‘Similar to a certain overprotective brother, huh.’
Sol swung down his sword in the hanging garden of babel as he thought back to his discussion with Medea. Currently, he was just wearing leather pants, his muscular torso naked and covered in sweat because of his training.
Kali's words could mean many things, perhaps he was even looking too much into it, but when you took everything into account and her magic that was seemingly similar to molecular disintegration, only one overprotective brother came into his mind. A cold and basically unfeeling mage that could only feel when his sister was taken into account.
‘But, Kali has existed in this world since a few centuries ago.’
Of course, it wasn’t impossible because of that. It wasn’t as if he knew the time difference between this world and his previous one. For all he knew, perhaps just a few minutes in his world was equal to centuries in this one. No this wasn’t important. What was important was,
“You can hear me right?”
He looked around, but all that greeted him was silence. Still, even though he received no answer, he knew he was right.
Firstly, ‘I am not the first reincarnator.’
This was a fact. From all the mishmash of culture as well as some historical facts and Tibbits he recently gathered, it was basically clear that most, if not all kings and queens of Lustburg were reincarnators.
Two, ‘The reincarnators aren't only members of Lustburg.’
If he was right about Kali, she was also a reincarnator, and if she was one, it means that people outside of the royal families could be one.
Three, ‘All the reincarnators I know are humans.’
This was rather inaccurate information as of now. The reason all reincarnator he knew were humans could simply be because he was confined in the human's kingdom.
Four, ‘Names from myths and legends from my world are rather popular for members of nobility in this world.’
Athena, Lilith, Ares, Sol, Arachne. All those names had legends behind them. Basically, all the members of nobility he knew had such names. Of course, the cause might have been one of the previous kings.
It was something he had to verify. But, the fact that all kings from all countries had the obligations to have a name related to stars or planets, and said stars or planets were the same as his previous world was without a doubt too much of a coincidence.
It means that ‘The goddesses know exactly about the existence of reincarnated. Not only that, but they should also know about earth, and what is more, they are either playing an important role in the existence of reincarnator or playing a bystander role.’
But here comes the problem. Why?
What did they get from such actions?
In some of the stories he read, the gods and goddesses generally reincarnated or transmigrated people either for them to act like heroes or because they were bored. Though sometimes it was also Truck-Kun.
The problem here was that one, this world didn’t really have world-ending threats. All races had their respective goddesses and the goddesses weren’t a kill or be killed relationship; What is more, even after death, he didn’t remember meeting any of the goddesses.
Then, perhaps because of the Mother goddess of chaos?
It wasn’t impossible. Though he struggled to know what kind of particular use they could have in a fight involving being who literally created this world and all races on it.
So, “They are doing it because of boredom? Is it just a game for them?”
He murmured with a weird expression. He didn’t know whether his thoughts were correct or not. Perhaps he was doing a film out of nothing or perhaps his reincarnation had some grand purpose.
‘Well, even if so, it doesn’t change anything.’
Some people might be outraged, but to be honest, he wasn’t particularly so. He had been given a second chance at life and was given the greatest starting point possible. Why would he whine and complain about this?
If they wanted to observe his life to take care of their boredom, they were free to do so. As long as they didn’t interfere, it wasn’t a problem.
Even so, “I need to become strong.”
No matter how easy-going he was, having his own destiny be decided like that didn’t sit well with him.
‘I need to enter the zone and finally reach the avatar at least.’
Only people at the level of creating their own zone were considered a really high-tier powerhouse. Meanwhile, all top-tier powerhouses had their own avatar.
Sol continued to swing his sword as he thought about how to reach the zone.
The zone was an illusory world that showed the vision of the world the user had. To reach such truth, not only a thorough training but also an intimate understanding of one's own personality was necessary. It wasn’t just a question of power.
‘I also need to form my contracts’
The more contract he formed, the more power and abilities he would have. Most of those abilities would be random, but for the very first contract, he could choose three innate abilities of his partners.
‘I really need to form a contract with a phoenix or a descendant of the other fourteen divine beasts.’
No matter what, it would be a waste of his large capacity if his first contract wasn’t an S-class magical being. Thankfully, from the goddesses' promise, as long as he passed their test, he would have the chance to form a contract with a phoenix. So it was one thing done.
‘After that, if I form a contract with Setsuna, I could perhaps get her lightning attributes. After her, it will be Milia and perhaps Nuwa.’
He didn’t know exactly what kind of power Nuwa had, but her rank was without a doubt B+ at the minimum.
“Your highness.”
Stopping his movement, Sol turned toward the one calling him.
‘Speaking of the devils.’
On the side, Milia and Nuwa were standing together. Nuwa had changed from her previous short maid attire and was wearing a more traditional one, like Milia's.
The expressions on their faces were extremely contrasting. While Nuwa was scrutinizing his body with curiosity, Milia looked like she was giving her all to not simply jump his bones.
“Milia, Nuwa, what brings you here? Is it already time for me to prepare for meeting the Gorfard?”
Milia calmed down her stray and lewd thoughts before answering, “No, your highness, I was just bringing Nuwa to show her the way and see her abilities. Using her as a simple maid has proven to be a...Let’s say a rather bad decision. As such, I decided to make her a battle maid.”
“Heh, I see.” Sol drawled a little. He hadn’t really spent much time with Nuwa.
“Say, why do you train?”
Sol became perplexed at the sudden question from Nuwa. Still, she might or might not become his future partner, so he still decided to answer.
“Because I need to become strong.”
“Need? But aren’t you the future king? Why do you need to become strong when all the kingdom will need to obey you? Wouldn’t it be easier to simply laze around and be protected?”
Nuwa couldn’t really understand what pushed this man to seemingly train so hard. It had just been a day since she was here, but she had heard from the maids how diligent he was. From what she remembered in Greed dike, most dwarves nobles didn’t even train. They were more than happy to let the warriors act and protect them. But here, it seemed that even the noble needed to be strong. This was something that really baffled her.
Sol, of course, didn’t know what was going on through Nuwa head. Still, her question was something that struck a chord in him.
Why did he wish to become strong?
In the past, it was because he wished to show that he wasn’t just Mar’s Son. He wanted people to acknowledge his own worth. But he didn’t need to become strong to prove that.
Later, he decided to become strong because he didn’t want to only rely on his lovers. He wanted to be someone to be someone reliable, someone, who could make people he loved feel secure. But, his lovers weren’t weak women who needed a man to protect them.
Currently, he wished to become strong because he didn’t wish to leave his destiny in the hands of the goddesses. But it wasn’t something that could be achieved instantly, and for all he knew, the goddesses might not even wish to deal with him.
So, why did he want to become strong? Why did he train every day?
“Your highness?”
Sol raised his head and gave a smile at Milia. “Do not worry, I am alright.”
Turning his gaze to Nuwa, he walked toward her, before finally patting her head, “I must really thank you. Your question gave me a very important clue.”
The zone was the truth of the world as seen from the eyes of the user. He didn’t know why, but his guts were telling him that the moment he managed to find why he was fighting and trying to become stronger would be the moment when he would awaken his zone.
Looking up at his bright smile as he thanked her, Nuwa couldn’t help but have a weird feeling churning in her guts. It was a weird and fluffy feeling, but also something very warm. In all her life, she had been on the receiving end of many kinds of emotions.
Curiosity, disappointment, anger, lust, greed, and many more. Still, it was the first time she had received feelings of thankfulness. If she had to be honest with herself,
‘It isn’t a bad feeling at all.’
The hand on her head also made her feel warm, and she really liked it.
‘Perhaps following this man won’t be so bad after all.’
A few minutes later, after changing into proper clothes, Sol was now walking in the town in disguise with Milia. It wasn’t much, just a wig to hide his golden hair and a mask to hide his features.
This get-up would have been a little suspicious in normal time, but with the current festive atmosphere, people wearing masks could be seen all around, making him rather inconspicuous. Milia meanwhile wasn’t wearing her usual maid clothes but simple leather pants and a top that seemed ready to explode because of her incredible bust. Her face was also covered by a mask, but everywhere they passed, people, mainly men, would either gawk or whistle in appreciation.
Thankfully, after dealing roughly with some unwanted accosting, no one was willing to provoke them.
Even though Milia hadn’t told him where they were going, he was far from stupid and could guess for himself.
Finally, they reached a rather common jewelry shop and entered.
“Hello! What can I do for you?"
In the jewelry, an old middle-aged man with a potbelly waved with enthusiasm the moment they entered.
"I wish to see your boss."
"I am the boss."
"You wish."
‘Is this some kind of code?’
The man looked curiously at Sol but didn’t stop them as they passed through a door that clearly said forbid non-members of the staff to enter.
Behind the door, was a magic circle drawn on the ground.
‘A teleportation circle.’
It was a little like the gate used between the tower and the church. The only difference was that the one in the tower needed someone with space-related power to operate, meanwhile, this one seemed able to function even without one.
“Your highness, this gate was created with the help of a witch who is part of our organization as one of the fingers. Her power is without a doubt inferior to miss Freya, but she is no slouch. Of course, it can only work for a short distance, but this is more than enough.”
Sol could only acquiesce. Anyone capable to create such a portal was someone worthy of respect.
Milia took a deep breath, her hands, faintly trembling. No matter what, at the end of this afternoon, she will have no secrets left for her beloved highness. She still didn’t know whether it was a good or bad thing.
“Then, your highness, let’s go.”
In the blink of the eyes, after activating the portal, they vanished from where they were.
When Sol felt the turbulence end and began to observe his surroundings, he could only narrow his eyes at the feelings of hostility rushing toward him.
‘It seems that I am not as welcomed as Milia made it seems I would be.’
A feral grin formed on his face.
‘This will be interesting.’
