Kai woke up as the numbness in his hand grew beneath him. His posture had been rather odd throughout the night.
He sat straight on his bed and looked outside the window. From the gap, he could see brightness creeping in.
It was time to wake up.
He stretched his hands and circled his wrists to ease out the nerves. The pain continued to move through his muscles.
Kai sighed and inhaled deeply. Within a second, he cast a spell. In no time, he felt his arm heal and get back to normal.
Getting out of the bed, he headed towards the bathroom. It's been a while since he had woken up in the body of Arzan and he had gotten used to how things were.
The whole estate would be up and running early in the morning and after breakfast, he would read some book in the library with Claire looking around whatever she found.
She knew how to read a few words, but reading a whole book was not easy for her, so she would mostly look at drawings in certain books.
It seems like basic education hasn't progressed yet beyond church school and there it was more about gods and basic history than learning how to read. Obviously, it was different with nobles, but Kai wanted to change this as soon as possible for the commoners too.
He had learnt a lot due to Claire and she was more than happy to tell him about the city and how people lived. An excuse of growing up in noble seclusion was enough for her to not question things.
Arzan was anyway a loner, so it wasn't a lie.
After he was done with that, he would immediately focus on making Heat stones throughout the afternoon.
The process of making a Heat stone included a lot of mental exhaustion, but at this point, it was almost like a workout to Kai since he was able to train his enchanting skill.
It wasn't a magical art he had leaned towards, but now that he was using it in daily life, he felt like his understanding of seals was just getting better.
He also worked on his circle throughout the day and although it was progressing at a slower rate since he was trying to build a solid base, he was happy with what he had gotten till now.
It was only possible because his retainers were doing their roles well.
He felt at ease knowing Francis took care of all the administration work related to the city and even though he wanted to help the people, he had to wait.
Until he got over the debt, there was hardly anything that he could do to help the people.
One more thing holding his focus was the mystery of Arzan's death. What was he trying to do with the ritual? What was the original purpose of it? Was his death a conspiracy or he had simply done things wrong?
Those questions would often pop up in his mind throughout the day.
He had tried finding more about the ritual in the library and his room, but there was nothing. The patterns and symbols used in it were unknown to him and he was going nowhere with them.
If Arzan had actually killed himself for the ritual, then he must be confident that it would work, but there was nothing to validate that.
The only person who might have a clue was Actra.
He had been in his quarters for weeks. From what he had heard from Francis, it was due to some research that kept him busy.
He used to be close to Arzan and even knew why he had taken on the debt, so if there was a soul-sacrificing ritual, he would surely know of it and might even be a part of it.
Kai had tried meeting him but had no luck. A part of him wanted to interrogate him, but again, if he was a conspirator in Arzan's death, then he needed to be careful.
If his strength was anywhere around the 3rd circle or even the peak of the 2nd circle, he wouldn't be able to counter him.
For now, he focused on his other problems.
Aside from the debt, there was the situation with the mana weaver.
He needed to make regular visits to remove the corruption, therefore he used his evening to do so.
Fortunately, the weaver seemed to be making decent progress. The corruption seemed to not have taken place in his body deeply, so it was a tad bit easy to exterminate it.
There were also no signs of corruption that showed up in its family members, so at least that was a positive. The last thing he needed was more mana weavers in his territory.
Kai walked through the corridors, being used to them now. He gave a brief nod to Feroy, the same guard who accompanied him for the past few days. Their usual conversation started with mana weaver's condition.
"How is he after yesterday?" He asked as they walked.
Feroy had been tasked to keep track on the weaver's progress. He had been a big help to Kai and his fear towards the weaver had also gone down considerably after noticing the effects of the healing.
The guard's eyes flickered as he replied, "He's in a much better condition now, Lord Arzan. He's even eating food without making any noises. I noticed that his hands are much less shaky now. And um… Even without the Syphon stone, he has been behaving."
Kai nodded with a smile.
It seemed like it wouldn't take long for its human side to surface again. If Kai wasn't at the 1st circle, he would have already used a spell to recover the mind of the weaver, but in his current state, a spell like that was risky.
He had to let the weaver come out of the corruption on its own. The only external help he could do was to destroy the corruption with his own mana.
"Open this," Kai said and Feroy quickly opened the gate to the dungeon prison.
They walked inside to meet the mana weaver as usual.
As he saw the weaver, Kai noticed the changes in his body. It sat on the ground with chains binding its arms and legs.
Compared to the first time he had seen him, the corruption had gone down by a lot and he looked a lot less pale.
The black lines in his arms and neck had thinned considerably, leaving scars behind.
It looked up at Kai and he saw its pupils. Previously, its eyes were blackened, but now it looked much more human.
Even the mutation on his face was lessening with the flesh coming back up and the claws turning back to fingers again.
Kai sat on the floor and looked at the mutant guard.
Taking a deep breath in, he extended his hand and grabbed it's hand. Unlike before, the weaver didn't try to be aggressive and simply stared at Kai.
It had gotten tamer with each session and with the corruption lessening, the human part of the weaver seemed to have recognised Kai as a helper rather than an enemy.
It had only made his job easier.
He exhaled and sent a wave of mana through him to the mana weaver.
Kai could feel the mana going inside the veins with less struggle than before. The battleground beneath the skin of the mana weaver was much calmer.
It allowed him to push a considerable amount of mana through its veins.
The corruption tried to eat away at the mana, but it was weak and Kai was able to destroy whatever was left in his arms. If he was right, its hands would return to normal in two days.
He inhaled deeply once again and his hand went up to touch its neck.
It was the final rush of mana Kai would be using for the day. Within seconds, he sent a surge of mana inside.
Normally, it was harder to destroy the corruption in this area, but he had gotten used to the weaver's body and was able to exterminate a chunk of the corruption.
The weaver shook a bit as he continued, but it was just an effect of his mana entering its body.
Once that was done, his hands fell to his sides as he stood up, giving one last look to the weaver who kept looking up at him before turning around.
"W-water… water." A gravelly voice came from behind.
Kai's eyes widened as he realised where it had come from. He quickly turned around.
"Get some water. Quick!"
He heard Feroy's footsteps running to get water.
Kai sat down where he was and took another look at the mana weaver.
Its eyes looked at Kai pleadingly. A shine that was missing before seemed to have returned as he got back his speech.
Feroy was quick to return with a pot of water as Kai removed the metallic chains. The weaver chugged down the water with a fervour.
It dripped from the sides of its mouth, but it didn't care. It drank like someone who was kept parched for days.
Kai scooted forward and kept his hand on the left side of its chest. He didn't say anything but continued to heal more of the corruption within its body.
Kai sent waves and waves of mana inside its body. He physically felt how its body reacted to the mana. It absorbed as much as pure mana possible, and the corruption continued to fade away.
He grabbed its wrist and noticed that it's heartbeat was returning to normal. Mana weaver's heartbeat was much faster than humans and its getting back to normal was a good sign.
He sent another wave of mana, aiming at his heart, but realised that his mana pool was almost empty. He frowned, but there was not much he could do.
He looked up at the weaver who had almost finished the water.
"How are you feeling now?"
"I-I feel b-better."
As the mostly healed guard managed to voice out, Kai noticed its broken tongue.
It would take a few hours to get better as the man gets used to speaking again.
"That's good. You should be healed within a few days. It won't take long," Kai said.
"Thank y-you so much. I-I'm sorry for the t-troubles I c-caused…" The half-healed guard looked at Kai and then looked at Feroy.
Kai simply nodded. "It's okay. You're healing now, that's what matters."
"My- My f-family? A-are they a-alive?" it suddenly asked, looking agitated. It almost seemed like it would get up and start looking for its family.
Once someone turned into a weaver, their family would be killed alongside them. It was how things worked in this era, so the horror in its eyes was understandable.
"They're alive. Don't worry. We kept them inside the cell for some time to check if the corruption spread, but they haven't been affected. They're now back to their home," Kai said, assuring in a confident tone.
The guard visibly relaxed at that and Kai took a deep breath. His healing had finally worked and from the way the guard behaved, it seemed like his memory was intact. He didn't want to deal with someone who had gotten amnesia due to turning into a mana weaver.
Kai had seen a few cases like that in his previous life.
"What is your name?" Kai asked.
He couldn't remember anyone mentioning what its name was. They all continued to call it mana weaver and monster, but now that the man was returning to normal, he wanted to ask a few questions.
"Palman, I'm P-Palman."
"Palman, what do you remember last before turning into a mana weaver?" he asked. His eyes bore into the guard.
The latter's eyes squinted as it struggled to answer straight away. After a few seconds, it replied.
"I d-didn't realise what was happening. I remember, for a week, I was angry. I kept getting angrier and angrier, lashed out at family, then I lost consciousness. I felt trapped in my own body," he mumbled the last part. With time, his stutters seemed to be reducing. "Something… it took over me. I remember seeing blood, but it was too hazy."
Palman briefly looked at Feroy and lowered its head in shame. His expression matched with what Kai was expecting and he nodded.
"Did you come in contact with any corruption?" He asked the question that he really wanted to know.
The guard fell into a deep thought. His frown remained on the ground as the silence took over. Soon, he replied, "I don't know. I-I don't remember if I did."
"Okay, do you remember if you felt sick after visiting any place in the past few months?"
A wave of realisation passed through its eyes as it looked at Kai and nodded.
"Tell me everything about it," he said and the guard began to recount.
"I was in the Vasper forest. I had gone to my village and went to get some wood since I was there for a few days, the winter was harsh. But, I was distracted by a thornbuck—" It looked at Feroy and Kai. "It looked small enough to subdue and seemed perfect to hunt, so I went deeper into the forest chasing it."
Kai remembered the Vasper forest connected to the eastern side of the territory. It was a wide forest filled with monsters and small animals. A lot of people would venture there to get wood to burn.
"It ran deeper and I missed my shot, so I gave up. It was getting darker and I didn't want to stay in the forest for long. And then once I returned… my body was feverish. For three days, I was in bed. After… that, I was okay. I came back to the city and went to practise as usual, and did my duties, but always felt strange like I was still sick."
"Vasper forest."
From his words, Kai deduced that the root of the corruption must be somewhere in the forest. Nothing else would explain Palman getting corrupted out of nowhere.
After the questioning, He stood up and turned to look at Feroy.
"Get him a room in the estate," He ordered.
"But, he's not fully healed yet-" Feroy said, his eyes going to Palman's face. Parts of it still resembled an undead.
"The man is not a weaver anymore. He'll fully heal in the next few days, as I said. Get him a room. Don't keep him in the cell anymore." Kai was much clearer this time.
The guard simply nodded.
***
Kai focused on his breath and absorbed the ambient mana from the air. Moving it around in circles, he felt a sense of serenity. Since he had gotten the taste of building up his circles in his previous life, he had gotten obsessed with it.
He knew not every mage liked it as it was tedious and time-consuming. Tons of mages preferred playing around with the spells and learning new things, but for Kai, building up the circles simply meant a larger pool of mana to draw from.
He liked the feeling of getting stronger and—
Knock knock knock!
He looked at the door and frowned, not happy with the distraction.
"Come in," Kai said aloud, exhaling after taking a deep breath.
The door opened up, revealing Killian. He seemed to be coming back after training as sweat was on his forehead.
He walked in and gave a bow.
"Lord Arzan, am I disturbing you?" Killian asked, his curiosity-filled eyes staring at him.
Kai shook his head. "Not really. You're here to ask about the Mana weaver, right?" he asked back.
He would have already been informed about the weaver healing from the corruption by now. Kai had been expecting either him or Francis to find him to talk about it since the matter had been hanging above their heads for weeks.
"Yes, I heard that the weaver started speaking again. Feroy informed me about it and said that you healed it," he said.
Kai nodded. "Yes, it took time, but I was able to destroy the corruption from the weaver's body. He's now a human again," he said and changed "it" to "he" in his mind. The man wasn't a monster anymore. "The process is a bit complicated to explain, but simply, as it was a newly transformed mutant, I was able to help him revert to a human."
Killian's eyes widened and he sat down on a chair next to his bed.
"I never knew something like that was possible. Where did you learn that?" He asked, his eyes shining.
"I always wanted to be a mage, and I've learnt a lot of theory-" Kai continued to say, feeling guilty about lying, but he couldn't simply say that it was the normal thing to do in his previous life. "-But recently, I found a way to awaken my core. So, everything I learnt before, I was able to utilise it."
Killian nodded. "I knew that you had a few complications with it."
It felt like he was going to ask more about it, so Kai decided to change the subject.
"Well, there's one more thing I wanted to talk to you about," he said. "We have to head to the forest."
Killian looked back in confusion.
"Vasper forest?"
"Yes."
"Why?" he asked.
"I talked to the mana weaver today. His name is Palman. I wanted to know where he got corrupted and he said that he went to the forest and once he returned, he got sick for three days. I know for a fact that that's how he got the corruption. Have you been to the Vasper forest?"
Killian nodded at the question.
"I went to the Vasper forest for a few hunts. It's big and dangerous, but right now, most of the dangerous monsters won't be there. They'd all be in the dungeon due to the cold."
Kai frowned. Dungeon? He briefly recalled the forest having a dungeon, but it slipped his mind in between everything.
He stood up and walked towards his bookshelf.
Grabbing the book he brought from the library that had all the maps belonging to the kingdom, he placed it on the table. He pushed it to the side so Killian could see. His eyes squinted as he pointed at the location where Vasper forest was.
"Is there a village surrounding the forest? I think Palman belongs to one too."
"Yes, it's there," Killian pointed out a location in the corner of the forest.
"We should head around there," Kai said and looked at the location.
"Why? What do you mean by Palman getting corrupted in the forest?" Killian questioned, noticing Kai's stern gaze on the map.
"It seems like mana fiends are in the territory. There's no other explanation as to why he got corrupted. If we don't stop them, the whole territory might be in ruins."
Kai's serious voice filled the room.