WIEDERGEBURT Act III - Chapter 11

I woke up to find myself resting inside of a tent. A canopy over my head greeted me. It seemed to be made from the hide of a Demon Beast, thoughI couldn’t figure out what sort of Demon Beast thanks to my sleep addled mind. On that note, my head was pounding. It felt like someone had split it open with a warhammer.

Grunting, I placed my hands against the ground and pushed myself until I was sitting up. My muscles felt stiff. Every muscle and bone in my body was aching. Just moving hurt.

I closed my eyes and channeled the water element through my body, almost slumping in relief when the element surged through me like a cleansing tidal wave. The aches disappeared. The stiffness in my muscles vanished. I felt a lot better, so much so that I could now take a look at my surroundings.

The first thing I realized was that I was not alone. Erica, Tungsten, and Dagan were lying on individual futons. All of them were still unconscious. Unconscious, but alive.

Heaving a sigh of relief, I tried figure out what I should do now. It was clear that we had somehow survived falling in the sea, though I didn’t know how, and that someone had rescued us, though I didn’t know who. Had we perhaps washed up on shore? I couldn’t even begin to guess, but I knew we were still near the ocean because the salty scent of sea water was drifting in through the flaps covering the entrance.

As I sat there in indecision, the door suddenly opened and a young woman who looked to be in her late teens entered. She paused when she found me sitting up. I stared at the girl, who stared back, blinking like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. I wondered if I should say something.

“Oh!” The girl made a startled exclamation before I could even open my mouth. “You’re awake. I’m so glad one of you finally woke up. Please wait right here. I’ll get the elder.”

I could only assume the elder was the leader of this place, but it wasn’t like I could ask her for confirmation. The girl rushed back outside before I could acknowledge her words. Sighing, I decided that the only thing I could do was wait.

A few seconds ticked by before a noise made me turn my head. It wasn’t coming from outside the tent. It was coming from the woman lying on my left.

Erica’s eyes slowly fluttered open as I crawled over to her, though they closed again several seconds later. I could tell she was awake though. The woman raised a hand to her face and released a pained groan.

“I’m glad to see you’re up,” I said.

“Eryk,” Erica muttered. “What happened? Where are we?”

“I don’t know where we are, but as for what happened…” I sat down beside Erica and removed her hand from her head, then placed my hand on her forehead and began channeling the water element into her. “I’m sure you remember what happened. That strange being emerged from the crystal coffin, said something about killing us before we became a threat, and destroyed the entire island.”

Erica sighed in relief as I healed her ravaged body. She was probably just as injured as I was.  

Her armor had been removed, or maybe it had been destroyed, and she was wearing nothing but a somewhat roughly textured shirt that looked a little primitive. It also seemed to be several sizes too small. The shirt stretched across her large chest. I could tell from the way her nipples poked through the fabric that she wasn’t wearing her breast bindings.

“I remember now.” Erica’s lips trembled as tears appeared in her eyes, though she didn’t let them fall. Admirably holding them in, she looked at me with an imploring gaze. “How many of us survived?”

“Aside from you and me, only Tungsten and Dagan survived,” I said softly.

“I… I see.” Erica bit her lower lip as if the physical pain would help mitigate the emotional pain she was no doubt feeling. “They’re all… dead… Karen and Hilda and Michelle… all of them are gone.”

I didn’t say anything. In fact, I pretended not to see the tears being shed by this strong woman who’d just lost the people she loved. There was nothing I could do to ease the pain she felt, except to let her cry it out.

Erica didn’t cry for long, stopping just a few minutes after she had begun. I removed my hand from her forehead and scooted back so I wasn’t in her face when she sat up.

“Thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome.”

Another two noises echoed from within the tent as Dagan and Tungsten woke up. With a sigh, I went over to them and healed them as well. I also decided to get them up to speed since I was sure they would also be disoriented. I informed them of the same thing I told Erica. They accepted the deaths of their comrades with the stoicism expected of them. I personally thought they’d have been better off crying it out, but these two men were far more stubborn and prideful than me.

“Do you happen to know where we are?” asked Tungsten.

“Somewhere near the border of the continent, I imagine.” I shrugged as I sat back on my futon. “I can smell salt water, which means we are at least close to the sea. I’m sure the elder that girl went to get can explain our situation to us better than I can.”

Tungsten accepted my words with a stoic nod and crossed his arms, not saying anything more. I already expected that. He was a man of few words, never talking anymore than he deemed necessary to get the point across. That was also the reason so many people listened to him when he spoke. They knew he only did so when it was important.

“I can’t believe everyone else is gone,” Dagan said with a sigh. He looked worn out and ragged, perhaps feeling weighed down by what happened.

“Considering what happened to us, it’s a miracle any of us managed to survive,” I said.

He sighed again. “I am aware of that.”

I glanced back at the flap, wondering when the elder would arrive.

“That person we saw on the platform,” Erica began. “The short one. That was Hreidmar, wasn’t it?”

“It was.” Nodding, I closed my eyes and recalled what I remembered during our time in Niðavellir and compared it to what I had seen on the floating island. “However, he was a lot different from how I remembered him. He seemed broken.”

“I imagine the Sekbeists tortured Hreidmar to the point where his mind broke,” Tungsten theorized. “They probably turned him into a mindless slave.”

“Don’t say things like that,” Erica admonished with unshed tears. “After everything that man did to help us return home, you should not say such things—even if it is true.”

“You are right. I apologize,” Tungsten said before going silent.

At that moment, the sound of footsteps alerted me to the arrival of two people seconds before the flaps to the tent opened and the pair I heard coming walked in.

One of them was the young girl. However, the other was an older man with long gray hair, thick eyebrows, and wrinkles lining his eyes and mouth. Despite looking old, his body appeared quite fit. He was probably a Spiritualist.

“It seems all of you are awake,” the man said. “My name is Sigurd. I am the leader of this small village you find yourselves in.”

“Thank you for treating our wounds,” Erica said with gratitude.

“You are welcome. However, I hope you will tell me how it is you all acquired those injuries,” he said. “When we found you four, all of you were washed up on the shore and in terrible shape. I honestly thought you were dead at first. It’s a miracle you four managed to survive, so I am curious to know how you received those injuries in the first place.”

I didn’t know if telling this man was a good idea, but it wasn’t like we could just not tell him anything. That would have been rude to the man who saved us.

We did our best to explain what happened. Sigurd and his daughter listened. While the man remained calm throughout most of our story, the girl was staring at us with wide eyes and made weird exclamations every time we reached a harrowing part of our journey. By the time we had finished, the girl was clasping her hands and looking at us with a reverence that disturbed me.

“It seems you four have indeed gone through something trying,” Sigurd said at last. “You four may stay here and recuperate if that is your desire.”

“Thank you very much,” Erica said again. This time, she, I, Tungsten, and Dagan offered the man a polite bow of gratitude.

“Think nothing of it,” the man said. “Now then, I should let you know that this village is located several kilometers from the Rotfang Forest. Should you wish to reach the Northern Plains, you will need to travel west from here and enter through the forest. I can give you a guide when you wish to leave. Many of our members have great experience traveling through the forest.”

We offered the man our gratitude again, but he merely waved it off with a smile and told us that someone would come by with dinner soon. The mention of dinner made our stomachs rumble. I wasn’t sure how long we had been asleep, but it must have been for awhile.

The girl Sigurn was with, who I learned was his granddaughter, did indeed return with food. As we were eating, a strange sense of nostalgia washed over me. I couldn’t help but feel like I had been in a similar situation to the one that I was in now at some point in the past.

I just couldn’t remember when that was.

***

I woke up early the next day to find myself enveloped by the warmth of three gorgeous young woman. Kari was on my left, her arms wrapped firmly around one of mine, which was nestled firmly in the valley of her breasts. Unlike her, Fay was slightly removed from me. It was like she felt too embarrassed to snuggle, but she still wanted to be close, and thus had opted to hold my hand instead. Of course, resting on top of all three of us was Lin. The precocious Lamia’s tail was coiled around all three of us.

Since I was still tired from last night’s dream, I didn’t wake the four of them up right away. Moments like this were precious. The warmth from these three girls gave me a peace of mind that I hadn’t known in a long time. I took a great deal of guilty pleasure in just lying there.

However, time waited for no one, and I knew we had to get up, so I began shaking all three of them awake.

“Is it… morning already?” Kari asked as she sat in the futon and stretched her arms. “I feel like I didn’t get nearly enough sleep…”

I watched as her breasts bounced within the confines of her shirt. She was wearing clothes, but she wasn’t wearing her breast bindings. Her shirt stretched across her chest and lifted up to reveal her stomach when she raised her arms above her head.

“This princess wants to keep sleeping until she is five degrees warmer, Darling. Just five more degrees…”

Unlike Kari, who at least had the decency to get up, Lin laid her head right back on my chest and nuzzled her face into it. I normally wouldn’t have been bothered by such behavior. Actually, her action more often than not led to us having sex, but we couldn’t do that here. Propriety and all that.

“Lin, if you don’t get up, Big Sister is going to be cross with you,” Kari suddenly said.

“I’m up! I’m up! Please don’t be angry, Big Sister!” Lin suddenly bolted upright, her eyes wide open.

“I’m glad.” Kari’s smile went from dark to pleasant as she held out her hand. “Come on. Why don’t we begin helping everyone at the camp.”

“Okay.”

Lin took Kari’s hand and allowed the blonde girl to pull her to the tent entrance. Before leaving, Kari turned back to me and smiled.

“Come out when you two are ready,” she said. “I think Fay needs a bit more time with you.”

“Um… sure,” I said.

I didn’t know what Kari meant until I looked at Fay and realized that her eyes were red and puffy from crying. I hadn’t noticed it before because my sleep-addled mind hampered my thought processes, but now that I was awake, I could see that Fay had been crying in her sleep.

“What’s wrong?” I scooted up to her, cupped her cheeks in my hand, and began gently wiping away the tears on her face. A bright red blush sprang to her cheeks. She didn’t push away from me, however, instead nuzzling her face into my hand as if seeking warmth.

“It’s nothing. I just had a bad dream.” She reached up to grab my hand, keeping it pinned to her cheeks.

“Will you tell me about it?” I asked.

Fay did not say anything for awhile, but I wasn’t in a rush. I mean, I think we were technically on a time limit since we’d be leaving the Demon Beast Mountain Range today. However, I was sure we could spare some time for this.

“I can’t remember much. Even now, the dream is fading, but… I dreamt that my entire body was in agony, like I was being burned alive, but I did not die. Despite some part of me wishing for death, another part of me refused to give up and kept enduring.” She took a slow, shuddering breath before continuing. “I was wandering through a forest in my dream, picking herbs, trying to cure the unending pain of my body being ravaged, but even the herbs could only mitigate it. They couldn’t completely heal me, and so my life became one of constant agony… and then you woke me up.”

I listened to her as she talked about the dream she’d had. This wasn’t the first time she’d had such a dream, and she wasn’t even the only one. Kari and Lin often had dreams like this too. I had a theory that these weren’t dreams at all but visions from their past lives before I traveled back in time. That said, I didn’t know how or why they were having these dreams. Perhaps it was because of the symbols that appeared on their chest whenever we had sex, but I didn’t know.

Since I couldn’t think of anything to say that could help her, I pulled Fay into my arms and held her close. This fiery redhead was normally shy. She never instigated intimacy between us, but she never turned it away either. The moment I hugged her, she wrapped her arms around my waist and clutched the back of my shirt with her calloused hands.

We stayed that way for a moment before eventually breaking apart. I smiled at the reluctance Fay expressed.

“Are you feeling better?”

“A little.” She gave me a tentative smile. “Thank you.”

“That is not something you need to thank me for. I will always be here for you.”

Deciding I could afford to be a little bolder, I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. Fay stiffened. Her entire spine seemed to grow ridged. Then she melted into my kiss and began tentatively kissing back.

Her lips were so soft. They were fuller than Kari’s. Their lushness was something I took great relish in nibbling on, though I held myself back today. We were in the Demon Beast Mountain Range, in a camp with numerous other Spiritualists. There was a time and place for everything, and now was not the time for me to let my amorous thoughts take hold.

“Come on.” I grabbed Fay’s hands and pulled the girl to her feet. “Let’s head outside.”

“Mmm. Okay,” Fay said in a soft voice.

The two of us traveled outside of the tent and looked around at the people walking across the campsite, carrying boxes, loading up cargo, and taking apart tents. It seemed we would be getting ready to move out soon.

Kari and Lin were standing beside a large pot filled with a type of gruel that had been prepared. They held a bowl filled with the gruel in one hand and used a spoon in the other. Lin didn’t seem to care for it, but she ate the food despite being carnivorous in nature.

Fay and I also came up and were given a bowl and spoon to eat with. The one standing by the pot, ladling our food, was none other than Mikkel. He smiled at the two of us.

“Thank you for rescuing my brother.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied, trying hard not to shrug. “Geirolf is a part of my family too now, so it’s only natural that I would rescue him.”

“I guess so,” Mikkel replied cheerfully. “Still, I am grateful to you.”

I nodded but didn’t say anything more, instead choosing to focus on eating. The gruel wasn’t great. Actually, the bland taste made me wondered if anything had been used to give it flavor. Even though it tasted like nothing, I still ate the food because I was hungry.

After the meal, Kari, Lin, Fay, and I rolled up the futon, took apart our tent, and loaded it into one of the two wagons that the Nevarian Spiritualists had brought with them. Everyone else was doing the same. Most everyone had already finished loading all their supplies up and were getting ready to begin moving again. There were only a few stragglers trying to quicken their pace.

Once everyone was ready, Dante and Rainer ordered their forces to move. I was told to hop in one of the unused cats with Kari, Lin, and Fay. As the Mastodons attached to the harnesses began pulling the carts, I leaned back against the wall as Lin rested her six meter long tail across our laps watched the passing scenery.

Our journey home had begun.

***

When I had journeyed to Bucharest with just me and Kari, it had only taken a few hours to reach the ancient and long-abandoned city. I had pushed the Flash Step to the limit and made the journey in record-breaking time. However, we could not do that here with so many people traveling alongside us. We started our travels early in the morning, but we did not arrive in Nevaria until late evening.

Once we made it past the north gate, the Nevarian Spiritualists traveled back to the northern garrison headquarters. Our group, which consisted of myself, Kari, Fay, Lin, Earland, Mikkel, Geirolf, and Dante climbed into a cart that was waiting for us. Once everyone had climbed inside, the driver whipped the reins and the Mastodon began lumbering forward.

Rainer did not join us.

“I’m going to let Rainer handle the paperwork,” Dante admitted with a careless shrug when I asked him about it. “He’s a lot better at administrative work than me.”

Well, given how lazy Dante often acted, I could believe that.

As the cart moved, very few people conversed inside, though I think that had more to do with how tired everyone was. Traveling through the Demon Beast Mountain Range was always an exhausting experience. Kari, Fay, and Lin did talk a little, but they spoke in hushed voices so as not to be obtrusive.

I was mostly quietly sitting against the wall, contemplating the matter of the Sekbiest Shaman. While I thought, I felt a pair of eyes on me. I turned around to look at the person who had been staring at me.

Geirolf looked away when he realized I had spotted him staring. I frowned, but then went back to back to my musings… only to sigh when I felt his eyes on me again.

What to do? I couldn’t quite figure out why Geirolf was staring at me, so I didn’t know whether I should confront him about it now or later, but the more he stared, the more discomfiting I felt. I decided to just confront him.

“Is there something on your mind?” I asked him.

“Wha—no.” Geirolf looked away. “There’s nothing on my mind.”

“Really?” I muttered, not believing him for even a minute. “So you don’t have something you wish to say to me?”

“W-why would I want to say anything to you?” he snapped back.

I frowned at how difficult this boy was being. If he didn’t have anything to say to me, then why was he staring so much?

“I personally think what you should be saying to Eryk is ‘thank you,’” Kari chimed in without shame. “Eryk dropped everything to journey into the Demon Beast Mountain Range and rescue you. The fact that you haven’t even thanked him yet is pretty rude.”

“W-whatever,” Geirolf grumbled.

“I agree with Kari,” Mikkel added.

“You should thank him,” Earland put in his two valis.

“S-shut up! Shut up, both of you!”

As Geirolf put on a strange hot and cold act, Dante laughed, which only riled the boy up further. Fortunately, Fay did not seem interested in joining the others in teasing the boy, though, sadly, Lin had absolutely no trouble doing just that.

“A man who is unable to show gratitude isn’t really a man,” she told Geirolf, whose face had gone red with shame.

“Okay, everyone,” Dante said, gesturing with his hands for them to calm themselves. “Settle down. There’s no need to get on Geirolf’s case right now.”

While it was clear that a few of them—like Kari and Lin—wanted to keep harassing the boy until he expressed gratitude for me saving him, everyone grew silent. Lin extended her long tail across the cart until it was resting on mine, Kari’s, and Fay’s laps. Kari had set her head against my shoulder. On the other hand, Fay’s brows were furrowed and it looked like she was thinking deeply about something. I was curious to know what she was thinking about. However, I didn’t ask right now.

We eventually made it to the front gate of the Imperial Royal Palace. Members of the Imperial Royal Guard were guarding the gate, but when they saw Dante sitting in the cart, they snapped off a salute and opened the gate for our group to proceed. The driver cracked the reigns again, and the two Mastodons pulled the vehicle up the hill and into the main courtyard of the Imperial Royal Palace.

It amused me that we were using Mastadons instead of Mares. Mastadons were normally used to pull heavy equipment like the kind used in construction. I could only assume we were using them here because Lin weighed about six times more than the average human.

When we reached the entrance, our group was shocked to discover Empress Hilda and Valence waiting for us. The empress was dressed in a simple gown that looked expensive but was unembellished with any sort of decorations. That said, I didn’t think the woman needed something extravagant to look magnificent. If anything, the lack of adornments allowed her beauty to stand out, making her all the more radient.

The moment she saw our group arrive, Empress Hilda walked up to us with feigned poise and stopped in front of Geirolf, who was trying to look anywhere but at her.

“Mother, I—”

Geirolf was unable to say anything more as Empress Hilda engulfed him in a hug. She held him tightly to her chest as if afraid he would disappear the moment she let go. No tears fell from her eyes, but I thought I could sense the intense relief she felt upon seeing her youngest son alive and well.

“I am so glad you are okay,” she murmured. “I was really worried about you.”

Empress Hilda did not seem like the type to doll out affection often, which perhaps explained why Geirolf didn’t seem to know what he should do. He just stood there like an idiot.

The empress eventually had her fill of hugging her youngest son. She released the confused boy and hugged both Earland and Mikkel. They were a lot more accepting of the hug than Geirolf. Perhaps they expected it and mentally prepared themselves.

Then she got to Kari.

“I’m so proud of you, my daughter,” Empress Hilda said as she hugged the girl tight. “You’ve made me so proud.”

“T-thank you, Mother,” Kari mumbled as she hugged the woman back. Her voice was soft but filled with an overwhelming amount of emotions.

Everyone else stood back as they allowed mother and daughter their moment. Looking at the two of them gave me a warm feeling. The others seemed to feel the same way. Fay and Lin were smiling as they watched the scene, and even Dante, Earland, and Mikkel looked like they were happy to see such a touching moment. Geirolf looked a little conflicted. However, the true shocker was Valence.

I couldn’t remember a single time since meeting the man where I had seen him smile, but right at that moment, he was wearing a soft, tender smile. It was warm and gentle, filled with what I could only assume were fatherly feelings. Of course, the moment he realized I had noticed, his expression became stern. Even so, I would not be forgetting that sight any time soon.

“All of you must be exhausted,” Empress Hilda said after she had hugged all of her children. “Why not rest and recover from your ordeal?”

No one was about to disagree with her idea. In fact, the moment it was suggested, Kari and Lin grabbed me by the arm and began pulling me along behind them. Of course, Kari had also grabbed Fay’s hand and dragged her with us.

I looked at Fay as she and I were dragged along behind Lin and Kari, who were chatting about how they longed to have a hot bath, and gave her a helpless smile. Fay smiled back.

That evening, I luxuriated in a warm bath with the three women who had become an indispensable part of my life.