WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 13

We managed to get through the rest of the tests without ruining another sparring arena. Fortunately, most of the Spiritualists did not have the same strength as Catalyna or Marko Kriger. Most of them were decidedly average.

Kari had joined us at some point during the testingand was now standing with Lin and Fay as I gazed at the worn faces of the people who’d taken my test. It had been a long time since I’d led anybody. However, I still recalled what it felt like to be the leader of a sect… even if I was mostly just a figurehead.

“The testing is now over,” I began. “All of you have performed admirably. I’d like you to come back here tomorrow. During that time, I will be handing out your ranks, which will determine what sort of missions you can take.”

Hearing this dismissal, most of the Spiritualists left, but Catalyna and Marko stayed behind. The brightly smiling young woman walked up to me.

“That was a pretty interesting test,” she began, and then changed the subject. “It seems you’re moving up in the world. When I first heard word that you were looking for people to join your sect, I couldn’t believe it. The idea that someone of your stature would start a mercenary company was unfathomable. However, I suppose anything is possible with the backing of Empress Hilda.”

“Mercenary companies don’t have a very good reputation,” I said. “Most of them are disreputable and untrustworthy, so you can’t hire them for delicate or confidential tasks. The sect I’m creating is one that has the trust of Empress Hilda. I’m hoping that by having the empress herself vouch for us, the people of Nevaria will be more inclined to hire us for quests. The Nevarian Spiritualists and Imperial Royal Guard are only supposed to protect the people and the peace. They cannot take on dangerous quests that weren’t given to them by their commanding officer or the empress.”

“Yes, that is very true. The Nevarian Spiritualists and Imperial Royal Guard are limited in what they can do,” Catalyna admitted. “I must admit, it’s a good idea, this sect of yours. I look forward to seeing how all this pans out. Well, I suppose we’ll be off for now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Catalyna turned around and began walking away. Marko took one last look at me, then Lin, and then he too left, trailing after his sister.

After making sure everyone had exited through the front gate, Kari led me, Fay, and Lin up to the top floor. On the way to our living space, we ran into Jessie. The girl was already hard at work cleaning the halls.

“Jessie,” Kari said.

“Y-Yes, Princess Kari—I mean, Mistress Kari?” asked the nervous Jessie, who was holding a duster in one hand and dressed from head to toe in a frilly black and white tunic.

“Could you please travel down to the kitchens and ask Storkokk if he can make a light snack for us? We’ll be in the main office on the fifth floor, so please deliver the food there,” said Kari.

“Y-yes! I will do that at once!”

Jessie was so nervous that she actually tripped over her own feet as she turned around and walked down the hall. As I watched her faceplant, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe we shouldn’t have hired her. While thinking this, Jessie stood back up quickly and renewed her march, but with her ears now redder than a fire.

“That girl is afraid of us.” Lin frowned as her longer than average tongue flicked out of her lips. “This princess can sense that girl’s fear.”

“Jessie is very nervous because she’s never been near people so famous before,” Kari explained to us. “Anyway, let’s head up to our living quarters. We can talk once we’re there.”

Nobody argued with her and we made our way up to the fifth floor.

It was no surprise that our living space had undergone a major case of redecorating. There were several new bookshelves filled with tomes and scrolls. Demon Beast skin stretched across some of the walls where there was nothing. There were no paintings, but given how this was a sect and not a noble’s mansion, that only made sense. I was glad the girls had the sense to not make things too gaudy.

Kari had all of us sit down in the main room, which consisted of a desk over by the far wall at the back, a pair of sofas in the center, and a number of drawers, cabinets, and even a few hardy-looking plants.

The desk was easily the largest piece of furniture in the room. It was several meters across and curved in the shape of a U. The chair sitting in the middle was built on a spoke, so it could swivel in 180 degrees. I personally didn’t think such a big desk was needed, but I knew better than to argue over something so small.

We sat down on the two couches, with myself and Kari sitting on one couch, while Fay and Lin sat on the other.

“Most of the people we tested aren’t what I’d call the cream of the crop,” I began with something of a sigh. “Not all of them are bad, but none of them have managed to reach the Second State of Spiritualism. Even Catalyna, who is the strongest among the group wishing to join us, would not rank higher than a C-rank Spiritualist.”

When the three women heard my own assessment, Kari and Fay seemed slightly surprised, but they mastered their expressions soon enough.

“How would you rank us, then?” asked Kari.

I studied her for a moment before answering honestly. “I’d rank you three as B-rank Spiritualists. All three of you have reached the Second State of Spiritualism and are well on your way to mastering it. Once you’ve reached the Third State of Spiritualism, I’d bump you up to an A-rank Spiritualist.” I paused to consider something. “Of course, even without the Second State of Spiritualism, you three are a lot more powerful than other people thanks to the alchemy pills I’ve made to refine your bodies and increase your Spiritual Power. Reaching the Second State of Spiritualism doesn’t automatically make someone a B-rank Spiritualist, but it does help.”

“If no one except the four of us are B-rank and above, doesn’t that mean none of the other Spiritualists can take on harder quests?” asked Fay.

“It does.” I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. “I think I’m going to have to train the Spiritualists who join us until they have met my standards.”

Leaning back on the sofa, I could not help but regret my decision to form a sect, even though I knew it was kind of necessary. We needed to create a group who could accomplish tasks that were not in the modus operandi of the Nevarian Spiritualists and Imperial Royal Guards. What’s more, the Alchemist Association needed help gathering herbs and other medicinal ingredients—including monster cores. Sure, they could hire mercenary companies for that, but I thought it would be better if they had a group dedicated to gathering ingredients.

“Do you plan on training them while Fay and I are in school?” asked Kari.

“I’m gonna have to,” I admitted with a frown. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I released a weary sigh. “At least it won’t cut into my training right now. I’ve currently reached a bottleneck in my cultivation. I do not have the ability to gain enlightenment and reach Fourth State of Spiritualism, which means the only thing I can do is increase my Spiritual Power, but I can’t gain more Spiritual Power using the methods I have been.”

Up to this point, I had been using the method of exhausting my Spiritual Power and using Spiritual Recovery Pills to regain the power. This method was similar to how people exercised. You tear down the muscles through various exercises, and then rebuild them with rest and a healthy diet. However, this method could only take someone so far, and I had reached the point where this form of exhausting and recovering my Spiritual Power barely netted me any gains.

“I think refining a Yin-Yang Spiritual Enhancement Pill would help you break through this bottleneck,” Fay said suddenly. “But the ingredients you need for this pill are very rare. You’ll have to travel even deeper into the Demon Beast Mountain Range if you want to get some of these ingredients.”

My thoughts ground to a halt as I stared at Fay in shock. “How do you know about the Yin-Yang Spiritual Enhancement Pill?”

“I… I don’t know…” Fay suddenly placed a hand on her forehead as her brow crinkled. Her eyes became glazed over as if she was looking at something that couldn’t be perceived by human eyes. “I just… I think I remember seeing something about it in a dream, but I… I can’t remember the specifics.”

This wasn’t the first time Fay had said something weird based on a dream she had, and she wasn’t the only one who’d been having strange dreams. Some of the nights when I slept with Kari, she would wake up from a nightmare and begin crying. Her dreams were often filled with death and violence, she said, though not all of them were bad. That said, their dreams were always fuzzy and they could never remember the specifics.

I never said anything, but I really was worried about these two.

“Well, you aren’t wrong,” I said at last. “The Yin-Yang Spiritual Enhancement Pill is what I need to refine in order to break through my bottleneck. It’s a powerful pill that calls upon a specific element, summoning that element to you and forcing it into your body, allowing you to become more intimate and familiar with your elemental affinity, to the point where your body becomes able to naturally absorb that element. However, not only does it require over thirty ingredients, but at least ten of those ingredients can only be found by traveling deep into the Demon Beast Mountain Range.”

I knew where to find the ingredients, of course, having refined this pill back in my previous life. The problem was that it would probably take several months to gather the ingredients. It had taken me about five or six months in my previous life, and this time I would want to also find ingredients for Kari, Lin, and Fay, which meant it would take even longer.

Sadly, with the current state of Nevaria, I couldn’t afford to just drop everything I was doing and leave.

“Well, I’ll worry about that later,” I said with a sigh. “For now, I am going to focus on increasing the strength of the people who joined us today. I also need to begin contacting noble families whose business relies on buying and selling items from the Demon Beast Mountain Range like monster cores, Demon Beast hides, and furs.”

“You can leave that part to me,” Kari said. “I’ll use Mother’s connections and send out letters to the various noble families letting them know they can hire us for quests. I can also teach our clerks how to rank quests based on things like difficulty, payout, and other factors.”

“This princess will help too!” Lin said suddenly.

“Do you want to help learn about the ranking system and how to classify quests?” asked Kari.

“No.” Lin shook her head. “This princess wants to learn about Runes.”

“You want to learn about Runes?” Kari blinked.

“What brought this on?” I asked.

“This princess has been thinking a lot, and she has realized that she hasn’t been able to help Darling at all.” Lin crossed her arms and frowned. “She also can’t train like the rest of you can. Her powers increase with age and don’t grow through training, so she can only hone the skills she already has. But if this princess can learn Runes, she believes she can become an asset to Darling.”

“I don’t mind teaching you about Runes,” I said. Lin’s eyes lit up like an S-rank Spiritual Light Technique.

“Um… I would also like to learn about Runes,” Fay admitted, timidly raising her hand.

“I can teach both of you,” I said.

“We can learn together,” Lin said with a bright smile.

“If you two are going to learn more about Runes, then I believe I shall as well.” Kari looked at the three of us with a glimmer in her eyes. “It’s more fun to learn something new alongside the people you love.”

I didn’t disagree with her, and so it was decided that on top of training to master the Second State of Spiritualism, I would also be teaching them about Runes.

“By the way,” Kari suddenly started talking again. “Have you come up with a name for our sect?”

Her words made me, Fay, and Lin realize that I had never named our sect, and now the other two girls were looking at me as well. I felt a little put on the spot. However, I tried my best to think of a good sect name, something that would let everyone know what we were about.

“I think I have one,” I said at last. “The Nevarian Braves.”

It wasn’t a very original name. Admittedly, I was taking from the name Brave Vesperia, replacing Vesperia with Nevaria and flipping the words around. I never claimed to be good at naming things. Even the Spiritual Techniques I created had unimaginative and uninspired names.

“That works,” Fay said.

“This princess approves,” Lin added.

“Kari? What do you think?” I asked.

Kari didn’t say anything for the longest time, and the look on her face, which displayed far more emotional depth than I felt my name should have, took me aback. Her face was a little pale. Her eyes were wide. She looked like she had seen a malevolent spirit.

Before I could ask if she was okay, this expression disappeared and was replaced with a smile.

“I like it,” she said at last.

I wanted to ask her about that look on her face, but I wasn’t sure now was the appropriate time. It seemed to me like she didn’t know why she reacted so strongly either. In any event, it looked like we finally had a name for our sect.

The Nevarian Braves was officially open for business.

… Sort of.

***

We arrived back at the Imperial Royal Palace several hours later, when the evening sun was beginning to set. A pair of servants opened the door for us upon our return. When we entered the entrance hall, Garret the butler was waiting for us.

He bowed low and said, “Mistress Kari. Mistress Lin. Mistress Fay. Master Eryk. It is good to see you have returned home. Her Majesty Hilda has requested that I ask you to travel to the informal dining hall upon your return. Her Majesty Hilda wishes to have dinner with you four.”

Empress Hilda did not often have dinner with her family. She was normally busy working. If she wanted to see us, then it meant she had something important to talk about.

This was actually a good opportunity since I had something I wanted to speak to her about.

“I understand,” Kari said for the four of us. “We’ll get refreshed and meet Mother. Is she in her study?”

“She is right now, but she’ll be heading to the informal dining hall soon,” Garret answered.

Kari acknowledged Garret’s words before leading Fay and Lin back to her room. I didn’t share a room with them since we were not wed yet, and instead I went to the room I slept in on the second floor, grabbed a spare change of clothes, and took a very quick bath in the bathing room on the first floor of the west wing. Then I dressed myself in simple black pants, a white collared shirt, and a black vest made of Demon Beast hide.

I was the first to arrive at the informal dining hall, but that was to be expected since Kari, Lin, and Fay usually took longer to bathe. Empress Hilda was already present, of course. The woman sat at the head of the table. Valence was also present, but he was sitting at the other end. She saw me, smiled, and gestured toward the seat on her left.

“I never did thank you for rescuing Geirolf,” Empress Hilda said as her opening line while I sat down in the seat indicated. “I truly am grateful to you for rescuing my youngest son. He is a bit of a handful. He tries to act overly confident because of his inferiority complex toward his brothers, which leads him to making rash decisions. I was afraid he might have finally gotten himself into more trouble than he could handle, but thanks to you, he made it back safe and sound.”

“You are welcome.” I could have said something cool like, “this isn’t something you need to thank me for”, but I knew that was not what Empress Hilda wanted. When the empress thanks you, you do not reply with false humility. “How is Geirolf?”

“He has made a full recovery thanks to you,” Empress Hilda said with a smile. “I do not know where he is currently, but the last I saw of him, he, Earland, and Mikkel were training hard in the courtyard. I’m certain that their recent encounter with the Basilisk and that Sekbeist Shaman have opened their eyes to their own inadequacies.”

While Empress Hilda and I spoke, Kari, Fay, and Lin entered the dining hall.

Fay and Kari were dressed in simple gowns that went down to their ankles. Fay’s was a fiery red that perfectly matched her glorious locks of hair, while Kari’s was a blue several shades lighter than her gorgeous eyes. On the other hand, Lin was not wearing a dress but a simple sleeveless shirt that wrapped around her breasts and a skirt that was just long enough to hide her privates from view.

“Mother,” Kari greeted Empress Hilda as she sat on the woman’s right. Fay sat on my right, while Lin sat on Kari’s right.

“Kari, you seem well.”

“Yes, Mother.”

A small but inane conversation took place between Kari and her mother. It was the kind of talk that seemed natural between a mother and her daughter, though I honestly didn’t know if that was true. Empress Hilda asked Kari about how she was doing, and Kari enthusiastically explained to her all of the things she was doing in school, what she was doing for the newly formed Nevarian Braves, and how she, Fay, and Lin planned on learning about Runes from me.

“I had not realized you were also a Rune Master.” Empress Hilda expressed some surprise. “A powerful Spiritualist who has reached the Third State of Spiritualism, a Master Alchemist, and now a Rune Master. You are truly full of surprises.”

“I wouldn’t call myself a master of Alchemy or Runes,” I said at last. “I know enough to be considered an adept at most. If we go with standard rankings, that would be an intermediate-level learner. Among Alchemists and Rune Inscribers, the rankings would be considered as follows: Novice, apprentice, adept, expert, master, and grand master. As you can see, I am literally right in the middle.”

In my previous life, Kari had become an Expert Rune Inscriber, but she had apprenticed herself under Immig—a Dwoerg Rune Grand Master who inscribed all the weapons Brave Vesperia had used, which had been forged by Sundur. Had she lived a few more years, she probably would have become a Rune Master. I was nothing compared to her.

“Be that as it may, it sounds as though your knowledge of Runes far surpasses anyone in Nevaria,” Empress Hilda stated. “That armor you four wear is incredible. My own armor is inscribed with several Runes that make it lighter than a feather and easy to maneuver in, but it is nothing compared to the Runes your armor has been inscribed with. The same goes for your knowledge of Alchemy.”

I honestly did not like taking credit I wasn’t due. The Runes inscribed into our armor had been created by Immig. I was merely copying his work, but I also couldn’t tell that to Empress Hilda.

“Thank you,” I said instead.

“Would it be possible to have you teach others?” she inquired.

I shook my head. “Teaching people how to inscribe Runes is a time consuming task, and it would cut into the time I have to train the Spiritualists who are planning to join the Nevarian Braves.”

“Nevarian Braves?” Empress Hilda asked.

“That’s the name of our sect,” Kari answered for me.

“I see.” Nodding to signify her understanding, Empress Hilda looked at me. “Please continue.”

At her gesture, I kept talking. “All of the Spiritualists who joined us so far are only C-rank or below. While some of them displayed a decent amount of knowledge and have combat experience, they aren’t strong enough for what we need, so I need to personally beat them into shape. On top of that, I plan on teaching Kari, Fay, and Lin about Runes. I also have to help them with their own training, and I need to begin planning a trip to attain several rare ingredients for a set of alchemy pills that I need to refine for the four of us.” I gestured to myself, Fay, Kari, and Lin. “All of this is going to take a lot of time, so I can’t really afford to teach others.”

As I denied her request, Valence frowned at me with stern disapproval, but I wasn’t bothered by this. Valence was incredibly loyal to Empress Hilda. Naturally, he believed that someone should never deny a request from her.

“I understand.” Empress Hilda fortunately didn’t see things the same way. “You do indeed have a lot of tasks ahead of you. I certainly won’t force you to teach others about Runes if you do not believe you have the time.”

I nodded in thanks, and then offered a small concession. “That said, if you know people who are capable of inscribing Runes into items, I can gift you several Rune Arrays that they can use in their crafting.”

“That would be greatly appreciated,” Empress Hilda said.

Dinner arrived halfway into our conversation. It was braised beef in red wine. The meal was delectable. The meat that melted in my mouth was tender and juicy, hitting my tongue with a burst of simple and complex flavors that blended together in perfect harmony. It was made with a simple salad on the side that complimented the bold flavors of the meat and helped cleanse the palate.

While I ate several helpings worth of the meat, Lin scarfed down four times more food than anyone else. As always, she was an impressive eater.

After dinner, a bottle of dessert wine was brought out for us.

“Do you know if the Nevarian Spiritualists were able to return to Bucharest?” I asked Empress Hilda.

Smiling as if she had been wondering when I would ask this questions, the empress nodded. “They have. That is actually why Dante is not here right now. He traveled there with a large squad two days ago. They plan to salvage the Basilisk you killed and search through the sewers to see if they can find any clues about what that Sekbeist Shaman was doing there.” He brow suddenly furrowed. “The fact that a Sekbeist was found so close to Nevaria is disturbing, but more than that, I am concerned by the fact that we have encountered two of them within the span of two months. I cannot help but think there may be more of them hidden within the Demon Beast Mountain Range.”

“I’m certain there are,” I said. “That Sekbeist Shaman referred to himself plurally. I believe what he meant was there are more Sekbeists out there. Sadly, he managed to escape, so I can only assume he left to inform his leader about us.”

Empress Hilda took a deep breath, and even Valence seemed to stiffen in his seat.

“So what you are saying is that we should do everything within our power to become stronger,” Empress Hilda said.

“Yes.”

My words didn’t just get a reaction from Empress Hilda and Valence. Kari, Fay, and Lin also straightened in their seats. I could see determination blazing quietly behind their vibrant eyes. No doubt they were planning to train even harder than before.

“That reminds me,” I began, causing everyone to look at me. “Is there anything here in Nevaria that the Sekbeists could want?”

Empress Hilda suddenly appeared uncertain. “I do not believe so, but I will also admit that even I do not know all of Nevaria’s secrets. This city-state was built thousands of years ago, long before even the Catastrophe that engulfed the world and destroyed many of our cities. A lot of knowledge has been lost to us. That said, I can check the Astralia Royal Family’s hidden library to see if there is anything they might be after.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“There’s no need for that.” Empress Hilda waved a hand through the air. “This matter concerns all of us, after all.”

“On an unrelated note, since we’re going to be in charge of our new sect, we plan on moving to our headquarters,” I announced.

“It would be easier to manage your sect if you lived there.” Empress Hilda tapped a finger against the table in agitation. “I suppose that is fine. However, I will request that you four visit the Imperial Royal Palace every few days. We can use the excuse that you are making a report to me on your progress. When do you plan on moving?”

“Tomorrow.”

“So soon?”

I shrugged. “Better sooner than later.”

Empress Hilda sighed again, but she accepted my simple reasoning.  

Our conversation for the rest of the evening was nowhere near as grave a topic as what we had been discussing, but while I laughed at Lin praising the chef’s cooking as she drooled, smiled at Kari as she told her mother about her training, and felt my heart grow warm when Fay joined the conversation, I couldn’t stop the small nugget of worry from making my gut writhe in agitation. There was so much that I didn’t know, so much that I thought I knew that had turned out wrong.

Dinner eventually ended and Empress Hilda retired with Valence. The girls went to Kari’s room. Since I wasn’t married to them yet, we didn’t actually sleep together save the times when me or one of them requested it. Kari and Lin were much more forward about sleeping with me than Fay. The redhead had yet to actually come to me and request to share my bed. It was usually the other way around.

Of course, we didn’t always have sex. Sometimes we just snuggled.

That night as I laid on my bed, I thought about everything I was learning in this life, and I wondered: how much of the information that I had painstakingly gained about the Sekbeist in my previous life was true and how much of it was false?

I didn’t have an answer.