The following days had been frustrating for Edward. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't perceive the flow of Qi.
His baby body still had underdeveloped muscles, so the Qi flow was minimal.
He had tried hard to do something, moving his body in every possible way in a desperate attempt to build some muscle.
To Eliza, watching from the outside, he looked like a fussy baby, flailing his little arms and legs in every direction. She found it amusing; every time Edward started to squirm like that in front of her, she would come play with him.
She did all the classic baby games, apparently, this type of interaction was universal. She blew raspberries on his belly, hid her face with her hands and then revealed it with a "Peek-a-boo!", and made silly mouth sounds.
To Edward, it was all ridiculous. Nana didn't help, laughing and teasing him.
But then something started to happen. As the days passed and those same scenes repeated, the connection between him and his adoptive mother deepened.
As that connection grew, so did the emotional bridge that linked them, and with it, the Chakra flow.
[Is it just me, or has my Chakra flow been increasing as Eliza's feelings for me grow?] Edward asked Nana.
[It's not just you. That's how Chakra flow works,] Nana replied.
[Does this connection have to be built only from positive feelings?] Edward asked again.
[No. In the spiritual plane, there's no such distinction between good and bad, positive or negative. A connection is a connection,] Nana said.
That gave Edward an idea. Nana had previously implemented a new system function to shut off his consciousness during breastfeeding, could she create other types of functions?
[Nana, can you implement a reputation system, based on the emotional connections people form with me?] Edward asked.
[Yes, I can implement something like that,] Nana replied. Edward could tell from the tone of her voice in his mind that she was excited.
[Can you group people and analyze their emotional connections to me collectively, to determine what my reputation is among that specific group?] Edward asked.
[Great idea! That way we'll know if, in a specific town or village, you're admired or hated,] Nana was clearly getting more and more excited.
[Hold on, I'll implement your idea and be right back.]
Before Edward could say anything else, he felt Nana disappear into the Mental Helm. He let her work in peace.
It was oddly satisfying for him. In the past, if he had an idea like that, he would have had to do all the implementation himself.
Now he just had to come up with the idea and leave all the hard work to Nana, at least when it came to the System.
Now that he understood the importance of cultivating emotional bonds in this world, he would try harder to connect with people.
Following that new resolution, he tried to interact with Eliza.
She was making bizarre lip sounds to try to make Edward laugh. He tried to imitate her.
At first, he just blew some air without producing any sound. Of course, Eliza already found that adorable and smiled every time he tried.
When he finally managed to make a sound, it wasn't quite the one Eliza was making.
He had blown a bit of saliva from his mouth, forming little bubbles that popped with noise.
Edward felt ridiculous doing that.
But when he saw Eliza burst into laughter, and realized his plan was working, he was satisfied.
"How can you be such a cute little baby? Mommy's sweet baby!"
Eliza said in a childish voice as she picked Edward up in her arms.
He felt protected in her arms. In recent days, it wasn't just her feelings for him that had grown, his had for her, too.
He had accepted her as his mother, and she had accepted him as her son.
The same couldn't be said about the Duke. Edward had seen him only a few times. But he noticed he was clearly frustrated about something.
He had a hypothesis, perhaps the Duke's frustration had to do with Edward's class: Wizard Engineer.
Edward still didn't know exactly what that was, but he liked the name.
At that moment, as he was deepening his bond with Eliza, the Duke arrived for another visit.
"Good afternoon, my love," the Duke greeted his wife with a kiss.
Edward wished they wouldn't do that kind of thing in front of him.
He tried to roll his eyes, but all he could manage was to shake his head from side to side.
"Are you jealous of mommy? Don't worry, she has enough love for both of us." The Duke said while pinching Edward's cheek.
He seemed different that day, as if something good had happened.
"Your cousin's letter will bear fruit. I had a good meeting with Marquis Persius today." The Duke began recounting his day to Eliza.
"Was their intention really what we discussed?" she asked.
Had they discussed something when Edward wasn't around? He was dying of curiosity.
"Even better. He's willing to name Edward as his legitimate heir." the Duke said.
What?! They had to explain that better. Edward's future was on the line, he needed to know.
"Are you sure? Couldn't that be dangerous for Edward?" Eliza sounded concerned, which made Edward uneasy.
"Your aunt helped me with that point," the Duke started to explain, then paused to pour himself some water.
Come on, spit it out already, Edward thought.
"Since it's for his grandson, your father decided to be generous. He'll send your younger brother with a troop of fifteen knights," the Duke finally added.
That meant Edward might be in some kind of danger.
"Still, is it really wise to provoke the Archduke like this?" Eliza asked.
Edward grew more and more confused, trying to make sense of all this.
"Edward will become the legitimate heir of Lemeria, and the presence of your brother with a troop will make it clear that your father considers him a Lionheart. The Archduke wouldn't try anything against Edward." the Duke replied.
Why would the Archduke want to do anything to him? Edward didn't like where this was going.
"Wouldn't your friend be disappointed to see you using his son in your political games?" Eliza insisted.
She clearly didn't like the idea either.
"On the contrary. Not getting Senate authorization to hunt that damn dragon was one of the Commander's greatest frustrations." the Duke replied.
"If he were still alive, fine. But without him, who's going to kill that dragon? Didn't Sir Hertheng refuse already?" Eliza asked.
Now there was a dragon involved. Things were getting stranger by the minute for Edward.
"It's not like we're leaving tomorrow. We'll prepare for years. Edward will need to be twelve to formalize the marriage contract, remember?"
Marriage? They wanted to marry Edward off to someone?
"The important thing is that now we don't need the Archduke's or the Senate's permission. Persius has the right to reclaim Lemeria, and with Edward marrying his daughter and becoming his heir, your father and I can support him."
If Edward had understood correctly, they wanted to marry him to someone so they could kill a dragon without needing permission.
Were these people crazy or something?
"Just promise me you'll protect Edward," Eliza had truly grown attached to him.
Edward felt comforted by that realization, but he still didn't know how to feel about everything he had just discovered.
[Ding!]
The system's alarm chime caught Edward's attention.
[Reputation System Activated]
Now that Nana had a name and her personality had developed, the system's message voice had changed to a male voice.
That caught Edward by surprise.
[Come on, test the reputation system so we can see how it turned out]Nana said impatiently in his head.
[Alright, alright. I'll test it.]
Edward didn't need instructions, he instinctively knew how each function of the system worked.
He focused on Eliza, and a screen appeared before him with some information:
Name: Eliza Lionheart Demetria
Relation: Adoptive mother
Status: Excellent
Nature: Maternal love
[Still needs a few tweaks, but it's a good first prototype, isn't it?] Nana said, clearly hard on herself.
[It's excellent. You did a great job] he praised her.
They weren't inside the Mental Helm, so he couldn't see her face, but somehow he knew she appreciated the compliment.
He wanted to keep testing the new function, so he tried it with the Duke:
Name: Duke James of Demetria
Relation: Adoptive father
Status: Fair
Nature: Neutral
Edward focused on his Chakra flow. Having a sensory reference for the flow coming from each adoptive parent helped him visualize the difference in emotional connection status with each of them.
He could clearly feel the difference in Chakra flows being absorbed through the emotional bridges with each of them and form a clear image of red energy flowing into his heart.
The red energy flow from Eliza was much greater. His relationship with her had clearly evolved more than with the Duke.
But he couldn't worry about that now.
His top priority was to learn to sense the Qi flow, after all, it seemed dragons and dangerous political intrigues awaited him in the future.