At some point while I was sitting with my eyes closed, I eventually heard the sound of footsteps approaching from the other side, which caused me to open my eyes and stand up. The door opened seconds after I was on my feet. It was just a crack, but it was enough to see a sliver of the girl standing on the opposite side.
“… I’m done,” she announced in a faint, quiet voice. I could tell she was still quite ashamed of what had happened between us, if not because of her voice then because of her blush. I tried to ignore it for both our sakes.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
“I feel much better,” Fay admitted. “My body is still in a lot of pain, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was before.”
Spiritual Poisoning was a painful experience. The Spiritual Pathways were constantly circulating Spiritual Power to the extremities and various organs within the human body, which helped them work more efficiently. Someone whose Spiritual Pathways were clogged couldn’t get that much needed power to circulate through the body. This was especially dangerous for Spiritualists, whose Spiritual Power was a lot denser than a normal person’s.
“I’m glad to hear that.” Sighing in relief, I looked at the girl through the small crack in the door. I could only see a small bit of her face and one green eye. “Do you mind if I come back inside now?”
“Oh… yes, please come in.”
She opened the door and allowed me to step back inside. I felt a strange sense of irony at being allowed back into my own room by a girl who didn’t live with me, but I said nothing and swept my eyes toward the bathtub. All of the red color that had been released when I dropped the pill inside was gone. The water was back to its normal clear color.
Nodding with satisfaction, I went over to the bag that contained all of the Spiritual Reinforcement Pills, grabbed it, and turned back to Fay.
I paused.
Fay really did look like someone who just finished taking a bath. Her hair and skin were still damp. Moisture clung to her body, giving her a strange allure that bordered on erotic. I watched one particularly adventurous droplet trail down her neck and over her collar bone before disappearing into her tunic.
I think it was a good thing I wasn’t quite inexperienced with women. While I had only been with one woman my entire life, that woman happened to be the most beautiful one I had ever met. Fay was indeed gorgeous. From a purely objective standpoint, she was every bit as attractive as Kari, but to me, no one could beat the woman whose body I had explored every nook and cranny of.
At least, that was what I told myself.
I closed the distance between me and her, and then held out the bag of pills. She looked at me as if she wasn’t sure what to do.
“Everything that I can do for you has already been done,” I told her. “Your Spiritual Pathways are completely clear now. What you need to do now is drop one of these pills into your bath every night and soak in the water until all of the medicinal ingredients inside the water has been absorbed. You can do that at your own home. I figured you would be more comfortable that way.”
“Oh…” Fay’s eyes widened slightly. She bit her lip as her eyes went from my face to the pills. “Yes, I suppose you are right.”
“Right. So, please take them.”
I shook the bag a little to emphasize my point, but Fay hesitated a little more, causing me to frown. Did she not trust me? I mean, given what happened between us, I think I could understand. At the same time, she should already know how effective this medicine was. She’d said it herself. She already felt better.
Before I could decide whether or not to say anything, Fay reached out and took the bag. I sighed in relief. However, despite now having the bag in her hand, Fay did not leave.
“If any complications arise, be sure to tell me,” I said after a moment of awkward silence passed between us.
“Do you think there might be any complications in my recovery?” she asked.
“There shouldn’t be.” Shaking my head when I saw her confusion, I explained what I meant. “If other problems do arise, then it is because you have more issues than just Spiritual Poisoning. Sometimes Spiritual Poisoning can mask other problems that your body has, and your case was particularly potent. When I had Spiritual Poisoning, my body was nowhere near as bad as yours.”
“I understand.” Nodding, Fay seemed to accept my words at face value. However, despite saying that, she did not leave.
Another awkward silence passed between us. I wondered if I should say something else. I didn’t want to be rude and tell this girl to get out of my house, but at the same time, I really did think she should leave. She already had everything she needed to heal her body. There was nothing else I could do for her.
“Well…” Fay coughed into her hand and looked away. “I guess… I’ll be going.”
I nodded. “Hopefully, when I see you again, your Spiritual Poisoning will be cured.”
“Yes.” Fay gave me a faint smile. “Hopefully.”
With nothing else to keep her there, Fay turned around and opened the door. She paused and turned her head to glance at me one more time.
“Thank you,” she said before leaving.
“You’re welcome,” I said softly as I watched the door slowly close.
Half a month passed, and in those thirty-one days, I continued training. Sometimes I would train early in the morning, while other times I would train late in the afternoon. It all depended on whether or not I was opening or closing the library on that day. On the days where I didn’t work, I trained all day.
My training was progressing smoothly. I would switch between expanding my Spiritual Pathways using the waterfall training method and practicing my Spiritual Techniques every other day.
Of course, while I told myself that my progress was smooth, the truth was most of my techniques were unusable. About three-fourths of them required more Spiritual Power than I currently possessed, which meant I was stuck practicing only the ones that didn’t require a lot of Spiritual Power. Fortunately, the Flash Step was one of them.
I hadn’t seen Kari or Fay during these thirty-one days, which I would admit was a bit depressing. While I could understand why Fay wouldn’t want to see me, the fact that Kari seemed to be avoiding me hit hard. Had my teasing really been so embarrassing that she would no longer even speak with me?
That was the depressing thought circulating through my mind as I worked at the library. I opened it today, so I got there early in the morning when the sun was just peeking over the Demon Beast Mountain Range. I planned on heading to the clearing where I’d met Fay this afternoon in order to practice the Flash Step. Even though it was a technique I had created, I couldn’t use it very well—or at all yet—which was quite humiliating for me.
Wandering down the aisles on the second floor of the library, I tried to think about other matters as I put the books away. It was harder than it sounded. Just as I placed one of the books back, I frowned when I noticed that someone had misplaced a book. There was a book on the fifth shelf titled Distance Between Here and Now, but it belonged on the fourth shelf.
“Really,” I muttered as I grabbed the book and pulled it out. “If you don’t know where a book goes, don’t just put it wherever you ple—”
I froze when, upon pulling the book off the shelf, I was greeted by a bright blue eye on the other side. Staring into the eye, which was as familiar to me as my own, I found myself incapable of speech, completely unable to utter a single word.
“Um…” Kari also didn’t seem to know what she should say. “H-hello, Eryk.”
“Kari,” I breathed out the name as my body kick-started with a jolt. My body attempted to bow, but I forcefully stopped myself. I’d smack my face against the shelf if I did that.
“Listen… Eryk,” Kari began in a soft, hesitant voice. It was such a lyrical sound that I thought I was melting. “I wanted to apologize for, erm, for running out on you like that… you know, back then.”
“There’s no need to apologize.” Shaking my head,
I smiled at the eye visible between two books. “I’m sorry for embarrassing you like I did. I went overboard and forgot my place.”
“N-no! That isn’t it at all! You didn’t go overboard!” Kari passionately raised her voice as she spoke. “I’m just not used to people teasing me. Everyone I know always kowtows to me and treats me like I’m someone special, even though I’m the weakest and least talented of my siblings. You are the only one outside of my family who has ever teased me like that before.” As she spoke, a soft pink coloration appeared around her cheek. She was blushing. “To… to be honest, I was kind of happy when you said those things to me.”
“Really?” I asked.
I could tell that Kari was nodding by the way her eye bobbed up and down. “It made me feel like a normal girl, not the princess who has to uphold her family’s traditions or the student attending a prestigious academy. It made me feel like I was just Kari.”
Just Kari… back in the previous timeline, Kari had said something very similar to me. She said that I treated her like a normal person. That couldn’t be further from the truth, however. Kari was a special existence, the most special person in my life. Of course, I understood how she felt, so I didn’t mention that. Instead…
“Does that mean I can continue to tease you?” I asked.
“W-what? Tease me?” Kari looked startled. The pink hue on her cheek became a more vibrant shade of red as her single visible eye darted away from my gaze. “W-well… maybe in moderation… I don’t mind if you tease me a little.”
Her words made me smile. “That’s good. You give really cute reactions to stuff like this. I honestly want to see more.”
“N-now you’re just being mean.”
The two of us held our silence for a moment before we broke out in soft laughter. It felt good, being able to laugh like this. How long had it been since I really laughed? Well, not including the few times Kari and I spoke since I’d traveled back in time. To be honest, I think it must have been decades since I was able to truly laugh.
“Do you mind if we talked without this bookshelf between us?” I asked Kari after my laughter settled down.
“Not at all,” she said with a smile.
I smiled back before wandering over to my left. Kari must have had the same idea because as I was about to turn the corner, she appeared before me. We almost crashed into each other. In fact, Kari let out a squawk as she swiftly tried to backpedal and tripped over her own feet. I reacted before she could fall, catching her by the hand and tugging her to me.
“Ah…”
Kari released a soft sound as she found her face pressed against my chest. I was quite a bit taller than her. Height had been the one thing I had on this woman. Well, Kari had also teased me a few times about how I was prettier than her, but I honestly thought she had been joking. At least, I really hoped she was joking.
“Are you okay?” I looked down at the girl. She wasn’t looking up, so all I could see was her golden hair.
Kari nodded. “Y-yes.”
“Good.”
We stayed like that for a moment before Kari slowly pushed herself away from me. I didn’t resist. She took several deep breaths, mastered her blush, and then looked at me with a smile.
“Thank you… for catching me.”
“You’re welcome.” I gazed into her eyes for a moment before something about this situation caught my attention. “By the way… why were you hiding behind that bookshelf?”
“Er…” I’ll never forget the way Kari’s expression froze. Her eyes widened and the blush returned. She quickly looked away as she placed her hands behind her back, clasping her fingers together as she nervously rocked back and forth on her heels. “I… that is… well, I have been trying to come up with a good way to apologize, but, um, I couldn’t think of anything, so…”
“Wait…” I mumbled as I stared at the girl. “Have you been hiding behind these bookshelves for several days?”
“What? No!” Kari’s face exploded with so much color I worried she might get dizzy from all the blood rushing to her head. “I mean… I only started doing this a few days ago… wait, that sounds just as bad.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I laughed so hard tears appeared in my eyes. Kari, bless her soul, pouted at me as I laughed in her face.
“T-this isn’t a laughing matter! I was trying to find a way to apologize to you, but I… I’ve never apologized to anyone before!” She stomped her feet. The petulant expression on her face was easily the most adorable thing I’d ever seen, but all that did was make me laugh harder.
“I’m sorry,” I wheezed out. “I know you seem really troubled by this. I can tell from the fact that you actually came all this way to apologize. It’s just…” I shook my head and took several deep breaths to calm down. “I never imagined you could be this cute.”
“C-cute?” Kari’s eyes widened.
“Yeah…” I finally settled down again. “You always have this aura of elegance and poise about you, which is nice, don’t get me wrong. But I like this other side of you as well.”
“I see.” Kari turned her head and looked away. I wasn’t troubled. She might have been blushing, but I could see the smile on her pink lips. “Then… I guess it’s okay.”
Since it was a bit weird for the two of us to just be standing around, we went to one of the tables and sat together. As we continued talking, something about our conversation between the bookshelf stirred my emotions, but I couldn’t figure out what it was right away.
“Is something wrong, Eryk?” asked Kari when I didn’t immediately respond to her words.
“You said that you were the weakest and least talented of your siblings,” I repeated slowly. Gazing into her eyes, I tried my best to keep her in place with nothing but my gaze. “That isn’t true at all. I think that between you and your three brothers, you are the strongest among them.”
Kari’s face gained color once more, but she shook her head and laughed. “How can you say that? My brothers are all experienced Spiritualists who have journeyed into the Demon Beast Mountain Range. There’s no way I’m stronger than them.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said, startling her with how serious I was. “Your brothers might all be strong warriors, and maybe at the moment, they are more powerful than you, but they do not have your spirit, your determination, or your strong desires. They’re just going with the flow. You are the only one among your siblings who has something you really want to do, something you want to accomplish. I think if you used that desire for freedom to fuel your determination, you could easily surpass them in talent and strength.”
I thought Kari would get embarrassed by my words, which even I felt I was laying on a little thick, but instead of her face exploding like a star in the sky, her lips began trembling. Water gathered in her blue eyes. She looked seconds away from crying.
“T-thank you.” She reached up and wiped the moisture from her eyes before they could become tears. Then she offered me a smile that was more stunning than witnessing a sunblossom blooming at the first rays of dawn. “It means a lot to hear you say that.”
“I meant every word of it,” I said.
I think this was the first time since coming back to the past that I had seen such genuine gratitude in her eyes.
“I know.” The look of gratitude on her gorgeous face caused warmth to spread through my body. “That is why I am thanking you.”
After Ms. Nadine arrived to relieve me, I grabbed the bag of Three-Way Spiritual Widening Pills from my house and went to the area where I had met Fay all those days ago. It was a great place to train. Spacious enough that I could move around a lot and flat enough that I didn’t have to worry about tripping over anything. I could see why Fay had decided to use it.
Fay wasn’t there now, so I made use of it instead. Standing on one side of the clearing, which was surrounded by numerous large boulders several times taller than myself, I unleashed my Spiritual Power.
The aura that er
upted around me was far more contained than before. Arcs of pale lightning danced across my skin, swirling motes of energy flowed around my body like water. Even someone who wasn’t great at using Spiritual Perception would have been able to tell that my two affinities were lightning and water.
“It seems this is about all I can do so far,” I said with a sigh. No matter how much I practiced right now, I simply lacked the control needed to pull my Spiritual Aura completely into myself, which meant the Second State of Spiritualism was out of reach for now. “At least it’s good enough to practice the Flash Step.”
Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I eyed a spot about one dozen meters away. That would be a good exit point. Taking several slow breaths, I prepared myself both mentally and physically, and then I took a single step forward and channeled my Spiritual Power into the sole of my foot.
BANG!
An explosion went off underneath me. The world blurred around me as heavy winds slammed into my body. I quickly lost control and began tumbling through the air. The blurring streaks that were all I could see caused me to feel sick. I felt like I was about to vomit.
I came out of my spin and struck the ground hard, sending jolts of pain through my shoulder and back. It didn’t end there. I tumbled across the ground several more times, striking rocks and loose pebbles, and then slowly rolled to a stop.
I lay on my side for a moment. My body ached. Once the pain had settled into a dull throb, I sat up and tested my body, rolling my shoulders, rotating my arms, and moving my legs. Nothing seemed broken, which was good. That said, I could not help but lament the fact that the Flash Step was still out of my reach. It was the most basic of all my movement techniques, but I currently couldn’t do it.
“I guess that means I need to gain more control over my Spiritual Power,” I said in a dejected tone. “Well, fine.”
There were a number of training methods to help a Spiritualist learn to control their Spiritual Power. The waterfall technique I had been using was actually supposed to help one learn to eject their Spiritual Power. It was an advanced training method for increasing the amount of power someone possessed. I had been using it for the opposite purpose. With my power being what it was, I was using the waterfall’s strength to suppress it while I learned to control it.
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 1 Page 14
