Chapter 6
Volume 2
I think I may have overreacted last time with the whole [Breakthrough] thing and stuff.
I mean, I have the goddess word that I would be [Immortal], right?
It wouldn’t make sense if I were to die. Of course, if my memories from before the current life have been implanted by a Titan then this might be the case, but they weren’t.
They definitely weren’t.
So I shouldn’t be so worried.
Besides, I think I know why I went through that weird thing.
It’s because of my special talent of having no limits to my growth.
It would make sense, I think. Since I should have unlimited capacity on everything, then I should also have unlimited capacity to store aura… which means I go through [Breakthroughs] as long as I have enough accumulated aura.
I don’t need qigong or anything. If I had just accumulated aura forever, I would have gone through those [Breakthroughs] just like I went now.
Well, maybe it was good to learn qigong. Since this breakthrough was terrifying.
Really.
I literally got shredded to nothing and then returned.
What the fuck was that.
But at least I have an explanation.
That said, I’m only thinking that because I don’t want to think about the other thing that just happened, hahaha….
As soon as I got home mother gave me a big, worried hug. Then she checked me all over.
I guess grandmother told her I was going through tough times, since she seemed very relieved.
Then it was time to meet older sister.
She came off of Jacen’s room and I ran to her. We hugged like we had never seen each other.
Aaah.
The scent on her skin.
You know, the scent of a woman’s skin. One which you have had intimate relations with. It’s a wonderful thing.
It’s not the smell. I’m not talking about any smelly sweat.
It’s just something that sticks to the clothes.
Like umami flavor. You can’t really taste umami, the same way you can’t really smell a woman’s scent.
But it’s there.
Your brain knows it’s there. Your body know it’s there. And they will make you feel safe.
I wonder if it’s pheromones or something?
No matter.
It makes you feel good. Safe. Invigorated. Like you own yourself, life and strength.
So I was enjoying sister’s scent, thinking she may had been enjoying mine as well, when she let me go due to a certain…
calling… from the sides.
“Ann! Ann!”
“Oh, you want a hug too? Here.”
…
WHY?!
WHY LITTLE SISTER AGAIN?!
I suffer.
And now she wants to hug me as well.
“All! Hughs!”
*sigh*
Come here young one. I shall be strong of heart and hate you with brotherly hate only.
***
Aaah…
I wonder.
As I remain seated in the living room, I wonder, lost deeply in thought.
Why is that, oh well, obviously it’s because I’m doing it.
I’m waiting to see if sister is going to come to me.
The day was fun and all.
Eating with sister, smelling sister’s pheromones, hearing about her journey.
I didn’t keep tag on her ALL of the time, so it’s fun to hear new stories, like the one on how drinking beer isn’t common outside of the village.
I’m shocked by the idea that people drink unpurified river water outside of our village.
Really.
Shocked.
I need to ask about this to grandma later, but…
Not today.
Oh no. Oh no mister.
Today I ain’t going to go training. I ain’t going to go ask stuff to grandma, I ain’t going to go to do any-fucking-thing.
Unless it’s fucking sister.
Oh man.
I need it so much!
It’s not that I feel unrestrained desire. There’s no desire involved.
But I just need it.
I had so much homo sex. I need some hetero to regain some of my “macho” juice.
Some woman nectar to create hair in my chest and proudness in my beard.
Not that I have any of those.
So, that’s why I wait.
Even if I know the chances of sister coming out of Jacen’s room are high.
Even if I know the chances of grandma’s soul interrupting us midway and looking at me with unmerciful eyes.
I JUST FUCKING NEED TO FEEL LIKE A WOMAN-FUCKING MAN AGAIN!
So I wait.
Let’s hope something miraculous happens.
***
Being horny makes people do weird shit.
And man, is sister horny.
I mean, she didn’t have a single partner all of these years. I’m pretty sure she didn’t.
So she’s packed up and I’m glad she took the initiative… again.
Except…
She’s damn rough this time. Maybe it’s because she knows I’m already past her in strength or because she doesn’t fear expending some aura now that she has gone through her own [Breakthrough], but it looks a lot like [Joint Training], and not exactly sex per se.
It may be a little late at night, but father and mother are in the other room you know?!
Thanks the heavens I know how to extend the [Cotton Step] technique to take the whole room.
~~Aaaaah~~
You know what, I may not have any sexual needs, but pleasure is pleasure. Besides, it’s sister! Sister is doing this to me again!
Oh the masculinity!
I can feel the hetero parts of me rejoicing!
Someone is lighting up the fuses. Someone is giving me the po-po-po-power!
I even bet my ass has become a little tighter after that, like as if I hadn’t put anything inside that place yet.
Thanks the gods I know what is going on. Otherwise this may have been very confusing.
Uuuhm~~~ older sister weight on top of me really is the best!
It makes me feel so fucking goood~~
***
“Thanks !”
“Enjoy it, Wax. Now go play with your friends.”
~~Ugh.
I have made a mistake.
I have let people call me “wax” because of the whole me getting a honeycomb to sister thing, and now this has become my nickname in the village.
I’m Wax, the kid who went to get honeycomb and had to dive into the river.
Well, it doesn’t matter.
Because I sister gave me something so good yesterday, I’m refreshed enough not to care in the slightest.
Aaah.
Here.
My tree of choice. Since sister is gone to the fields in order to help grandpa with weeding out the crops, I don’t have anything out of the usual to do.
Let’s sit on the same place as ever and…
Uh?
Wait…
This thing has a soul?!
And it is….
It’s my [Forest Spirit]’s soul!
The fuck!
So fast!
Ah, it’s extending to touch me. Its feelings are still quite pure and nice, even if it’s not exactly the same as when it was born.
There’s some element of wilderness on it.
Some sadness, probably for having lived a bit under the law of the jungle.
Still, it’s my little friend. Or maybe son?
Wait… [Daughter], is that?
Really, you’re a female?
Nice.
Ah, I should stop for a moment exchanging feelings with you. I need to let grandma knows. What if you’re dangerous?
No,no,no, I don’t mean you feel ill malice against us, but we don’t know. What if something happens because you’re here?
Wait a moment, I will be back soon.
***
“Grandma! Grandma!”
“What is it darling?”
Grandma is on the backyard of her house, putting some clothes to dry. I better tell her with my soul’s voice, so the other’s don’t hear about it.
“It has reached us!”
“Uh? What has?”
“The [Forest Spirit]! It has taken the tree I usually sleep under!”
Ah, grandma dropped the pair of pants she was hanging. They are all dirty now.
“Let’s go”
She’s talking with her usual voice now.
“Okay”
I hope she doesn’t do anything too drastic.
Here we come…
Uh?
Ah, it has spread itself again.
It’s all over the village now.
What a fast-moving spirit. Already took all of the trees around.
…grandma isn’t happy. That’s a bit scary.
Yeah, the spirit seems a bit scared as well. That’s the right way to stay my friend.
Here grandma comes after all.
And she’s talking with her soul, like I was before.
“Alma, what do you think you’re doing? Haven’t I said you should remain within the forest?!”
“Sorry Ma! I wanted to know Pa!”
Eh… it can talk.
Wait, What?
“Your father would go see you later today. You didn’t need to come to see him.”
“But I wanted to!”
“Do you know what you have done?! What if someone sees you? You will bring trouble to your father and to me as well, you know?!”
“Sorry…”
Hey… ey ey ey, what is going on? Why are the trees around the village losing their souls?
Wait… they are losing their leaves….
They are dying!
“Alma, stop it. You don’t need to kill your trees just to go away. It would be worse.”
“Sorry.”
Grandma is sighing.
“It’s okay kid. Just don’t do it again. Now, come over Alvin. This is your [Forest Spirit]. I named it Alma.”
Ha.
Haha.
What should I say to this child of my relations with grandmother?
***
It seems the mind which took over Alma’s soul wasn’t totally free of memories of its past life.
Since it was a mind coming over a soul, it didn’t need to go through the usual *reset* a mind gets when reincarnating. It had only a softened version of it.
The one inhabiting my [Forest Spirit] is the mind of a youngster from somewhere in the world. Probably a teenager if it’s way of speaking say something about it.
It doesn’t remember much of its previous life, only that it used to be alive in a flesh and bones body and that it lived a difficult life.
Then it got attached to my [Forest Spirit] because it had a good affinity to it.
That’s interesting. Maybe a clue to the [Reincarnation] spell. This fact that losing memories still happens when you get a new soul after being a mind for long, but isn’t so severe as when you get a body.
The thing about me being its father and grandmother being its mother?
It seems the little one had an easier time comprehending things like this when it had just awakened, so grandma took the liberty of saying things like this to it.
In a way it’s true since the [Forest Spirit] is the fruition of grandma’s knowledge and my actions, but it’s too weird being called father at my own age.
When these feelings passed through my soul the [Forest Spirit] started to laugh and grandma gave a smile.
She knows. The [Forest Spirit] knows.
Was this a prank those two pulled on me?
*sigh*
When will I learn?
I put up my [Soul Isolation] technique like it was before I started to “talk” with the [Forest Spirit] using my soul’s irradiations instead of my Soul-Mouth.
That said, it’s pretty weird that me and grandma are seated on the middle of the village, looking at one another without saying anything.
I feel we haven’t blown our cover yet, but isn’t this pretty close of doing so?
***
In the end grandma returned home and me and Alma stayed under my favorite tree, coming to know each other better.
It’s set that the trees she took in the village will remain with her, while the ones she didn’t will remain without a soul.
She took most of the trees, so that means she will be around most of the time.
And that’s a good thing, but also a bad thing.
Because Alma is very lively and fun, but also a bit rebellious.
The first thing she did after coming to the village was to spread her control over the trees around, taking them.
Then, once grandma told her she couldn’t, she started to remove herself from the trees… which almost killed many of them, since the aura within the trees started to follow her soul.
Then she returned her soul to the trees, and they started to recover. Still, they are in pretty bad shape.
It’s possible that the villagers will notice that the trees have dried suddenly and think something bad is happening.
No, it’s almost certain.
This is the kind of personality Alma has.
She will do things impulsively and then make them worse when she gets scolded.
All with the best of intentions.
Sigh.
Should I have had a little more self-control and avoided creating her?
After all, I survived this long without a friend… couldn’t I have survived a couple years more?
Anyhow, she’s here now.
So we have been talking with our souls. I wander around, showing the village to her and commenting on people’s lives.
…
Damn, why is this so good?
She does have a sense of humor which matches mine!
And she can see people’s souls and auras, just like I can!
So we joke of the same things, and have fun together.
It’s so good having someone to laugh with!
***
Aaah~~~~
What can I say?
Yesterday was weird.
First, the whole village got a bit worried when people noticed the almost-dead trees. They called everyone to the center of the village and sent a delegation to grandma’s house.
It’s really weird to see people going to your grandmother’s house in an official delegation.
The ones in it were the village’s militia’s guard, Forehead, our village’s chief, Uller, and Matthew Dorian.
Still, everything went smooth. They got tea and grandma said it was the emergence of a [Forest Spirit].
I got sincerely surprised with how happy they got.
I mean, really happy.
So happy we had a fucking festival!
The news spread around in a flash and, by eight o’ clock we already had everyone gathered at the center of the village, eating, drinking and talking happily.
I thought about asking grandma why, but I didn’t have a chance to, since at the middle of the thing Uller got up and yelled:
“EVERYONE!”
People looked at him and he went, his mustached and round face being all red while illuminated by the torches people put around for illumination:
“Marie of the Long Lived Race confirmed it earlier today. A FOREST SPIRIT HAS BEEN BORN ON OUR FOREST!”
Cheers and screams. Holy cows of India, the people are even jumping on the place.
“MARIE OF THE LONG LIVED RACE! PLEASE COME! Have the seat of honor! TONIGHT WE TELL TALES TO THE FOREST SPIRITS!”
And so they went all night long telling tales to the forest spirit.
Well, I can’t say they were boring, but the weirder part of that was that this seems to be an old custom done only once every 30 years.
That or yearly if a [Forest Spirit] is born.
We could say it’s a form of collective praying, in which everyone tells tales of how [Forest Spirits] are nice and gentle and aggressive when they need to be.
Probably a way of creating forest spirits itself, since some of the tales had spells mixed In them.
It was also interesting to notice how it’s perfectly possible to infuse spells into usual singing.
You just need to make the lyrics taking into account the mantra-like sounds, so those stay at the strong syllables.
This way when people are singing they will sing the spell while singing the song as well.
A shame I’m no poet, or I could make use of that.
Still, very smart. And very intense. Some of those singings are even soul spells. I’m sincerely surprised people can sing them, but everyone’s feelings get tuned to the right frequencies due to the music, tales and so on.
On another words, it’s like a collective ritual where people go through a series of theatrical acts in order to get the right feelings and emotions, so when they sing the spell they actually DO something instead of just pretending to do.
Amazing.
Just amazing.
A shame the emperor’s curse made it impossible for regular people to create a [Forest Spirit] with just this level of ritual, what to say for them to be able to do it while repeating the ritual only once every 30 years, but, still, amazing.
How did Alma react to all this?
Well, she absorbed the emotions and energy given to her as expected.
For a moment I feared that she would change due to that, but she didn’t.
Since my own emotions had been the decisive factor for choosing which mind would inhabit her soul, the feelings which were too dissonant to the ones I infused her with got digested by her soul and transformed into something else.
Anyhow, it was nice.
Grandma had obviously made a contract with Alma regarding how she would deal with the village long before she took the trees around, but she still sung and had fun in the middle of the people.
It was nice for her, and they became drunk on the niceness of the emotions emanating from her soul, so that was really touching to see.
I wonder if they realize Alma’s still a young spirit with just a few hundred trees now, but seen as they were already choosing a “sacred tree” inside of the village to represent the village’s connection to Alma, I guess things will go fine.
Today?
Well, I have plenty of monster ash and refined monster soul remains left, so I intend to feed all of them to her.
Let’s go and do it.
***
Alma’s trees are only a few hundred and in almost straight line. She did her best to reach the village, it seems.
But on the other side, she has also expended quite a lot of energy.
So I will be spreading all of my mixed purified monster ash and soul remains around those trees, increasing the amount she can absorb at once.
There we go…
“I think this is the last of those Alma.”
“Thanks Pa!”
Ugh there she goes calling me father again. She knows I’m not that.
“Hehehe.”
And she’s even laughing!
What a mischievous thing! And they call it gentle!
Sigh….
“All, what will you do with those?”
Alma is pointing to the mana pebbles inside the monster ash golem-vases.
It’s a good question. I don’t intend to leave them be, of course.
“Uhm. I guess I will just fuse them together with the big one I have on my house’s celling. It will be easier to control them like this. Why, do you want one?”
“NO!”
What a strong answer. Cute, but strong!
“Eh? You don’t like those?”
“They fell awful! They make me feel bad!”
Uh.
I guess that makes sense.
They are the seeds of dungeons after all. Kind of natural enemies of [Forest Spirits] since they absorb the aura from the environment and dominate everything around. Just like monsters do as well.
“Okay, don’t worry, I will take these with me.”
“Hey, All…”
“Uhm? What is it?”
“Did you use those to make me?”
Oh. What a question. Should I answer it truly? She seems to be pretty scared of those things after all.
…
Bullshit. She will see much worse things in the future. Besides, if I lie here then this could be bad in the future, right?
A little white lie, she develops some kind of prejudice against mana pebbles, I need one of those, her feelings are hurt because I lied.
This kind of scenario.
Let’s avoid tragedy flags. She won’t be too traumatized from knowing her enemies are needed to be used to create beings like her…
Oh, wait, they don’t.
Right. If I explain it properly she will understand she doesn’t need to rely on these things for anything, and will keep destroying them…
“ALL!”
“Wha- what ?”
“You’re taking too long to answer! It makes me nervous!”
*sigh*
“I do like thinking before answering you know? And yes, I used those to make the ash for your soul and tree. But they don’t need to be used all of the time. It was just because I wanted to make you come to existence in a few months instead of hundreds of years.”
“Ah…”
Her soul seems a bit disappointed. I wonder if I gave her some of my depression as well, besides the good feelings?
…let’s hope I didn’t.
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“Hey, don’t make that face. You don’t need to show mercy to those things. I used them, but they aren’t meant to be left wild. If you do, it will hurt everyone.”
“…uhm.”
…
Still sad hum.
“But it seems this isn’t the problem. Why are you sad?”
“It’s just… I didn’t want to have to get rid of them… monsters are okay because it can’t be helped… they just appear and that’s it… but you created the pebbles, just like you created me. Aren’t them my brothers?”
Ah.
Now I feel bad.
And for some reason I remember a certain golem I created once, and which displayed a little soul.
Poor Enrico Emilio the First.
I still remember your clay eyes looking at me with loyalty.
And then I smashed him.
Damn, I get sad remembering that.
Arh.
Now isn’t the time to think like this.
It didn’t have a mind.
It was like a computer program. Like a machine. Just obeying orders without a mind, thoughts or will.
I don’t need to feel like I killed one of my children, right?
Yeah.
Let’s make Alma understand this as well.
“Nope. They aren’t.”
“Uh?”
“They don’t have minds, darling. They have only souls and bodies. They aren’t different from regular rocks. You shouldn’t feel like they are your brothers, because you have a mind and a will. You are a person. They aren’t. They are just like the trees you take for yourself. Do you feel those trees are people?”
“No. They are empty inside.”
“It’s the same thing. Those pebbles have souls, but are empty on their minds. So don’t worry about them okay? Besides, I won’t destroy them. I will merge them onto the big crystal I have on my house’s ceiling.”
“You won’t destroy them?!”
“Of course not. They may be useful in the future. You can make a lot of things from them, you know?”
“Okay!”
He.
Nice to see she is in good spirits again. No pun intended.
That said, have I just called Alma “darling”?
….yeah I did.
Good heavens. Am I becoming my grandmother?!
***
So, talking with Alma is super fun.
Knowing she’s watching me and Ann have sex…. Not so fun.
I mean, she only has limited range of observation from her trees. [Forest Spirits] have a very strong wiring, much like [Soul Grounding], since their bodies are very brute.
So they can’t go very far on [Soul Walking]. Only a few meters away from their trees.
Still, that’s enough.
I can see her watching from the other side of the window.
Damn kid, stop that.
How will I savor sister’s taste with you giggling on the outside?
My training?
I have just returned from it.
Me and sister have been doing this late night, once I return from my training and we know grandma won’t be too pissed at us.
And, let me say, grandma isn’t happy with us being together.
She didn’t say a word to me directly, but she stayed at our house later one day and said to Ann:
“You need to train more your [Aura Hiding] technique. I can see Alvin’s aura mixed with yours.”
Now, the words may not seem threatening, but the face…
Oh boy, the face.
Besides, Jacen was there and heard it… I wonder how pissed off he is at us having sex.
I don’t sleep in the same room as he and Ann do, and I don’t have any other opportunities to talk to him directly without mother or father hearing us.
I mean, I can’t just ask him what are his thoughts on me and sister fucking in the middle of breakfast.
…even if he did make a very similar question to father when we were younger. Asking if me and he could fuck and stuff like that.
Well, that said, me and Ann started having sex every two days instead of every day and when I return from night training instead of before I go.
And since we have been at It for a while now I have also started to take the initiative a few times.
It’s nice to ask her to do stuff to me, or for us to try new things.
Ann is amazingly open to try new stuff. I guess her Willpower talent isn’t the same as being a dom.
She’s just a regular girl, but with extreme resilience when she sets her mind on getting something.
That’s nice.
Anyhow, tomorrow I need to scold Alma for peeping…. Again.
She is good natured and gentle, but she does like to play little pranks on us, like this one of watching me and Ann having sex.
Not that she can ever have sex with me or want to. She’s no dryad.
It’s just for the pleasure of knowing I will be a little pissed at her. Just a little.
“Yes… more like this…”
Oh, I found sister’s sweet spot again, haven’t I?
I may have only a little eight-years-old penis, but I’m getting really good at using it.
Let’s enjoy this discovery a little more. Last time I didn’t payed attention to the exact spot, so let’s make sure I can find it again later.
***
I have already learned all of the soul techniques and spells grandma knows off, to perfection.
Be it [Soul Grounding], [Holy Guard], [Cleanse], [Soul Release], [Magic Flexibility: Undead Creation], [Soul Weapon], [Soul Armor], [Soul Analysis], [Soul Isolation], [Soul Cushion], [Soul Magic Flexibility: Time and Space], [Soul Gate], [Soul Magic Flexibility: Materialization and Dematerialization], [Soul Dissolution], [Soul Magic Flexibility: Blessing and Cursing], [Soul Surgery], [Soul Overload], [Feeling Insertion], or my own spell: [Undead Apocalypse].
I mastered them all.
And it is a whole lot of them… [Soul Surgery], [Soul Overload], [Feeling Insertion] and [Soul Bending and Transmutation] being the last ones I have learned, the first being how to properly cut souls, the second how to infuse energy into them to the point they beat the curse or explode and the third how to insert feelings into souls and make them a part of the soul-system.
But it isn’t the most important I have learned about souls.
Oh no.
The most important things I learned about souls was how feelings mix together and react with one another.
If I mix two parts anger and one-part ignorance, both about the same subject, what happens?
That would be the annoying feeling of “needing to destroy the foreign thing”.
Which is quite similar to when I mix one-part fear with two parts run-or-fight feeling about the same subject, let’s say, a monster’s nest.
Then one would create the “need to destroy the threat” feeling.
Of course, both can be also brewed with other feelings. For example, the “need to destroy the threat” can be gotten by mixing the feeling of “duty” with the feeling of “hardened resolution” if you add to this mix the feeling of “something is threatening my duty”.
Yes, yes, soul chemistry is really interesting. And quite useful.
For example, there are mixes which will just explode, like [Holy Guard] casted on hate-and-violence based, poorly-wired, undead.
And I learned all of that.
And now is time to move to higher learnings.
Yes.
Grandma will finally teach me the third degree of magic.
Not that I don’t know how to do a little bit of it already. Since long I have used visualization to help me with all kinds of magic I do.
But now grandma will officially teach me how to do it. And this means also how to do other amazing things, like how to see people’s minds and go on [Mind Walking].
LET’S DO IT!
… after dinner is over, of course.
It’s important to hear about how the dojo people were all weaklings near sister and the city folk a bunch of lazy-asses.
Why if I have heard it a number of times already?
Because little sister is listening attentively, as if she had been captivated into a spell.
I won’t lose Ann to you, little demon! I won’t!
***
“Hold it steady. You’re shaking a bit.”
Damn it be.
I’m holding an [Aura Bow] on my hands now.
And it’s a very strong one.
Grandma made me make it so tense I will feel difficulty to hold it in position, even while being the well of aura I currently am.
The aura consumption of this thing is astronomic.
No wonder I’m shaking.
But she just insisted I must learn it like as if I was a cadet at a military school. From the basics. Feeling the pull of the cord.
Why?
Because we had to do a quick revision of everything today.
We just HAD to!
Argh.
The worst is, it was my idea.
I went all “Grandma, can we go through everything I learned to see if there’s something wrong?”
And then both of us noticed it.
That I hadn’t trained enough with the bow and arrow.
I went from using stick spears to [Aura Needles] so quick I didn’t had time to train with either the bow, the mace, the axe or the throwing daggers.
The throwing daggers have the same principle as the [Aura Needles] with the exception of being a little harder to aim.
But the Axe has a lot of weird moves, and the Mace requires unsuspecting precision to be used.
Then there’s the flail and, worse of all, the bow.
I have enough skill with swords and spears, and in the process got some skill with batons, naginatas and such.
But more classical weapons are my weak spot.
So let’s learn how to use them effectively.
First the basics, then messing with people’s minds.
“Now shoot it in angle.”
Yeah. First the basics. Except I’m not using an arrow because it may pierce the mountains in the distance, due the absurd amount of aura I’m expending on this damn bow.
*sigh*
Didn’t do it right the first time, do it double in the second. First training how to properly feel a bow, then how to shoot an arrow.
Grandma is merciless when it comes to training.
***
What’s this fucker doing here?
Forehead, I mean.
He’s at our door, this early in the morning.
Argh, father is doing that military thing to him. Continence or whatever. Now Jacen as well.
“You both can rest.”
“Thanks sir. Would you like to come in?”
“Please.”
Well, at least he has manners.
And now mother is offering him a cup of beer.
I don’t like this.
I definitely don’t like this feeling of a stranger in my house, coming all of a sudden.
He drank his beer, and then looked at sister. Older sister.
“So, you’re Jhon’s daughter eh? I’m Johnson, your father’s superior.”
“Uh.”
He raised an eyebrow.
You go Ann! Show this intruder we won’t have people bothering us at the morning like this!
“Your father said you intend to go to the tournament to try your chances at the army. Is that true?”
“Yes. I will be a knight.”
“Oh. Aiming for the first prize, that’s good. But you will be enrolled in the army as long as you show enough skill you know? You don’t need to win the first prize.”
“That doesn’t matter. I want to be a knight.”
Eeh…
What is this all about?
And why are you tensing up your body, forehead?
Let’s look at your soul and know…
Uhm.
Feelings of envy and despise… nostalgia… I can also see some negation and a good deal of annoyance.
“It isn’t so easy you know? Even if you’re at your maximum in Aura, there will be others like that as well. Getting to the quarters-of-final should be a good standard. Not everyone can become nobility by just winning a contest.”
“…”
And Ann is silent.
Good answer.
No need to retort to this bitter old man. He may have lost, but you will win!
Yeah!
“You said there will be others which hit the Aura Aggregate Limit?”
Ah.
She was just surprised?
Ann?
You’re not losing your confidence, are you?
“You realized it now. I myself have been there in the past. There were at least four others like me. In the end I managed to get enrolled and work my ten years… then I enrolled for another ten years… and then I decided to find something less troublesome and came to work under Blackscale.”
“And why haven’t you tried again? I heard plenty of people do it.”
Forehead took another large gulp of his beer. Could you please stop drinking so fast?
It’s awful to see mother subserviently filling you cup every time you finish your drink. And this is the third time already!
“Once you become enrolled in the army they will work you to the bone. There is no way you can keep your Aura Aggregate Amount so high as the first time. People usually fall to half of their original strength until they send them to do the usual tasks. The ones you see returning every year have either refused to enroll in the army or got themselves some easy job in a ready-to-go garrison.”
Ah.
So sister may not have a second chance, that’s what this man is saying.
Well, we can always help sister.
I mean, if I give her a monster ash purification pot then I can hunt monsters while in [Soul Walk] and deliver then to her with [Aura Hand].
Then she burns them and uses the ash to make aura-filled trees like the ones I created at my orchard.
With those and grandma’s technique, there is no way she won’t be able to keep her Aura Aggregate Amount.
“I see, thank you for the advice.”
“That’s not why I came here today.”
Ah, forehead. Which feelings creep on your soul?
Let’s give a look…
You’re now with that feeling of putting old grudges to the side and focusing on something you wanted…
Something which can give you power beyond regular, eh…
I can see this thing on your soul. Oh, I can see it indeed.
“The reason I came here today was because I want you to teach the militia.”
Eh?
Eh?
Wha..
The hell forehead…
“Don’t answer yet. Listen to me first. I won’t do anything to your father, even if you refuse. But you have managed to become a Superior Being in only three years. That can’t be done, even at the fastest of dojos in this world. My own transformation happened with a [Magic Transmutation] technique, and it took me six years. Your father says you have gone to a Dojo on the county’s capital, so that’s surely not what you used.”
Ah, things are getting dangerous here…
“So? I cannot teach you the technique my Master gave me. I refused to become his daughter, so I do not own his [Lineage].”
Forehead drank the last of the beer in his cup again. Then, as mother was going to refill it.
“It’s enough Alice, thank you.”
Well, he gulped down four mugs of beer, so I would be surprised if it weren’t!
You damn glutton.
“See, I have known your grandmother for a long time. It was she who noticed my wish for a peaceful life and asked Lord Blackscale for my transference to this village. And if there is a thing I have learned about her when we were traveling back here, it’s that your grandmother has a lot of secrets.”
Aaah… I will have to kill him, won’t I?
He knows too much S2
“For example, we would travel for months and never once find something seriously threatening for our lives. We would find monsters and things like that, but we wouldn’t be in real danger. Then after I came to this village….”
Forehead opened his arms.
“A beer which doesn’t make you drunk and can avoid [Water Belly], [Four-Week Fever] and a lot of other diseases. An apothecary which is better with her herbs than the best doctors of the kingdom’s capital. A family which can use the [Healing] spell. A whole family! Your mother never left this place, but you have. You know how rare healers are. And your grandmother who makes woman have two, three, sometimes even four children without even once fearing death or losing them. Ullma Dorian lost a lot of children, but where I come from she would be seen as a strong woman with a womb of steel. And all of that is connected to Marie. She is the one who taught the beer recipe to the brewmaster, she’s the one who trained the midwives at how to handle labor, she was the one who taught the farmers here how to plant rotating crops. Isn’t this village a paradise because of your grandmother?”
Ah.
Paradise.
Really?
Our poop-village is a paradise?
Ullma’s count of dead children is the one of a woman with “womb of steel”?
The world outside is even worse than the one here?
*sigh*
Oh right, everyone is silent.
“Uhum. I think your grandmother taught you a technique, and that the one you learned from the Dojo is just so you can present a master you studied under at the tournament. I want you to teach that technique to everyone in the militia.”
Yep.
That’s it.
He unveiled the secret.
Time to kill.
Aaah, it will be such a mess. The militia chef killed inside the militia’s sergeant’s home.
We will have to pretend he was drunk or something.
Maybe say he tried to rape mother or sister.
We probably can get away with it if we pretend well. Everyone in this village likes us, so they probably won’t ask too many questions.
Still, it will be a mark on our reputation. Maybe people will start whispering things in the streets, like “don’t mess with Marie’s family, or they will kill you”.
And then we become like a Mafia in a reign of terror.
Aarfh.
How unpleasant.
“If you want to learn it, then ask my mother directly. Ann doesn’t have her permission to teach the technique to others.”
WOW!
Mother took the initiative to retort to this man!
That’s so nice. Rising from the “subservient wife” position to the “go fuck yourself” position!
You go Ma!
“I asked already. She said she would give it her blessings as long as Ann accepted to do it. I will put my neck on the line and say it’s the technique she learned from her Master, so you don’t need to worry.”
…
Aaah.
But I was ready to kill you!
Not that I want to kill another humans, but…
You know.
Just for the thrills?
Damn am I becoming cold.
I wouldn’t really have killed forehead, would I?
I mean, his existence was just threatening my family’s peace, but I wouldn’t kill him, right?
If I wanted to reform a murderer-rapist, then why not forehead?
…
Well, I would kill the murderer-rapists if they were anywhere close my village though.
“My mother approved?”
I would be surprised as well sister. I would be surprised as well.
“Yes. I talked to her yesterday and she approved.”
Uhm.
I suppose grandma wants to increase the fighting potential of the village.
You know, so they can protect themselves in case something happens.
Or maybe she just wants to create a place which resembles the old empire a bit.
Like with everyone having higher living standards and stuff.
After all, from what grandma says they had aqueducts back then.
And if they had the tech to build aqueducts, then they should have the tech to build sewage systems.
Truly a more sophisticated world.
Maybe someday I will return here to see this little village turned into a decent city.
That would be nice.
“I’m sorry, but no. I have to train.”
Ann!
Don’t do this!
What about the aqueducts? The sewage system?
We need to produce Superior Beings in large scale! Otherwise it will take slavery to do it!
“I can allow you to use the militia’s barracks to train. We have dummies and spare weapons and armor. And if that’s not enough, then I can be your partner on [Joint Training]. I have already reached my Aura Aggregate Amount limit, so you will have someone of your level to train with.”
Ann’s soul was showing little more than disdain for the whole “dummies and weapons” part, but it seems the idea of training with Forehead got her interest.
Indeed, it seems like a good deal.
If she does a lot of [Joint Training] with a hardened veteran which fought on the tournament many years ago, then she may have better chances.
And now…. silence.
“I accept.”
Yep.
There we go.
Go get’em sis!
I will be returning to my own training in the meanwhile. Damn bow lessons.