This was my second life.

My new name changed, I can't remember what it once was but now it is Omar Centurion. Weird ass name, but it was the one my parents chose for me and I can't change it so I can just live with my parents sucking at naming. If I looked into a mirror, the image of a young boy with black hair and deep purple eyes would gaze back at me.

I was currently just six years old.

One day, while I was playing around in my room, I suddenly recalled all the memories of my previous life, which didn't help me in anyway since I at most now know I am fucked.

I am in Rising of the Shield Hero world, as shown by me living in the Melromark Kingdom and the first princess, that was 5 years old now, being named Malty Melromark. Well, her true name should be Bitch or Whore, but that will come later I guess.

Being in a fantasy world filled with animal eared girls sounds nice, right? WRONG, this is a world destined to destruction in a bit over a decade. Mine and this world's best chance of survival depends on a pervert, a loner, a self proclaimed hero of Justice, and a guy with serious anger issues. Three out of these four are incompetent to the extreme and my life DEPENDS on them? This is absolutely BS.

Not that I can do anything right now seeing as I am merely six years old and instead of being taken to train to become lord or fight I am just shoved in a room with toys to play. There was a large variety of said toys scattered around me as well.

"…this room is big." I mutter as I stare at the large room where only I live in.

Certainly, from what I can see, I at least was definitely born into a noble's household, which is a relief as being in a medieval magical world still means it is medieval so being a servant or slave would majorly suck balls.

I am the only heir of the Centurion Duke house, the dukedom to the East of the kingdom making us have a large sea area and some other things (not really sure what exactly since I am a kid and depend on the maids talking to get intel). Not that my parents seem to try and use that since this land was where the last war against the Demihumans was fought and the signs of decimation were still everywhere and there is hardly any industry here.

Looking around I think about what is to come and sigh, this dukedom is far from enough and we have little military force due to various reasons.

In my previous life, I loved to work on kingdom-building games, I love that sort of stuff so I managed to find out some of what is happening to the Dukedom as it is if only to distract myself. I love that sort of stuff, I would always rather play those or RPGs where managing things and improving several people is the correct choice of how to do things, so seeing the state of this dukedom is in a truly bad state.

"In any case, this seems like I will have my work cut out for me in the future …huh?"

I was just thinking about what sort of preparations I would have to prepare for what is to come (including killing the Whip Hero since he is a cancer for this world) when something had fallen on my head.

It was a letter.

It was carefully sealed, but I slowly opened the seal and opened it to see what was inside since this whole situation is already quite bizarre.

Inside was a letter that read:

'Heyo, how ya doing? Good, bad, well I don't care either way so just say whatever you want, mortal. Anyway, my bitch of a sister is intending to devour this world because, and get this, she wants to level up once more just so she can finally be higher level than me and show off during the family meeting! Crazy, right? Anyway, I noticed that she sent some people to this world and is also planning to make some other worlds fuse one another forcefully instead of the natural process just so she can level up faster for the family reunion. I don't want to hear her talking about how she is better than the piece of shit she really is. As such, do try and save this world, kay? I messed around a bit and managed to make the Fates agree to let you get three Essences as to make your path a bit smoother, in exchange you won't be able to become a Hero, so there is that. Consider this your starting bonus, use those three Essences wisely as I won't be helping you any further than that. I hate my bitch sister yammering about how great she is, but I hate hard work and effort more so take care and make me proud of the two hours of work I did. Bye.'

... Well, an asshole R.O.B. sending me here is obviously confirmed now I guess.

While I was hunched over reading, my parents entered into the room along with a servant.

Cliff Sera Centurion.

Darcy Sera Centurion.

They walked over to me with smiles, and handed over something akin to a glass plate.

A document was inside the glass plate.

What was written there was the transfer of titles, territory, and all other rights over to me.

Why would they suddenly hand something like this over to a child? Is it to tell me I will take care of all this when I get older?

"Father, what is this?"

Calling this man father was honestly difficult. I barely knew the man, he was far too busy with his slave harem and enjoying spending money, much like mother who has her own slave harem and does just about the same. I can't even say we ever had a proper conversation up to this day, the only time I've seen them together and with me as a 'family' was during a visit of some priests of the Church of the Three Heroes.

Perhaps noticing my complexion, the man who I wasn't accustomed to calling father started to explain himself as to why he came. However, the explanation itself was quite outrageous and ridiculous no matter how I looked at it.

"Omar, happy sixth birthday. My present to you is the Centurion house in its entirety."

In its entirety.

He just said that he was going to give a six-year-old child complete custody over his territory and all other assets.

... Is he insane?

Sure, I have the mind of a fully functional adult, but it still was beyond absurd to do something ridiculous like that. Especially considering the war between us and two stronger nations ended not even two years ago and the lands still have plenty of bandits as this was the battlefield of the conflict. So many soldiers of all three sides roam this place that now safety is shit, we don't produce crops, mining stopped as the mines were flooded during the war and father didn't want to spend the money fixing them, and to complete the shitshow our ships are only military ones and we have barely a third of what we had before the war.

Sure, we have the spoils of war in the form of gold that we earned from our contribution and our territory is the largest in the whole of Melromark nobility, but something tells me father and mother won't care about the later and will take all they can of the former before running away.

My mother, Darcy then handed over a catalog.

"This is my present, I'll purchase a premium slave to take care of you. So here, take a look and choose something you like."

Darcy wanted to buy me a slave to do the work SHE should do as a mother. I want to say it is disappointing, but I honestly am not sure I ever expected anything from her after a while.

As I opened up the received catalog, several pictures with an explanation beside it for me to read

"W-what is this?"

Darcy smiled and started to explain how to use it.

"Just pick a slave that tickles your fancy, so you might as well choose one that's cute as well."

It was almost as if I was choosing a character for a game, which is totally absurd.

They are likely running away from the work of recuperating the land to a prosperous state and running away with their slaves and all the gold they can. The two are lazy fuck-ups that are unsuitable to any sort of work, much less hard work like management of lands this big and in this bad a state.

If this is the last help I can count on them for then I will not go cheap. I study the catalog for someone with good experience in management or with the correct selection of skills, those are certainly the most relevant for me.

In the end, I chose a green-haired dog-type demi-human. She is not that physically beautiful and is between a therianthrope and a normal demi-human. Her level is not overly high being below level 40 so her fighting ability is questionable, but that is not important for me.

She is a former scholar of Siltvelt who failed to pay her debts and became a slave. She is extremely qualified if what it says here is true as she even worked as tutor to the Genmu family there, not only that, she is an excellent doctor and has great experience in the medical field.

"... Oh dear, and here I thought you have good tastes." Mother said before turning to father. "He chose a ugly one instead of one with a nice body, what a waste."

"Don't worry." Father said. "He is grown up enough to make his own decisions, even if he doesn't know what is good for him yet. He will likely learn better with experience."

... Shithead, I will need all the help I possibly can if you are throwing an entire dukedom to me just like that. What I need is not some pussy I won't even be able to use until I am over twice my age, instead, I need someone to help me deal with the mess you are throwing my way!

The elderly butler standing behind them– Brian, was sending over looks that seemed to say he had complex feelings about all this.

I could feel his pain of having to deal with two absolute idiots just like that.

As I thought, this is quite unusual, isn't it?

Confirming my choices, I gave mother a sample of my blood to complete the contract as she will take care of it for me. This means Brian will take care of it as mother would either be too high on drugs, alcohol, or dicks to deal with anything that would need her head to do, besides taking things in.

Honestly, learn to close the door woman!

Regardless of it, I couldn't help but feel discomfort at my parents' attitude at giving me all this. I had to make sure so I gathered my courage, I looked up at the two of them and asked,

"Are you going somewhere?"

Cliff was rubbing his jaw.

"Somethings happened recently and your mother and I will have to take care of important business in Zeltbul kingdom. As we will leave for a long time we decided to just let you take care of things here in a more official way so you wouldn't have to search for us for any confirmation."

Seeing that they really were running away from debt and work, I just sighed at their sheer incompetence and started to sign the electronic documents that would transfer over their status and territory to me.

Then Darcy showed me another document.

"Oh yes, Omar, sign here too please."

It was a document that said I'd send them living expenses over at Zeltbul kingdom every year.

They were giving everything to me while they themselves would live out at luxury in my expenses.

…they're really pathetic.

I want to say no, but with how these two parasites are they would likely return the moment the Dukedom starts to improve unless they are living well far away.

"Of course!"

Only my face was smiling as I look at this trash.

Even so, I signed the documents that seemed to push high expectations for my future since they were throwing all the work on me, a kid of six years old.

Centurion main estate.

A Duke at the age of six, I had become a man who ruled over an entire dukedom the size of Hokaido. It was honestly a lot of land with plenty of it being unexplored or badly used.

"Now I'm one of those in power, that is not a bad feeling."

Brian brought over a report to me, who was sitting in an oversized chair in my father's former office.

"Omar, your slave has arrived."

"Understood, let her in."

"As you wish– enter."

The door to the office opened, and the slave that I saw in the catalog walked inside.

Her movements were precise with just a hint of elegance, as expected of a former noble I guess.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Master, my name is Cheadele Yorkshire and I hope to be able to help you moving forward."

She sure seems capable enough.

"It is good to make you acquaintance as well, miss Cheadele. My name is Omar Centurion, Duke of the Centurion house, and I am sure that, with your qualifications, you would be more than appropriate for what I desire of you." I said with a smile before explaining. "As it should be obvious with me calling myself 'Duke', things here are... complicated, and I have need of people with the most excellent administrative abilities to teach me and help me guide this land properly. I hope you can fulfill my expectations." I explaining.

Brian, however, intervened.

"Young master, while I approve of you obtaining external help you should pay close attention to not show yourself being overly fond of demihumans. No offense, miss Cheadele, but the Dukedom is already in an extremely bad position and we can't afford to offend the church of the more extreme nobles." Brian said.

Cheadele wanted to speak, but I spoke first.

"What I do is my business. If they have a problem with how I speak with my people then they can go and fuck themselves. Besides, this Dukedom has freedom of religion so the Three Heroes Church can either just become one of many or fuck off. Just continue with the report about the territory."

Brian, while clearly not approving of my words fully, proceeded to flip through some pages as he continued to explain the situation of the territory to me.

The whole thing was very comprehensive and, by the end of it, I could only sigh.

"My parents fucked us over, huh."

"I wouldn't put it in quite such harsh terms, but yes we are not in the most ideal situation." Brian said and I almost chuckled at his words.

'Not ideal' and 'completely disastrous' are about the same right now.

"Brian, you show Cheadele around the mansion for now and find somewhere for her to rest. I will think about it a bit before we continue these talks. I believe I have a way to find us help to deal with this situation, but it would need you two to be absolutely quiet about what I do and to not ask unnecessary questions." I explain and they nod their heads slowly.

Seeing them leave I open the system pannel to see the system pannel. In it there is the Essences options, I open them and start to look over them.

There is a lot of powerful ones. Many focused on combat, magic, research, sex, and more.

All are ignored, naturally.

I don't want to be a frontline fighter, what I want is to be able to make an army able to deal with the Waves of Calamity since I don't want to put the fate of this world, and my life, in the hands of four teenagers who are 3 out of 4 completely incompetent. Sure, I intend to have personal strength as well since I don't want to be killed by a single slime of something, but I would much rather have an entire elite army between me and something like the Spirit Turtoise, thank you very much.

Considering this I look at the other options, searching for the more ideal ones.

It takes a while but I find what I was looking for. Three perfect options for what I desire.

Essence of the Grandmaster:

- Your stat improvement when leveling up is the peak possible one with all corrections viable;

- Your skills grow at 10 times the speed;

- You master knowledge of books and theory 20 times faster with no chance of forgetting what you learn;

- You can see through the talents and potentials of others;

- Anyone taugth by you will learn their skills and improve on them 15 times faster than normal;

This essence is for a single reason, I don't fucking know shit about this world. I need to learn, and I need to learn fast if I intend to be able to prosper here.

Not only that, the capacity of seeing through the potential of others and teach them faster means their skills would be that much greater and that much faster. If I want to obtain elites able to help me in saving my hide, this is certainly a good option.

Next.

Essence of the Blank:

- Your potential becomes limitless. You can learn any discipline or skillset, even if you shouldn't be capable of it, without forgetting it and practice them into mastery, no matter how many you learn. Any abilities you have from other Essences will increase where possible and develop in ways beyond their initial purposes.

That one is obvious in my eyes. Sure, I don't intend to actually fight on the frontlines, far from it as far as I am concerned, but I would rather nor be limited by some pesky upper limit. Besides, I want to learn as much as possible from all over the world and races, even abilities I shouldn't be able to.

I want to learn them to mastery, so I can teach them and get others to use them for me when the time is right. I want something between me and the later stages of the waves, and the stronger the army the better.

And the final one, well, it sounds bad for me to have it but it would be useful.

Essence of the King

- Peak human body;

- Endless Stamina and Willpower;

- A signature bloodline with benefits up to your discretion. Bloodline will be inherited by your descendants;

- Mastery of weapons and unarmed battles;

- Immense skill at warfare, be it from logistics to actual battles;

- Mastery of economics, logistics, politics, and any other thing necessary to run a functional power;

- Charisma worthy of a king that rules upon hundreds of millions;

Yeah, the name of this mastery is just not good. I mean, it almost sounds like I am aiming to become King, but that would mean that I would either have to marry Melty (who would be only 14 by CANON time and would be almost a decade my junior) or Malty, also known as Bitch and Whore. The only other way of becoming king would be if I was to revolt, but with the waves coming just an absolute idiot would try to start a war now.

... That reminds me, in one of the Redo of the Spear Hero novels the king of Melromark actually DID start a war in the middle of the waves, all while his wife was in enemy territory. I would hope I could say he wanted to usurp her position as ruler by having her die in enemy hands, but I honestly think he is just too stupid to be able to do that so I won't insult my intelligence by actually believing such stupidity as that king having brain cells to double digits.

Regardless, with this I should be able to inspire loyalty and, more importantly, I will quickly learn and master what I need if I intend to save these lands.

It was bothersome, but it was all I could really do right now.

Selecting what I had to I closed my eyes as I felt something change, and not really change, inside me.

... I guess all these talks about mastery are more about me learning them into mastery faster. If that is so then it is not like I will instantly know all of that or be some form of a super soldier or an all-knowing being.

Thinking as much I call for Brian.

"Yes, my Duke." Brian said respectfully and I nod at him.

"Brian, bring me all the books we have about management as well as books about our finances and anything else you can. After that take miss Chedale with you and have her help you with the management of the lands while I try and learn all I possibly can about it all." I said clearly.

"... I understand, but if you intend to learn about such matters wouldn't an instructor about them or perhaps me teaching you be better?" Brian said and I shake my head.

"No, our finances are already in a bad position seeing as we lack proper ways to generate new funds and a prosperous economy. We can't waste money with hiring expensive tutors for things I can learn by myself, and you already are the only one that is actually managing the lands, as such I can't have your time wasted teaching me. Use miss Chedale to help with the management as much as possible to keep the status quo, I will be ready after a little while."

"This Brian understands, I will do my utmost to help you with whatever I can." Brian said and I nod. He leaves to go find me books while I wait.

I have no idea how long it will take for me to learn what I need and plan our next step, but we will succeed. We will definitely succeed!

AN:

So, in case it wasn't clear, this is the basics of the condition of his lands:

- The dukedom was a purely militaristic area that had worked on combat for the last few dozen years, there is hardly any industry in it because of that as fights happened everywhere and any industry was hardpressed to be established;

- Due to so much fighting little population is left around as several villages were destroyed;

- With the end of the war the military was mostly disbanded as it was quite expensive to maintain, but these former soldiers turned to banditry and stopped the flow of goods;

- Due to the war many dungeons were born (will be explained how later) and were not managed properly so the number of monsters is absurdly high compared to most other areas in this world;

- The Duke that should have worked in fixing this ran away with his wife, leaving his son (the MC) to deal with all the work while having to send him annual payments for the said Duke to maintain a wealthy lifestyle;

- Due to miss management there is a lot of corruption in the government of the Dukedom;

- We have 11 years before CANON and the start of the Waves of Calamity that can destroy this world, we will have a long walk until CANON but we can find and explore new characters and known CANON characters more.

Hope you guys enjoyed it, please tell me in the comments what you guys think of it.

Thes are Omar's current stats:

Name - Omar Centurion;

Race - Human;

Level - 1;

HP - 80/80

MP - 40/40

Str - 6

Int - 5

Spd - 6

Stamina - Infinite

Charisma - 6

Skills:

- Kingly Aura - gained from the King Essence. Passive Effect - all stats upon leveling up increase 80% more than others in the same conditions, unlock Charisma stat. Active Effect - Give a momentary boost to charisma of 200% for (MP used*3 seconds).

- Grandmaster Presence - gained from the Grandmaster Essence. Passive effect - learn and teaching speed for any and all things faster by 1500%, all stats can grow due to repetitive execution of activities related to said stat, anyone being taught gain a status and growth correction bonus (High). Active Effect - Can detect someone's talent and discern what it is, the stronger the talent for an area the more MP one must use to identify what exactly that area is but the easier to detect that the person is talented.