Dust

My memory of my early years is a bit hazy… Probably for protection purposes.

My mother, Hana, is the strongest sorceress in the kingdom, although there are some people who say she’s probably the strongest human sorceress. On a personal level, she’s my overly loving parent, who’s willing to go to great lengths to take pictures of me, including developing the magic to save scenes into her mana by herself, on impulse, because she wanted to be able to see my baby form at any time.

My father, Darius, is the strongest human fighter. He’s basically made for my mother, and he’s an idiot. When he’s not fighting, I’d say 90% of his mental capacity is focused on admiring and loving me and my mother.

As nice as they are, sometimes it’s a bit embarrassing when your mother uses a unique spell to take pictures of you and then run off giggling like a schoolgirl.

I swear to god if I was in danger, she’d destroy kingdoms to help me out.

With those parents, you can only imagine how hectic my life would be, but it seems that they’re cursed with bad luck, as well. As the strongest people in the kingdom, rumored to be in the whole human population, they had tons of enemies that had to find ways to bring them down without fighting them.

One thing I do remember from my childhood is one of those times. This one was particularly bad.

Specifically, we were accused of stealing the Queen’s pendant, which is worth a castle or three, since it’s encrusted with high-grade mana crystals, instead of diamonds.

At the time, I was 1 year old.

“Hana, Darius, for your crimes of stealing my pendant, you’re sentenced to death.”

Now, at a year old, most children wouldn’t even be able to think of the fact that it seemed off. For once, though, I could consider myself to be odd in a good way.

“Your majesty, I believe your sentence is misplaced!” I yelled out, standing up from where I was seated on the floor.

It was exceptionally tiring to stay standing. I’d have to get this over with quickly.

“I believe that my parents are being framed for taking that pendant,” I stated my claim. I ignored the camera shutter sound from my side.

“And why would that be? Other than you saying that you didn’t see them steal the pendant.” The second part was added with a bit of a sarcastic tone.

“Well, obviously my parents have lots of enemies, so I wouldn’t consider it to be too much of a stretch for somebody to frame them for something like this. I mean, death penalty? Isn’t that a dream come true to whoever’s the second most powerful? They suddenly have the position of the number one.”

The hall was silent.

Except for the rapid fire camera clicking. I don’t think my mother was paying attention to my words anymore.

“So, I’ll say it again. I think somebody framed my parents, and I’d like another investigation into whether or not they really stole the pendant.”

I steeled my voice, hoping no argument would be raised against me, as I had no defense.

Please don’t disagree… please don’t disagree… please don’t disagree…

“Do you have any proof against your parents stealing the pendant?”

My mind went wild, running through every scenario of what I could say and the counter arguments.

The main problem was that I had very little reasoning as to why anyone would give up the pendant, even if it meant they became number one.

The pendant was worth multiple castles. There’s no reason to give it up just to become number one.

“Wait, did your pendant have any distinguishing marks? Something that wouldn’t be noticed without a careful inspection?”

The thought hit me like a freight train, and the smile on my face showed it.

“Hmm? Well, I suppose there was a crystal that had red roots, compared to the rest of them being blue…” The Queen seemed confused, but my smile only got wider.

“And is it on that pendant?”

I could see the gears in her mind turning. She immediately put her focus onto the mana crystals.

She carefully looked at each and every one. I sat down, tired both mentally and physically.

It took a minute, but finally, there was a little ray of hope.

“I can’t find it.” She muttered.

“So, my question is, is that really your pendant? Is the pendant found in my family’s possession yours?” While I said this, something crept into my mind.

A sliver of concern.

Something’s not quite right.

The pendant, given to my parents. It was to send them to the gallows, right? So the next in line could get the glory of being called the strongest…

But that means there’s only one suspect, right?

What if it wasn’t him? What if somebody else did all this?

Then, what was their plan for gifting this fake to my parents?

Something’s about to happen.

“Mother, what types of shielding spells can you do?” I quietly whispered, knowing that she was paying attention.

I can cast any spell you want me to, sweetie!

Telepathy too, huh? Interesting. I want you to prepare a shield that can stop an explosion that could destroy this castle.

That strong? I’ll try…

Even my mother seemed doubtful, but I could feel the air begin to move as she gathered mana.

“Your majesty, drop that pendant.” My voice was shaking as pieces fell into place in my mind.

High-grade mana crystals. Sure, it’s for accuracy to the original pendant, but they could have easily used lower grade crystals and shined them to make them look just like it.

Without a probing into it, nobody would notice the difference.

But those were most definitely high grade. I could feel… sense the mana in them? They held enormous amounts.

Danger

My mind whispered, a voice like a snake, chuckling at what was about to happen.

“Your majesty, quickly.” My voice was urgent, seeing as how she wasn’t doing anything.

No, she couldn’t do anything. There was something wrapping around her arms… nearly invisible, but certainly there.

“Mother, is the spell ready yet?” I asked, my mind going much faster than I could handle. I felt my body heat up.

“Not quite! Another few seconds!” Her voice was out loud. She had no mana to spare.

“Too slow!”

DANGER

Something in me shook, and I disappeared.

The pendant was full of mana. 56 high-grade mana crystals, each filled to the brim with mana.

That was enough energy to power a city for a century.

But all of it was being used for a single, simple spell.

‘Blast.’

Nobody said it, but I heard the name of it.

My hands reached out, and the pendant came to me. The huge amounts of mana that my mother was building up streamed into me as if filling a bucket with a hole in the bottom.

‘Erase.’

And it disappeared.

DAN-

The warning signs in my head disappeared.

The pendant was gone.

And I was just so tired…

With that last thought, I fell asleep.

I’m not sure what happened after that. I’m sure somebody explained it to me, I remember something about me saving the queen and a reward… But still, the end result was that myself and my family ended up in the Castle, specifically in the royal quarters, until I was of age to go to school.

Which happened to be similar to Earth, in that the age was 5.

There were exceptions, though.

Either way, I ended up in the Castle. Throughout this time, I learned much and experienced much more.

At two years old, I ended up wandering through the castle, talking to people and looking through places that I probably shouldn’t have looked through.

For example, I went through the Courtyard. It was mostly a training area, the rest being a nice looking garden, mostly to decorate the walkway to get to The Tower, a huge 6 story spire that doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. I’ve never seen anyone go anywhere near it.

Anyway, when I happened upon the Courtyard, I was on the walkway. But there were some people training to my right.

They were wearing full plate armor, so it was difficult to tell who they were, but it would seem that one was a female, and the other was a male. The female was shorter than the male and much slimmer to boot.

I sat down, leaning against the wall, and continued watching them spar.

The man was going all out, slamming his sword down upon her as if he was trying to kill her.

But each of his strikes was deflected with a carefully placed sword.

Hmm… Isn’t that a super high-level skill, to be able to deflect each of those strikes like that? She shouldn’t be using much energy at all…

I looked down and found a small piece of broken stone. It looked similar to the last 3 inches of a sword.

I held it in my hands. It was lighter than it looked. Or perhaps I was stronger than I should have been.

Either way, I twirled it around in my fingers, continuing to watch the two fighting.

The woman was definitely much more skilled than the man. His movements were getting much slower.

His sword, with each stroke, got closer to the ground before he pulled it back up.

Then, it hit the ground, and he seemed unable to lift it again.

He must have been exhausted. All that swinging.

In the newborn silence, I could hear the woman’s voice.

“It’s still too early for you to face me.”

She waved her hand behind her and turned to walk away.

Right about here is where he picks the sword up and attacks again, right?

Much to my surprise, he did actually pick the sword back up and try for another attack.

The woman silently turned and began lifting her sword.

Suddenly, the man got much faster.

His sword slammed downwards with more force than when he started. The woman had no time to position her sword properly.

Edge to edge blocking. Here, strength would be all that matters. The strength of the sword, then the strength of the blow.

Both of the swords seem to be the same. So, the attacker, with that type of blow, would probably…

*Shiiiinnnggggggg*

The man’s sword sheared through the incorrectly positioned sword, taking the tip of it and sending it flying towards me.

In a second, my rock had been readjusted in my hand.

The next, it was rising to meet the sword piece.

The two clashed together, and the metal took a new trajectory, flinging the rock out of my hand.

Instead of piercing my forehead, the broken tip of the sword moved a few inches away.

I felt the soft skin of my cheek tear, the pain coming a second or two later.

The woman, who had her sword broken, had finished up the fight. In just the time it’d taken for the shard to hit the ground.

Damn, I lost focus at the most important part…

I guess if I didn’t, though, I probably would have died…

Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk. I guess I should go to my mother. I wonder if healing magic exists in this world?

I wiped away the blood that was dripping down my face with my sleeve before getting up and walking back towards the castle.

Later, I learned a few things.

First, the lady who had her sword broken came looking for me, to apologize, but I decided to let her pass by, as she didn’t know who had gotten hurt. I’d already been healed by that time, tying into the next point.

Second, healing magic does exist in this world, and it’s the only magic that my mother has trouble learning. That being said, she’s still pretty damn good at it.

Third, the swords they were using were actually created by apprentice blacksmiths, which is why the woman’s sword broke so easily. It was faulty, and already had some cracks in it. I suppose that she was teaching the man something about using bad swords and still being able to fight? Or maybe it was something else entirely.

I didn’t really feel like looking into the reason for the fight.

After all, it came to me, instead.

Honestly, Mother is simply too much at times. Her deductive reasoning is enough to become a personal spy, like really. I gave no information but how I got the cut, and she’s already gone and done this…

The scene in front of me was a blonde princess, looking to be in her teens, bowing to me, apologizing for my injury.

“Like I said, it’s fine… Mother, don’t torment her like this, please, it’s slightly embarrassing to have somebody like her bow to me.”

“No, really, I should apologize, I just really didn’t expect him to break the rules at the last moment, even though I should have, considering his personality and everything, but I didn’t and then he decided to use magic, and I wasn’t able to get my sword up in time and then, because of that, you ended up hurt…”

Does this woman even breathe!?

“Either way, my mother was kind enough to heal that small wound without much trouble. So, really, no need to apologize… Actually, please get up, I don’t want you bowing down like that either way. Hold yourself high to somebody of a lower social status, even when apologizing. There’s no need for a ninety-degree bow…”

She was, indeed, doing a 90-degree bow.

I sighed, taking a deep breath and sitting down on a nearby chair. It was tiring dealing with somebody stubborn. I can only imagine why this was why I had very few friends in my past life… I was the type to do this, too…

“Well, either way, why were you fighting somebody like that?”

I decided to start up a conversation. It’s rude to hold a conversation with your head bowed.

As expected, she lifted her head and returned to an upright position.

“Well, he was actually a wedding candidate, but I didn’t like his attitude, so I ended up arguing with him, and it turned into a duel before I knew it.”

“Aren’t you a bit too young to be married?”

I saw her face and realized my mistake. The age for marriage isn’t exactly the same in different worlds.

“But I’m already almost seventeen, you know?”

“Ah, I’m sorry, you just seem so much younger than that…”

I looked away in a futile attempt to hide my blush. Then again, I was only two years old, nobody would actually care. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t, though.

I heard a familiar shutter sound.

There was that…

Oh, how I dreaded these photos being shown to anybody else.

“What was that sound?” The princess looked around, confused.

“Don’t worry about it.” I sighed, putting my head into my hand.

There was a small silence, nobody really knowing what to say.

“So, is there something I could do to repay you for your wound?” The princess seemed a bit worried, still.

I stared at her for a second. Her eyes were facing towards me, glistening.

Too… too cute…

I felt a feeling like ice melting near my heart, dripping down towards my stomach. Quite an odd feeling.

I turned my eyes elsewhere, before doing so with my mind as well. I thought about her figure when she was fighting that potential groom.

For some reason, I felt a slight discomfort. I shook my head and looked back to the princess.

“How about you teach me swordplay?”

With that sentence, time, from then on, almost seemed to flow faster. The days rushed by, and special events became commonplace.

I was introduced to the princess’s sister, technically also a princess, who was my age. We spent a lot of my free time in the gardens, talking.

I learned a few of the mysteries of mana, such as the amount you have determined how quickly you mentally develop. That one, in particular, helped me quite a bit when it came to dealing with how I was capable of so much at such a young age. 

That being said, the princess (younger) was a one in a million child, with mana storages easily comparing to my mother’s, who had spent her lifetime increasing hers.

Two years flew by, and I was four years old, sparring with somebody nearly five times my age, and quite close to three times my size.

My sword swung wildly through the air.

“Oh, I think I saw an actual attack in there!” My spar partner had an attitude.

“Bah, shut it, Ruby!” It was only fitting that I responded in time, continuing to rush forward with my blade.

Each attack was gracefully turned aside, very little wasted movements.

I smiled, still, as I was simply waiting for the time when I could begin my counterattack.

“Sloppy!”

Now…

With an exaggerated movement, Ruby dug her sword under mine and flicked it to the side.

I lifted my leg, and let the sword carry me, spinning around like a top.

Take the opponent’s attack, and use that power for your own. The basic theory of Revolution.

My blade was on the opposite side of her body in an instant, ready to slash through her abdomen.

“Is what you thought would happen, but I’m a bit faster than you,” Ruby smirked, having blocked my blade with her scabbard.

I sighed, letting my blade drop slowly to the ground, the tip embedding itself a little bit in the dusty earth.

“Just like the past few hundred sparring sessions, I lose.”

The tip of her sword was placed to the side of my neck. She slowly withdrew it.

“We haven’t had hundreds yet, but your words are probably predicting the future.” Ruby laughed.

“Are you trying to imply that I’ll lose the next few hundred matches, too?” I shook my fist at her like an old man yelling at the younger generation.

“Precisely.” She struck a smug pose.

“I hate the fact that I can’t refute it because it’s probably true…” I grit my teeth and fell to the ground in an orz position to lament my defeat.

After a few minutes of that act, we both congratulated each other and went on our way after discussing some of the finer points where we made mistakes.

At the very least, I was able to help her here because my eyes were better than my body. I could see gaps in her moves, but I knew there was no way I would be able to get into them, so I would then tell her about those gaps without being able to act upon them.

Sparring was good for both of us, in many ways.

Develop skills, technique, stamina, and relations all at once.

Good friends are the ones who can beat each other up and calmly have a cup of tea together just afterward.

“Here, a towel.”

“Ah, thank you, Luna. Helpful as always.” I thanked the tiny princess.

Her smile was adorable. As a reincarnator, I still had the mind of my previous self, but I also had the mind that suited my body.

...It’s difficult to explain. Basically, I could appreciate both of my romantic interests while only having the body for one. Complicated thought processes usually started here, but sometimes it’s better not to question things and simply accept them. I’d rather not consider myself a pedophile, after all.

Luna had gone off to give her sister a towel as well, while I draped mine around my neck, wiping the sweat off my face with one of the ends.

I stared up at the sky, tracing the outlines of the clouds with my eyes.

Back then, I remember thinking about how much longer I would be able to continue the lifestyle I was living, before thinking about where my other pieces might be.

Eru

I was born an Elf. My parents, instead of raising me themselves, ended up giving me…

To the king. To be raised. Because they apparently had work.

Now, I’m sure you can understand why I was slightly confused at this turn of events.

Firstly, what type of work would my parents be doing that they were able to give their kid to the King, and yet were still unable to take the time to raise me? Like, were they out killing demon lords at noon?

Secondly, what type of favors have piled up over the years to have royalty raise your kid without a complaint?

Either way, I ended up with a different family than the one that birthed me. The King, Theodore, The Queen, Johanne, and The Princess, Rose, who happened to be two years older than me.

Other than moving in with the royal family, a few key things happened to me that ended with me here, where I am.

Firstly, there’s the problem with my mana.

Since I was about one year old, I realized that there was a little orb that floated around me, like a comet circling a sun, tail included.

When I got to two years old, it’d turned into a girl. Now, one would ordinarily be happy with a girl floating around them, but this one was impermeable, invisible to some, barely visible to others, and could turn into basically anything. Now, with this sort of power, and her personality, which was a complete opposite of mine, we had lots of situations where I’d rather her leave.

I’d reach out to grab something, and I’d pass through it. I’d stop in the middle of a hallway because there’s a wall of mana blocking my way. I’d try and grab a piece of paper off my face, and grab nothing.

After each time I embarrassed myself, I would hear a faint giggle in my head, before the mana disappeared.

When I consulted my tutors, which happened to be teaching Rose as well, they simply laughed at me.

“Mana with a mind of its own? Mana is an extension of the mind… It can’t have a personality, much less one that’s different from yours. If anything, somebody else is toying with you.”

I should have believed his words, but with the trickster of a girl floating about by my chest, I found it difficult.

Secondly, there was my impulse decision to become a game character.

Specifically, I became one of the assassins from Assassin’s Creed. With all of the trees around me, the endless branches to jump to and fro, and the other things that you can do in real life, but not in the game, it was fun.

My agility helped here, letting me steady myself on branches and other unsteady perches without much trouble.

Instead of going for melee based, as the Creed games mostly are, with the hidden blades and such, I decided to focus on archery, something that I could do easily because of my dexterity.

Well, I say easily, but it was just easier for me. I had little strength, being a child. It was difficult to draw the bow, much less shoot it properly.

Well, in the end, I ended up capable of shooting it. It took a bit to get used to, and it dragged me down more than once during my running through the branches, almost leading me to my death once, but I survived.

Thirdly, life with royalty is much easier than I assumed. I basically lived how I wanted. I had absolute freedom. If I wanted to eat, I’d just ask for it. If I wanted to walk out of the castle, I just did so. Of course, with my skills, I normally leaped out of a window or something, instead of taking the front door, but it was still technically considered walking out.

If I was being honest, I might even dare to suggest that Theodore and Johanne were scared of me. They actively avoided conversation, and I think I heard one of them praying that I wouldn’t come back one time when I left.

Kinda rude, don’t you think?

It must’ve been because of my parents. I don’t really know them all that well, having only seen them… what, three times up until now? Each of those times, they came back, feasted, said hello to me, before running off again.

I was tempted more than once to run off after them, just to see where they went.

But I realized the dangers behind that and ended up giving a strong enough counter argument to kill of my desire to go.

“So, what are you doing, sticking around me?” I asked the empty room.

I closed my eyes. I didn’t need to see what came next.

“I’m yours, aren’t I?” Her voice slithered through my mind, as if it wished to curl around it, but was trapped inside.

“I own nobody. So, what are you doing here?”

“I’m Yours.” Her voice had an edge to it, like the blade of a knife.

“...I see.”

I could only accept it.

“So, if you’re mine, then what am I to you? I’m no master, nor am I an owner.”

“I am you. But you are not me?”

What has this world come to, where mana questions its own existence? I’m the one over here who should be having an existential crisis!

“You are me, but I am not you. So, are you a part of me?”

“Yes.”

“Are you an extension of my mind?”

“Not quite…”

So I guess I’m an exception to that rule…

“Do you have a name?”

“Yes.”

Unexpected… 

“Then, let’s hear it.”

“Bia.”

“Hmm, I see.”

I didn’t really have anything else to ask, so I just let it be and decided to try and live with it. See how it turns out.

All that being said, my life went by quickly, since it was full of mindless training to be able to play around without the consequence of death.

Simple, but effective.

If I had to slap a motto down for these past few years, it’d probably be something along the lines of;

Work hard to play freely.

Sei

At birth, I was abandoned by my father. My mother, I believe, died shortly after my birth, leading my father to believe that he wouldn’t be able to take care of me and therefore decided to send me off to an orphanage.

It was called ‘The Sheperd’s Orphanage.” When I first arrived, there were 12 other orphans, 7 girls, and 5 boys. I brought that count up to 13. With only two caretakers, a half dwarf *The other half was always left out of conversations, for some reason* named Ren, and a full dwarf named Gesha, they had a rough time taking care of everyone.

Since I was the final bearing in pushing them over the edge in their workload, making them sometimes unable to feed themselves a proper amount of food or get proper amounts of rest, I wanted to help them from early on.

I wasn’t really the type of person to do such things in my previous life, so this time I decided to change.

I decided to be a better person.

My first step would be to help these caretakers. It’d be bothersome if they found out that I was able to do anything yet, so I need a way to help them without them being able to tell it’s me.

There was a sound, like rushing water, for a faint second.

I looked about from where I was, but nobody else seemed to hear it.

Then, an image floated to my mind.

It was one of me with a bucket in my hands. I recognized the bucket, it was the same one that the caretakers used to hold water so they wouldn’t have to go out multiple times for water.

But they have to wake up very early to get to it, then they have to carry it all the way back, while probably sleep deprived, hungry, and exhausted from the day before.

Another image came. I was outside, with the bucket, on the streets.

Another. An unfamiliar street, with the bucket.

Another. They started coming like film, projecting a scene.

I might be able to do it. I might be able to get the water before the caretakers wake up. That’d take one thing off their hands, right? There’s no way they’d suspect it to be the youngest child here, either.

That being said, I immediately went about working out my legs and arms, trying to get at least enough muscle to lift the bucket.

It’ll take work, but I want to help, so I must.

I heard Ren shuffling through the kitchen. She was tired, judging by her movements.

“Water, water, water… Where’s the bucket again?” I could hear her soft muttering. Seems that she’s more exhausted than I thought, to be muttering that loudly in a room of (supposedly) sleeping children.

“Hmm…? It’s already full…” There was a long pause, probably Ren thinking who could have done that.

“Oh well… I guess I’ll just go back to sleep, then. Nothing else to do while the children are sleeping…”

I smiled. It’s a nice feeling, to have helped somebody.

Time flowed like water. I continued that routine, leaving no time for my body to rest, nor time for the other children. In their eyes, I was sleeping most of the day, so there wasn’t even really a chance to try and connect.

Of course, as time went by, I was generally more active during the day, as my body developed to be accustomed to the work I did each morning.

So, in two years’ time, I was ready to finally be introduced to the other inhabitants of the orphanage. In those two years, there was not a single child left on our doorstep, and only two girls were adopted.

“Sei, I think it’s time for you to get along with the others.” Ren was much more friendly towards me than Gesha, the other caretaker. I couldn’t tell you why.

I silently turned towards the total of three boys and five girls, who were all separated throughout the orphanage ‘play zone,’ before turning back to Ren with a face that conveyed my little enthusiasm.

“You don’t even know what they’re like, why don’t you want to talk to them…” Ren muttered, placing her head in her hand.

“You’re going to introduce yourself to them, at the very least.”

At times like this, it seems like Ren’s my mother. I guess it’s somewhat accurate, as she did raise me to where I was.

Then, as a son, the only proper response is to go along with it.

I nodded, albeit with the same face. I didn’t want to talk with the others, but I would bear with it.

The children… they’re actually older than me, so I guess I’ll call them something else from now on.

Either way, they were in front of me, in a neat and orderly line. If I started pacing in front of them, it would seem like I’m a sergeant training cadets.

While I entertained myself with that thought, they had already stopped talking amongst themselves and were ready to start.

“It seems he doesn’t want to talk, so I’ll introduce him.” Ren’s voice was one of somebody who’s given up on something. “This little one is Sei, and it’s been two years now since he’s come here.”

A child, about nine years old, stepped up, kneeling down to get on eye level with the tiny me.

“Hello there, Sei. I’m Aurora, and I consider myself to be a sort of ‘third caretaker’ around here. I’ll be the one you can come to if you need anything, or if you have any problems.”

She let off an innocent smile. Those eyes could charm savage animals with a glance. Even I wasn’t let off the hook too easily, my heart skipping a beat.

But then she stood, brushed off her knees, and the next one came up. This one was a boy, probably around six years old.

“Nice to meet you, Sei, I’m Kenneth.” He looked me up and down a few times as if seeing if I was worthy to meet his expectations.

Then he stuck out his hand. By habit, I reached out to shake it. It seems that was a bad idea, though, as all eyes changed when they saw me respond to Kenneth’s handshake, which it did indeed happen to be.

The next person took his place. A small girl, probably about five years old.

“Heya Sei, I’m Lilia! Hope we can get along!” With that, she hugged me against her chest, which, of course, had next to no bust. Even worse, she was enthusiastic. She seemed the type to like bugs and cause trouble everywhere with her enthusiasm.

“Sei, your face is starting to scare me. How can a child even look this displeased…” The second part was muttered, but I must admit it seems my hearing is even better than it was in my previous life.

The next one was a boy, about seven.

“Nice to meet you, Sei. The name’s Axel. Treat me well, please.” With that, he bowed to me, a full 45 degrees. I was tempted to stop him, but he pulled up quickly enough and it seems the other children were holding back laughs. Perhaps they put him up to this.

Either way, I noticed his speaking was strangely smooth, each one connecting to the other without pause. It was similar to a tie in a music sheet. Each of the notes flowed into the next. Having played a wind instrument in my previous life, I can say only one thing; that must be using a lot of air.

Next was a girl, also seeming about 7.

“Name’s Irilith. Sister to Axel. Nice to meet you, Sei.” She seemed to have trouble gathering the courage to say those words, as she spoke quickly, in short sentences.

All in all, it was quite cute, and I was tempted to applaud. Instead, I simply nodded, just as I had done with the rest of them, and let her walk away without getting any more attention.

Next was the last boy, about 4.

“Darius. Nice to meet you.” He nodded to me. A man of few words, hmm? Nice to know there’s somebody I might be able to get along with here.

Two more girls left.

“The name’s Jilian, but call me Jill, please! Nice to meet you, Sei.” She seemed insistent upon me calling her Jill. I’m tempted to not follow that just because she’s so insistent about it.

Either way, she seems like a nice girl, even though looks can be deceiving.

Now, the final girl. She seems to be about 2.

“N-Nice to meet you, Sei. I-I hope we can get alonhm- Ow… Along. My name’s Astrid…” She looked at me, something in her eyes that I can’t quite describe.

But she bit her tongue, and she stuttered… so cute…

I stepped up to her. She was about the same height as myself, but I was a bit taller, probably because of my muscles, which had been trained for the past two years.

I rested my hand upon her head, gently rubbing it. She had little fox ears that sprung up, interesting me. I pet those too.

I turned to the side, let out a hoarse cough, muffling the sound as much as I could.

“Of course. Let’s get along.”

And I spoke my first words.

Aurora, the ‘third caretaker’ and the oldest of the orphans.

Kenneth, the one who sized me up before shaking my hand. He’s the one who has the job of a recruiter in his future.

Lilia, the enthusiastic one who seems as if she has no idea what the ‘personal bubble’ is.

Axel, the gullible child who does whatever he’s asked. He also has a strange way of speaking, each of his words connected together.

Irilith, Axel’s sister, and a bit shy, her sentences spoken choppily.

Darius, a man of few words.

Jill, a nice looking girl who’s insistent about her nickname.

Astrid, a fox girl who’s the same age as me, and quite shy. She has an aura that makes me want to protect her.

I distinctly remember the chaos after that. Lilia, the enthusiastic one, basically tackled the tiny Astrid, complaining about how she was the only one who got a response from me.

Aurora was momentarily stunned for some reason, before going to help out Astrid. Quite careless of the self-proclaimed ‘third caretaker’.

Axel, the one with the smooth voice, had already begun walking away but turned back for a few seconds when he heard me.

I looked about, not really at any significant speed, and realized that the rest of the people in the room were similarly affected, other than Lilia.

“Why does everyone seem focused on me?”

As soon as I spoke, everyone seemed to freeze. Even Lilia stopped cuddling Astrid on the floor.

I looked to Ren, who was similarly stunned.

She crouched down a bad idea for somebody in a skirt, before picking me up.

She held me out as if I was Simba. At the very least, it wasn’t over a cliff.

“Your voice is beautiful…” Her eyes seemed… hypnotized.

I’d have to be careful speaking from now on…

Eventually, I was taught the alphabet, albeit with quite a bit of complaining from the others that they’d no longer be able to hear my voice.

I used a little board, similar to a whiteboard, to write down what I wanted, then erased it.

Luckily, I didn’t really need to say much. I didn’t have much to say to the children that I couldn’t just simply drag them to, point at, nod or shake my head too.

There was a single sentence I wrote quite often.

‘May I pet you?’

Astrid was quite lenient in allowing me too nearly whenever I asked. There were a few times when she refused, but whispering the question in her ears almost always worked.

Petting her was my stress reliever.

I felt a bit of guilt for doing it because I knew she wouldn’t complain, but that was completely destroyed by how soft her ears were.

I limited my strength to the utmost, leaving my petting sessions gentle and calm, even though I could have easily lifted her entire body many times in succession.

I got stronger quite easily. I realized this as I grew up. By the time I was three years old, even though my only real exercise was gathering water, I felt as if I could lift up even Ren if I tried hard enough.

But something was happening through the orphanage that I couldn’t help with just my strength.

Three years since I’ve been here. It’s been decided that that day would be considered my birthday.

But the odd part? Not a single baby left after me. Nobody came for adoptions.

It seemed almost as if this orphanage had turned into a locked room. Nobody was in this world but us.

‘That reminds me, what’re everyone’s races? Obviously, I don’t need to know Astrid’s, but the rest of them look quite similar.’

I brought up this discussion with Gesha, the other caretaker.

“Well, let’s see…”

Kenneth, Dwarf

Axel, Half elf, half dwarf

Darius, Elf

Lilia, Human

Irilith, Half elf, half dwarf

Jill, Clay elemental (looks quite similar to human skin, but has a bit less work)

Aurora, Human

Ren, Half Dwarf

Gesha, Dwarf

She listed them off. I thought about it for a bit, and it made a bit more sense. Half-kins would be more likely to be in an orphanage, but there are tons of reasons for people to be dropped off in an orphanage.

Such as my own, which is technically unknown. I am a full dwarf, though.

I was shaken out of my thoughts by a knock on the door. Well, I guess knock wouldn’t describe it correctly.

The door was slammed three times in succession. It sounded like somebody was throwing their entire body at it.

I began walking towards it, afraid that something would happen.

Astrid was toddling towards it, reaching towards the door handle.

I silently snuck up behind her. I didn’t like the sounds that were just being made by that door.

The door silently fell. If I had not been watching, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that it moved at all. I don’t even remember hearing the hinges break, but the door fell either way.

Right atop Astrid and I.

The door was pure stone. It must’ve weighed at least a hundred pounds, if not more.

But I lifted my hands and braced my body to move it.

Diverting something is much easier than taking the full force of it. However, when that thing has two points dug into the ground, further apart than your hands can reach, it’s impossible to divert any of it.

So when the door hit my hands, a crack resounded out as the full force of it landed on my wrists, most likely shattering them.

The pain bounced throughout my head. My first instinct was to bring both hands to my stomach and curl over them, protecting them, but I focused every bit of will I had into ignoring that.

I’d protect this scared little fox with my life on the line.

“Astrid. Astrid!” I called her name, trying to get her attention.

She looked up to me.

“Get out from under this slab of rock! Now! Please!”

My knees began to buckle. Something just took a step onto the ramped door. Astrid began to crawl away. It seems that she was too scared to move properly.

“What have you done?!” I could hear Ren yelling. Was she yelling at me or the person above me?

“I’ve gotten stronger. Can’t you tell?” A voice from above. Hearing it gave me shivers.

I could feel the weight above me getting closer. With each step, my wrists hurt more.

I felt a warm liquid dripping down my arms. One of my bones must’ve pierced the skin.

“Goddamn it… Don’t come here just to ruin my life again you bastard! You’re the one who stopped people from coming here, aren’t you!” Ren shouted, the slithery sound of steel on leather, like a blade being drawn, accompanying her voice.

“Of course… I can’t have anyone tampering with you, after all. Whenever somebody came by… Well, I’m sure you know what I did to them…”

I could feel a strange anger building behind my back. I wanted to look back, but something in me decided that would be harmful to my brain, and made it instinctual to not look.

“You killed them all, didn’t you?” Ren’s voice was oddly quiet, like a raging fire dying down to embers.

“Weeelll… I may have played with them for a bit first, but yes, they did end up dead. Some of them took over an hour to do so, though! Pfft… Ha… Haha… Hahahahaha!” His laugh was loud, and the perfect example of a villain. Had I not been mentally strained by the enormous presence behind me and physically strained by the door, I would have commented.

“And, my love, I’m here to take you to hell! Don’t worry, I’ll make it light and painless! Can’t have you tortured like those other poor children. A few of them were old enough to understand what was happening, too. Their screams were wonderful!”

The presence behind me made me shiver, twisting my wrists and causing enormous pain to course through me. But I was trembling in fear so much that I couldn’t even grimace to show that pain.

“I’ll take you with me, then!” Ren yelled, the embers of her voice from earlier sparking into a bonfire.

I could tell something was happening behind me, but my eyes were still focused on Astrid and the edge of the door above her. She looked behind me, at whatever was happening, and began to cry, her body trembling in something other than the cold.

A light bathed her face, forcing her to close her eyes before the weight atop the door disappeared, as did all the noise.

The silence lasted a full minute. In that time, the foxgirl finally managed to get out from under the door, and I let it drop to the ground, panting heavily.

I don’t remember much of what happened after that. Everything was hazy, and I passed out shortly afterward.

When I woke up, I noticed a few things. One, my wrists were bandaged up quite a bit, but still broken. Two, Astrid was next to me on the bed, still sleeping. Three, Ren, Aurora, and Axel were all gone.

When I questioned Gesha- I had to use my voice since I could no longer use my hands -She said she didn’t really know either. One moment, there was a strange man walking atop the ramped door, the kids behind Ren, who’d drawn her dagger from inside her sleeve.

The next moment, there was a blinding flash of light from Ren.

And then, when she’d opened her eyes, the man, Ren, Aurora, and Axel were all gone.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing more I can do for them. Other than that, why’s Astrid here in my bed?”

“Ah, well, she exhausted herself watching over you. You’ve been out for a day now, and children really should get their rest, so I suggested that she sleep in your bed, so that she’ll be sure that you wake up alright. Seems that it worked…” She smirked at me, before waving goodbye and walking away, leaving me with new information, a girl in my bed, and a very confused heart.

When Astrid woke up, she stayed quite close to me, happy that I was awake and healing. With her like this, I got quite a lot of petting time in, which kept me quite happy.

Without Ren, the work should have piled up on Gesha, but I healed quickly enough to continue getting the water, and since Ren took two children with her, and the children had matured a little bit, everyone felt enough responsibility to keep the work required to a minimum.

All these things combined, time passed through my fingers like honey, slow enough to get some sweet moments, but eventually leaving.

So here I sit at four years old, Astrid leaning against my shoulder, sleeping soundly. I read up on some history from the book in my lap, continuing to turn the pages even when I started thinking about other things.

To this day I don’t know what happened to Ren and the others, but I’m sure they’re safe somewhere, out there…

Shiro

My situation at birth:

I’m being taken care of by my seven-year-old sister because my birth was the final straw for my mother’s health, and she ended up with her entire immune system shut down.

My body must’ve sensed the situation, as I was able to move freely by five months old, leaving a lot less work for my sister.

Then again, it’s entirely possible that beastkin just develop that quickly…

When I was half a year old, something special happened. I was out shopping with my sister, as we do, and Alissa ran into an elderly man.

“Ah, sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going!”

“Hmm… Then, as an apology, what do you have to offer?”

I turned about. There was a skewer stall, relatively devoid of customers, nearby. I rushed over, my feet gliding across the ground and between the other people on the street.

“May I have one of these, Ma’am? They look delicious…” I put on a fake voice, attempting to charm the stall owner.

“Oh of course! Such a cute kitten, just take one! It’s on the house!” She offered one. I bit off the first chunk of meat, and let the flavor sway me.

“Thank you! It’s really yummy!” I was slightly sickened by my act, so I quickly went back to where my sister was, scarfing down the meat.

I could barely taste it, but I didn’t want it for eating anyway.

I hid the wooden skewer behind my back as I approached the growing crowd around my sister and that man.

“Like I said, I can’t give you my money! I just bumped into you, you don’t need any money for it!” I heard her yell.

I barged through the people, weaving between their legs. I’m lucky I was short.

“Sir, leave her alone. Anybody could see that you’re bothering her. Or do I need to call the guards?” I spoke in a loud voice, narrowing my eyes and glaring at the man as if I was better than him.

“Huh? You think I’m going to listen to some kid who’s barely old enough to have stopped drinking from his mother’s teats? Go call your parents, brat. I’ll have this talk with them.” This elderly man was picking a fight.

He must’ve looked in our grocery bags. It’s true that I can’t eat solid foods, so we’d bought some milk for me to drink.

I felt anger rising up within me, but I kept it off my face by smiling.

“Says the old man. How old are you? Are you sure you have enough time left in your life to be arguing with a kid? You might just die of old age in the middle of this argument.” I spat venomous words at the man, my glare becoming real.

He must’ve felt pressured, as he took a half step back.

I was tempted to continue my tirade, but I stopped. It’s always good to hold back some insults to use at another time, if needed.

“But this little brat ran into me! What would she have done if she’d soiled my clothes? These are more expensive than your very life, kid.” He sounded like a snobby noble as he waved his cloak to and fro. Seeing him desperate like that alleviated my mood slightly.

“Well, why don’t you ask that question when somebody does soil your clothes? From what I can tell, my sister did no such thing to your cloak. So, if you could kindly walk away, as, at the moment, the only thing you have for evidence that she bumped into you at all is your word and whoever saw it.” I tried to convince him to back off with logic, now that I’d calmed down a bit.

“Shut up! Some kid talking back to an adult!” The man yelled, shuffling forward upon my sister. He reached down and grabbed her hair, before lifting her into the air.

Rage flowed through my veins, and my reasoning was clouded. The skewer I had still hidden behind my back came out. I held it in a back hold, or, as I like to call it, the assassin’s grip.

My sister had the sense to lift herself up a little bit, so some of her hair wasn’t lifting her entire body.

“Put her down.” My voice was no longer venomous. It was simply filled with murderous rage.

The crowd around us didn’t know what to do, but I heard a few people backing off. I hope they’re going to go get the guards to hold me back from becoming a murderer.

“And what if I disagree? How come you call her your sister, even though you’re not even the same color? Are you both orphans, all alone without any parents?” He sneered as if he was trying to laugh at that sort of situation.

I want to murder this man.

“I’ll give you ten seconds,” I muttered, loud enough for him to hear me. I readjusted my grip on the skewer.

“Ten.”

The man showed no sign of caring.

“Nine.”

He smirked at me.

“Eight.”

The crowd seemed on edge, awaiting something.

“Seven.”

“Oh, so you can count backward! How surprising!” The man shouted out.

“Six. No, wait, as a penalty. Three.”

He seemed slightly shocked at the sudden drop.

“Two.”

Nevermind. I’ll just free my sister.

I threw the skewer, making sure that it was aimed at his throat, before running towards his outstretched arm that held Alissa.

I ran my fingers through her hair, yanking it down towards her, trying quite hard to make sure that I didn’t hurt her as I released her from his grip.

I fell to the ground, Alissa above me. When I hit, I immediately sat up and viewed the situation as I got to my feet, steadying Alissa on hers.

The man had released his clenched fist, probably what really allowed me to get Alissa out of his grip, to catch the skewer. For an old man, he’s pretty good.

Do I have the strength to carry Alissa out of this crowd? No…

Are there any guards coming to break this up?

I spared a glance out, through the legs of the people, while focusing my hearing for footsteps of people in armor.

Nothing… I guess I’m out of luck? Will I really have to fight this old man?

I’d rather avoid that if I can…

“What do you think you’re doing, messing with some kids a tenth of your age?” I heard a rough voice speak before a glass bottle shattered on the ground. A dangerous looking green gas spread out, quickly hitting the people in the crowd, sending them into coughing fits as they ran away.

The old man was above me and Alissa, a cloth covering his mouth. He tossed two down, and I gave one to my sister before placing mine over my mouth myself.

The scene cleared, and everyone had cleared out.

All that was left was my sister, the old man, and myself.

“Nice to see that the two of you are safe. You hungry? I know a good stall around here. Lemme treat you.”

So here we were, 20 minutes later, being treated to sweets from an old man who happened to come by at the right time with the right tools.

“So, are you enjoying it?”

My sister had no reservations about eating the sweets, looking like she was having the time of her life.

I, on the other hand, simply stared at the pastry, similar to cake, that was in front of me, without eating it.

“Well, I can see one of you is…” His voice sounded almost… sad?

“Either way, who are you and what do you want from us?” I put a small edge to my voice. I didn’t quite trust this man, nor did I have reason to.

“...So you don’t trust me… That’s fine. You don’t have a reason to, after all.” The man sighed before continuing, “I’d like to teach one of you Alchemy.”

His voice showed no harm, but it was serious. I couldn’t find any faults in his tone that would suggest something other than what he said.

“But why? That gives you no benefit. Now, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and believe that you do want to teach us Alchemy, but my question still stands. In fact, I’d say it’s even more justified. Isn’t Alchemy a skill that people normally don’t learn because of the price for it?”

I had learned just a bit about alchemy, because of my mother’s condition. Since she was constantly sick and was possibly inflicted with a disease that attacked her immune system, I brought up the topic, albeit half-heartedly, of using a cure-all potion or something of the sort.

My mother then proceeded to attempt to educate me on the price that most people have to pay when becoming alchemists. The ingredients are mostly wasted on a student, so the tuition fees are through the roof. That being said, each potion is also painfully expensive, and there are probably only two alchemists in the entire kingdom.

With that sort of logic, this old man here, offering to teach alchemy for free, is insane at best.

“As you can probably tell, I’m getting old. I’m going to die within the next twenty years or so, as my lifespan has been extended quite a bit through my alchemy skills. I’ve learned from many sources, all over the world, and I’ve never really settled down in one place.”

He took a moment as if remembering something saddening.

“I’ve been alone for most of my life. So, I decided to find one of the younger generation to teach my skills to. When I saw you fighting for your sister against that man, I felt something special about the two of you.”

He smiled at us, waving down one of the waitresses for the bill. Looking over, my sister had really eaten her fill. Strangely enough, though, she left nearly half of everything she had uneaten and asked if she could take them away. The innkeeper decided to let her do so.

“So, you decided to take us in as heirs to your alchemy just because you saw me trying to kill an older man for my sister?” Needless to say, after hearing his words, I was impressed. But after thinking about the meaning behind them, I was simply confused.

“An older man? You mean you did that without knowing who he was?” This old man… I’ll call him Gramps until I learn his name, seemed surprised.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“That old man was somebody important, I assume? A lord of some castle, maybe?” I hypothesized, beginning to feel a bit sleepy.

“Actually, yes. He was Grim, as the people know him, and he’s one of the few most powerful nobles in this kingdom. With his sources alone, it’s said that he could find out the date of when you stopped breastfeeding. With his personal military, it’s said he’s wiped out a stampede of class four Vepha before!”

Vepha? That’s a new word… Judging by the context, it’s the monsters of this realm, right? Class four… Is that strong alone or is it just the stampede part that made it important?

“So, back to the Alchemy teaching…” I yawned. “If you’re going to teach one of us, teach my sister. I’ll come watch the lessons every once and awhile too if I feel like it…”

Ah, man, I’m beginning to doze off. Curse this body, always exhausting itself at times that could never be considered opportune moments.

Ah, but I do like sleeping, so I guess it’s a plus minus zero kinda deal.

I yawned once more.

“Now then, I’ll go home. Alissa, you need help carrying all that?” She had at least five dishes in her arms, stacked precariously.

I took one, the one that seemed like it was going to fall the most, and carried it with both hands.

“Well, I guess there’s no harm in starting tomorrow, but are you fine with being taught, girlie? We never really let you speak, did we?”

“Hmm? I’m fine with whatever Shiro decides! He’s my one and only little brother, after all!”

There was a stunned silence for a split second before Gramps began to laugh.

“The name’s Achilles. I’ll give you this here. Just call my name and I’ll hear the next three seconds of what happens. I’ll be sure to help out if you’re in danger, too. After all, pissing off Grim wasn’t the smartest decision on your part…”

I must’ve dozed off while standing up, there, as when I opened my eyes next I was at home, Achilles nowhere in sight, and in bed.

Another day, but this one would be a bit different.

I looked down to the bracelet that was clamped onto my arm. It was space black, as if it was full of light but still dark… and odd enigma to look at.

“Achilles. Come on over, let’s see these lessons of yours.”

His lessons were legit. My sister learned Alchemy at a breakneck pace, speeding through talent and becoming a genius in the subject.

Healing potions, Antidotes, Herbology, Mana infusion, Poisons, Buff potions, etc. She learned them all. On the few times when I attended the lessons, she’d be mixing the potion while I was still boiling the water.

Multitasking was very important for an alchemist. They needed to be able to watch the water, sort the ingredients, prepare the ingredients (Each ingredient could have up to 12 different steps of preparation and even two of the same ingredient require different levels of preparation sometimes.) and then create the potion in the end.

They needed memorization as well, for each herb, where to find them, the chances of error, the preparation for each herb, the market prices, how to know if the herb is real or fake… etc.

My sister was much better than me in both of these aspects.

If there was one thing I was better at than her, it would be ratios.

Twenty-three parts water to twelve parts herb A and two parts herb B.

Wrong.

Herb B is a bit too little…

I’d reach over and add a bit more, take away some until that warning sign in my mind finally died off and the proportions were right.

When I told Alissa about how I knew that;

“It must be a sense! I knew that you’re rare just by how you ended up white, but I never thought you would’ve gotten a sense too!”

As my sister’s explanation would be much too long to write out, I’ll rephrase it quickly.

A sense is something that every beastkin can have. It’s simply very, very rare. Each sense is different, as well, but it basically alerts them whenever certain conditions are fulfilled.

Some senses work off very vague things, like a sense of ‘pain.’ Emotional pain, physical pain, phantom pain, the pain of the soul, pain from mana exhaustion, etc. Those would all trigger that sense.

But then there are some that are extremely specific, such as a sense for ‘things moved over an inch to the left since the last time the thing was seen.’

Of course, this sense would very rarely be activated and could be considered a waste of the lottery prize that is the sense.

After hearing her explanation, I lay down on her lap, as was custom for me to fall asleep outside of home, and thought about it.

Probability has no effect on the past. Everything was always 100%, to begin with. The chances of me being born? Talking statistically, it’s probably less than 0.01^-1000%. But, here I am. The probability, no matter how small, ended up being 100%. They say hindsight is 20/20, but, while I know it’s speaking of vision, it could also mean twenty out of twenty, or 100%.

A note from Shiro:

(Don’t worry about that part, I just thought of it and found it interesting that it would still work in that sense. It’s not actually correct.)

Years went by, my life continuing as it had been. For some reason, Grim never did anything, from what I could tell, but I was certainly not going to worry over the momentary peace. 

[My personal book of quotes, number 3: There is no such thing as peace. When you believe your life to be peaceful, one of two things is happening. One, the chaos is happening elsewhere. Or, the one more deserving of fear, two, the chaos is building up out of sight.]

Either way, my mother continued to be constantly sick, even Achilles lacking the skills required to heal her. But she lived on, which gave me hope that one day there may be a miracle and she can be cured.

It’s a waste to let such a beautiful person die off without even a fighting chance.

Well, life shall continue onwards, no matter what happens. There’s very little that can cause Life itself to end, as the cycle is always continuing.

Yuu

I was born a prince. The king, Hamelin, was my father, and the queen, Jes, was my mother. I had no siblings. 

The kingdom I was going to be raised to rule?

It was at the bottom of the ocean. Specifically, it was at the Merfolk Central Trading Point, or MCTP. Of course, this was a title and not the name of the kingdom. I couldn’t tell you the name of the kingdom.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

Why’s the prince of a kingdom unable to name said kingdom?

It’s because I gave up being a prince.

At age one, my body was grown enough to move about. At first, I was concerned, wondering about the differences in environment that would have forced my race to grow up so quickly. But, in the end, I couldn’t really do much about it, so I just accepted it and left it as that.

Now, for these reasons, I decided to quit being a prince.

1. In that one year, I was forced to attend not one, not two, but four special events. One of them was my birthday party, but the crowds that made up each and every one of these events was sickening and I couldn’t stand it.

2. Nobody cared to even try and see me as my own person. I don’t think I was referred to by name more than a few times in that whole year. I was always “Prince” or “Young Master” (albeit the latter was only really used by my maids.)

That being said, I ran away.

I’d found the secret exit of the castle and simply went through it when nobody was looking. It was easy enough to get out, but I must admit, I’m slightly confused as to how I managed to not get discovered.

“First twelve get them tomorrow! Come right up and sign this sheet!”

But here I stand, advertising my artefacts with a loud voice and a faked smile.

“Hey, kid, can you really handle this every day? Let me help out a little bit, at least…”

Alfred, my almighty tutor, came by and questioned how I was holding up.

“Bah! You know I need all the money I can get. School tuitions aren’t just a few thousand coins, you know!”

That much was true. The fee for getting into school was a total of 35 gold coins per person.

A gold coin was 100 silver, a silver is 100 copper… etc. The general fantasy workup. I can only assume that some things were made easy because the Goddess who designed them came from my world as well.

“Oh come on! If you’re trying to get money, then you wouldn’t be selling your artefacts salt water cheap!”

(Fun fact, Merfolk usually say salt water cheap instead of dirt cheap simply because of the habitat differences.)

“Well, we both know I have a horrible sense of all things economic! It’s not going to change just from a lesson or two about my prices being too cheap!”

While saying this, I went over to the sign and raised the price from a silver to two silvers.

“Bah, you’ll never get things done at this rate! Give me half your stock and I’ll sell them at my store. I’ll give you 60% of the profits, and it’ll still be more than what you’re selling them for!”

As he spoke, a family of three came along and wrote their names on the paper.

“Ah, for safety reasons we ask of you to allow me to stamp this onto your hand. It’s just a mana seal, one that lets me know if you’re sending somebody else over to pick it up for you. You can forcefully transfer the seal to somebody, but it’s impossible for somebody to take it from you if you don’t want them too.”

As I spoke, a reached over, lightly grabbed the parent’s hand and pressed a metal sheet to the back of it, letting my mana flow through it. When I pulled it away, there was a wonderfully intricate design left behind, glowing a light gray before fading to skin color.

“And… done! If you die, this’ll come back and let me know. Nobody takes your things without my knowledge!” I puffed out my chest and put on a proud tone.

This little artefact took me three days to be able to write.

Let me describe how artefacts are made and work.

Artefacts are usually made by inscribing your mana into a piece of metal or other conductive substance.

The mana is channeled through something called ‘the inscribing pen’ but I like to call it ‘magic pencil.’

I mean, it looks similar enough, so it works out in my mind.

Anyway, once you have the magic pencil, you simply press it to the metal with a very fleshed out thought in your mind of what you want the artefact to do. If it’s not that detailed, the mana cost could skyrocket and it’ll probably kill you if you don’t have somebody next to you to disconnect the pencil from your hand.

Alfred had to do that a lot when I was beginning. Luckily, I was imaginative enough that I was soon able to detail it properly the first time. However, since I worked on these things alone, to conceal my rising talent in mass producing them, it would only take one mistake to kill me.

Which is why I began to think about a single artefact I wanted to build.

One that could take ideas, and let the mana inside store them.

Mana is an extension of the brain. Here, I want my mana to embody a thought before inscribing itself into the metal, to be used for making more of the same artefact.

For that, I need processes.

First, the mana shall take the thoughts that I will upon it.

Then, it shall replicate those thoughts and send them back, while holding the thought inside itself. This will act as a verification, as well as an ability to view the thought that’s placed inside at any time. After there’s confirmation from the owner of the thought, the mana should reach a dormant state, holding the thought without using any of the mana to do anything. This’ll allow for a longer time of holding since less mana is used to sustain it.

After all these things are complete, and the plate is in the ‘dormant’ state, then the mana shall require another pulse to activate, and shall follow directions from there, while allowing, but not limiting to, viewing the thought and usage of it as a directory for creating artefacts.

With these processes running through my mind, I began to do two things at once.

I began to split my mana into two parts, dividing tasks for each part. The larger portion was to embody the same processes I would use to make this artefact. The smaller would be used to make the inscription.

Feeling the beginning of a headache come on as I concentrated, closing my eyes, I refined my mana.

The smaller portion… Refining. Thin, like spider webs. Sharp, like wire. Twist. Curve. Form.

Inscribe.

The mana followed orders obediently, taking my orders and dividing them into many more, smaller, tasks. As an extension of my mind, it worked upon the thoughts of myself and refined them, before beginning to work.

“Mana is an extension of the mind, but it’s smarter than you. It’s able to think of things you wouldn’t be able to, but it’s your mind all the same.”

I muttered under my breath, remembering Alfred’s words.

The larger portion of mana… Refining. Soft, like cotton. Strong, like iron. Malleable, like rubber. Absorb. Hold. Embody.

A sharp pain shot through my head. The thought was being taken in, but the mana seemed to stir restlessly, hairline fractures appearing throughout it. It made a soft humming sound, that almost sounded displeased.

The formless blob that I had settled the mana into to hold the thought split up. It melted together, pieces falling off like dry clay.

From that blob that I’d created, the thought formed into a picture. Lines stretched out and formed geometric shapes, like a spider web of a soft metal.

I see… I didn’t think of that. Instead of forcing the thought into a shape, it would be more efficient for the thought to shape the mana…

Form.

The smaller portion of mana had finished it’s task, inscribing a sheet of metal about the size of a medium sized book’s cover. I now let the thought-filled mana slowly soak into the sheet, imbuing it with color.

“And here we go. I’ve made the first semi automatic production method for making artefacts. At the cost of my entire mana pool…” I was very, very tired now. Mana exhaustion hits you hard. It’s similar to losing a sense, like your sight or taste.

The world just seems bland afterward.

But mana exhaustion also came with the added effect of a large headache.

After waking up the next morning, I set a sign outside saying that I would be closed for the day, since I’d used up my mana pool and it was only half refilled after four hours of rest.

That was one of my few weak points. My mana regenerated at less than a quarter of the normal speed.

I didn’t really know the reason why, but I didn’t really care to find out.

I sat in a room, counting out the money that I had earned over the years.

Thirty-five gold was all I needed to go to school.

“Four hundred and seventy-five gold, thirty-two silver, and twenty copper. About enough for thirteen people… A bit more and I should start my journey. I don’t have much time left before school starts, after all. My other pieces should be working towards the same goal, right?”

I leaned back in my chair, gazing at the ceiling as I attempted to balance myself on the back two legs of the chair.

“So many lives I’m being forced to live. I wonder how many of them are as profitable as mine? I’m so sick of dealing with people… It was a good idea to hole up in here today.” I muttered to myself.

I leaned forward, letting the front legs of the chair hit the ground with a bang.

Let’s just write down some good ideas for more artefacts I can make for today…

I grabbed my magic pencil and began scrawling on the table with my half full mana. Eventually, it would fade, but that wasn’t a problem. Writing them down like this would help me out in remembering them.

For the first four years of my life, I’d gone from the prince of a kingdom to a humble magic artefact merchant, wanting to get some money for school.

Ryuu

When I was born, I realized something was off. My first memory is that of sitting in front of eight dragons, each easily the size of a three story building. Their scales, all of different colors, glittered about in the dim firelight that desperately tried to light up the hollowed out mountain.

The first words I’d heard were from Ault, my father, were, “Ryuu. I’m sorry, son, but I’m unable to raise you. Tradition dictates this and I do not have enough power to change this.”

He leaned in close, his head easily a few times the size of my body. He smirked, teeth the size of my torso showing as if baring fangs at an enemy. Dragons should not try to replicate human facial expressions if they plan to make friends with them.

“But I’ll do what I can.” Is what he whispered, his breath stirring my hair.

The next year was a blur. I faintly remember being dropped off in a forest and being told to survive, before I was left alone there.

After a moment of thought, I began to move. The place I was dropped off was a wonderful place to start, with water and different forms of berries easily accessible.

This was probably my father’s influence, since he was the one who dropped me off here.

It was a small clearing, so I decided to begin my survival game that was my life.

Hesitation could get me killed, but it could also save my life. So, I learned. When something in me said to run, I did so. But when something in me told me to eat, I would hesitate.

Poison berries were common in this area.

So, to test, I fed them to any docile animals I could. If they survived, then I would dictate them safe to eat.

Of course, this didn’t take into account the pain of eating them. Some of them induced heavy headaches, others had different debuffs.

In the end, out of all the berries there, there was a single one that didn’t have a bad effect.

But some of them counteracted. A berry that gave headaches could be counteracted by one that took away the headache but thinned the blood.

There was an order to all things. Eating them at once, I learned, was the easiest way to kill yourself.

When the berries are crushed, mixed together and then eaten as a paste, not only does it taste horrible, all the effects come at once, disappear a moment later, then reappear the next, then are gone again.

It’s torture, I must admit.

Once I had turned one year old, things changed. I’d only met docile animals until then, never venturing any further than I had to, but that changed.

A deerlike creature with red horns, dubbed ‘Ruby Elk’, was being mauled by a fox-like creature, with black fur and blood dripping out of its eyes.

I needed to think fast, so while I thought, I reached into my pocket. At the very least, they’d given me clothes before sending me out here, and I used them to the fullest.

I’d taken off my shirt and turned it into a pouch of sorts, knots in the right places and the sleeves wrapped correctly.

And in my left pocket, I kept poisonous berries. Reaching down in there, I didn’t have much in the way of choices, but I knew that all of these berries seemed to kill the docile animals instantly.

I believe one of them stopped breathing, one caused a chemical reaction with your stomach acid and you ended up melting your own body from the inside out.

Honestly, what are deadly things like this doing in the starter area?

The Ruby Elk had died, and the fox tore into it, blood coating its black fur. The sight disgusted me, but the situation excited me.

I was in front of a monster. This was the type of fantasy situation that I’d wanted for so long. The dragons didn’t really register in my mind as special, probably for the fact that I was one myself.

I now realize that I didn’t mention this before. I’m a dragon.

I’ll show it here when I deal with this little black fox. 

I put one of the poisonous berries in my mouth but didn’t bite down.

“It’s time to die, beast.” (Lines I wanted to say, number 3)

The fox looked up. I shivered, feeling a deep sense of fear shake me. But that shiver changed, halfway through. Excitement.

Adrenaline ran through my veins. I took the berry out of my mouth, and rolled it in my fingers, feeling it mold like clay.

This berry was a bit special. When saliva touched it, it would slowly melt until it began to release its juice, which was a concentrated form of its poison.

“Let’s get this party started.” With these words, I felt something within me build. Energy of some form, like condensed emotions.

My mind raced through all the different things I could do at this moment.

A second passed, the fox staring me down, judging how dangerous I was. The berry continued to melt, my fingers twitching as they rolled it into the shape of a bullet. By now, the juice had all concentrated in the tip.

Then, like glass had shattered, we both rushed forward. I took a single step, and the fox had taken three, closing the distance in an instant.

I kicked off the ground with the foot I had just placed, leaping away from the beast while letting my hands swing forward, inertia helping me a little bit here.

A concentrated bullet of poison in my right hand, ready to fire. In my left, an open palm, coming around to stabilize my right.

The fox jumped for my throat, a smart move. But I’d expected it to be smart.

So I thought smarter.

I threw the berry at it, knowing that it wouldn’t do anything but distract it for a moment. I hadn’t left it in my mouth long enough for it to melt completely.

My position… was perfect for what I wanted next.

I brought my right knee up, and my right elbow down as hard as I could. The fox’s jaw was right between them.

I smiled.

The fox’s jaw was crushed. Normally, a one year old child wouldn’t have the strength to do that, but that’s where me being a dragon comes in.

The strength boost of the strongest reptile. Even a one year old dragon can crush bones. Call it a racial trait.

With the beast’s jaw crushed, its main attack, biting, was removed. The pain would also hinder its judgement.

As such, it leapt at me again, claws bared. I simply grabbed it by those same paws and beat its throat with my knee over and over again.

Over the course of a minute, it was unable to breathe and therefore died.

I smiled over its corpse, feeling accomplished for my first monster kill.

After a minute, I felt a large gust of air try to push me into the ground, so I took cover under a nearby tree, pressing my back to it and straightening myself for the least wind resistance.

My father, Ault, landed in front of me. The emerald dragon was just as large as before, and super terrifying as he looked at my kill.

“It’s really dead… Without even a shred of dignity, though.” He sighed, as if disappointed. “You should kill your opponents quickly and cleanly. Dragons’ are supposed to be a prideful race, you know?”

I simply looked at him, carefully wording my answer.

“I think I have enough pride. I consider living another day quite the accomplishment. Running would have been worse, would it not have been?” I pointed out.

Ault took a second to think about it.

“I guess you have a point… I won’t congratulate you on such a messy kill, though. Surely there were other ways to kill it?”

I thought about it for a second.

“I guess after I broke it’s jaw, I could have forced a berry down it’s throat before letting it die off slowly, but compared to that, I think this was a mercy. Either way, I was a bit over excited, so I wasn’t thinking straight.”

That wasn’t a complete lie. I was over excited, but I was thinking just fine.

“Other than that, is there something you came to do?” I asked him.

“Well, I was going to reward you for your first Vepha kill. Most dragons couldn’t have killed that in their dragon form at a year old, much less in their human form… So I came to give you a reward. It’s not against the tradition, so please be greedy here.”

I thought for a moment, looking at my father towering over me.

“Then, teach me.”

And I smiled at him as I asked the greediest reward I could think of.

From then on, he gave me regular visits and taught me. I didn’t specify the subject, so he would have to teach me everything. I learned about the environment first, such as the berries, the animals, the topography, etc.

As much as I hated school, learning about these sorts of things while the lessons were flexible was fun. Hands-on activities were the worst, but that’s only because I wasn’t able to choose what to do.

I made poisons, learned different things that I could do with the plants around me, made tools, before I ended up finding some clay by the shore of the river that I got water from.

From there, I ended up making myself some bottles. Clay was super helpful if you knew how to work it and could fire it.

Since the vein of clay I found was fairly large, I actually ended up finding out that my father was a fire dragon, despite being green. With that knowledge and the large amount of clay that I had, I made a brick oven. Thinking it was too much effort, I made it all at once, and used a low heat blast of fire from Ault to fire it.

I loaded it up with fallen branches and whatnot to fire about 10 bottles at a time from then on.

In the end, I ended up a well educated dragon, capable of creating poison bombs that would shatter upon impact and could eventually soak through even a dragon’s scale to affect the insides of a creature and kill them.

There was also the effect of ending up as an ice dragon, so I was able to breathe out some frosty air when I wanted too. It made it a bit easier to handle the poisons, since I could freeze them and then hold them. I had to wash my hands off afterwards or else I could die, but that’s unimportant.

Ah! Almost forgot an important event.

At age three, I found something special. It looked like tree sap, even in the proper place (coming from a tree), but it was actually deadly. I saw a Ruby Elk (Amazingly, that actually was their name.) take a lick of it once, and it glowed golden, made a triumphant roar towards the sky, before exploding in a blast of blood and guts.

Don’t worry, it was probably twice as disgusting as you can imagine.

Afterwards, the tree moved forwards and absorbed the remains as if it was natural.

Like, really? A carnivorous tree? A scavenger, at that?

Terrifying. I like it.

So, of course, I decided to take some of the sap for myself. I returned a few days later with some bottles. (I thinned the top lip of them specifically for gathering the sap without letting it run down the sides.)

I easily gathered two full bottles of the stuff, before walking away. It seems that the tree wasn’t able to attack me for taking it.

At least, that’s what I assumed at the time. You’d never believe the nightmares I had after noticing that the tree followed me back to my camp. It didn’t attack, but I’m assuming that it was waiting for me to drink the sap, and die.

But, strangely enough, it didn’t act upon that even when I’d held myself back from drinking it for a week.

Just before the Ruby Elk died, it glowed golden. Then, when it roared, it seemed to be stronger than it was before. Which means, this sap managed to raise its strength in some way before it killed it.

“Should I dilute it? Would it be fine if I took a very small amount?” I muttered to myself.

I leaned up against my stalker tree, no longer scared of it. It seemed to scare off some of the bothersome animals, and when the bugs drank the small amount of sap they could and died, even the corpse was gone.

I used a killer tree as a bug killer.

So resourceful, aren’t I?

After another few days, I realized something strange. The tree hadn’t been producing as much sap. It wasn’t enough to collect, even though I hadn’t been collecting it recently.

Comparing the bottle’s contents with it, it was barely four drops.

“I wonder… Are you trying to kill me or tell me how much to drink?” I asked the tree.

To be honest, I half expected a response. Luckily, I didn’t get one.

I took another bottle, put about the same amount of sap in it, and filled it with water. Covering it with my hand, I shook it up.

I leaned up against the tree once more.

“I’m gambling here. If I die, feel free to eat me.”

The tree creaked, as if one of its branches changed positions. I wonder if it was nutrient deprived?

Shrugging, feeling the winds of my father descending, I took a sip of the potion I’d made.

A second passed. My father landed. I took another sip, uninterested in what he had to say about my gamble.

A burn began to settle in my heart. Flames rose, licking the sides of the organ with each beat. I choked for air, gasping against the golden glow that covered my body.

My blood coursed with power, a raging bonfire within my veins. It was so powerful. I was so powerful.

But I couldn’t contain it. I was a paper bag, trying to hold a flame.

My vision turned red as blood poured from my eyes, capillaries, veins, and arteries all opening, the pressure of the blood coursing through them pressing it out my skin.

My body tore itself apart from the inside, but my mind was calm. Or, more specifically, the part of my mind that didn’t need blood to operate.

My mana.

It circled around me, golden streaks of light sewing my wounds shut. It took something from me, and my body calmed. My heart’s beating seemed slow in my ears at that moment.

It was as if I experienced everything a bit slower, three seconds a second. Each streak of mana that curled about me was well defined, in high definition. The sound of my environment seemed slow to me.

My mana balled up in front of me, and I was beckoned towards it. The tree that I leaned upon was absorbing the massive amounts of blood that I had poured upon it as I reached forward, to take the mana.

I touched it with the tip of my finger, and I smiled as I felt the power flow back into me, but controlled.

My mana pool seemed significantly drained, about a third taken up, but I had become stronger.

Thanks, mana. With a final thought, I passed out.

Now, I awaken to a new sunrise, my mana pool reduced to a tenth of what it once was. Since my breath powers used mana, I obviously couldn’t use those as well as I should have been, but my physical body and my mind had been upgraded much past normal limits.

I could control that power inside me, slowly. Piece by piece, I was able to take my mana away from it, dealing with the pain of that raging fire through my veins for a while, before my body got used to it and I could continue with a bit more mana in my mana pool.

It was a slow and long process, but not without the fitting gains. That power slowly became mine. As it flowed through my veins, I could bring it to surface. It was the same color as my mana, but much more powerful.

But its true power laid within. I could bring it to my brain, and it enhanced it. It acted like an extension, but in a different way than my mana.

If my mana was like a flash drive, full of files similar to my brain, then this power was an empty flash drive used for ReadyBoost. It sped up my mind. A second would take up to fifteen, and that max was increased the more power I could contain.

Using ratios, the full power would allow me to live up to ten minutes in a second. 60,000% increase. 600 times what a normal person would experience.

That power, when used properly, is worth the pain I must experience to get it. Now, I’m no masochist, but the rewards excite me enough to let my devilish smile shine through when I feel the burning pain through my veins.

I’d learned from my father that the tree I’d gotten the sap from only lets it out a few thousand years, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Although, from what I heard, the tree should not have let out the sap for three days in a row as it had.

I would have commented, but it was much easier to just take the verbal abuse and keep quiet. For all I know, this tree here may have a mind inside it. At the very least, it must have some form of power if it’s able to hold this sap inside it.

I quickly made these bottles my most protected possession.

And, as I grew from three to four years old, I’d learned everything there was to know about this place.

I’d killed a few more Vepha here and there, past that first fox, so I was allowed another favor.

“Then, let me go to school when I come of age. There shouldn’t be a problem with that, right? The tuition fees… I’m sure you have enough to pay for it, even if it is really expensive.”

“Well, I guess… I’m not sure how well the school will take it though, as a dragon hasn’t gone there in quite a few… decades? I can’t think of a dragon that’s gone to school in the past thirty years… It’s more difficult for some of us to retain our human forms, although you seem pretty accustomed to yours…”

He paused, thinking over his ‘tradition’, no doubt.

“Very well. Let’s send you off to school when you’re five. I’m sure they won’t mind having a dragon or two.”

“Or two? You have another planned?” I asked, half joking.

“Yes. Your sister.”

With that bombshell, I realized how little I knew of my family, and was tempted to immediately say something to that effect.

“No, I shall not ‘teach’ you about our family. You’ll talk to your sister when you get into School.”

I sighed, and stared up into the night sky.

“Then, I guess I’ll wait. There’s more than enough here to keep me company for a year, anyway.”

I chuckled to myself as I thought over the past few years, before deciding to just sleep, and think about such things tomorrow.

Kon

My birth was unnatural. I was a pure mana spirit. Spirits are not dead people, btw. They’re similar to elementals, but instead of elements they have mana types. Lots of different ones, too. I’m not going to list them.

Pure mana spirit. I was born as one, against the odds. It seems that pure mana spirits are one of the rarer types of spirits to be, accompanied by time, space, and death spirits.

Of course, there were none of those in my village.

Lots of other types, though.

Like Earth and Fire. And Water.

And Lightning.

Etc.

My mother, Teresse, is known as ‘The Lazy Goddess of Chaos’. She has talent in ruining things, especially spells. She’s a Vibration Spirit.

My father, Dusk, is known as ‘The Unmotivated Paladin’. He has talent in killing undead and healing people. He’s a Light Spirit.

I refuse to ask how these types managed to combine in such a way to create a pure mana spirit.

Instead, I shall tell you about what I did with my life.

Now, since I have a natural disposition that refuses to work, and I barely managed to write this, I’m sure you can imagine how I lived.

That’s right, I became the best shield in the village.

Mana is an extension of the mind. When I heard this, I immediately thought of using it to pick up things from around the room without moving. It’s the best gift for a lazy person.

But, with a strange burst of motivation, I decided to ask how shielding spells worked. Attacking was too much effort in party systems, so defense seems like the better way to go. As a pure mana spirit, I was unable to cast any spells, anyway.

The response to my question was: “Mana learns as it’s hit by things. Hit by swords, it’s more resistant to slashes. Stab it, and it’s more resistant to stabs.”

Well, it was longer, but it’s too much effort. You get the point.

Heh. Point. Stab. Heh.

Anyway, I decided to become a shield. Since I was pure mana, it was easy to manipulate, so I formed a plate with it and asked somebody to shoot it with as many spells as they could.

They happened to be a Lightning Spirit, so I became resistant to Lightning attacks. That plate was torn in two with a spark when it started, since it was very weak, no element in it.

But now, this Lightning Spirit that became my training partner is unable to break it, no matter how much she tries.

I feel accomplished.

But then she brought her boyfriend, a water elemental. I guess it’s his conductivity that draws her to him?

Heh. Conductivity. Draws her to him. Heh.

But when he came by, he shot a drop of water at my shield, and it broke. I reformed it quickly, having become adept at that over time.

He broke it again.

A thought came to mind, and I formed the plate once more. As his water hit it, I formed one behind it, with my strengthened mana.

And when the water tore through that one too, I continued.

In the few seconds it had taken for that bit of water to hit the ground, I’d managed five shields.

I smirked at him, and he became my second training partner.

With five shields each water attack, it took him a fifth of the time his girlfriend had to become unable to break my shield.

Then, his friend came.

This was a village of spirits. Everyone knew everyone else through two circles, max. Any two people would either be friends, or friends of friends.

So, there was a chain.

Lightning.

Water.

Iron (Slashing, Thrusting, Blunt).

Earth.

Fire.

Vibrations.

Acid.

Pressure.

Gravity.

Blood.

Ice.

Air.

Pure mana.

I ended it with myself. But I was unable to continue my train here. When I attacked my shield, I broke through it. My shield got stronger, but so did my attack. I resummon both of them, and it’s the same result.

I aimed for Absolute Defence, but I accidentally became Absolute Attack as well.

Not much I can do about it. Nobody’ll know either of them, after all. My motivation lies buried deep within me. I want to sleep.

I want nothing but to do only what I want.

“So, we decided to send you to school.”

These words from my mother took that and broke that desire over her knee.

“Do you even have the money?” This question was not out of concern. It was a hope. A hope that my desires may still be fulfilled.

“Mmh. Got some a while back. It’s good. You’re going at five.” But no.

My desires. Give me the ability to live the life I want.

I didn’t argue. It would have been a wasted effort.

“Btw, if you get good grades in school, I’ll let you do what you want. But you have to do the extra three years too.”

My motivation, buried within me, stirred. But it settled down soon afterwards. Good grades? That’s not something I’ll need motivation for.

Spirits are, as a basic fact, more capable of difficult mental processes. Their very bodies are made of an extension of their mind, after all.

So, There’s little left to do but simply live through school. Hopefully it’s just as I imagine. Anything physical, I’d like to be left out of.

Gen

I was born a Lightning elemental. My body, itself, was made of electricity, coated with a layer of translucent mana.

My mother was an Air elemental. My father was an Earth elemental. My brother, three years older than I, was also an Air elemental.

If you asked, I couldn’t tell you their names.

Why? Because I haven’t seen them since my birth. I’m no orphan, nor have they died.

I’m being held captive -by choice- by a water elemental girl. The reason? I’m a pervert.

Yes, yes, I know the thought that comes when you hear those words. However, let me explain.

When I see girls, I’m sorry to say that I black out. So, all I know is from witness reports and the victim themselves.

“A violation of personal space. Crime repeated on multiple occasions. Victim always says it’s strange that nothing happens until you look them in the eye.”

I silently listen to her speak, the blindfold keeping her out of my vision.

“But, to think that you’d say something like ‘it’s out of your control.’ Are you really that desperate to not be punished?” She scoffed.

Sadistic Himedere? The Empress type, I suppose.

“And if I was telling the truth? If, whenever my eyes meet a girl’s, I do things unconsciously?”

“Then, I suppose it would be considered an ‘affliction’ instead of a ‘crime’. Either way, you’d be put into an area without anyone else. If it’s an affliction, then you’d probably be put into a church to purge your inherently evil soul, as committing crimes without conscious desire to is the sign of a black soul.”

So, either way I’m totally screwed.

How to get out of this situation… I can’t prove myself, as it can probably be called out for ‘holding back’ even though it isn't…

I don’t have a way to save myself. Is there somebody I could call out to help me?

...No…

“But I guess we should find out if it’s an affliction. I might be able to cure you, since I’m a priestess myself.”

I feel footsteps coming closer through vibrations in the ground, but I find it strange that I can’t hear them.

My blindfold is suddenly removed, and a water elemental is standing there in front of me.

I was prepared to lose consciousness, but instead, nothing happened.

“Huh? I’m sane?” I looked down at my hands, before standing up from my seiza position.

I looked her in the eyes, for the first time.

“You have some pretty eyes. It’s nice that I can see them. But still… Are you actually a boy, or something?” I asked.

I remembered blacking out before, when I looked into her eyes, so I wondered why it wasn’t happening this time.

“No, this is a doll. I was wondering if that affliction really only affected girls, or simply things that look nice.”

I realized that she called it an affliction for the first time.

“Oh, I see. Well, at least now we know?” I wasn’t really sure what to say, now that I knew that I was talking to a doll.

“Well, let’s have a seat. Do you like tea?” She waved over to the luxurious couches that sat a few feet to my right.

The whole place was Mansion-esque. Lavish, posh and unbearably comfortable.

“Say, remind me again. You’re rich, right?”

“Do you really feel the need to ask this every time you take a second to observe your surroundings?” The doll asked.

I’d taken to calling her Empress. She didn’t complain, so it stuck.

“Well, not really, but it’s the only conversation starter I have. Knowing that you look the same as this doll in front of me makes me self conscious and I have the same thoughts as I do just before blacking out from my affliction.”

“Should I be embarrassed? Pointless flattery will get you nowhere.”

You say that, but that slight quiver in your voice betrays you. We may get along better than you think we would, Empress.

“So, what do we do, for this affliction of mine?”

“Well, I was thinking of purifying your soul, but viewing it each time has failed, and if you are somehow pure already, it’ll kill me from the backfire. I’d rather make sure, in case it really is as you say.”

“Well, I haven’t lied to you yet and I’d be at a loss if you managed to die, so I advise against purifying me. I can’t help you with seeing my soul, though. There’s probably too little to look at.”

“What are you trying to get at here?”

The fact that I’m not whole. I’m only able to keep my sanity because I’m talking to a doll, and even then I can’t stop these thoughts about you.

“Just a thought.”

Of course, I can’t say that while I’m still sane.

“Hmm… Knowing you, that’s untrue, but I don’t really have the right to pry.”

“I’ve pried into your life more than once. I think you can get away with it. In fact, please do. Karma may build up to the point of death if you decide not to.”

That, and the fact that I have an odd liking to answering questions. It’s one of the few things that makes me feel good about myself. Call it an errant sense of pride.

“Then, I’d like to ask you this. How many lives have you lived?” Her words were sharp. They cut deep into me, and made me question my very thoughts.

“Only two. A captive, and a criminal.” I added the second part after a moment’s worth of hesitation.

I’ve answered your question. If you manage to reveal my secret, then I applaud you. When people ask questions that get too personal, I never lie. I simply answer them, then divert the answer to something that’s not true.

Call it the guilt of my pride. I give you the truth, but I can’t answer truthfully. So, I do both.

“...I see. Then, another question.”

“Another answer.”

“Would you like some more tea?”

I lifted the cup that was in my hand, peering into the bottom of it. It was empty. The tea she made was actually quite good, even though I remember not liking it in my previous life.

“If you don’t mind, then.” I held out the cup with a smile, and a small bow.

She stood, grabbing my cup on the way up, and head to the small kitchen that was stuffed into the corner of the room that could otherwise be considered a living room.

While she poured the tea, I grabbed a sweet pastry… the name escapes me. I ate it, though. It was quite good, but I held myself back from grabbing another.

Two years old…

Hmm.

“How old do you happen to be? Just a train of thought.”

“Hmm? I’m about two. Mentally, I’m much older, of course. I have quite a bit of mana in my head, after all.”

She walked back over, and once more I marvelled at how silent her steps were. Silently, of course.

“Thank you.” I took the cup when it was offered.

Taking a sip, I relaxed. My nonexistent muscles calmed. My nonexistent stress disappeared. I sank into the puffy couch.

“Good?”

“Quite…”

I felt myself getting drowsy. The teacup was slipping from my fingers, so I let it rest on my lap.

“Tremplat Tea. An exquisite poison.”

The last words I heard before my eyes closed, and I fell asleep.

When I awoke, my senses came back one by one.

“May I open my eyes?” I asked.

“No.” She responded.

Whatever was below my head was much softer than the couch. Whatever was resting over my eyes was must smoother than the blindfold. The voice came from above me, instead of in front, where I remember closing my eyes.

Positions had been changed.

“Is there a reason?”

Obviously there’s a reason you won’t let me open my eyes. My condition… So, are you here in person, Empress?

“I’d like to stay like this for a little longer.”

Empress? What’s wrong? Your voice is shaking all over the place… What should I take from this situation?

“Then I shall sleep once more, for the full effect.”

I calmed my breathing. My heartbeat slowed. And I drifted slowly into a state of semi-consciousness. I was aware of my surroundings, but it would take quite a while for me to react to anything.

The point is, Empress thought I was asleep, while I was actually able to hear and feel anything she did.

“I’m sorry, Gen. I’m just… sorry. All this time. I’ve done so much to you.” I could hear her voice.

Her voice… seemed heartbroken? It was as if her ‘Empress’ exterior fell away, and revealed a frail girl.

“This is… the least I can do, I suppose. I’m a master priest. But I cannot see your soul. There are only two things I cannot see the souls of. Vepha, and beings more devout than I. From our conversations, I feel as if you worship no god.”

Atheism is a crime now?

“But you’re no Vepha. I’ve looked. I’ve searched, and there’s only one Vepha ever recorded to be made of lightning.”

Ah, there was one?

“But you can’t be him. I know I killed him. So you are an anomaly.”

Is that so… You seem distraught… I want to help you.

“More devout. I worship no god. I worship people themselves. The gods rely on the people to live. So, is it not a religion in itself to worship those who support the gods?” I spoke, making the nonexistent religion sound real.

“Instead of worshipping the jewel atop the pillar, you worship the pillar, hmm? I’m not sure if I should call that worthy of respect or simply strange.” I heard a giggle.

“Strange isn’t quite right. Call it fitting for an anomaly.” I smiled up at her. I kept my eyes closed, knowing that if I opened them, I’d end up committing a crime. It’s not a good idea to do such things after telling somebody what I just said.

The years passed by. That incident was somehow settled with just what I said, the explanation taken as the truth.

I didn’t argue with the simple way out, though.

Things, from then on, were quite dull in comparison to that rose-colored scene that turned a deep blue.

But I wouldn’t go to any length to compare them to gray. After having a Rose scene with somebody, it’s impossible to go back to gray under normal circumstances.

So, that in mind, my days from then were quite entertaining.

But they were limited in number. I was four years old when Empress decided to drop this bomb on me;

“So, your father told me to send you to School. I’m having trouble with understanding why he decided to ask me to go as well, but I can’t really defy his orders, with my situation.”

Long story short, both the Empress and I were being sent off to school next year.

Hold up, I wonder if my other pieces are going to school as well?

If that’s the case, I might be alright with going to school. Perhaps one of them has a power to halt my ‘condition’.

I guess that’s something worth finding out.

Now then, to entertain myself for a year, I have a pretty water elemental that has a method of speaking with me through a doll.

I think that’s more than enough.

Fei

I must admit, I regret the first two years of my childhood.

There were many things I would’ve liked to have done differently…

I was born a fairy, into a wealthy family with a practice to ‘protect the bloodline.’

For those of you who haven’t made the connections yet, that practice is incest. Not the legal kind, either.

No, my Mother and my Father were cousins, actually, and their minds were corrupted by how well that marriage worked out.

“Come now Penelope, there’s no need for such a question. You see, when people love each other very much,” For a second, I thought she was actually going to give a decent explanation for a child.

“Then they go into the bedroom, or if they’re feeling frisky they can do in any room…”

I covered my sister’s ears, protecting whatever innocence I could.

Penelope, I’m so glad that I’m here to do this for you. I understand that I can't do anything about the knowledge you’ve learned in the three years before I was born, but I’ll protect whatever’s left if there’s something to protect.

On more than one occasion, I was nearly molested in my sleep, Penelope simply being curious about one of my mother’s lessons.

The words, “Mum taught me.” Eventually turned to something worth fear in my mind.

Once, I remember waking up with her straddling me, nothing but an apron on.

“What’re you doing, Penelope?” I asked, half asleep.

“Mother taught me that I should do this when waking men up, as it’ll excite them.”

The foreboding sense of dread in my heart was confirmed. It seems like I’ll have to make another session for returning her innocence.

“Penelope, this is something people do when they’re older, and mostly when they’ve just been married.” I rose up, halfway between sitting and lying down.

She leaned towards me, placing her hands on my chest. The apron wasn’t tied very tight, so bits and pieces of her body managed to squirm their way into my eyes. When I looked away, she called my name until I looked back at her.

Eventually, I stopped trying to look away and kept my eyes looking towards her, but not at her.

“Fei, you have some pretty eyes.”

“Thank you? Your eyes are quite pretty as well.” It wasn’t a lie, as her emerald eyes shone when they looked at me.

I don't remember clearly what happened after that. I believe one of my parents walked in, before seeing the scene.

For a moment, I expected them to scold us for what we were doing.

Instead, they smiled at us, gave a soft apology and then walked out once more.

That was enough to break the spell on me, and I got my sister off me through a combination of words and actions.

Either way, with the first two years of my life full of nothing but this, I was worried slightly about my safety. And my virginity.

But once I’d turned two, there were only a few days until School started. Since my sister was of age to attend, my parents sent her off and gave me five hours a day, almost every day, to myself.

It was heaven.

When she came back, she sat me down at a table and spoke to me about her day, complaining like a wife would do to her husband.

I silently listened to her speak, unable to resist. From her words, I gained information about the school, the teachers, the students, the lessons, and much more. There were things to be learned from my ‘wife’s’ story.

At the very least, it was informative. Although, I found it interesting as well, but that’s unimportant.

With the five hours a day to do whatever I wanted, I settled on satisfying my curiosity.

I took the time to learn everything I wanted to.

Cooking, Martial arts, Herbology, Leatherworking, Sewing, Embroidery, Knot tying, Blacksmithing, Swordplay, Spearwork, Stealth, Assassination, Torturing methods, Lovemaking methods, Alchemy, Meditation, Dancing, Dismembering, Dismantling, Crafting, Mana control, Climbing, Writing, Art, Flower arranging, Tea ceremony, Etiquette, Many different instruments, Singing, Voice mimicry, Disguise, Guerilla tactics, Warfare, Economy, Cartography, and many others.

Most people would take years to master even a single one of these subjects. I’d lived for quite a few years already, with knowledge from another world to compliment anything I was taught.

Many of these came easily to me, and the few others didn’t take long to learn. Mastering them is still a pipe dream, but I’ve got a life ahead of me that I can use these things in.

By age four, I considered myself a jack of all trades, master of none.

But my end goal was much different. I was aiming for Master of all Trades, Jack of None.

My curiosity was no longer able to be held back by petty things like self-restraint. With a reincarnator’s mind, and my mana, I could do so much more than I was able to before.

I’d always learned quickly. But with my mana, I was able to concentrate on many things at once, similar to having another mind.

I halved the time it took me to do any mental processes, if not more.

Being born into another world sure is interesting, I must admit.

Being able to learn whatever I wish.

For once, my curiosity is sated, for a little while at the very least.

Angelica

I was born as an Angel, the single daughter of my mother.

My father… I never saw him. I can safely assume that he’s dead, as the cries that my mother whisper outside my door blame me for it.

My situation, at the moment, is one of a locked princess.

I sit here, on the top floor of a tower that extends above the clouds, from a floating island that rests upon the lowest layer of them.

Against one wall, there lay a bookshelf, books neatly placed onto it, gathering dust.

I’d already read through them at least ten times each. I could recite them by memory.

I’ve been here since my birth.

My mother’s first words to me were; “Demon child, I’ll lock you away. I’ll let these feelings die off before I let you…”

She whispered them to me, tears in her eyes and a crack in her heart.

My father had died just a few minutes after my death. My mother couldn’t come to terms with that and lashed out.

The death of the person she loved the most left her broken. Broken enough to try and take back the feelings she had for the world around her. Instead of being emotionless, she had too many emotions streaming through her like a raging river.

She wanted to get rid of those emotions. She wanted the waters to calm.

She just wanted to feel like she did before.

My existence was her reminder of him. For that reason, she cared for me in some way or another.

But I was the one who killed him, in her mind. She blamed me completely and hated me for it.

Without knowing exactly what’s going on in her mind, this is the conclusion I’ve reached. Then again, I’ve had a lot of time to think.

With all that time, I’ve tried to imagine what it would be like. I’ve thought so much that I became immune to it. A few tears and I was out. Thinking about it more simply didn’t have the same effect.

Time passed by like the clouds below me. Slowly, with no major changes. It was nothing interesting to talk about, so I’ll skip the details.

At some point in time, I’d stopped counting the days, that changed, though.

My boring life, filled with nothing but my own thoughts and feelings, was shattered like a glass pane. The window I’d always been looking out of before broke, and I was able to go through it.

And it broke with a murder.

There was a flash of light and scattered feathers, spinning through the air. They blocked my sight even as it came back from the momentary blindness.

But the red liquid that splattered through the room was unmistakable, the scent of iron filling the air and making me light headed.

A silence permeated the room, nothing making a sound. The feathers dropped to the ground, the drop of blood that hit me rolling down my cheek.

“Who… are you?” I asked, drawing three pairs of eyes to me. I looked at each of them in turn before looking to the oldest of them.

She stood from her crouched position, drawing a cloth from her pocket to clean her blade.

“Sorry for the intrusion. My name’s Ren, half dwarf, half angel. I was in a hurry, so I was unable to properly select where I teleported too…” She looked around as she spoke, and her eyes settled on the two scared children behind her.

“Aurora, Axel, how did you come with me?! No, no, nonono… This wasn’t supposed to happen!” She kneeled down and hugged the two children, making sure they weren’t facing the corpse in the middle of the room.

At least, it was assumed that he was a corpse. As I watched, something came out of him, and it wasn’t blood.

It was red, green mixed in with it, making something that gave me a sense of a small cave, stalactites, and mites everywhere.

It curved about, forming a ball. It struck me as difficult to look at, even though it seemed simple enough. My eyes twinged slightly. I reached over and grabbed a hold of the ball, tossing it out the window. Whatever it was, I want nothing to do with it.

“So, how are you doing?” I turned back to the group of three, now used to the smell.

Ren knew the corpse had a plan that would stop her from killing him, so she’d brought him to here, the largest floating island, called Anarta, in the world. Since she’s only half angel, she didn’t have precise control over where she would teleport to and ended up here.

She took the life of the man that threatened her and ruined her’s. However, two of the orphans she’d taken care of came with her and witnessed the death of somebody. I was also subject to it, but I didn’t really find it all that special. I found the living much more important than the dead.

Aurora was, obviously, terrified herself, but instead of falling into the depths of her emotions, she tried to comfort Axel. Anything that Ren did would probably further their developing trauma.

I thought for a second, wondering how I should word what I was going to say.

“Ren’s amazing.” I started with a steeled voice, one that cut through the silence. I’m not sure if she realized what I was trying to do or simply wanted to ignore me, but Ren showed no response to my words.

“I mean, she protected you without a moment’s hesitation! She’s like a knight in shining armor, defeating the bad guys for the common folk!” I spoke in monotone, but I’m sure that the meaning of my words was enough for that moment.

Aurora looked up at me. Her eyes were full of doubt.

I guess she’s old enough to understand. Axel, though, seems to be believing my words.

“She’s pretty good with that knife, too. Perhaps I should ask for lessons. Don’t you think how she handled it was pretty cool?”

Axel’s eyes no longer held fear. Instead, admiration for Ren lazed about in them.

At least it worked.

I sighed, watching as Axel went over to ask for lessons first. He’d end up a great rogue, I’m sure. Admiration is a good motivator.

An hour later, I was strolling about with the other three, dead center in the middle of the city that was atop the island.

I don’t know how Ren managed to convince my mother, but she did so in less than a minute, leaving me with only her to follow.

“Locking their child away isn’t an act that a parent would do. So, for all intents and purposes, you’ve been an orphan since birth, held captive by the woman who birthed you.” Ren told me. I didn’t have anything to say in response, so I just nodded and followed her as she descended the tower, and walked outside.

I felt the breeze blow over the island, pushing my body a little bit.

The clouds rushed over the ground, breaking at the edge and falling into a sheet that coated the dirt. It was like a constantly moving sheet of snow, tickling my ankles like the bubbles of the sea.

The air was chilly, almost to the point where my breath would be visible. The sun beat down upon the island, giving the appearance of a place with a much different temperature.

I could only smile, giving off a small chuckle.

“What an interesting place.”

I turned and caught Axel and Aurora both staring, while Ren was facing forwards, her attention taken up by something.

Most of the times, I’d go to lengths to describe what happened after that, but I can’t find it in me. I traveled through Anarta as if it was only natural to accompany Ren.

I let myself rush through anything I desired. If I wanted to try a food, I’d just ask Ren and she’d let me buy as much as I wanted. If I wanted to go somewhere, Ren would patiently come with me.

It seemed as if she had something important to do, but it wasn’t urgent. She constantly dragged us further from the middle of the city, and towards a strangely built middle-class area of the city. It was… like a maze. A labyrinth. I looked for maps but found nothing of the sort.

It was called Daedalus’s Sector, and it was the only way to get to the transporter to send children to school.

Ren, apparently, wanted to become a teacher for the incoming wave of kids. By the time she’d said that I was part of that incoming wave, at four years old. A whole year had flown by in the company of these strangers.

“So, shall I bring you to school with me? I have more than enough money to pay for the three of you, but…” Ren trailed off, leaving her sentence unfinished as she motioned for an answer from the three of us.

“Sure, going to school sounds like fun.” I was the first to answer.

“Do you think they’d teach me more about being a rogue? If that’s true, then I’ll gladly go!” Axel was enthusiastic.

“I think you should spend the money on somebody else… I’m already past the age that children would be when they’re coming out of school, not going in.” Aurora laughed about it, but I could hear the stress in her voice.

I thought for a second, but I couldn’t help her, so I left it alone.

And just like that, four years of my life went from flowing like tar to like water, more than average events occurring as if they were bugs, problematic but solved with very little effort.

I’d gone from a flower, locked in a room, to a butterfly, out to visit other flowers and help them.

I have nothing but compassion for those with problems I, myself, have experienced. I shall offer them advice, or help them in whatever way I can.

For that’s how this solitary butterfly wishes to waste their life.

Sera

I was born a seraph, cared for only by my mother, while my father and brother tormented me without a care in the world other than themselves.

It was an arranged marriage. My father cared little to nothing for my mother other than as a sex toy or heir maker to his company. Past the oldest son, he didn’t care about her at all.

My existence was not only accidental but seen as a bother. Instead of loving his second son, my father decided instead to use me to bring my brother higher.

I was his stress reliever. I was his practice dummy for the martial arts he was taught.

It was becoming more and more normal for me to move in constant pain. I rose like a zombie, my face expressionless, each time accepting the punishment without words.

I considered it Karma finally catching up to me. I was a horrible person in my previous life, caring for nothing other than myself.

So if I viewed this as punishment, it could continue up into my teenage years and I’d still feel that it’s too little.

Physical pain was something I was always good at handling. Sharp pains were difficult to deal with, but the aches and dull pains that linger long afterward were nothing in my eyes.

My mother was treated similar to me, except by my father and in adult terms. When I was ‘beaten’, she was ‘disciplined’. Many times I would hear her screaming, moaning, and the cracking of whips coming from the room next to mine.

Her desperate pleading, while I was cutting my heart out, still affected me. I wanted to help her, at the very least. If it means that my punishment shall wait until I die once more, then so be it.

But I want to help her. Seeing her tear stained face, legs weak from the different things she’s been forced to do, and her broken expression… They tore through me with much more pain than any of my brother’s punches.

“I started learning swordplay. I’m not strong enough yet to handle picking it up, so let me train my muscles, sandbag.” My brother… what was his name again? It’s never stuck since I’ve never spoken a word… to him or otherwise.

I think… I think it was Pate.

Yes, that seems about right.

He rushed towards me, throwing his balled up fist into my stomach. I felt something within me stretch and convulse. Just to the point where there wouldn’t be major damage but it would hurt like hell.

I coughed out spit, wanting to throw up but being unable to. I dry heaved a few times, waiting for the next blow.

But, nothing came.

I looked up to him with a knife in his hands, tying the handle to the end of a wooden shinai, a fake wooden sword normally used in Japan for kendo and other swordsmanship competitions.

But now it had an edge.

For the first time in awhile, I felt some fear take over my body. My mind accepted it, but my body shivered, wanting to run away.

A step forward, the shinai came down upon me. The blade was heading directly for my neck, ready to decapitate me.

“I can just get another sandbag from your whore of a mother. You’ve begun to annoy me.”

Fear of Death? I had no such thing. I had a Fear of Pain.

But now I wanted the pain. If I didn’t get hurt in the next few seconds, I’d lose myself. For once I’ve found something that hurt me more than punches.

His words. His attitude.

Even a cornered rat will take the initiative to attack.

The floorboards creaked, the makeshift sword buried deep in them. A thin line of blood dripped down my neck, soaking into the collar of my shirt.

I stood, shaking knees and unsteady sense of balance. I stared Pate down.

His words. His attitude.

He pissed me off.

I stood. Blood soaked my shirt, turning it red. It was barely on my body at all, sheared into strips.

That makeshift sword that Pate wielded was buried in the ground, not to be lifted by him again.

I grabbed the handle and felt something come over me.

With this, I had the power to kill the exhausted boy in front of me with a few movements.

I held it in my hands, readjusting my grip a few times, as it was slippery from sweat.

“Heh… Sandbag, you finally gained a pair, huh? I guess I could call you Training Dummy now. After all, you’re still stupid. I’ve only just recently learned swordplay.”

His figure disappeared from where it was on the ground, and I was sent to that spot instead, sliding a bit on the slick floors.

I got to my feet slowly, rising up from the ground as I always do.

“Pate, that’s enough. It’s time for your lessons already. Don’t play with your toy so much that it breaks. I’m getting tired of his mother, so you may not be able to get another one.” It was Him again.

That bastard that happened to be my father.

My vision was blurry, but I gazed at him. With my eyes, I marked my target. Tens of cuts lacerated my body, my blood beginning to pool on the ground below me. But the man in front of me had taken my rage. All of my anger was focused on him as if looks alone could kill.

But there was a piece of my mind that was weak, desperately hoping he’d just turn and leave.

Don’t look this way.

I want to kill you.

Please, I’ll do anything, just don’t hurt me.

You bastard.

Leave, please…

Come over here so I can rip out your jugular vein. Seraphim… my ass,

“You’re just a monster, aren’t you? Using people as toys. I don’t belong to you. My mother doesn’t belong to you.”

Don’t listen to me. Just walk away!

“For people like you, there’s a special place in eternal torment. They relay the pain that you’ve inflicted, no matter how indirectly, at twice the sensitivity. I’ll be your doll. I’ll experience all the pain I can from your hands. Then, I’ll kill you, and let you see how it feels to die when your heart keeps beating.”

If my body had not been next to death’s door, I would not have been able to hold myself from rushing him right there.

There are very few things that could ever really get me angry.

But I was furious.

He scoffed at me, before turning and leaving, no other response to my words.

My mother ran into the room shortly after he left, her clothes ripped off and lashes covering her body, a white liquid dripping from between her legs as she rushed to my aid.

If he hadn’t been there, then that means that somebody else was conducting her ‘session’ today?

My mind had already broken, and my heart was bleeding dry.

Just another person to kill…

Once I’d woken up, I’d come to terms with what I just did, and hated myself for it.

Killing my own father? He’s still a person. I’d feel guilty for it eventually. Killing is a sin, after all.

So I decided to hold that memory within my head as I went down a different path.

“Mother, do you know any healing magic?”

I whispered to her. It was one of the few moments neither of us were being beaten at the same time.

“Your first words are to ask such a question?” Her voice was just as soft, ridiculing me lightly.

I smiled at her sarcastic words as I awaited her response.

“Yes, I know quite a bit about healing magic. Would you like to learn it?” She wrapped her arms around me from behind, sitting me on her lap, as if preparing to read a book to me.

“If you don’t mind teaching me.”

“Well then…”

I took her words to heart and learned everything about healing magic. Piece by piece, I adopted it. I was able to use it at will, healing bruises and other light wounds within minutes.

But that wasn’t good enough. I wanted to be able to repair my body instantly from any condition.

I wanted to be cut in half, and live long enough that I can heal myself.

So, once I had learned the magic, I’d gone on to practice and master it.

A year went by as I became the best punching bag ever, rising from the ground just as I did the time before. Each time, I healed faster, my mana learning the injuries and healing them more efficiently.

The rage I felt came back to me every time I saw them. It came over me like a cloak, and I wore my killing intent like a weapon.

But I didn’t attack. I needed a way to destroy them, instead of killing them.

So I gathered information. Fears, insecurities, the number of laws they were breaking.

I’d orchestrate their deaths without killing them.

All I needed to do was get away and get to the guards.

All I needed to do, at that point in time, was stop healing myself early. I was three years old and attending another ‘session’.

“Awww, already out of mana? Father must have ruined his toy more than usual today. I guess I’ll just have to stop early as well… Can’t be getting rid of my best stress reliever.”

I stayed silent, letting my blood flow out upon the ground. The wounds he inflicted were much deeper than when we began.

My ear pressed to the ground, I listened for when Pate’s steps were far enough away.

My mana rose up, stitching me into a single body.

There’s not much left…

I stopped a bit too late. If I’d stopped any earlier, though, there would have been a bit of suspicion.

My body rose up, ready to run.

My feet slammed upon the stones. Bloody footprints showed where I headed.

I stopped in the middle of the alley. I turned, before backing up against the wall.

My left arm began to drip blood, staining the wall.

Next, it was my right leg, the flesh slicing easily.

Then, blood spouted from my chest, spewing out past the blade onto the other wall.

I smiled, coughing up a bit more blood.

I took my knife out of my chest and healed myself.

For all intents and purposes, I just died.

Now, it was time to save what I could, by destroying the root of the problem.

I leaped across the rooftops, racing towards where I knew some guards would be stationed.

I kept my eyes open towards the wind, letting them tear up.

I grabbed onto the lip of the roof, swinging down into the deserted alleyway. Then, timing it as best I could, I ran out of it.

I slammed full force into one of the four guards that were patrolling the streets.

I looked behind me as if fearing pursuers, before looking up at the guard.

“Please, save my mother! She’s in that mansion, right over there! Please! I’ll do anything!”

The tears that coursed down my face were due to the wind, and running out, so I bowed down to the guards, hiding my face while continuing my act.

“Calm down boy! Slow down and tell us everything while we go there.” The female guard knelt down and tried to calm me.

I smiled, wiping my eyes as I righted my position slowly.

I told them everything, except for the fact I was related to them.

My brother was Pate. My father was named Orcus. My mother was Persephone.

I told of how I was used as a sandbag by Pate. How my mother was nothing but a slave to Orcus. I repeated some of the things he’d said to me and Pate.

It was a very long walk, so I had more than enough time to put it into detail.

“That… that’s horrible…” One of the male guards said.

“At least we can get him now, with all these crimes he’s piled up.”

I listened to the guards as they spoke badly of that man. His sins brought forth the rage I felt against him once more.

When we arrived at the doors to that mansion, Orcus opened them after a few gauntleted knocks.

He smiled at the guards, not seeing my figure.

“May I help you?” His voice was sickeningly sweet as if trying to convey innocence before he’s accused of anything.

“We heard that you’ve committed crimes against Anarta and its people. We’ve come to investigate if such claims are true.” The female guard was in the front, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword.

It seems even she was affected by my words. There was an unanimous hatred against this man.

“Where did you hear such ridiculous claims? I’ve rarely left my house for things other than shopping.”

The guard in front of me clenched his jaw as if to hold his tongue, while he drew his sword about an inch out of its scabbard.

“You don’t need to leave the house to commit the crimes you’ve been accused of. Now, let us in before we have to use force.”

Orcus narrowed his eyes at the female guard.

“What’s your name?”

“Jacqueline.”

“Jacqueline… I’ll remember that. Come on in, I’ll show you around.” He sighed as if having given up.

“There will be no need for that. The victim shall show us the scene of the crimes.”

He seemed confused for a second before I stepped into the house. The same house that I’d been held in for so long.

“You? I thought you died!” Orcus’s voice was incredulous, disbelieving his own eyes.

“I told you before, didn’t I? I’m finally making true on my words, Father.” I scowled at him as I began walking the path that I always had.

I felt as if I was going back and reliving those years. Every time, my broken body would walk this path, to hide back in that room, away from the pain.

A wall blocked my path. The room was just behind it…

He couldn’t have remodeled the house in just the time I was gone. This is wrong.

I walked through it, the wall disappearing behind me.

“What?! An illusion?!”

“Hiding things from the guards is another criminal offense, sir. Even if what we heard was wrong, you’ve just committed a crime.” Jacqueline notified Orcus, but his face was calm.

I walked forward and opened the door to my room.

My mother lay on her bed. Lashes… ruining her skin. Scars, just barely healed. An expanded stomach.

I turned to the people behind me. Four guards, my father, and Pate, who came running.

“I’ve been gone for one day. Why is she pregnant, when she wasn’t as I left?” My voice was quiet. A small rage, like a bowstring drawn taut.

Judgement…

“Did Pate want a new ‘toy’? Did you do this just because I didn’t play my part well enough?”

Sinful.

“Orcus. No, Father. Do you understand how much I want to kill you right now?”

The bowstring frayed, the strain too much to bear.

He smiled at me, a kind smile that told me only one thing.

JUDGEMENT!!!

“I call upon the Inferno.” Words sprang through my mouth, tears streaming down my face.

“At first, I wanted you to die. Just, cease to exist. But now?”

Mana coiled around me, ribbons of smoke drifting up.

“Now I want you to go through what you deserve.”

Rage filled my heart. I wanted to scream. I wanted to lose myself in it. I wanted to torture the man in front of me in the way that he tortured me and my mother.

“Judge.”

The mana that wrapped around me condensed into my hand, forming a book.

My heart stilled, becoming cold.

“Fifth Circle, Judged. Seventh Circle, Judged. Second Circle, Judged.”

Three rings appeared, beneath the guilty.

“You have been judged guilty. Do you repent for your sins?”

My voice was no longer one of a heartbroken child, who’d seen his mother’s tortured form. It was one of a judge, looking down upon two sinful bugs.

“You’re just a sandbag! It doesn’t matter how much you get beat up!” Pate scoffed, striking a pose.

“Pfft… That woman meant nothing to me! Why would I feel guilty about using her as I pleased?” Orcus was just as horrible, having no remorse.

Guilty.

Punish them.

“For the wrathful, you’re sentenced to ‘Revenge’. Take the injuries and pain that you’ve inflicted upon others, and hold them.”

Pate suddenly fell to the floor, holding his head and opening his mouth in a silent scream.

“For the Violent and Lustful, you’re sentenced to ‘Phlegethon’ and ‘Whirlwind’. As you’ve been swayed by lust, you shall be buffeted by the winds of a violent storm. As you’ve bathed in the pleasure of hurting others, you shall bathe in the waters of the Phlegethon.”

Orcus fell to the floor as well, numerous cuts covering his body as he seemed torn by sharp winds, while other parts of him boiled and burned.

“Justice.”

With that final word, I collapsed.

When I awoke next, it was in my mother’s arms, in an unfamiliar place.

“You’ve awoken, Sera! It’s nice to see you again!”

She cuddled me against her face.

I smiled weakly. I had a horrible headache and a throbbing throughout my body that wouldn’t go away.

Jacqueline stood to the side, a pair of things that looked oddly similar to handcuffs dangling from her hand.

“We’ve got to take the both of you in for questioning. To be safe, we have to put both of bonds.” She seemed apologetic, but she still seemed ready to run after us if either of us ran.

I held out my wrists, and she clamped the cuffs around them. My mother was next.

She literally just questioned us on what we were put through, so she could legally give the full punishment to Orcus.

After that, we were set free, from the questioning room and from the captivity of Orcus.

“So, where shall we go first?”

My mother asked me, and I simply looked up to her.

“Wherever we want.”

Namet

Born a Demon, I expected my life to be one of a discriminated race.

But, I was proved mostly wrong.

The city I was raised in was a mostly demon-full place. I don’t think there were more than two digits of other races.

Mostly because of the location.

The ‘Hellish’ races, Demons and Devils, were extremely resistant to all forms of heat, I’ve been told.

So, due to the city, I live close to the top of an active volcano, the heat that wafted through the streets was enough to bake cookies with.

Of course, it didn’t feel that way to me, but I did actually see some people on the streets with black pans and dough, baking right there.

It seemed to be similar to the tourist attraction of this place.

So, other than being a demon, I seemed to be born into a noble family with an appearance to uphold.

From the time when I could move, I started being ‘trained’.

My body was built up through constant work. I was taught skills with the family sword style, which happened to be a katana. (It surprised me too.)

My mind was expanded through many different tutors, teaching me all sorts of things. I learned to use my mana at the tender age of half a year old and was able to use it in daily tasks three months later.

When I’d turned a year old, I began sparring with my father, a doting parent that showed no restraint when it came to bending rules for me.

My mother liked to watch these matches, even though her health was getting worse.

Sometimes we had to end the sparring matches short to take her to her bed.

Although, the matches were short anyway. Swordfights do not take a very long time unless you are being taught. But my father moved his blade as if I was an enemy.

Generally, I moved through these things emotionlessly. I moved robotically, making my schedule habit.

It worked wonderfully, most of the times.

Once I’d become two years old, things began to change.

I was out in the yard, practicing my ten thousand swings, the sword in my hands probably over half my weight.

A step forward, the beginning of the downward motion. Foot hits the ground, the blade stops just before the pommel hits your waist. Raise the sword once more as you draw the foot back.

Repeat.

Up. Step. Down. Step. Up.

“Observe the environment as you swing!”

Step. Down. Duck, step. Up.

The stone soared over my head, crashing into the bushes on the edge of the property.

A new training method. Observation.

Step. Down. Step, duck. Up.

Another rock straight into the bushes.

A fox came rushing out, seemingly disoriented as it ran directly towards me. More accurately, it ran towards my sword, as if it wanted to get sliced.

I slowed the blade so that it wouldn’t hit the animal, and it slowed down as well.

So, you want to get hit?

Too bad.

I slammed my sword down into the ground, shearing through the loose dirt of the training grounds. The fox ran into the flat of the blade, taking no more damage than a little pain on its nose.

A girl rushed out of the same bushes as if she had jumped through them.

“Fenrir! Are you alright?!” She yelled out.

I know that name… isn’t it some mythological creature?

“Your fox is fine. I made sure it wasn’t hit.” I lifted the sword from the ground and rested it on my shoulder, being careful not to put too much weight on it.

“Ah, thank you…” The girl seemed confused, checking over the fox as if looking for an injury that should be there but isn’t.

By her movements… Something failed.

So, she wanted me to hit her pet?

“Why do you want it to be hurt?” I asked, tilting my head.

She looked up at me as if I had just revealed a huge secret.

“Why would I want Fenrir to get hurt!? I-I would never do such a thing…” She looked away, fidgeting. Totally sketchy.

She was Loki, of the nobles.

She would use her pet, Fenrir, a rare black metal wolf, to get compensation after having it injure itself from nobles.

“That’s pretty simple. Not even a really long and difficult plan to accomplish…” I muttered, listening to my father speak about her actions, the girl in question tied up next to me, tearing up while desperately trying to escape.

My sword balanced on the edge of the table, some constant pressure on the handle the only thing keeping it from dropping the blade downwards upon her head.

To keep her under pressure, and to ease my boredom from listening to my father speak, I lessened and greatened the pressure, leading to the blade rising and falling dangerously close to Loki’s head.

“So, Namet…” My father seemed sheepish, pressing the ends of his fingers while turning his head and glancing at me once every few seconds.

By his actions, something in me told me to move the sword, so I turned it over, leaving the flat of the blade tottering above Loki, instead of the blade. She breathed out a sigh of relief.

“How would you feel about getting a sister?” He slammed his table and blurted this out.

The sword dropped out of my control, slamming upon the shocked Loki’s head. She made a yelp of pain before curling on the ground, trying to hold her head, but being unable because of her tied hands.

I started, picking up my sword, and apologizing softly to Loki.

“Now then, what?” I asked my father.

“How would you feel about getting a sister?”

I thought about my mother’s condition.

“Are you sure Mother will be able to handle that? She might die.”

My father took a second to process my words.

“What?” I asked, seeing his confused expression.

“No, it’s just that’s not what I was talking about.”

“Huh?” I thought for a second, glancing down to the girl on the ground, “Oh. That’s what you meant. Yeah, sure, why not?”

I thought only of the Pros and Cons of taking her in as a sister. My emotions were dulled as I thought of it.

In the end, I decided that it wouldn’t be bad to take her into the family. She’d stop causing people trouble, so it wouldn’t cause trouble later on, no matter how small that chance would have been in the first place.

I’d get some experience in taking care of somebody as well, something I’m sure I could use later on in life.

And that’s how I ended up with a sister. She ended up the same age as I, with her birthday just a month and a half before mine, technically making her the older sister.

“It’s time… to… WAKE UP!” Loki yelled as she leaped upon my stomach, waking me up quite thoroughly.

I coughed for a moment, curling up to protect my organs.

“Ah… I’m so glad I got training to strengthen my body… That may have just killed me otherwise…” I sighed, half joking.

“Breakfast is ready!”

This little girl showed a grin at my reaction, baring fangs gleefully. Her ram’s horns prodded my stomach a little bit. They were almost in line with her nose at the tips. After making sure I was awake, she got up and ran out to the kitchen.

It’s been almost a year since then, and Loki’s gotten pretty accustomed to everyone in the family. In fact, I’d say that she’s basically fitting right in. It’s as if she was always here… without proper thought, I’d forget that she wasn’t.

I wonder if that’s just her trait, or if it’s a form of aura?

“Mother!?” I heard her scream.

Indeed.

This was the time when I became aware of my ‘detachment’.

My mother, Arachne. She’d cared for me as much as possible, loving me even though she was weak and dying because of me.

I should have realized it by then, for I didn’t really care about any of that.

But now she’s lying on the floor, blood coming from her mouth, Loki kneeling over her with tears falling from her eyes.

The thoughts running through my mind are those of disbelief.

You got attached that quickly? How did you even manage?! You haven’t even been with her for a year, and half that time she’s been in bed! Sure, you had more time with her in that time than I’d have had in the past year, but still?!

There’s no reason that you should be crying over her. She’s my mother and your foster parent. You shouldn’t even be that attached to her.

I realized the severity of my thoughts and paused.

Shouldn’t I be the one crying right now?

Instead, no tears dripped down my face. I watched the scene in front of me, my mother dying, my older sister crying over her, and my father yelling and screaming for somebody to help.

But I stand here, leaning against this doorway, with an empty feeling in my heart.

And I inspected that.

This feels… familiar… I’ve felt this way in my previous life, before, too. I had just strangely gone through a period of gray, where everything seemed to be deadly boring and I didn’t care about anything I should’ve. I’d diagnosed it as shock just now, but I guess that may’ve been wrong.

Perhaps my reincarnations are all pieces of who I once was? Who I acted like?

Personalities? Ah, well, I didn’t have multiple personalities, so I guess they would be my Personas.

Something within me clicked as if telling me that I was correct.

I felt proud of what I’d accomplished and fought the smile that was threatening to come to my face.

Smiling at a body growing cold is not a thing many people are praised for, after all.

My mother died that day, and the family went into mourning for a week. Well, I was an exception from that. Instead, I thought of my personas, as I’d taken to calling them, and how I could end up meeting them.

I thought of my previous self.

I’d taken many forms and shown many sides of me to the world.

How many of them were taken out and shown here, in this world?

Was my rational side, full of self-restraint, here?

Was my truthful side, unable to lie, here?

Was my Fun side, searching for nothing but what he wants to do, here?

Who was I, and which one of the thirteen that came here is the one who is really me?

Even that number, which appeared so randomly, and came up so naturally, didn't bother me until quite a bit later, where I wondered why I came to it.

These thoughts took my mind and occupied me for a very, very long time.

“Namet… Do you not care about your mother dying?”

Loki asked me one night, sitting next to me on the bed.

I wondered, for a second, about what I should tell her. I decided, only a moment’s worth of hesitation, to tell her the truth.

“No. I can’t say I do.”

She looked up to me, her eyes glistening in the soft manalight that hovered around the room.

“Why don’t you care?”

“Why should I?”

“Because your mother just died! She gave birth to you!” She gripped my arm and began to cry. I reached over with the other one and pressed her face to my chest, really beginning to think about what she asked.

“I don’t know… I guess a few pieces of me are missing. I wouldn’t say I don’t care, so much as I’m not sad. It’s strange. If nothing else, I’ll be here for you to cry on.”

I whispered in her ear and held her as she cried. I didn’t feel my heart stir from being in contact with a pretty girl. I simply went back to thinking about my other pieces.

Eventually, she’d fallen asleep, and I carried her back to her bed. I’d taken quite a while to decide to do so, though. It would have just been easier for me to take her into my bed. The walk was a pain.

But I decided that it would be better to let her wake up in her own bed and be able to reassure herself, if she needed to, with the thought that it may have been a dream.

After that, I went to sleep myself, after a few hours of thought.

The next few days I got very little sleep, having to comfort Loki nearly each night, as she was seemingly unable to fall asleep without crying herself there.

So I made true on my promise and held her as she cried, before carrying her to her own bed each night.

If nothing else, I guess it worked my legs out?

I’m not sure if I’d say that nothing happened before I turned four years old, considering the aftershock that my family suffered from, but I found nothing important lingering in my memory afterward, so it couldn’t have been that bad.

I resumed my training and found it easier to do with each passing day.

As I went to school, when I was home, I would be taught sword techniques, as I was told by my father.

So, I simply waited for my body to develop, relations to break or reinforce, and time to pass.

Eventually, I’d be able to go to school without too many problems.

Kijo

I don’t know who I am.

My first memory is that of pain.

Knives digging into my flesh, tearing holes in my body. Careful carving, making sure to get the shape right. My blood flowed to the floor in steady streams.

Then, something was rammed into the wounds, full of a strange power. It flowed into me, leaving veins dyed black as it passed down my bloodstream. It set it afire, my wounds healing to incorporate the things that occupied where my flesh used to be.

I screamed out, my voice hoarse and pained.

Every time I spasmed from the pain, another part of my body would be pinned to the wall behind it, most likely with some form of a large nail.

The ground beneath me was dyed red. The men that tormented me silently worked, their eyes glistening each time they managed to fit another piece of that something into my body.

Eventually, the pain faded, and I was left with a numbness. I counted each wound I received, each time something was inserted into my flesh.

A hatred burned within my heart.

A thought burned within my mind.

The power burned within my veins.

My mana burned through my skin.

And I calmed down, waiting to harness the fires.

56 pieces carved out of me. 56 things inserted into my flesh, sending more of that power through me.

Without a shirt on, my arms and torso were covered in my veins, stained black. My heart looked like a vortex, sucking in whatever it could devour.

And now, the last wound. I lay on the table that once held the instruments they used to carve, my arms held down by the two men who eagerly looked at me as if I was something that would grant their wishes.

The third man carefully laid a large stone on my legs, effectively pinning them down while causing me pain.

But my mind had gone numb, so I felt no need to scream.

He carefully filled something with a liquid looked similar to lava, without any of the black cooling parts.

As it filled it, I realized what it was. It was a masterfully made bowl of obsidian, about the size of my thumbprint.

I was confused, to say the least.

The liquid came to a slow stop, and the bowl was filled.

He looked down to me, moving the bowl in his hand so that it was on his palm.

He gripped the pitcher that held the rest of the lava in his other hand and smiled down upon me.

Then he slammed his palm upon my left eye, destroying it as it was replaced with the bowl.

I screamed, resisting against the two men and the stone block to flail about.

The man above me grabbed my jaw and held it where it was, before pouring the rest of the pitcher into my mouth.

I felt the liquid course down my throat, burning me.

The bonfire inside me came alive.

I’ll let you feel what I’ve felt.

I’ll let you taste what you’ve really done to me.

You’re the one who turned me into this monster, after all.

The last drop of liquid landed on my tongue, and I began to smile.

The power raged inside of me, waiting to be released. My mana lashed about like a whip, fuelled by my thoughts.

“Now then, Listen to my orders.” The man in front of me said, taking the block off my legs, while the two let go of my arms.

For a moment, the storm inside of me calmed.

But only for a moment.

I don’t remember anything after that.

Blood covered the floors, three bodies on the ground, unmoving. Each of them was covered with many cuts, all across their corpses.

The skeleton, wrapped in a black mist, standing in the doorway, only spoke one word.

“Kijo…”

I smiled at it.

“Hello there. Do you think you could possibly explain why I’m here?”

The skeleton was a she. Achelois was her name, and she was the last of the Thirteen Heroes from a few tens of thousands of years ago.

She told me how she saw what happened.

A monster, obsidian embedded into his flesh, standing victorious over three men, each with wounds that made it obvious that they were tortured before they eventually died.

His left eye glowed with an ominous light, seeming to stare deep through her.

Then, he opened his mouth, barely visible in the darkness of the room.

“Hello there. Do you think you could possibly explain why I’m here?” He asked.

A monster. This power… I know it. It’s the power of a Vepha. It’s even stronger than the Vepha queen that was killed.

She went on guard, marking my existence dangerous in her mind.

I waited for an answer but received none.

Looking down upon my body, I looked much older than a newborn.

“I seem to have a bit of lost memory. Do you know where my parents are?”

Achelois stood, on edge, before seeming to relax. The skeleton wasn’t really showing any expressions, but it was easy to tell through her other body language.

“Your parents are dead. I managed to come by at the right time and hear their last words, the location of this place. I tried to save you, but I suppose I was too late…”

Her voice was muffled, trailing off as she surveyed my body’s shape.

I was misshapen, those crystals they shoved into my flesh pointing outwards, coating me like armor.

I stepped towards her and watched her take a stance.

“Stop. You’re filled with Vepha mana. It’s probably influencing your thoughts. If you come too close, you’ll probably lose yourself to it.”

I reached within myself and prodded about for the mana she was talking about. It was the power that came from my… shards.

It wrapped around me, and I did feel it toiling about in my mind. But instead of making me want to kill, it suppressed those desires that ran rampant in my mind. It was doing the opposite of what Achelois said.

A good monster’s mana?

Whatever the case, it’s fine. I’m sane. I’ll make sure nobody gets hurt without them needing to.

I’ll be the type of hero that befits a reincarnator. Summon me or no, I’ll save this world as the hero that it needs.

I struck a noble pose as my thoughts drove me to.

I sighed, putting my head in my hands as I brought my body back to attention. Then, I went against Achelois’s advice and stepped forward towards her.

“I’m fine. No need to fear me. I’m in control. Sane. Whatever you wanna call it. Released a bit of pent up emotion on those guys over there, but it’s fine now, isn’t it?”

I got to know the skeleton. She was the last of the Thirteen heroes, and she remained in this cave, just outside the main city down here.

Apparently, I’d been missing for two years, and Achelois had a lot of trouble getting to me. I don’t quite understand how she’d managed to believe that I’d still be alive after two years with those three, who like to cut open children’s bodies and fill the holes in with substances that were from the very monsters that killed nearly any other life form it saw, but she did.

And, even more surprisingly, I was. Not only that, but I’d managed to free myself just as she found me.

No matter how much I pried, though, she wouldn’t tell me anything more about my situation, how I managed to be alive, or anything of the sort. She constantly avoided it by saying that she didn’t know, but her turn of the head whenever I asked made sure that I kept doubts.

Another thing, she never let me go to the city with her.

She said that it would scare the people there since I’m basically a monster by now.

So, every once and awhile when she went into the city to get groceries or information, like quests or such for money, I explored.

The sky was tinted red, a mist hanging far above. Most of the plants here were reddened instead of green, something other than chlorophyll keeping them alive.

One time, on one of my excursions, I met up with a strange man.

By then, I was already four years old, two years having passed in the blink of an eye.

“Oh, who are you… What are you?”

He seemed to have no guard, but I could see small distortions in the air around him, a sign of his mana moving through the air, unseen.

“Just a traveler?”

“Why is that a question?”

“Because I’d like you to tell me if I’m a traveler, duh.”

“Then, I’d guess you aren’t.”

“Why would that be?”

“Well… Perhaps the fact that you’ve got a Vepha’s mana coursing through you.”

“Ah, fair point. I forget about that a lot, recently. Perhaps I’m becoming accustomed to being sane?”

His mana became visible, whirling about him like a flurry of blades.

“I must say, it’s not good for Vepha to wander the paths that Adventurers take.”

“For they shall be killed? Or is the adventurers you fear for? The latter, I shall not act upon. The former, however… I will protect myself if need be.” I growled at the man, letting a bit of my mana escape me, to calm my mind even more.

He must’ve not taken offense, though, as he made no moves to attack.

In fact, he let down his guard.

“You… you’re not being controlled by the Vepha mana, are you?”

“And if I told you that it’s the thing holding me back from killing you, how would you respond?”

“Mana from the most vicious creatures on this planet, holding you back? I’d laugh if I’d not heard it from somebody else.”

He withdrew his mana, drawing it back inside himself.

“Nice to meet you, Kijo. I’d like to bring you into my school.”

My thoughts stopped, and I blasted all of my mana away from me. I was completely calm.

“Now then, explain.” I looked up to him.

He was the headmaster of the Race-Equal Magics School, Aka: Rems.

Taking me into the school would be an experiment, and a favor to Achelois, who he owed more than just a few favors too.

So, to paraphrase it, I would be able to become a student at this school, Achelois would be able to become my teacher, and I’d be granted a single wish.

My wish?

At that moment, a voice boomed across the world.

“To all children who are signing up for school next year, the admittance fee will be withheld. If you’ve already paid, you shall get a full refund.”

“Now then, is that good enough?” The man asked me.

“Yes, it is. See you at school in a few months.”

End