“Once people start arriving, you are going to have to behave yourself,” I told the snake. “You can’t just go wandering around and getting in people’s way. Stay by my side.”
The snake gave me an absent nod as it slithered up a bookshelf and made itself at home in the rafters. I gazed up at the thing as it draped itself across one of the support beams, and then sighed. I could only ignore the creature for now. I still had work that needed to be done.
About an hour or so after I opened the library, people began coming in. Our library was quite popular. While part of the reason was because we were one of only four libraries in Nevaria, I believed a bigger reason was because news had spread that Kari often frequented this place. It had officially become common knowledge.
Several of those people who’d come to the library fled after the snake suddenly dropped down from the rafters and flicked its tongue at them. I bopped the thing on the head after this happened several times, then gave it a stern lecture, but that didn’t seem to deter it. At some point, I just couldn’t take anymore and tried to pull the thing from the rafters.
“You’re being a pest! Get down now!”
The snake hissed.
“Don’t take that tone with me! I told you to behave yourself, and you didn’t! Your rafter privileges have been revoked!”
The snake just hissed some more.
I was currently in something of a tug of war with this creature, which had wrapped its long body around one of the support beams and refused to budge. I’m pretty sure I was stronger than it was. However, when I tugged too hard, the support beam would release an ominous creak, forcing me not to use my full strength.
Just as I was prepared to zap this thing with lightning, the door opened and closed, and then a soft voice rang out.
“Um… what are you doing?”
I looked over in the doorway. Standing there with a befuddled expression on her face was none other than Kari.
“I’m sorry for not being around too often,” Kari apologized as she and I sat by a table on the second floor. The snake was hanging from another of the rafters above us. Fortunately, no one but Kari and I used this floor. Even though anyone could come up here, people avoided it as though it was forbidden ground.
“You don’t need to apologize for that,” I said with a shake of my head. “I assume you’ve been busy?”
Kari’s lips twitched into a happy smile as she nodded. “Yes! I’ve been using those pills just like you told me too, and I think they’re really helping. Instructor Brynhild has been really impressed by how much stronger I’ve become, and so she’s been training me a bit more. I’ve also become a lot more adept at using Spiritual Techniques, which has caught the eye of the instructors at the academy. Because of that, I’ve been busier than normal and haven’t been able to come over as often.”
It had been about sixteen days since Kari and I had last seen each other, which I guessed was when those pills really began showing their effects. Pills refined by alchemy tended to show their effects at different times in different people. This was even more true for pills meant to help enhance a person’s training. Mine began showing their effects about four days after I started using them. It sounded like hers took longer.
“I’m glad the pills are helping,” I said.
“They are helping a lot.” Kari’s expression was bright and cheerful. “Instructor Brynhild said that if I keep progressing like this, I can probably match Geirolf in terms of strength if not skill.”
“Geirolf is the youngest of your brothers, right?” I asked.
“That’s right.” A strand of hair fell into her face, but she reached out and tucked it behind her ear. Her eyes never left mine. “He is eighteen years old right now, but he’ll be nineteen in two months.”
“So he’s about two years older than you.”
“Two and a half, yes.”
I didn’t know a whole lot about her brothers, but that was because Kari didn’t talk about them much. She had only mentioned them a few times in my previous life. In this life, she had mentioned them once or twice, but she never stayed on the subject for long. I wondered if she was purposefully avoiding talking about them for some reason.
“How strong do you think you need to be before your mother will let you explore the Demon Beast Mountain Range?” I asked.
Kari’s smile slowly vanished as she shook her head, uncertainty taking over. “I don’t know. To be honest, I am afraid of even bringing the subject up. The last time I asked about it, my mother told me I had no need to travel into such a dangerous place and that I should never bring the subject up again.”
“I see.”
An awkward silence hung over us. I didn’t know what to say. Guilt gnawed at my insides as I realized I had not only ruined the good mood, but I also caused Kari to feel pain. I wasn’t sure what was going on between Kari and Empress Hilda. However, it seemed like they were at odds with each other. At the very least, I could tell that Kari feared talking about her desires with her mother. That might be why she so readily talked to me.
“You have also been training, right?” Kari asked, smoothly changing the subject. “How is that going?”
“Good,” I said. “I’ve gained a good deal of control over my Spiritual Power, and my strength has also been steadily increasing. I’m pretty sure I could defeat a C-Rank Demon Beast now.”
If I had a weapon, I was confident I could defeat even a B-rank Demon Beast, but the weapon I used was a ruler, a weapon that was basically just a large hunk of metal. Of course, the ruler I had used back in my previous timeline was heavily modified to the point where I wasn’t sure it could even be called a ruler. The Dragon’s Tail Ruler had been a weapon created for me by the Dwoergs, a race of beings from Niðavellir. Sadly, I wouldn’t be able to ask them to make it for me until I could find a Warp Gate that would take me there.
“That’s really impressive!” Kari exclaimed in surprise. “I hear it takes a squad of Spiritualists to take down even a single C-rank. I know the captains are capable of taking one down on their own, but they’ve been extensively trained in combat and have a lot of Spiritual Power.”
I grinned and shook my head. “I still haven’t actually fought a Demon Beast, so this is only an estimation of my current strength. For all I know, I’m speaking with a forked tongue. If I went up against a Demon Beast right now, there is no telling if my current abilities would actually be enough to defeat one.”
“I still think it’s impressive.” Kari’s eyes were bright and vibrant as she stared at me. However, her cheeks soon gained a soft pink hue as she looked away. “I can tell that you are much stronger now too.”
“You can?” I asked.
Kari nodded, still not looking at me. “Your, um, your body looks quite sturdy and well-built now.”
“Ah…”
I didn’t know what to say to that, but I was glad that she was able to tell the difference. It was true that my shoulders had become more broad, my chest and arms more defined, and my legs more toned and powerful. I even had a six-pack, though it was still hard to see.
Nearly a month had passed since I began training with those medicinal pills. In those sixty-three days, my body had become far stronger and sturdier. However, I still didn’t have the large and bulking muscles of others. My shoulders, arms, chest, and legs might have been a bit bigger, but I was still skinny. The muscles I possessed were lithe, but because of that, it was also harder to realize I had muscles unless someone really looked at me.
I hoped that meant Kari was really looking at me.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, feeling my cheeks grow just a little warm.
Kari’s eyes darted around the room, looking at anything but me. “You’re welcome.”
An awkward silence fell over us again. I didn’t know what to say to break it. Actually, I was tempted to tease her by asking if she liked my muscles, but I didn’t know if that would be appropriate yet. What if I came on too strong and scared her away? The last
thing I wanted was for her to run out on me like she’d done the last time I said something embarrassing. Although she hadn’t done that recently, so maybe…
“Eryk, I have been trying not to say anything, but…”
Before I could decide whether or not it was appropriate to tease her, Kari suddenly spoke. I looked at her. However, she was not looking at me. Her eyes were looking up, at the snake lounging against the rafters.
“Why is there a snake in the library?” she asked.
I looked up at the snake, which seemed to sense me staring at it and looked down. Its tongue flicked out of its mouth. Then it went back to lounging like an indulgent pet.
“I would like to know that as well,” I muttered, my shoulders slumping in a miserable and dejected manner.
Kari left the library a few hours later. She had practice with her instructor and couldn’t spend much time there today. She only came by because she wanted to talk to me. I ended up spending several hours alone… um… with a snake before Ms. Nadine relieved me.
She was not amused by the snake.
“The next time you bring that thing here, I will cut off its head and grill it.”
Those had been her words. It seemed she really didn’t approve of me bringing a snake to the library, though it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand why. Fortunately, the snake seemed to realize how serious Ms. Nadine was. The moment she said those words, it hid its head inside of my shirt as though trying to escape the chopping block. I told Ms. Nadine that I wouldn’t bring it anymore and left.
My first stop was my room, where I needed to grab my vest, the weighted cylinders, and my medicinal pills. The snake slithered off me the moment we entered and hid underneath my covers. I sighed at the thing as I grabbed all of my supplies and left for my training spot several kilometers outside of Nevaria.
When I arrived, I quickly got ready. I discarded my current clothing, slid into the pants, vest, and vambraces, and then put the metal cylinders into each pocket one by one. After which, I activated the runes inside and increased their weight by six. Each cylinder weighed 2.5 kilos and there were seventy-eight cylinders, so the total weight came to about 195 kilos.
I began my exercise with a jog, though I had modified it a little to increase the difficulty.
Racing through a narrow straightaway between two boulders, I leapt up and kicked off one to ascend higher, and then kicked off the other. As I came out from between the narrow path, I reached out and grabbed a branch, which I used to swing through the air and land on a boulder about half a meter away. Hitting the boulder feet first, I pushed off and threw myself into an aerial flip as I fell to the ground.
Spiritual Power could be used for more than just Spiritual Techniques. By externalizing it, I could use it to create a variety of effects, such as creating a cushion to soften my fall when I jumped from high places. There was a member of Brave Vesperia who used a similar Spiritual Technique called Soundless Step, which completely silenced his footsteps.
After landing on the ground, I raced across a clearing, ducked underneath a low hanging branch, jumped over another one, and then used my Spiritual Power to run across a shallow pond.
Because I didn’t have anyone to practice dodging or combat with, I had created an obstacle course that would increase the effects of my jog. Each day I would take a different route that changed the aesthetics of the course. This forced me to keep alert. I also had to watch out for potentially poisonous or dangerous animals, which increased the difficulty.
By the time I was done, my body was covered in a light sheen of sweat. I didn’t stop, however. No, I couldn’t stop. To gain the strength I needed, to gain the power that would help me change the past, I had to push myself harder.
The moment I finished the obstacle course, I dropped to the ground and began doing pushups. My arms shook as I counted from one to one hundred. Then I rolled over onto my back, lifted my legs, and began doing crunches. I did twice as many crunches as I did pushups. After which, my exercises continued until the sun was just about to set.
I was gasping by the time I finished. My body was soaked in sweat, and the weighted clothes felt like they weighed even more due to all the water they’d soaked up. My poor muscles were squealing in protest. However, I still had more to do before I could go back home and soak in the tub.
Just as I was about to begin practicing the Flash Step, a presence appeared at the edge of my perception. I turned around. Nobody was there, but I could still feel the presence, which I tracked using Spiritual Perception.
“Fay,” I greeted as I looked at a tree several meters away.
No one responded at first, but then a hand slowly appeared from around the tree, followed by a head surrounded by fiery strands of scintillating red hair. Fay Valstine looked at me with a blush, as though embarrassed about being caught. She coughed into her hand and soon walked around from behind the tree.
Her clothing was much different than I remembered. The last time I saw her, she had been wearing clothes that covered her entire body, hiding the ugly black bruises that came from Spiritual Poisoning. Now her clothes were revealing a lot more skin.
For starters, the shirt that she wore was a lot shorter than her long-sleeved one from before. I wasn’t sure if I could call it a shirt because while it covered her chest, it left her torso completely exposed, allowing me to catch more than just a glimpse of her flat, toned stomach.
Her shorts were similarly quite short, nothing more than black spats that wrapped around her bottom like a second skin. Despite her shorts not being very long, she did have black stockings to cover up a vast portion of her legs. They were held up by garters and traveled into a pair of sturdy-looking boots. There was just a small gap between her shorts and stockings near the middle of her thighs.
After studying her outfit and appearance for several seconds, I realized I was admiring her a little too much, and so I switched from gazing at her body to looking at her face.
“Eryk,” she said in a soft voice.
“You look much better than before,” I said.
She smiled. “Thanks to you. The Spiritual Poisoning is completely gone. What’s more, it seems as though my Spiritual Powers have increased now that I’ve been healed.”
Nodding, I said, “Spiritual Poisoning is a powerful affliction where the Spiritual Pathways are clogged. However, the Spiritual Power that gets unclogged doesn’t just disappear. It flows through your body, widening the pathways before agglomerating inside of your Spiritual Core and increasing your reserves.”
“I assumed as much,” she replied, and the smile on her face became a bit gentler.
“Are you here to train?” I asked.
“No, well… sort of.” Fay’s cheeks suddenly colored as she looked away. She bit her lower lip and glanced at me, then flicked her gaze away again. I watched with a frown as her foot began randomly drawing circles on the dirt.
“Sort of?” Her words made me tilt my head.
“I… um… I don’t know how to say this in a way that won’t sound overbearing, so I’m just going to come out and say it.” Fay took a deep breath and squared her shoulders as if she was preparing to face off against her nemesis. She stared me square in the eyes. There was a determined gleam in them that I couldn’t ignore. “I want you to train me!”
“Huh?”
I’m pretty sure I heard my brain sizzle.
“I want you to train me,” she repeated.
“I heard you the first time,” I said, raising a hand to stop her. I looked at the girl who radiated both determination and embarrassment in equal measure. “Why do you want me to train you? You should know I’m not that strong right now.”
“I know… but I… I want you to train me anyway!”
Observing the girl as she gripped her left arm at the elbow, I wondered what made her think I could actually be of any help. Well, I mean, I could probably train her. I had experience from my past life when it came to training people. However, she couldn’t know th
at. What gave her the confidence that I could help her?
“Are you asking me this… because I cured your Spiritual Poisoning?” I asked.
As Fay’s face burned crimson, I realized that my words probably made her remember how I had cured her. When I recalled the “massage” I’d used to break up the Spiritual Power clogging her Spiritual Pathways, even I blushed a little.
“Th-that is part of it,” she admitted before shaking her head. “But it’s also because… I need to get stronger, and there isn’t anyone in my family who can help me.”
“The Valstine Family is a minor noble family, right?” I asked. “Couldn’t you hire an instructor?”
With a complicated grimace, Fay shook her head. “The Valstine Family has fallen on hard times. We don’t have the wealth we used to. In fact, we’re very close to losing our status as a noble family because of it.”
Kari once told me that hiring a good instructor was costly. If that was the case, then it did make sense that Fay was coming to me for help instead of using her family’s wealth and status. At the same time, I was shocked that she was coming to me. We didn’t know each other. Outside of the help I lent her when she’d had Spiritual Poisoning, she and I were complete strangers.
That said, I do think the fact that I was able to remove the Spiritual Poisoning played a big factor in her reason for coming to me. She probably assumed I could help her since I’d already done so before.
And I could. I knew I could, which was why I was so conflicted. I had my own training to do. I needed to get stronger. If I helped her, my training would undoubtedly slow down. Part of me wanted to tell her no because of this, and yet…
As I looked at the desperation in her eyes, I knew I couldn’t.
“Is the reason you need to get stronger because your family is close to losing its status?” I asked.
Fay hesitated before answering. “That… is a part of it, yes. However, it is more like… my family’s current crisis has created the issue I’m currently facing. I need to get stronger so I can overcome this issue.”
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 1 Page 21