We sat in his office, the familiar walls and furniture were playing heavily on my nostalgia. Rin and Artoria sat next to me, all three of us facing Zelretch who sat behind his desk as he casually browsed a few documents, seemingly content with the silence in the room.
"Which one is it?" Zelretch spoke softly, barely even glancing up but I felt the question directed towards me.
"Pardon?" I asked in confusion.
"Which of my collection were you so keen on helping yourself to."
Ah, I see. "The 300 year old Whiskey." There wasn't really a point in hiding it.
"That is a good choice." He nodded. "I'm curious, how does it rate?"
"Easily a 9/10, one of my favorites."
Zelretch slowly got up from his seat and walked over to the cabinet holding his various alcohol. "I was saving this for a special occasion, and I believe this qualifies." There was no rush to his movements as he carefully looked over the selected bottle. He took four identical glasses and set them up each infront of us. "How would you suggest taking it?" He inspected the bottle and the liquid within.
"It's not bad clean, but I prefer it with a couple drops of water." I thought for a moment before mentally checking my ring. "I have some glacial water, never touched by pollution or human hands." I offered, taking out a bottle I filled back in Skyrim. It was just a whim back then I had some free time, and such pure water was a bit hard to come by without decent effort to produce.
"Wonderful." He took the container and admired it for a moment before pouring everyone a smidge into their glasses.
"It's an acquired taste, don't force yourself if you don't like it." I said lazily towards Rin and Artoria.
"I admit, I have not tried any Alcohol from this time period besides some of the more readily-available stock." Artoria lightly picked up her glass, giving it a curiously sniff.
She probably only had anything cheap so far, probably Sake considering where she was summoned to and Rin didn't strike me as someone who would be a connoisseur of the harder varieties of liquor.
"This is supposed to be 300 years old." Rin looked at her glass.
"There doesn't exist a Whiskey over 200 years old." I said with a small smile. "Atleast, one known to the public."
"From a parallel world-line then?" Rin hazard a guess.
"Actually, it's native here." Zelretch corrected, taking a sip, leaning back and appreciating the taste. "Your recommendation was spot on." His eyes glanced to me but for a moment.
"Then how is it 300 years old." Her eyebrows furrowed, hesitantly taking her own sip. I saw her struggle to keep it down and I didn't want to laugh. I wouldn't make fun of her for that, some people simply don't like the taste.
"When Miss Aozaki joined the Clock Tower, I approached her for a joint experiment. I had some thoughts that needed confirming and the application of her own Magic would be invaluable." Zelretch quietly explained. "You may know her better as the Blue, but being as one of the few prominent figures of Asian descent I don't doubt you've heard her name a few times."
The Blue, the 5th True Magic, the name for the other Magician just as Zelretch is called the Kaleidoscope. Truthfully, I don't know much about the Blue but I do know that Time-Travel lies in its domain.
"What, so you sent some alcohol back in time?" She muttered, looking a bit put off by the taste
Zelretch let out a small chuckle. "Indeed, though the objects we sent back were irrelevant, but that didn't mean we couldn't benefit from the procedure as well. I believe Miss Aozaki also still has her own bottle she hasn't opened yet. I will need to make a note and giver her my recommendation."
"Wait, if this was the first time you opened it, how did he know what it tastes like?" Rin pointed her figure towards me.
"Oh, she picked up on that. I thought for sure she wouldn't notice." I praised with a smile.
Zelretch also smiled. "I had chosen her as my student for a reason."
"Time travel?" Artoria asked, tilting her head.
"A good guess, and while technically correct, is wrong." I replied. "I'm not native to this world-line and I was born about a decade from now, year-wise. I have some investment knowledge if you're interested." I said with a laugh.
"That may come in handy." Zelretch shared my amusement. "I noticed your Runecraft application, I'm surprised you chose that path."
"It was something I could immediately achieve something of note with and my resources at the time were….lacking." I frowned, thinking back to the world I was born in. I felt a bit of…regret that I had so quickly 'abandoned' it. "Though I do not regret my decision, I have found myself content with the craft so far."
"The runic arts are a very practical path to choose, I don't blame you for that decision." Zelretch acknowledged, not looking at all put off by my choice.
"I've never seen someone utilize Runes like that before." Rin furrowed her eyebrows. "Mostly just for single enhancements or small spells."
"Most Rune users don't have nearly infinite magical energy like we do." I pointed out. "A single rune is akin to a spell that requires a couple words to actualize. I had put forth dozens to hundreds of runes into a single spell. Others can achieve this, but most can't throw them around like I can when I can just refill my reserve so quickly."
Rin let out a long winded sigh. "I still haven't gotten that far in my studies."
She was talking about the 'infinite magical energy' I was assuming. Technically its not infinite magical energy in the way that the Heaven's Feel is used. It could be said that once you master the Kaleidoscope to a certain degree your 'Mana Regeneration' is basically -- Yes.
Really, it's only limited by our own physical ability to handle. It was the reason Magic Circuits lost a lot of their relevance. Most mages had to be conscious of their spell usage, but a master of the Kaleidoscope can throw around spells all day until their body finally collapses under the strain
I finished off my glass and Zelretch was kind enough to pour me another glass as I finished my first. I noticed Rin pushing hers away whereas Artoria didn't seem to prefer the taste either. "Here." I said, offering two bottles of mead I withdrew from my ring.
"How do you keep doing that?" Rin asked, inspecting the bottle.
"Taking stuff from nowhere?" I smirked. "I'm sure your teacher can do something similar."
"I've been working on the Kaleidoscope for months now and I still have no idea! He won't tell me anything, except to figure it out myself." Rin huffed. "This is good." She took a a second sip.
"Mead from the world I came from, found nowhere on earth."
"It reminds me of the drinks from my time." Artoria spoke softly, also enjoying the beverage.
I'm glad they like them, this is a joyous occasion so it should be celebrated with drinks at least. I felt a little bit of pity for Rin, she's still in that learning stage. There needs a bit of self-discovery before he could actually start pointing her in specific directions, otherwise her own potential could be stymied.
"To answer your question, It's my Ring." I wiggled my finger.
"It is an impressive piece of work, the space is folded seamlessly, if a bit amateurishly as well." Zelretch praised.
"It was the Archmage at a College I joined in another world. It was apparently his first attempt at such a thing."
"Impressive for a novice then."
"Well, he was a rather impressive mage, all things considered."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Rin frowned in annoyance.
"A folded special dimension attached to my ring. Essentially I have a pocket space I can access that stores stuff." I said simply. "I even have this too." I took out my hat to show off.
"May I?" Zelretch asked as I gave a nod and handed it over. He inspected the workmanship and even stuck his hand inside the space. "What an amusing piece of work. If the ring was amateurish, this is childish at best, yet someone managed to finagle it together into something that works."
He handed it back to me. "Thank you, for the drink." I finally said, it wasn't good to hold back on etiquette even if it was towards 'myself'.
"How could I hold back with such a sincere gift towards my student?" He smiled lightly, conveying his gratitude.
"Oh, that reminds me, I was going to give something else." I forgot about the other stuff. "I didn't really want to hand this over in public...lets see." I shifted through a few things, taking a couple books out, inspecting them and setting them on the table. "[Jewelcraft] is a good path, but it also lacks in some areas. Lets see, [Lesser Ward] would be good for a shield that doesn't need to waste gems on. A basic healing spell is good for every mage's repertoire." I set down a spell tome on [Healing] as well. "Ah, [Oak Flesh], a body strengthening spell that works on a different paradigm than [Reinforcement] so they can be used in tandem." I set that on the desk as well. I actually have a couple versions superior to [Oak Flesh], but it was a good starting point. "[Detect Life], good for dangerous situations." Another good spell I grabbed on my way out.
Rin looked at me like I had two heads, Zelretch just blinked, taking a book and cracking it open, reading a few words.
"Interesting, I don't recognize the origin." He looked genuinely happy. I could understand, finding new and interesting things was always a happy occasion at that point in my life.
"I may have fudged my first application of dimensional travel and ended up on a world-line outside of Gaia." I sheepishly rubbed the back of my head.
He closed the book, giving me a deadpanned look. "You're lucky you didn't die. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to travel to a world not parallel to our own? What am I saying, of course you know."
"Actually…..I think there may be some holes in my memories, I don't have any knowledge of going outside of Earth." With some self reflection, I realized there were quite a few holes in my memories.
Zelretch tilted his head, seemingly shifting through several thoughts before thinking about something intently. "I see, I suppose that might be expected considering your unique circumstances."
Well, it was already pretty clear he had an idea of what was going on. It was to be expected of 'myself'.
"I guess it's time to have this conversation." I sighed, bracing myself.
"It was going to come eventually." It was odd to see him, me, from 'this side' the presence he gave off was surprisingly gentle. "Here you go, Rin, take good care of these and put them in my Library when you finish."
"Uh…..thanks?" She was still out of it.
"Its nothing." I waved her off. "I had copies anyways and they are just the basics." I looked over to my previous-self. "So….how much do you know?"
"I can make several educated guesses. I wouldn't be remiss to hear it all from the beginning."
Yeah, that's what I was assuming at this point.
Rin and Artoria looked at me intently, I guess they were loss and were curious as well. "I guess it started about a month ago when I awoke memories from my previous life and realized I was reincarnated."
"Reincarnation?" Rin and Artoria shared the same remark, astonishment clear on their faces.
"Yeah, it was a bit wild for me when I realized what was happening. A lifetimes worth of memories flooding into the mind of a normal 18 year old kid." I was a bit of a mess those first few days. I just ran a hand through my hair, thinking back to it.
"How did your memories awaken?" Zelretch asked.
"Do you not know, didn't you set this up?" I my eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. I had no memories of this myself, but I attributed it to the holes but this was in no way by chance. Something like this could not be anything but artificial intervention.
"To be honest, I haven't done more than just write down some thoughts on what you went through, I haven't even developed a proper hypothesis yet for testing" He admitted without any fanfare.
That is.....not what I wanted to hear, is it possible a 'future' him or rather 'me' did this? While I doubt he would have had events play out like they did, I had assumed he had a more 'direct' hand in my existence.
"I think we're both missing context then, I guess we'll figure this out together." I sighed, getting answers to my questions wouldn't be as easy as I thought. "It started when an Exorcist attacked me after I accidently walked up on him."
"An exorcist? Why would an exorcist attack you if you were just a normal person then?" Rin blurted out.
"Oh, did I forget to mention that? My mother is human, my father is not." I shared a look with Zelretch, apparently, he didn't know what I was either if I was reading his expression correctly.
"A phantasmal species in the modern era?" Artoria looked a bit surprised, but I didn't see any judgmental looks, interesting.
"Well, the world I came from, the Age of Gods never ended, even if the world was pretty similar to this one." It wasn't that simple, but it was enough to describe the situation.
"Curious." Zelretch scratched his chin in thought.
"How!? The Age of Gods, doesn't that mean Magic and miracles should be more open and wide-spread? Should Thaumaturgy even exist there since humanity would be closer to the Root, but then how would it be modernized to something resembling this world if that was the case? Where there new layers of Reality that overrode preexisting world-views into something that allowed for coherence? Did the Phantasmal Species develop alongside humanity, would the collective unconscious still favor us?" Rin blurted out. "That would explain your non-human blood, are you an Oni then? A Youkai of some sort?"
"Eh...kind of close, but you are thinking incorrectly." Wow she really was wrapping her head around this. Those were some good questions, its sad that the answer is kind of lackluster.
"Are you a demigod?" Artoria asked.
"Divinity!" Rin practically exclaimed, reiterating the question. "Are you a demigod!?"
"Ermm, wrong direction." I snorted, holding back a small laugh.
"What do you mean, wrong direction?" Rin questioned.
"You are thinking me something 'divine', and you are thinking in the wrong direction."
"Are you part demon then?" Artoria said plainly. I admired her ability to hold her emotions in check, I don't think most people would look so natural accusing someone of being a demon and actually believing it.
"Well….not really." I wasn't but the difference was mostly academic.
I watched Artoria furrow he brow, trying to think through it. Rin wasn't faring any better, I waited until she started taking a drink to answer. "My biological father is Satan, I'm a half-devil."
"PPPPFFFFFFTTTT" A large amount of liquid squirted across the table, landing on Zelretch's face.
There was a pregnant silence, Zelretch just blinked as liquid dropped down his face. Artoria looked utterly dumbfounded as she looked at me and even Zelretch seemed a bit taken back.
I just smiled innocently.
It was technically correct, the best kind of correct.