With my blood splashed on the ground, I was lost in the view of the three supernatural beings that just appeared out of thin air.
They were three fairy-like creatures, one foot in height and hovering in mid-air behind the children. They had no wings, but the energy surrounding them felt menacing and full of blood and gore.
~Kaekaekae! He is funny, he is threatening us! kaekaekae~
"Wha... What are you?", my voice was coarse like I had a bad throat. The pain of losing blood through my eyeballs was still lingering in my body for it to move freely.
I had to disable the third eye for now.
~Ooh!~, one of the Yaksha made a surprised expression, I couldn't even in a million years guess why he did that.
"He can see them..."
"Oh no! We are done now, we are exposed..."
However, opposite to the varied expressions of the Yakshas, the children were in complete panic.
(*shing...*)
The eldest of the three took out a broken knife from under his torn shirt and raised it against me. His hands were shaking so badly that I felt bad for him. The knife looked like something he might have picked up from the roadside.
Kids were no threat to me, but Yakshas were different. I didn't know much about Mahismati for me to be fighting non-human races yet.
"Kids, come here. Get away from them.", I tried to convince the kids to back away, but they seemed more scared of me than they were of the Yakshas.
"NO! You are not taking them anywhere", the eldest roared at me. He was like a wild rabbit that had seen a predator.
What happened next though, completely perplexed me. As the kid got angrier, I felt his energy morph into something vile and disgusting. It felt similar to what I felt with my third eye a minute earlier.
'Are the Yakshas controlling these kids?', I was good with kids in my past life, they were naturally attracted to me, but that night it was different.
"Wait! I think you are misunderstanding me.", I spoke out defensively, this time with a softer voice, "I'm not going to harm you, but you should get over here. They might be dangerous."
I was pointing at the three Yakshas floating in mid-air behind the children. However, one of the two younger ones looked at me with hope and confusion.
"That means you won't report us to the Police?", he said.
'Why are they scared of the Police so much?'
"I won't", I raised my right hand with my palm facing them vertically, "I give you a [Vachan]."
Polio had told me that [Vachan] meant staking your own life for a promise. I didn't know whether it was a simple superstition or something real, but I had no other option but to use my [Vachan] card.
~(*gasp*)... He took a sacred vow.~
~Yeah! He might not be bad.~
The younger two children were more gullible and trusting than the eldest.
"Stop! He has only promised to not get the Police involved. He can still kill us or sell us.", the eldest reprimanded his brothers as soon as they started to let their defences down.
It would have been fine if I was dealing with normal kids in normal circumstances, but the threat of the [Yakshas] still loomed over. There was no surefire way to figure out whether the Yakshas were benevolent or sinister.
~Are you afraid of this little boy? Kekeke! I'll kill him if you want.~
~Yes! Yes! Yes! Let's get rid of him. It won't be a problem then!! Kaekaekae~
~We will protect you, You just need to give your orders!!~
All three Yakshas spoke in unison.
'What the hell are you talking to young children about?', I cursed at the bloody Yakshas. They were definitely not benevolent.
"No, nobody is getting killed here.", it was the eldest taking charge again.
'This is my chance!'
"See, here", I retracted my Prana blade and was willing to take a [Vachan] to prove that I meant no harm to them. I showed my sincerest side to the kids.
"You said you guys needed food, right? Here, I have food that I bought just this afternoon. Let's first fill our stomachs and then we can talk.", I slowly entered my hand in the pouch without making sudden movements, and took out a loaf of bread.
The youngest of the three ran in my direction without a care in the world. He was a 6-year-old boy with green eyes and clear brown-ish hair.
[*snatch*]
"Savy wait!", the eldest shouted, but it was already too late. Savy had already grabbed the bread from my hand.
"Brother! Brother! It is fresh bread! Look we won't have to sleep hungry tonight.", the young boy showed a smile that revealed his broken frontal teeth, but he didn't stand long near me and quickly backed away.
(*gulp*...)
I could see that even the eldest child was unable to stop his drooling.
'They are still kids.'
"Savy don't do that again. He might be evil like the Bandits.", he tried to scold Savy who was still staring at the loaf of bread in his hands with high interest.
"Are you talking about the Kuryu Gang?", I asked. I didn't know any other bandits in Mahismati.
"Why do you want to know? Are you one of them?", the child asked me and raised his knife once more. Even if he didn't believe that I was a bandit, he was still being careful.
"No. In fact, I took care of their leader this morning. I even got the bounty for their head."
He looked at me and then towards the Yaksha hovering closest to him. His judgmental look told me that he thought I was too weak to fight against those bandits.
'Do I really look so weak?', I was in a 12 year-old-body and was wearing new clothes like a nouveau Richie, it might not have been too far fetched of them to see me as a soft person.
~He is telling the truth!~, one of the Yakshas replied. Pouting. Probably because it hadn't been able to kill me.
"Ok! I'll belive in you for now, but don't make any sudden move or I'll ask them to kill you!"
I wasn't completely sold on the idea that the Yakshas were listening to the child out of goodwill, but I decided to first get to know them before making any judgements.
-----------
"Here."
"What are these for?", Savy looked at the sprinkler and the wrapped butter on my hand and asked with an unsuspecting smile.
[ Agni Stotaram: यज्ञ ]
"This is how you eat the bread.", I cut the bread from the middle and spread the butter evenly onto the crevices, after sprinkling some salt pepper onto the bread, I slightly heated the bread using the channelled Prana.
"Wow! brother you can even use Fire Mantra?", Savy looked more surprised at my usage of Prana than he was about the food I had cooked for him.
"It is no big deal, once you are my age you would also be able to do that."
"Really? Can I also become a Sage like brother", I was confused whether he meant me or Rudy - the eldest of the three children.
"Savy don't listen to him. He doesn't know what he is saying.", Rudy retorted back with an unkind expression.
Ever since Rudy had asked the Yakshas to disappear, they hadn't shown themselves but I could feel that they were nearby.
"Why are you discouraging them, listen Savy, you can be a Sage as long as you work hard on it.", I cut off Rudy's pessimism with my own ignorance.
"A rich prince like you who comes from an endowed family would never understand how difficult it is to cultivate Prana for children not born with a silver spoon in their mouths.", Rudy was quite crude and crass, maybe it was because he had seen a lot of hardship from a young age.
"I didn't know money was such a big barrier to become a Sage?", I really didn't know.
My process of sensing Prana came from the Ruins which probably didn't even exist in this timeline.
"Of course it is. How else would we be able to get an awakening if we don't have any money?"
"Awakening?"
Although Rudy didn't say anything out loud, I could read the expression on his face which said, "What a load of bullshit!"
"Don't act like you don't know. Even a basic awakening costs upwards of 50 gold, let alone a special awakening like yours which probably came with a Diksha."
'Diksha?', I tried to understand the word Diksha in the context of this world, but nothing came to mind.
[Diksha] which was a ritual of accepting a student into 'Gurukul' (The Guru's family) literally meant 'Initiation'.
In fact, I had received five Dikshas in my last life, but none of that mattered now. The parents and teachers I knew were dead. In many ways, I was just like the three orphans sitting across me.
"What is a Diksha?", it was easier to ask than find my own answers.
"You don't even know that? How are you even a Sage?", Rudy said sarcastically, as if he believed I was lying.
"I could use Prana ever since I opened my eyes, I never went through a awakening, or whatever you call it."
That was technically the truth. Even though, I learned how to use Prana from my last life, in this life I was able to use Prana ever since I opened my eyes in the Hospital.
"You are a Devarshi?", it was the first time I had seen a surprising expression on Rudy's face.
"Devarshi?", I questioned.
"Wow! You are also like brother Rudy", Savy cut me off with her question.
The third child, Parakram, who had been static and mostly quiet also turned around when he heard the word [Devarshi].