifting session only took a few minutes at most.

And finally, it was time to detonate one of the big bombs I had prepared for this night, which would blow up a new storm in the kingdom, causing a new wave of chaos and fear for some while bringing endless joy and salvation to others.

As if reading my mind, my father clinked his wine glass with a fork again to draw everyone's attention, then said,

"Now that this is over, there's an announcement that I would like to make today."