Chapter 35

It’s astonishing to find an innate psi user on this world. Now that I’m aware of it, I can feel the small trickle of psi energy that is coming off her. It was so small that it was basically undetectable.

If this was back in game, Rie would have been considered a member of the Psi Innate race. That race was like my Experiment race in that once you chose it you had a further choice of what race you wanted to be. Rie would thus be a Psi Innate: Human by game terms. A Psi Innate, as name denotes, was the best race to choose if you planned on primarily being a Psion or Empath. The only character race that could equal them was the Experiment race, but Experiments had much weaker defenses in comparison.

The other level of psi users would be everyone else that underwent the basic treatment that would develop the brain to produce a somewhat natural node for psi use. It wasn’t as powerful as that of a Psi Innate or the completely artificial and most likely technological one that Experiments like myself have, but it was good enough to provide enough strength to use psi, and more importantly for most people, some defense against psi too. In Seri’s civilization it was a fundamental procedure that everyone on most worlds went through sometime in early childhood. There was great risk for anyone that didn’t have it done, since it would be leaving themselves open to any psi attack, even a weak one.

All in all, if properly trained, Rie could potentially reach my level of psi power, if not higher, while also probably having psi defenses twice as strong as my own.That would require years of tutelage on my part though, and it’s not even for sure that people of this world could learn the classes that I have. I can learn theirs, but that doesn’t mean the same was true in reverse. There’s also the fact that just like with Myura, I have no intention of having someone by my side since that would just involve putting them in constant danger. As a result I can’t take Rie with me. Plus, I think it would be wrong of me to separate her from her brother.

There is one thing I can do for her, and it should help her a lot. It didn’t exist as a condition in game, but from Seri’s memories I know that a Psi Innate had the downside that they actually require much more control over their psi than others. In fact, during childhood and as they got older, their psi would start leaking out, causing unwanted things to happen. Times where they might accidentally read someone’s thoughts or possibly emotions. That could be very traumatizing for a child that might accidentally get a blast of their caretaker’s hidden hatred of them for example. Not that I know if that happened to Rie or not. The other thing that could happen, and it’s what I suspect was happening with Rie, was that she might be unconsciously using her psi to improve her body without knowing it. It could account for her clumsiness. Suddenly her body condition could improve or disimprove without warning and would thus throw her off. I’ll watch it very carefully tomorrow to be sure, but if that is the case I can at least teach her an exercise to keep her psi tightly under control instead of leaking out at random. It would be good to do it now before she gets older. Once her puberty gets in full swing her psi will start going even more out of control. If right now her psi was the equivalent of a trickle from a faucet, in another year or two it will be closer to that of the water shooting out of a firefighter’s hose.

It would be a very, very bad thing for her when that happens if she doesn’t have it under control. She would be as likely to seriously injure herself as others. Actually possibly more so, since it could just as easily flow through her body and do damage to her innards. It’s a great thing for her that her path collided with mine.

Huh? Wait? It is a good thing she ran into me here but doesn’t that seem like a lot of coincidences? A Psi Innate girl traveling to the capital along the same road that I will be using. A Psi Innate girl that so far was the only person on this world that I’ve seen with any capability for psi. She gets captured along with other kids by a bandit raid. I just so happen to come along and find a single survivor that tells me about it and who then dies shortly after. I immediately go crazy with rage and chase after the bandits and find said girl. I then become aware of girl’s gift and thus as probably the only person around with the necessary knowledge, teach her before it reaches the point where she might die from it.

Was that really all just a large set of coincidences? It better all be a coincidence, because the only alternative I can think of is divine intervention. If I find out that there truly are some kind of divine entities on this world and that they’re manipulating events, I’m going to get really damn pissed. I don’t know what I could do against them but I will absolutely make sure to find a way to do so and make their probably immortal lives a living hell. I mean if that random thought is right, that would mean they manipulated events to make sure this girl ran into me. That would mean that they made sure that her parents died in some way that her as an orphan would end up coming to the capital at the same time as me. It could even be that I was brought here to this world by said divine entities for some reason.

My own personal circumstances don’t really matter at the moment though. If I find out that this girl’s life was potentially turned into a painful hell for her just because of the whims of some kind of God, then I won’t forgive them. I don’t care about what you might do to others, but I won’t accept kids being put at risk if I can help it, whatever the reason.

That rage that I had felt earlier returned and began simmering. At the moment I really wanted to break something. I don’t even know why I’m so angry. I can only assume that this rage has something to do with Seri, but no memories are coming up to explain it right now. I mean no one likes the idea of kids being hurt, but Seri seems to take it to a whole nother level, and I’m being dragged along.

Of course, I had to admit that there was another, more dangerous possibility. If I considered the idea of divine entities and that they can manipulate events to play out the way they want them to, then it’s quite possible my rage here was something that was implanted into me to make sure I played along with whatever their plot is. I don’t know if I really believe that’s the case though, it could just be me being excessively paranoid. I mean even if I don’t have Seri’s memories explaining it, I can make a pretty good guess that the reason Seri has such a soft spot for kids is because she herself didn’t have what one could call a nice, happy childhood.

I still feel sick just remembering what I did to those two bandits that were left on watch to get them to give me information. I was even feeling enjoyment from watching them as they struggled in their torment at my hands. Not to mention what I did to the main group of bandits. The worst part is that I know for a fact that even though I’m disgusted with my actions, I would absolutely do it all again with no hesitation.

I held up my hands and looked at them dispassionately. How much of me was still me and how much was now Seri? Was this how everything was going to go? Eventually, even though I still have my memories of my life as Aaron, will the influence from Seri’s memories just be so much stronger, that in the end I’ll be more her than Aaron? I’m worried about it, but will worrying about it even solve anything? The most concerning part is that there’s absolutely nothing I can do about this. I’m along for this ride no matter where it ends up taking me. The only option I have is to at least try and not let myself lose to emotions that appear out of nowhere. Like this rage that I’m still currently feeling despite my own distress.

Interrupting my current haunting thoughts, I felt a signal from my spread out net that something had entered it and was close to our camping spot. I welcomed the diversion it entailed. I carefully lifted Rie from my lap without waking her, sat her next to her brother and then stealthily ran in the direction of what I had detected.

I caught sight of the creature shortly after. It was a large lizard, reminiscent of a komodo dragon but with even longer claws and a shorter muzzle. I’d say it was probably in the three to four meters range in length. I pulled my dagger and intended to finish it off quietly. It flicked a glance in my direction as I got close, but rather than become hostile it walked right past me. I watched it amble in the direction of a large tree. Upon reaching the tree, it climbed and got up into the branches, where it began eating the leaves.

It’s an herbivore? I wasn’t expecting that. I watched it for a while to be safe, but all it did was continue eating leaves before stretching out on the large branch and lying motionless. I guess it’s resting now that it ate? I’m kind of disappointed I didn’t get to kill something, but watching a large lizard was distracting enough for now. I wandered back to the campsite and settled down to continue my vigil.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

By the time the other adventurers started to stir in the morning, I was extremely bored. The only creatures I had seen all night was two more of those lizards, which had proceeded to the same tree as the first one and then followed the same routine of eating and then resting. Which gave me all together too much free time to continue my paranoid musings. Eventually, just to stop myself driving myself insane by going mentally in circles, I decided I’d deal with it if it became necessary and shelf the topic in the meantime.

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The adventurers started to prepare food since neither they or the kids got to eat last night. I offered to help, but was rebuffed since they still felt bad for letting me to take the watch the whole night. Well, in the end the kids were happy that when they got woken up, breakfast was ready. I had to eat away from the kids since they were still afraid of me. Rie ate beside me without a care in the world. Her brother was staying by her as well. I could tell that Rie’s brother was still wary of me, but he was ignoring that to protect his sister. He’s a good big brother.

Once everyone had eaten, we packed up the tents and supplies and continued along the highway toward the capital. Just like the previous night I was leading the group, while the adventurers were mainly toward the back of the group of kids. They were trusting me to cover a wider range. It wouldn’t be a problem, since I had my bow out today and had made the adjustment to have my quiver on my waist instead. It seemed like that was a better place for it.

I made Rie and her brother walk a bit behind me and closer to the rest of the kids. At the current pace, we’d be getting there sometime tomorrow since the kids can’t travel that fast. At least we had enough water flasks and food to keep everyone fit until we reach the city. While we walked, I kept part of my attention focused on Rie so I could watch her psi closely. It wasn’t long until my suspicion had been confirmed. I watched as her psi flowed through her body a second before she stumbled. Her brother steadied her before she could hit the ground.

No reason not to start the lesson now. “Hey Rie, come here for a moment.” I beckoned her to come closer and she skipped over. Her brother made to follow her, but I held up my hand to stop him. “Sorry, but this is a girls only talk.” He glared at me, but backed off for now.

When Rie reached my side. “What is it, Miss Angel?”

“First of all. I’m not an angel and it’s definitely not my name either. So just call me Seri okay?” I said.

“Really? I can call Miss Angel by her name?” Rie excitedly replied.

“‘Yes, so stop it with the ‘Miss Angel’ business already. Please.” I stated.

“Alright, Miss Seri!” She answered.

So the ‘Miss’ stays? Whatever. “Rie, can I ask you something? Do you ever have times where it feels like weird stuff is going on? Like maybe you heard something weird from someone but they didn’t seem to actually be talking. Or maybe you felt something off about your body like it got lighter or heavier all of a sudden?”

Rie looked surprised. “How did Miss Seri know? It happens a lot, but Brother took me to a Priest and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. Even magic didn’t cure it so I thought I was just really clumsy. Does Miss Seri know what’s wrong with me?”

“There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s just a certain part of you that needs a little extra help. I can teach you a method that will help you, but after I teach you, it’s dependent on you to make sure you perform it everyday. The time of day doesn’t matter.” I explained.

“Please teach me! I don’t like that feeling. If you can make it go away, I’ll do anything.” Rie pleaded.

“I’m sorry Rie. I can’t make it go away entirely. It’s a part of you. Just like it’s also a part of me. I can’t remove it anymore than you can. I can only teach you how to manage it.” I said.

Rie’s eyes got as wide as saucers. “Miss Seri is like me?”

“That’s right. Well, my case isn’t exactly like yours, but it’s similar enough that I can assist you. The only thing I want you to promise before I teach you, is that you have to keep this a secret. I’d like it if you hid it even from your brother, but I’ll allow you to at least tell him if you choose to. It’s not good for family members to keep secrets from each other after all.” I replied.

“I can do that! I promise!” Rie shouted.

Rie just drew everyone’s attention with that. “Shh. Calm down. Just walk by me and I’ll start the lesson. Just try not to be excited by everything that happens.” I sent a small tendril of psi and waved it in front of her. “Do you see that?”

“Yeah! Wow, it’s one of your wing feathers!” She tried to touch it, but her hand just went through it. I felt the motion but she obviously didn’t because she kept waving her hand back and forth with a growing irritable expression. “Why can’t I touch it? I see it right in front of me!”

“You can’t touch it with your hand. What you’re seeing right now is something called psi.” I explained.

“Psi? I’ve never heard of that before.” Rie said, confused.

“That’s understandable. It can be a very mysterious power. It’s also the power that you possess. Right now you just can’t use it. So instead of trying to touch it with your hand, I want you to concentrate really hard on what you’re seeing. Concentrate and try to touch it, but without using your hands.” I said.

“How am I supposed to touch it without using my hand?” Rie complained.

“Just try, Rie. The fact that you can even see psi means you’re already somewhat consciously using your own abilities. This is just another step and should be possible for you. Once you do this we can move to the next.” I told her.

There was another way to go about this training. I could try nudging her psi node with my own psi to focus her awareness on it. The problem with that approach is that there was a lot of possible side effects to it. The least of which is that she could feel an overpowering headache and then go unconscious for a few days. That wasn’t exactly a good option at the moment, and the other possible side effects that could spring from it were worse. It was better for her to force her psi to do something which would make her actively conscious of it. She’ll still probably have a bad headache or dizzy feeling, but it won’t last long and won’t knock her out.

Just to taunt her a bit, I kept waving the psi in front of her face. Her face was screwed up in concentration. I felt the psi in her swirling around energetically in response, but it seemed like she couldn’t get it to do anything yet. Well, I expected this might take a while today. It would be weirder if she got it right away. As long as she can stay focused it will come out eventually.

Expecting a child to stay focused that long might have been a bit of a miscalculation on my part. Rie couldn’t keep her concentration going for more than five to ten minutes at a time and then afterwards she would complain about her head hurting. That shows progress at least. I hoped so anyway. This shouldn’t be too hard of an exercise. I mean she’s not going to send out an actual formed tendril of psi and touch my own. She just needs to send out some psi consciously. The feeling of that is what was important here. Maybe the fact that she’s trying to do this while also walking and keeping up with me was hindering her too. Nothing I can do about that at the moment. We were taking breaks every so often anyway for the kids to rest, but I was keeping Rie practicing so they weren’t really breaks for her.

Eventually, I decided to let her stop and told her we’d resume a bit later. It felt like she’s making progress judging by how her psi has been acting. On her last attempt before I told her to stop, her psi had briefly converged and it had seemed like it was just about to erupt out of her before it had dissolved, leaving Rie feeling drained. 

Around early afternoon, I heard the sound of many hooves coming from the direction ahead of us. I held up my left hand to signal to the other adventurers that we had possible company. It wasn’t long before what I had heard became visible. A group of about thirty mounted knights were traveling the highway. Tasha started coming to the front of the group, probably to explain to the knights what was going on.

The knights slowed down when they got close and the one who I assumed was their leader took off his helm and then directed his attention toward me. He appeared to be possibly a tiger beastman, if I judged by how his somewhat long hair looked with the stripes.  “Greetings, my fair lady. I am Baronet Richter of the Imperial Order of Paladins. Why is your party traveling with such a large number of children? Did some trouble perchance befall you?”

How was I supposed to address this guy? I think a baronet was a pretty low noble rank isn’t it? So would lord work? Or is it sir?

Thankfully my slight hesitation wasn’t noticed because Tasha arrived and spoke for me. “Hello, Sir Paladin.” Oh, so that’s how. “We were adventurers hired to protect a merchant caravan. The kids were also being transported along with said caravan. Unfortunately we were attacked yesterday evening by bandits. We, along with the children, were taken captive.”

“Foul criminals! They have become brazen as of late! But if your party was captured, how are you now free?” The paladin asked, somewhat suspiciously.

Tasha waved her hand at me. Oh no! I know what’s coming but there’s no way to shut her up or interrupt her without it looking odd. “This girl here saved us. It was an amazing feat. She took on all the bandits alone all for the sake of rescuing children she heard were in trouble.”

“Splendid! Saving the innocent is truly a most honorable feat!” He nodded respectfully to me. “May I have the fair lady’s name, and your own as well.”

“My name is Tasha, Sir Paladin.” Tasha replied.

“My own name is Seri.” I answered.

“Lady Seri, please accept my most humble gratitude for protecting citizens of the Empire. While I have a business to attend to, I am behooved to offer some aid in light of your troubles. Cedric!”

Another knight rode up to his superior. “Here Sir!”

“Choose five of your fellows to escort these ladies and the children to the capital.” The paladin ordered.

“Yes Sir!” Cedric turned around and then motioned toward certain other knights to come forward.

“You don’t have to go to all that trouble for us, Sir Paladin.” I tried to refuse.

“Nay fair lady. This is a task befitting knights of the realm such as ourselves. If it were not for my prior commitments, I would escort you myself. Alas, It is a shame that I can not.” He replied.

“I have done as ordered Sir.” Cedric said.

“Good man. Now do excuse me ladies, I leave you in the capable hands of Cedric and five of my knights. I must now depart.” He dipped his head toward us and then donned his helmet and then gestured for the rest of the knights and they rode off.

I glanced at our newly appointed escort. Somehow, I feel like we just got a gigantic nuisance foisted off on us.