Rest

Rest is a reincarnated person: in his past life he was a Japanese high-schooler raised by a drunkard father and a neglectful mother, killed by his own father's knife. In this world he was born to a commoner maid whom the aristocrat Lucas Eberun raped. After giving birth she was thrown out of the manor with a little money and raised Rest alone, working at a bakery, until she died of an epidemic when he was ten.

At the temple appraisal ceremony — to which his newly-appeared father dragged him as an infant — his mother prayed to the goddess that the child be "manaless," since otherwise the aristocrat would take the boy for himself. Already self-aware and born able to control mana, Rest deliberately suppressed it, and the priest declared him "without mana." In reality his gift is a reincarnation bonus: a limitless, inexhaustible reservoir of mana and the ability to reproduce any spell after seeing it just once.

After his mother's death the law forced a blood relative to take in the orphan, and Lucas reluctantly collected the twelve-year-old Rest — only to deny political rivals a pretext to accuse him of cruelty. In the Eberun manor Rest was housed in the stable, fed scraps he had to eat off the floor on all fours, and used daily by his half-brother Cedric as a living target for combat spells. Rest endured it all, feigning weakness, secretly copying every spell Cedric cast and honing his own skill at night by hunting monsters in the forest.

Deciding that the best revenge was to rise above his tormentors, Rest set his sights on the Aiwood Royal Academy and on becoming a court mage greater than his father. Since his father would never grant him a noble's recommendation, his path lay through the "commoner quota." The chance came when Cedric lured the Rosemary sisters — Viola and Primula — into a dangerous forest: Rest secretly rescued the noble girls, and House Rosemary (whose father is the chief court mage) took him under its protection, providing recommendation, schooling and support.

Thus begins Rest's ascent: he saves daughters of noble houses named after flowers, who are the first to uncover his secret and grow attached to him; he enters the Magic Department that Cedric failed to enter; and step by step he rises above the family that once treated him like a dog. Coldly calculating toward his enemies, Rest is nonetheless unfailingly kind to those who were good to him — his mother's old fellow servants, the girls he rescued.

Rest is calculating and patient: able to kill his tormentors at any moment, he deliberately "kept his fangs hidden" for years, waiting for adulthood so he could rise by legitimate means and take revenge by surpassing his enemies in status and power rather than killing them. Feigning weakness and helplessness, he inwardly holds the aristocrats' cruelty in cold contempt.

Yet he has a conscience and is kind to the defenceless: he could not abandon strangers to their fate in a dangerous forest, though he cared nothing for whether Cedric perished there. To the old servants who secretly fed and healed him, and to the girls he rescues, Rest is sincerely warm and grateful.

He also has a mischievous, teasing side: while delivering his "comeuppance" to the Eberun parents, he is surprised by how much he enjoys it ("turns out I'm pretty spiteful").

Rest's chief gift is a limitless, inexhaustible reservoir of mana, hidden behind his official verdict of being "manaless." From birth he has been able to control his mana with precision, including suppressing it entirely so as to register as "zero" at appraisal.

His second reincarnation gift is the instant reproduction of any spell seen just once. He acquired most of his combat magic while serving as Cedric's living target — fireballs, water spheres, the "lightning ball" and more — and his copies are noticeably stronger than the originals. By coating his body in mana he minimizes damage from attacks while merely pretending to be hurt.

Beyond combat spells he commands utility and everyday magic: "purification," healing magic (mending his own wounds to hide his beatings), "night vision," "lock-opening," "presence detection," and "wind control" (including to carry distant sounds to his ears). Some of these he learned as a child from a vagrant who taught him in exchange for bread. Later, under House Rosemary's protection, the former court mage and butler Diebl trains him in real martial combat and barrier magic.

After his mother's death when he was ten, Rest ends up in the Eberun manor, where for four years he endures humiliation, gathers his strength, and resolves to become a court mage greater than his father. The key to his ascent is the Aiwood Royal Academy, the only route to high state office.

Because his father will grant no noble recommendation, Rest can only enter through the "commoner quota," which requires a recommendation from a person of rank. Rescuing the Rosemary sisters from the forest secures him such a patron: House Rosemary (whose head is the chief court mage) takes him under guardianship, strips the Eberuns of his custody, and supports his preparation.

Rest passes the entrance exam and enters the Magic Department — the very one Cedric failed. In the chapter where he arrives at the Eberun house as House Rosemary's envoy, he triumphantly informs his former "parents" of his admission, decisively inverting the old hierarchy. From there his path continues with the rescue of further noble girls and his steady ascent.