Wiedergeburt 3

by Brandon Varnell

  “When I first met you, you were training for this, right?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I see.”

  I think I was beginning to understand more about Fay’s desperation back then. The Leucht Family had appeared suddenly—just as the Valstine Family’s financial problems and desperation had reached their peak—and then presented the family with a hard-to-refuse offer in exchange for having Fay marry Grant Leucht as his Second Wife. Of course, the Valstines had refused, but that only caused more problems. The Leucht Family put pressure on their businesses.

  In a desperate gambit, Fay had begun training so she could enter the Spiritualist Grand Tournament. There was just one problem: Fay’s Spiritual Pathways had not been very big. During her training, she’d shoved too much Spiritual Power through them, which resulted in her pathways getting blocked. That was how she’d gotten Spiritual Poisoning.

  Fortunately, I had come along before the Spiritual Poisoning could cripple her. Now her Spiritual Pathways were wide enough and strong enough to withstand having plenty of Spiritual Power pushed through them. I still shuddered a bit when I remembered how bad things had been before I cured her.

  A part of me wondered what had happened to Fay in my previous life, but the rest of me didn’t want to know.

  “You are also entering the tournament, right?” Fay asked suddenly. When I looked in her direction, I saw her wearing a smile that was both pleased and resigned. “I heard about what happened between you and Grant Leucht.”

  “So you’ve already heard about that, huh?” I scratched the back of my head. “It’s only been a few days since that happened.”

  Fay shrugged. “The Nevarian rumor mill is very impressive. Word of what happened spread to most of the noble families within a day. I myself learned about what happened just last night.” She paused for a moment, and then spoke in a hesitant voice. “I heard that the bet you made was over the marriage between Lady Kari and myself to Grant Leucht. That if you won, he would have to cease his marriage talks with our two families and never bother us again.”

  “That is correct,” I admitted.

  “And also…” Fay continued in an even softer voice, “there was a rumor that you were accompanied by Lady Kari when it happened.”

  “That is also true.” While I hesitated for a moment, I saw no point in hiding what happened. It was impossible to hide a truth like this.

  “The person you love… is her, right? Lady Kari?”

  “… Yes.” I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I met her some time before I met you. She had been visiting the library where I work, and we ended up talking. We’ve been seeing each other every day that she doesn’t have classes or training. I fell in love with her during that time.”

  Fay nodded without speaking. I closed my eyes because I didn’t want to look at her, to see the possible dejection on her face. Every time I saw that rejected expression she wore, my chest ached. I wished I could make her happy. I wanted her to be happy. However, I had already given my love to another person.

  “You should know that I still haven’t given up.” I opened my eyes and looked at Fay as she spoke. She didn’t look away from me, but I noticed how she clenched her hands around fistfuls of dirt. “I won’t give up on making you fall in love with me. You can reject me a hundred times, and I will just come back a hundred more times.”

  “I really do admire that determination of yours,” I muttered softly. “I can’t stop you if this is what you want, but I wish you would look for love elsewhere. You deserve to be with someone who will treat you like a queen.”

  Fay’s eyes went wide. She looked absolutely shocked. The expression only lasted for a moment, then she turned her head, redness spreading from her neck all the way to the roots of her hair.

  A moment of silence passed between us. Fay coughed into her hand.

  “Y-you are right. I do deserve someone like that.” Fay’s embarrassed response caused me to chuckle, but that noise became lodged in my throat with her next words. “However, the only man I want to share my life with is the one sitting next to me right now.”

  A silence appeared after her words. Fay, seemingly having said her piece, stood up and stretched her arms. She was no longer wearing the weighted vest, which didn’t have much of a use right now. Her current outfit was one I had seen her wear before. It was a sleeveless green shirt that showed off her stomach and had a large dip around the chest. She wore a pair of simple shorts that hugged her hips. Adorning her legs were brown boots.

  “I’m going to begin training again,” Fay said.

  “I guess that means I should begin training again too.” I stood up.

  The two of us wandered off to our separate training fields. However, while I trained hard, a small part of me couldn’t help but constantly replay Fay’s words in my head.

  * * *

  I was lucky. One of the Eieren Family’s business centers was only half an hour from my current residence. After leaving the still-sleeping Lamia girl in my bed, I traveled to the building where the family did their business.

  It was a simple building made of stone, only one-story tall, and possessing a gabled roof made of ceramic tiles. Perhaps due to this building being owned and operated by one of the Three Heavenly Families, it had glass windows instead of wooden shutters. Since glass was a precious commodity, only wealthy families and businesses could afford to have them.

  I walked into the building and found that it was mostly empty. There were only a few people present. I glanced at the middle-aged man speaking with a young female dressed in a nice tunic. The man’s clothing was more threadbare than a noble’s but still decent. He was probably a middle-class merchant. The woman, on the other hand, looked like a member of the Eieren Family. She had a polite “business smile” like the kind you see on people who provide services to others.

  “Excuse me,” a voice said in my ear. I turned around to find a young man in a similar tunic to the woman standing a few meters from me. He was smiling. “I noticed you walk in. Can I assume you are here to buy a house?”

  “That is correct,” I said.

  “In that case, please come this way.” The man gestured toward a door several meters away. “It will be easier for us to talk if we are not standing in front of the door.”

  “Of course.”

  I followed the man over to the door, which he opened and gestured for me to enter. I did. The man then walked a short distance to another door. This one led to a small office space. It didn’t have much. There was a desk, a cabinet, and that was about it. While the room was neither large nor ostentatiously decorated, the soft carpet beneath my shoes was obviously the kind primarily found within a noble’s manor.

  The young man sat behind the desk.

  “Now then,” he began, “what kind of house are you looking for?”

  “I’m not too picky about the details,” I said. “I am looking for something in the northern section of Nevaria, preferably one that is within a few minutes walking distance from the Nadine Library. I’d like this house to have at least two bedrooms, a bathing room if possible, a kitchen, and a gathering room with a fireplace.”

  “Fortunately, we have plenty of homes like that available,” the man said. “What kind of price range are you looking at?”

  I needed several seconds to think about that. At this moment, I had 200,000 valis to spend, but I didn’t want to spend all of it on a house. You never knew what might happen in the future, so it was important to save valis whenever you could.

  “I currently have 50,000 valis to spend,” I finally said.

  The young man looked quite shocked. His eyes widened and his mouth opened, but no sounds came out. I wondered what in the nine realms his problem was, but then he took a deep breath, centered himself, and smiled.

  “That is quite a bit of valis, good sir. With that much money, I can definitely find a great house that will meet all of your needs.”

  I wasn’t sure why, but the gleam i
n this man’s eyes sent a shiver down my spine. I really hoped I wouldn’t come to regret my decision to go house shopping.

  Chapter 6

  Buying a House

  Liten was located about a two week’s journey from Vahn. It was not a large town. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I would call it a town so much as a hamlet. There were barely a hundred buildings altogether, none of which possessed more than two stories. The largest building was actually the inn. Even the mayor’s house was minuscule.

  Kari and I had arrived at this tiny place the other day and located an inn that we could spend the night at. There was only one inn. It was not very big. The two-story building consisted of twelve rooms that were all the same size, about 150 square meters or so. While the rooms were small, all of them were furnished with a bed, a dresser, a nightstand, and a desk in the far corner. There were, unfortunately, no baths. However, we had grown used to not using baths after living in the Endless Desert for several years thanks to the scarcity of water there.

  On that note, Kari and I had recently discovered showers, but that was a story for another time.

  It was early morning, the sun was peeking above the horizon, and I could see the tall buildings of Midgard against the backdrop from our window. There were only seven. They looked like towers attempting to pierce the heavens.

  We were supposedly a hundred or so kilometers away, so the fact that I could see the buildings told me how impressive the city was. For the moment, however, I ignored the dazzling sight to focus on the gorgeous woman before me.

  Kari was kneeling on the ground, her naked back bared to me. She had grabbed her long hair and moved it over her shoulder so nothing obstructed my view. A number of scars were visible on her porcelain skin. These scars, remnants of our time in Nevaria after the Demon Beast Invasion and the years spent in the Endless Desert, were a testament to how difficult our lives had been. I had more than a few scars myself.

  A bucket sat beside me. The gentle fragrance of soap wafted from it. I reached in and grabbed a cloth that had been soaking up the water. After wringing it out until it was just damp, I began washing Kari’s back. Her soft but firm muscles felt supple and pleasant underneath my hands as I dragged the cloth from her shoulder blades to her lower back. A pleasant moan escaped her lips under my ministrations.

  “It seems we’re only a few weeks from Midgard,” I said softly as I continued washing her off. “Hold out your arms, please.”

  Kari raised her right arm so I could wash it. I started with her fingers, cleaning each one individually before I gently worked my way up her arm, until I reached her shoulders, and then I moved the cloth to the underside of her arm. After washing off her armpit, I switched from her right arm to her left.

  “Yes.” Kari agreed with a nod, sighing softly as I cleaned off her neck and even behind her ears. I liked being thorough. “If we keep up with this pace, I imagine it won’t take much longer to reach Midgard. I wonder what that city is like. Everyone we’ve met has said it’s a marvelous place.”

  As she spoke, I wiped off her breasts. Kari’s massive boobs were elastic beyond compare. My fingers sank into her skin with ease. Because of their size, they were not only very heavy, but Kari had a problem with underboob sweat. After running the cloth along her breasts and between the valley of her twin peaks, I lifted her breasts with one hand and used the other to wipe the accumulation of dirt and sweat with a cloth.

  “Well, it’s definitely a big place,” I said. “The mere fact that we can see it from here is impressive.”

  “Nevaria can’t possibly compare to it…”

  “Kari…”

  A sharp pain appeared in my chest when I heard the heartache in her voice. I set the cloth down, leaned over, and embraced her from behind. My arms went around her waist as I pressed my chest into her back. I set my chin on her shoulder.

  “Sorry,” Kari muttered. “I don’t think about it too often, but every now and then…”

  “I understand,” I murmured as I kissed her cheek. “You can rely on me whenever you feel this way. I’ve been leaning on you so much to support myself. It’s okay for you to lean on me a little more when you need support too.”

  Kari smiled as she tilted her head. “Thank you.”

  I didn’t say anything, but I really didn’t need to. We remained like that for a little while, but since Kari had expressed an interest in exploring the town and its surroundings, I finished helping her wash off. Then she helped by cleaning me, and we both got dressed and left the inn.

  Liten really was small. At most, I would say it had around sixty to a hundred buildings, and most of them were houses. It had the same stucco style architecture as Vahn. However, where many of the buildings in that city were large and majestic, the ones in this place were far more quaint. Even the mayor’s house looked like something a peasant from Vahn would own.

  “The food here is pretty interesting,” I muttered as she and I sat on a small park bench. We were both holding food that had been wrapped in paper. It was a dish made from pork, cucumbers, and onions, and served on flatbread. There was a slightly tart dipping sauce that Kari and I were periodically dipping our food into.

  We had gotten the food from a street stall vendor who’d been cooking meat on a vertical rotisserie. It had been one of many different types of food being sold.

  “It tastes vaguely like a kebab, but the bread and sauce add something extra to the flavor,” Kari added as she took a bite of her own flatbread sandwich.

  “It also tastes nothing like a normal sandwich,” I agreed.

  After finishing our food, Kari and I explored most of the town, which only took around half a day or so. We visited shops, bought food from vendor stalls, and enjoyed an outdoor puppet play. It was a tragic romance about a pair of lovers who had been soldiers on opposite sides of a war. The woman had been a warrior for one country, while the man had been on the side of the other. They had fallen in love before realizing the other person was their enemy, and then they were forced to choose between love and duty.

  “Ugh… that was so beautiful,” Kari softly sniffled as we walked away from the small puppet theater booth. She was holding a handkerchief to her eyes as she shed tears.

  “It was a good story,” I admitted. “Tragic ending, though.”

  “I wish they could have been together at the end,” Kari muttered.

  I smiled. “Me too.” I looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, painting the canvas above us in pale reds and yellows. “What should we do now? Find a place to eat? Head back to the inn?”

  “Would you mind if we explored the forest outside of town?” asked Kari. “I heard from a local that there’s an ancient ruin just a few kilometers away. They’ve already been explored, but I’d really like to see them.”

  “We can do that,” I said. “Let’s not stay out too late, though.”

  “Of course.” Kari gave me a grateful smile before dragging me out of the city.

  The trees within the forest surrounding Liten weren’t the largest I’d come across. Nevaria’s forests had larger trees than this. However, there were many of them, and they were packed so closely together that a lot of the branches became tangled with each other. They created a thick canopy over our heads that blocked out most of the light.

  “Hmmm…” Kari hummed as she stared at a map of the surrounding area. We’d bought it while we were in Vahn.

  “Any idea where we are right now?” I asked.

  “Well…” she stretched out that word as she continued studying the map. “We headed north, which means we are somewhere around here.” She pointed to a specific spot on the map. “However, I am not sure exactly where we are, just the general area.”

  I would have sighed, but Kari and I fortunately had a good sense of direction. Even if we couldn’t figure out our exact location on the map, it shouldn’t be difficult for us to find our way back to Liten. That said, it didn’t look like we would be leaving soon.

  “Do you know
where those ruins you mentioned are?” I asked.

  “According to that young man at the jewelry stall, it should be a couple kilometers north of Liten, which means we should be coming up on it soon.”

  “Hmm… was it just me or was that man acting a little weird?”

  “Maybe?” Kari tilted her head as we kept walking. “Now that you mention it, he did seem reluctant to talk about those ruins. I wonder why?”

  When people spoke to Kari, they tended to go one of two ways: They hit on her or they stuttered and found themselves speechless. That this man had acted differently was unusual. It would normally be the sign of a strong will, but that wasn’t the sense either of us had gotten from him.

  “I guess we’ll find out if we manage to find them.” I shrugged.

  “You mean ‘when’ we manage to find them,” Kari corrected.

  “Yes. When.”

  We continued walking for some time, wandering past a few trees with gnarled roots, when the two of us stopped and cocked our heads to the side. A noise penetrated the forest. It was not natural to the forest, however, or even a part of nature in general. The sound was hair-raising, speaking of fear and violence.

  It was the sound of a person screaming.

  “Let’s go, Eryk!”

  “Right behind you!”

  The two of us darted through the trees, which appeared to us as nothing more than blurs of brown and green. It didn’t take long before we had located the source of the scream. A young woman had backed up against a tree. Her clothing was in tatters, blood was leaking down from several cuts on her arms and legs, and her hair was a disheveled mess. Standing before her were a pair of cloaked individuals whose bodies were so thoroughly covered I couldn’t tell if they were men or women.

  “SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!”

  As the woman screamed, Kari and I burst forward without warning. However, the distance between us was too great. Even if we ran as fast as we could, I already knew we wouldn’t be in time to help this woman. Perhaps because I had recognized the danger that woman was in, I sent some Spiritual Power to the bottom of my feet. My body suddenly rocketed forward at a speed that caused me to see nothing but a blur. The cloaked figures couldn’t see me either.