WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 5 Page 3

  I couldn’t help but agree with Kari, and so, after Lin finished scarfing down eight more plates worth of smoked ham, the three of us left the Imperial Royal Palace, and traveled into Nevaria.

  Chapter 2

  Snake Charmer

  The day after the tournament ended, Grant had recovered enough of his mental faculties that he could walk around, talk, and do everything he used to. However, he didn’t feel the same anymore.

  Every time he closed his eyes, that peasant’s face would fill his mind.

  Every time he saw that peasant’s face, an indescribable feeling of fear washed over him.

  He hated this feeling. He hated the fact that he was afraid of some stupid peasant. That blasted Eryk Veiger haunted his dreams, both waking and asleep. Grant could not help but recall the terror that had washed over him when the peasant had released his Spiritual Power. The Spiritual Pressure that had pushed down on him in that moment had been like nothing he’d ever experienced.

  That was why he wanted to get back at the boy.

  He wanted revenge.

  “Father!”

  Grant did not bother knocking as he barged into his father’s private chamber, looking around the opulent room in search of his father.

  Not only did this room feature soft carpet made from the fur of a C-Rank Demon Beast, the Antler Goat, but the walls were decorated with exquisite paintings. Several bookcases covered the wall in areas where no paintings or portraits hung. This room didn’t have a bed, which was located in the next room over, but it did feature a large desk.

  His father was sitting behind the desk.

  “Father, I demand we kill Eryk Veiger!” Grant shouted as he walked up to his father’s desk.

  The old man had been leaning over his desk and writing something on a goatskin parchment when Grant walked in, but he stopped when he heard his son’s shouting. Long gray hair that flowed freely down to the middle of his back shifted as he straightened in his seat. His sharp eyes narrowed as he looked at Grant, who suddenly froze in place.

  “I understand your desire to kill Eryk Veiger,” his father said at last. “However, we cannot afford to do so at this point in time—not now that he has won the Spiritualist Grand Tournament. There are too many people looking at him. It will be impossible to kill that child with so many eyes watching.”

  “But Father—” Grant started to speak, only for his throat to close up when his father released an intense Spiritual Pressure. A cold sweat broke out on his skin as the room seemingly began to shake. He couldn’t tell if it was his imagination or if the room was actually shaking.

  A powerful heat was wafting off his father’s body now. The Spiritual Aura surrounding him was a bright, bluish white. Unlike his own aura, which was somewhat transparent, this was thick and dense. Wisps of bluish white flame rose from the man’s body like plumes of smoke. The heat caused the air around him to distort. Despite the heat his father was emitting, which caused sweat to pour from his body in rivulets, none of the furniture, not the chair or the desk, received so much as a burn.

  “Do not test my patience, boy,” his father said in a voice that was surprisingly cold. His father’s Spiritual Aura made Grant feel like he was being burned alive, but his voice chilled him to the bone. “Eryk Veiger is too famous to just kill now. What’s more, if he is killed, we will be the primary suspects due to your animosity toward him. We cannot afford to jeopardize our place within Nevaria right now, or all of the plans our family has been crafting for several hundred years will go up in smoke.”

  Grant tried to gulp, but his throat felt too dry for that. He licked his lips. His body was shaking by this point, but oddly enough, he wasn’t completely overwhelmed by his father’s Spiritual Aura like he used to be.

  “I… understand, Father,” he croaked.

  “Hmph!” His father released the Spiritual Aura surrounding him, causing Grant to sigh in relief as the intense pressure and heat pushing him down vanished. As the man grabbed his quill and dipped it in a bottle of ink, he spoke again. “So long as Eryk Veiger remains inside of Nevaria, we cannot touch him. I expect you to leave the boy alone for now.”

  “Yes, Father,” Grant said meekly.

  There was no vocal dismissal, but Grant clearly understood that it was time for him to leave. He bowed to his father and left the room. However, as he closed the door and began walking down the hall, his mood became progressively worse. He wanted to get back at Eryk Veiger for daring to oppose him, for causing him to feel so much fear, for humiliating him during the Spiritualist Grand Tournament.

  But he didn’t know how to go about getting revenge. The only thing he knew about the boy was that he was a peasant, and that he was close to Kari and… Fay…

  Grant stopped walking, but then he started walking again, moving faster than he had been seconds before.

  He would need to get in touch with some people, but Grant had an idea. He could not strike against Eryk due to his newfound fame, and he couldn’t hurt Kari because she was the Princess of Nevaria, but there was at least one person he could hurt, one way he could strike back against the boy who humiliated him. If he couldn’t strike at Eryk, then he would just have to strike at someone close to him.

  Kari, Lin, and I traveled the streets of Nevaria.

  It was still early in the morning, but it was much later than it had been. Because Lin was a Lamia with a tail that was over six meters long, we couldn’t take a carriage down the mountain, which meant we had to walk. It had taken about twenty minutes or so. The sun had completely risen by the time we had reached the city proper.

  The early morning was normally filled with people getting ready to start the day. Young boys and girls would be traveling to school, men and women would be journeying to their jobs, and older people would be sitting around outside enjoying the weather. Everyone was normally bustling at this time in the morning.

  That was not the case now.

  “W-w-what is that thing?!”

  “Monster! It’s a monster!”

  “What should we do?! Should we call the Nevarian Spiritualists over?!”

  “What is that thing doing near Princess Kari?!”

  The numerous people who’d been going about their business were now running away, screaming about monsters as they tried to get away from us. Of course, by “us,” I actually meant Lin. Once someone got the Lamia girl locked in their sights, noticed her six-meter-long snake tail, and unfroze themselves after the shock coursing through them wore off, they yelled out something insulting and took off. And that was just the people who were able to move. Many people became too frozen in fear to even scream.

  It was affecting Lin.

  “Why are these people calling this princess a monster?” Lin muttered morosely as she tried to gaze at the people with an imperious frown, but her ears were drooping and her posture had become slouched. It was like she was trying to hide herself.

  “I was afraid this would happen,” I sighed. “It’s just like I said: no one knows of your kind here in Nevaria. I doubt most of these people even know what a Lamia is. All they know is that you aren’t human.” I glanced at a young woman we had passed, whose body had frozen solid like a block of ice, and sighed. “It doesn’t help that Nevaria is isolated from the rest of the world by the Endless Desert and the Demon Beast Mountain Range. Thanks to that, this city hasn’t made contact with the outside world since before the Great Catastrophe, so we haven’t met any of the other races like the Werebeasts, Catfolk, or Lamia.”

  “I’ve read about Werebeasts and Catfolk in some of those books at the Nadine Library,” Kari said.

  “There are a few books that document them, but most of the knowledge about those races has been lost, much like the Lamia.” I noticed the way Lin was lowering her body as if to hide herself and felt something prick my chest. After glancing at Kari on my other side, I looked back at Lin and grabbed her hand. “We’ll just have to deal with people reacting like this for now. Once everyone gets used to your presence, most of them will begin acting like they always do. Let’s just give them time.”

  Lin’s hand tightened around mine as she slithered closer to me. She reached out with the hand not holding mine and grabbed my arm as though she wanted to use it as a lifeline. Seeing this normally haughty girl act so timid bothered me, but I knew the people of Nevaria couldn’t be blamed. Anyone would freak out when they saw someone who was clearly not human for the first time.

  “I suppose that is all we can do.” Kari closed the distance between us and wrapped her arms around my left arm. She smiled up at me when I glanced at her, but then she looked at Lin. “I’m sure people will eventually come to accept you, Lin.”

  “Do you really think so?” Lin muttered with a hopeful look in her golden eyes.

  Kari nodded. “I do. I will help make sure it happens. If everyone sees me walking around with you, they’ll eventually realize you aren’t a monster or dangerous.”

  “Okay.” Lin sniffled a bit as though trying to suck tears back into her tear ducts, and then presented a smile to Kari. “Thank you, Big Sister.”

  Being called “Big Sister” seemed to make Kari abnormally happy. The way her eyes lit up like rays of sunshine breaking through thick clouds reminded me of when her older self from my previous life went exploring ruins. I wondered if maybe Kari had always wanted to be someone’s older sister.

  “You don’t need to worry about a thing!” Kari said enthusiastically. “Helping their younger siblings are what big sisters are for.”

  Yeah. She definitely wanted to be an older sister. I guessed she was tired of being the youngest in a family with three older siblings.

  Our travels took us to the Noble District located southwest of the Imperial Royal Palace. The reaction Lin received here
was about the same she received everywhere else. There weren’t as many nobles, but all of them panicked and ran away the moment we appeared. I really wanted to smack these people.

  The Valstine Family’s estate was located behind a large wall, which was about three or four times taller than I was. A steel gate, massive and imposing, was the only means of entering this place. The gate had a symbol, the “Sign of Four” located in the center. It was also being guarded by a young member of their family. He wore leather armor with the same crest as the gate on his chestplate, and judging from his youthful appearance, he wasn’t much older than I was.

  He froze the moment he laid eyes on Lin.

  “Would you mind opening the gate?” I asked, trying to make him focus on me. “I would like to speak with Fay Valstine.” The man said nothing as he stared at the now nervous Lin like she was an S-Rank Demon Beast. I frowned, walked up to him, and grabbed his face with my hands, forcing him to look at me. “Hey, I’m talking to you. I have some business with the Valstines, so I would like to speak with them, or is this how your family treats the person who helped them broker a deal with the Alchemist Association?”

  “What… the Valstines? Business?” the man stumbled over his words as he tried to put his head back on straight.

  “That’s right. I have business with the Valstine Family, so please open this gate.”

  “Um…”

  “Don’t look at Lin right now,” I snapped, unleashing enough Spiritual Pressure that it forced him to keep looking at me. “I know what you are thinking, but Lin is not a monster or a Demon Beast. Look at her like that again and I’ll hit you so hard your face will turn inside out. Now, are you going to open those gates or not?”

  “I… I’ll open them, so, um… so please be patient,” the guard stuttered.

  “Good. I’m glad we could come to an understanding.”

  Letting go of the young man’s face, I took several steps back, until I was standing between Kari and Lin again. Then I waited for the young man to open the gate. He did so slowly, but that was mostly because he kept staring at Lin’s snake tail, his face pale and covered in a cold sweat. Fortunately, he did open the gate for us.

  “That was a little heavy handed,” Kari said as we walked past the gate and the guard.

  I shrugged. “I’m beginning to get annoyed by the reaction of these people. I expected everyone to fear Lin because she isn’t human at first, but the amount of people acting like she’s a terrifying monster is getting on my nerves.”

  Kari smiled at me as Lin drew closer. “Darling, thank you for standing up for this princess. This princess really appreciates it.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said. It was all I could say before we reached the front door.

  The Valstine Family’s mansion was only a single building, though it was fairly large at three stories and at least one thousand meters. It looked like several structures had been combined into one. The center section was shaped like a square and had a crenellation at the top. Meanwhile, the two sections on either side of the crenellation were shaped like a pair of Ls.

  “Lin, Kari.” I turned to them. “You two wait here for just a moment, please. Given the reactions we’ve had to Lin’s presence, it might be better if we don’t have her come up with me.”

  “This princess… understands,” Lin said in a soft, meek voice. I almost flinched.

  Kari walked close to Lin and grabbed her hand. “I understand as well. Do not worry. I will keep Lin company.”

  I nodded and turned back to the mansion. No one was there to meet me at the front door this time. I walked up the steps and past the columns that supported the triangle-shaped awning. After reaching the front door, I paused and stared at it, wondering for a moment how I was supposed to get someone’s attention. Should I knock? Would anyone hear it?

  Sighing, I grabbed the knocker in the center of the door and tapped it against the door several times, causing a loud tap-tap to echo back to me. I waited for several seconds. Then I waited for about a minute. Frowning when no one came, I was just about to knock on the door again, when it unlocked and was pushed open from the other side.

  It was the butler from last time. He was very old, had many wrinkles lining his face, and wore the refined black tunic and pants of a servant. He gazed at me for several seconds, and then sighed.

  “Young Master Eryk,” he greeted in a polite but reserved tone.

  “Sorry for coming unannounced. I’m here to see Fay,” I said. “Can you take me to her?”

  “I am afraid that request is impossible at the moment.” He frowned at me, paused, and then continued. “I have received firm instructions from both Lady Fay and Lord Valstine to not let you see her right now.”

  “Oh…” I closed my eyes as a sharp pain stung my chest. I rubbed it, but this pain wasn’t physical. “I see. Thank you for letting me know.”

  “Young Master Eryk,” the old servant began before I could leave, “I do not know what happened between you and Lady Fay, but that girl is currently very distraught at the moment. When she gets like this, she has a bad habit of moping in her room and ignoring the world around her. I would recommend giving her a few days to recover before attempting to see her again.”

  I wasn’t sure why this man was being so helpful by giving me advice. Perhaps he was trying to help Fay in his own way. Maybe he recognized that hiding from that which hurt you did not actually help you in the long run. That said, the fact that I had hurt Fay enough that she wanted to shut herself in her room was painful, though I knew it was nothing compared to what she must have been going through.

  “I understand.” I bowed to him. “I’ll come back again some other time.”

  “Your two friends are welcome to come back as well,” the old man said. “Although most people in the Valstine Family would probably panic at the sight of a Lamia.”

  While I was curious to know how he knew about Lamia, I figured he was just well read, unlike a lot of other people. Nodding at him, I returned to Kari and Lin as the servant closed the door.

  “No good?” Kari asked.

  I shook my head. “Fay has requested that I not be allowed to see her.”

  Kari bit her lip. “I should have expected this. Fay tries to act confident on the outside, but she’s very fragile inside. She has always been the kind of girl who mopes whenever she gets hurt. Do you think I should use my authority as the Princess of Nevaria to make him take us to her?”

  After giving her offer serious consideration, I shook my head. “That would be very high handed. What’s more, I don’t think it will help us in this instance. It might serve to push Fay further away.”

  “You are definitely right,” Kari agreed with a sigh.

  “This princess does not understand why this Fay girl is unwilling to see you.” Lin crossed her arms and frowned.

  “It’s because I hurt her.” I gave Lin a helpless smile. “I’m sure she is hurt because I rejected her, and she has decided that she doesn’t want to see me.”

  “That’s just dumb,” Lin muttered.

  “What should we do now?” asked Kari.

  “Now?” I looked up at the sky, at the sun that was blazing overhead. “I will have to head over to the library soon. I’m closing today.”

  “Should we go with you?” she asked, but I shook my head.

  “You can come a little later, but I’ll never get my work done if you two are around.” I smiled as a thought crossed my mind. “Maybe you can use this opportunity to go shopping.”

  “Shopping?” Kari tilted her head while Lin just looked confused.

  “For Lin,” I explained. “That dress she’s wearing is one of yours, right? Currently, Lin doesn’t have any clothes of her own because I haven’t been able to take her shopping myself. Her presence might still cause a bit of panic, but I think if the Princess of Nevaria is by her side, people will be a bit less inclined to overreact.”

  “That does sound like a good idea,” Kari admitted. “We could also use this time as a chance to do some bonding between girls.” She directed her gaze toward the Lamia. “How about it, Lin? Would you like to spend the day with me?”