Chapter 1:

-----{POV: Elysia}-----

The evening after we had safely escaped from our old home, I sat against a tree, brooding. My plans had fallen apart completely after only a single day of walking. Anna, appearing not to notice my mood, was busy cooking dinner for both of us.

My stock of supplies would last us approximately four days, but unless this world is unusually rich in gold, we should be able to settle down someplace quite easily once we reach civilization. Judging by past conversations, it takes just over a week to travel from the nearest town to the estate by horseback. Assuming a travel time of 48 kilometers per day by horse, the distance we have yet to travel is still another 360 or so kilometers. Thanks to me and this fragile body, we're barely covering fourteen per day. ...We'll starve long before we reach town.

We didn't really have a whole lot of options available to us. I could probably scavenge some extra food for us, but there was a massive chance that we would be poisoned in the process; I had no clue what any of the plants or animals on this world tasted or even looked like. For all I knew, there were invisible, flying, pink hedgehogs that breathed acid.

I need to make a construct. Dammit, I hate those things.

Constructs are incredibly useful, but usually only for mundane tasks. Since I could only form them out of ice instead of more durable materials such as earth or steel, anything I made would inevitably melt. Perhaps I should make a frostcore? ...Too much power use, I'd die in the attempt. I guess I'll have to make do with rebuilding it every few hours.

Getting up and walking a short distance away, I got to work.

-----{POV: Anastasia}-----

Staring at the retreating back of Elysia, I was... worried, to say the least. I'd been concerned about Elysia's underdevelopment practically her entire life, but recent events had forced me to take another look at her.

To begin with, while she had shown some interest in my expertise with magic before, she'd never once asked for me to teach her or even how it worked. She just seemed to accept that it existed and was satisfied with that. Despite this, she'd somehow obtained a teacher, and one who could pass in and out of the estate without being noticed. ...And they managed to make her skilled enough to use mental commands.

I shook my head, quietly getting up to follow Elysia. That isn't possible; learning the basics of magic should have taken quite a lot of work, and she just didn't have that much free time.

...Of course, there was another possibility, one that terrified me. It was common knowledge that certain darkness elementals could gain the ability to occupy sentient vessels. Usually, they could only occupy those with an affinity to their own element, but... what if, much like people, some spirits possessed an affinity to more than one kind? In this case, darkness and water?

This could explain her tendency toward ice instead of normal water; while light magic often generated heat, dark absorbed it. If a dark spell was powerful enough, it could certainly freeze any nearby water solid and interfere with combination spells.

And then there was her talent for manipulation. Reviewing my memories has caused me to realize one thing: every time she wanted something, she's managed to get her hands on it. Provided, many children were able to do this to their parents, but not once had Elysia failed.

On that note, she's acting completely different now. If I were an occupant of the body of someone else and I wanted to stick around for a while, what would I do?

...That didn't take even a second to figure out, and the answer made me start shaking. Convince my vessel to act in a manner most beneficial to my survival while making her rely more and more on me. Oh, gods.

Elysia was crouched over a large, circular sheet of ice, slowly turning it by hand whilst scratching in a massive, complicated string of runes.

...What on earth is that? That's far too complex to produce anything useful...

Stupidly puzzling over trying to decode it, I didn't notice Elysia finishing it. I only noticed she was done when light began gathering in the center riiight about the same time that Elysia abruptly collapsed.

While my priorities may be rather skewed at times, stopping ones child from falling and sustaining injury is a skill that all parents need to pick up, and, sprinting forward, I managed to catch Elysia before her head impacted hard ground.

Cradling her in my arms and trying to make sure she was alright, I, once again, didn't pay attention to my surroundings. After determining, with quite a large measure of relief, that she only suffered from a minor case of magical overload, I looked up to find an... abomination... staring at me.

A twisted cross between a scorpion, spider, and some other creature loomed over us Each fluid step left a tiny stab-mark in the forest floor- an impractical design, I vaguely noted. At that rate, the tips of each leg would quickly become dull and worn down.

The construct had ten legs, a pair of pincers in place of a proper mouth, and one pointed tail, making it perfectly symmetrical. Each leg was long and sharp, giving the illusion of being a walking set of blades rather than any living creature.

Faced with an abomination worthy of belonging in one of those dreams where you wake up screaming, I hunched over Elysia and promptly, well, started screaming.

-----{POV: Eldon}-----

I hate the country. I thought gloomily, trudging along with my eight-year-old son, Sederick- who, of course, was taking advantage of his fathers misery, completely ignoring all the various little bugs in favor of climbing onto my shoulders. Sed's mother, Yolonda, had insisted that we go out to visit some godforsaken estate in the middle of nowhere, but did she even bother to give us some means of transportation or even a beast of burden? Of course not, that would be too expensive. Instead, I get stuck carrying the entire load on a half-month journey.  I couldn’t even shrug any of it off on Sed to try and build some of his muscles; I’d either have to give him my backpack or halberd, and both were much too heavy for him.  ...But since he’s on top of me anyway, I suppose it doesn’t matter.

I'd known that she was obsessed with the idea of her son being a mage for quite some time, but this was plain out ridiculous. Oh, and let's not forget that this “Alexander Torthal” reportedly kept slaves, an utterly barbaric practice and something that was on the verge of being outlawed here in Subhine. I'm not going to lie; I had no idea what came over me when I married Yolonda. Okay, she’s beautiful and was quite good in the sack, but she's always so angry...

“Daddy.” Sed said sternly, tugging lightly on one ear. “No gloominess allowed! It's a wonderful day outside~. The birds are happy, so you should be, too!”

...Coming from someone with a heavy affinity toward air and possibly enough power to become an expert magician, I don't really want to hear it. Confining these rather rude thoughts to the inside of my skull, I put on my best fake smile. “Oh, all rig- owwwwwww!”

“No!” Sed yanked one ear, tilting my entire body to the side and almost forcing us both to collapse. “You're faking it. Stop it and be happy.”

“How is papa supposed to be happy when you're causing him intense pain!?”

“You'll manage.” he said shortly, letting go and permitting me to regain my balance. There were times when I was forcefully reminded of his actual age, no matter how mature he tried to act...

“Now, I'm going to keep yanking on your ears until you learn to appreciate all nature has to offer. The birds are singing, it's a wonderful day outside, and you're standing there feeling sorry for yourself. Knock it off; life isn't going to wait for you to realize how amazing it is. Stand up straight and enjoy the time you have.”

...And then I occasionally had the strangest feeling I was talking with an old friend as opposed to my own son. Where did he even learn to spout most of this stuff...?

“Again, how am I supposed to stand up straight with you riding on my shoulders? You're kinda demanding the impossible, kiddo...”

“...Fair point.” he acknowledged, and, without warning, let go of me and intentionally jerked backward, falling off my shoulders. My heart skipped a beat as I desperately tried to catch him, but of course, he avoided my arms, executed a flip, and scored a perfect landing on the road, spreading his arms wide.  Looking closely, I could see that his once-brown hair now had a few extra white hairs in it… Isn’t growing those my job?  As if it wasn’t enough to take up my time, he’s taking even that from me…?

“Ta-daaaa~”

When my heart finally decided to start beating again, I picked up Sed by the shoulders and met him in the eyes. “Could you please stop doing that!? One of these days, your leg is going to get caught in my backpack strap, or you'll slip, or-”

Our “happy” father-son bonding time was forcefully cut short, as so often seems to occur when I'm trying to lecture my son, by the sound of a female screaming. Unlike the usual shrieks of rage Yolonda seemed to produce whenever anything didn’t go her way, this seemed to be one of pure fear.

...What was that?  We should be the only ones in the woods…

On the off chance that it wasn’t a spirit trying to lure us to our doom, I took off running toward the source of the sound; one simply doesn’t ignore a cry for help, even if they do have a child of their own to look out for.

“Stay here!” I pointed to a nearby tree, not slowing down in the slightest; I had the feeling he was going to ignore me, but Sed’s powers had proved quite reliable when it came to self-defense, even if it was just brute force right now.

After what seemed like an eternity (but was probably only half a minute), I arrived on the edge of a large clearing…

...And spotted a creature from my dreams.  As in, the ones where I would always wake up feeling very, very vulnerable and afraid of squirrels.  The thing appeared to be made of solid ice, although at first glance, one would think that only an utterly insane sculptor would carve it.  Sporting two pincers, a thorn-like tail, 10 sharp icicles for legs, and yet another set of pincers in place of a mouth, it stood at about a hundred centimeters long and half that in width.  What concerned me was the part where it loomed over a young elven woman curled up into a ball.  ...Upon closer inspection, her hunching seemed to be a deliberate attempt to shield a child beneath herself.  

Crouching down and picking up a sizable rock, I threw it towards the… scorpion?  ...not expecting to do any damage, but mostly for the intent of drawing its attention.  If it was a construct as opposed to merely an angry water spirit, this would be effective; if it was the latter, well... I would be dead anyway, so no use worrying about it.

“OI!  Over here, you oversized bundle of nightmares!”  ...Crud.  I let my inner thoughts show through there.  Do not show fear, do not show fear, do not show fear!

To my surprise, instead of merely alerting it to my presence, the rock actually managed a solid impact, taking out three of the legs and shattering the right pincer.  At the moment of impact, it began to turn, showing those annoying mechanical reflexes that no living being could ever hope to match; after less than a second, I was faced with a charging construct intent on separating my head from the rest of my body.

Attempting to slow it down, even if by only a moment- I didn’t want that thorn of a tail anywhere close to my body- I swung my halberd in a wide arc, expecting to take out a few more legs and, hopefully, render it immobile.  It was weird enough that it could continue to operate after almost half of its legs had gone missing, but if I could destroy enough, it would be completely incapable of movement- or so I hoped.  A truly sadistic mage could, of course, have given it the ability to fly when all the legs were destroyed, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Unfortunately, it dodged my swing with ease, climbing on the side of the blade and sawing off the pointed end before hopping off again and skittering directly toward me. Jumping back, I quickly realized that this wasn't the creation of some novice mage; it moved like a living being, and had the axe been alive as well, it would have just been decapitated. This would, obviously, kill it.

Switching tactics, I swung once more from a side angle, flipping to the flat of the blade at the last moment so that it caught the “scorpion” and knocked it away, shattering several legs, cracking the main body, and rendering the left pincer permanently shut.

Without being fazed in the slightest, it began fixing its balance as soon as it hit the ground. Immediately after, said downright demonic little thing started scuttling around on only three legs, not appearing excessively hampered. Although I'd managed to heavily restrict its mobility, as long as that tail remained intact, it remained perfectly capable of impaling me.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Sparing a brief glance at the mother and child huddled beneath a nearby tree, I had to wonder what, exactly, they'd done to have the most exceptionally annoying construct I've ever encountered sent after them.

The construct and I maintained a standoff for several seconds before, in an unusually anticlimactic turn of events, it was torn to shreds by a converging mass of wind.  Ice scattered everywhere, but at least now none of it was sharp enough to deal any actual harm, and the cold hail felt pretty good in the hot, excessively humid summer air.

...What…?  Looking around, I spotted Sed with an upraised hand, glaring at the main body of the now-most-certainly-dead construct.  It didn’t even take a moment to determine he was the one responsible; several dozen more of his hairs had turned white.  When he seemed to realize I was staring at him, he shrugged and put on his best innocent smile.  ...I wasn’t fooled.

Didn’t he always insist that all of his uses of magic were instinctual?  That spell was directed, carefully controlled, and most certainly not the work of a total beginner!

Refusing to meet my gaze, Sederick started to fidget.  “Well, father was taking much, much too long, so I took matters into my own hands.  I may have lied just a teensie eensie bit when I said I was operating only on instinct- but don’t tell mother, please!  My teacher will go away if you do that…”

I continued to stare, wondering what the point of this trip was if he already knew the basics of magic anyway.  Couldn’t we have just stayed at home…?  Sed started hopping from one foot to the other, and, in a clearly desperate attempt to focus my attention elsewhere, pointed to the completely-forgotten victims of the construct.  “Why are you focusing so much on me when they might be hurt?”

While I was annoyed by his attempts to dodge the topic, he did raise a valid point.  “...We’ll talk later.”  Putting my horribly mutilated weapon away, I crossed over to the elves cowering at the base of a nearby tree…

...And looked into the eyes of the single most beautiful woman I have ever met.

-----{POV: Sederick}-----

My name is Sederick, surname currently Lycan, and I have died five times.  I started off as an ordinary clerk, not even a mage, and pretty much just sorted papers until I died.  The art of magic, while it existed in that reality, was said to be the domain of warlocks and evil sorcerers; as a result, my large amount of magical power ended up being completely useless.  It was horribly boring, and when I was killed as a result of several warring countries, I was left wishing for another chance to redo it all.  Literally; my dying words were a request to any god listening to let me have a redo.

Lo and behold, instead of waking up in an afterlife and dealing with either extreme boredom or extreme chaos, I found myself in a blank white room  and began speaking with a black-haired teenager.  He explained to me about the unique nature of my soul and all I’d been left thinking was that someone had seen fit to grant me my wish.  Over the course of the chat, I’d also learned that Gate was an incredibly kind individual for letting me reincarnate into whatever vessel I felt like.

...Or so I thought, at the time.  I’ve spent a large amount of time with Gate, and in the time since, I’ve come to the conclusion that he is a lying, manipulative bastard.  He told me that I was “unique”, but whenever I asked if there were other reincarnees, he either avoided the topic or outright lied to my face.  At first, I’d assumed that he’d been forced to as part of his duties- if several souls with the ability to keep their knowledge across lifetimes banded together and figured out a way to travel as a group, they’d be able to terrorize multiple realities from the age of four, and nobody would take the threat seriously.

Chatting with him after my fourth death, however, led to us referencing events that had happened to me; just before my soul was sent to my next life, I realized something very, very important.

Since he didn’t have to judge my soul, no information should have been provided to him about my lifetimes.  The only times he should have seen me were from the memories of others or between lives.  Instead, he knew about all but my most private moments, and in detail, as if he’d been watching the entire time.

After my last death, acting on a hunch, I headed over to him and questioned why, exactly, he was spying on me.  In addition, why had he lied about there being other reincarnees?  With the tax in place, there wasn’t much threat of them banding together and turning into reality-terrorizing super-soldiers.  Finally, after much dodging of the topic and failed attempts at lying to me, he finally gave me a bright, sincere smile.  His answer, although short, angered me an unbelievable amount...

What did he say?  “Because your struggles amuse me.”

Back to the present, I suppose.  Leaning against a tree, I regarded father and the as-yet-unnamed elf woman with amusement.  As they stared into the eyes of one another, seemingly oblivious to the world, I could practically hear the angelic choir singing; I think this was the first time I was viewing the phenomenon known as “love at first sight”.  So, like a good and loyal son, I began to determine father’s odds.

The red mark around her neck is probably due to a collar, and given as there is only one estate in this direction, it isn’t too unlikely to suspect they’re just escaping from said estate.  That construct, while utterly useless against any area-of-effect spells, is pretty much the perfect hunter for dealing with unskilled civilians.  Since it was sent after them, it doesn’t appear that their owner is going to be wanting them back, and given as this area is all-but abandoned, it’s a bit of a stretch for someone to come to the rescue just in time to save them.  Conclusion: no pre-existing opponents for her hand, and if we’re careful, everyone will believe them to be dead.

On the emotions end, she just had her life saved, as well as that of her daughter, from a terrible abomination by a metaphorical knight in shining armor.  Her reaction to finding out that he’s married may prove rather amusing, but hopefully…

My internal monologue was interrupted by them actually speaking, and I halted my analysis, interested in their conversation.

“Are you alright?  What’s your name?” dad asked anxiously, coming back to reality.  Yuuup, he’s smitten.

“...I’m fine.  My name’s Anastasia, but everyone just calls me Anna.” she replied reluctantly, then appeared to come to the conclusion that now would be a good time to do something no male would ever willingly do.  “Do you happen to know the way to the nearest town?  We’re a bit lost…”

Hmmm.  Asking for directions right off; poor dad, looks like his love will remain forever unrequited.  Probably for the best; even if my mother is extremely selfish and full of flaws, I’d probably lose some respect for dad if he cheated on her.  I’ll admit I was rather disappointed; just when dad almost escaped from Yolonda’s clutches…

“Indeed, and since my son over there invalidated the entire reason for us to be heading along this route anyway...” Eldon shot a glare in my general direction, promising me vengeance for his lost time. “...We can escort you there.  What of your daughter?  She’s not moving, and that has me rather worried.”

Anna seemed to tense up significantly when her child was mentioned, and she immediately hugged the girl closer to herself.  “She’ll be alright, she just has a bit of a fever and fainted when that thing showed up.”

...She’s telling the truth, but not telling us the whole truth.  Narrowing my eyes, I tried to take a closer look at said daughter.  Unfortunately, my view was blocked by Anna, so I couldn’t even determine how old she was.

“...You can stop covering her now.  I’m a father, too, so I get that you want to shield her- but the danger is past.  Anyway, the town is two weeks away, so I’ll rephrase my question: would you mind if we came with you?  I don’t know the full story or why an assassin-construct was attacking you, but it’s simply not safe to be travelling with a sick child.  I don’t bite.”

Anna looked like she’d take quite a bit of convincing, which I had no interest in helping with, so I elected to ignore that for now and crouch down to look at the child she held in her arms.

To my surprise, I discovered that it was a petite, blonde-haired, pale-skinned girl about my own age.  She looked for all the world like she’d break at the slightest touch, but that was probably just in my imagination. ...If she survives until adulthood, she’ll have men lining up to propose to her.  Even I’m having to resist the urge to swear fealty and drive off all the barbarians suitors with a sword...

On the health aspect of things, her fists were clenched, her face was red, and she was breathing heavily, but it didn’t look like she was in any actual danger, as such.  Scratches littered her body, but those were probably just from travelling in the woods for a few days without proper attire.  I didn’t see any sign of the supplies they’d need to survive for a few weeks in the wilderness, either.  Between her and her mother, why, exactly, did someone want to go through the trouble of killing them as opposed to just bringing them back?  They’re clearly not prepared for…

I stared at the small number of barely-noticable silver hairs among the mass of blonde.  Oh.  Oohhhhhhhh.  Well… that certainly explains how an assassin-construct that fragile was in such good condition.  I can’t let her go, so time to make them realize we’re no threat in the most entertaining way possible.

“Daddy, is Anna going to be my new mom?” I asked innocently, barely managing to contain my grin as the victims people in question turned crimson.  Both of them are getting embarrassed, hmmm?  Looks like dads infatuation isn’t entirely one-sided...

-----{POV: Anastasia}-----

Although I was pleased to have been rescued from that thing, I was starting to doubt that it had intended us any harm at all.  There was a good thirty seconds or so from the time I noticed it and when help arrived, and given how quickly it had moved before, it was perfectly capable of killing us both.  Instead, it just stood there, as if waiting for orders…

And yet, said construct was still the source of my current concern.  Elysia hadn't been outside of the estate before this week, and most of the woodland animals couldn't get inside the wall. The closest thing to claws had been a pair of garden shears, and I doubted she would associate them as a viable weapon.

...I was positive; her reference to 'practicing with friends', her double-sided nature, and finally, the construct. The first two could be dismissed as an external influence from someone managing to teach her in secret or being a genius, but that abomination should have taken decades or even centuries of experience to create. It simply wasn't something an 8-year-old child could do, and I'd been watching carefully; no physical teachers materialized to guide her through the process.

My daughter was possessed, and I hadn't the faintest idea what I was going to do about it...

Authors note: There has apparently been some concern that reincarnees (henceforth referred to as “wanderers”) are basically old men and women in the bodies of children.  While true, each of those currently in the same reality as Elysia died at an early to middle age, and once they’d learned that they could just come back whenever they died, they mostly ceased in their acquisition of wisdom.  ...It doesn’t help that they have a tendency to die fairly early.  This has led to some very, very strange philosophies, which I believe will become quite blatant later on.

So, no.  The only major pervert among the ones currently assembled is Nero; while he isn’t a pedo, he imagines most children he looks at as what they’ll probably look like when they grow up.  He’s even worked to make sure that they fulfill or exceed his expectations in the past.  He does have the time to wait, after all, and since his “lifespan” spans centuries and may continue for eternity, he’s quite patient.  ...Which, let’s face it, is plain out creepy.

Note #2: Yes, using magic slowly changes the hair (and eye, but  that’s a separate set) color of the user to the color matching their element.  Air and water users get the worst deal, as they’re stuck with white and silver, respectively; while this looks quite good on many people and may even be treated as exotic, it practically screams “I’m a mage!  Attack me first!” at the top of its lungs.

Chapter proofread by Curvinho and Fangtooth.