by Andur
The unsuspecting victim goes to the ground with blood spurting from his mouth. The other wounded kneeling guard watches in utter disbelief as his friend's sword flashes down on him.
A cleanly severed head rolls over the floor and the remaining guard runs towards the white lady who starts to raise her hand.
But Tjena gets in between and stabs a knife, which suddenly appeared in her hand, right into the guard's chest. The blade sinks into the armour like through cloth.
“Tjena!” The white lady raises both hands and a shimmering barrier appears around her aide and the guard.
Tjena walks backwards while the guard crumbles to the ground. Then she turns around to face the white lady.
“Everything is okay. You can drop the barrier.” Tjena smiles.
“Tjena?”
“Yes? My Empress?” Tjena still smiles like everything is okay.
“How did you end up in my service?” The white lady doesn't drop the barrier. She has a worried expression and comes a step closer.
“ … ” Tjena remains silent.
“Tjena!”
“She isn't here” Tjena takes another look around until her eyes find mine and she smiles. “I want my daughter back. Right this instant, before my wife decides to pay you a visit.”
“How!?” The white lady takes a step backwards again.
“Mind magic of course. Combined with a little soul magic. Weaker individuals can be played like puppets if you pull the right strings. It works by sending your soul through an appropriate transmitter into another body.” Tjena starts to scratch her chin and looks down at her body. “I may have to introduce myself. I am Ascathon Asceron. And I think you are the Immortal Empress?”
“Release Tjena!” The white lady starts to shiver in rage.
“Of course! Right after you return my daughter. Looks like I took over exactly the right person. She seems important to you.” Tjena smiles and starts to play with her knife. “If you don't, I might do something to this body.”
“You wouldn't! What will you do without a body!”
“To be honest, I never tried this before. There are various safety measures, which should send me back to my original body.” Tjena shrugs her shoulders. “Who cares. If everything goes wrong, the worst thing that happens is reincarnation.”
That means? Dad is a reincarnated person too!? And mom!? Ah … some of their discussions finally make sense now!
The Immortal Empress says nothing. Then her gaze wanders towards me. Oh! No! You won't harm a child!
“Don't even think about it!” Tjena stabs her knife into her own leg without flinching. “I can kill this body any time!”
The Empress's mouth opens and shuts a few times without a word. “Fine. But you have to release Tjena!” She drops her hands and the barrier vanishes.
“It's always a pleasure to negotiate with reasonable people.” Tjena turns around and limps towards me. I get taken under one arm. While the other still holds the dangerously sharp knife. “If you would be so kind as to show me a Gate?”
A forced smile appears on the Empress's face. “Of course. I have my own Gate in the courtyard.” She waves towards the door and leaves the room with Tjena following.
“You know whom you are holding under your arm?” The white lady starts a discussion while we walk slowly through her mansion. Just a few steps after leaving the office, we are surrounded and escorted by soldiers.
“Of course. The little princess is my important daughter.” Tjena's voice is happy and without doubt.
“So you don't care about having an immortal as daughter? When did you find it out?” The Empress looks at us with surprise.
“Since she started talking and reading books of course. She is a devilish little monster, but so far she has done me more good than bad. She was especially useful to find out why Tjena came to spy on me. She is really good at evading mind magic. I let her be to find out what she is after. But to abduct my daughter out of the blue ...” We arrive in the courtyard and head towards the Gate. Just one magician is taking care of the artefact. “By your question I assume that you are a reincarnated person too? You were really lucky with that body. I may try to duplicate that power.”
“And how old do you happen to be?” The Empress's smile looks still extremely forced while Tjena sets me down in front of the Gate and waves the magician aside.
“To be honest, I stopped counting long ago. What does it matter? If you have been everything that's possible, you don't care any more. King, hero, demon lord, good guy, bad guy. Everything becomes void in the end. There is only one thing that you can do in the end.” Tjena smiles while operating the controls and magic circles on the Gate. “Do what you want and be happy.”
“And what is it that you want to do?” The Empress folds her arms in front of her chest.
“Doing my research without interference! I want to know why we are remembering our past lives while everyone else doesn't.” Tjena gives the Immortal Empress a frightening look. “So don't interrupt my business.”
She infuses mana into the gate and a connection is being built up. The person who steps through the Gate is very well known to me. “~Mom!~”
“~Hi, Sugar cat!~”
Celestial picks me up and gives Tjena a disgusted look. “Couldn't you have picked another body? It freaks me out if you call me like that while being in that form! And I would have liked to beat that woman black and blue.”
“No problem. I already stabbed her as punishment.” Tjena raises her bloody leg and points at the wound.
Mother looks around and then her eyes set onto the white lady. “Be glad that my daughter doesn't seem to be hurt! I would have dismembered you otherwise!”
My mother turns around and walks through the Gate. I am able to look back over mom's shoulder while being carried. Not being able to control myself, I smirk and wave goodbye to the Empress.
“~Bye!~”
40 - Revelations.
Jamaian Union, Jamai-Capital
“~Bye!~”
My daughter finally disappears through the Gate with Celestial, so I quickly manipulate the controls to close the doorway to Sarn.
“Finally! You can't imagine how much my wife pestered me because our baby was gone. She was about to come here and wreck the city.” The doorway closes and I clap my hands. “Well, that's done!”
The Immortal Empress gives me a scary look. “Will you release Tjena now?”
“Sure. Sure. The spell will be cancelled soon anyway. Why don't we use the time to talk? What do you want from me anyway?” I take a seat on the ground and smile up towards the Empress.
“I want to create a unified and peaceful planet for myself to live on. I am sick of wars and conflict, so I am currently working on creating a peaceful society.” The Empress smiles at me.
“Huh? Forgive me. That sounds ridiculous after pulling off an invasion and killing thousands.” I smirk at the Empress. But she isn't offended.
“I'll admit that my method is a brute force attempt. But I tried it in a peaceful manner already. Being nice doesn't work. Those stupid mortals are caught in an eternal loop of hate and revenge.” She makes a dismissive gesture. “The only possibility to break this circle, is to force peace on a few generations until the young aren't indoctrinated to hate by their elders any more.”
I nod. “I see. It may work, as long as you play the controlling factor.”
“I already proved that it works. Look at the Phenex continent. It's unified and peaceful, while the powers of the main continent are still fighting among themselves. You may not believe me, but I didn't ignite the war between Mislow and Jamaian.” She looks a little agitated now.
She may have had the time and possibilities to spark the war. But as long as I don't have proof of that I will believe her for the time being.
“I see. That still doesn't explain why you are interested in my principality.” Unless she recognizes the reasons for my actions.
“Of course I am interested in som
eone who could oppose my goal. And you will cause chaos by continuing to follow your current path. I don't want that. And the other powers will try to stop you anyway. It would be much better if we could find a common ground.” She is trying to gain an ally?
“A common ground? As in being allies? Because I won't play servant to anyone. And what other powers are you talking about?” I am a little confused now.
She starts to smirk. “Oh, please. I am around for such a long time and all I managed to do was taking control of one continent? Of course there are powerful forces at work on this planet. First and foremost are these long eared bastards from the Nation of Mist. They might act nice and peaceful, but in their hearts, they are like everyone else.”
“When I first started to build up my navy, the Nation of Mist attacked our fleet while we tried to cross the Ocean of God. All ships were sunk without a word. That was about three hundred years ago. Ever since then they continuously got in my way. I am sure that they have goals of their own. You should take everything they say with a grain of salt. After all their elders are very old people too. I am sure that some of them aren't much younger than me. Maybe some are even older.” The Empress pulls a strange face.
“Then there is Mislow. Yes, they aren't offensive in their actions either. But think about it. Mislow seems to be a very small country compared to Norfolk and Jamaian. Yet they stopped every attack on them since hundreds of years without fail. And their ruling family is one big mystery. Nobody ever met any of them. You can only talk to them through their ambassadors.” She pulls another strange face.
“And then there is the Academy! Have you already taken a closer look at the two opposing powers within that institution? They are constantly on the verge of eliminating each other, yet nothing ever happened over centuries.”
The Empress finally stops her preaching and looks at me with expectant eyes.
I furrow my eyebrows. “So you want to say that there is someone controlling those powers behind the scenes? For hundreds of years? What's the purpose? And why are you so talkative suddenly? You must realize that I take everything you say to me with suspicion.”
“That's fine! As long as you take the words of everyone else with suspicion too. And I don't know their goals. But I can see that they are searching for something. Just realize that there are other very old existences hiding in the shadows. If my preaching stops you from giving anyone a weapon which would tilt the balance of power too much, it was worth my time. I am doing this because I came to the conclusion that I can't stop you outright.” She gives me another forced smile.
“I see. I must admit that this story of yours is new information for me.” I scratch my cheek while thinking about her words.
“Then I propose that you start to read some historic documents and collect more information. You would be a too powerful tool in the hands of those other forces.” Now she looks down on me with disdain.
“You call them just forces? Don't you know anything of them, are they reincarnated people too? And why don't you think that I am one of those puppet masters? After my entrance, the suspicion would be justified.” I tilt my head.
“~Hahaha.~ No. That's a cute idea, but no. First I don't think that they are immortals, because they never showed themselves to the world. They are hiding like frightened mice, while trying to manipulate everyone from the shadows. An immortal wouldn't fear for his own life like they obviously do. Second, you aren't trying to hide anything and you have a clear history of being born just a while ago. And you are acting like an elephant inside a porcelain shop.” She shakes her head.
“Hmm. I see. If that's so, then thank you for the warning. But there is still the issue with Jamaian.” This story is still strange. “Shouldn't those forces act, because of your invasion?”
The Immortal Empress has a disturbed expression. “That's what I don't understand either. I think that those forces were at work on my continent and interfered at some level, until I had conquered it. Then they simply retreated. That's the strange part. To a certain point, they seem to intervene with some things. So they are trying to stop anyone from gaining too much power. In my case however, they simply gave up after some time. I thought that my invasion would provoke at least some action from them. But nothing.”
“I see. So they don't act to protect a certain country. Maybe they are some sort of organisation?” I close my eyes. “Well. Unfortunately this talk has to end for now. My grip on this body starts to slip. But I will think about your words.” I grin at the Immortal Empress who gives off a relieved sigh.
“Please tell Tori, or Tjena … whatever her name is. She is fired! And if I find her sneaking around in Sarn, I will use her as material for my ~experiments~.”
The Empress's expression drops as my vision darkens and I feel my soul being pulled away on a wave of mana, which is ejected from my former host.
41 - Home sweet home.
Norfolk, Sarn-Valley
I open my eyes as I regain my consciousness. The world is … upside down? How strange? Didn't I lie down on the ground in my lab when I left my body behind to save Sera?
Someone is carrying me through the snow? I see houses to my left. “What's going on?”
“Good. You are back.” Den puts me down and I realize that Celestial is beside us with Sera in her hands.
“I ordered him to carry you to our Gate.” Celestial smiles at me while hugging Sera, who is wrapped in a blanket. “After you told me your plan, I thought it best to take your body with us. Just in case. We are on our way back to the mansion.”
I nod. “I see. Well, I can use the time to inform you of my chat with the Immortal Empress.”
“Chat?” Celestial squints her eyes. What the hell is she thinking now? I quickly evaluate what I said, but I find no flaw in my statement.
“~Daddy has eyes for the beautiful white lady.~” Sera's squeaky voice erupts from the blanket and my jaw drops. How? No! Forget that!
“What the hell!? I was in the body of a woman at that time! I couldn't have gotten it up, even if I wanted to!” This accusation is ridiculous.
“That's exactly the point! Your new spell is perverted, dangerous and immoral! You are forbidden to use it from now on! You are only allowed to use it in emergency situations.” Celestial starts to walk faster.
“Haah … can I explain now? The issue is this …” And so I start to describe my discussion with the Immortal Empress.
***
Later in the evening I am sitting in our living room and reading a book. I am in a big and comfortable chair, while Celestial is on the couch with Sera on her lap. She is teaching her daughter chemistry and medicine at the master level.
We had a long discussion about the Empress's reasons for telling me a story like this. But without exact information it was impossible to verify the truthfulness of her words. So the decision on how to act was postponed until we had time to investigate the matter.
Fortunately Celestial volunteered to have a closer look at the facts. I would have gone insane if I had to search through stacks of historical records. The great me isn't a fan of brooding over past events.
We also had a lengthy discussion with Sera. Originally we didn't plan on revealing ourselves to her. It was fine as long as she kept playing the baby. We intended to watch her closely to get an idea of her personality.
I found out about Sera's odd behaviour, when I observed her through my spying globe. By then I was really surprised when she suddenly floated down from her bed, crawled to the bookshelf and started reading. Her complete undoing were the books, which were on too high positions for her to reach. They floated down from the shelves and placed themselves neatly in front of her.
Of course our course of action was influenced by the other residents of my mansion. We had hoped that Sera would become a little older before we had to explain that she wasn't a normal baby.
However, now that she found out about us, she is prattling like a parrot. She probably won't hold back in revealing hersel
f to everyone else too. It's a simple consideration. She has us, so she won't get shunned or thrown out of the house because she is seen as a freak.
Ergo, no reason to hold back. I can't blame her. Playing an idiot is something I fail in almost all of my restarts. And it's annoying like hell.
Liandra and Violetta enter the room and run up to Celestial and Sera. Their tutor Stefan is teaching them until five in the evening. According to him, the two of them have much potential.
“You saved her!” Violetta hugs Sera while smiling. Liandra is patting Sera's head. There was a big uproar in the family, when Tori vanished with the baby. Celestial was nagging me to get her back asap, instead of waiting to see where she was taken to.
Celestial's parents were also furious. I guess they will be relieved when they come back. Unfortunately their presence is absolutely necessary to supervise the implementation of the new greenhouses.
While they may not fully understand the principles behind my projects, they are great at organizational tasks. So be it in supervising new undertakings like sawmills, smitheries or greenhouses, both of them became indispensable.
“I don't understand a single word of that stuff. Why are you explaining something complicated like that to the baby?” Liandra has a confused expression on her face while Violetta looks at Celestial's cryptic notes with dismay.
“~It's actually not that hard Liandra. These are instructions on how to create an antibiotic solution. That's a medicine which works against most illnesses and it can be extracted from mould.~”
Liandra's and Violetta's jaws drop. Violetta is the first who recovers. She tugs at Liandra's sleeve. “Little sister can already talk and knows so much. We'll fall behind at this rate! Let's go and wake up Stefan to teach us more!”
“Hn.” Liandra stands up with a gloomy expression and leaves the room, followed by Violetta.
Liandra and Violetta had a sheltered upbringing. They probably have no idea what a one year old should be able to do. “Shouldn't you have properly explained the situation?” I gaze at both of them who are still sitting on their couch, relatively unconcerned.
