Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator

House Reinhart had a deep history.

It couldn’t be compared to the three generations of families that had prevailed right after the fall of the great empire, but it had a long history nonetheless.

As a result, there were countless treasures in their trove. So much so that nobody would believe that the family was on the decline.

“Whoa… There are so many cool things…”

Linbelle glanced at the treasure, filled with curiosity. Not having seen her for a month, she appeared considerably different compared to when Allen had first met her.

‘Her body movements…’

They were very natural.

Before leaving for the ruins, Allen had entrusted their training to the knights. As such, he had expected some bad habits to remain. However, he didn't see any.

‘She’s so talented… Could she become one of the Top Eight?’

Unfortunately, she didn’t appear to have tapped into her prana. Regardless, her growth was still unbelievable. Compared to Allen and Julius, she was remarkably talented.

‘I’m glad I got her on my side.’

The dark figure that he had seen in the carriage was now nowhere to be found.

‘Maybe I’m exaggerating a little…’

He may have been seeing things. Allen turned his head.

There were many strange, uncommon things in the trove. The four troves contained a number of shimmering jewels, wands shrouded in mist, and crystals humming with a blue electric current.

As the family had taken a particular interest in magic, there were many magic-related objects there.

Linbelle drew closer to examine the curious items. Inellia, seeming to be worried about her, sneakily approached her.

“Linbelle, you know you can’t touch anything, right?”

“I know, I know, Mom.” Linbelle gave a quick nod, continuing to browse around the trove.

Inellia anxiously kept glancing at Allen, who was walking slowly behind her.

Allen smiled slightly to her, whose eyes seemed to be asking for help, and turned to face the old butler walking with her.

“You don’t mind walking around with us?”

“No, I don’t mind. You must be amazed, seeing as this is your first visit to the trove.”

Gardell, the old butler guiding them through the trove, smiled kindly and nodded.

“Ah, well, that one over there…”

Seeing Gardell curiously looking at Linbelle, Allen asked, “What, did my maid do something wrong?”

“N-No, sir. Miss Linbelle… must be glad to see you again after so long.”

Gardell shook his head as he responded, dispersing his thoughts.

“...Phew.”

Inellia had been paying close attention to her daughter. She let out a sigh of relief at Gardell’s answer.

“...That is all.”

Gardell stopped and smirked before speaking to Inellia.

“If you touch anything even once, that’s it.”

“Eek!”

“We can’t replace anything, so please be careful.”

“...!”

Coming to a conclusion, Inellia moved towards Linbelle—who was busy walking around the trove—as if she couldn't hold on any longer. 

“Ah! Sir! Sir! What’s that burning ice—Ack! Mom! What are you doing?!”

“Linbelle! You’re his maid. What are you doing? Can’t you knock it off?”

“Ugh, what does it matter to you?! He doesn’t mind!”

“So you want Lady Eliza to have you trained all over again?”

Linbelle tensed up at the mention of the lady’s name.

“So you wouldn’t care if I told Lady Eliza everything that you’ve done?”

“...I would.”

“Come here, then.”

“...Hmph. Fine.”

Linbelle returned to her mother’s side with a disheartened expression.

Witnessing the series of events, Allen asked Gardell with a smirk, “Do you enjoy making fun of a maid who doesn’t know anything?”

“Haha… As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that I need more fun in my life.”

Especially since he had only had a few chances to mess with that cunning child who appeared differently on the outside than on the inside.

‘...The young master doesn’t seem to know.’

Gardell didn’t dig any further into their relationship and smiled as if he knew nothing.

“You have to take the first thing you touch with you.”

“It’s my first time choosing something here, though, so isn’t it only right for me to try touching it first?”

Allen shook his head, slowly looking around at the things within the trove.

‘Whatever I take from here, I’ll be able to find useful. But… I can obtain such items somewhere else.’

Two days had already passed since Thanksgiving concluded. As soon as the cleanup was finished, Allen came down to the manor’s basement using the treasure trove key.

Unexpectedly, Gardell took it upon himself to guide him. Thanks to him, Inellia and Linbelle were allowed to accompany Allen to the trove. Although, he wasn’t sure why the butler would do him that favor, since they weren’t close.

‘I spread my sensing range just in case, but…’

He was just a weak old man. There was no calculated rhythm to his step, nor was there any abnormality in his breathing or expression.

Allen cast his doubts aside and quickly resumed scanning the items around him. He had to pick up as much as he could before Julius came.

It reminded him of something he read in the book a few days ago.

「Julius takes a step inside the treasure trove. There lay treasures collected by their family for generations—exuding their presence.」

「He does not know when he will have another chance to return to the trove, so he has to choose carefully. While looking at various items, Julius finds ‘it’.」

‘It said that he found something special here.’

「He finds a display case on the far right of the trove.」

Allen stepped forward. His party followed his unpausing endeavor with questionable looks.

「Five steps to its left…」

There were weapons, magic books, jewels, potions, and ancient relics.

His group’s expressions became increasingly confused as Allen continued to move past all of these things.

“Uhm, sir, are you going to look at anything—”

“No. There’s something I have in mind.”

Allen flatly refused Inellia’s indirect suggestion.

‘Anyway, this place is overflowing with things that are just similar to other things.’

He didn’t want to pick anything that he could get somewhere else.

「There is a pile of items that does not look like any of the other treasures in the trove. At the very top…」

Tap.

Allen stopped walking.

「...lay something valuable. Yet, despite its value, it was rolling around awkwardly.」

Catching up to him, Inellia looked at Allen with a puzzled face.

“Sir, isn’t that just a pile of junk?”

He had stopped in front of a pile of useless things. They were items taken from ruins or purchased at auctions for high prices, but were now dust-covered in the trove because of their unknown purposes.

Just as she said, it was a pile of junk.

‘Well, I found something.'

How many neatly displayed items in the treasury had he passed just to end up coming to look at a pile of junk?

‘All to make the “best” choice.’

He looked closely at it, but it was still absurd to him that it was actually supposed to be worth something.

Allen shook his head and picked up a gray bead from the pile.

“I’ll take this one.”

“What?”

Linbelle looked at him again, as if she had misheard him. However, his decision remained the same.

“Are you really sure that’s what you want? Sir, did you hear what I said earlier? If you touch something, then you must take it…”

“Yes, I know.”

“...And that’s still what you want to choose?”

“Yes.”

Looking sour at Allen’s decision, Gardell asked him several times, yet his decision remained the same.

“I want this bead.”

Gardell sighed at him, repeating the same warning over and over again like a parrot. However, Allen didn’t concern himself with it.

Because…

「The bead’s original name is [Heaven’s Eye].」

“Now that I’ve chosen, let’s go back.”

“...Understood. If you’re satisfied, then let’s go.”

「One of the five weapons of the First Warrior.」

* * *

* * * 

The Incarnation of Light. The Slayer of Dragons. The Master of Swords.

There had been many titles bestowed upon him—who was given God’s blessing—yet the one that best represented him was ‘Warrior’.

He was the First Warrior who killed the demons that invaded the ancient empire. He gathered eight companions to fight the Demon King destroying the land and eventually succeeded in slaying him.

‘Though, it seems that even such a great warrior was unable to avoid the fall of the ancient empire. But…’

What did that have to do with anything?

Even after his death, the warrior’s impact on the world remained.

The Top Eight, comprising the eight strongest warriors on the continent, were derived from the original eight companions. Furthermore, the location of his last traces was where Galshdin Academy was built.

Defeating the Demon King despite being a mere human being was a tremendous accomplishment.

‘I can’t believe I’ve acquired one of the five weapons that he used…’

Although it was surely something to be happy about, Allen couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

‘The Holy Sword is at the Academy, the ring is in the Great Elf Forest, and his helmet is in the possession of one of the three distinguished families.’

Of the remaining two weapons, the First Warrior’s armor was said to have been broken, and the bead was said to have gone missing.

Who would have thought that the bead would be in the Reinharts’ trove?

Allen felt an irrational and irresistible flood of emotion from the contrived coincidence.

‘If the black book hadn’t told me…’

He was sure that the bead would have fallen into Julius’s hands, just as written.

“Brother…”

Did this have to do with that bastard’s weird abilities… or with luck?

“Allen?”

Even if it were a coincidence, looking around and finding a little bead in the corner of such a large space…

Tap.

“Huh?”

He was met with Julius’s face. As he turned and looked around, the scenery of their outdoor terrace greeted him.

‘We’re in the middle of tea time.’

Allen instinctively swatted Julius’s hand away from his shoulder, then smiled apologetically.

“I’m sorry, Julius. What were you saying?”

“Are you okay? Maybe you need to rest…”

Without showing his distaste for the traces of warmth left on his shoulder, Allen replied, “The research that I’ve been doing has been progressing well these days, so I’ve been staying up late lately. Don’t worry about me.”

“Ah, you said that you made a lot of progress while you were training, too, right?”

“Yeah.”

At those words, Julius laughed with delight, as if the words were his own.

“Congratulations! Oh, and I said that I’d bring you back a gift from the ruins… remember?”

Julius chuckled proudly as he took a small box out.

“...This.”

“Like I said, we had a lot of success at the ruins. This is one of our biggest successes.”

The box looked normal at first glance. However, Allen was able to smell a refreshing scent flowing through the cracks in the box.

“You said you were successful in your training, so take this as a gift.”

“No… How could I?” Allen refused, his expression one of bafflement.

Julius smiled and confirmed that it was okay.

“A promise is a promise, so take it. We’re brothers after all. You can take it.”

“Julius…”

Although accepting the gift felt burdensome, Allen looked at him gratefully. Julius changed the subject after seeing the look in his brother’s eyes.

“I heard that your training was a really big accomplishment. How much stronger have you gotten?”

Allen agonized over Julius’s question.

‘How much should I tell him…?’

He knew that he was going to exclude what he gained from the dragons’ and giants' bodies. Exposing too much about his newfound strength could lead to some unnecessary wariness from Julius. Nevertheless, Allen knew that his brother was aware that the bandits had been taken care of with a sword rather than magic due to the traces of battle in the waterways.

‘If that’s the case, then…’

Allen sighed for a moment before answering quietly, “...Well, I don’t know.”

“Didn’t you say that you beat those bandits in the underground waterways, though?”

“I’ve definitely gotten stronger…” Allen hesitated and refused to answer clearly.

Julius asked in frustration, “Then doesn’t that mean that you’ve gotten another ring?”

“I… No. I trained in a different system of magic.”

“...A different system?”

“I didn’t think the Circle Magic System was enough, so I tried another one to supplement it.”

Julius’s expression contorted. Allen knew why he made that face.

It was well known that the Circle Magic System was the most efficient system of magic that modern-day sorcerers used. However, that didn’t mean that it was impossible to learn most of the other ancient magic systems. Additionally, it wasn’t impossible to be familiar with two different magic systems at the same time, but most are only able to focus on one. 

‘It’s better to make stuff up like this.’

Allen wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that he had gotten better at using the sword. Yet instead of telling the truth, he would hone his swordsmanship and use it to make excuses about a body-enhancing magic system that he had discovered.

“Because of that, it’s hard to say for sure exactly how strong I’ve become.”

“Ah…” Julius looked at Allen wistfully.

‘I’m certain that Julius would never have found the bead on his own. That something in the universe ensured he would find it.’

Quests? Systems? It wasn’t necessarily like that.

‘Influencing his behavior, leading him to good results…’

Allen learned from the black book that not all of the bastard’s actions were related to his Quests. Still, he was always lucky.

‘Well, if I were to name that phenomenon, it would be “the universe’s blessing”. That would be appropriate.’

Allen’s purpose behind having tea with Julius was to try to find out the limitations and benefits of his seemingly divine protection.

“The band of thieves were no match for me. That being said, I couldn’t ask a busy knight to help me out at the time.”

In order for him to have a chance at revealing Julius’s power, Allen had to speak with the intent of rousing the bastard’s pride and desire to win.

“Ah, you said you fought those mercenaries and won there, too, right? Were they strong? I heard you did a really great job.”

He ended his goading with a blank expression and said, “I wish I could have been there… Ah, it’s too bad.”

Julius glanced up, as if he had made up his mind.

“Then… would you like to spar with me?”

‘Caught him.’

Hiding the wide smile rising on his lips, Allen asked, “With you?”

“Yes. So you can test out your strength…” Julius spoke with caution.

Allen thought for a moment before responding, “You don’t mind?”

“No. I feel like I’ve grown quite a bit too.”

“Well… Alright,” Allen replied with a wide smile, as if to show that he would do his little brother any favor he asked.

“Whatever you want.”

Everything was set.

“We’ll have a good match.”

“Yes, we will.”

The two beamed at each other.