Rise of The Living Enchantment [LITRPG REGRESSION]

There still wasn't much light in the cave, but Aiden kept the time. Judging by how long they had been within the cave, it had to be morning outside.

He wondered if Zen was practicing. Chances were that without him present to force the boy out of bed, he would probably choose today for his rest day.

His whole body has to be killing him, Aiden thought with a smile.

For all his strength and determination, Zen had hated training in his past life. He hated sparring sessions, too. Especially if he was stronger than his sparring partner. If Aiden remembered correctly, it had been his zeal to beat Aiden in at least one sparring match that had made them spend so much time together.

The group was quiet as they walked, silent as if in mourning. Ted played with a spider on his shoulder. He poked it with his finger, then struggled around with it as it used its many limbs to keep his finger away from it. In that way, he entertained himself.

One of the twins had taken a liking to Jang Su. Now she walked beside him, hands clasped behind her back in a lady-like manner.

Taeli was ever grumpy, frowning and scowling whenever she had the chance. It left Aiden very doubtful of her security. With how averse she had been to the entire thing from the very moment he'd met her, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something would go wrong and she would be the reason.

If he's not the reason first, Aiden thought, his eyes moving to his left where Oncot walked beside him. Ever since offering him his sword and Aiden's refusal, the man had become something of a bodyguard, walking beside him with his eyes ever vigilant.

"What is the name of the sword style you have been teaching Zen," Valdan asked, slipping right up to him.

Aiden looked at him but didn't answer. Valdan looked bored. Valdan always looked bored, but this time he looked very bored, as if he would rather be dying than be on a stroll through a cave.

Aiden could not blame the knight. The cave had been boring. After the first bloodbath, they were yet to stumble upon any other monsters.

"Why do you ask?" he said to Valdan. "Did you notice something wrong with it?"

Valdan shook his head. "No. I just haven't seen it before. It's also complicated, yet… simple. It's a conundrum."

Oncot looked down at them. Corpulent as he was, he still towered over everyone in the group. Aiden knew the reason for the look.

A confusing and difficult thing, Aiden signed to the man.

Oncot looked thoughtful for a moment before signing back. A confusing and difficult thing.

Aiden nodded.

When he returned his attention to Valdan, Valdan had an odd look on his face.

"What?" Aiden asked.

"You know Dalsi?" Valdan asked.

Aiden paused. Valdan knew Dalsi? How?

"Dalsites are one of the strongest mercenaries you can find," he answered. "It would be stupid if I knew about that and didn't learn some level of their language."

Valdan's expression morphed into a scowl so deep that he was almost unrecognizable. It was enough to startle Aiden.

"You lie too much, Lord Lacheart." Valdan turned away from Aiden.

"Halt," Aiden said abruptly, stopping Valdan in his tracks.

Valdan turned to look at him.

Aiden walked up to him. Oncot moved to follow him but he gestured the large man away. With a frown, Oncot continued forward, leaving him. Aiden approached Valdan. Passing him, he forced Valdan to walk with him. They garnered some side glances, but no one paid them any real attention.

"What was that about?" Aiden asked. He would've liked to be confused but he was not.

Valdan took in a deep breath and let it out. "I don't need you to tell me your secrets, Aiden," he said. "All I ask is that you stop insulting me with half-baked lies. The least you can do is put a little effort into it."

"I've always lied to you," Aiden said, realizing how horrible of a person he sounded like as the words left his lips. "What makes this one different?"

Valdan pressed his lips into a thin line. He did his best not to look away, but his eyes darted to Ted before he could stop himself.

Realization settled on Aiden. "Because of Ted?"

"You have told him what secrets you keep, yet he is okay with them," Valdan said simply. "Why do you believe that I will not be okay with them?"

Aiden wasn't bothered about Valdan being okay with them or not. For one thing, he hadn't deigned to tell the knight because it didn't affect the knight in any direct way that he could tell. For another, the knowledge he possessed was one that if he said the wrong things and Valdan used them the wrong way, it could get the knight killed.

Valdan watched him, met his eyes. Waited.

"I am not asking for your secrets, Aiden," Valdan said. "I am asking that you either stop lying to me or put a little effort into the lie. There is something Melvet said to me when we started spending too much time together."

Melvet, Aiden thought, pulling the name from memory. It was the woman Valdan had waiting for him at home.

"She told me this," Valdan was saying. "The truth does not matter to those who hold you dear, what matters is that whatever you tell them, they believe it. But there is a trick, a lie is only a lie if they find out that it is a lie. So, guard your deceit with your life."

"So, you do not care if I lie to you?" Aiden clarified.

Valdan nodded. "I do not."

"You care that you can tell that it is a lie."

"Yes. Whatever you told your brother, true or false, he is satisfied with it." Valdan turned his head back to the path in front of them. "If you cannot satisfy me, the least you can do is not lie to me. We all have secrets, Aiden. As long as your secrets will not kill me, I have nothing against them. All I ask is that you respect me."

Aiden wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Valdan, like him, did not talk about his feelings. Was this entire subject eating him up that much? Did it mean so much to him?

He plays no important role in the timeline, he thought. At least he's not supposed to.

Nothing from the old timeline was supposed to have anything to do with Valdan. It was what Aiden told himself was the reason there was no point sharing the future with Valdan. There was also the stress of having to convince him that what he was saying was true.

"Do you know the interesting thing about the truth?" he asked.

"It is without rules," Valdan answered easily.

Aiden nodded. "If you are told that a man is born with three souls and consumes one every time he dies, it sounds unbelievable, does it not?"

"It does."

"Yet, as unbelievable as it sounds, it could always be true if it was true."

Valdan nodded. "That is true."

"Truth does not have reason, V," Aiden said. "It owes it to nobody to have reason. If I tell you that I have seen the end of the world, as unreasonable as it sounds, it can still be true."

"Agreed." Valdan gave him a look. "Have you seen the end of the world?"

"Gods, no," Aiden chuckled. "Imagine if I have, I wouldn't be here. But I'm trying to explain how insane it would be."

Valdan nodded slowly. "So, it is possible that the truth is insane."

"Very," Aiden confirmed. "The question is this: will you be able to accept it without question if you hear it?"

Valdan looked back at Ted who was now playfully fighting with his familiar spider as it rummaged through his hair. He had his hands up, poking at it with his fingers as if they were swords. It fought back with four legs and scattered his hair with the remaining.

He had an entertained smile on his head as he did this.

"He accepted it without question," Valdan said, looking back at Aiden. It was not a question.

"Whether he did or not," Aiden shrugged. "It doesn't matter. He's my brother, he'll be there for me regardless of what I am or what I do."

"I vow by my class as a [Knight] that I will believe once you tell me the truth."

Aiden nodded slowly. Vowing by his class as a [Knight] was not, in fact, a [Knight] thing. People did not really vow by their classes or titles, because it was just like swearing by your name on Earth. They were just words.

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However, he knew where Valdan had learnt it. From the myth of the forgotten [Knight]s, an order of those who had the class eons ago in civilizations so far lost that they, too, had gone extinct.

"Tell me, and I will believe," Valdan said.

Aiden thought about it for what seemed like forever. He tugged at his bottom lip as he thought and frowned old frowns.

In the end, he was still in thought when they came to a fork in the road. The group came to a stop. Dreg and the others turned their attention to Taeli. She had a photographic memory, forgetting nothing she had committed to memory.

"Once we are out of Trackback," Aiden said finally. "I will tell you once we survive this cave and are out of Trackback."

Valdan looked skeptical for a moment before nodding.

"Which way?" Dreg asked Taeli.

Without hesitation, she went left. They followed.

Aiden frowned.

Taeli was not the only one with a sharp memory in the group.

They should've gone right.

Prepare yourself, he thought.

It seemed that things were about to go wrong.

…

A groan slipped from Zen's lips as he woke up. The training Aiden was putting him through was also putting him through a lot. The sword stances were hell. The foot work didn't just task the soles of his feet, they ruined his thighs too. What kind of sword stances required the use of the muscles in your inner thigh. And no one had to get him started on his buttocks. He could feel every muscle in it.

At this rate, I'm going to get a fat ass.

Eye still closed, he was yet to welcome himself to the sight of the world. In truth, he hated mornings. All mornings. Eyes still closed, he turned on his side and nuzzled his face deeper into his pillow. With Aiden gone on his expedition, there was no one to wake him up and demand that he train.

He would enjoy this slight piece of peace. He frowned as his shoulders decided to ache. This whole thing was unreasonable. The few sword practices he'd had as a child hadn't left him sore in anyway. And why did Aiden insist that he go through the stances as slowly as possible? Wasn't the whole point of fighting with the sword about moving quickly and faster than your opponent?

Grumbling incoherently under his breath, he turned on his other side. He had more grumbling to give when he paused. A slight frown creased his lips.

"You can come out now," he said with a sigh. "I have no interest in these games."

With that said, he waited and listened. He did not have to wait long, though.

"Oh, shut up, brother," Feira said, her voice filling his ears.

Only then did Zen open his eyes. He turned his head, forced himself to sit up. Feira sat casually on the ottoman next to the window. She was looking at him. Her eyes seemed to call him stupid in some way.

"You should've made a sound if you were here," Zen said, running a hand down his still sleep infested face.

Feira cocked a brow at him. "You say it like you thought someone was hiding in the corner. Stop being childish."

Zen returned her raised brow with one of his own.

Feira rolled her eyes. "Okay, my fault," she groaned. "It's not childish."

Zen nodded in self-satisfaction. "Good."

With that, he flopped back down on the bed. His muscles complained and he winced at all the different sore parts of him.

How the fuck is my chest sore, too?

He was very grateful for Aiden's decision to teach him how to fight. The gods knew he had always wanted to learn how to fight properly.

"Lord Lacheart won't be happy to know that you're still sleeping when the sun is up," Feira said in a calm tone. "He might decide not to teach you beyond what you are learning."

Zen's eyes shot open. He looked at his sister.

"You would not tell on your loving brother, would you?"

Feira shrugged. "Doesn't have to be me."

Zen thrashed around on his bed like a petulant child for a quick moment before getting up and forcing himself to sit. He threw his legs over the side of the bed and rested his feet on the ground.

"It's so grueling," he said to no one in particular.

Feira nodded. "It's supposed to be. That's how training works."

"You sure?"

"I am," she answered with a nod. "Remember when I went to learn sewing under that seamstress?"

"The one that took a liking to you?" he asked, remembering how the woman who had been old enough to be their mother had come asking him what his sister liked.

Feira's eyes grew momentarily distant. "She was nice." It was all she said.

"She was older than mom," Zen retorted.

"Oh, come off it," Feira chided. "I didn't like her like that. I meant she was motherly. I liked that. She simply misunderstood my appreciation for her."

"She misunderstood your daughterly appreciation and you misunderstood her romantic appreciation." Zen shrugged. "Mistakes happen."

Feira looked down at her hands. "You should've told her that my preferences don't lie in that direction when she came to you."

"She was your teacher and your mess." Zen waved her words aside. "So I told her to talk to you. I didn't want to say the wrong things and then find out that you lost your apprenticeship because of it."

"A lot of good that did." Feira's eyes turned down.

"Hey!" Zen argued. "You left on your own. She didn't kick you out, you left. The least you can do is accept that and act like it."

Feira sighed. "I know. She was so nice about being rejected. She even stopped paying so much attention after that. She gave me my tasks and gave me instructions. Then she was off to the next person."

"You missed her for a while."

"I missed a mother figure, Zen." Feira tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and looked out the window. "Sometimes I'm not sure when you stopped missing them, but I still miss them." She sighed. "Even now."

Zen kept his eyes to the ground. He missed his parents every day, especially his father. But looking so forlornly into the distance wasn't going to bring them back, and crying about it wasn't going to make a difference. Besides, he knew his sister, if he cried about it, then she would want to console him. If she did, then she would not be able to handle her own emotions. She would suppress them for his sake.

He wanted her to handle her own emotions.

In the end, he shrugged. "I miss them from time to time," he said. "It's just not always… I don't know, Feira. It's just what it is."

Feira nodded. "It is what it is."

Then she got up from the ottoman.

"Breakfast?" Zen asked.

She shook her head. "We'll have to go down to eat. You should get dressed."

Zen looked down at his clothes, confused. He had on a brown cotton shirt and black pants. He'd been so tired last night that he'd just flopped on the bed when he'd gotten back and passed out.

"I'm dressed," he said. "It's just breakfast. We'll eat, I'll come back, have my bath and a change of clothes."

Feira wrinkled her nose at him. "It's bad enough that you ruined the bed with your dirty clothes last night. I don't want to put up with you following me down looking like that. And what have I said about outside clothes and inside clothes?"

Zen rolled his eyes and stood up. He stretched, feeling his bones pop and his muscles cry out in soreness.

"How many more days of this before I can start getting the skills?" he grumbled.

"You don't just swing a sword a few times and get the sword skill."

"Aiden got the archery skill with a few shots."

"You're not Lord Lacheart," Feira said, getting up, resigning herself to going down with him the way he was. "Lord Lacheart is… different."

"If he can do it, then I know that it's not impossible," Zen muttered, even though it felt impossible.

But as his father liked to say, if someone has achieved the impossible, then it's not impossible. Aim for it. Even if you don't achieve it, you'll achieve something close enough.

It's just been a few days, he thought, consoling himself. I'll get it in a week.

"Alright, then." He walked up to the door and opened it. "Am I going down alone?"

Feira shook her head. "I'm coming with."

The hallway was quiet. Sometimes Zen wondered if they were the only ones inhabiting the inn. As they walked, they passed Fjord's door. He paused, looking at the door.

"What's that?" his sister asked.

He thumbed at it. "You think we should invite him?"

She laughed. "Fjord's already training downstairs."

"Don't be mean," Zen snorted, continuing down the hallway. "You say it like he's more serious than I am."

"He kind of is." His sister turned thoughtful. "Valdan did say that yours looks more complex than what he's teaching Fjord. Still," she smacked his arm, "doesn't mean you should slack off."

They lulled into silence as they walked the rest of the hallway. It was only when they were at the stairs that Feira spoke again.

"What do you think about Lord Lacheart?" she asked.

Zen shrugged. "Seems like a good guy. You should probably stop challenging him all the time."

"I don't challenge him. I just ask questions."

Zen could've laughed at that. Feira was always challenging Aiden. Zen was used to the questions, but she had to understand that when you joined a group where no one asked questions, asking questions was the same as challenging.

"Stop asking questions," he said simply, walking down the stairs.

"He might have been coddled growing up," she said, thinking about it. "You know that's how young lords are, and because of that, their group doesn't ask questions, they just follow along."

Zen sighed. Feira was usually smart. However, when it came to matters surrounding male relationships with each other, she could often be aloof, treating it as if it was the same with female relationships with each other.

"Feira."

"Yes?"

"His older brother listens to him without question, too," he pointed out. "When you run into a family like that where the older brother is also competent, then it's not about Aiden being coddled."

"Then what is it about?"

"There are two types of people that are not asked questions in a group," he said as they finally stepped on the ground floor. "The first are the coddled, either because the rest of the group is afraid of asking for fear of the repercussions of asking. Groups like that aren't very happy."

"And the second?"

"That's the group where no one asks questions because the decision maker has proven time and time again that their decisions are often the right decisions. They could be wrong sometimes, but nobody is perfect. The group will often die on that wrong decision."

"And that's Lord Lacheart's group?"

Zen nodded.

"I still think he should be questioned from time to time," Feira said. "At least, it will help us understand what is happening better."

The ground floor was quiet, almost empty. There was a table—the only occupied one, actually—with two men and a lady. The lady looked to be around his age.

Feira pointed at one of the empty tables. "Go and sit down. I'll order us something to eat."

"Something with a lot of meat," Zen told her as he moved to a table that was different from the one she had pointed out.

"You'll eat whatever I put in front of you," she said, heading off to the counter.

Zen chuckled as he took his seat close enough to the group to eavesdrop for the fun of it. He wasn't trying to look for trouble, he just enjoyed listening to conversations around him. Feira said it was a bad habit, but it hadn't gotten him in trouble yet.

"When are we meeting our contact?" one of them asked. He looked like someone who used a broadsword, something strong and powerful. He scratched his jaw. There were signs of new beards growing, nothing significant yet. "When are we meeting them?"

"Evening," the lady said. She looked tired. "They said that it's not advisable to go during the day. It's better under the cover of night. That way people don't ask questions."

"What kinds of questions?" the second man asked.

"The kinds of questions that Letto is out trying to get," the man with the whisper of beards answered. "Personally, as long as this will help me level up, I'm up for it."

"Jen said the princess might be coming, though," the lady said. "He said it as if it was not a good thing."

The man with a touch of beards shook his head. "It's not. Rumor has it that she's been sort of going off the rails recently. She merged an artifact to her skin, if I remember correctly."

The woman shivered visibly. "Why would she do that?"

"Makes it harder to lose and always in effect," the second man said as if it made perfect sense. "But it's not a good idea. It would be better to get an armband and affix it to it." He shook his head. "The princess' method is too, risky. Dangerous."

"I don't think I want to run into her," the lady said. "I haven't been hearing good things recently."

The first man sighed. "She's been off since Elstrire. I find myself hoping she finally comes back to being who she used to be."

The woman rolled her eyes. "You don't know who she used to be."

"I've heard the stories." The man looked away, as if in thought. "She was better. Until she met us. Until she met…"

Feira placed a plate down in front of Zen, distracting him. He blinked twice, looking down at it. There was nothing but meat on it. Then she placed a fork and table knife beside it.

He smiled. "You love me," he teased her. "Admit it."

Feira scoffed.

"Better eat up and get back to training," she said. "If not I'm definitely telling Lord Lacheart that you've been slacking off."

Zen opened his mouth to reply when the man with the whisper of beards on his jaw stood right in front of him.

He hadn't seen the man move.

Zen froze. Speed of that level meant that the man was stronger than him, at least faster. And he looked like he was no stranger to combat.

The man looked at his sister. "What did you just say?"

Zen slipped the table knife under his hand, concealing it. His eyes picked out the perfect place to strike on the man's neck.

Feira looked up at the man. "Sorry?"

"The name you just said," the man repeated, and Zen saw a touch of desperation and worry in his voice. "What was it?"

His eyes moved over to the man's companions, and they looked as if they were on the edge of their seats.

Feira looked at Zen.

"My name is Drax, so please," the man added, "how do you know Aiden Lacheart?"