So, my routine has started, in the morning I would travel to the training arena, where I meet Alex. The training starts with drills, I practice this with other students. Then it's on to sparring just the basics after that we move on to individual training. I don't really pay attention, which is bad, but I don't really care. I'm just here to stay in shape. Building up my muscles and repeating the basics is the only thing I put effort into. Don't get me wrong I still practice the different techniques north, water and sword god style I know all the moves and techniques, but my body doesn't. even though I practice these sword techniques every day for more than 50 years I have lost my muscle memory and physical abilities, so I have to start from square one. I guess it's the same deal with my demon eyes, I know how to use them, but my new body Is not used to it. but I don't really care, it's not like I need them. With my magic, I can deal with almost any monster, and I don't plan to start any fights. I can also run away now with the use of gravity magic so there shouldn't be any situation where running away isn't an option. So, I train and build muscle compared to the rest of the students. I must look stupid focusing on staying in shape, rather than learning techniques. But I bet once I am old enough and have got used to my body, I can use the same sword skills as in my previous life. I kind of feel bad for them after all I have a whole lifetime under me. After my basic training it's time for food, going to the kitchen I find Ferris. This is my favourite part of coming here, eating rice and listening to stories of my family. She tells me stories of battles or events my family has been in; she seems to really admire her great-grandfather or should I say, me in my former life. But I find it really uncomfortable and quickly change the subject to someone else. She quickly learns that I don't like listening to stories about myself but thankfully she never asks why. I often want to hear about Sieg and how he helped found a new nation, with his friend Pax. From what I hear Sieg has happy and enjoying his life, I'm so proud. Ferris also asks about my training; this is her real passion. So, I ask questions about the different techniques, she is very knowledgeable about the different techniques. I, of course, know most of the answers, training in all three styles and being married to a sword king. But I do it to try and help her, I drop hints or provide a different perspective on her ideas. I don't know if it was useful, but I wanted to try and help her master water god style. It seems like Tōki isn't talked about, even though it's necessary to rise to the advanced rank it's something you either get or you don't. There are no lessons in Tōki, what it is and how to use it which I find strange. Well, I don't know how to use it or what it even is actually, Ferris seems to not know much about it either, but she can use it. I guess it's just how people of this world train.
After that, I join Alex on patrol. This involves him walking up and down the castle walls inspecting the soldiers and being there if anything happens. Most people we pass bow their heads or say hello. He seems to be really respected not surprising if you think about it. I'm not sure what my role is as his squire, we mainly just talk about what happened today and in the world around us. I think he is just bored and wanted someone to talk to, I have come to notice that no one treats him as an equal but as something greater, even the nobles who are so up themselves look at him with hope and fear. I guess I'm different I respect Alex very much, but I don't fear him, he's just a man just like everyone else. He has made mistakes and has had great successes. Is this because I've fought beside him, so I know his true nature. We also talk about other things; I try prodding him about Hitogami. But he didn't seem to have any details and nothing more on other apostles. I was getting to sense that he didn't care too much about the war like Ferris but was more worried about Alek and if he was doing okay in his role. He seems like a very caring father; I can understand how he feels I'm kind of doing the same thing with Ferris. The days go past, and I am happy with my new life. Not like my previous life with Sylphy, Roxy and Eris, but content like I could live and not worry about the future. One day on patrol with Alex we start talking about demons and the different tribes. He starts explaining that his Father was Human, and his mother was a demon lord from the Immortal Demon Clan, Atofe. Of course, I already knew this and had actually fought against Atofe before, I didn't say that. However, what did come out of my mouth was reincarnation. Alex just looked at me confused but then said "no not that type of immortal we of this clan can heal any wound and regenerate. But there are demons who can reincarnate." This is my chance I need to learn more from him.
"How does reincarnation work? Can anyone reincarnate?" I ask
"No, only very powerful demons can reincarnate, I only know of a few demons who can do it. For the reason of how. I don't know that you will have to ask a demon who has reincarnated before." I looked down disappointed I was hoping he would have more info.
"Why are you interested in reincarnating, boy?"
"no-no" I answered quickly I need to change the subject otherwise he might find me out "do you believe in the soul? Like does every person have a soul and where do they go when they die." Alex stops walking and put his hand on his chin, thinking.
"I don't know for sure, but I have seen a ghost before, I was deep in a labyrinth. What is a ghost but a soul of a dead person, if I had to guess I would say souls do exist?"
"But if ghosts are souls and everyone has a soul, why can't we see ghosts everywhere, and if we can see a ghost of a dead person walking around, why can't we see a ghost of a living person, proving that we have a ghost/soul inside us?" I reply.
"I'm not sure, because they are inside us? Hidden by our bodies?"
"True but there is magic out there that can hurt a ghost but has no effect on living things?"
This was the start of what I'll call the philosophy patrol where I would pose a question to Alex, and we would debate the pros and cons. Alex seemed to really enjoy these topics if I didn't have a question, he would pose one to me. We manage to get into very deep topics and with my knowledge of Japan I could easily bring up an idea from a video game or a book that would lead to new topics, they weren't my ideas, but Alex didn't seem to care.
On the 10th day of my new life, we had a free day. It seems every ten days everyone in the capital gets a day off. It's the same idea I used when I was teaching Eris, I knew some of the schools did something similar when my children were attending, but it seems the whole capital is a part of it now. I must thank the person who started this tradition in the kingdom. I felt like I needed a day off, to see some new sites and also try something I've been thinking about.
So, on our day off I decided to head out early when most people aren't up and walking about. Sneaking out I told the maid I would be out all day; she just nodded and went back to washing. Walking down the street there weren't that many people around, most of them are on the way or coming back from work, soldiers don't get a day off so most of the people I see are people on patrol. Running down the cobbled path I turn down an alley, it's my favourite alley if someone can have one of those. There are no windows and it's a dead end. I can easily use gravity magic to push myself off the walls and then to the roof. Once there, I see the castle bathed in the morning sunlight, the dew from the night before still lingers on the roof. It is truly a sight to behold. Rushing over the roof I start getting more and more air. Almost floating over the streets, one of the things I wanted to try is long-distance flying. Jumping between buildings is useful but flying with my own power is something else altogether. Finding a sturdy beam, I kick-off, at the same time I reduce my gravity, so I float upwards. Then once I'm no longer touching anything, I use wind magic to push upwards. Using my hands to guide myself I go higher and higher. Until the buildings below me only look like small dots. And I can't see the people at all. Then I increase my gravity and start to fall. No, no, no I push with wind magic to stop myself, I overshoot. Decreasing my gravity again I try and find a balance between falling and climbing. This was very difficult as any change in either would result in a big change in altitude. After waving my hands I found a good technique where my gravity was just enough to make me fall, then using wind magic around my body I would stay upright and stable. This acted in two ways stopping my body from rotating and pushing me through the air, so I would stay in one spot. Once I had got the hang of it, I then lent forward and put mana into my hands increasing my wind magic and accelerating forward. And now I was flying, it felt amazing with the wind in my hair, increasing my speed I knew where I wanted to go. So, I started heading towards my old home and the place I fought Orsted.
As I got closer a wind gust hid me and spun me around, losing control I fell a bit. I must figure out a way to stop that from happening again, also the bugs were starting to piss me off, at this speed, bugs would fly into my face and mouth. I slowed my speed and kept heading towards the Fittoa region, with me flying at this speed, it was a couple of hours before I got there. The sun had completely risen. Heading down I chose a spot in the middle of the forest. This was the site of the teleportation incident that happened over 50 years ago and had taken me away from my family. The forest had taken back most of what was once my home village. Landing safely, I looked around, this was deep in the forest there shouldn't be anyone around to see me. Monsters and adventurers sometimes come into this area, but I should be fine for today.
Time to test out my magic, I haven't really tested my limits with this new body yet. I couldn't really do it in the capital but here is perfect. It's for that same reason I chose it for my fight with Orsted. Okay now for something simple. Rock bullet. Starting off at a low speed and medium hardness I fire one-off, and it shoots off into the trees, a few seconds later I hear a crack as it hits a branch in the distance. An action I've repeated hundreds if not thousands of times. My hand was a bit shaky I guess but my new body has never done this type of magic before, other than that it was perfect. Okay let's do quagmire, again nothing new nor too hard and it was all perfect casting. My body seems to be a bit slow at reacting to the magic, but I think it's because I have never used this body like this before. I have to retrain my muscles in magic use. During the day I would go through my magic spell, so I know where my limit is, and how my new body reacts, slowly increasing the mana level.
When I finally got to saint class I moved to a nearby hill, scanning the area for any adventurers or monsters, seeing none I begin. First was the saint water class magic cumulonimbus forming clouds and creating rain, after a few minutes I ended the spell feeling happy. That was Roxy's spell I'm glad I could still use it. I then moved to the other saint classes, Earth Pillar (Earth), Violent Storm (Wind), Flash Over (fire) and lastly Lightning. I decide not to use nuclear explosion as it's too destructive, if I really need to use it, I feel confident I could, but it should be the last resort in battle. After I finished, the land has changed dramatically. I could see some monsters running away to get escape the flames. Seeing how I can still use all my magic techniques and with more practice, I should be able to use them as good as in my previous life. Now for the main reason, I came out here, I want to test out this gravity magic and what the limit is. I start by creating a mana bubble around a nearby rock then decreasing its gravity, and sure enough, it starts to float. I then try it on larger rocks until I can unroot a tree, it's a weird feeling as I'm just changing the density of mana but there is no kickback from this power. In other words, I change the object, but gravity is the one doing all the work. Remembering back to my fight with Orsted he used gravity magic I hope I can recreate the type of spell he used. Trying to remember the fight I think he raised his hands and then I saw death. It was the scariest moment I had faced in all my lives; I actually saw death with my demon eye. As long as I'm on this world I don't think I'll ever forget that moment. But what did he actually do? I saw a gash open up below me but just before the moment of death I jumped out of the way. It happened so fast, and it was 50 years ago. I might be remembering things wrong but sitting down I start to come up with a plan. I need to go to the battlefield maybe there are clues. Standing up I fly into the air. Scanning the area for any landmarks. It's been so long that I doubt anything remains. Flying around for an hour I come across a crater. This must be it; I land near the edge, and I can see a chimney a few paces away from me. Nothing remains of the house but every so often I can see bricks and bits of wood. I start looking for the place Orsted released the magic. But as I start walking my knees give and I stumble. I just realised how tired I had become. Did I use all my mana? I don't think so, I know the feeling of mana depletion. I guess my child's body is not used to this much physical and magical strain. Sitting down against a tree I think back to my previous life. All though I lived for 74 years I never had free time like this to play with my magic. It was always work or spending time with my family. I don't regret it but maybe I'm rusty. I could have solved this within a couple of months but with this new body and being stuck at home I have become lazy. The sword training has helped but maybe I need more.
Getting up I decide to call it a day. I don't want to lose magic or get too tired on the flight home, that would be really bad. Flying into the sky, I speed back towards the capital. Once I get back, I walk into the house. our maid smiles at me.
"Oh, your back, it's good to see you master and just in time for dinner"
"Thank you, I'm quite hungry after today" smiling I greet the maid. Even though I didn't get to practice gravity magic I achieved my goal of practising my magic. I'll need more training and I can only do it every ten days, which might take some time but that's the one thing in this life I have plenty of.
