A/N : Thank you for those who has voted in the previous chapter. Since there are more than 50% who had chosen "No", so the title will stay as it is. Also, larkan had decided to change his title. I still felt somewhat guilty about it...
And also, thank you very much for the readers who had commented. It really boosted my motivation, you know? Someone actually paid attention to me! Kyaa!! *screaming excitedly in the corner of my room*
If there are any mistakes, please do tell me. English isn't my native language. And no, this author note thingy isn't an attempt to increase the word count of the chapter...
if you had any critics or suggestions, feel free to throw it directly at my face. Anything helps, it might even help me in gaining some inspiration. Well, this is too long already, so without further ado, please enjoy the chapter!
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A long time had passed since the chaotic birth of the little baby. Everyone had accepted that the little baby was a somewhat special kid. As per the request of the mysterious voice, Edward had named him Raven Lind. The name seemed rather feminine for a boy, but they had no other choice either, since Lind was their family name.
In fact, in these years, Raven had grown into a quite... beautiful little boy. Other people whom didn't know about him personally would often mistook him as a little girl, as he has a slightly long golden hair, long eyelashes, clear blue eyes, thin body, and cute face. No one would've thought that Raven was Edward's son, since his biological father seemed like a brute and rough person. He actually had a rather similar appearance with Elena, when she was still at that age.
In addition of having feminine name and appearance, Raven also rarely goes out of his house, so he didn't have many friends. Or rather, he almost had no friends, since he himself felt annoyed when he, a kid with the mind of an adult, had to deal with a brat. Especially those arrogant brats from another noble houses. He mostly spent his spare time with his family, or studied at the library.
Since Edward and his family were a family of nobles who lived in a rather big city, they had quite a bit of resources. He and the others also deemed it important that Raven should've gotten the best possible treatment and education. Raven also seemed to be very cooperative towards others, and he diligently studied about all kind of knowledge available to him.
“I felt rather guilty about tricking them,” Raven sighed to himself dejectedly while reading a few books about monster, magic, and martial arts. He didn't tell anyone about his past life memories, since he wasn't so sure whether that was a good idea or not. Even so, his behavior was clearly far above those kids of the same ages. And the result was, his new family always thought of him as a genius kid.
Last year, he had reached 5 years of ages. And three month from now on, he would be a 6 year old boy. When he was 3, Raven had already learned about how to read and write. And in the age of 4, he began to read the books in the library. Actually, most of the books in the library were about various political scheme, but since Raven didn't care one bit about those kind of things, he obviously decided to ignore it all. He mostly read a few books about martial arts, which was his favorite subject, and the many different cultures in the world. Occasionally, when he read a book about martial arts, there would be a certain man secretly peeking at him from the library's window with a wide grin...
“I am a bit curious about the history of this world, or rather, this realm... the language in this realm were actually the same as the language in my old world, but with different letter and pronunciation.” Raven pondered for a while. It really bothered him a lot, when he thought about it, “Does the one who spread this language was the same person? But then, he would have to be able to cross into another world... Is it one of the Gods in the Deva Realm? Or was it an Archangel like Gabriel? Or maybe... it was the Almighty One itself?”
After some time had passed without gaining a definite answer, he decided to stop thinking about that. “As of now, what I really had to do was, to gain control of my power and energy. What Gabriel and Rhea said were true, all of my power were suppressed heavily in this world. That Heavenly Seal were truly marvelous,” Raven sighed in amazement.
When he was in his spirit body form, he could easily controlled his divine and demonic energies. Even when he was in his spirit orb form, he could still controlled his divine energy to absorb those Soul Energy in his surrounding. But when he was born in this new world, he immediately lost his ability to control it all. He could still felt the divine energy and demonic power laying dormant in his soul, but he couldn't materialized it. As for the Soul Energy...
“This Soul Energy is truly a mysterious thing. Even in this world, I could still feel it in my surrounding, though it isn't as many as in that place I had been before. And also, the Soul Energy seems to be mixed with a similar kind of energy, however, it's far weaker than the Soul Energy. But I still didn't know about what uses it has.”
Before, Raven could directly absorbed those Soul Energy with his divine energy, but now he couldn't use the same method. “Somehow, I couldn't even let out any divine energy at all. If this goes on then, how could I search for my mother's soul?”
Actually, Raven felt rather happy with his current family. All of them loved him, especially his two new parents. Until last year, he would sleep together with Elena and Edward every night, and they would always told him many stories about various things in the world. As it turns out, the House of Lind had a warrior bloodline, and they were awarded with a title of nobility in the past because of their ancestors deeds. That's why, Edward always expected Raven to be a great warrior in the future. Also, while it wasn't some kind of top secret information, very few people knew that Elena actually had the blood of a magician running in her veins.
Even so, Raven didn't wish to forget about his initial decision. He had refused an offer from Gabriel to ascends to the Deva Realm, and with his own accord, he had chosen to be reincarnated in the Human Realm, so that he could protect his mother's soul. If he was to suddenly change his decision at this point of time, then that would be really dumb of him. That's why, he diligently learned about all kind of things in this new world, so that he would be prepared when he sets out in the future.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Deep in his heart, however, he has already regarded the House of Lind as his own family.
***
In one particular day, Edward called Raven to his study room. Raven sat in his father's lap, while Edward caressed his son's hair.
“My son, tell me, what is the meaning of martial arts to you?” Edward asked his son curiously. Though he already knew that his son was interested about it, he just wanted to make sure.
Raven pondered for a while before answering, “It is a codefied systems and traditions of combat practices, which are practiced for a variety of reasons including—“ hearing the answer, Edward hurriedly interrupted and said, “No, duh, you know that's not what I am talking about. What I meant was, are you interested in martial arts?”
Raven nodded and firmly answered, “I do!”
“Great, just like what I'd expect of my son!” Edward said grinningly, “I had actually planned to train you when you were just 2 years old, but your mom and grandma strongly opposed my idea. They were adamant with their opinion, that I could only begin to train you when you're already 6 years old. Now that you've almost reached that age, I want to ask you directly, do you want to train in martial arts?”
Hearing the question, Raven exclaimed, “Yes!” and immediately stood up, then faced his father directly. And then, all of a sudden, he suddenly kneeled and solemnly said, “Disciple greets his master!”
“Eh?” Edward was rather taken aback with the sudden change of his son's behavior, and could only stared at him blankly for a moment.
“Uh...?” Raven immediately realized his mistakes and rebuked himself in his heart, 'Stupid me, how could I unconsciously acted like in my past life? Seriously Raven, there aren't any 5 years old kid who does stuff like this!'
He thought hard for a moment and then nervously said to his father, “Father, that was... something I read in one of the books in the library. It was said that a disciple must paid his respect to his master when he was about to receive a tutelage by doing something like this...”
“Eh... um... okay?” Edward was clearly felt rather confused about the sudden development, and thought to himself, 'Was there really something written like this in one of my books? I thought I had already read all of the books about martial arts in the library, but it seems like I am still missing something? Well, whatever...' Ultimately, he decided to forget about it.
“So you're that eager about learning martial arts, hmm. Then, what about magic?”
“Magic?” Raven thought for a bit.
While it was true that he had already knew long ago about magic from his past life, since there are many human who used it when he fought together with them, but he had never once be able to used it personally. It was because just like the other demon, the demonic blood in his body rejected any kind of magic. Even the Demon King Zol, his own father, wasn't an exception. That was why all of them focused to train in martial arts.
Truthfully, Raven was also interested in magic. The power to bring heavy destruction to enemies from afar, controlling elements of nature, utilizing it to gain advantages over others, who in the 6 realm doesn't want a power like that?
Even without the advantages of magic in his previous life, Raven could already reach that kind of power. When he thought about what he could do with both magic and martial arts, he couldn't help but grew excited.
He answered to his father, “Father, I am also interested about learning magic. But unlike martial arts, I am not sure that I could learned it easily.”
Edward then laughed and said, “So you say you could learn martial arts easily then?”
“Well, my father is a great warrior, isn't it?” said Raven while grinning widely.
“That's my boy! But then again, even if you're willing to learn magic, you might not been able to do so...” Shaking his head, Edward said: “To learn magic, you must had the right aptitude. Only 1 in 100 had the right aptitude to learn it, and only 1 in 1000 would be able to reach a high level of power. Also, if you didn't have the affinity to an element, then you wont be able to learn it. In fact, your mother had an affinity with the holy element magic, but it's not that high.”
“But there's more of it to magic. What the public generally know is, magic has 8 elements, which is fire, water, wind, earth, light, darkness, thunder, and spirit. As you had guessed, most of them had the power to control a certain element, but spirit magic is a bit different from the rest. The caster could summon a being or spirit from another world to help them in battle.”
The explanation of magic really made Raven's heart grew excited. After all, from a long time ago, he already wished that he would be able to use those crazy strong magic to help him in battles. But that particular wish got crushed by his demonic blood. Now, with a new life in a new body, he might had the chance!
Edward continues his explanation, “Outside of those 8 elements, there's another one. A less known element, but not one bit weaker than the other 8. That element is... the Unknown!”
“Father, what is this Unknown element?” asked Raven curiously.
“There's a reason about why it goes by the name 'Unknown.'” answered Edward solemnly. Then he stood up and walked towards the door while saying, “Do you know about the reason, my son?”
Raven shook his head and answered, “I don't know?”
“Exactly!” Edward laughed and shrugged his shoulder, “If I were to know about the reason, then it wouldn't be 'Unknown' anymore, isn't it?” he then just walked out of the room while still laughing out loud, leaving the dumbfounded Raven alone.
“...Eh.” After some time had passed, Raven chuckled a bit, then also followed his father while shouted, “Wait for me, father!”