After that declaration, the knight woman who the otherworldly figure announced her new name to be Arianrhod, shifted her head back to the villa once more, only to see Giliath leaving with a child in his arm.
Yet at this she felt something. The otherworldly figure quickly took note of this and spoke out.
"Is something wrong, Arianrhod?"
"This...", Arianrhod tried to answer, only to look back in front of her. While they were far off and undetected, Arianrhod looked toward Giliath once more. To be specific, she gazed upon the little child in his arm. Arianrhod realized the little child was staring right at her, despite being hundreds of feet apart.
"Oh my, it looks like you've been spotted.", The otherworldly figure said without much emotion.
"Those eyes...they remind me of him...", Arianrhod responded softly.
"Do you regret your decision?"
Hearing that, Arianrhod slowly shook her helmet, denying her.
"No. Even if he has found his path anew, you are my Meister now. Lianne Sandlot is dead.", Arianrhod responded with a resolute tone.
Yet at this time, the two saw Giliath turn his head in a certain direction. It didn't take long to realize Giliath found their current position, but even with him looking at the two, they didn't respond. Arianrhod and the otherworldly figure just stood there in silence.
The otherworldly figure then let out a rare chuckle, which caused Arianrhod to stir a bit.
"Fufu, would you look at that. What do we call this saying? Like father like son?"
"Whatever you will it to be, My Meister.", Arianrhod simply responded.
"Good. Let us depart at once. Consider this your final farewell. We must get in contact with The Fool and The Professor. We may not be large yet, but with the members serving me, I'm sure they will welcome you."
"At once, My Meister."
And just like that, space distorted around Arianrhod and the otherworldly figure simply vanished, as if nothing was there to begin with.
As for me...
I let out an inwardly sigh, turning off my [Vermillion Eyes].
To simply explain what [Vermillion Eyes] can do, you guessed it right, it is that Detection skill. It would cast Detection for me, turning the current area into a minimap displayed in my head. It would show living beings on it within a certain radius.
And the best part is [Vermillion Eyes] was able to level up. It would probably unlock more features the higher level it gets. But with Detection, it was able to spot those two figures.
But to think one of them would be Arianrhod...
Well, no, her showing up around this time made sense. She wasn't one of the earlier ones to join that organization, but she would come into contact with Giliath during Rean's early years, even without it being face to face. I guess that moment ended up being now.
Bur that other figure next to her that appeared to flicker in and out of reality ..
There's no way it wouldn't be her...would it?
It was too early to judge. And my thoughts ended quickly hearing my father speak out in a serious tone so suddenly.
"I do not know how you detected those two, Naoto, but you will not speak of this to anyone. Not even to your mother. Understood?", Giliath asked me with a serious tone.
"O-Okay!", I nodded back, not expecting this from Giliath.
"Good.", Giliath responded with a nod. He then walked up to the driver standing in front of the orbal car.
"Take us to Heimdallr Airport at once.", Giliath said to the driver.
"As you command, General Osborne."
The driver then opened up the passenger door for us letting us in. It was quite spacious inside. Father kept me secured in the seat next to him so I couldn't tell how comfortable the seats were, but I couldn't even hear the engine turn on before we started moving.
Driving over dirt paths for a good hour, we exited the rolling hills that connected to our villa. We soon entered the main road that connected Heimdallr and Trista.
Trista would become the focal point in the later games during the cold steel saga. To put that into perspective as to where I was currently at, that wouldn't happen until S1204. It was only May of S1187 now. I had seventeen years to enjoy until Class VII forms. Heck even the events of sky haven't happened yet...
Either way, I had over ten years, the perks of being reincarnated over transmigrating into someone's body.
There was one big event that lead up to that. Mother Kasia was right in saying tensions were pretty high between Erebonia and Liberl right now. The Hundred Days War...
A fated clash between Giliath Osborne and Cassius Bright...
And we were about to head deep into Liberl territory.
According to them, it seemed true I had the blood of the Liberl royal family running through me. This status did not appear at the start of my reincarnation. But once I learned of my status, my stats did update accordingly.
I looked off to the left and looked out the window. My seat was raised high enough to where I could see. Far off in the distance, there was a huge city, died in crimson. Every house was a different shade of red in color, all surrounded by a large circular wall. In the distance were mountains, and off to the east were rolling hills and trees, which was the direction we just came from.
Seeing me look out the window observing this approaching city in interest, Giliath let out a laugh.
"Haha, this will be your first to our capital city, Naoto. What you see before you is Heimdallr. Its radiance shines basking in the vermillion flames of the sun."
"Heimdallr?", I asked with interest.
"Yes. It is unfortunate our time in the capital will be short for this visit, but it will still let you see the might of Erebonia."
"It looks very big!", I said happily.
Giliath grinned hearing that.
"That indeed it is. Our nation stands at the pinnacle if we are talking about its size.", Giliath responded.
He saw my attention remain on the moving scenery, causing Giliath to open up the newspaper again.
As for our driver...
Well, I took a single glance at him. Truly a pitiful fellow. He probably had his hairs standing on end and cold sweat running down his back. He didn't utter a single word this drive despite Giliath remaining silent after our short conversation. He probably didn't even have the courage to speak to such a high ranking official. He did acknowledge Giliath's order before we got in, but remained silent since then.
Giliath was a General in the Imperial Army. That meant he stood at the peak of the commanding officers within it. Only the overseer of the Imperial Army and the Emperor of Erebonia could directly order him. I do not know when he becomes the leader of the Intelligence Division either, but if or when he does, he'll have access to the hidden archives behind this country, making him much more fearful.
And I'll repeat it, a man of that position is now my new father. If my presence becomes known...I wouldn't begin to know what would happen. And yet father is going to Liberal for us to attend the late Crown Prince's funeral. Either he his crazy, or he might actually want me to meet with Queen Alicia. So we'll find out.
I decided to get rid of that thought for now seeing Heimdallr approach our eyes. So instead, seeing I was silent now, I figured it would be a good time to read over my status once more. Upon being born, it has received some improvements already. I didn't have to utter anything to bring it up either.
[Status], I simply thought inside my mind. Upon thinking that a blue panel appeared. I started to review my [Status] that had changed within this one year and one month that I've been here.
[Status]
---------
Name: Naoto
Age: 1
Level: 1
Job: Noble
Stamina: 100
Title: [Inheritor of the Vermillion Knight]
HP: 100
EP: 10
Strength: 10 Defense: 10
Arts Strength: 10 Arts Defense: 10
Speed: 10 Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 30 (+20)
Move: 1 Range: 1
Critical: 0 Luck: 0
-------------------
Remaining Points: 3
Skills
------
[Passive]
(Unknown) - Max
Auslese Bloodline - Max
Reading - Lv1 (10/100)
[Active]
Vermillion Eyes - Lv1 (2/100)
Sure enough, several things got added to my [Status] since I was reincarnated into Zemuria a year ago. To begin with, I now see Age got added to the status panel. It indicated Age 1, which meant I was one year old. Looks like it did not account for the years I lived my past life, so that made sense.
I previously had no Job. This was similar to your fantasy Warrior, Mage, Priest class as one leveled up over time, but this seemed to be applied more realistically. After learning of my history, I did see my status get automatically updated then. If this was the classic Gamer system, I would have needed to undergo a Job Change quest, but this Job, I was given it without needing to do so.
After that, I noticed a few Skills got added. The first one to call out was Vermillion Eyes, the skill I just used a bit ago. Sure enough, I saw its exp bar increase a bit, signaling that it can level up.
Not only that, I now see two Passive skills. Well, actually it was three, but one was kept as Unknown. I probably need an achievement of sorts to trigger that one to unlock.
As for the other two, I took a gander at them. One was already at Max level too, which was the blood I was born with.
[Auslese Bloodline - Level: Max]
Despite being of impure blood, this shows proof that you belong to the royal family of Liberl. Grants the following perks:
-Water Arts Mastery
-Rapier Weapon Proficiency Up
I inwardly sucked a cold breath of air seeing this skill description. I guess I will have a very easy time casting water arts later on when I grow up. Then there was that Rapier proficiency. That will definitely come in handy if I start learning how to fight with weapons. Quite a few in the Liberl royal family used rapiers as their main choice of weapon.
But the decision of what weapon to learn made it difficult for me. Especially with that Title I received. The moment I read it, I saw it gave me a wild Passive skill just like the Auslese Bloodline. I decided to have a look at it again.
[Inheritor of the Vermillion Knight]
You are the Inheritor of ???. Grants the ability to ??? the ???. Learning any weapon will not hinder you. Also grants following perks:
-Unknown - Max
-All Weapon Proficiency Up
-Fire Arts Mastery
I vaguely had an idea what that unknown is, considering the name of that title. This likely won't play a huge factor until much later, but knowing what it partially does now will be of great assistance.
I won't have to worry about using Water add Fire Arts Mastery until I receive my own Tactical Orbment, which are those Orbment devices one requires to slot in Quartz to be able to cast Arts. Arts are basically equivalent to Magic, but unlike using Mana to where one uses nature itself to cast, Arts are based off Septium. Thanks to the recent Orbal Revolution, new devices based off of science allows even the most ordinary citizen to cast Arts if they use such a device.
That's what parts the Trails series off from other typical fantasy worlds. Zemuria is a mixture of science and fantasy.
It's not like magic doesn't exist here though, it's been lost through the ages as humans lost in touch with it. I do know there are still a few witch clans here in modern times, but it was a lot more prevalent in the Middle Ages.
But father said he'll teach me a more in depth lesson of the Orbal Revolution later on, so I won't cover much of that topic itself. Just know it happened roughly 27 years ago in year S1150. Until then, Zemuria was essentially living the lives of the Middle Ages equivalent to the middle ages of Europe.
What I was more interested in were the Proficiency Up skills. This will likely get applied to me within the next couple years, should father start my Training. He himself is a General, and being a son of said General, there is no doubt my early years will receive Training from him.
Either way, my Intelligence stat has already gone up a full twenty points. What the hell you trying to do your one year old son, old man?
Jokes aside, Giliath is a known master of the most widespread combat tactics in Erebonia.
The Hundred-Form Military Combat...
Thinking that, I couldn't help but get excited as to what will get thrown at me in the next few years. And as I thought that, a bright red gigantic city came into view as we approached the eastern gate. Giliath also stopped reading his newspaper and put it away, seeing our arrival.
Not only that I could see a couple of guards stationed there. Looking out the window, several figures could be seen coming to the eastern Heimdallr gate, causing our driver to come to a halt.
"General Osborne, it looks like we've got guests coming to meet us.", The driver said politely.
"I can see that. Pull up the car and turn it to the right."
"As you command, General.", The driver said, turning the car right just before it halted.
Wait, doing that would mean the window facing these approaching figures would be from my end, wouldn't it...?
"Dad?", I asked turning my head toward Giliath. I only saw him looking right back at me with a grin on his face.
I could only inwardly sigh and turned my head back toward the window, to which I saw the couple of guards become flustered the moment those figures arrived.
Even the passing citizens became surprised seeing these soldiers The one in the middle appeared far older than the few soldiers accompanying him, and had a very firm stature. He already had white hair growing along with a white mustache and a short beard. And yet his body could be seen packed with muscles despite his aged appearance.
"Isn't that...",
"What is General Vandyck of the Imperial Army doing here out in Alto Street!?", Another citizen replied in shock.
"I dunno, but it looks like he's going to meet with someone. That black orbal car looks familiar too...", A third citizen replied, unsure.
Yet the soldiers ignored the citizens until they walked up to the eastern gate which currently had a stopped black orbal car on front of it. The couple of soldiers saw this aged figure dressed in uniform, and started to get flustered.
"At ease, soldiers. I am only here to meet an old friend.", The aged man responded to the soldiers accompanying the gate.
"B-But sir, we received a report of General Osborne coming back into Heimdallr. We cannot delay his entry.", One of the guards responded with a flustered voice.
"My men and I will take it from here. Return to your posts at once.", The aged man said in a commanding tone.
The couple of guards immediately saluted him upon hearing
"A-At once, General Vandyck!", One of the guards responded with a salute. They then parted ways, returning to each of the gate's side.
Yet as for me, my head started to spin just hearing that name now. The voices sounded muffled earlier but once I was able to hear this once these voices were close enough.
A tall shadow soon encompassed the left side of the car.
"Roll down the left window.", Giliath also said.
Of course Giliath just had to say it...
The driver couldn't deny Giliath either, so the window on my side started to roll down, letting the sun peer into the car.
As for the aged man in front of the car, he blinked for a moment. At first he didn't see anyone, causing him to look around. He then looked down, only to see a very small child with violet hair sitting in a kid's seat.
"Oh my, you are not the one I was expecting to be seen sitting here, little one."
Little my ass! Compared to the body I was in, this man was equivalent to a giant! He was likely larger than Giliath too.
"Um, hello?", I awkwardly asked this giant old man.
This just happened to be my first meeting with another known General of Erebonia's Imperial Army. This man was indeed General Vandyck! It wasn't just that, this old man before me would eventually come to take the position of school principal at the main campus of Thors Military Academy!