“Icefall City doesn’t even have that many shops,” I complained. “How did the four of you manage to buy so much stuff in so little time?”
I carried several dozen boxes in my arms. They weren’t that heavy, but there were so many of them, and they were all small, that I had a hard time keeping hold of them. In the end, I had to use my mana in order to keep the whole pile from falling apart.
“Don’t worry, Elder Brother,” Kaylee said, giving me a sharp smile. “We’re only going to a few more shops. We should be done some time within the next…” She paused to think it over. “…four hours.”
I stared at her in despair. Corie smirked, while Lorelei covered her mouth to hide her smile. Annabelle didn’t even bother hiding her amusement. She just started chuckling.
“Sorry, babe,” she said in English. “Your mother’s orders. She told us to buy as much stuff as possible, and make you carry it all.”
I turned to Leroy, who walked beside me.
“Leroy-…” I started to say, but he shook his head.
“I apologize, young master,” he said. “Lady Sturm’s orders. I’m not allowed to help you in this matter.”
“It’s your duty as my disciple to aid your Master,” I said to him in a low voice.
“Are you going to take responsibility for what happens if I disobey Lady Sturm?”
I paused, before hanging my head.
The six of us were in Icefall City. It was late morning, almost noon. While Crafter’s Row was the street where all the magical artisans and crafters plied their trade, Icefall City also had a mundane shopping district. Most of the shops there were for the common folk, but there were a few that catered to the minor nobles and wealthy merchants that lived in Icefall City. While the selection there wasn’t great, especially when compared to the shopping available in Sunheart, that didn’t stop the girls from spending a small fortune and making me carry all of their purchases.
It was a week after my conversation with my mother, and my conversation with Annabelle, and it had been a busy week for me. In addition to cultivation and training, I also had to devote time to teaching my disciples. Under my guidance, all three of them reached the second small realm of the Energy Condensation stage.
Lorelei and Corie used the mana cores from their starting kit, and some of their mana stones, in order to progress this quickly. Not only that, but Corie also decided to share some of her resources with Leroy, so he wouldn’t fall behind. Leroy rejected her offer at first, but she was quite insistent. When she saw what her friend was doing, Lorelei tried to do the same for Corie.
This turned into this weird argument where my disciples were fighting to give each other cultivation resources, which was the reverse of what usually happened. Back on Spirit Earth, disciples often argued with each other to acquire resources, not give them away. Sometimes they even fought duels for them.
In the end, I stepped in to resolve the issue. Since both Lorelei and Corie didn’t want their fellow disciples to fall behind, I took one mana core from each of them and gave them to Leroy. He objected, but I told him to shut the fuck up and accept the gift. If he felt that strongly about it, he could go hunt some magic beasts and pay back the debt.
To prevent impurities from building up in their bodies, I had to teach my disciples the various methods of getting rid of said impurities. They were all time consuming, but necessary to create a stable foundation. This was why I preferred to get rid of the impurities beforehand.
As for the mana stones, I left those alone. Lorelei and Corie objected, but I told them that Leroy didn’t need as many as they did. Since I was personally teaching him the basics of the Celestial Sword Style, and he kept getting insights from it, his progress wasn’t that much slower than theirs, even without the mana stones. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do the same for them since I didn’t specialize in the Sky Breaker Style or the Path of the Archer Style. I had just memorized the manuals for them.
I also explained to them, and Annabelle, some of the things my mother told me, about cultivator society on Lumina. While I left out the personal stuff, like how Father and Mother met, I told them the rest. They were surprised to find out that a secret society of cultivators existed here on Lumina. My disciples found this a bit disturbing, while Annabelle found it exciting, because of course she would.
Because of this, I warned them to be discreet about their activities. Coming from me, it sounded hypocritical, but that didn’t make my advice any less valid. At least most of the stuff I did could be explained as secret magics of House Sturm. Well, except for the talismans. It looked like I wouldn’t be able to use those as a source of income anymore. I just hoped that the ones I did sell wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass someday.
I also spent some time with my family. Well, most of my family. Kaylee was upset with me for the way I spirited away Annabelle, and she hadn’t forgiven me for it yet. In fact, when Annabelle and I had returned to Sturm Hill Hall that day, we learned that Kaylee had locked herself up in the room she shared with Annabelle.
Mother was upset with me about that at first, but after Annabelle and I explained the situation, she realized that I wasn’t the only one to blame. She still flicked my forehead in punishment.
It felt good to see my family again after so long. For someone with the memories of an Immortal, a few months should’ve been nothing to me. However, it felt like an eternity.
Roland was a joy to be around. He was just this bright ball of sunshine that lit up the world around him. It made me even more anxious about the possibility that he might be married off to House Icefall.
As for my parents, things were a little awkward between us. While they didn’t treat me like a stranger, they realized that I wasn’t the same Gabriel Sturm that they knew before, and it would take them a while to adjust to the change. Still, they made the effort and so did I.
Kaylee avoided me as much as possible, which made things difficult to work things out between us. We needed to have a conversation, to clear up any potential misunderstandings and dangling threads between us, but it was hard to have a conversation with someone who kept avoiding me. Not only that, but I had to compete with her in order to spend time with Annabelle.
The two of them had become close friends in a short amount of time, and I still felt bad about what happened to Kaylee, but that didn’t mean I would let her just monopolize Annabelle’s time.
Thankfully, the woman in question managed to help balance things out. More than once, she played mediator between my sister and I. Of course, whenever I tried to turn the conversation towards more serious topics, Kaylee fled the scene.
As for Annabelle, she was also busy. Aside from spending time with Kaylee, she also devoted herself to her own cultivation and training. She focused on her wizardry, but she also spent time with the cultivation manual I wrote up for her. As I promised, it took less than a day. When she first tried it out, under my supervision, it worked better than I had expected.
A part of me had been worried that I was wrong about the perfect cultivation technique for her, but my worries were unfounded. At the rate she was going, it would take her a mere three weeks to form her dantian; slower than me but faster than my disciples. It helped that both Kaylee and I convinced our parents to let her use the meditation chamber.
Given how busy we both were, Annabelle and I didn’t have a lot of time to spend together. Still, we made the effort to see each other at least once everyday. We ended up spending our evenings together on the roof of Sturm Hill Hall. It was the only place where we could enjoy each other’s company without one person or another interrupting us.
There were times, however, when I saw a lost look in her eyes or caught her with her mind wandering. While she brushed it off whenever I asked, I could tell that she was still coming to terms with the fact that she had the soul of a Ghost Phoenix Lily. As she said, it was a hell of a bomb to drop on someone.
Other than that, Annabelle and I spent most of our time together chatting and simply enjoying one another’s company. Not that I minded. Many people underestimated the value of simply talking with their beloved. Still, I wanted to give Annabelle a proper courtship. That meant going out on at least one date before she had to head back to Thorne Manor. I knew it was just a matter of time before her family showed up and started making trouble. Until then, I wanted to spend as much time with Annabelle as possible.
I even contemplated cutting back on the time I spent on cultivation, though I decided against it in the end. The more powerful I became, the better. House Thorne was strong, but once I reached a certain level of power, there was very little they could do to stop Annabelle and I from being together. While I would prefer it if they didn’t interfere, I would prepare for every possibility.
I even started repairing my Second Circle. Since I didn’t want to break through to the Second Rank of my body cultivation technique, at least not until I received the storm dragon blood that Tempest owed me, I spent that time repairing my Second Circle instead.
It was a delicate process. While I could now dedicate more of my divine energy to the task, thanks to my current cultivation level, it would still take me about two months to repair my Second Circle. However, when I did, I would be able to start forming threads again. This would take time and energy away from spiritual cultivation, but that was the price one paid when practicing multiple forms of cultivation. The time and energy required to advance increased significantly.
To this end, I made plans to go into seclusion after Annabelle and my family left, and after my disciples didn’t need me to keep a constant eye on them. When I returned to Sturm Manor, I wanted to be at the Second Circle and the Second Rank of body cultivation. If at all possible, I also wanted to be in the Foundation Establishment stage. However, I didn’t know if that would be possible, considering I didn’t plan on staying in seclusion for long. Even so, I would still make significant progress in my cultivation.
During this week, I refrained from examining my mother with my divine sense. She told me that she wanted to think about it, and I respected her decision. However, it was obvious to me that she wanted to become a cultivator again. Not only that, but I wanted to wait until Father agreed to my plans. While I wasn’t sure that he would accept, I hoped he would. So, I waited.
My chance came yesterday. Father and Mother had met with House Icefall the day before, to finalize the alliance between our two Houses. They kept most of the terms the same, though they somehow managed to convince Lord Icefall to increase our share of the mythril deposit to six percent without marrying off Roland. I would’ve liked to have seen that happen.
Afterwards, my parents let me know that they would go ahead with the first part of my plan. House Sturm would become a cultivation Clan. It was a course that came with many risks, but also many rewards. I left it up to my parents to explain things to Kaylee, since I wasn’t her favorite person at the moment.
After that, I took some time to examine my mother, so I could create the perfect cultivation technique for her. I found the remnants of her former cultivation. From what I saw, she had created a solid cultivation base for herself before Great Grandfather Gabe unraveled it. Studying it gave me ideas for her cultivation technique.
To my surprise, I also found traces of magic beast blood coursing through Mother’s veins. To be specific, the blood came from some kind of cat spirit beast with an affinity for Fire, though I couldn’t tell what kind. Its density was even thicker than the storm dragon blood running through my veins. This meant that my mother had some kind of magic beast ancestor, and a relatively recent one too.
When I asked Mother about it, she told me that she couldn’t reveal Clan Leone’s secrets, which was an answer in and of itself. The weirdest part, however, was that I found no traces of cat magic beast blood within myself. Would it be the same for Kaylee? If so, why? Was the storm dragon blood in our veins just that powerful? It was possible, though I didn’t know for sure. Strange.
Of course, things went wrong for me around this time. It turned out that my parents took this opportunity to set up a trap. While I examined Mother with my divine sense, Father created wards to prevent me from escaping the room. He even warded the windows. Since I was busy at the time, I hadn’t noticed.
After I finished examining Mother, and discovered what had happened, my parents told me that it was my turn to open up and tell them the truth. To my dismay, they hadn’t forgotten about the lightning bolt that hit me during the battle with the Black Wolf Gang. They had just waited until I let my guard down to question me about it. Well, it was more of an interrogation.
Facing pressure from both of my parents, and with nowhere to run to, I had no choice but to tell them the truth about the lightning bolt. Well, most of the truth. I left out the part where I died, and met with Master Tempest. Instead, I told them that I had been seriously injured, which was true, and I heard Master Tempest’s voice asking me to become his Chosen, which was also true.
My parents, understandably, had trouble believing this, until I revealed Master Tempest’s mark. It took them a few minutes to process that. Father, in particular, needed a few minutes. Afterwards, we discussed whether or not I should reveal my status as a Chosen. I wanted to wait until an opportune moment came along, while my parents wanted to use my status to explain how my Circles were restored. I mean, a divine being did fix them, that was true.
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In the end, we decided to play it by ear. Until then, we would pretend that my Circles had been merely damaged, not shattered. As for the storm dragon blood that Master Tempest promised me, I would keep that as a surprise for now.
Still, Mother punished me for keeping the truth from them by ordering me to accompany Annabelle and Kaylee when they next went out shopping, which was how I found myself in my current predicament. Unfortunately, Lorelei and Corie decided to join them, increasing how much stuff I had to carry.
“Mercy,” I pleaded after we left the fifth shop for the day. “For the love of all that is holy, mercy.”
The pile of packages went above my head now, and I had a difficult time trying to balance them all. The worst part was that I couldn’t store any of them in the House Sturm carriage, which we rode into Icefall City. As part of my punishment, I had to carry the girls’ purchases until they finished shopping.
“Why, Elder Brother,” Kaylee said in a faux innocent voice. “Don’t tell me that you’re unable to carry a few simple purchases?”
Few simple…?
I looked around the pile of packages in my arms to glare at Kaylee.
“Then why don’t you carry some of them?”
“I’m not the one being punished by Mother. You must have committed a serious offense to anger her so.”
I looked at Annabelle, and gave her a pitiful look. She snickered, before putting a hand on Kaylee’s shoulder.
“I think we should give your poor brother a break,” Annabelle said. “And stop.” She paused. “After one more store.”
I resisted the urge to groan. If it meant an end to this hellish torture, then I could endure one more shop. Carrying the packages around wasn’t the worst part; it was the waiting. Shopping bored me out of my mind. I could not fathom how anyone could find it fun.
“Why should we?” Kaylee asked with a smirk. “This is supposed to be a punishment for Elder Brother. Besides, I’m enjoying the time we’re spending together, Lady Annabelle. I get to have you all to myself without…” She glanced at me as she said this. “…interruption.”
My disciples stood off to the side, watching everything play out. They looked vastly entertained. At least someone was happy about this situation.
“I could always head back to Sturm Hill Hall myself,” Annabelle said. “While I enjoy teasing Gabe, I don’t actually enjoy making him suffer. He looks like he’s at his limit.”
I mouthed the words “Thank you” to Annabelle. She flashed me a smile, before kissing me on the cheek. Kaylee scowled, before looking away. Since neither of us had really bothered to hide our relationship at all, Annabelle and I decided to tell everyone that I was courting her. This way, we could act affectionately with each other in public. Only my parents knew that our relationship was more serious than that.
Courting Annabelle without House Thorne’s blessing was a faux pas, one I was sure they would give me trouble for, but I didn’t give a damn. I wasn’t going to pretend like I wasn’t in love with her. Besides, the more we acted like a couple in public, the harder it would be for them to get in our way.
“Fine,” Kaylee said with a pout. “One more store, and then we can head back to Sturm Hill Hall.”
“You are graciousness personified, Kaylee,” I said.
“Hmmph.”
Kaylee stuck her nose in the air and walked away. I let out a resigned sigh.
“Don’t worry,” Annabelle said in English. “She misses the way things used to be between the two of you, but your actions hurt her. Give her time. She’ll come around.”
I resisted the urge to let out another sigh.
“I trust you,” I said, also in English. “It’s just that I find it difficult to believe what you’re saying. With the way she’s acting, I wouldn’t be surprised if she hated my guts. Every time I try to talk with her, so we can work things out, she avoids me like the plague. It’s a little disheartening, I’ll be honest.”
Annabelle patted my shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “It’ll work out in the end.”
“I hope you’re right.”
The rest of our group followed along as Kaylee headed to the last store for this little shopping expedition. While the girls joined her inside, Leroy and I waited outside. Since I wanted to take a bit of a break, I put the pile of packages down, using mana to prevent any of them from falling off.
“Why do you put up with this, young master?” Leroy asked. “You could have refused to go along with Lady Sturm’s punishment. I doubt that she would have made a big deal of it. Even if she had, you could have found a number of ways to avoid it. So, why?”
I gave him a sideways glance.
“Do you know why she’s punishing me like this, Leroy?” I asked, calling him by his birth name since we were in public.
He shook his head.
“It’s because I refused to tell her about what happened with the lightning bolt that struck me, back when we fought the Black Wolf Gang.”
Leroy’s expression darkened.
“I see, young master,” he said. “I still have a hard time believing what happened. I was there when that Great Horned Wolf struck you. Your body…” He paused, before shaking his head. “…you should have died. It’s a miracle that you’re still alive.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong there. A literal miracle was the reason why I was still alive.
“Mother knew even less than you did,” I said. “All she knew was that a bolt of lightning struck me, at least until I told her the truth. I caused her a lot of anxiety by hiding it from her. This is her way of relieving that anxiety. To answer your original question, I put up with it because I love my mother and I am a filial son. If this helps her, even just a little, then I’m willing to endure a whole lot worse.”
Just before Leroy could reply, a voice called out to me.
“Excuse me, young man,” a decrepit voice said. “Could you spare some coin for a feeble old beggar?”
I turned towards the source of the voice. It belonged to an old man who was huddled in the alley next to the shop. He was little more than skin and bones. Filthy rags covered his thin frame. His skin looked like old leather, tough and weather worn. A hood hid his face, leaving it in shadows.
Nothing stood out about this old man. He looked like any old beggar that could be found on the streets. There was nothing remarkable about him, except for one thing.
I hadn’t detected him with my divine sense before he spoke out.
After the Great Horned Wolf almost killed me during the fight with the Black Wolf Gang, when I made the mistake of narrowing my focus too much, I made sure to keep a better eye on my surroundings. I hadn’t detected that old man at all before he revealed himself. One moment, the alley was empty. The next, the old man was sitting there.
Due to my current cultivation level, I limited the strength of my divine sense to avoid damaging myself. The problem was, I didn’t actually know what that limit was. I knew that it hurt if I pushed myself too far, but that was it. I didn’t know how strong my divine sense was. Range was easy to figure out. However, without anything to measure it against, it was harder to figure out the strength of my divine sense.
I could see through the Great Horned Wolf’s human disguise, so I guessed the limit of my divine sense exceeded the Third Circle.
Whatever my limit was, this old man’s power exceeded it. Otherwise, there would be no way that he could sneak up on me like this. Not only that, but I couldn’t see his face, even with my divine sense. It remained shrouded in shadows.
Huh. Someone actually managed to get the drop on me. That hadn’t happened ever since I regained the memories of my past lives. The Great Horned Wolf didn’t count. That was my own fault. This old man, on the other hand, sneaked up on me despite my efforts.
As soon as the old man spoke up, Leroy stepped between us, as if to shield me from him. I didn’t bother telling him that it didn’t matter. Neither of us was strong enough to stop the old man, should he prove to be an enemy.
Where the hell did he come from? Aurora asked, lifting her head out of my dantian.
“Leroy,” I said, not taking my eyes off the old man. “Go and buy several days worth of food. Make sure it’s stuff that will keep well.”
This caught Leroy off guard.
“Young master-…” he started to say, but I cut him off.
“Just do it.”
After a brief moment, he nodded and headed off to buy some food. When he was gone, I walked up to the old man and crouched down a few feet away from him. Even at this distance, I couldn’t see his face.
Gabe, this old man is giving me a funny feeling, Aurora said. You should be careful.
‘I will.”
“Giving you coin would just make you a target,” I said out loud. “The streets of Icefall City are safer than most, thanks to Lord Icefall’s efforts, but crime still exists here.”
“Thank you for your kindness and consideration, young man,” the old man said.
I studied him as he spoke. While he looked like a feeble old man, and my divine sense said the same thing, my intuition all but screamed at me that he was dangerous. Not necessarily a threat, but still dangerous.
Who was this old man? What did he want from me? He called out to me for a reason. Why?
“What’s your name?” I asked, figuring that I might as well start somewhere.
The old man shook his head.
“My name doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’m just an ordinary old beggar. I’m nobody important.”
I gave him a sharp smile.
“I very much doubt that,” I said. “Ordinary isn’t the word I would use to describe you. You managed to sneak up on me and my bodyguard. Who are you, really? What do you want?”
I could feel the old man’s eyes on me, even though I couldn’t see his face. They seemed to stare deep into my soul. I knew he hadn’t, because I would’ve seen his reaction, but it felt like he had.
“Perhaps you simply didn’t notice me, young lord,” the old man said, his voice less decrepit than before. “Few of your status would pay attention to an old beggar like myself.”
I took out one of my magical daggers, turned, and threw it behind me. It sank into the alley’s other wall. A fly, now cut in half, lay twitching on the ground. I stood up and walked over to pull my dagger out of the wall.
“I’m very perceptive,” I said, facing the old man again. “If you hadn’t wanted to catch my attention, you shouldn’t have seemingly appeared out of nowhere. If you had done that, I wouldn’t have noticed anything amiss. The question is, was that intentional on your part, or a sloppy mistake?”
Once again, the old man fell silent and studied me.
“You’re more perceptive than I expected, Lord Gabriel,” the old man said, with no traces of decrepitude left in his voice. In fact, if it weren’t for his appearance, I wouldn’t have thought that he was an old man.
“It’s one of the things I’m good at,” I said, though I winced when I remembered how the Great Horned Wolf caught me off guard. Having a powerful divine sense didn’t matter if I didn’t use it properly. That was a mistake I wouldn’t let myself live down for a long while yet. “I repeat, who are you and what do you want?”
The old man shrugged.
“As I said. I’m nobody important.” The old man tilted his head. “Perceptive you may be, but you are also lacking in wisdom. You took a risk by confronting me like this. What if I am an enemy of yours?”
“If you were an enemy,” I said. “You would have already made your move.” I shrugged. “Besides, given how powerful I suspect you are, there wouldn’t be much I could do if you decided to act against me. Since that was the case, confronting you directly was the most expedient way to get information.”
The old man made a gesture, as if conceding the point.
“Fair enough,” he said. “In that case, I’ll just say that I’m here to observe. After all, it isn’t every day that you meet someone who had their Circles restored.”
I narrowed my eyes at the old man.
Gabe, I don’t like this, Aurora said. Who is this old man, and what does he want with us?
‘That’s what I’m trying to figure out.’
“Observe all you want,” I said, out loud. “But leave the people I care about alone. Otherwise, I will make you regret it.”
The old man let out a laugh.
“You aren’t strong enough to threaten me, little kitten,” he said, his voice laced with amusement.
My left eye twitched. Little kitten…?
Despite the situation, Aurora giggled in my mind.
Sorry, but that was too funny, she said. I couldn’t help myself.
“For now,” I said, ignoring her. “You never know what will happen in the future.”
The old man laughed again.
“Definitely lacking in wisdom,” he said. “I like you.”
“The feeling isn’t mutual.”
“I didn’t expect it to be,” the old man said with a shrug.
Leroy returned at this point, with a little sack filled with food. He handed the sack to me, and I handed the sack to the old man.
“Consider it a gift,” I said.
“Thank you,” the old man said, sounding like he meant it.
He looked to the south.
“Interesting,” he said. “It looks like things are going to get a little lively around here. I definitely made the right decision in coming.”
Before I could ask what he meant by that, the old man vanished. One moment he was there, the next he was gone. Even my divine sense couldn’t detect him. Either he used some kind of spatial spell or technique to leave, or he was very good at concealing himself.
Leroy started when the old man disappeared, and put his hand to his hilt.
“Where did he go?” he asked, looking around.
I shrugged.
“I don’t know,” I said, before raising my voice a little. “Whoever he is, I hope he stays out of sight.”
There was something about the old man that irritated me, though I couldn’t figure out what.
I looked south with my divine sense, reaching the limits of my range. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, but I kept looking anyway. The old man saw something, likely with his spirit sense. Since I couldn’t see it, it meant that his spirit sense exceeded either the strength or range of the limit of my divine sense. Or both.
I learned the answer to that question, when something entered the range of my divine sense. It was an airship, a small personal craft rather than the larger ones favored for warfare or the barges designed to carry hundreds of passengers. Well, small was relative here. It was about the size of a large yacht back on Earth. And like a yacht, this airship looked expensive.
It was small, sleek, and luxurious. It was the kind of craft someone bought when they were rich and wanted everyone to know it. A status symbol, though an armed one. Three enchanted ballistae adorned the airship, each with the destructive potential of a Third Circle wizard, giving the small craft a surprising amount of firepower.
When I saw the man who stood at the deck of the ship, and felt his aura, I understood everything.
“Let’s go get everyone else,” I said. “We need to head to the city gates.”
Based on the airship’s trajectory, it looked like it would land right at the gates of Icefall City. That made sense. There weren’t many places for an airship like that to land inside the city itself, even for a craft of that size.
Leroy, who still looked a little bewildered by the old man’s disappearance, raised an eyebrow at me.
“Why, young master?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
“The representative from House Solaria has arrived,” I said. “And we don’t want to be late in greeting him.”