Chapter 63: ~First meeting.~ (1/2)
***Norfolk, Sarn-Valley***
***Arran***
Mother Tanith hugs me tight while I sit on her lap. This whole situation wouldn't have happened if I had kept my mouth shut and pretended to be a normal baby. But mom caught me while I was reading one of her books. There would be no problem if I didn't have the bad habit of reading aloud.
So I exposed myself to my mother, who in turn spilled the soup to my father, who brought us here. Up until today I thought that dad and mom were normal merchants. But that's obviously not the case.
Apparently they can come and visit the rulers of Norfolk like good old friends. Today they dropped one bombshell after the other on me. We entered this mansion and got greeted by a hot beauty and her daughter, who turned out to be my fiancee! The mother was introduced as Celestial Asceron, the Jarl of Norfolk.
Normally I hate worlds with prearranged marriages, but when I took a look at the hot device which was the mother of my fiancee, I thanked the gods for being lucky for once. Though I hoped that the princess in question wasn't too spoiled.
My hopes were crushed when Celestial returned with her husband Ascathon. The cute little girl opened her mouth for the first time after studying me with a calculating glare for quite some time.
“I changed my mind. He is cute and after thinking over it for some time, I came to the conclusion that it's better to start training them young. Changing their behaviour to your preferences early should be easier than to wait until they are adults.”
“I am not some kind of pet!” I immediately snap back before realizing that the girl in front of me can't be much older than me. That was an extremely calculating sentence for a little child.
“That's my son, Arran. I wanted your advice on how to deal with this, as you are obviously in a similar situation.” My father Kane points at me with a forced smile.
Sera is still looking at me with a shocked expression. But then she closes her mouth and starts to giggle. “I see. I guess not everything can be as easy as I believe. Looks like I will have to invest a little more effort into you.”
Gods. I think I found a really troublesome and manipulative woman. “Are you a reincarnated person like me!?”
“I am. And my mom and dad are reincarnated too. They've lived many more lifetimes than me, so I still regard them as my elders.” Sera points at Ascathon and Celestial, who are now looming over me with the same calculating glare.
Gods! It's frightening when someone who is ten times bigger looks at you like that.
“Hi. That's a first. Is this world something like a focus point for reincarnation? How old are you guys? I've lived one thousand, a hundred and four lifetimes.”
“One thousand and seventy eight.” Sera smiles and pats her chest. “We are almost the same age!”
“Three thousand and four hundred and five.” Celestial smiles down at me with a dangerous expression. Probably she wants to point out that you shouldn't ask women about their age.
“I stopped counting after a few thousand lifetimes. It gets boring.” Ascathon replies with a tired voice. “So, would you care to introduce yourself. I am not giving my daughter to a stranger.”
I gulp while looking into a pair of dangerous eyes. This guy would do perfectly fine as some kind of dungeon boss, or demon king.
“I am not a bad guy. I live by the rule to help, if it's within my power. I am good with the sword and guns. Spells aren't my forte, but I am confident in my battle aura and at infusing my mana into weapons.” I answer fast.
“Haah... hearing that from my baby is strange.” Tanith draws me closer and places her cheek on my head.
Ascathon scratches his cheek while looking down at me, obviously in deep thought.
“So? What do you think? And could you explain this reincarnation story to your best friend?” Father Kane looks at Ascathon with a forced smile.
My father's friend covers his face with both hands and starts to rub while moaning. “Okay! Here are the facts. Souls exist! Everyone has one. But some souls are stronger than others and able to carry the memories of previous lives to the new body. We came to call ourselves Immortals. That's because we are simply reborn if our body is killed. I am one, Celestial and Sera too. The Immortal Empress is apparently an Immortal too.” He looks at me. “... and your son is one. That's why he is already able to speak.”
Tanith sighs above my head. “Somehow that's a little too much for me.”
“Why don't you lie down on the couch, mom?” I ask her with a worried voice. Please don't lose consciousness and drop me on the floor. That happened to me once already. Speaking of bad parents … Kane looks a little pale too.
“How many of you are on this world? Are there more?” I ask my elders politely.
Celestial shakes her head. “We five are the only ones we know of.” She looks at Ascathon. “They should stay here. With the war and all those assassination attempts, there is no way of knowing what might happen to them otherwise.”
Woohoo! I will get to see the hot device everyday from now on! Suddenly my cheek is grabbed and twisted harshly.
“Your expression! One minus point! At ten, I will give you a personal training session.” Sera puffs her cheeks.
“Can we wait until we are sixteen? These bodies aren't suited for such exercises.” I apologize to Sera. I am not a paedophile.
My mother inhales sharply.
*SMACK!*