I wasn’t really sure how long I walked—stumbled. However, I eventually felt several presences converging on the location of where I had released my Spiritual Power. Damn. They worked faster than I thought.
With no desire to get caught, I used Spiritual Perception, extending my ability to sense Spiritual Power outward and locating all the people currently swarming around this area. They appeared before me as little flames of color. There were… quite a few. I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked, but I sensed at least twenty different Spiritual Signatures within the area. A few of them had stopped near the gate, but many more were gathering around the area I had vacated before spreading out.
The longer I ran, the more energy I lost. I eventually realized that I couldn’t run anymore. Placing a hand against the trunk of a thick tree, I cursed this unathletic body. This was another problem I would need to rectify as swiftly as possible. However, for now, I needed to completely hide myself.
Observing my new surroundings for a moment, I realized that I had entered a small area with a pond. It wasn’t deep enough for me to hide in, however. As I looked around some more, I noticed one of the trees had thick roots coiling around it. The roots formed something of a small cage that was only accessible via one part that looked barely big enough for me to slip through.
I went toward the tree and slipped inside. Then I sat on the slightly muddy ground, curled my knees into my chest, and closed my eyes. After taking a deep breath, I used a technique known as Masking to hide my presence. All it really did was hide my Spiritual Signature. It couldn’t hide my body. However, all of these people would be looking for an intense Spiritual Power. With a little luck, they wouldn’t even dare to think someone powerful enough to create a crater in the ground with his Spiritual Power was hiding underneath a tree.
Not long after completely hiding my presence, the sound of footsteps echoed around me. I kept myself calm and listened. The footsteps soon stopped.
“Did you find anything?” asked someone. This person was definitely a man. His voice was deep, slightly raspy, and had a stern quality I’d expect from a leader.
“Nothing,” a younger male voice said. “Sorry, Father.”
The older man sighed. “Tch. I feel like we just wasted our time. What’s more, we ended up snubbing Dante and Rainer to get here before Valence did. If our Leucht Family wasn’t one of the Three Heavenly Families, there’s no way we could get away with slighting them unscathed.”
“Do you think this will affect the marriage talks?” the young man asked in a worried voice.
The older man blew out a slow breath. “It shouldn’t so long as we are smart. I’ll spin this in a way that makes it sound like I was trying to be helpful. In either event, it looks like whoever or whatever released that powerful Spiritual Pressure is now gone. We won’t find anything here. Let’s return home.”
“Yes, Father.”
As the voices disappeared into the distance along with their footsteps, I found myself frowning. Marriage talks. Why did that term leave such a bad taste in my mouth? I seemed to remember something about marriage talks happening a long time ago, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember why it was so important.
A yawn escaped my mouth as I realized how tired I was. I could think about the matter of marriage talks and this Leucht Family later. Right now, I needed some sleep.
Chapter 3
Our First Meeting for the Second Time
When I woke up the next morning, I had a kink in my neck, my back was sore, it felt like my internal organs had been grilled over an open fire, and my backside was soaking wet and covered in mud. Of course, when I opened my eyes and discovered that I was still underneath the tree I’d been hiding in the night before, I realized why I felt this way.
My body groaned in complaint as I crawled out from underneath the tree. A loud cracking noise echoed within the small forested area as I twisted my back and stretched my arms. Ugh, my body felt like crap.
After using Spiritual Perception to scan the area, I discovered that no one was present and began making my way back to Nevaria. It was time to leave. I would have to slip past the guards at the gate, who might be suspicious if they saw a young man covered in mud walking into the city, but I was positive I could do it.
The morning sun rose over my head as I walked back into the city proper.
Kari sat at a long table that could easily seat a dozen people. She was currently the only person present, but she knew that her mom, dads, and brothers would arrive at some point. Well, her brothers would probably show up, but it was anyone’s guess as to whether her parents would, given how busy they were. Her mom might even already be working.
She tried to ignore how lonely this empty dining hall was.
A bowl of porridge with freshly cut fruit sat before her, which she stirred absently with her spoon. The scent of the fruits mixed with the honey used to sweeten the porridge. It tantalized her nose. However, even though she usually loved this smell, her thoughts were somewhere else.
She was thinking about that strange Spiritual Power from the other night. It had woken her up in the middle of the night when she felt it, an intense and powerful but not frightening sensation. Something about it seemed so familiar. Yet no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why this was the case. What was it about that strange Spiritual Power that called to her so?
The doors into the dining room suddenly opened and three people walked in.
First to enter was a young man who was two years her senior. At eighteen years old, this young man was about two heads taller than her, had spiky brown hair, and bright blue eyes. The red tunic he wore hid his broad shoulders and powerfully built chest. Unlike the other two, his eyes possessed the sort of bright arrogance and cockiness that only men who had yet to truly reach maturity possessed.
The other two who entered were older than the first boy, being twenty-three and twenty-five years old respectively. The younger of the two had long red hair tied into a ponytail with a small leather band, green eyes, and a smattering of freckles. Last and eldest of the three was a tall man with dark brown hair, a stern face that appeared to have been chiseled from stone, and the broad shoulders of a warrior. He had a cross scar on his left cheek. Kari didn’t know how he’d gotten it. He never told her.
“Oh! It’s our little sis!” the youngest of the trio exclaimed. Kari grimaced when he directed a condescending smile in her direction. “What are you doing out of your room? Don’t you like to hole yourself up in there like a turtle hiding in its shell?”
Kari twitched as she resisted the slight urge to smack the boy.
“You shouldn’t tease our younger sister, Geirolf,” said the second eldest boy.
Geirolf shrugged. “You’re only defending her because you haven’t been around recently, Mykkel. If you’d seen how mopey she was over this silly talk of marriage, you would understand why I’m talking down to her like this. The girl has been hiding in her room ever since the Leucht Family proposed the idea.”
While Geirolf spoke with Mykkel, the eldest of the three quietly walked into the room and sat down at the end of the table. Kari bit her lip as she looked at her eldest brother. Should she say something? She knew a greeting would be the polite thing to do, but he always frightened her with his chilly demeanor and stoic silence. It felt like anything she said would offend him.
“You should not let this matter bother you,” the eldest said at last.
“E-Elder Brother Earland?” she stuttered.
Earland said nothing more as the door to the kitchen opened and a woman dressed in a white tunic with a black bodice walked out. The woman was pushing a tray that had several bowls of porridge on it. Seeing this woman also caused the other two brothers to take notice and sit down as well.
As her three brothers were served breakfast, Kari tried to finish her meal in a manner that was quick but didn’t seem hurried. She didn’t mind Mykkel. However, she wasn’t comfortable a
round Earland and didn’t really like Geirolf. Like at all. While she did her best to eat swiftly without making it look like she was eating fast so she could leave, the youngest of her brothers began talking again.
“I can’t believe we didn’t find anything about that strange Spiritual Power last night,” he complained, causing her to perk up just a bit. “You’d think someone with that much power wouldn’t just disappear, right?”
Kari slowed her eating to listen despite wanting to leave quickly.
“It is hard to believe that someone releasing so much power could just vanish into thin air like that,” Mykkel admitted as a bowl of porridge was set in front of him. “However, I think I am more interested in finding out what that person was thinking. It’s strange. Why release all that Spiritual Power for what appears to be no reason? Was he trying to get someone’s attention? If so, who’s attention was he attempting to get? And why vanish like that? I don’t understand what the purpose was.”
“Maybe they didn’t have a purpose.” Geirolf shrugged as he dunked his spoon into his porridge, shoved it into his mouth, and chewed while speaking. “They might not even be human, you know. B- and A-Rank Demon Beasts can also release Spiritual Power like that.”
“They were human,” Earland said quietly.
The two brothers and even Kari turned to look at him. The oldest among them was quietly eating his porridge, his expression so calm it appeared cold. His dark eyes contained very little emotion.
“They were what?” asked Geirolf.
“Human,” Earland said. “The person who released that Spiritual Power last night was human. What’s more, the power they unleashed was on par with Mother. I do not know who it was or what they were hoping to accomplish, but you two had better pray they don’t have any malevolence toward the Astralia Royal Family.”
A long pause caused a thick tension to spread around the table. Kari glanced at Earland as she finished off her porridge. Meanwhile, Geirolf and Mykkel had gained tense expressions as though they weren’t sure what to make of their brother’s statement.
“Whatever,” Geirolf said at last. “If that person ever shows up again, I’ll introduce him to the tip of my blade.”
Earland just shrugged as if to say he’d done all he could to steer his brother in the right direction and wouldn’t speak of this anymore.
Now that she was done eating, Kari grabbed her bowl and utensils, walked into the kitchen, and set them on the counter for their maid to wash. She smiled at the woman who served her family as their chef.
“Thank you for breakfast,” she said. “It was very tasty.”
Her chef, a middle-aged woman with dark hair that had several streaks of gray, smiled back. “You’re welcome, Miss.”
Returning to her bedroom, Kari walked into her closet and grabbed her sandals.
I think I will visit the library today, she said to herself as she slipped them on.
After washing myself off with a wet cloth, I changed into a new set of clothes. My brown pants were rough as they rubbed against my skin, and the off-white shirt was several sizes too large. That said, my brown tunic hid the shirt well enough that no one would even realize this. Since I only had one pair of footwear, I was forced to wear the muddy boots from last night. I did my best to wipe them off. However, cleaning them of all the dried mud was a difficult task without the proper cleaning agents and materials.
Once I was dressed, I headed to the library. I wasn’t working today. I checked the schedule to make sure of that, but the library was the best place I could go get my mind in order. On the way there, I bought a loaf of bread for breakfast, which cost me ten valis. Consequently, this nearly emptied my coin purse.
I could not stop myself from sighing. I almost cried when I spent the last bit of money I had on parchment, a quill, and some ink at the nearest general store. Now carrying what I needed, I finished my journey.
Ms. Nadine was there to greet me when I entered the library. She crossed her arms when she saw me come in and raised a single eyebrow.
“What the heck are you doing here, Eryk? You don’t work today.”
I gave her a helpless smile. “I need a place where I can think, so I decided to head here.”
Although my response was quite good, Ms. Nadine frowned at me as she crossed her arms. “A place to think? Can’t you do that at home?”
“I could, but I prefer being surrounded by books.”
She sighed. “You always were a little too obsessed with reading. Fine. Fine. Just don’t disturb any of the people who are actually here to study.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t worry. I’m not you.”
“Since when did you become so witty?” asked Ms. Nadine as she narrowed her eyes at me.
“Since never.”
Ms. Nadine huffed at me before getting back to work, and I traveled up the stairs.
I didn’t know if Ms. Nadine was suspicious of how I was acting. She seemed to realize that something was different about me, but she obviously couldn’t put her finger on it. To be honest, I think that was because I couldn’t remember how I used to act when I was younger. What kind of person was I before Nevaria had been destroyed? I could barely remember what I had been like before the Demon Beast Invasion.
The second floor wasn’t much different from the first floor; there were still numerous bookshelves filled with books, and in between the shelves were a number of tables. There were about six tables in all. I couldn’t see anyone sitting at these tables. The first floor had most of the nonfiction books, so people had a tendency to stay downstairs unless they needed to research something.
I sat down at the nearest table and placed the parchment, ink, and quill down as well. I didn’t uncap the ink bottle yet. Before that, I needed to think about everything I had to do.
My first goal was simple: Stop the Demon Beast Invasion. While I had no idea what prompted the Demon Beasts to invade Nevaria, I at least had a basic solution to accomplish this. I needed to gain strength. If I could gain the strength I had at the peak of my power, slaying a few hundred thousand Demon Beasts shouldn’t be too difficult.
Saying that, gaining strength wouldn’t be a simple matter. I would have to find a quiet place where I could train. It would be preferable if this place had a large waterfall, which would greatly increase the speed of my training. Second, I needed to buy an alchemy set and quite a few ingredients. Last but not least, I would also need to have custom-made weighted clothes to help train my body.
In short, I needed money before I could do anything else.
Reaching deep into my memories, I thought of the few ways I could earn money fast. There were several ways to earn money in Nevaria.
The first was to slay Demon Beasts and sell their monster cores to a trader or an alchemist. The second was to find a valuable treasure in the ruins located inside the Demon Beast Mountain Range and sell it at the Auction House. The third was to fight in the underground arena. All three of these required a lot of strength… which I currently lacked. Not only was my body weak right now, but I couldn’t control my Spiritual Power either.
Speaking of, it seemed I was not as strong now as I had been when I was an adult. My Spiritual Power was barely even a tenth of what it had been before getting thrown back in time. I guess that going back in time required a sacrifice of some sort, or maybe my body simply couldn’t handle that much Spiritual Power and released it. I really didn’t know. It wasn’t like anyone had ever traveled through time before—not to the best of my knowledge.
Outside of these three methods, there was only one other method I could think of to earn money, and that was to sell a Spiritual Technique to a noble family or the Spiritualist Academy. This one was probably the safest bet.
I had a number of powerful techniques that I doubted the Spiritualist Academy would have, especially since I created most of these myself despite having no use for them. Not only could I not use Spiritual Techniques like most people, but a lot of the techniques I had created w
eren’t even for my elements. I made them as theoretical exercises to expand my knowledge.
My elements were lightning and water… and light, but the light element came from my wife, not me. She had bequeathed it to me as she lay dying in my arms. I wasn’t even sure if I could use the light element anymore.
Well, most people couldn’t use that element. Light and darkness were the two rarest elements on the entire continent, never mind the isolated Nevaria. In fact, of all the people I had met, only my wife and her mother had affinities for the light element.
Finally popping the ink bottle open, I spread the parchment across the table, dipped my quill into the ink, and began writing.
Spiritual Techniques were created by writing down a set of instructions using runes and infusing the parchment with Spiritual Power. Runes were letters derived from an ancient runic alphabet that had existed since long ago. It was not the human language, however. In fact, runes weren’t even a language of this world. They had been taught to us by a race from Niðavellir known as the Dweorg, who specialized in Rune Writing and Inscribing.
It was actually fortunate that I had exhausted so much of my Spiritual Power last night. This allowed me to control it far more easily, though channeling my Spiritual Power hurt. It caused that sensation of being grilled from the inside out to course through my body all over again. Despite this, I forced myself to keep infusing Spiritual Power into my quill as I wrote.
Different runes had different meanings, and by combining those meanings together in the form of sentences, a person was able to create Spiritual Techniques, which could be learned by people who knew how to use Spiritual Perception—an ocular technique that was normally activated upon blinking to a specific rhythm. Of course, this was just one of the many uses for runes.
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 1 Page 4