Chapter 8
Fateful Day―― I heard cicadas.
This is from one summer, long in the past.
That kid had come to our house with his parents to offer their neighborhood greetings.
They’d moved next to us that day, and the adults had begun chatting on and on. As for me, my sister and the kid, it was like they’d completely forgotten about us.
The kid spoke up first.
“― ― Hey you! What’s your name?”
The kid had a different accent, and I’d gotten a bit startled hearing something like that for the first time.
After I said my name, the kid similarly asked my little sister.
My then 4 year old little sister was quite the introvert, she’d always stick behind me, hiding. Naturally, I tried to reply for her――
But then, to all my surprise, my little sister said her name by herself.
My little sister―― Who’d later transform into the terrifying girl I abhor. This surely was the moment where, for the first time, she’d open her heart to anyone other than me.
At that time, we were still a pair of normal siblings.
It was my first summer break after entering elementary school.
A summer day after I’d just turned 7――
My memory of that one kid, the girl, who’d become my childhood friend.
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“Ah….”
I woke up on a soft bed.
My blanket was on the floor, must’ve kicked it off in my sleep.
I’d long gotten used to life without ACs, but the hot temperature hadn’t gotten pleasant or anything.
I scowled under all the sweat covering my face.
The maid hadn’t come to wake me, the drapes still blocked the morning light.
But the killer heat was still pa.s.sing through.
There were no cicadas, of course.
“… A dream… ”
I still felt a tingle of it in the deep reaches of my mind.
Those bright, warm days.
As of now, I couldn’t even remember the girl’s name.
Everything, was shattered.
In that 5 year nightmare.
“… Let’s not”
The past doesn’t matter anymore.
I’d finished the job 6 years ago already.
I got off bed and opened the drapes.
What greeted my eyes was the expansive scenery plenty in the green of nature that was Daimcrüd, the territory of our Lieber earldom.
I ―― Jack Lieber, had turned 7 years old.
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“Mh… M, mm, mn, nn…!”
I focused my awareness on the soles of my feet.
I pin pointed this focus on―― just a little below―― on the air below my――
“Wahh!?”
The power making my body float in the air was suddenly cut.
I dropped and fell onto the loose sand.
It didn’t hurt. The sand acted as a cushion.
But it also covered me everywhere. Some of the stuff got in my mouth too.
“Blerrh~ … spit. G.o.d dammit~…”
I cursed as I considered why I failed just now.
The parts I should leave on and the parts I should’ve left off, guess it’s all up to the level of control I have.
Behind the Lieber manor, I had this little training ground made for me.
I’d come here to train my spirit arts daily.
Incidentally, today I was trying to do a double jump.
【 Veiled Wings of Freedom 】 granted not Flight, but Float, so it was a fact that I couldn’t soar around the sky like a bird.
But if I used this power to make the air under my feet also float, I could very well achieve something similar to flight by kicking on the air.
Well, getting there would require me to not only do a double jump, but a triple, quadruple, quintuple, and so on… Currently, my top record was a 3 fold jump.
My main goal at this time was to enter the Royal Spirit Arts Academy located in the country’s capital.
The academy was the parent organization of the Spirit Master’s Guild, and was a gathering of talented young spirit arts pract.i.tioners.
Gaining fame as a spirit master was something I absolutely had to do.
I’d eventually inherit the earldom from my dad, and in n.o.ble society, your talent as a spirit master can get you a lot of clout.
I planned on forgoing the entrance exam and having someone of the guild come and recommend me to the academy for my own talents.
Once I showed them my worth, I’d use dad’s influence to secure my position, and so, successfully enter the academy.
I wanted to enroll before I hit age 10, and then get even stronger once I’m
in.
That’s why I’d been toiling away every day.
“Working up a sweat already, Jack?”
I heard while in the middle of mumbling on my plans, still covered in sand.
“Ah, dad. Good morning.”
“You too. Morning.”
My father, Caram Lieber.
This man that I’d once thought looked young. It’d been 7 years since then.
He still had that fearless expression on him, and recently, I feel like I could see a hint of the ‘n.o.ble family head’ impression from him too.
… Hm. That’s not really something a kid should think about their dad.
Dad’s expression laxed as he saw me in all my sandyness.
“Hard time?”
“Pretty much. I wouldn’t be going this blindly if I just had a teacher.”
“Ha ha ha! My own son, just threw sarcasm at me.”
Just as he’d promised when I first awakened to my spirit arts, dad had been trying his best to nurture this talent that I had.
He’d used his influence to find renowned instructors in an attempt to give me the best tutelage possible.
But unfortunately, because it was indeed unfortunate, I’d only learned one thing from those teachers.
In few words―― My talents were apparently far exceeding what any of them expected.
One after another, the instructors were unable to accept the student who was too excellent, sometimes driven to mad jealousy, they all quit eventually.
In other words, all these years, I had to train my spirit arts on my own.
“Sorry, son. But I have been trying to get a good teacher for you…”
“No, it’s fine. It’s hard enough trying to teach someone who doesn’t even have the same spirit as you. So it’s not your nor the teachers’ fault.”
“Ha ha ha! You sure know your talk!”
Dad gave a hearty laugh.
Honestly, I also thought I said something cheeky for my age, wonder why he’s laughing?
Dad really was doting, but at the same time, he didn’t treat me like a kid but like another individual human being.
I like that open hearted part about him. As another human being, as his kid, I really respected the guy.
“Dad, was there anything you need?”
“Ah, right, almost forgot.”
Dad put his laughing at bay and reported,
“Sorry for interrupting your blind magic practice, but I need you to brush off that sand, and come to the parlor. I have a guest I’d like to introduce you to.”
“A, uh… Guest?”
“Right. He’s a tradesman we’ve had friendly ties with for a long time. You should get to know him too”
I was the next head of the Lieber house. Knowing my people was an important duty.
“You could’ve gotten one of the servants to call me, why come personally?”
“No reason. Just getting some more brownie points under my belt. It’s so my kid doesn’t blow me off once I get old and senile.”
He’s joking right? It’d be way too sad if he was being serious…
Maybe I’ll be thinking like that once I become a dad too…
“I understand. I’ll come immediately”
“Yeah, take your time”
I headed back into the manor to do something about this sand in my nooks and crannies.
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Once I’d entered, the many maids came along to wash me clean.
For some reason, I was quite popular among the young maids.
If I ever met a weird adult-like kid like the current me before I was reincarnated, I’d easily think of him as a cheeky snot-nosed brat who needs to settle down. The maids though, they thought it cute.
I never understood what girls considered cute in either of the worlds.
Once I’d gotten changed, I went to the parlor where I saw dad and another, a large man.
“Posford-san, let me introduce you. This is my son, Jack.”
“My name is Jack Lieber. Pleased to have your acquaintance.”
Mr. Posford sounded his delight with a ‘Ho~’ once I greeted him in a courteous manner.
“Good manners on the boy. Looks like he actually listens to his parents.”
“Oh no. We haven’t had much to do with that, my son’s really saved us a lot of trouble.”
“Ho ho ho! Good, very good. I have a daughter around the same age as Jack-kun, you see, but that girl, incorrigible ladette that one… I’d brought her along with me today, but the moment I take an eye off her, the girl runs off!”
“Our servants should have an eye out, I’m sure she hasn’t gone outside the manor.”
“I do apologize for the inconvenience. My daughter can be quite a handful…”
“Perhaps, I can go look for her?”
I took the opportunity to b.u.t.t
b.u.t.t into the adults’ conversation.
It wasn’t like I was getting bored listening to them.
I figured that rather than stay a statue the whole time, he’ll be friendlier with me if I show him that I get along with his kid.
Mr. Posford laughed, ‘Ho ho!’ with his chubby face.
“Good, very good! Hopefully little Jack-kun’s politeness will rub off on my Philene, make her more of a lady.”
“Well, if you insist, Posford-san―― Jack, sorry, can I leave it to you?”
“No need for apologies, dad. It’d be my honor to have the privilege of being playmates with a young lady.”
I said, a bit teasingly, and Mr. Posford once again went, ‘Ho ho ho!’ in delight. Worked like a charm.
I left the parlor after a bow.
Walking the halls, I thought on the problem.
What sort of places would a kid go to?
Kids were bound to imagine a new house as some mysterious dungeon. Matter of fact, with a mansion as big as ours, they’d find countless places to explore.
Looks like I’m in for a bit of hide and seek before I meet this daughter.
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First, I tried asking the servants.
“Ah! Would you be talking about the girl hiding in the laundry?”
“Oh, I saw a little girl! She was making funny faces behind a senior maid while she was scolding me, I burst into laughter…”
“Ah, that little lady? Can you believe it, she ran off after grabbing some of the food I was putting away… Oh, not to worry. They were only leftovers.”
… I sure got one h.e.l.l of a tomboy to hunt down.
I went around to the locations the eye witnesses mentioned. I couldn’t find her anywhere in the manor.
Did she go outside? I thought as I opened the door to the main entrance.
There were people outside.
I saw two of them, one, I could identify as a man.
From a child’s height, all adults really looked big. So this man I was seeing looked both in his later teens and well into his twenties.
The other person wore a hood, so I couldn’t tell.
In the world there were many who couldn’t show their face, be it because of scars, or religious reasons, or something else entirely.
So we shouldn’t carelessly act rude towards those sorts of people, I recalled my 2nd teacher once saying.
I guess they were surprised at the door suddenly opening. The pair was staring at me. Though, one of them had their eyes hidden so I couldn’t exactly tell.
They seemed suspicious. But the guards let them in this far, so they shouldn’t be intruders at least.
“Excuse me… Are you perhaps, guests?”
“Ah, that’s right… We’d promised your parent that we would come.”
“My father, well, he’s with another guest at the moment so… Right, who――”
A soft voice came from behind right as I was about to get their names.
“― ― Ah, it’s fine, Jack. Those ones are my guests.”
My mother―― Madelyn Lieber.
She’d been 17 when she had me, so she was currently 24.
Unlike dad, who’d gained a bit of regality to him, mom still looked young and fresh.
Mom made a gentle smile as she greeted the pair inside.
“Welcome. You and your wife too, please make yourselves at home.”
“… Certainly.”
The person in the hood finally spoke.
Her voice, it was young. A lot like that of a 10 year old girl.
Mom called her the wife so, I guess they do marry young here huh? Mom married pretty early too.
Maybe I’ll have to take a teenage girl as wife some day too.
“Jack, I hear you’re searching for the little lady of Posford?”
“Yes I am. I couldn’t find her in the manor, so thought to try outside.”
“Please be careful now. Don’t wander too far alright?”
“Of course.”
My mom and dad, 6 years ago―― When I was a 1 year old infant, I’d given them a big scare.
So when they warned me like just now, I decided I’d be agreeable about it.
I went outside, as if swapping locations with the mystery pair.
Since they were apparently mom’s guests, I gave them a light nod as we pa.s.sed each other.
I wonder how she knows them?
I quickly walked to the gates and asked the guards if they’d seen little miss Posford. They said they hadn’t.
Meaning, she hadn’t actually left the estate?
Then as for places within the estate that kids would like… Maybe she’s at my training area?
I thought why not, and
not, and I began heading there, but on the way, I saw something surprising.
A hare pa.s.sed by.
I could understand if this was the forest, but there should be a fence around the estate…
“How’d you get here little guy?”
Can’t really expect the rabbit to talk now can I?
But how… I looked in the direction it came from,
“… Oh.”
It was hard too make out among the bushes… But there was in fact a small hole in the fence.
… Really, did she really…
Please don’t tell me the Posford girl went out from there?
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She wasn’t in my training grounds, so I had no choice. I went out that hole in the fence.
Beyond there was forest.
The forest that my little sister had half burned down 6 years ago.
This forest was well trodden by people, and there were few dangerous beasts. But there was always the worst case scenario, so I had to go look for her now.
“h.e.l.lo~! … Uhm… Philene-sa~n?”
I think that was her name.
Philene. Philene Posford.
I called out to her a few times, but only sounds of muted nature came back.
I didn’t think she’d go that deep inside…
I’ll look a little more, then get back home I guess?
Around the time I started thinking of giving up,
―― I heard a rustle of leaves. A nearby tree suddenly shook.
Right after,
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
Something fell from within the branches and leaves.
That something was a little girl.
Huh?
…. Huuh!?
I’d stopped thinking, but moved on instinct.
I ran as I stretched my arms towards the falling girl――
And just before she hit the dirt,
I managed to make contact with her arm with one finger tip.
― ―【 Veiled Wings of Freedom 】!
With the power of Great Spirit Rank 65, High Divisioner Andrealphus, I remove the girl’s weight.
Once I did, the girl simple floated there, perfectly avoiding the sure injury from that fall.
“… Oh? Oh? Oh~?”
The girl blinked, looking around herself.
After turning over in the air a few times, she started giggling.
Here on my end, I could only breathe a sigh of exhaustion.
“… T-that was too close…”
That would’ve ended pretty badly. I’m glad I was coincidentally here…
“Ah!” the girl exclaimed.
Looks like she finally noticed me.
Still afloat, she said,
“You did this, right!? Wow~! It’s so nice~! It’s fun~! Look look, I’m flying~!”
“Wait, you can’t move too――”
“――Awa? Awawawawawawa!!”
The girl lost her airborne balance, rotating vertically, she――
Donk!
Hit her head on the ground.
Ah man, I tried to tell her…
This is the sort of thing that happens when your not used to it. Happened to me a lot too.
“NoOoOoOoOoOo”
The girl held her head and let out a weird groan of pain.
Anyway, can’t have her doing that again, so I canceled my spell and made her land.
“… Are you alright?”
“Ah, haight…”
She said that, but she’d gotten teary eyed… Though props to her for not actually bawling her eyes out.
This girl, with chestnut hair extending to her shoulders, definitely looked my age. In other words, she was 6 or 7 years old.
If a kid our age hit their head hard on the ground, it’d be rare for them to not start wailing like no tomorrow.
She must be used to a modic.u.m of pain. Goes to show how much of a tomboy she is.
Meaning…
“… Are you Philene-san?”
“Hm? That’s right? How come you know?”
… So she is.
“I’m the son of the Lieber house. You weren’t in the manor, so I came out looking”
“Fe~? Looking for me? Why’s that?”
“Why, well… It’s dangerous to be out in the forest alone right?”
“Is it~? How come?”
Philene tilted her head as if truly wondering why.
It seems the word danger doesn’t exist in this little girl’s dictionary.
I see… I can see how Mr. Posford was finding her a handful…
“Hn~, whatever!”
a.s.serted Philene as she promptly stood up.
“Hey, come play with me! I found this big open s.p.a.ce over there, come look!”
“Huh? No, let’s go back firs――”
“Come on come on!”
Before I could get a word in, Philene grabbed my hand and yanked me onward.
Now being dragged along for the ride, I somehow, felt nostalgic.
“Oh, right.”
Smooth chestnut hair.
The face of the girl who turned to look towards me.
She was――
Once my childhood friend――
――It’s the same.
“― ― Hey you! What’s your name?”
A summer day after I’d just turned 7, a day where I couldn"t hear the cicadas.
I met Philene Posford.
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“Jkun?”
“You’re missing the K.”
“Kejkun?”
“Jack! I’m Jack Lieber!”
“Jack… -kun?”
“You got it.”
“Got it! So it’s… Jacky!”
She changed itJacky!”
She changed it up anyway!
I sighed.
“Alright, fine, just call me that…”
“Ehehe~. Jacky♪ Jacky~♪”
Philene looked like she was having a blast, chiming my name while skipping towards her destination.
And I was being dragged along practically as her lackey.
… We really should head back.
I mean, she looks like the type that’ll get me involved in a h.e.l.l of trouble.
“Excuse me~… Philene-san.”
“Ah, you can call me Filly alright? Everyone does.”
“Ah~… OK, then Filly.”
It’s, sort of embarra.s.sing. I never called a girl by a nickname before.
“I’d personally like for us to return home soon if possible. Look, your father must be worried too”
“Oh right~. I’ll be sure to go back at lunch time!”
“No, really, I mean,”
I mean, we need to go back, now!
But before I could voice that frustration, the forest gave way.
‘Fuah~!’ exclaimed Filly.
Just as she’d claimed, it was a big open field.
The place was free of the dense forestry and made way for a view of the wide blue sky.
So there was a place like this here… I never knew.
“Wow! Wow~! So wide!!”
A breeze blew by, creating waves in the gra.s.s.
And along with the breeze, Filly let go of my hand and ran off.
“Ah, hey!”
She just doesn’t calm down!
I chased after Filly.
Filly turned around and beckoned me, ‘Come on, this way!’ while still running, backwards. Quite fast at that.
Oh man, running like that is――
“――Awah!?”
There.
She tripped.
By the time I reached her, Filly was all, ‘Owie...’ as she stood back up holding her forehead.
How did you fall on your face!? Use your hands or something!
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. My legs caught on something――”
Legs?
I glanced towards Filly’s feet, and froze.
There was a foot.
Not Filly’s foot. Someone else’s. A stray foot was sticking out of the shrubbery.
Eh….? A dead body?
It wasn’t implausible. We were in a forest after all, some wolf or bear might just attack us when we least expect it.
What if… what if this foot isn’t even connected to a body?
A bit fearfully, I peeked into the shruberry.
The foot, thankfully, still had its body.
The person laid face down, but otherwise looked uninjured.
Perhaps it’s a she? Her long bluish hair was scattered.
“Is she alright…?”
Filly had a serious tone to her, she was surprised too.
As for whether she’s alright or not, well, she wouldn’t be pa.s.sed out here if she was.
What mattered was whether she was still alive.
“h.e.l.lo~…”
I gently touched the corpse’s (?) shoulder.
… Warm, she’s alive then?
No, it could just be that she died recently, I should check her pulse.
I quietly split her messed up hair to both sides.
Once I did, I saw something unexpected―― I was once again surprised.
Her ears―― were long.
… An elf.
I already knew that they exist in this world.
They were said to be closer to the spirits than us humans, and also very long lived. A sort of G.o.d-like race…
So why was an existence like that collapsed and dying in this peaceful forest?
Anyway, I need to get her pulse. I put a finger on her pale white neck―― right then,
Twitch.
The elf moved.
Startled, I tried to draw back my hand―― But the elf caught on to it before I could.
“Hah! Wh-don’…!”
I reflexively tried to shake her off, but she was way too strong, my hand wouldn’t budge.
During my struggle, the elf slowly raised her face.
Her disheveled bangs covered her face, but from the gaps I could see blue eyes.
Those two eyes stared fixedly at me.
Eh?
This, seems bad.
“Kyaaaaaaa!!”
“Ah! Hey Filly! Don’t run away without me!”
Betrayer! Wait, why do you look like you’re having fun too!
I was about to run away too,
“― ―――Ah.”
A voice, like it was coming from the very depths of an abyss.
She had this hair-raising voice, and still clutched onto my hand.
I… I can’t run――
“ah-ah-ai――――”
Her eyes that had previously lacked any light, now began glimmering.
And then, she who looked like a female elf, attempted to get on top of me as it to pin me down.
Wai-, don’-, I can’t mo――
Ah, I know, Spirit Arts!
I would’ve used 【 Veiled Wings of Freedom 】 to push this elf lady off of me, but I was too late.
Before I could do anything, she was right in my face―― ―
“― ―――I’m, hungry… …”
...Huh?
My eyes had become dots in confusion.
And then, the elf lady pa.s.sed out cold.
I, of course, was squashed underneath.
Pomf.
… … B-b.o.o.bs… … !
A summer day after I’d just turned 7, a day where I couldn"t hear the cicadas.
Other than Filly, I also met one half dead elf.