Wiedergeburt

by Brandon Varnell

  My words about their fan clubs—and they did have their own fan clubs—must have had quite the effect because the both of them blushed, their cheeks and ears turning a light pink. This normally would have been the part where I teased them some more, but our stomachs let out simultaneous gurgles, reminding us that we hadn’t had lunch yet.

  “Let us step into the breach,” I said as I reached out and grabbed their hands.

  The two of them clutched my hand as we waded into the crowd of overly hormonal men, pushing our way through. Some of the people parted for us, having recognized who we were, but there were also a lot who didn’t. These people glared at me like I’d committed a crime against them. I was forced to use intimidation tactics, unleashing my Spiritual Pressure to make them back off.

  While the outside was bad, the inside was worse. No longer filling up just the tables, the number of people loitering around inside was enough to fill most of the aisles. If they had been at the library for a legitimate reason like research, it wouldn’t have been that big a deal, but all of those people were gazing enviously at the table where Lin was sitting.

  I was sure Ms. Nadine was throwing a fit right now.

  We moved through the crowd, coming upon Lin’s table soon enough, where I discovered, to my intense displeasure, Marko Kriger once more trying to chat Lin up. He didn’t come by every day. That said, the number of days I caught him hitting on Lin equaled about twice the number of days he didn’t show up. While Lin didn’t respond to his words with anything more than a few two or three-word sentences, it annoyed me that he hadn’t given up.

  “Lin,” I called out.

  Lin looked up at the sound of her name being called, completely ignoring Marko as she twisted her body around to face us. Her eyes lit up.

  “Darling, Big Sister, Fay,” she greeted us as she gathered her supplies. She closed her leather-bound notebook, capped her bottle of ink, and placed her quill in a small carry case. Moving her long, sinuous snake body, Lin stood and slithered past the twitching Marko to greet us. The man she left behind had a face that was visibly red with rage. There was a vein pulsating on the left side of his forehead.

  Hugs and kisses were exchanged, but they weren’t anything extravagant. Lin gave Fay and Kari a big hug complete with tail and greeted me with a short kiss on the lips. It was the same greeting we always received now.

  After the kiss, I glanced at Marko, whose face had turned puce as he glared at me. It looked like he was going to explode. I was honestly surprised he hadn’t challenged me to another Honor Duel, considering he came from a family of warriors, but perhaps he was worried that doing so would anger Lin.

  “Thank you for keeping Lin company again,” I said.

  “Not at all.” Marko’s smile twitched, appearing stiff and forced. “I’m always happy to spend time with her.”

  “I’ll bet.” I think some of my anger leaked out of my voice because Marko’s smile became a tad more vindicated.

  Trying to contain my scoff, I left the library alongside Kari, Fay, and Lin. It was almost amusing to watch the crowd disperse after I picked up Lin and left, but it was also bothersome. I felt sorry for the two newcomers who Ms. Nadine had hired to watch the library in my place.

  We went on a journey to find some food. The busy afternoon air was filled with life. Over here, a group of young women was tittering about the latest gossip. Over there, various workers were traveling to and fro as they carried equipment and supplies. Many people were walking into and out of shops. There were quite a few people buying bread from bakers or meat skewers from stall owners lining either side of the street.

  Our group still stood out a lot—we had become rather famous—but at least everyone had grown used to seeing us by now. Several people greeted us, a few people bowed to Kari, and no one gave Lin frightened stares anymore. That was what I felt most grateful for.

  There weren’t any places where we could sit down and eat. The taverns were all full, and to be honest, I wasn’t keen on going into one. None of them could accommodate for Lin’s large snake tail anyway. That being the case, we traveled around the various stands and stalls, buying a load of different foods, and then we went to the nearest park.

  Nevaria possessed several parks, which varied in size based on location. Parks closer to residential districts tended to be larger, while ones located in places like the Merchant District were smaller because there was a less likely chance of people using them. With it being midday, most of the parks weren’t in use. Our group of four entered a park that was located about midway between all of our respective houses.

  Parks in Nevaria were defined by their lush grass, myriad of trees, colorful array of flowers, and walkways that led to several gazebos. This one was no exception to that rule. We walked along a wide walkway made of smooth, square stones. There were a few other people around. I could see a mother and father watching their two children wrestle around in the grass, and a couple was sitting on a park bench several dozen meters to our left. We headed toward one of the gazebos.

  The gazebo was a beautiful structure made of white stones. The half-dome roof sheltered the stone table, which was in turn surrounded by a series of columns and a balustrade. I sat on one bench between Kari and Fay. Lin, who was much larger than any of us thanks to her tail, had a bench to herself. She pouted a little, but she didn’t complain. I lived with her, so she saw me more than the other two, and she knew that.

  We spread out the food we’d bought, which had been placed in a basket and carried by yours truly. There were all kinds of different foods. Meat skewers and meat pies for Lin, and a variety of sandwiches, fruits, vegetables, and crackers for the rest of us.

  A Nevarian’s diet consisted primarily of meat, cheese, and bread. Unlike the Northern Plains, which had many coastal cities and therefore a heavy fishing industry, we did not possess a single coastal city and therefore had no seafood. There were some lakes where people could fish, but they would never catch enough to make fish a consistent dish. Fish was considered a delicacy.

  Since everyone was ravenous, we did not talk at first, instead choosing to satiate our hunger. I was not sure what amused me more: the way Lin and Kari stuffed food into their mouths without regard for etiquette—Kari was more refined than Lin but not by much—or how Fay tried to eat in a refined manner despite how hungry she was.

  “Oh, my gosh! That was so good!” Kari said after she finished her food. I handed her a flask of wine, which she drank deeply from before passing it to Lin.

  “I feel a lot better now,” Fay added as Lin, finished drinking, handed the flask off to her.

  “This princess understands how you feel,” Lin added as she leaned back and patted her belly. “Even though she hasn’t been moving around a lot, studying for such a long time makes her hungry.”

  “Speaking of, how goes your studies?” asked Kari.

  “Hm hm hm.” Lin let out a strange laugh as she thrust out her modest chest. “This princess is pleased to say that she has officially memorized all 15,831 syllables and memorized all the rules regarding I-form writing.”

  “That’s excellent!” Kari clapped her hands together. “In that case, I’ll have to give you a quiz to see how well that information has sunk in.”

  “This princess is prepared for anything you throw at her.”

  “It is pretty impressive that Lin has managed to learn so much of our written language in just a little over one month,” Fay admitted as she placed her hands on the table.

  I nodded. “I don’t remember how long it took me, but I’m pretty sure it was more than a year.”

  “Well, she still hasn’t learned all of the rules yet, but being able to memorize our syllables and the rules for at least one form of writing is impressive enough,” Kari said.

  Lin’s studies had indeed been progressing well. I could not say how many syllables she memorized in a single day, but every time I picked her up at the library, she would have a new leather-bound notebook filled with the symb
ols our written language used. The notebooks she had recently also contained notes on I-form and T-form writing. Her bedroom actually had a bookshelf now, which I had bought so she could have someplace to store her notebooks, and there were about sixteen massive leather-bound tomes currently lining the top shelf.

  As had become our habit, we stayed together in that park and spoke for several hours, until the sun was on the verge of setting, and then we left.

  This would normally be the moment where we parted ways. I was halfway toward giving Fay and Kari a goodbye kiss—when something suddenly caught Kari’s attention and caused her to point at something behind me.

  “What’s the crowd over there for?” she asked.

  All of us turned in the direction she was pointing to, and indeed, there was a large crowd a few meters from us. Judging from the armor those people were wearing and the weapons held in their hands, they were all Spiritualists. None of them looked like Nevarian Spiritualists or members of the Imperial Royal Guard. Were they a group of mercenaries? No, they looked too young and untainted to be mercenaries. Also, their armor was far more pristine than the standard mercenary company.

  It was easy to tell who was a mercenary and who wasn’t by their armor. The cost of maintaining armor was expensive, and mercenaries didn’t always have enough money to buy polish, nor did most of them bother with it. Shiny armor just stood out when trekking through the Demon Beast Mountain Range. Mercenaries also had faces that were much harder, much rougher. These people were but fresh-faced children.

  “Hey… isn’t that Catalyna Kriger?” Fay muttered the question so softly I almost missed it.

  Glancing over the crowd, I just barely made out a head of curly blonde hair. I couldn’t see anything else from this distance.

  The others were also curious. We made our way over to the crowd. I was a good bit taller than most of the people present, who looked like men and women in their early twenties. That meant I could see the woman Fay had been talking about, and the blonde hair that descended past her shoulders, sharp blue eyes, and innocent facial features definitely belonged to Catalyna Kriger.

  “I wonder what’s going on here,” I muttered.

  One of the people beside us, a young woman, turned and gave me an incredulous stare. “You mean you don’t know? Lady Catalyna is recruiting people for an expedition into the Demon Beast Mountain Range.” The woman paused just then, eyes widening as she stared at me, then Kari, Fay, and Lin before going back to me. “Hey, wait a minute. Aren’t you—?!”

  I raised a hand to stop her from saying anything more. Tapping on the person in front of me, I got their attention.

  “Could you please move aside?” I asked.

  The young man, who I guessed was around sixteen or seventeen like myself, Kari, Fay, and Lin, opened his mouth with a haughty expression—and then quickly closed it. He looked between the four of us. Recognition flashed through his eyes. Maybe it was me, or maybe it was the company I kept with me, but he obviously knew who we were.

  “Uh, sure,” he said as though intimidated.

  “Thanks.”

  I walked forward alongside my companions. The people in front parted to make way when they saw us, which allowed me to reach the front of the crowd, where Catalyna was currently talking to someone. She stopped, however, when we came into view.

  “Well now,” she muttered with a surprised smile. “Eryk Veiger and Fay Valstine. I haven’t seen either of you since the Spiritualist Grand Tournament.” She paused, then, her eyes turning to both Lin and Kari. “Princess Kari Astralia, it is a pleasure to see you again. It has been far too long.”

  Kari, now in her princess mode, gave Catalyna a polite smile as she curtsied. “Yes. I don’t think we have had a chance to meet since Grimm Kriger’s one-hundredth birthday last year.”

  “Ha ha! That’s right! Ha… that was an interesting party. Then again, anything involving that old man tends to be amusing. Your grandfather was pretty hilarious as well.”

  Grim Kriger was a name even I recognized. He was an old Spiritualist who was once lauded as one of the best. I remember hearing that he’d won the Spiritualist Grand Tournament once before. Sadly, that was all I knew about him.

  Kari grimaced at Catalyna’s words. “I apologize for what my grandfather did back then.”

  “Oh, no need to worry.” Catalyna was grinning as she waved Kari’s apology off like it was a mere bug. “I personally found the whole situation amusing, though I suppose I might feel differently if I’d been one of the women he stripped naked.”

  So some situation involving women getting stripped at Grimm Kriger’s birthday had been caused by Kari’s grandfather? Come to think of it, I had never met her grandfather, nor had she told me anything about him before. I wondered what kind of person he was…

  “I heard you four took a trip to the Demon Beast Mountain Range a little while ago,” Catalyna continued. “How was it?”

  “It was an enlightening experience,” Kari said, still keeping up her act as the Princess of Nevaria. Her proud and regal bearing was something I rarely saw on her these days. “I learned a lot about myself and the dangers of the Demon Beast Mountain Range. In fact, Eryk, Fay, and I have been diligently training together so we would be more prepared the next time we traveled there.”

  “So you plan on entering the Demon Beast Mountain Range again?” While Catalyna looked surprised at first, that expression was soon replaced with a strange gleam. “In that case, how would the four of you like to join me? I’m looking for strong Spiritualists who are willing to join me on an expedition into the Demon Beast Mountain Range.”

  “Before we agree to join you, why don’t you tell us what you plan on doing in the Demon Beast Mountain Range?” I suggested.

  Catalyna nodded several times as though she’d expected one of us to ask that question. “You bring up a good point. One cannot expect to have people follow them when they don’t even explain why you should follow them in the first place. Very well.” Flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder, Catalyna explained why she was recruiting people. “On my last trip into the Demon Beast Mountain Range, I managed to discover a map with the location to an as of yet unexplored ruin. It’s about five days journey from Nevaria and is located in an area of the Demon Beast Mountain Range where several groups of powerful B-Rank Demon Beasts have set up territories. I need strong Spiritualists to join me because of the dangers involved. We might find ourselves facing these B-Rank Demon Beasts during this expedition since the route I plan to use will take us right through their territory.”

  An unexplored ruin, huh? That was a rare thing in this day and age. Most of the ruins that could be explored had been explored. All the unexplored ones were located deep in the Demon Beast Mountain Range, where the A and S-Rank Demon Beasts, monsters with so much power most people would not stand a chance against them, had created their territories. Finding a ruin that wasn’t located in A-Rank territory was like finding an oasis in the Endless Desert by chance.

  “So how about it?” asked Catalyna with a brilliant grin, extending her hand toward us as though in an invitation. “Care to join me? I promise you the rewards will be worth your while.”

  Me, Lin, and Fay glanced at each other, and then looked at Kari. We already knew who this decision rested with.

  Kari’s eyes were gleaming as she extended her hand toward Catalyna and gripped it in a firm shake. That sparkle in her eyes was one I had seen so many times in the past. No longer was this woman the princess of Nevaria. Now she had become the adventurous young woman whose only desire in life was to explore the world.

  “We’d love to join you,” Kari said with a grin.

  “Excellent,” Catalyna said as she gripped Kari’s hand back.

  And that was how we temporarily joined Catalyna’s party for a trip into the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

  Chapter 11

  Preparing for Another Journey

  Preparations to march on Hovebrann, the former Dweorg capital,
which had been occupied by the Sekbeist, were underway. However, we were not a part of those preparations.

  Kari and I spent most of our time in our bedroom. The time not spent getting lost in each other’s embrace was spent being fitted for war.

  The Dweorg really were amazing craftsmen, not only capable of building items of incomparable beauty, but also forging armor and weapons of incredible strength. Not only had they forged Kari and I a set of armor, but they had reforged Kari’s weapon to be even better than before and made a weapon that actually worked for me.

  We were putting on our new armor right now, in preparation for today’s march.

  Fitted over my dark gray shirt was a breastplate. It was strapped across my body with brown leather and only protected my chest and solar plexus, leaving my stomach exposed. Strapped to either side of my shoulders were a pair of pauldrons. This shoulder armor had the same silvery sheen as the breastplate. Likewise, the greaves attached to my brown boots had a similar appearance. Etched into the silvery substance were a series of runes. They looked decorative at first glance, but I was told by the craftsmen that they would offer added protection. When I recalled how several attacks from the Sekbeists had been deflected thanks to the runes engraved in Dweorg armor during the previous battle, I was excited to see how well they worked. Thrown over the entire ensemble was a cloak the same dark gray as my pants and shirt.

  “There!” Kari grunted as she tightened the straps on my back, securing the breastplate.

  “Thanks, Kari.” I turned around and grinned at the woman who was still just in her undergarments, which consisted of a thong and breast bindings. “Now it’s my turn to help you get fitted.”