The Shamed Bastard Son Who Tamed a Forbidden Angel

Chapter 1: The Awakening Ceremony

“Look, that’s Harry Klein—the illegitimate child with tainted blood!”

“How does he even have the nerve to attend the summoning ceremony? I heard he doesn’t even know who his father is!”

The venomous whispers curled around Harry like thorns.

He forced himself not to listen.

Instead, he fixed his gaze on the summoning altar ahead, pouring all his focus into the ceremony that was about to begin.

Decades ago, this world had been invaded by fiends from beyond the realms.

Humanity had nearly fallen—

until they awakened the power to summon bonded beasts, creatures that could stand against the invaders and turn the tide of war.

And today…

was the day Harry and the others of his generation would summon their own.

But just before the ceremony could begin, an aged voice suddenly rang out.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Elder Margaret Klein's voice rang out across the plaza, silencing the murmuring crowd. Her silver hair was pulled back severely, accentuating the sharp angles of her face. "Before we begin, the Klein family has an announcement."

Harry's stomach tightened. He knew what was coming.

"Harry Klein," she continued, her lips curling into a cruel smile, "is no longer recognized as a member of this family. At eighteen, he is legally an adult. We have fulfilled our obligation to the runaway daughter's bastard son. From this moment forward, he has no claim to the Klein name or resources."

Laughter rippled through the crowd. Harry's cousin John stepped forward, his perfectly tailored suit gleaming in the sunlight. His handsome face twisted into a sneer.

"Look at him," John said loudly, gesturing at Harry with exaggerated disgust. "Standing there like a beaten dog waiting for scraps. You really think someone with your gutter blood could awaken anything worth mentioning? You'll probably summon a cockroach—it'd suit you perfectly."

"That's generous," chimed in another cousin, Amanda. "I was thinking more along the lines of a sewer rat. At least it'd match where he belongs."

The crowd erupted in laughter. Harry stood motionless, his face blank. Years of servitude had taught him to swallow his rage, to let insults wash over him like rain. His jaw tightened imperceptibly—the only sign of the storm raging inside him.

"Enough chatter," Elder Margaret let out a mocking laugh, the corners of his lips curling with disdain.

“What could a worthless mongrel like him possibly awaken?”

His gaze swept over Harry, cold and dismissive.

“Why waste resources on trash like this?”

“Better to give the opportunity to someone more deserving.”

But the ceremony master, an elderly man named Professor Walsh, cleared his throat.

"Impossible, Mrs Klein. According to federal law, all eighteen-year-olds present must participate, regardless of family status."

Elder Margaret's eyes flashed with irritation, but she waved her hand. "Fine. Let the bastard have his turn. It'll be amusing to watch him fail."

Harry took a deep breath, this was his only chance.

If he couldn’t awaken a powerful beast, then for the rest of his life, he would only ever be a lowly, despised illegitimate child.

He stepped onto the platform and placed his hand on the summoning stone at the center.

At that moment, no matter how much they hated him, everyone fell silent.

Time passed, second by second.

But the summoning stone showed no reaction at all.

Murmurs began to spread through the crowd.

Elder Margaret let out a cold laugh. “As expected. Trash with impure blood can’t summon anything decent.”

Despair slowly crept into Harry’s heart.

Was he really that useless?

Did he not even have the right to summon the weakest beast?

Just then, he suddenly felt something strange.

Looking down, he realized it was the ring on his finger.

It was an old, plain ring.

His mother had told him it was the only thing his father left behind. If one day she was gone, this would be his only clue to finding him.

So Harry had never taken it off.

But now, during the summoning, the ring reacted!

Harry was startled. A faint light flowed out from the ring and into the summoning stone.

Because everyone was standing far away, they thought it was simply the stone finally responding.

Seeing this, Elder Margaret sneered. “Took him long enough. Whatever comes out, it’s definitely trash.”

Suddenly, the summoning stone burst into a brilliant light.

The crowd gasped collectively as the brilliance intensified, forcing many to shield their eyes.

When the glow finally receded, a figure stood beside Harry—a tall woman with flowing silver hair and six luminous wings spread majestically behind her. Her presence radiated power, and her eyes held the wisdom of ages.

"L-Legendary rank!" someone shouted.

"An angel! He summoned a Legendary angel!"

The plaza erupted into chaos. Voices overlapped in disbelief and shock. Harry stared at the celestial being beside him, his heart pounding. For the first time in his life, something had gone right.

Elder Margaret's face contorted with fury. Beside her, John's father—Victor Klein—clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white. His face had gone purple with rage and jealousy.

Just as excitement rose in Harry’s chest, a mysterious voice suddenly sounded in his mind:

“Congratulations, Host. You have summoned a Legendary Angel. The Infinite Beast Evolution System has been activated!”

“Current contractable summon: Fifth Order Seraph, Seraphiel.”

“Rank: Legendary (advancement restricted).”

“Flaw: Holy energy flow is unstable. Unable to reach true Legendary rank.”

“Solution: 1 Sacred Heart Grass, 20g Radiant Holy Stone powder…”

Harry was stunned as he read the information.

He didn’t expect that this seemingly powerful Mythical Angel would have such a fatal flaw—it couldn’t even reach its true level.

“Thank god I have this system!”

A thought flashed through his mind.

“…Is this what my father left me?”

"Impossible!"

At this moment, John snarled, stomping toward the altar.

"That worthless piece of dirt can't have awakened Legendary! He's nobody! He's less than the mud on my boots!"

"The crystal doesn't lie," Professor Walsh said quietly, though his own hands trembled slightly. "The summoning is legitimate."

John's face twisted with humiliation and fury. "Then I'll show you what real power looks like! If that gutter rat can get Legendary, then I'll get Mythic! I'm a pure-blooded Klein—the bloodline runs true in my veins, not polluted like his!"

He practically threw himself at the summoning crystal, his hand slamming down on its surface.

At that moment, the crystal runes erupted with an even brighter light than before.

The crowd burst into exclamations.

“Wait—what’s going on?!”

“Could it be… something even stronger than Legendary?!”

John suddenly laughed loudly. “Hahaha! This is the power of the true Klein bloodline! That illegitimate son just got lucky—what I summoned is ten thousand times stronger than his!”

As the light gradually faded, John shouted proudly, “Come out! Let them see what a once-in-a-thousand-years genius of the Klein family has summoned!”

But when the light fully disappeared, everyone froze.

Standing beside the summoning stone…

was a little girl, no more than four feet tall, with pale skin and enormous eyes. She wore a simple white dress, and most strikingly—she had no wings at all.

The silence was deafening.

"What... what is this?" John whispered, his voice cracking.

Professor Walsh leaned forward, squinting at the girl. He pulled out his identification lens, studying her carefully. His frown deepened. "I... I can't identify her rank. She's not registering on any scale I know."

"Below Common rank?" someone whispered.

"Complete trash!"

"Even worse than a normal summon!"

John's face went from pale to crimson in an instant. Humiliation burned through him like acid. This couldn't be happening. Not to him. Not in front of everyone.

The little girl looked up at him with her large, tear-filled eyes. "Master, I—"

"Shut up!" John's hand flew out before he could think, striking her hard across the face.