WIEDERGEBURT

by Varnell, Brandon

  “Eryk.” Empress Hilda smiled at me as I arrived. “I am glad to see you have decided to join us. Won’t you please sit down and have brunch with us?”

  When the empress asked, “Won’t you please sit down and have brunch with us?” it wasn’t actually a suggestion or a request. It was an order.

  The maidservant currently attending to Empress Hilda, Fay, and Lin pulled a chair out for me. I sat down and greeted everyone. “Good morning, Lady Hilda. Fay. Lin. I’m glad to see you two slept well. How are you both feeling?”

  Fay relaxed almost immediately after I sat down, her shoulders visibly slumping as if she had been hardened clay that suddenly turned soft. “I feel much better now that I’ve had the chance to sleep in a real bed.”

  “This princess seconds that.” Lin raised her hand as she jabbed a piece of steak with her fork. “You never realize how luxurious you have it until you’re forced to sleep on the ground. It reminds this princess of when she had been injured and forced into the form of a snake. She had to sleep on the ground back then too, and it wasn’t pleasant.”

  “I definitely understand why you’d feel that way,” I said as I reached out and grabbed a pastry. It had strawberry filling.

  “Though this princess did enjoy sleeping in the futon with everyone,” Lin admitted after swallowing a large bite of steak. “She wouldn’t mind doing that again—provided we don’t run into the same trouble and end up losing our futon like we did this time.”

  “Speaking of the trouble you four encountered in the Demon Beast Mountain Range,” Empress Hilda suddenly interrupted our conversation. “I was hoping you could give me a recounting of what happened. I have already heard the tale from both Lin and Fay, but I would also like to know your thoughts on the matter.”

  I acquiesced to her demand easily enough. She should already know everything that happened thanks to Rainer, who informed her about the matter last night, but I guessed she just wanted to know how we felt about the issue. It was good to have multiple perspectives.

  As I informed her about what happened and answered all the questions she had, Kari entered the room wearing a long white dress that trailed down to just above her bare feet. She took her seat next to me—on my right since Fay was sitting on my left—just as I finished informing Empress Hilda about our expedition into the Demon Beast Mountain Range. As the empress leaned back and furrowed her brow pensively, I placed a couple of scones on my and Kari’s plates.

  Kari thanked me with a smile.

  “Everything matches what I’ve been told by everyone else,” Empress Hilda finally said as Kari and I slowly dined on our brunch. “You four have faced a very harrowing experience. I am pleased to see that all of you managed to make it back safely, and you”—she gazed at me with a sudden gleam—“to think that you were strong enough to defeat an A-Rank Demon Beast like the Giant Rock Golem on your own. You have greatly impressed me.”

  “I’m grateful to hear that, Lady Hilda.” I couldn’t bow while sitting, so I gave her a polite nod.

  “Oh, please. There is no longer any need to be so formal around me.” Empress Hilda smiled as she waved a dismissive hand through the air. There was a gleam in her eyes that I didn’t like. “You and my daughter have finally copulated. Given that, it is only right that you call me ‘Mom’ from now on.”

  “M-Mother!” Kari shouted, red-faced and embarrassed. I guessed there were some matters that women got embarrassed over no matter what, and having your mom ask the boy you were romantically involved with to call her “Mom” because you two had sex was probably just one of those things.

  I tried not to let it bother me, but not only was Empress Hilda giving me a pleasant smile like she was expecting me to call her that from now on, both Fay and Lin were staring intently at me. Lin was licking her lips with her extra-long tongue. Meanwhile, Fay’s face was almost as red as her hair as she stared in my direction with an oddly seductive pout.

  “Er… well…” I suddenly felt nervous as I found four women staring at me. Kari was blushing, Fay was pouting, Lin looked like she wanted to ravish me, and Empress Hilda still wore that pleasant but predatory smile. “I guess… that’s fine… uh… Mom?”

  The word felt strange on my tongue. I never had a mother or a father, so it was a word I hadn’t used in my entire life. Not in my past life. Not in this life. So the idea that I suddenly had a mother—well, a mother-in-law—was somewhat unfathomable to me.

  “That sounded terribly forced,” Empress Hilda announced with a frown.

  “S-sorry.”

  “Relax. I am just teasing you.”

  “Huh?”

  As I released that incredibly intelligent and eloquent sound from my mouth, Empress Hilda, Fay, Lin, and even Kari began giggling at me. I wanted to hide in my shirt. Since my shirt wasn’t big enough, I went for the next best option.

  I changed the subject.

  “Rainer said you wanted to talk to us about the Leucht Family,” I prodded.

  “Indeed.” Settling down, Empress Hilda took a cup to her lips and sipped her tea, buying herself some time before she informed me of her findings. She set the cup back on the fine tableware and glanced at all three of us. “As you know, I mobilized the Imperial Royal Guard under the command of Valence the other day to confront the Leucht Family. Thanks to us having the full cooperation of the Kriger Family, we were able to storm the Leucht Family estate unimpeded.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, nobody was there.”

  It felt like my brain had fried via a Spiritual Fire Technique the moment I heard those words. For a second, I was sure I’d heard wrong, but I knew that couldn’t be possible. After taking a large bite out of my scone and using the subsequent time to run through several theories, I came to one conclusion.

  “You think they were tipped off and escaped before your forces arrived?”

  “Not think. I know they were tipped off.” Empress Hilda’s voice might have been mild, but there was an undercurrent of anger within it. Her voice was like a simmering pot getting ready to boil over. “While I do not know who informed them of our plan, we found evidence that the entire Leucht Family evacuated several hours before the Imperial Royal Guards arrived. Aside from several files having been left because they were in a hurry, we also discovered a secret passage they left open.”

  “Did the Imperial Royal Guards go down the passage and follow them?” asked Fay, entranced by the story. She was leaning forward, not even bothering to eat anymore, unlike Lin, who seemed to be shoving steak in her mouth even as she listened to the empress.

  “They did, but they did not find anything.” Empress Hilda pinched the bridge of her nose. “The passageway leads into the sewers. There is a very large sewer system located several meters beneath Nevaria, which is how we are able to keep the city so clean. The sewers are basically like a maze, with numerous twisting passageways and several different levels. Given how many hours must have passed since the Leucht Family disappeared, it was only expected that our forces wouldn’t be able to find anything. We cannot even be sure they are still in the sewers.”

  Our table grew silent as everyone contemplated this new information. The Leucht Family was gone. I could only take a guess and say that the one responsible had been that Nevarian Spiritualist who saw our group enter the city and ran off. I’d assumed he was going to inform one of the Nevarian Spiritualist captains about our return, but he probably went to tell the Leucht Family instead. That made me wonder about how many people were in that family’s pocket. How many spies did they have that no one was aware of?

  As our tea grew cold, Lin summed up my thoughts pretty nicely. “It sounds like there’s going to be even more trouble.”

  “Probably,” Empress Hilda admitted. “However, unlike the matter with Grant Leucht, this time the Imperial Royal Guard and the Kriger Family are pouring all their resources into finding them. Even if they have escaped into the sewers, there are only so many places they can hide. We’ll scour the entire sewer system if we have to, b
ut I promise you, we will find them.”

  Her words inspired confidence, but I honestly didn’t know if she’d be able to keep that promise. I’d been in the sewers before, back in my previous life when I had returned to Nevaria after Kari and Kayli’s deaths, and despite spending nearly two years searching the sewers, I never managed to explore every section. Much of the sewers had collapsed when I returned, some sections couldn’t be accessed without a key, and there were many hidden passages that I had only discovered by accident. How many more might there be that I never uncovered?

  “There is another matter that we must talk about,” Empress Hilda said into the silence. She ran her finger along the lip of her teacup. I looked at Kari, Fay, and Lin, but none of them seemed to know what else she wanted to talk about.

  “What other matter is there?” I asked.

  “Now that you have slept with my daughter, we will need to plan your wedding,” she said. She didn’t sound like she was teasing me, so I assumed she was serious. “Kari has given herself to you in both body and heart. This means you are the man she wishes to spend her life with. Is that correct?”

  Empress Hilda turned to Kari who, now that she had been put on the spot, could only nod once. “Uh… ye-yes, that is right. I would like to marry Eryk.”

  Nodding, Empress Hilda turned to Fay and Lin. “And the two of you? I assume you also intend to marry Eryk?”

  “Um…” Fay looked around quickly at being addressed as though trying to find an escape route. When none presented themselves to her, she placed her hands in her lap and squirmed in her seat. “That’s… I mean, we haven’t really spoken about it, so… um…” She flicked her eyes over to me, but then quickly looked away when she saw me looking at her. “I would… like to… yes. Spend my life, I mean—I mean, I want to spend my life with Eryk. Yes.”

  Whether Empress Hilda was amused by Fay’s shy response or not, the woman did not show it at all as she looked at Lin. Unlike the easily embarrassed, all-attack-no-defense Fay, Lin puffed out her chest and crossed her arms.

  “This princess and Darling are already married! This princess gave him the Ring of Marji.”

  “Yes.” Empress Hilda glanced at the black rose-thorn pattern circling the ring finger of my right hand. “I am aware of that.” She looked away from my hand and resolutely nodded at me. “As there are three women who intend to marry you, we must take the appropriate steps to begin matrimony arrangements. First, you will need to speak with Stelys Valstine and request permission to marry his daughter. Once he agrees and you offer him a dowry, we can begin planning out the next step—namely, when to announce your engagement.”

  Kari and I had never gotten married in my past life, so I didn’t know the first thing about marriage or becoming engaged. However, Kari was the princess of Nevaria, an important position even if she didn’t hold any authority. It could not become public knowledge that she had slept with a man she wasn’t engaged to. What’s more, we couldn’t not announce her engagement to the people. It was good publicity, I guessed. Also, in my previous life, Kari’s engagement to Grant had been announced two years before the marriage happened.

  “I’ll make sure to speak with Lord Valstine soon,” I said. I glanced at Fay and held out my hand, which caused her to blush bright red even as she placed her hand in mine. Smiling, I turned back to Empress Hilda. “Is there anything else?”

  “No, there isn’t—oh, wait! There one other thing I need to tell you.” Clasping her hands together, Empress Hilda decided to hit me with her strongest and most shocking surprise attack. “It seems someone destroyed the house you and Lin were living in while you were traipsing through the Demon Beast Mountain Range. We suspect it was the Leucht Family who did it, but we haven’t found any evidence as to who the culprit might be yet. Don’t worry, though. It seems nothing was stolen. We brought over all your supplies, including your alchemy set and those interesting alchemy pills you refined—which I would like to speak with you about some time soon, by the way. In any case, until you find a new place to live, I would be delighted if you and Lin could move into the Imperial Royal Palace for the foreseeable future.”

  “Huh?”

  As I was hit from several different directions at once with what amounted to verbal Spiritual Techniques, all I could do was release single syllable sounds.

  “Huh?!”

  As Empress Hilda’s words finally sank in, the sounds my mouth produced got louder.

  “HUH?!”

  I was pretty sure everyone in Nevaria heard that one.

  Chapter 12

  Speaking to Stelys Valstine

  The caravan dropped us off at Capistrana. Kari and I didn’t spend a single night in the city and made our way post-haste to Vesperia. This involved traveling through a mountainous region, but the mountains were neither large nor very dangerous, though we did have to worry about the occasional D or C-Rank Demon Beast.

  Vesperia was located in what would be considered the most northwestern section of the Northern Plains, far above the peninsula where we had returned to this realm, and about two months travel from Midgard by Strut-drawn carriage.

  While it seemed far removed from the rest of the continent, the truth was that about two dozen smaller towns and villages were located further north. These towns and villages were situated in a cold and arid climate. Because the land further up the mountains was so barren and cold, very few crops could be grown, though, in exchange for not being able to grow crops, the mountains were rich with natural minerals and ores that were coveted across the land.

  Vesperia was the trading hub for all these villages. That was how it had managed to become so prosperous despite its out-of-the-way location. And yet…

  “Oh… no…” I muttered in despair.

  We had finally reached Vesperia, but what we discovered upon reaching our destination was nothing more than the ruined and burnt-out remains of a once prosperous city. Buildings had been gutted. Some lay crumbled, nothing more than debris littering the ground, while others at least looked mostly intact but were missing good chunks of their infrastructure. As we raced closer to the city, our hearts felt like they had stopped beating.

  Lying on the street were numerous corpses.

  Most of the corpses looked like they had been mangled by something. I glanced at one body nearby, a young man barely out of his teens, whose limbs had been twisted at angles they weren’t meant to go. Another corpse next to him, this time a young woman, stared sightlessly at the sky, a large hole in her chest. The blood pooling underneath them had long since coagulated and turned black.

  “No…” Kari whispered as she held a hand to her mouth.

  “So it’s true. The Sekbeists really did destroy the city.” I clenched my hands into fists.

  Kari sucked up the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. I was feeling pretty distraught myself by the sight. My heart shook, though I didn’t let my emotions show on my face. I needed to be strong for Kari. Unlike me, she took several moments to calm herself, sucking in deep breaths as her grip on her ranseur tightened.

  “Let’s see if we can find any survivors,” she said at last. “We might also find something or someone who can tell us what exactly happened here.”

  “I guess that’s all we can do, huh?” I said, reaching behind my back and wrapping my fingers around the hilt of the Dragon’s Tail Ruler. The by-now familiar leather handle comforted me as we made our way into the city.

  For whatever reason, it looked like Vesperia had been abandoned after being ransacked. That didn’t seem to be how the Sekbeists operated, but then I remembered that Vahn, the city I was using as an example, had a temple with a Warp Gate in it. There were one or two ruins located around Vesperia, but there was nothing in the city itself, so there was no reason to occupy it.

  I glanced at one of the buildings we passed and grimaced. It was a small café that Kari and I would frequent after returning from an expedition. The glass windows were shattered, one of the walls had been dest
royed, and I could see the body of the owner lying in the middle of the café. His head had been removed from his shoulders.

  Kari saw where I was looking and stifled a gasp. Tears leaked from her eyes as her face drained of blood.

  Perhaps her pained response was the result of what happened several decades ago. Before coming to the Northern Plains, we had created a community of survivors from Nevaria, but our group was eventually forced to flee into the Endless Desert to escape from attacking Demon Beasts. All of them died except for us. Of course, even before that, our home was attacked and destroyed by Demon Beasts, and her mother, three fathers, and three brothers were killed.

  I think she and I were more sensitive to this kind of destruction because of our past. Seeing this shook me more than I was willing to admit, more than I was willing to ever let on. The only reason I wasn’t shaking like a frightened child was that I knew one of us needed to be strong.

  “Let’s go to the Explorers Guild headquarters,” I suggested. “There’s a shelter located underneath the building. If anyone survived, I’m sure they’d be there.”

  “That’s a good idea.” Kari’s eyes gained a resolute hardness that came from the life we had led up to now. She was sensitive to the destruction around us, but she had grown strong enough not to let it slow her down.

  Tonight, she and I would probably cry in each other’s arms, but now was not the time.

  As we were making our way down what should have been a well-maintained road, a loud noise caused us to stop. We looked around and found several Grunts coming out of a building across the street. The hideous creatures with their chalk-white skin, blood-red eyes, and stooped visages paused when they caught sight of us. Our two groups stared at each other, then the Grunts released something that sounded like a war cry.

  Kari and I sprang into action.

  There were only three Grunts. Using the Flash Step, I appeared beside the first one, raised the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, and channeled lightning through the weapon as I swung it down. My ruler sliced through the Grunt’s face and chest, carving a deep furrow that caused blood to spurt from the creature’s body like a fountain. The Grunt fell back and released a death rattle, but I was already on the move.