For a child’s bookshelf, mine had way too many books in pristine condition. I suppose Dylan didn’t enjoy reading. But I’d just finished memorizing all of them with my skill, so I could confidently say that I’d read all the books in the room.
I noticed one thing while using the ‘Immortal Journal’. It’s that I didn’t need to activate the skill to remember information saved in it. So, I only needed to activate it for saving information, and there was no loading process to worry about. In some sense, it was like having an eidetic memory but in the form of a skill, though the latter would not need a saving session either, I presumed. I once read in my past life that people with an eidetic memory could even count the number of raindrops falling on the road. My skill was nothing compared to that.
I spent some time tidying up the books. I didn’t care about making a mess when I was getting the books down, so I climbed my way up the shelf as I pleased. But I couldn’t do that as easily while trying to keep things pretty. While I was wondering how I could put some of the books at the top, two hands picked me up and raised me as high as the bookshelf. I was surprised, to say the least, to discover that Robert was the one holding me.
“How long have you been there?” I asked in my astonishment.
“It’s been a while,” Robert chuckled. “And you’ve read more books today since the day we bought them for you.”
I laughed sheepishly as I put the books back on the shelf. “I just suddenly felt like seeing the pretty pictures. I still can’t read the books,” I lied. It would’ve been too alarming for him to hear that I learned to read in just a few hours.
“No, you still can’t read the words, but today you read the pictures. If you keep on reading the pictures, you’ll eventually be able to read the words too. It’s the interest that’s important.”
Those were some wise words. “I’ll do that,” I responded.
When I was done putting all the books back where they were, Robert placed me on the bed and sat next to me.
“I just came by to tell you that we’re moving. Your mother and I have decided to take you to a new village. It’s a nice place, and you can make new friends there.”
“Is this because I got sick?”
“It’s because we let you get sick. First, you got a head injury from who knows where, and then you got afflicted with mana poisoning of all things,” said Robert. He genuinely looked worried as he explained, so I felt a little guilty for knowing all about it from eavesdropping earlier.
“I don’t think it was anyone’s fault,” I responded.
“Even if you say that, as parents, it’s our responsibility to keep you safe. Not doing that makes it our fault,” said Robert. “You’ll understand when you’re old enough and have kids of your own.”
“If you say so,” I shrugged. “So, when are we leaving?”
“We’ll leave later at night. Your mom is already packing, and she’ll pack your stuff too. We’ll be traveling light, so we can’t take too many things. If you really want to take something with you, just put it on your bed. Your mom will come by later.”
“Okay.”
Robert gave me a pat on the head and got up to leave. As he went downstairs, I thought about the secrets they were hiding. Mom said she betrayed the church she belonged to, and that she did it for a humane cause. But still, I didn’t know what happened exactly, and it seemed like my parents wanted to keep it that way.
I didn’t really have much of anything to take with me. I looked around my room to see if I wanted anything. I ended up looking at the worn-out book on the shelf again. It was the story Mom probably liked the most, and I enjoyed hearing her retelling as well. So, I placed the book on the bed.
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While Dylan was in his room, wondering about the journey ahead, Maria was going through her own belongings with Robert, who was helping her move things around.
“How long do you think we should stay with him?” asked Maria. She spoke while holding her robe, the one from the church that banished her. It made the meaning apparent, and the question all the heavier.
“As long as we need to,” replied Robert.
“It can’t be forever. You know they’ll find us again.”
“I know. But we can’t just leave him so abruptly.”
“That’s why we should decide how long we’ll stay with him,” Maria reinforced and continued, “If we don’t, then we might not even have the heart to part ways.”
“Then, how about six years?” asked Robert. “On his tenth birthday, we can admit him to the knight’s academy.”
“And where will we go? Have you thought about it?” Maria inquired.
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“I haven’t thought about that yet,” Robert responded with a dejected look. “We’ll figure something out in these six years.”
“And what will we tell him?”
“That we’re going on a secret mission. Or maybe something else. I don’t know. Anything that keeps him focused on his life.”
“Sorry. I know you’d rather stay with him,” Maria said in an apologetic voice.
“Don’t be,” Robert assured her. “I agreed with you, didn’t I? We’re doing it for him.”
“Yeah. We are. I’ll need to remember that,” Maria responded with newfound courage.
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I couldn’t sit still till night, but I also wasn’t allowed to go outside with the recent events, so I spent my time trying to train a new skill instead. I thought I’d try picking up a throwing skill or something. I kept ‘Immortal Journal’ activated. But even after my hundredth throw with a paper ball that I mashed together, there was no notification of a new skill. Yeah, the last one was a fluke. Certainly, it couldn’t have been that easy.
I got tired a lot after doing that, so I ended up just lying down and resting for the remaining time. Mom came by while I was resting but we only exchanged pleasantries. She seemed to have a lot on her mind, and I’d already learned as much as I could hope to have learned, so I didn’t pester her any further. She had a smile on her face upon seeing that I wanted to take the book with me, but she didn’t say anything to me about it.
Later at night, a horse carriage was waiting for us outside and three of us got our things together for the journey. It didn’t pile up to anything much, and Robert used a dimensional ring to store our things away. That made me wonder why we didn’t just take everything.
“Why don’t you just put everything in the ring?” I asked with clear curiosity.
“Dimensional rings have a limited storage space, you see. I got my hands on this one through quite a bit of struggle, and it wouldn’t fit everything we own,” responded Robert.
“I see,” I responded half dejectedly. “It’s still quite amazing,” I added.
As we climbed up, the coachman got down to activate a skill on the carriage itself. I was wondering what was happening, so I asked Robert. He said it was for covering our tracks. Apparently, there are plenty of skills that can hide your trails in this world, and Robert had specifically arranged for a coachman who had the skill to ensure our safe getaway.
When the carriage started, some memories of Dylan playing around the village started coming back to me. Some of them were nice, some of them not so much. Though Dylan has thought of them as friends, my memories as Hugo didn’t let me feel any attachment for the people who’d bully me, whether intentionally or not. Maybe it was because I was quite used to dealing with people leaving my life. It wasn’t anything new to me.
Throughout the journey, I was very curious about how our trail was being erased, and as I looked, I realized that any changes the carriage was making to the environment were soon returning to their original state.
My parents enjoyed seeing me awed by the skill’s effect. That was probably because I had developed a natural aversion to skills due to my ‘no attribute’ situation. But that was not the case anymore though. I now had two skills that I unlocked alongside the Obligation System, as well as a new skill that I acquired with the use of ‘Immortal Journal’. It’s not a bad start at all.
We passed through some borders after about an hour or so. Mom told me that we were going to the neighboring country. It was also a human country, and Robert had already prepared new identities for us. Wow. He’s quite resourceful. I also wondered if I’d be able to do such things if I became an adventurer.
I assumed it was because of the skill from before but no one was aware of our trespassing. We also avoided the gates and used more dangerous paths to move around the forests. I could tell they were dangerous because I noticed wild beasts moving about. They couldn’t notice us either and instinctively avoided us for some reason.
“Notice how the monsters aren’t attacking us?” Robert spoke to me suddenly.
“Yeah. Is it because of the skill that coachman uncle activated?” I asked.
“I activated three skills back then,” the coachman suddenly said. “One for removing our trail, one for invisibility, and one for making a sound barrier.”
“Wow!” I expressed my wonder aloud.
“So, even though the monsters can’t detect us, they feel a slight aversion to where we are,” Robert explained. “That’s because, to them, this place feels like a void. They’re just being cautious from their instinct.”
“It’s not perfect,” the coachman added. “If we were to bump into one of them, they’d be aware of our existence right away.”
“Is that why you’re driving so carefully?” I asked him.
“That too, but mainly because we need to steer clear of any traps. Even though my skill can cover our tracks, it only works in the natural environment,” he explained.
“So, if there are any traps on the way, particularly traps set by someone’s skill, it would give our position away,” added Robert.
“You have a lot of interesting skills, uncle,” I said to compliment the coachman. “Is the carriage fare very high?”
Everyone laughed at my innocent question. I am genuinely curious though.
“It’s up there, and it’s good business for me,” said the coachman. “But this time around, I’m doing your dad a favor, so it’s free of charge.”
“I can’t thank you enough, Ric,” Robert said to the coachman, who’s apparently called Ric.
“I’m just repaying my debt to you, Robert,” he responded.
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Meanwhile, in a well-lit room somewhere in the capital, two men were sitting across from each other. On the desk between them, there were some documents scattered about. One could see the names of Robert Everhart and Maria Everhart.
“Why didn’t the last attempt work? I thought it was perfect,” said the first man with an imposing voice.
“Apparently, the maid poisoned their son instead,” said the other.
“They have a son? Why isn’t it in the files?” asked the first man with visible anger.
“This was the first time we spotted him. And with the queen’s orders, we can’t really do anything up front,” the second man sheepishly responded.
At this time, there was a knock on the door. “Sir, there’s an update.”
“Come inside,” said the first man.
“Sir, the Everhart family is missing from their residence,” the man who looked like a butler informed.
“Didn’t we have people on the lookout?” the first man asked.
“They have already been executed for their poor performance,” the butler responded.
“Hmph,” grunted the first man. “They got off easy,” he said as he turned to the man sitting across him. “Find where they’re going, or it’s going to be your neck this time.”
“I understand, Sir,” the second man said promptly.
“Now get out, both of you,” commanded the first man.
They both bowed and left without another word. With them gone, only the first man remained in the room. He looked at the papers on the table with a glare that could kill. After a while, his eyes calmed down, and he covered up the papers in a single file before getting up from his desk. On the top of the file, there was only one word – “CLASSIFIED”.