A tiny, five-year-old boy covered in white plaster dust sat cross-legged on a ruined, highly expensive rug. He cradled a plush dragon in his hands—not because he wanted to play, but because he desperately needed a physical barrier between himself and the frantic adults currently tearing his bedroom apart.
His face was a mask of wide-eyed toddler innocence. In reality, Neo was sweating buckets.
"What in the nine hells is this?!"
Cassian Draven's roar echoed through the smoking crater that used to be the western wall of the mansion. The Duke stood at the edge of the jagged hole, his midnight-blue military uniform coated in fine dust, staring out at the manicured lawns three stories below.
A dozen heavily armored elite knights from the Draven vanguard were already swarming the room. With weapons drawn, they scanned the ceiling, the shadows, and the empty sky outside for an invisible enemy.
"No magical signature of a teleportation array," one of the senior knights reported, his voice tight.
"No traces of elemental powder. My Lord, whatever hit this wall didn't come from the outside. It breached from the inside out."
Cassian slowly turned around, his silver eyes dark and stormy. The suffocating aura of a peak Saint-rank warrior began to leak into the room, making the air feel as thick as molasses.
"From the inside out," Cassian repeated, his voice dropping into a deadly whisper. He looked at the smoking debris scattered across the lawn. Then, his gaze snapped toward the center of the room, landing squarely on Neo.
Neo blinked twice, clutching the stuffed dragon tighter to his chest. He forced a single, pathetic sniffle.
Before Cassian could even take a step, Sylvia was there. Silvia walked in front of Neo, her pristine gown stained with soot. She dropped to her knees, ignoring the broken glass digging into the floor, and frantically ran her glowing hands over her son.
"Neo, sweet boy, are you hurt? Did anything hit you?" Sylvia asked, her voice trembling with raw maternal terror.
"I'm okay, Mama," Neo mumbled, pitching his voice high and soft.
"It was just a really loud boom."
Sylvia let out a shuddering breath of relief, pulling him into a crushing hug. She buried her face in his white hair, uncaring about the dust transferring to her skin.
Cassian marched over, his heavy boots crushing the debris. The towering Duke knelt down, his massive hand gently cupping the back of Neo's head. The murderous aura in the room instantly vanished, replaced by sheer exhaustion.
"He's unharmed," Cassian breathed out, closing his eyes for a fraction of a second. But when he opened them again, the tactical commander returned. "Sylvia, what happened here? The knights say the blast originated from inside the room. Was it an assassin using an artifact?"
Sylvia pulled back slightly, her blue eyes narrowed in concentration. She raised her right hand, fingers glowing with a shifting web of silver runes as she scanned the ambient air of the ruined bedroom.
For a long moment, the only sound was the wind whistling through the massive hole in the wall.
"There are no foreign magical signatures," Sylvia finally said, laced with profound confusion.
"No dark mana, no trace of Imperial stealth tech, nothing from Aethelgard. The only residual mana in this room..."
She paused, looking down at Neo with a mixture of awe and horror.
"...is Neo's."
The knights froze. Cassian's jaw went slack.
"Neo's?" Cassian repeated, staring at his son like he had grown a second head. "Sylvia, he's a toddler. Yes, he awakened his core, but you're telling me a five-year-old generated a kinetic blast powerful enough to atomize a reinforced fortress wall?"
Neo kept his face perfectly blank, but internally, his mind was racing. 'She's too good. Play dumb, Neo. Play the dumbest you have ever played in your entire life.'
"I... I was just sitting," Neo stammered, allowing his lower lip to quiver with calculated precision.
"I felt warm in my tummy... and then I pointed my hand like Mama does when she makes the wind... and then it went boom! I'm sorry!"
Genuine, painfully forced tears welled up in his eyes.
The sight of his crying son shattered whatever anger Cassian might have harbored. The mighty Duke instantly wilted.
"No, no, don't cry, little lord," Cassian panicked, hurriedly wiping a tear from Neo's dusty cheek with his calloused thumb.
"You're not in trouble. By the gods, you're not in trouble."
Sylvia sighed, running a hand through her hair.
"It was an accidental magical discharge. The density of his mana is monstrous, and his young body doesn't know how to properly regulate it yet. He must have subconsciously funneled his entire reservoir into a basic release."
She didn't know about the Frost-Vein Core hidden securely under the floorboards beneath the bed. She didn't know Neo had intentionally amplified the spell. To the world, he was just an incredibly overpowered, dangerously unstable child prodigy.
"Accidental discharge," Cassian muttered, looking back at the crater. He stood up, his face hardening into a mask of pure paranoia.
"If he can accidentally blow a hole in the estate, an enemy could easily sense that flare. The boy is a beacon."
Cassian turned to his captain of the guard.
"Double the perimeter sentries. I want rotating squads of elite mages patrolling the outer gardens, and I want an anti-scrying ward erected over this entire wing by midnight. No one enters or leaves this hallway without my explicit seal. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Your Grace!" the knight saluted, immediately rushing out to bark orders.
Neo slumped slightly against Sylvia's chest.
'Well, congratulations to me,' Neo thought bitterly.
'I just turned my own home into a maximum-security prison. Secret training is officially going to be a nightmare.'
...
Three days later.
Neo sat quietly on a plush velvet window seat in the estate's sprawling library, staring out at the heavily guarded gardens. Two massive, plate-armored knights stood at attention right outside the doors. A shimmering, barely visible golden dome of magical energy now covered the entire western wing of the mansion.
His security had been dialed up to a suffocating level. He wasn't even allowed to go to the kitchens by himself anymore.
"This is ridiculous," Neo sighed, leaning his head against the cool glass.
"I can't even sneeze without a healer rushing in to check my vitals."
But despite the complete loss of his personal freedom, the 'accident' had yielded one incredibly valuable return.
Making sure the library was empty, Neo closed his eyes and summoned his interface.
[ SKILLS ]
• Inner Sanctum Meditation (Lv. Max)
• Basic Mana Manipulation (Lv. 3)
• Mana Cannon (Lv. 1) NEW
Neo couldn't help the satisfied grin that tugged at the corner of his mouth.
It had actually worked. The World's Will had registered the reckless, overcharged spell he had fired with the Frost-Vein Core and officially condensed it into an innate skill.
He focused his mind on the newly acquired text, and a secondary window popped up.
[ Skill: Mana Cannon (Lv. 1) ]
[Type: Active / Offensive]
[Description: By severely overcharging the basic kinetic structure of a Mana Bullet, the user releases a devastating, highly volatile blast of pure concussive force. Highly destructive. High recoil].
[Warning: Low physical vitality may result in self-inflicted damage.]
'Self-inflicted damage,' Neo read, rubbing his lower back where he had slammed into the mattress.
'Yeah, no kidding. The recoil threw me like a ragdoll. But still... I have an offensive skill.'
It wasn't just a spark or a gentle breeze. He had a literal cannon installed in his palm. If the assassins from the original anime timeline ever managed to bypass his father's guards, they were going to get a very explosive surprise.
Neo dismissed the glowing interface just as the heavy oak doors of the library creaked open.
"Young Master?" a maid called out softly, stepping into the room and offering a polite curtsy.
"The Duke and Duchess have requested your presence in the sun-dining room. They mentioned it was important."
Neo's heart skipped a beat.
'Important?' he thought, hopping down from the window seat.
'Did they find the Frost-Vein Core? Did Nora send a letter demanding her human pacifier back? Or is the Emperor making another move?'
His mind raced with a dozen different political scenarios as he followed the maid through the winding, guarded corridors.
When he finally stepped into the sun-dining room, the atmosphere was strange.
It wasn't tense or suffocating like it had been during the Emperor's letter incident. Instead, the room felt light, almost giddy. The afternoon sun poured through the massive glass windows.
Cassian was pacing, running a hand through his messy black hair. He looked like a man who had just won the hardest battle of his life, grinning like a fool. Sylvia sat at the table, a gentle glow radiating from her skin.
"Ah, there he is," Cassian beamed, rushing over and effortlessly scooping Neo into his arms.
"Papa?" Neo asked, genuinely confused by the sheer amount of joyful energy radiating from the Demon of the Battlefield.
"Are we not under attack?"
Cassian threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh.
"No, my boy. No attacks today. Today is a day of victory."
He carried Neo over to the table and gently set him down on the chair next to Sylvia.
Sylvia reached out, her elegant hands gently taking Neo's small ones. Her blue eyes shimmered with happy tears. She shared a deep, loving look with Cassian before turning her gaze back to her son.
"Neo, sweetie," Sylvia said softly, her voice trembling with emotion.
"Your father and I have some very special news to share with you."
Neo blinked. 'Special news?'
"We wanted you to be the very first to know," Sylvia continued, gently squeezing his hands. She offered him a smile bright enough to rival the sun.
"You are going to be a big brother."
The world seemed to stop spinning for exactly one second.
Neo just stared at her. His brain misfired, trying to process the words. "A... a brother?" he squeaked.
"A big brother," Cassian corrected proudly, stepping up behind Sylvia and resting his large hands on her shoulders. "A new little lord or lady of the Draven house will be joining us in a few months."
For a moment, pure joy bubbled up in Neo's chest. He was going to have a sibling. A real family member to protect, to teach, to play with. The lonely, isolated life of his previous world felt like a distant nightmare compared to the warmth of this room.
But then, just as quickly as the joy had arrived, a freezing wave of realization crashed down on him.
The memories of the 'Shattered Crown' anime suddenly flashed behind his eyes like a horror film.
In the anime, Neo Draven was the firstborn. He was the arrogant young master who got himself killed by the protagonist in the first arc. His death was the catalyst. It drove Cassian to war. It drove Sylvia to madness.
And the siblings...
Neo's breath hitched. His eyes widened in silent horror.
In the original timeline, after Cassian died on the battlefield and Sylvia was executed in the capital for treason, the Emperor's forces didn't stop. They scoured the Draven estate. They hunted down Neo's younger siblings—the ones who had barely learned how to walk—and systematically executed them to eradicate the Draven bloodline and prevent future rebellions.
The children who were supposed to be born from this beautiful, loving moment... were destined to be murdered in cold blood.
"Neo?" Sylvia asked, her smile faltering slightly as she noticed the sudden paleness of his cheeks.
"Are you alright, sweetie? You look frightened."
Neo snapped back to reality. He looked at his mother's worried face. He looked at his father, the strongest man in the Empire, who was currently looking at his wife with such boundless love it made Neo's chest physically ache.
The death flags hadn't disappeared. They had multiplied.
If he failed, if he let the plot of the world take its natural course, his new little brother or sister was going to die.
A heavy stillness settled over Neo's soul. The panic and fear didn't consume him; instead, they condensed, crystallizing into something infinitely harder.
He wasn't going to run anymore. He wasn't going to try and hide in the background.
"I'm okay, Mama," Neo said, dropping the high-pitched toddler act completely. He squeezed his mother's hands back, his deep blue eyes burning with an intense, unwavering resolve that made Cassian blink in surprise.
Neo offered them a bright, genuine smile.
"I'm going to be the best big brother in the whole world," Neo vowed, looking directly into Cassian's eyes.
"I promise. I will protect them from everything. Nobody is ever going to hurt our family."
Cassian stared at his five-year-old son, feeling a strange shiver run down his spine. Those weren't the words of a child. It sounded like a blood oath sworn by a seasoned veteran.
The Duke smiled, his chest swelling with fierce pride.
"I know you will, Neo. Together, we will make sure the Draven name stands unbreakable."
As his parents pulled him into a warm, joyful embrace to celebrate the new life growing in the mansion, Neo stared blankly over his father's broad shoulder.
He had an offensive skill. He had an interface tracking his growth. He was engaged to the Final Boss. And now, he had a sibling to protect.
The world of Shattered Crown wanted a tragedy.
'Bring it on,' Neo thought, his tiny fists clenching tightly.
'Let the protagonist come. Let the Emperor scheme. If anyone tries to touch this family, I will burn their entire plot to the ground.'