Lucas walked with Batain through the small mountain village of Heussel, a small satchel by his side. They'd finally reached it after another hour or so. Judging from the friendly, somewhat familiar, attitude of the locals, Batain came here often, wearing their conflicted feelings towards nobility down into simple amicability.

However, their attempts to interact with him only pissed him off. At this point, basically everything pissed him off. It was an odd state he found himself in. He wanted to come here to clear his mind and yet he actively denied himself that inner peace, thinking of that one conversation he had.

Ever since he met that Nerine girl, he couldn't shake off a certain feeling of irritation. It wasn't entirely unreasonable that he would be the only one who could knowingly reincarnate. In fact, it was more logical that if he could do it, surely others could, too. This was part of his frustration. He'd assumed that since no one walked up to him and said they had reincarnated, that he must be some special being that the universe had chosen to reincarnate, that he was the only player and all others were simply characters in his game.

That girl managed to tear that down though. If he thought he'd been playing a single player game, then she was another player revealing that not only was he not alone, and not only was he weak, but they had known all along. While he'd pranced around, thinking himself special, they'd ignored him, only contacting him once they found him useful. Though he understood the irrationality of these thoughts, he simply couldn't shake that feeling, as if he was being toyed with.

Maybe it was once again his immature mind acting up. It was pretty childish and not like him to be angry at such a revelation instead of taking advantage of it, yet the idea that he couldn't even think straight angered him further. From what he remembered, in all his past lives, he wasn't hindered by whatever personality or mentality his body had had prior to his reincarnation. He'd just assimilate their memories. Why did everything in this life seem to be going wrong?

In response to his emotions, the mana in his body began spreading across his body rising up. Just as quickly as it had risen though, it settled down before, once again, swelling, Lucas falling into a vicious cycle of getting angry at himself for being unable to control his emotions.

Batain glanced at Lucas, scrutinizing him before a sudden painful poke on the chest made him send a slightly irritated look to the girl he'd been chatting with.

"What was that for?"

The girl frowned at him. "Is that your son?"

Batain frowned before retorting. "Come on. You know me better than that."

The girl's frown turned into a dimpled smile as she shrugged, her plain brown hair bouncing against her shoulders. "I thought it was a maybe."

"A maybe gives me too much credit. And if I ever had a kid, why would I bring him here?"

"You wouldn't want your boy to meet his godmother Marie?" Batain could hear the hurt in her voice but he also knew her well enough to not even consider backtracking. She loved playing games too much and he didn't feel like playing especially when a single poke had made him bleed.

He didn't need to respond though as a burly man waved at the trio, walking up to them.

"Batain. Marie. How goes it? Who's the kid?" Despite his intimidatingly large physique, his voice was actually somewhat high and had a nice softness to it.

Batain inwardly sighed before responding. As much as he liked the much simpler atmosphere of the village compared to his hometown, it was this same simple atmosphere that was why he didn't really like coming here for anything but casual visits. He wanted to do his work not talk about some minor problem or gossip. The only reason he was even walking with this woman in the first place was because he didn't remember where the local mine was. Though he could indeed care less about her, he didn't consider her any more than a decent acquaintance.

"That's just my nephew, Lucas."

Lucas broke out of his thoughts and looked up, hearing his name.

"Aw, he's so cute", Marie crooned. "Hi, Lucas."

Lucas only looked at Batain, ignoring the woman's words. A few seconds of awkward silence ensued before Batain frowned. "Come on, Marie."

"Fine, fine." She laughed off the awkwardness and led Batain to the mine, engaging in boring small talk all the while. Outside of it was some sort of deposition area for materials before storage and transport.

She eventually let him off, waving at him until she realized something. "Are you really gonna take your nephew down there?"

Batain turned around, frowning. "Why wouldn't I? This is just an in and out." He didn't bother listening to whatever she said after that, walking into the mine alongside Lucas.

Marie pouted before walking back with the burly man that had journeyed with the group until now.

Once she was completely out of earshot of Batain and Lucas, her face contorted itself into a sneer. "Nobles." Her eyes glared at the mine's opening where the two of them had gone in.

She looked up at the man's face which was similarly a combination of anger and disgust. "Did you do as Brother Filou asked?"

"It is done, sister", he replied, his voice taking on a much deeper tone. "Though the child-"

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"He's already just like the rest of them. I looked into his eyes and saw only anger and arrogance. He couldn't be the Brother's son. Do not even suggest it."

With that, the two walked back to their respective homes, while Batain and Lucas marched in to fulfill their duty. Walking into the dust-filled atmosphere, Batain created bursts of air to allow the two of them some actually clean air, while maintaining a small fire to allow the two of them to see ahead of them.

The two followed the rusting metal railway through the somewhat claustrophobic mine tunnel. It was large enough for Batain to do a hop but other than that, it felt confined and quiet.

The quiet environment gave Batain a bit of pause and forced him to think about everything that had led to this circumstance. Usually the village would send their regular haul of metals to the city by themselves. Batain having to come down here was already an irregularity. Once here, he'd wanted to go straight to the storehouse but Marie had told him the issue actually lay in a cave-in that had blocked off their path to the main metal veins.

Doing trivial manual labor like this could only be a punishment from his father who undoubtedly knew the reason for why the metal shipment hadn't come at its normal time. It was a sort of "get out the house and go do some work, you lazy bum" kind of message or at least that's what Batain thought. He never could get a read on his father.

It was due to Batain being lost in this line of reasoning that when Lucas stopped, he hadn't noticed.

Lucas stared forward into the dark mine shaft at Batain's advancing figure, debating whether to advance with him or not. His senses told him no, that there was clear danger ahead but if Batain felt it was ok, then it should be fine.

Still, when he wanted to take that step forward towards Batain, he simply couldn't. He had the same feeling he'd had when Nerine had surprised him, like his survival depended on his next couple of actions.

Finally, he stopped and shook his head, clearing his mind. After all, Nerine hadn't actually done any harm to him so it wasn't like his instincts were accurate. However, just as he took a step forward, his ears picked up a small crack. Batain stopped too, finally realizing Lucas was far behind him.

The cracking of the stone was more like a crack of thunder in the eerily quiet shaft. Batain knew better than to freeze though, jumping back, a burst of air propelling him back. Still, it was too late.

As if magnetically attracted, the stones on each side of the shaft's tunnel crumbled, flying towards each other. Lucas backed away, watching as Batain got buried.

"Holy fuck man.." Unfortunately, he didn't have time to fully realize what just happened until he found himself jumping forward. It was as if his legs controlled themselves. Just as his feet touched the ground in front of him, he felt a puff of air touch his neck. Turning around, he saw the steel sword that nearly kissed his neck flash before his eyes.

"You're too slow, Zein. You should've taken off his head once the array took effect."

Lucas looked up to see two massive men, both masked, carrying steel backswords. He immediately backed away, his legs trembling. His mind was empty, his body focusing on getting away from the two men.

Zein, the taller of the two, looked on impassively. He'd originally had some reservations about the whole endeavor considering there was a child involved but hearing Marie tell him it was already tainted by the count's influence soothed his soul.

His cousin Taume, however, had no reservations. "Ay, Zein, look. He's pissing himself." He gestured at Lucas, chuckling. "See that. That's the power of the Brother. One dead and another pissing on himself. This entire bloodline, haha, I see it vanishing in less than a year."

Zein shook his head. "It's just a kid man. And you should follow your own advice and stop wasting time. No need for this sadistic bullshit."

Taume, seeing Zein didn't have his enthusiasm, stopped laughing and walked towards Lucas, sword in hand. He took only a few steps before he raised his sword, preparing to strike down on Lucas.

'Pussy.'

Thoughts inserted themselves into Lucas' mind yet it was like he was separate from them all. It was like he was watching himself try to get his body to move.

'Do something.'

'Are you really gonna die here?'

Honestly, maybe. It wasn't like it would be the first time he'd died. It wasn't like he could do anything either. They'd killed his uncle and his uncle was way stronger than he was. It wasn't really giving up if it made sense.

'Do something, Lucas.'

'You've gotta do something, Joseph. You can't just stay there.'

Suddenly, Lucas' mind flashed back to a woman frowning at him, her arms crossed. Her hair was clearly graying and wrinkles were starting to show but her eyes still bore down on him with force and her voice still sparked with energy.

'Are you going to do-'

Blood filled Lucas' mouth as he bit his tongue. The thoughts that assaulted his mind silenced themselves. Looking up, he saw the blade a couple inches away from his head. However, that wasn't where his eyes stopped. They traveled up the poorly made blade, up Taume's muscular flexed forearm, up his bicep, traveling until they landed onto the man's eyes.

Taume had been staring directly at Lucas' face, trying to look into his eyes. There was nothing more he hated than the Cazenarch dynasty. His daughter had managed to move up in life and find a job as a maid at their castle. He'd exchanged letters with her frequently. Though he didn't enjoy hearing about the various slights she suffered as a maid, it was good enough for him to be reassured that she was doing fine and had a decent life.

It was only by letter that he found out, though. His daughter had apparently gone mad with lust, drugged one of the count's sons, and tried to copulate with him. Once she'd gotten back to her senses, she immediately killed herself out of shame. She had no final words for him.

His wife had already passed on due to disease and his parents had died naturally, leaving him no one to help him. He probably would've killed himself had his cousin not taken him in and talked to him about a brother that they all had.

At first, his cousin's delusion drove him deeper into depression but he was persistent enough to make Taume reconsider his stubbornness. Once he'd met Filou, he'd understood. It was all so simple. He'd never really thought that his daughter killed herself after screwing a noble. He knew his daughter better than anyone. If she had truly been ashamed, then she would've simply run away.

No, it had to be a plot. For what reasons, he was unsure. Still, once he realized this, his grief lit up, transforming into wrath. It was the nobility that failed to secure proper care for those they ruled over. It was the nobility that failed to consider the lives of the common people. He wouldn't be satisfied until they all died.

Taume served the Brother more out of mutual goals rather than true love and care. His cousin called him a sadistic bastard because of it but both of them knew that had the same experiences happened to Zein, it would've sent him into a hate-filled state all the same.

Who cared if Lucas was a child? Clarisse had been his child. Thus, he stared into Lucas' eyes, hoping to see nothing but fear.

However, once their eyes met, his blade stopped.

'What?' His body was completely frozen. He couldn't move even when Lucas pulled out a dagger and plunged it right into his stomach. He couldn't even use magic to attempt to redirect or block it.

Lucas infused the dagger with mana, still looking up into Taume's eyes as fire ravaged his abdomen. Funnily enough, he didn't feel even the slightest bit of pain even when the dagger pierced him. It was like his entire mind was focused on the eye contact that he held with Lucas. It was only when Lucas broke it that he dropped to the floor, dead.