Humming.
A woman humming, Is it Synthia?
I opened my eyes and oddly enough, found myself in this white void. Just like when I died.
Shit.
I'm back here again, and looking at my hands and legs, I could tell this was my old body again.
"My, My. I see you have awoken." A voice echoed.
I looked around until I finally saw a figure float down from above.
Arael. She must've woken me up to give me a task, that was one of her conditions when I was brought back.
"Yeah, I was having a very good sleep till you woke me up." I jokingly said.
"Fufu, seems like you've got a lot better with conversation. Very impressive" she held her hand up to her mosaic censored face, almost as if she was covering her laughing face.
"Ha ha, Ok what do you need me to do?" I said nonchalantly. I haven't been here for a minute and she's somehow getting on my nerves.
She floated in front of me, and stayed in a sitting position as she waved her index finger.
"Oh, Getting tired of me already? Waiting to go back? You will be back as soon as you get this task that I have for you.." I couldn't see it, but I knew she was grinning under that blurred face.
And if it was a grin, This task is probably up to something..
I don't know what the Goddess of death Needs from me. Thinking of it now, That whole powerful life thing isn't really my style. I feel like I was kinda forced into this just due to her.
"Ok, what's your task then?"
"It's a simple one really, but first." She put her hand on my shoulder.
"You'll need a sign to figure out where to go!"
I didn't understand what she meant, figure out where I am going?
And then, images filled my head.
A kingdom, larger than anything I've seen.
A boy, brown hair who looked like a prince?
And Lilith, who was training with someone. Is that a swordsman?
And a baby, someone was holding them.
I jolted back to reality, gasping as Arael floated back, watching me.
"What the hell did you do?!" I asked, still gasping.
"I showed you what you need to do." She answered.
"T-that didn't explain shit!"
What the hell did I witness? The future? Who was that boy? And that baby?
"Listen, Travis. Your task is to enter the kingdom of Prusha and make acquaintance with the prince there. If that happens, Lilith will be taught by one of the swordsmen there. And also…" she trailed off. Bouncing up and down.
"Also?"
First, I get hit with some imagery and now I'm being told all this shit? How the hell am I going to do any of that?
"Your baby sister will be born when you are there!" She said in excitement.
Huh?
Baby sister? When th-
Oh, maybe I should've noticed that one coming. It's not like I've heard Gerald and synthia going at it at night.
But now that I know, that's shocking to me.
I'm going to be a big brother to someone! I wasn't one in my past life.
"Ah, I see. You must be happy that you'll get a sister! Though it'll be a while before you two meet.."
"What?!?" I blurted out before covering my mouth again.
What do you mean? I won't be able to see her?
I won't be able to see my baby sister?
"Don't worry, you'll see." She responded with a grin.
"Stop with the damn hiding shit! You're more loose with their intentions than like.." I tried to spit out an insult, but it just didn't come out.
I fumbled that one, huh?
"I'll tell you this hint, since it's your first task. Ask your father in that world to enter the magic university there. And he'll have something done."
She started to ascend in the air as she said that, her hand readying for a snap.
I didn't even have time to respond before once again, it was dark.
I woke up, gasping. Streaks of sweat were flying as I checked my surroundings.
I'm back in my room. Same room I was reborn in.
Lilith? Is she here too?
I looked to my right and saw her.
She was still asleep, her cloak still on as she slept. She looked so cute when asleep.
Ok, she's here. Everything is fine. I'm back here again.
I heard a knock on the door, and then a voice.
"Kota? Lilith? Are you two awake? Don't be doing anything weird in there!" It was Gerald, probably up for his training again and went to check on us.
Wait, did we do anything weird? She laid on my lap with her head and that was about it. I mean, I did say I was going to protect her, is that a way of confessing? I don't know.
"Uh...yeah, I'm awake. Lilith is still asleep!" I replied.
"You should wake her, we're going to see her mom and see what we can do." I heard Gerald walk away as he said that.
Time to wake up sleeping beauty.
I turned around and noticed that Lilith had moved in her sleep, laying flat on her back. Her cloak was underneath her and her hood came off.
Just from observing, her silver hair laid on the right side of her face
Alright, it's time to stop enjoying the view. Let's just wake her up.
Once I patted her to wake her up, she drowsily sat up, eyes still closed.
"Good morning, kota…" Her voice was croaky when she said that.
"Good morning, Lilith. Let's get ready, we're gonna see your mom."
***
Lilith's house was…How would I put it?
You know from my angle when looking out the window, it looked alright. It's moss covered roof and somewhat poorly done brown painting gave it a unique look. But looking at it from the front view…
It had two windows in the front, but one was actually broken. The whole front door looked like it was broken. One of the hinges looked to be torn off, so the door was slightly off. The lawn of the house also looked bad, Seems like the flowers and bushes that surrounded the wrong were neglected as most of the flowers turned brown.
It looked like shit. Not that I would say that out loud.
"Your father did a horrible job on this house, Lilith. I'm being honest here…sorry." I heard Gerald say out loud.
Then I heard a punch and a yelp from Gerald, it seems like Synthia didn't approve of that.
"What? I was making an observation, it's not like all of us had the same thought! Come on!"
Gerald, you are right. but sometimes it should be more wise to not say those out loud.
Me and Lilith were at the front of the group, Lilith was walking to the front door when the door opened itself.
Actually, it was Lilith's mom who opened it.
Lilith's mom looked extremely pale, her eyes baggy and when she finally walked out the front door, her posture looked like she'd been worn out for months. She looked similar to Lilith. Though she had long silver hair that went down her back, Her eyes were bright green which caught me off guard. She wore a black coat and leggings, she looked very unwell.
But something about synthia gasping told me something was worse.
"Sarah's gone through mana strain…" I heard synthia walk from behind us to Lilith's mom. She touched her hair to examine it more.
Mana strain? I've never noticed that when I read the books.
Synthia kept observing her hair, So maybe it had to do with over exhausting your mana? So what did it have to do with her hair?
"You used to have black hair…" It seemed like Synthia had read my mind as she seemingly blurted out her own thoughts.
Noticing it now, I can see bits of black streaks underneath the silver hair.
"Mother? Are you ok?" Lilith finally ran up to her mother, hugging her.
Her mother could barely stand up, But she managed to put a hand over Lilith's head.
"I-I'm fine, love." Lilith's mom had a rough edge to her voice. It seemed like she was just exhausted.
"How did this happen? Why'd you use all your mana?" Synthia asked.
"I-I…I wanted to see where Emmit went. So I used..my own mana to see if i could track his mana. But I couldn't find it anywhere.."
I'm guessing Emmit is Lilith's fathers name. I didn't even know you could track mana either, then again, what do I know about this world still?
"So that's why…" Synthia trailed off, looking at Lilith and me.
What's she thinking?
Sarah tried to walk to Lilith, only to stumble down into the garden. Lilith raced to her aid, trying to get her up.
Synthia came to her aid and had Sarah lean into her shoulder.
"You're staying with us, Sarah. Until you recover. Gerald, is that ok?" Synthia gave a serious face to Gerald, who nodded in response.
"T-that wouldn't be necessary, please.." Sarah looked like she was on the verge of passing out when she spoke.
"Nonsense, we have an extra room and with you in that condition, you can't take care of Lilith." Gerald interjected.
"Why are you doing this?" Sarah looked at Gerald and then me when she asked us that.
"Because Kota wouldn't want to see his first friend miserable. Nor do we want to see little Lilith go through more trauma." Gerald patted my head as he looked straight at Sarah.
Sarah looked at me and then at Lilith, There was a somber look she gave.
"I see…Well then, If you are all that much concerned with Lilith, Then I am in your debt." She smiled at me.
Synthia smiled as well.
"Let's get you back to our home, then." Synthia waved at Gerald to help her handle Sarah.
As we started to walk back to our house, Lilith stopped me. She grabbed my coat and looked at me seriously.
"Not yet." She said,
"Why's…that?
"I need to grab something from home. Wait for me." She walked into her home without waiting for me to reply.
She might be grabbing some clothes or something. I didn't really complain now that she was…
Ok, thinking about it even more, These two are staying with us now, correct?
If I read that whole conversation with Sarah and both Synthia and Gerald. She is staying with us until she recovers from her issue, Which means that from now on, They'll most likely be in our home for the time being. What about this house? Are they moving back into it? Sarah was already at peak stress when we came to her, I wouldn't think she'd be able to come back here without some sort of issue appearing. Is this all a part of Arael's task? I don't remember seeing this in the vision she gave to me. Maybe she didn't see it as important..
"Hmm" I hummed out loud.
"Kota?"
I looked to my right and saw Lilith with a bag of some sorts and she was wearing something different. She wore a black cloak now and wore a brown dress underneath. When did she have time to change so quickly? I'm pretty sure I've been standing here for like four minutes.
"Let's head to your home.."
We didn't really have much of a conversation as we walked home. Lilith focused her eyes on the mountains ahead of us as I kept thinking about Arael's task. How was I going to be able to persuade Gerald to take me to Prusha? And how the hell was I going to even figure out who the prince was?
Once we got home, I opened the door and saw Sarah on the couch, already asleep. Synthia was in the kitchen cooking up lunch and Gerald was sitting at the table.
"We are back, Father. Mother. Lilith had to get some stuff from her home.." I kept the door open to let Lilith come in.
Lilith put her bag at the door and looked at her mother.
I looked at Gerald, who looked to be lost in his own thoughts. Maybe it's a good time to ask him about this kingdom…
It might be too soon to even ask. Come on, a Eleven year old asking to attend a magic university? There is no way they'll allow that. But what Arael's vision showed me…
"Father, can I ask you something?"
Gerald snapped out of his thought as he looked at me.
"Yeah. What is it, kota?"
"Uh…I know this might seem out of place right now. But I've been meaning to ask about going to school.." I said shyly.
How the fuck am i going to tell him this, I don't have an excuse to go to this damn university! But there's no other way for me to do this!
"School, huh.." Gerald squinted at me, and scratched his chin. He always does that when he's thinking.
"Why would you want to attend school?" He asked.
Shit. uh, Improvise! What else can you learn in school other than what you know now? I can read, write, do math, I can do mag-
Magic. I can tell him I want to learn more about magic! I am just a beginner right now! But I gotta add something else to it, I saw Lilith in my vision. I gotta find out how to also get her in this.
'I- uh…I want to learn more magic from The university there, if you'd let me…This way, I can protect Lilith!" I bowed my head to make sure I looked serious.
I could hear Someone dropping something. Must've been Synthia.
"You want to go to Prusha's Magic university?" Synthia and Gerald both questioned. Almost like those two were in sync.
"...yes, please." I said.
Synthia sat next to Gerald, whispering something to him.
What was she saying?
Gerald looked at Lilith, who had decided to sit next to her sleeping mother. She was tending to her bag, sorting it.
It seemed like an eternity as Gerald scratched his chin, and Synthia held her hands together, tapping her thumbs on top.
"I'll let you go Kota. To Prusha. I have...someone i know there, who I talk with to help you attend that university. However…" He trailed off, still looking at Lilith.
"Take Lilith, I already know she wants to study swordsmanship. So I'll send a letter to my fire king style master to see if he can do anything." When he finished that sentence, he sighed.
"Lilith, I know it might seem out of place. But as of right now, your mother will be out of it for a while. And me and Synthia can't have you two staying here forever." He continued.
"Kota, I know this a bit too much even for you. You're eleven years old, but you're smart. Very smart for someone at that age. But I can't let you go alone. I know you want to protect Lilith, but she'll need to learn to protect herself when you aren't around. I'll need to get consent from Lilith's mother when she wakes up. but once we do, I'll see if I can have one of…my friends in my group travel with you two to Prusha."
"The way to Prusha is dangerous even to beginners, Kota. Having someone who is experienced will make the trip easier, especially someone who knows the way there." Synthia interjected.
I see. I guess they sort of thought I'd ask about this sooner or later. Not that synthia wasn't a great teacher in magic, but I needed a proper class in that in order to really understand it. And they probably thought they'd kill two birds with one stone by also having Lilith come since Gerald didn't know all the sword styles. Now they just need to convince her mom to have her go..
Holy shit, I think they thought this out.
"Are you sure you're ready?" Synthia asked, I can see tears welling up in her eyes.
"You won't be back for a while." Gerald added.
I wish I could say no, and just stay here. Live a life peacefully here. Grow old with Lilith, date her, marry her. Etc etc.
But…Arael gave me a task, and I'm afraid of what'll happen if I don't do the task at hand.
"I-I'm sure, I'm ready. I want to make you two proud of me!" I gave my most serious look at them to express that.
I looked at Lilith, who was peering over at us. She looked shocked with her eyes widened. But when she saw me looking at her, she nodded.
This was also her chance at her own goals. To kill her dad.
All of the sudden, synthia hugged me. Crying.
"My baby boy is growing up. Listen, Kota." She leaned into my ear.
"Mommy loves you, remember that. Don't forget you are our light."
Gerald nodded, but I could tell he was holding in tears.
"You go to that university and come back full of knowledge. I want to see you grow and be happy." She said as she sobbed.
I patted her back, holding my own tears now.
Mom never really said that to me. Everyday from school when I came home, she'd say nothing. When I failed I was lectured, but never praised when I did well.
Or maybe she did see how well I was doing, just never said. I can remember her face when they kicked me out, disappointment and something else.
Sadness, maybe she did want to say something, but couldn't.
Maybe she wasn't happy to see me go. And now she's lost her chance.
I don't know what to say. I could feel the tears coming down now.
And then I let out a cry.