Charlotte walked over to me, and when Arthur noticed that, he said his farewells and left almost immediately. He was probably going to go and talk to other people, and try make friends with certain people. Those people would of course be the main cast.
Charlotte had a rather pale look on her face.
"Reinhardt. You failed that, didn't you? I'm almost sure of it. We didn't even get to cover most of knowledge based content that was in that test."
I nodded awkwardly, then Charotte looked at me again. A little confused, but also a little worried. She stepped forward, inspecting me. Those piercing, red eyes seemed to stare into the very depths of my soul.
"You know, I've never noticed it before. But, you don't have much of a presence. It's like I'm staring at an inanimate object. Or maybe, it'd be more accurate to say you don't give off the same feeling as every other person."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I asked her, a little confused. I knew what presences were, every living being had their own presence. A presence could be hidden, and a person could also sense another's presence.
"It's like you're not even there. Now that I think about it, aside from when I'm using my 5 senses, the only times I can... sense your existence is when you use Mana. But even then, it's like you're an Artifact or a Magic Item. It's weird. It wasn't like this before... Poor thing, what the hell did they do to you when you were... You know what, don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. So long as you're still Reinhardt, it doesn't matter."
Living beings had presences. That was an absolute rule. There's only one possible explanation as to why I don't have a presence. And that would be that I'm not actually a living being.
The soul that used to inhabit this body was extinguished a couple of weeks ago.
My breathing stopped for a moment as I pieced what Charlotte had said and what I knew together.
'I'm not truly alive. This body is a shell, and my soul is controlling that shell. I'm... just a walking and talking corpse.
The realisation that I wasn't truly alive made me a bit uncomfortable. I already knew that I wasn't fully human, seeing as I had the Heart of a Divine Dragon inside my body. But, to think I wasn't even a true, living creature was... upsetting.
But, what was more terrfying was a certain possibility.
In this world, necromancy existed. So long as one had aptitude for it, they could wield it regardless of their race. Granted, it was incredibly for a person to have authority over corpses.
But I was, and even if only through a technicality, a corpse. That was problematic, and extremely so.
'I'm likely to be... a target for necromancy. If a necromancer manages to use their ability on me, then I'm going to turn... into their puppet.'
My breathing hastened, I clutched my chest.
'What the hell... am I?'
"Charlotte, I need the toilet. I'll be a minute."
And with that, I walked away moving people out of my way as I made my way to the toilets.
I looked at myself in the mirror, my hands gripping the basin as I trembled. My hands reached up to my face.
Over the past two weeks, I hadn't really thought about what had happened to me, all I did was move forward without thinking.
But I had died. I had been murdered. Then, I woke up in a different world, and was treated like some sort of guinea pig by a deranged old man. I fought beast after beast for almost half the time I've spent here. Thankfully, I had been rescued.
My soul could handle that, those burdens didn't make it crack under the pressure of this new life. If my life moved on in a somewhat normal manner after that, it would've been okay.
But, to think that I could be turned into something without even a will. The only thing I had right now was the confirmation that I was still me.
But, within a matter of moments I could lose my sense of self if I encountered the wrong person. It scared me more than death. Being turned into an undead, I... didn't want that. I didn't want to be some person's willess slave. No, there was just no way I could let that happen.
'I just... want to go home, damn it. My parents, are they okay? Are they managing okay without me?'
I had tried putting their wellbeing off, I tried not to think about my old world. Because, I knew that if I reminisced about it, I would slowly crack. A soul could only take so much, before the pressure made it collapse. And, the worry that I felt for my parents was beginning to take it's toll.
This was closing in on my breaking point. I knew that I wasn't like everyone else. I was 'programmed' differently to other people. That was the only thing that could possibly explain how I had managed go stay sane all this time.
But, everyone had their limits and I was approaching mine.
"I wonder... is it possible for me to just... kill every necromancer?"
But I dismissed that thought immediately. I knew that in a few years, it would be something I would be capable of. Necromancer's were generally quite weak physically, and with how my physical stats would grow, it wasn't an impossibility for me to kill them before they cast their spell on me in the future.
But, not every necromancer deserved to die. I didn't want to kill people who didn't deserve it, the two I've killed... they deserved it.
But, I... can't just kill everyone who just so happens to have been born with a certain ability.
I took a few deep breaths, calming myself down.
This world, I was going to survive in it. And, I was going to be myself. I wasn't going to act like the original Reinhardt.
I am me. And I'm going to stay that way till the day I die. I won't allow a lowly power like necromancy to change that.
***
A/N: I was gonna have this moment earlier but I couldn't find the right opportunity. And, this seemed like a pretty good time.
A/N: Also breaks will be more frequent cause exams and health. If all goes well, health should be back to normal by the end of next week and exams should be over by the 17th.