“Let’s keep going,” Danivan suggested after taking a moment to recover his wits. “Regardless of this person… this thing’s presence… we still have a job to do.”
We continued moving. This place had many rooms and stairs. Some of the rooms were empty. However, a few of them contained weapons and armor made from a metal I’d never seen before. Entering one such room, I found myself gazing at what looked like a gigantic war axe and a suit of armor meant for a really short person. Both objects were gleaming with a nearly white luminescence. They also had runes covering them, but even Danivan didn’t seem to know what the runes meant.
“I wonder what sort of person this armor was made for?” Kari murmured with interest as she poked the armor with her finger, causing a strange metallic sound to echo forth.
“It looks like it was made for a child,” Markus said with a frown.
“Or those people we’ve been seeing in the murals,” Kari shot back. Markus conceded her point with a shrug.
After searching several more rooms, we eventually reached another large door. Two platforms sat on either side of the door. This one looked like it had been guarded by a pair of golems, but the golems were no longer functioning. In fact, we saw one of the two lying several meters to our left, its body broken into numerous fragments and the hammer it had been using lying next to it.
The door was already open, so we just needed to walk through. What we found on the other side was another room, a smaller one, which was surprisingly well-lit with glowing monster cores embedded into the wall. As we walked across the stone floor, our group glanced at the columns that stood lined up in a row on either side of us. There were about six on each side.
We soon reached the end, where we discovered several bodies lying next to an empty archway that stood before the back wall. The bodies were a mixture of humans and Beastmen. I saw a Pantherion, a Lionid, and a Werefolk. They wore various thick and sturdy clothes, and some of them still had their mountain-climbing gear attached to them. All of them were quite dead.
“I guess we found the group from the Mountain Sect,” Danivan muttered with a sigh. “I already expected them to be dead, but it is still terrible to see.”
“I wonder what killed them,” Markus said. “Do you think it was those cultists?”
“Who knows,” Felicia said.
Kari and I walked up to one of the bodies and knelt before it. This person was a woman. Her pale skin appeared to be chilled from a combination of the cold and being dead, but she hadn’t reached a stage where her body was beginning to undergo necrosis. Perhaps the cold had stalled it? The two of us tried to find out how she had been killed. We found nothing.
“This is strange,” I muttered. “There’s no stab wound, Spiritual Residue, or anything that tells us how she was killed. It’s like her spirit just up and left her body.”
The only thing about this woman that I found strange was her face, or rather, her expression. Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. The expression she wore was one of pain, of agony and terror. However this woman died, it was likely the furthest thing from a pleasant passing.
“Let’s check the others,” Kari suggested.
Danivan, Felicia, and Markus stood back as Kari and I checked the remaining five corpses for injuries, but all of them appeared to have died the same way. There wasn’t a single injury on them. What’s more, there was no Spiritual Residue, which made this mystery all the more baffling.
“I get the strangeness about them not having any wounds to show us how they died, but what’s the importance of Spiritual Residue?” asked Danivan as he crossed his arms.
“When a living creature dies, they leave behind a trace of their Spiritual Power,” I explained. “We call this Spiritual Residue. It takes a long time for this Spiritual Residue to dissipate. Even if several months have passed, there should have still been some lingering around these bodies. It’s almost like their Spiritual Power was completely eradicated or sucked out of their bodies when they died.”
As I explained the concept of Spiritual Residue to Danivan and the others, Kari walked up to the archway situated in front of the wall. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. Then I looked at the archway. It was quite big. I would say it was at least two and a half times taller than I was and wide enough that it would take two of me lying lengthwise to connect either end. There were a number of runes etched into it.
“This archway reminds me of the Warp Gates we use to travel from our headquarters to Midgard, but it’s older. Almost like a prototype.” Kari placed a hand against the runes, then called out to me. “There is some strange Spiritual Residue surrounding this archway, but I don’t know what that means. This rune array is a complete mystery too.”
“I can’t understand them either,” Danivan admitted. Considering he was the one who taught us what we currently knew about runes, that was saying a lot. “I think I recognize a few of them because they are similar to the Warp Gates used by sects, but they only vaguely resemble them. Sadly, no one outside of the Runology Sect is allowed to have access to the rune schematics for the Warp Gates. Felicia, inscribe these runes into a scroll. We’ll see if we can’t find a match in our library once we get back home.”
“Okay.”
Felicia walked up to the archway and pulled a scroll, a quill, and a bottle of ink from a pouch at her waist. She set the scroll and ink on the ground. After dipping her quill into the ink, she began drawing both a sketch of the archway and the runes that were etched into it. During this time, Kari backed away from the archway and walked over to me so she wouldn’t disturb Felicia.
“What do you think?” Kari asked.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I can’t figure out anything from just this.” I paused. “That said, I am now certain of one thing.”
Kari glanced at me with her head tilted. “And that is?”
“Those cloaked creatures are going to bring us nothing but trouble,” I said in a serious voice. Kari didn’t disagree.
Felicia soon finished drawing the runes onto her scroll, which she rolled up and stored back in her pouch, along with her ink and quill. Once that was done, our group left the same way we’d come. When we returned home, our sect would deliver a report to the Mountain Sect informing them about the fate of their comrades.
* * *
The days to the Spiritual Grand Tournament slowly passed. I spent most of those days either training with Fay, working at the library, or spending time with Kari. Some days I also dropped by the Alchemist Association to receive my cut of the profits they were making from the alchemy pills I’d taught them to refine. Even though not even a month had passed since I introduced those pills, I had already earned 226,250 valis, and that was just the cut I received. I believe the total amount earned was around 905,000 valis.
Fay had been acting a little surly around me, which I didn’t necessarily understand. She still dutifully came to our training ground every day she didn’t have classes, still trained in the Flash Step and the one other Spiritual Technique she was working on, but she would often not respond to me when I tried to speak to her about anything that didn’t have to do with training. A gap seemed to have grown between us. The problem was that I didn’t know why or how it appeared.
While Fay appeared to have distanced herself from me, my training, at least, was progressing well. I had finally gained full control over my Spiritual Power. While I didn’t have the amount of power that I used to when I was in my prime, I had the benefit of beginning my training early. By exercising my Spiritual Power every day and using alchemy pills to recover, I was increasing my reserves at a steady rate. I estimated that it would be possible to reach my peak in the next five or six years if I kept going like this.
Of course, I planned to reach it much sooner than that, but I didn’t have the necessary ingredients to refine the pills I would need to reach the Third and Fourth States of Spiritualism. That was still a ways off.
Kari and I had been spending l
ess of our free time in the library. Granted, I didn’t have much free time to spend, but whatever time I did have was spent with her. We mostly spent it walking around Nevaria. However, I had also begun helping her practice some of her Spiritual Techniques. While I couldn’t teach them to her, I could use Spiritual Perception to sense when the Spiritual Power she was channeling fluctuated or became disrupted.
Outside of me helping her and walking around the city, we spoke a lot and even planned on what ruins we would explore once I won the tournament. I felt like Kari had really opened up to me after my battle against Albert. She smiled even more often than before, laughed more than she ever had, and was a lot more receptive to my advances. Not only did she not reject me when I held her hand, but she was actively initiating contact between us and even letting me hold her tight. There had even been times when she would lean into my side as we sat on a bench in the library or wandered through a park.
They were enjoyable times, but before long, the day of the Spiritualist Grand Tournament finally arrived.
* * *
I woke up on the day of the Spiritualist Grand Tournament to discover that I was trapped by a pair of arms and a long, thick tail. A quick glance to my left revealed Lin. The dark-skinned Lamia was hugging my arm as her tail coiled around my torso, waist, and legs. Her exotic face was mere centimeters from my own. She took in deep breaths through her open mouth, which revealed a pair of cute fangs, and I could feel her breasts rise and fall against me because she wasn’t wearing a single stitch of clothing. She would shift against me occasionally but otherwise remained still.
I sighed.
This was not the first, third, or even thirteenth time that Lin had snuck into my bed. Despite the fact that her bed—which cost a lot of valis—was even larger and more comfortable than my own, I always woke up to find her snuggling with me.
To be honest, if I didn’t have feelings for Kari, I don’t think I would have minded this girl slipping into my bed. In fact, I’d have probably enjoyed it. Thinking about it like that was a moot point, however, a bonafide exercise in futility. The woman I loved was Kari, and that was all there was to it.
That was what I kept telling myself.
“Wake up, Lin,” I said.
Lin groaned as she stirred awake. She pushed her arms underneath her and sat up, her nipples growing stiff from the cold air as goosebumps broke out on her skin. The girl shivered once, hugged herself, and decided she didn’t like the cold one bit.
“Ugh… it’s too early to be awake, Darling,” Lin grumbled and began to lay back down and snuggle close. Her soft breath caressed my neck. “Just let this princess sleep for five more minutes. Better yet, let her sleep until her body is a few degrees warmer.”
“Absolutely not.” I pushed the girl back. “In case you’ve forgotten, the beginning of the Spiritualist Grand Tournament begins today. I can’t afford to be late.”
“Hmph. That’s all you’ve been talking about these days.” Lin narrowed her eyes and glared at me, though she also unwrapped her tail from around my body and allowed me to go free. “Either you’ve been spending all your time training or you’ve been spending it around that Kari girl. This princess has said before that she has no issues with you having concubines, but that is only if you pay more attention to her than you do them.”
“You can say that all you want, but I can’t change how I feel, and I can’t act in a way that isn’t true to myself.”
I left Lin to ponder those words as I went into the bathing room and washed my face, chest, and shoulders. These days, I always kept the tub full because it made washing off easier. I would just drain it when the water became dirty and refill it soon after. It helped that my backyard had a canal running through it.
After making sure I was at least somewhat clean, I went back into my bedroom. Lin was still present. She sat on my bed and frowned at me as I opened a dresser drawer and began putting on my clothes.
The first thing I put on was the dark gray pants. After that, I put on the light blue undershirt with the triangle-shaped dip that showed off a bit of my chest. The front and back was long almost like a tabard. It trailed down to my knees. The dark blue vest went on over the shirt. I closed the high collar around my neck with a golden cinch. The vest covered the tops of my shoulders and sides of my torso, but there was a huge gap going down the center. It featured long sides that trailed down to my knees, similar to my shirt. Once that was done, I threw on my belt, slipped on the dark gray sleeveless gloves that went up to my shoulders, and then stepped into my boots.
This was the outfit that Fay had first bought me when I was going to have a meeting with her father. I thought it would be nice if I wore this when I beat Grant to a pulp—if Fay didn’t beat him first.
I still had one more stop to make, so I needed to leave soon. However, before I could walk out the door, a hand grabbed mine.
“Lin?”
I looked at the girl who was gripping my hand. Her head was tilted down, casting shadows over her face. That didn’t hide her frown, however, which I could see clear as day.
“You’ve been… ignoring this princess a lot these days, and she does not approve.” Lin finally looked up, and I flinched upon seeing tears gathering in her eyes. I’d seen Lin get frustrated before; however, she’d never looked at me like this.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I haven’t been intentionally ignoring you. I’ve just been busy. There’s so much I have to do that I’m rarely ever home.” Lin didn’t look pleased at all, which caused me to turn around and place a hand on her head. “Listen… after this tournament is over… I was thinking we should try walking around outside.”
Lin perked up. “Really? You’ll finally let this princess go outside?”
I nodded and rubbed her hair, which was really soft, like chiffon or silk made from the fur of an Ice-Horned Goat. “The winner of this tournament earns a lot of prestige and fame. I’ll be in a position where even if the people who see you panic, no one would dare attack you so long as you are with me.” I paused as another thought occurred to me. “I can probably also let Empress Hilda know about you and that you’re not a Demon Beast. I’m sure she’ll hand out orders to the Nevarian Spiritualists not to attack you by mistake.”
After rubbing her eyes to rid them of tears, Lin tossed me a mild glare that was filled with no heat. “You had better keep your word. This princess takes promises made by her husband very seriously. She’ll eat you if you break your promise.”
“Yes. Yes. Don’t worry. I won’t break my promise to you.”
I thought it was weird that I didn’t even wince at her comments about me being her husband anymore, but I believed that was a sign of me getting desensitized to her. She had been calling me “Darling” and referring to me as her husband ever since returning to her original form. It actually bothered me that I was no longer bothered by it.
“Well, I’m off.”
“Be safe, Darling.”
My first stop after leaving my house was the smithy in the Merchant’s District. It was early, so I didn’t have to deal with anyone else being awake just then. Fortunately, the blacksmith was up bright and early like always.
“I figured you’d be here sometime this morning,” the gruff man said the moment I entered. “Heard you’re going to be in the Spiritualist Grand Tournament today.”
“Seems everyone knows about that these days,” I muttered.
“People like to talk.” The blacksmith shrugged. “Wait here for a moment. I’ve got what you requested.”
The blacksmith went into the back and returned several seconds later with a massive object wrapped in cloth. He set it on the table and unwrapped it, revealing what most people would have politely described as a massive slab of metal.
From hilt to tip, the ruler was about two meters in length. The hilt was about thirty centimeters long, wrapped in crimson leather the color of blood, and featured a pommel with a jagged crown shape. If the hilt looked plain, then the quillons l
ooked like nothing. It was just a bar of solid metal that was thicker than my bicep. The main feature of this weapon was easily the blade.
I didn’t think you could call it a blade since it wasn’t really sharp, but this part of the weapon was 170 centimeters from end to end. Not only was it long, but it was at least 30 centimeters wide, or thereabouts. Easily the largest part of my weapon, the blade was sectioned off into 11 segments that were marked by fault lines that went all the way around the blade.
“This is probably the most unusual thing I have ever made,” the blacksmith admitted as I grabbed the weapon by the handle. “I’m not even sure how you are supposed to use that thing.”
With a soft grunt, I lifted the weapon with a single handle. It was a little heavier than I was expecting. Perhaps that was due to the materials. My previous Dragon’s Tail Ruler had been made from mythril, a type of extremely light alloy that humans couldn’t refine because they lacked the technology. It was said to be indestructible, but that wasn’t necessarily true since my previous weapon had been destroyed during a fight I had with a Greater Behemoth when I came back to Nevaria after Kari died.
This weapon was made from plain steel.
I gave it a few test swings before nodding. While it was certainly not what I would call light, it was fairly easy to swing. Not only could I swing it in simple up and down motions with a single hand, but I had a full range of motion available.
“You don’t need to worry about that.” I set the Dragon’s Tail Ruler against my shoulder and turned a smile to the slightly disgruntled blacksmith. “I know exactly how to use this thing.”
* * *
Fay was standing in the corner of a large waiting room with numerous other people who were also waiting for the tournament to begin. Of course, she was also waiting for Eryk. He had yet to show up.
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 4 Page 2
