Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Sarn-Valley***

Great! Just Great! I am lost!

This mansion is a fucking maze! Three floors and more rooms than I cared to count! What does he need so much space for? I thought he lived alone?

When I awoke this morning I thought to myself that it wouldn't be so bad to know the layout of the mansion a little better.

Well. Let's see. I will just try to walk back the way I came. Originally I just wanted to explore the mansion to get a feeling for it. But then I must have taken a wrong turn without noticing it.

So annoying! And yesterday was annoying too! Liandra and Violetta continued to question me about my time at the Academy until late in the night.

In the end they looked at me like I was the villain and told me to apologize! Haaah....

Well. Sorry for being angry! My little brother was assassinated by his family and he walks up to me and proposes like nothing happened!

But from my current knowledge I may have been in the wrong. I overreacted and I even kept playing bad tricks on him while he never retaliated. Which I found strange.

In hindsight it wasn't strange at all. He visited the Academy against the wishes of his parents and couldn't count on their support. He lived off of his studentship alone and if a commotion had happened and he had lost it he would have been forced to leave the Academy.

I may really have to try to apologize to him. If that's even possible after all the time in the Academy. Waah. He will never forgive me for that even if I tried in all earnestness.

How should I know that he had almost no contact with his parents besides being trained to death in a dark training room? But Violetta's story about her youngest brother still makes me sceptical.

Her father just emphasized that Ascathon was a monster. In which way? How can a ten year old instil such a fear in a grown man that he starts to vilify his own child?

Shouldn't he have been happy to have a son with outrageous talents? But when I look around at what he accomplished in this world I have to admit that I was a sloth in this reincarnation.

I leaned back and hoped that I would achieve happiness by simply living from one day to the next. It didn't work out in the end. And now I even have a slave-ring attached to me.

That means no magic! What else can I do? Medicine? Biology? Martial Arts? Nothing which would be helpful in my current situation against those muscle guards.

Maybe I could deal with one of them by crushing his marbles but the others would get me for sure. They have the habit to run around in groups. And whenever I come close to a window they are there. It's like they are smelling me!

No, first I have to find a way to get rid of that slave-ring. Or to find a way to work around it. Let's see. The ring activates when I start to manipulate mana. But how does it discern that I am consciously manipulating it and …. hmmm.

Does it react to my outer magic system? That means if I am just using my inner magic system I am fine? But it's unbelievably hard to use just one magic system alone. It's like moving just one segment of my finger while holding the rest completely still.

I still try it and my mana gets immediately sucked away.

Sigh. This might call for quite a bit of training.

“Can I help you, Mistress?”

I jump at a rough voice directly behind me and turn around. One of the big burly guards is towering behind me. How did he get there? Sneaky bastard!

“~Hahaha.~ I may have lost my way.” Then I realize his usage of the word mistress! “AND I AM NO MISTRESS!”

The big guardsman snorts. “I am Den. I am the captain of the guard. You ended up in the guards-barracks while -loosing your way-. Follow me, Miss ~no mistress~. Should I call you slave instead if you prefer that status? I will lead you back to Ascathon's quarters.” The big guardsman turns and walks away.

I quickly catch up to him. What does he think who he is? Did he think I was lying? “These are barracks?” Can't be! Those were really high quality living rooms.

“Ascathon is paying very good in exchange for our service.” A small smile rushes over Den's face.

“I see....” I follow Den who is towering at least three heads above me without further words. When we arrive back at my quarters we find Liandra and Violetta there.

“Sis! We need you.” “Brother isn't doing well!”

Both of them run up to me and grab my arms. They start pulling me towards the staircase.

“What's wrong?” I follow them up the stairs and along the corridor towards a roomy bedroom. Is this Ascathon's room?

“Brother is sick! Look!” Violetta runs towards the bed and crouches down on the floor. She is pointing under the bed.

I go to my knees and take a look myself. H.. Holy shit! “Why are you down there!?”

“Ff....Fuck off!”

Ascathon is under the bed with a pale face and pearls of sweat on his forehead. He is shivering with his whole body an is hugging a pillow.

Den takes a look under the bed beside me. “A shitty night again?” He talks to his master in a very casual manner.

“Ccc.c.c Count on...it.”

“Is he doing that often.” I look towards Den.

Den shrugs his shoulders. “Now and then he has nightmares. Freaks him out like hell. He will get better. Just takes him a while to recover.”

“That can't be caused by a mere nightmare!” I point under the bed. “A mere nightmare doesn't cause ague.”

“Does it have something to do with the dead prisoner in the basement master? You intended to interrogate him last night.” Den looks under the bed again and asks something outrageous.

“Mam..m.. Magical...b...backlash...just...t..time.. will be fine!”

Then the puzzle-stones fall into the correct order and form a picture of the situation.

“ARE YOU AN IDIOT!?”

I scream and start to crawl under the bed. “Magical backlash and a dead prisoner! Were you in his mind when he died?! That's dangerous! It's like receiving a huge shock or trauma. You could get a circulatory collapse from that!”

Then I grab his hand which is cold like ice and start to pull.

“Ii....I...said Fuck! Off!”

Ascathon doesn't seem to be happy with the thought of me helping him and I consider to let him freeze and die under the bed. Could be a fitting end for my -master-.

But suddenly I am grabbed at my feet and pulled out from under the bed while pulling Ascathon with me. Den decided to lend a helping hand.

Literally -one- helping hand. He pulled both of us out with -one- hand.

Ascathon is still shivering in a foetus position with his pillow while Violetta starts to pat her brothers shoulder. “He will be fine?”

“Sure! If he doesn't cool down too much and gets a heart attack! Can you put him into the bed please?” I look towards Den who follows my order.

A minute later we have the big baby in his bed with a sheet over him. “You should be fine if you don't freeze yourself to death under the bed.”

I turn towards Den. “Is there something like a kitchen somewhere? He should get something warm.”

“I found one earlier!” Liandra charges out of the room and I follow her towards a big orderly kitchen. After searching the shelf and cabinets for a while I managed something like a soup on the stove......

Liandra was just watching me the entire time. And suddenly it strikes me like a hammer. “Liandra? Do you think that anything is strange here?”

My little sister just tilts her head. “I just thought that I have never seen so many magical artefacts in one place. And all of them are so convenient! Just think about those boxes which are hot or cold inside! Why didn't we have something like that at home?”

Liandra points at the fridge and the stove. Yes, unfortunately she has no real concept of kitchen-work because we always had servants for that.

But I realize that I am not standing in a kitchen from this world! This is no medieval kitchen! This is something straight out of a technological realm! Who built these artefacts? Could it be someone who remembers his past lifes like me?

It would be the first time to find someone like myself! I thought that am the only one!

A few minutes later I grab the pot with soup and a plate to carry it back to Ascathon's room. A genius who aced the Academy's curriculum like nothing?

Someone who is called a monster by his parents..... or someone who failed to act properly for his age?

Back in Ascathon's room I find out that Den is gone. Violetta is sitting besides her brother on the bed. At least it looks like he stopped to shiver.

I set down the soup with the plate beside the bed and look at his pale face. “Feeling better?”

“No.”

“Violetta, Liandra. Please go outside for a while. I need to talk about something with your brother.” I signal towards the door.

“No.” Violetta puts on a stubborn look. Liandra pulls her from the side and whispers something into her ear.

Then Violetta forms an 'o' with her mouth and crawls from the bed to run outside with Liandra. What the heck!? I hope my little sister didn't tell her something inappropriate!

I turn towards Ascathon. “I will come straight to the point. I saw your kitchen!”

He arches an eyebrow at me.

“Are you a person who remembers his past life?” I continue while crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“Yes. Why?” He continues to look at me with doubtful expression.

“Really!? I am too!” Marvellous! That's the first time that I meet someone like me! I draw closer to him while he gets a little farther away. “H... How many lifes do you remember? Did you ever meet someone else like us!? I have so many questions!”

I start to rattle down all my questions while he answers with short precise sentences.

Then I give him the plate with the soup and keep talking about my previous lifes like a dam broke loose. I talk and talk and talk.

After an hour I stop and remember that I wanted to do something else too. “Eh. On the other hand your little sister told me about your family and your relationship with your parents. If all that was true then I was in the wrong the entire time. I know that it's hard and I don't deserve it but please forgive me.” I bow my head to him.

“Haah. Fine, just stop to talk like a machine gun. I am sick you know....” He looks into the ceiling and I realize that his expression became more and more tired during my tirade.

I hold out my arm with the slave-ring towards him. “Now that we know each other better, could you take that off?” I beam a smile at him.

“No.”

“~Excuse me?~”

“I found out that you are a thousand years old under that betraying beautiful body. You just lost a thousand cuteness points as a pet!!”

“~Pet!?~”

“Who knows what skills you possess and if you meant what you just said! Maybe that slave-ring is the only thing that keeps me alive! So, No. Forget it!”

“~Hah?~”

“On top I paid a hundred platinum coins for you! Earn that money first and then we talk again. I don't care if you do it with work or in the bed.....”

“~B...BED!?~”

“Don't play shocked, you are more than old enough to know what I mean.”

“GYAAARRRRRRR!”

I jumped at him and then the slave-ring activated. That day I spent twitching in pain on top of him while he moaned in pain under me.....

And no, it wasn't because we did something with each other...... unfortunately it looked that way to Liandra and Violetta who thought that we were making out while they peeked through the keyhole of the door.

.