by Andur
In hindsight it wasn't strange at all. He visited the Academy against the wishes of his parents and couldn't count on their support. He lived off of his studentship alone and if a commotion had happened and he had lost it he would have been forced to leave the Academy.
I may really have to try to apologize to him. If that's even possible after all the time in the Academy. Waah. He will never forgive me for that even if I tried in all earnestness.
How should I know that he had almost no contact with his parents besides being trained to death in a dark training room? But Violetta's story about her youngest brother still makes me sceptical.
Her father just emphasized that Ascathon was a monster. In which way? How can a ten year old instil such a fear in a grown man that he starts to vilify his own child?
Shouldn't he have been happy to have a son with outrageous talents? But when I look around at what he accomplished in this world I have to admit that I was a sloth in this reincarnation.
I leaned back and hoped that I would achieve happiness by simply living from one day to the next. It didn't work out in the end. And now I even have a slave-ring attached to me.
That means no magic! What else can I do? Medicine? Biology? Martial Arts? Nothing which would be helpful in my current situation against those muscle guards.
Maybe I could deal with one of them by crushing his marbles but the others would get me for sure. They have the habit to run around in groups. And whenever I come close to a window they are there. It's like they are smelling me!
No, first I have to find a way to get rid of that slave-ring. Or to find a way to work around it. Let's see. The ring activates when I start to manipulate mana. But how does it discern that I am consciously manipulating it and …. hmmm.
Does it react to my outer magic system? That means if I am just using my inner magic system I am fine? But it's unbelievably hard to use just one magic system alone. It's like moving just one segment of my finger while holding the rest completely still.
I still try it and my mana gets immediately sucked away.
Sigh. This might call for quite a bit of training.
“Can I help you, Mistress?”
I jump at a rough voice directly behind me and turn around. One of the big burly guards is towering behind me. How did he get there? Sneaky bastard!
“~Hahaha.~ I may have lost my way.” Then I realize his usage of the word mistress! “AND I AM NO MISTRESS!”
The big guardsman snorts. “I am Den. I am the captain of the guard. You ended up in the guards-barracks while -loosing your way-. Follow me, Miss ~no mistress~. Should I call you slave instead if you prefer that status? I will lead you back to Ascathon's quarters.” The big guardsman turns and walks away.
I quickly catch up to him. What does he think who he is? Did he think I was lying? “These are barracks?” Can't be! Those were really high quality living rooms.
“Ascathon is paying very good in exchange for our service.” A small smile rushes over Den's face.
“I see....” I follow Den who is towering at least three heads above me without further words. When we arrive back at my quarters we find Liandra and Violetta there.
“Sis! We need you.”“Brother isn't doing well!”
Both of them run up to me and grab my arms. They start pulling me towards the staircase.
“What's wrong?” I follow them up the stairs and along the corridor towards a roomy bedroom. Is this Ascathon's room?
“Brother is sick! Look!” Violetta runs towards the bed and crouches down on the floor. She is pointing under the bed.
I go to my knees and take a look myself. H.. Holy shit! “Why are you down there!?”
“Ff....Fuck off!”
Ascathon is under the bed with a pale face and pearls of sweat on his forehead. He is shivering with his whole body an is hugging a pillow.
Den takes a look under the bed beside me. “A shitty night again?” He talks to his master in a very casual manner.
“Ccc.c.c Count on...it.”
“Is he doing that often.” I look towards Den.
Den shrugs his shoulders. “Now and then he has nightmares. Freaks him out like hell. He will get better. Just takes him a while to recover.”
“That can't be caused by a mere nightmare!” I point under the bed. “A mere nightmare doesn't cause ague.”
“Does it have something to do with the dead prisoner in the basement master? You intended to interrogate him last night.” Den looks under the bed again and asks something outrageous.
“Mam..m.. Magical...b...backlash...just...t..time.. will be fine!”
Then the puzzle-stones fall into the correct order and form a picture of the situation.
“ARE YOU AN IDIOT!?”
I scream and start to crawl under the bed. “Magical backlash and a dead prisoner! Were you in his mind when he died?! That's dangerous! It's like receiving a huge shock or trauma. You could get a circulatory collapse from that!”
Then I grab his hand which is cold like ice and start to pull.
“Ii....I...said Fuck! Off!”
Ascathon doesn't seem to be happy with the thought of me helping him and I consider to let him freeze and die under the bed. Could be a fitting end for my -master-.
But suddenly I am grabbed at my feet and pulled out from under the bed while pulling Ascathon with me. Den decided to lend a helping hand.
Literally -one- helping hand. He pulled both of us out with -one- hand.
Ascathon is still shivering in a foetus position with his pillow while Violetta starts to pat her brothers shoulder. “He will be fine?”
“Sure! If he doesn't cool down too much and gets a heart attack! Can you put him into the bed please?” I look towards Den who follows my order.
A minute later we have the big baby in his bed with a sheet over him. “You should be fine if you don't freeze yourself to death under the bed.”
I turn towards Den. “Is there something like a kitchen somewhere? He should get something warm.”
“I found one earlier!” Liandra charges out of the room and I follow her towards a big orderly kitchen. After searching the shelf and cabinets for a while I managed something like a soup on the stove......
Liandra was just watching me the entire time. And suddenly it strikes me like a hammer. “Liandra? Do you think that anything is strange here?”
My little sister just tilts her head. “I just thought that I have never seen so many magical artefacts in one place. And all of them are so convenient! Just think about those boxes which are hot or cold inside! Why didn't we have something like that at home?”
Liandra points at the fridge and the stove. Yes, unfortunately she has no real concept of kitchen-work because we always had servants for that.
But I realize that I am not standing in a kitchen from this world! This is no medieval kitchen! This is something straight out of a technological realm! Who built these artefacts? Could it be someone who remembers his past lifes like me?
It would be the first time to find someone like myself! I thought that am the only one!
A few minutes later I grab the pot with soup and a plate to carry it back to Ascathon's room. A genius who aced the Academy's curriculum like nothing?
Someone who is called a monster by his parents..... or someone who failed to act properly for his age?
Back in Ascathon's room I find out that Den is gone. Violetta is sitting besides her brother on the bed. At least it looks like he stopped to shiver.
I set down the soup with the plate beside the bed and look at his pale face. “Feeling better?”
“No.”
“Violetta, Liandra. Please go outside for a while. I need to talk about something with your brother.” I signal towards the door.
“No.” Violetta puts on a stubborn look. Liandra pulls her from the side and whispers something into her ear.
Then Violetta forms an 'o' with her mouth and crawls from the bed to run outside with Liandra. What the heck!? I hope m
y little sister didn't tell her something inappropriate!
I turn towards Ascathon. “I will come straight to the point. I saw your kitchen!”
He arches an eyebrow at me.
“Are you a person who remembers his past life?” I continue while crossing my arms in front of my chest.
“Yes. Why?” He continues to look at me with doubtful expression.
“Really!? I am too!” Marvellous! That's the first time that I meet someone like me! I draw closer to him while he gets a little farther away. “H... How many lifes do you remember? Did you ever meet someone else like us!? I have so many questions!”
I start to rattle down all my questions while he answers with short precise sentences.
Then I give him the plate with the soup and keep talking about my previous lifes like a dam broke loose. I talk and talk and talk.
After an hour I stop and remember that I wanted to do something else too. “Eh. On the other hand your little sister told me about your family and your relationship with your parents. If all that was true then I was in the wrong the entire time. I know that it's hard and I don't deserve it but please forgive me.” I bow my head to him.
“Haah. Fine, just stop to talk like a machine gun. I am sick you know....” He looks into the ceiling and I realize that his expression became more and more tired during my tirade.
I hold out my arm with the slave-ring towards him. “Now that we know each other better, could you take that off?” I beam a smile at him.
“No.”
“~Excuse me?~”
“I found out that you are a thousand years old under that betraying beautiful body. You just lost a thousand cuteness points as a pet!!”
“~Pet!?~”
“Who knows what skills you possess and if you meant what you just said! Maybe that slave-ring is the only thing that keeps me alive! So, No. Forget it!”
“~Hah?~”
“On top I paid a hundred platinum coins for you! Earn that money first and then we talk again. I don't care if you do it with work or in the bed.....”
“~B...BED!?~”
“Don't play shocked, you are more than old enough to know what I mean.”
“GYAAARRRRRRR!”
I jumped at him and then the slave-ring activated. That day I spent twitching in pain on top of him while he moaned in pain under me.....
And no, it wasn't because we did something with each other...... unfortunately it looked that way to Liandra and Violetta who thought that we were making out while they peeked through the keyhole of the door.
11 - Memory: Fear the bubbles!
Nation of Mist, Fjen-Harbour
“Why am I even here?” I am the first Sky-General of the Nation of Mist! It is a bad joke that I have to attend a stupid demonstration like this. Why are we even listening to outsiders?
The sun is standing high and it is hot. A wonderful day with a calm sea. I watch out at the Great Sea and enjoy the view.
My adjutant is following me while I walk up and down the pier. “And why am I the one who has to wait for them!”
The proud Nation of Mist is losing its edge! When I think back to five hundred years ago. We sailed the Great Sea and knew the layout of the world before anyone else.
We could take care of our own problems!
Nobody else has our long lifespan. So we are able to take a different approach and look at the great picture. A hundred years ago nobody would have dreamed of buying a magic spell from someone from the main continent.
But the elders start to fear the Immortal Empress. The Phenex Empire became more and more aggressive within the recent years. It's all because of that damned Immortal Empress of theirs.
If they have a wise and immortal leader, even the short lived humans from the main continents can become a threat.
Of course there are their mages who live a little longer because of their affinity to mana. But who cares if someone like that lives for a hundred, two hundred or five hundred years.
We people from the Nation of Mist just have to lean back and wait for their natural demise. The Immortal Empress on the other hand is stretching her evil fingers for us since a few hundred years ago and there is no sign that she will die any time soon.
From our reports she should be a normal mainlander. But her magical affinity is unbelievable high. That's at least what our spies could tell us.
She unified the smaller continent and formed the Phenex Empire within a few hundred years. Now it looks like she is changing her aim outside. The main continent and us should be her next target.
She even started to build a sizeable fleet of ships. It's not yet at a threatening level but it will be in a few years. The resources and the workforce of the whole continent are in her grasp.
Last year she started a military expedition to learn the locations of our islands. We managed to beat her fleet but the price was high. The new ships of the Phenex Empire are a good match for our own war ships.
And they had new spells for oceanic warfare which surprised us completely.
I guess the elders are frightened. That's why they jumped at the chance when we got an offer for a new military spell from the main continent.
“Sky-General! They are here.” The adjutant points towards three people who are coming from the Gate. Our Gates aren't connected to the network on the main continent. So it's quite a hassle to create a connection between one of our Gates and theirs.
The new arrivals are a grey haired old man and two boys of about fifteen years. The grey haired man is called Nathan Lenarch. He is the head of one of the biggest merchant houses on the main continent.
Our merchant fleet can't land in a single port without having to do trade with one of his businesses.
“I see. So the one who wants to sell us something is the well known Nathan Lenarch. I am the Sky-General of the Nation of Mist.” I shake the hand of the old man.
“Nice to make your acquaintance. But I have to disappoint you. I am just the mediator. The one who wants to sell his knowledge to you is this young fellow here. Let me introduce you. This is my son, Kane Lenarch. And this is his friend who wants to earn some money, Ascathon Arenzien.”
Is this a joke? I look at the two boys who are smiling at me. “I am sure that you will explain yourself fast. The Sky-General hasn't much time for jokes.”
The boy with dark hair and grey eyes steps forward. “This is no joke. I want to sell you a military spell for naval use.”
“How should a child like you get his hands on such a spell. And whom did you get it from!” I look at the kid with an annoyed expression.
“I developed it myself. So I am the only one you could buy it from.” The boy smiles at me with a knowing expression.
“I see.... So what do you want for this rumoured spell of yours? I will give you the benefit of the doubt because the Lenarchs are with you. Military classified spells aren't found often.” I look out onto the sea.
“Three thousand platinum coins in hard cash!” The boy answers fast and with precision.
“Are you out of your mind boy? Do you even know how much money that is!?” I snap at the child.
“Enough to buy a principality or a few cheap ones? If not I would have to ask for more.” -Ascathon
“Boy. No spell is worth a principality!” I shake my head at the boy.
“If the spell can overthrow the balance of naval power in this world, then it's worth that much and even more. Be happy that I am coming to you first. How much is your naval superiority worth to you?” -Ascathon
I tilt my head at the child. Of course our naval superiority is worth everything to us! Our fleet is our protection. We have no army. If our navy was beaten we would be helpless. “Then prove it!”
I walk towards the shore and point at a small model of a warship. It's about five metres long and has all protective enchantments of the real thing. It's anchored about thirty metres out in the sea. “Sink that ship!”
After I heard about this appointment I had this sm
all model made. I doubt that a single mage will be able to break the defensive barriers after fifty of my mages poured all their mana into the seals.
It's a model. But it should be next to indestructible! And maybe I can try to steal the spell if he tries to sink the model for a few times. That would save our Nation some money.
Ascathon shrugs his shoulders and turns towards the model. He makes a few fast gestures into the air and points one hand at the miniature ship.
Voiceless incantation!!? At that age?
The sea is calm and I realize that some bigger bubbles start to rise around the model, but that's it. “Hmpf. You are trying to burn it? That's the great spell? What a joke. The ship is protected against strong temperature changes. So you won't affect the crew with something like that. And there is no harm in boiling water around a ship either.”
Ascathon smiles and suddenly the whole area around the ship starts to boil. The bubbles increase in numbers and size until the water around the ship turns almost white and foam starts to form.
Then, from one moment to the next my model tilts and is gone!? I watch the boiling sea agape where the model swam perfectly fine a few seconds ago!
My model simply sank without any reason!? How can that be!
“And if that wasn't flashy enough for you. All you need now is a little spark.” Ascathon flicks his finger.
*BOOOOOM*
A huge fireball explodes at the spot which was previously occupied by my model and a shock-wave throws me to the ground. My ears are ringing and I look around. Everyone else was taken off of his feet too.
People are lying on the ground or on their knees all around.
“~Mwahahaha!~”
I crawl to my knees with ringing ears while the mad kid beside me is lying on his back and laughs.
“Oopps. I underestimated the strength. It's hard to control the size of the explosion.” Ascathon stands back up again. “So? How much do you want to pay for a spell which can sink any ship?”
“Do you even know what will happen if someone else gets his hands on a spell like that!? How does it even work!? There were just bubbles in the water! That's all!” I stand back up again.
