(Kai) “Well, it’s nice to meet everyone. Now, has anyone lived another life before this one?”
As soon as I said that, three of the student council members looked confused, not knowing what I meant. The other three, well, they startled badly—Very badly.
They jumped up from the table, one of them even starting the process of casting a spell. Their faces had turned completely pale, and they had a frightened look in their eyes.
(Kai) “Ah. So it’s you three.”
I said, speaking of Xavier, Hilman and the elf girl, Aslan.
I held up my hands in a non-threatening manner.
(Kai) “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you guys. Besides, being reincarnated isn’t as big a deal as you might think.”
Headmaster Flavius snorted off to the side, not believing what I said in the slightest.
I sighed, not bothering with his antics.
(Kai) “Well, what worlds were you guys on before dying?”
(Kris) “Wait—Hold on. You mean to say that reincarnation isn’t a myth? People can live again after dying?!”
(Kai) “Pipe down kid. Of course they can, it’s just that very few keep the memories of their last life.”
(Kris) “Kid?! I’ll have you know that I’m…”
(Kai) “Oh, shut it, would you? Didn’t I just explain that people can reincarnate to you? Maybe if you stopped to think for a second, you would figure out why I know this, and why I’m so powerful so young.”
(Xavier) “You mean—You’ve reincarnated too?”
(Kai) “Yes, now, where did you guys come from?”
The three of them looked at each other. Likely, they hadn’t known before now that some of the others were also reincarnated people. It’s the greatest folly of man, egocentrism. They each assumed that they were special cases, without equal. They had thought that they were the only reincarnated people in this world. Now that they knew otherwise, they felt a sense of solidarity with each other.
The girl Aslan nodded, telling them that she would speak.
(Aslan) “I first lived in a small village on a world named Beorm.”
(Hilman) “I’m from a place call’d Earth.”
(Xavier) “Ah! I am too!”
I exclaimed softly in surprise. I knew both of those worlds pretty well, after all.
(Kai) “What years did you guys come from, then?”
(Hilman) “I died in October of 1805, fighting 'gainst…”
(Kai) “Not interested. You—Xavier, what year are you from?”
(Xavier) “2398.”
I whistled softly. I would have to ask him later how everything on earth turned out in the end. Did they ever fix global warming, for instance?
I turned to Aslan.
(Aslan) “I died in the third imperial era, year fifty-eight.”
I could dimly recall that the date she gave was something like ten-thousand years before I had gotten there. Wow. Maybe she knows some ancient-type magic? It would be interesting to compare notes.
(Kai) “Well, that’s quite the variety. For the record, most people are reincarnated due to great amounts of positive karmic luck being present, showing that the one in question had committed a deed worthy of lauding them as heroes in their last life. So, it’s safe to say that each of you made a great impact on the livelihoods of the people around you after death.”
(Hilman) “Well, where’re you from, then? We’ve tol’ you all ‘bout us. Tis only fair.”
(Kai) “Hm? Well, you could say that I’m from Earth, though I died in Beorm that life. Then, I reincarnated in a world called Usfulheim, only to die and find myself in Geoteim. After that, I was born in Halving, then a world called Couse. Now I’m here.”
(Xavier) “What? …You’ve reincarnated five times already?”
(Kai) “Well, this is my sixth reincarnation. But yes. I’m a little more experienced in the matter than you are.”
(Aslan) “But, didn’t you say that you needed to have a great deal of karmic merit to be reborn? How much is needed to be reborn six times?”
(Kai) “Mine’s a special case, I’m afraid.”
Xavier was about to speak up, when I shook my head, telling him not to voice his obvious next question.
Tactfully, he didn’t ask it.
(Kai) “Ugh. It was nice meeting everybody. However, I’ve had a long day so far, and find myself wishing for a place to sleep.”
I said this while looking out the window opposite the door I had entered through.
It had turned dark out, the sun long since having dropped beyond the horizon. In fact, I could see one of the moons just peaking around the windowpane’s corner. It was slightly orange-tinged, telling me that it was the moon Statius.
It was said that an ancient civilization had once been able to live on the moon, the evidence being some rather artificial looking structures that were present on its surface. They could be seen through a telescope. It was my own opinion that it was just a few really large crystal formations, though. Like salt, or quartz.
Well, I bid the student council goodbye, and left through the door leading to the headmaster’s office. I had been expecting at least one of them to be reincarnated, but felt lucky that three of them were. And two were from earth, no less—Even though Hilman only half-counted, since he lived before the 1900’s. I actually kind of wondered if fate was playing a joke on me, since they had all been from worlds I had either been born in, or died in. The odds of this were quite low, with all the worlds that supposedly existed.
(Flavius) “We’ve already set up a room for you on campus, in the teacher’s dorm. Can you find your way there?”
(Kai) “Yeah. It’s the big building to the left of the academy’s main entrance, right?”
(Flavius) “Good, that’s correct. Just enter it, and ask the building manager about your room. He should be able to show you to it.”
(Kai) “Got it. Let me know when you’ve figured out what I’ll be teaching.”
(Flavius) “Definably. I’ll send someone to inform you when that happens.”
I left, walking to the three story marble building across the campus from the office areas I had just left. Entering through a front door with a circular top, the first thing I saw of the teacher’s dorms was a drunk-looking man splayed out in what seemed to be the recreation area. He was on the floor, and the empty bottles next to him attested as to how he had ended up there.
I walked past him, not paying any more attention to the matter. Across the room, there was a desk set into the wall, with a space behind it for someone to stand or sit. There was someone back there at the moment, and I guessed this was the building manager.
I stood in front of the desk, and rang the bell sitting on it. Mostly for fun. The whip-thin man behind the desk had already seen me, though he hadn’t seemed in any hurry to attend to my needs. A nametag on the desk proclaimed him to be one Mr. Gebrater.
(Gebrater) “How can I help you? Which teacher are you looking for?”
Ah, he thinks I’m a student, looking for my teacher—since there were probably quite a few students who came here for extra help, or clarification on a difficult subject.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
(Kai) “I’m not a student. My name is Kai, and I’m here to take up residency. You should have a room ready for me, right?”
He looked very taken aback, not having known that the new teacher would be a child.
Though, to his credit, he remained professional.
(Gebrater) “Ah…Yes, we have a room ready for you, Katariah Nadine Silver, right? Wait…Silver?”
That last part was muttered under his breath, as he looked at some papers in front of him more closely. It must have been weird for him, to see someone so obviously having demon blood, also carrying the name of the elven imperial family.
Anyway, he exited from behind the desk, and showed me to the room that had been prepared for me. It was on the second floor, at the end of a long hallway. It wasn’t a large room by any stretch of the imagination, especially since I could lie down, and my body length would have spanned half the room. It could be described as cozy, though.
I liked it. It was a room only meant for sleeping and meditating in, and it fulfilled those purposes adequately. I’ve never liked large rooms anyway—I had made a point of moving out of the suite given to me in the elven imperial estate, to a much smaller and well defended room. I never felt safe in those overly large and ostentatious rooms.
I dropped my bag in the corner of the room, and felt the bed cushion. It was also nice, by the way. All in all, the room gave off a feeling of having been well constructed and tastefully decorated, without any extra fringes. Unfortunately, while most others would take this opportunity to sleep, I still felt wide-awake, due to my racial heritage.
When I had told the student council earlier that I needed rest, that was a bold-faced lie. Really, they were the ones that looked tired and worn out. Mostly due to the stuff I had told them, and the things they had found out. They all needed some time amongst themselves to come to terms with these new revelations, after all. While it was true that being a reincarnated person isn’t as special as people would assume, it’s still something unusual.
And those who are reincarnated typically keep quite about it, since it’s weird for people that had known them from birth to reconcile that screaming little baby with what could be a thirty-seven year old man. And it’s an awkward situation to speak about. I mean, imagine that you find out that your sweet and innocent little kid was never so innocent as you had rightly assumed before.
There was one life that I had, where I came right out and told my birth parents that I was no child. Unfortunately, they had avoided me after that.
However, it’s just that those particular parents had been assholes of the greatest magnitude.
Mostly due to the things that had happened later, rather than the part where they simply ignored me.
I can handle being treated like air, but they did some unforgivable things.
It’s too bad I can’t go back to that world and meet them again. I would have some…interesting things to say to them.
Anyway, like I was saying before. I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight, even if I tried. Luckily, I had seen an area marked out on the campus map earlier, and was curious to see what it was all about.
I left the dorm room, bringing along my bag, minus the weapons I normally carried in it. Instead, I had my most precious objects safely stowed away in it’s large interior. Shouldering it, I walked to where I remembered this area being.
Sure enough, once I got within fifty paces of the place, I could smell the charcoal burning, and hear the rhythmic pounding of metal on metal. There was a dim glow emanating through the windows of the large hut-like structure, flickering from the air being pumped into the fire to make it hotter. Embers rose up from a massive chimney set into the middle of the hut’s roof, where the forge’s fire was located.
I walked into the academy’s smithy, not needing a door since one of the walls was missing, to provide better ventilation for the blacksmiths working inside.
There were three presently, all of them older than forty and likely being some of the most experienced people in the smithy. Well, I say that all of them were older than forty, but one was an elf, so there was no telling how old he was, except that he had enough age for it to show on his face, and especially in his eyes. The other two men where there to provide assistance to him, taking turns slamming massive hammers onto a glowing bar of metal, sparks flying with every hit.
I observed them as the bar of metal quickly took shape, elongating and being beveled by the strikes.
After a long moment, the elven man called for a stop, and stuck the metal back into the forge fire. It had been on the way to losing the heat required for shaping.
The man looked up after having taken care of the half-done blade, and saw me standing off to the side, unobtrusively.
(???) “Can I help you?”
He spoke in a dry and slightly annoyed sounding voice. It resembled two stones grinding together.
(Kai) “I was wondering if I could use your forge, sir.”
One of the man’s two helpers snorted off to the side.
(???) “My forge, mhh. Did you bring your own tools?”
I nodded, holding up the bag containing the tools I had crafted by hand over the course of a few years.
He motioned me over.
(???) “Show me your tools, kid.”
I opened up the bag, and pulled out a set of three completely different hammers, some heavy-looking tongs, two metal sheers capable of cutting though solid bars of steel, and a series of cylinders with varying width.
The old man took a look at the tools, his gaze lingering on one of my hammers. The one that caught his interest was my favorite hammer, actually. It was deliberately unbalanced a little, with the head of the hammer extending from the handle on only one side, and curving slightly. It resembled a short garden hoe with only one tine, which was extra thick and weighty. There were some crude looking images carved into the side of the hammer, from when I was younger and had less strength in this body.
He picked it up, and seemed surprised at how it felt. At least, his bushy white eyebrows rose slightly.
He handed the hammer back to me, and nodded.
(???) “Sure. You can use the forge. Just pick an empty workstation, and do whatever you want. Come back whenever.”
The old elf turned back to the metal he had stuck into the forge. The two men helping him protested slightly.
(???) “Master Giden, why would you let such a small and inexperienced child use the forge? Isn’t everyone supposed to meet your standards first?”
(Giden) “If you are concerned, than watch her. She has the skill needed.”
With that, the two men turned their attention from the glowing piece of metal, to the station I had chosen to set up at.
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