WIEDERGEBURT Act II: Chapter 39

 Kari really did know me too well.

She understood that if she had brought the matter of children up to me beforehand, I would have flat out refused her. I knew next to nothing about children. The one child I’d ever associated with was a little boy who’d called himself my “rival for Kari’s love”, and he had died in my arms when we were forced to flee into the Endless Desert. How could I possibly be a good father? Yet as time went on and Kari’s pregnancy began showing, I found the idea of being a father becoming more appealing, more attractive.

Sometimes it really was easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

The only issue we ran into was that her pregnancy meant she couldn’t join in any quests, and since she and I were the strongest members of Brave Vesperia, our fighting strength had been cut by about a third.

I made up for this deficiency by having more people join us. In the year since Kari’s pregnancy began, our sect had gone from a mere 50 members to about 300.

They were all green, but I did my best to beat them into shape. We mostly used group training. I would teach them battle formations, tactics, Spiritual Techniques, and how to properly wield their weapons. I even began creating my own Spiritual Techniques simply so I could teach them to others—which was harder than it looked because I couldn’t use Spiritual Techniques like everyone else. Once the basics were drilled into them, I would beat them senseless until they eventually got better.

Pain was a powerful motivator.

On top of training the new recruits, there were numerous quests that I was personally requested to take part in. I only took part in major operations, though. Any time Erica or Tungsten had a request for me to defeat a Sekbeist Warlord, defend a major city, or destroy a Warp Gate, I would travel there with a group of my most elite sect members. Within the past year, I had taken part in no less than 64 quests.

Of course, right now I was currently on something even more harrowing and terrifying than a quest to defeat Sekbeists.

Kari had gone into labor.

“Are you trying to wear a hole in the floor with all that pacing?” asked Erica as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed and a calm expression on her face.

I stopped pacing long enough to look at the raven-haired beauty, and then I began pacing again. However, this time, on top of burning the carpet with my boots, I was also ranting.

“I can’t believe they kicked me out of the room. I should be in there with Kari, and yet those people… that infernal woman… she had the gall to toss me out! She said I was causing Kari to feel distressed, but there’s no way—I mean, I’m her husband! So, okay, we haven’t actually gotten married, but she and I have been together for years now! I should be allowed inside!”

“If this is how you were acting when you were inside of the room, I can see why the nurse kicked you out,” Erica responded in a calm voice that only made me more frustrated. It was like she was implying that I would be anything except supportive of my wife while she gave childbirth.

Just then, a loud scream emerged from the other side of the door that I was pacing in front of.

“KARI!”

“Oh, no you don’t.”

THUMP!

“LET ME GO! I NEED TO BE IN THERE!”

“Not like this, you don’t. There’s no way I’m letting you in when you’re this close to panicking.”

I had attempted to bust down the door, but Erica grabbed me before I could even reach it. Our strength was about the same. Physically, I had an advantage over her in terms of weight and mass, but Erica was every bit the skilled combatant that I was. She also didn’t fight me head on. Before I even knew what was happening, my legs had been kicked out from underneath me, and I was pinned to the floor in such a way that all the strength in the world wouldn’t help me break free.

“OW! OW! OW! YOU’RE TWISTING MY ARM! LET GO!”

“Absolutely not. If I let you go, you’re just going to rush in there like an idiot.”

“SO WHAT? KARI NEEDS ME!”

“What she needs is for you to remain calm. She doesn’t need an idiot rushing in and stressing her out while she’s trying to have your child. She’s already in enough stress.”

I struggled for a bit longer, but I already understood that I wouldn’t be breaking free of her hold unless I was willing to begin using Spiritual Techniques, which I wasn’t. Even I understood that releasing my Spiritual Power would put undue stress on Kari. Anything that could potentially harm Kari and the baby was to be avoided at all cost.

My body relaxed as I sighed. Despite this, Erica did not remove her knee from my lower spine.

“You really are a worrywort, aren’t you?” Erica mused with a giggle in her voice.

“You would be too if your wife was giving birth,” I muttered.

“I suppose so, though I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about that.” A chuckle escaped her mouth. “I can’t get my wife pregnant, after all.”

We remained like this, with her pinning me to the floor, for what felt like several hours. Eventually, the screams of what I thought were agony disappeared. Then the door slowly opened and the nurse, an older woman with gray hair and brown eyes, walked out.

“Congratulations, Mr. Veiger. Your wife has—what is going on here?”

I’m sure she was referring to how I’d been pinned to the floor.

Erica smiled as she removed her knee from my spine and let go of my arms. I stood up, grumbling a little as I faced the nurse who had the gall to kick me out while Kari gave birth. She must have felt my resentment because her smile was quite fixed. Also, was that a large vein throbbing angrily on her forehead?

“Well? How is Kari? The baby? Was the birth successful?”

As I fired off questions rapidly, the woman adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose. “I was just getting to that. Yes, the birth was successful. You can go in and see them.” Her eyes suddenly sharpened to fine points. “However, I recommend you remain calm and not shout. Your wife is exhausted from giving birth and doesn’t need to deal with your shit, you hear me?”

I grumbled a little at how she seemed to think I’d cause Kari trouble, but I quickly agreed and moved past her.

Our bedroom was quite large. At 40 meters wide and 30 meters long, it was the largest bedroom in the Brave Vesperia Headquarters. We also didn’t have much furniture. There was a large dresser and armoire, a walk in closet, and a small sitting area where we could entertain guests… but we never actually used that sitting area since we often preferred either the office, library, or veranda.

Kari was lying on our large bed, her legs and waist covered with a blanket. Her flushed skin was covered in sweat. Her hair was wet, tangled, and clinging to her face. However, she wore the gentlest smile I’d ever seen in my entire life, and it was directed at the tiny bundle in her arms.

I inhaled a sharp breath.

“Aren’t you going to come over here and greet your daughter?” asked Kari, looking up to direct her smile at me.

I walked over slowly, my legs feeling more than a little stiff, all the while staring at the tiny bundle in her arms. The little baby swathed in a white blanket had a pudgy face and a sparse amount of blonde hair that looked green as the light from the monster core chandelier reflected off it. Just seeing this made my heart feel like it had stopped.

“That’s our daughter?” I asked.

“It is,” Kari said.

“Oh…”

I really was having trouble breathing. It looked like our daughter was currently sleeping. Her eyes were closed, breathing even.

“S-she’s so tiny,” I muttered.

“Come closer, silly.”

Kari patted the spot beside her, so I slowly crawled onto the bed and sat right next to her. Once I did, Kari leaned into me, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, allowing her to use my shoulder as a pillow.

Erica and the nurse had come in, but they remained by the door, allowing us this moment alone together. As I continued to stare at the tiny life that Kari and I had created, my heart felt so many emotions I thought it would explode. Worry, happiness, anxiety, love, joy… all of it mixed together in my chest, creating an uncomfortable sensation I’d never felt before. However, while I was worried about the future, anxious about whether or not I would be a good father, and wondering if bringing a life into this current chaotic world was the right choice, the happiness I felt beat them all.

“I can’t believe… I’m a father,” I muttered.

“I can.” Kari smiled at me. “I know you are worried about the future and whether or not you will be a good dad, but Eryk, I have so much faith in you. I know you’ll be a good father… because you are the greatest man I know.”

“D-don’t say things like that. You’re seriously going to make me blush.”

“You already are blushing.”

“I am? Crap!”

“Not so loud. You’ll wake the baby.”

“S-sorry.”

The tiny thing in Kari’s arms shifted as though she could hear us. One small hand suddenly emerged from the blankets and moved around. I reached out and extended a single finger, which the tiny hand grasped onto.

“She’s got a good grip,” I said.

Kari gave a soft laugh. “Well, she is your daughter.”

“Our daughter,” I corrected absently as I let the baby grip my hand. “What should we name her?”

We had thought up a number of names but hadn’t been able to choose one, partly because we didn’t know if we’d have a boy or a girl, but also because we were just indecisive.

“Kayli,” Kari said without giving it a moment’s thought, as if she’d had this name in mind all along. “Her name is going to be Kayli.”

***

It was interesting to see how effective a large squadron of Nevarian Spiritualists were against Demon Beasts. After the first night, our group, under the leadership of the normally lazy Dante, set out toward the region where I had slain the Giant Rock Golem, and I was able to see how well they worked together.

Nevarian Spiritualists relied primarily on teamwork to defeat Demon Beasts. Their group tactics consisted of two or more people attacking, another two people defending, two healers, and two long-range attackers. With this formation, even B-rank Demon Beasts didn’t stand a chance. Of course, a formation like this was still not enough to defeat an A-rank Demon Beast, which was magnitudes more powerful.

Our journey took ten days total. The area where I had fought the Giant Rock Golem was on the other side of the mountain where the ruins Catalyna had been hoping to explore lay. Speaking of, I promised Kari that we would return at some point in time. I didn’t know when though.

“So this is where the Giant Rock Golem is, huh?” Dante asked as he, myself, Kari, Lin, Hellen, and Fay marched between the field of boulders. The other Nevarian Spiritualists were behind us. They were having trouble moving the Mares and carts because not all the paths were large enough to fit them through. It required a little extra time to locate a path they could use.

“That’s right,” I said. “I don’t think this was the Giant Rock Golem’s true territory, though. A-rank Demon Beasts generally live further in, and Giant Rock Golems often make their territories inside of mountains or deep beneath the earth’s crust. I’m pretty sure this one was drawn out by Dyr’s power like the other Demon Beasts.”

“Hmm…” Dante scratched his chin. “That would explain why we’ve never come across one until now, I guess.”

“I wonder… do you think Dyr is okay?” asked Kari.

“I don’t know. I hope so.”

Thinking about Dyr made me remember the look on her face that night I had found her in the middle of a Runic Circle. The expression on her face had been heart-rending. It was clear to me that the Leucht Family and that cloaked man, Skygge, were just using her for their own purposes, though I still only had the vaguest idea of what they wanted. Even though I believed they were planning to use Dyr’s power to draw Demon Beasts to Nevaria, I still didn’t know their motive.

“Here we are,” I said as I stepped around one last boulder. “This is where I battled the Giant Rock Golem.”

As we emerged into an area that was surprisingly free of boulders, the signs of battle became immediately apparent. There were large craters all over the ground, several massive chasm-like cracks spread across it, and scorch marks littered the surface from when my lightning element had struck.

And in the middle of it all lay the Giant Rock Golem.

“Holy… shit…” Dante’s eyes bulged as he stared at the creature.

At nearly fifteen times taller than a full-grown human, the Giant Rock Golem was massive even when lying on its stomach like this. The blood pouring from it was still not completely dry, but it had thickened and the scent was disgusting, like sulphur. Its ashen skin created a marketed contrast from the strange red top that had protected its head from my attacks. The spikes that had been attached to its back were all lying on the ground, some lying lengthwise and others impaled into the ground like they’d been stabbed into it on purpose.

Kari also looked shocked as she stared at the creature. “This… you fought this?”

“Yes,” I said.

“In one on one combat?”

“Yes.”

As I answered her questions, Kari closed the distance between us and gripped my hand fiercely, as if she was suddenly afraid that I would die the moment she let go. Her skin was pale. Everyone’s was, but hers was particularly so. What’s more, her eyes were shaken and a cold sweat dripped from her brow.

“Kari?” I asked.

“I know… you were able to defeat this thing…” she spoke in a halting voice. “But even so… seeing it like this… realizing what you went up against while I wasn’t there to help you… I don’t know, it makes me feel horrible for some reason.”

I didn’t say anything at first because I understood how she felt. If our position had been reversed, if she had been the one to slay this massive creature and I the one who was forced to run away, then I’m sure I would have felt the same as her.

“Next time,” I began, placing my free hand over the one gripping mine, “you, me, Fay, and Lin will take it on together.”

Kari stared me in the eyes as I said this, and then she smiled and nodded. This was enough for her to reign her emotions back in.

“Are you really planning on fighting an A-rank Demon Beast again?” asked Dante.

“If I have to,” I replied.

“This princess will definitely fight by your side next time,” Lin said.

Fay hesitated, but then she nodded. “I will too. I didn’t like it when I was forced to stay behind and watch you fight this thing without me. Next time, I will also be strong enough to fight beside you.”

I felt glad that Fay was still to speaking to me. She’d been mostly ignoring me during this journey, though I did notice how she would stare in my direction when she thought I wasn’t looking. This made me hopeful that she was coming to a decision soon regarding her inner conflict.

The other Nevarian Spiritualists weren’t far behind us, and just like Dante, Hellen, and Kari, all of them gazed upon the massive Demon Beast in shock. Giant Rock Golems were considerably larger than even most other A-rank Demon Beasts. I was sure they’d never seen a creature so large before. Their astonished exclamations resounded across the clearing.

“So…” Dante blew out a deep breath as he turned to me. “What do we do now? How are we possibly gonna salvage anything from this?”

“There are several parts of the Giant Rock Golem that can be salvaged,” I said, disengaging from Kari and walking up to the gigantic corpse. “It’s hide is tougher than steel, but you can’t create clothing with it since it’s a little too strong to cut and sew together. On the other hand, those spikes you see lying against the ground can be broken down and used to form a powerful sediment. Furthermore, the monster core inside of it is incredibly powerful. I have a use for it. The last thing is…”

Leaping onto the Giant Rock Golem’s body, I landed on the strange shell-like carapace that protected its head. I knelt and wrapped my hand against the shell. It produced a very metallic sound.

“This shell is made from a material that is tougher than any metal,” I explained. “Not only is it strong, but it doesn’t weigh anymore than iron, so it can be used to forge powerful weapons and armor. If we can get this off and carry it back with us, we can have it melted down and hire a blacksmith to forge powerful weapons that won’t break.”

Dante scratched the back of his head as he looked at the massive shell—easily two dozen meters wide and probably even more across—and then at the spikes, each of which were about 10 to 12 meters long.

“I’m not… really sure how we’re gonna carry this on our caravan.” He gave me something of a glare, as if to say this was my fault for not telling him we needed larger carts.

“I can break these down into manageable parts,” I told him. “We cut these into smaller sections and put them on the carts. Hm… this might take more than just one trip, though. That’s my only concern.”

“Right…” Dante released a loud, weary sigh. “Well, let’s get to work.”

It took three whole days for me to cut the Demon Beast down into parts that could be carried on the carts. I had to use the lightning element to create a sword. The sword had to be condensed to the point where the lightning was powerful enough to cut through the metallic shell and durable spikes, which required a lot of concentration and even more power.

It was a good thing I brought a bag of Spiritual Recovery Pills with me. They helped keep me going for those three days. Not only did this let me continue to work day and night, but it also increased the amount of Spiritual Power I possessed. My reserves didn’t quite double over the course of three days. That said, I could feel the marked difference in my power. If I had to guess, I believed was even stronger now than I had been when I first formed Brave Vesperia.

During the time when I was working, Kari and Fay mostly did light sparring under the watchful eye of Dante, Hellen, and some of the Nevarian Spiritualists who weren’t working. I liked to think their skill and battle prowess impressed everyone. Kari and Fay were strong enough now to defeat B-rank Demon Beasts on their own, though they currently lacked the experience. This was only our third time in the Demon Beast Mountain Range, after all. Still, I was sure even Dante realized that his daughter and her friend could probably defeat him because I occasionally caught him training as I worked.

Because of how much material we had to haul back, we could not take it all in one go. Dante requested half the group of 50 Spiritualists remain with the carcass, while the rest of them went back to Nevaria with what we had salvaged. Fortunately, I had completed my job of cutting the Demon Beast into salvagable parts. I had also extracted the monster core—a brown sphere about about the size of a human torso.

As the carts were being pulled in, taking far longer to enter Nevaria than they did to leave, Dante glanced at the salvaged parts that lay piled in each cart.

“There’s a lot of material to work with here,” he said to me as I stood beside him. “You aren’t planning to keep all of it are you?”

“Certainly not,” I said. “Aside from the fact that I need to use at least some of that as payment for the work you and the Nevarian Spiritualists have done, I also don’t have any need for that much material. I’m donating the sediment base to the Royal Family so they can use it to help build those watchtowers I made the blueprints for. As for the alloy-like shell… I figured I would take enough to have armor and weapons made for myself, Lin, Kari, and Fay, and then sell the rest to you.”

“Sell it, huh?” Dante glanced at the carts again. We’d only been able to fit about half the materials I’d salvaged inside. They were gonna go back for another haul after this. “Well, you’re certainly gonna make a lot of money with this. Anyway, I think we can handle the rest of this operation. You should go home with the girls.”

I glanced at the girls. Fay and Lin looked a little tired, though Kari was still raring to go. They were standing off to the side, talking as they also watched the carts being wheeled in. The poor Mares looked like they were dying from exhaustion. The carts probably weighed upwards of two or three tons.

“Yeah… I guess we’ll do that.”

Dante called over the cart we had used to drive us from the Imperial Royal Palace. We climbed aboard and made our way back home.

***

It was a day after our return to Nevaria. While Kari and Fay were back in school, Lin and I traveled to the blacksmith who forged my Dragon Tail Ruler. We used a cart this time, which I had purloined from Dante. We were carrying the metal I planned on having the blacksmith turn into weapons and armor for myself, Kari, Fay, and Lin.

“Could you wait outside and make sure no one steals anything from our cart?” I asked Lin as I hopped off the driver’s seat.

Lin was in the back of the cart. Her long tail was stretched out as she lounged against the pile of metal. There were only a few sheets. I deemed that much to be enough to create the armor and weapons I planned on having the blacksmith forge for us.

“Of course, Darling.” Lin shifted into an upright position as she slithered off the cart. Thumping her chest once, she smiled at me. “Just leave the matter of protecting our valuables to me.”

With Lin protecting the cart, I traveled inside the smithy and found that, unlike most days, the blacksmith was not pounding away at molten iron and steel. He was speaking to someone. I didn’t recognize them, but they wore the metal chestplate of a Neverian Spiritualist. The man had hair that was long and red, though not to the same level as Fay. Actually, I didn’t think anyone had hair with the same vibrant shade as Fay. In either event, this man discussed something with the blacksmith, some valis exchanged hands, and then the man walked out of the store, though he did spare a glance toward me as he left.

“Haven’t seen you in awhile,” the blacksmith grunted. “I hear you’ve been busy.”

“I have,” I said.

“You’ve got another project for me?”

“A couple, actually.”

Walking up to the man as he stood behind his counter, I removed a set of schematics from the pouch at my hip. I unfolded each sheet of parchment and placed them on the table. Each sheet was either the design for a set of armor or a weapon. There were four sets of armor and three weapons. As the blacksmith looked between them, I continued talking.

“I’d like you to create all these with a type of alloy I salvaged from an A-rank Demon Beast called Giant Rock Golem. It’s basically a more durable type of metal, so I’m sure you can craft these with it. I also need you to forge me a new Dragon’s Tail Ruler. The one you made for me shattered during my battle with the Giant Rock Golem.”

The blacksmith inhaled a deep breath as I spoke. He looked at me with a mixture of shock and irritation. Then he glanced back at the weapons and armor schematics, which not only contained detailed drawings depicting the armor and weapons I wanted, but also had the sizes of the girls and the size I wanted the weapons to be.

“You… really are something, aren’t ya?” The blacksmith finally grunted. “I’ve never heard of anyone who can defeat an A-rank Demon Beast on their own. Even the empress can’t beat one of those without those husbands of hers.” I shrugged, causing him to release another grunt. “Before I agree to make this, let me at least take a look at this alloy of yours to see what kind of material I’m working with.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

I led him outside to the cart, where Lin was doing a fine job of glaring at every person that passed by. It seemed she was taking her job of “keeping guard” a little too literally. Even so, I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she didn’t need to glare at every person walking on the street.

The blacksmith reached into the cart and grabbed the red alloy. He wrapped on it a few times with his knuckles and listened to the metallic ringing. After picking up one sheet, which was about a quarter of a square meter, and testing its weight, he nodded.

“This is some damn good material,” he said at last. “The forge might have some trouble melting it, but I have a Spiritual Wind Technique I can use to increase the heat.”

So this blacksmith had a wind affinity. I hadn’t know that, but it was true that a wind affinity would be incredibly useful in a forge. He could use the wind to help feed the flames oxygen, increasing their heat.

“I have about 100 kilograms of this alloy,” I said. “I think it will be enough?”

“More than enough,” the blacksmith grunted. “100 kilograms is going completely overboard. The armor you asked me to make won’t weigh more than about five or six kilograms at most, and outside that slab of metal you want me to forge, the most those weapons will weigh is about eight kilograms for the ranseur, five for the sword, and two for each gauntlet.”

“If there’s any material left over, you can keep it,” I said. “Consider it a gift from me.”

“Tch! If you’re gonna give me the leftover material, then I’ll forge these weapons for free.” While the blacksmith sounded like he was displeased, the look in his eyes as he stared at the alloy told me a different story. “The weapons I make from this will be a lot better than anything I can make from iron and steel.”

“Then we have a deal,” I said.

Lin and I helped the blacksmith get all the alloy into his smithy. It took about one hour for the three of us, but once that was done, Lin crawled into the cart again while I hopped in the driver’s seat. With a crack of the reigns, she and I left the smithy and traveled back home.