The aide Aldred stopped walking before a tall white door intricately carved with little crescent moons.
He shifted Fainyx slightly in his arms to balance his weight, then reached out and gently pushed the heavy door open.
The polished iron hinges made a soft, barely audible sound as they turned.
Fainyx blinked his eyes in surprise.
The private room inside was incredibly bright.
A large bed with a soft blue canopy stood proudly in the center of the space, with fluffy pillows shaped like clouds piled neatly on top of the sheets.
Several plush teddy bears sat proudly at the side of the mattress. A small play corner rested near the large glass window, filled to the brim with expensive wooden toys and neatly arranged picture books.
The heavy curtains were a pale cream color, embroidered beautifully with tiny shimmering stars.
It was undeniably a young child's ultimate dream room.
"Do you like your new quarters, Young Master?" the aide asked gently, looking down at him.
Fainyx was completely speechless.
Inside his mind, however, his adult consciousness was having a completely different reaction.
'I absolutely do not like this design at all. The excessive cuteness... the softness... the fluttery ribbons hanging by the bed posts... this entire setup is far too childish for me.'
But since he was still physically a six-year-old child in this world, complaining out loud or throwing a tantrum would only create completely unnecessary attention. He needed to maintain his low profile.
So, he simply gave a single, obedient nod of his head.
The personal aide smiled in massive relief, setting him down on the floor. "This will be your permanent room from now on, Young Master... actually this has been like this for the past six years now, someone from long ago used to fix this place for her new baby..."
'Then... she... Made this for me?'
"Your mother... No... Her grace designed this bed and the toys around this before you arrived... Even if his grace tried to stop her it only make her pout and don't speak to his grace for two days... "
Fainyx look at the toys, all of them are hand stitch and even the embroidery then he looks at his bed was a an embroidery, it was familiar design...
'... It's a kalmia so mother...'
Then aldred didn't disturbed Fainyx as he just said his farewell.
"Rest well tonight," the aide added with a warm smile, walking toward the exit. "If you ever need anything at all, you may call for me, His Grace, or your older brothers."
The heavy door closed softly behind him, locking with a quiet click.
An absolute silence flooded the bright space.
Fainyx stood still for a moment, staring blankly at the nearest plush teddy bear sitting on his bed.
Slowly, he walked over and picked it up with his small hands.
'Mother made this all by herself?'
She's really good at making stuff, he thought as he marched straight to the wooden cabinet, opened the doors, and placed the bear inside.
Then, he quietly gathered the rest of the stuffed toys and piled them all into the dark cabinet right alongside the teddy bear.
He closed the wooden doors firmly, resolving that he would never touch them again.
With a small, weary sigh, he climbed up the steps and crawled onto the massive canopy bed.
The mattress was exceptionally soft.
It was far softer than the thin, cold mattress he had been forced to sleep on back in the isolated annex.
His small frame sank slightly into the plush cushions, and he lay on his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling fabric as his mind began to process his new reality.
'Should I choose to stay in this mansion? Or should I find a way to leave entirely?'
Living under the main Nocte household undeniably carried massive survival benefits.
He would receive high-quality food three meals a day, the absolute protection of the powerful Duke, and an elite social status.
Even if Liam or Adam eventually became the next lord of the territory in the future, they wouldn't just throw him out into the streets to starve. Or rather, they would likely let him leave peacefully once he grew up, granting him a substantial amount of money as inheritance to live a normal, quiet life.
He knew they wouldn't try to murder him because they were righteous named characters from the game lore, so he understood their core personalities very well.
As long as the family continued to believe he was completely mute, frail, and weak, they might simply hide him away from public view to protect the family name and also protect him from any rumors.
That arrangement was perfect for his plans, as he could quietly grow stronger in the shadows while remaining completely free from the exhausting responsibilities of a noble son.
He could easily play the convenient role of a lazy, mute noble son.
Eat, sleep, and do absolutely nothing of importance.
And secretly train his magical core every single night.
He would strengthen his physical body, expand his internal mana pool, and perfectly prepare himself for the dark future wars of the game.
'Yes... that kind of lifestyle sounds incredibly peaceful.'
His intricate survival plans were still slightly incomplete, but he was making steady progress.
*Knock. Knock.
"Are you still awake, Fainyx?" Liam's soft voice came carefully from the other side of the white door.
Fainyx let out a silent sigh in his mind, sliding off the high bed to go open the lock.
His older brother Liam stood on the threshold, his young brows slightly furrowed in deep concern as he looked down at the boy.
"Does your body still hurt anywhere?" he asked immediately, his eyes scanning for injuries.
Fainyx quickly shook his head to say no.
Liam exhaled a long breath in pure relief, his shoulders relaxing. "May I come inside your room for a bit?"
Fainyx gave a simple nod of his head, stepping aside to grant him entry.
Liam entered the bright bedroom and sat down comfortably on the edge of the large bed, gesturing with his hand for Fainyx to come sit down right beside him.
A comfortable silence filled the private room.
Fainyx waited patiently for his brother to say whatever it was he came here to say.
Liam's fingers fidgeted slightly against his trousers, looking unusually nervous.
"Do you... do you genuinely hate Father and us for what happened?"
Fainyx blinked his violet eyes in surprise.
'What kind of ridiculous question is that?'
He shook his head firmly from side to side to deny the thought completely.
Liam looked down at the carpet, a deep cloud of guilt covering his youthful expression.
"I am so incredibly sorry... for allowing the estate servants to treat you in such a horrible way. I am sorry for not protecting you much sooner."
Fainyx truly didn't know how to respond to that emotional apology without any writing paper nearby.
So, he simply stood up from the mattress.
He walked directly in front of Liam's sitting form.
And he gently reached up to pat his older brother's head.
Since his toddler body was still incredibly tiny, he couldn't actually reach Liam's head if his brother was standing up, but since Liam was currently sitting low on the mattress, this action was perfectly accessible.
It was his own way of offering a quiet, wordless reassurance to his sibling.
'I am not angry at you at all.'
For the very first time since he was reincarnated into this fantasy world, Fainyx tried to form a genuine smile on his face.
His facial muscles were deeply stiff from years of maintaining a completely expressionless mask, so when he tried to force the movement, it felt highly difficult to maintain for more than a minute.
The smile was small, slightly stiff, but it was warm enough to make Liam's anxious heart calm down instantly.
Liam froze completely in his spot, his eyes widening.
"You... you actually smiled at me...?" he whispered in absolute shock, his voice trembling.
His stunned gaze lifted directly to meet Fainyx's violet eyes.
The vibrant color was partially hidden behind his long silver bangs.
Violet.
The irises were shimmering faintly like rare crystals resting beneath the bright moonlight.
And suddenly, a powerful, buried memory flashed clearly through Liam's mind.
Their late mother.
He remembered her soft, musical laughter, her gentle embrace during the cold nights, and her beautiful violet eyes shining brightly under the afternoon sunlight.
"He... he looks exactly like Mother used to look..." Liam murmured under his breath, clear tears rapidly forming in the corners of his eyes.
Fainyx stiffened up instantly at the comment, immediately dropping his stiff smile.
'Why in the world is he suddenly crying right now?!'
Before he could even move to step back, Liam lunged forward and hugged his small body tightly against his chest.
"Can I... can I please stay like this for just a brief moment?"
Fainyx let out another long, defeated sigh inside his head, realizing there was no stopping his emotional brother.
He gave a slow nod against Liam's shoulder.
Liam was physically much stronger than him due to his knight training, so trying to escape the tight grip without using high-tier magic was simply not an option.
So, he simply reached up his small hand and gently patted his brother's back to comfort him.
'He really is a bit of a massive crybaby... Well he's still four years old now they are still both a child'
But as he caught the faint, broken whisper of the word "Mom" muffled directly against his cotton pajamas, his adult thoughts began to soften up significantly.
'I see... it seems that he just deeply misses his mother.'
After a long minute of quiet crying, Liam finally pulled his body back, his face turning a bit red from embarrassment.
"I am so sorry, Fainyx... I got far too emotional out of nowhere."
He wiped his face, offering a faint, happy smile. "But when you smiled just now... you looked just like her..."
Fainyx paused in his tracks, staring at his brother.
So his physical appearance heavily resembled their late mother.
Strangely enough, that realization made him feel a little bit happy deep inside his chest.
His mother... Gave him a gift and now she left something that makes him warm.
Liam stood up from the bed, smoothing down his clothes.
"We will all have breakfast together tomorrow morning in the dining hall. I will come to wake you up personally, okay?"
He gave a small, warm smile. "Goodnight, Fainyx."
The heavy white door closed softly, leaving him alone once more.
Fainyx walked slowly across the carpet over to the large full-length mirror standing in the corner of his bedroom.
He stared intently at his own reflection.
Slowly, he tried to form the smile again, controlling his stiff facial muscles with care.
The expression that appeared in the glass reflection was incredibly gentle and soft.
It was very different from his usual cold, stoic face.
He reached up and brushed his long silver bangs entirely aside to inspect his features. His vibrant violet eyes shimmered beautifully in the mirror, looking exactly like polished gems.
Yes. He truly did resemble the beautiful woman depicted in the grand family portrait.
But that specific physical resemblance could prove to be highly dangerous for his future survival plans.
It was far too cute, and far too noticeable for someone trying to remain completely forgotten by high society.
He dropped the smile immediately, letting his facial muscles relax.
His reflection instantly snapped back to its usual cold, indifferent expression.
He heavily preferred it this way.
He walked back over to the massive bed, laying down under the covers and staring blankly up at the high ceiling.
The bedroom was completely silent, and the bright moonlight spilled softly across the polished floorboards through the window.
He opened the spatial Storage box interface inside the quiet theater of his mind.
The familiar, plain white storage grid appeared before his mental vision. It had always functioned as a very simple game mechanic. Items go into the slots, and items come out of the slots.
But recently, he had noticed something highly strange about the system.
When he had placed his precious kalmia plant inside the storage slot earlier to hide it from Jaren, the flower didn't wither at all.
It didn't freeze completely in time like standard game storage inventories usually did.
The plant actively reacted to his mana stream, and it continued to live.
Which meant a very specific thing.
'This system is not just a suspended, frozen time space.'
He furrowed his brows in deep thought.
If it were an ordinary, basic inventory system, living beings shouldn't be able to survive inside the vacuum for more than a few seconds.
Even in the advanced magic lore of the game, spatial storage that actively preserved biological life required peak, legendary circle magic to execute.
Yet his basic Storage box allowed it effortlessly.
And what was far more important was that he could enter the inventory space mentally to see and organize his stored items.
Though he had never actually attempted to enter the space with his physical body.
Because doing that without testing would be incredibly reckless.
His small fingers tightened slightly over the fabric of his blanket.
How exactly was this magical inventory structured?
Was it just highly compressed space? A folded dimension in reality? Or was it a completely separate pocket world connected directly to his life mana core?
'If this dimension is truly connected directly to my internal mana core... then expanding the storage capacity would mean actively expanding the spatial boundaries of the world.'
But that shouldn't be physically possible for a human.
Advanced spatial magic always required physical anchors, specific coordinates, complex magic circles, and powerful stabilizers to function safely. Without those core components, forcing a spatial expansion could easily cause the entire dimension to collapse in on itself.
Or worse, it could permanently trap his consciousness inside a void.
He swallowed hard, a cold sweat forming on his neck.
If he entered the space physically and the portal suddenly closed behind him, what would happen?
Would he instantly suffocate from a lack of oxygen? Would the space destabilize under his weight and crush his physical body into dust? Would his existence be entirely erased from reality?
There were far too many unknown variables to risk it.
He closed his eyes to map out the theories.
Theory one: The inventory is a fixed system given during reincarnation. It cannot expand.
Theory two: It grows naturally on its own as his internal mana capacity increases over the years.
Theory three: It is currently an incomplete, expandable dimension if he chooses to force-feed it a massive amount of his raw mana.
The third option was undeniably the most dangerous path to take.
Because if his calculations failed, the severe spatial backlash could damage his internal mana core permanently. And in this harsh fantasy world, a damaged or broken magic core meant a completely ruined future.
He let out a slow, calming exhale.
'It should be impossible.'
At least, it should be entirely impossible under the laws of magic. A mere child expanding an independent dimensional space all by himself? It was completely ridiculous to even consider.
Even the Magic Academy's strongest spatial Archmage required months of intense preparation just to create a small, temporary barrier domain.
And here he was, considering brute-forcing his basic Storage box open using raw power.
He hesitated for a long moment.
But then, the vivid memory of the head maid Jaren flashed through his mind.
The freezing bucket of water at dawn, the forced starvation, and the isolation of his house arrest.
He desperately needed an absolute insurance policy for his life. A safe haven where absolutely no one in this world could ever reach him. If he couldn't fully rely on the protection of the Nocte family in the dark future, he needed his own flawless escape route.
'It is incredibly dangerous.'
His violet gaze hardened with absolute, unyielding determination.
'But I simply do not have the luxury not to try it.'
If he felt even a fraction of failure, he would stop the process immediately. If his senses detected any spatial instability, he would withdraw his mana.
He would proceed carefully with no recklessness.
He sat up, crossing his small legs in the center of the large bed.
His raw mana began to flow quietly beneath his skin, moving like a hidden river.
It was completely invisible and undetectable to the outside world.
He opened the inventory interface in his mind once more, visualizing the white space. He focused his entire consciousness directly onto its outer boundary walls.
Instead of placing an object inside a slot, he began to actively push a steady stream of his raw mana directly into the white barriers.
At the very beginning of the attempt, absolutely nothing happened.
Then, a sudden ripple ran through the interface.
It looked exactly like a stone dropped into perfectly still water.
His eyes narrowed in excitement.
'It is actually reacting to my mana.'
He increased his magical output slightly, pushing more energy into the system. The white space inside his mind began to tremble violently, and fine cracks began to form along the outer edges of the boundary.
His heart pounded fiercely against his ribs.
If this dimension shattered out of control, would it explode outward into his bedroom? Or would it implode inward and destroy his brain?
"Ugh..."
Cold sweat slid down his pale cheek.
He kept feeding his mana steadily into the cracks, ensuring the flow was not too fast and not too slow.
The fractures along the white walls began to widen significantly, and then, the physical reality right in front of his face began to distort and warp.
A thin, vertical tear of pure light appeared out of thin air in the middle of his bedroom.
A physical portal had formed.
A sudden gust of cool, fresh air brushed against his face from the opening. He stopped his mana output immediately, gasping for air as he sat breathing hard on the mattress.
" Haah... Haah..."
'I did it...'
He quickly checked his internal mana reserves to see the damage.
'Only half...?'
Only half of his total mana capacity had been consumed to tear open a literal dimension.
He stared down at his small hands in pure disbelief. That outcome shouldn't be possible under any laws of magic.
He had been fully prepared to collapse from magical exhaustion or suffer near depletion, but he still possessed massive reserves of energy inside his core. His internal mana pool felt incredibly deep, like a massive well with absolutely no visible bottom.
'Is this some kind of special reincarnator's privilege?'
He almost let out a dry laugh under his breath.
Was it simply because he had kept his mature adult memories upon birth?
Does possessing a fully developed, adult consciousness naturally strengthen a child's mana core?
Or was this newborn body itself completely abnormal from the start?
Was it the legendary Nocte bloodline at work? His late mother's mysterious lineage? Or was it something else entirely?
He truly didn't know the answer, and that lack of knowledge was what unsettled his logical mind the most.
He slid off the mattress and took a slow step forward, stepping directly through the glowing portal.
He found himself standing inside a vast, endless white space. He began to walk forward across the void, traveling for five full minutes before he finally reached the outer edge of the boundary.
He turned his body around slowly to inspect the area.
'This is absolutely absurd.'
And the best part was that he still possessed plenty of active mana left inside his core. He decided to test the limits of his new domain further.
He closed his eyes and mentally imagined the presence of rich soil, tall trees, and a wide open sky.
The white space trembled violently this time, and his mana began to drain at a much faster rate.
Suddenly, vibrant green grass began to spread rapidly beneath his bare feet, covering the void.
Massive, leafy trees rose beautifully from nothingness, forming a thick forest perimeter around him. A gentle, cooling wind began to move through the leaves, rustling softly.
And right above his head, a beautiful blue sky formed perfectly, complete with drifting white clouds and a bright, warm sun.
Fainyx froze completely in his tracks, staring up at the horizon.
'I didn't even imagine a sun in my thoughts...'
The magical space was actively self-completing its own environment based on his desires. That realization sent a sudden chill running straight down his spine. This process wasn't just a simple storage box expansion, this was a literal world construction.
His internal mana levels finally dipped dangerously low, flashing a warning in his mind.
He stopped the visualization immediately, cutting off the connection.
He had done enough for today. He turned around, stepped back through the portal, and closed the vertical tear carefully behind him.
The luxury bedroom was completely quiet once more, and he fell back onto his soft pillows, thoroughly exhausted from the trial.
He lay staring blankly up at the ceiling canopy, his mind racing.
The simple name Storage box was no longer appropriate for a place like this. That title sounded like something from a basic video game, and though he was indeed stuck inside a hardcore game world, using that name felt completely wrong for a literal dimension.
This place was entirely different. It was hidden, a private world born directly from his own life mana, and a sanctuary where only he could ever enter. It could function as a safe haven, a powerful weapon, or a flawless escape route.
'Should I call it Sanctum?'
He shook his head to reject the thought. It was far too simple.
'Inner Domain?'
No, that name sounded a bit too arrogant and dramatic.
He closed his eyes and thought over the options carefully. It wasn't just a small room; it was a physical reflection of his very soul, a miniature world tied directly to his own existence. Then, the perfect name finally came to his mind.
"Aetherium."
A beautiful world of raw mana, born from nothingness, and hidden safely between the fabrics of reality.
Yes. That name felt entirely right to him.
From this day forward, he would never refer to his power as a simple storage box again.
It would be known as his private "Aetherium", and absolutely no one else in this world would ever find out about its existence.
With that final thought settled, his turbulent mana pool finally calmed down, and a deep sleep claimed his small body quietly in the dark.