Chapter 34:
Ten Days to Board, A Reunion
Over the next ten days, Ares and I made the best use of the time that we had left until we boarded the vessel headed for Milis.
It took me just about a week to be able to somewhat say that I had learned how to use my newly-acquired Demon Eye—although, I admit that I'd have been hard-pressed to learn it this swiftly without taking Kishirika's advice. In a way, controlling my eye was like balancing a scale on my finger—if that made any sense. The whole process bore some serious resemblance to using chantless magic, which I was more than used to by now. However, there was a little more to it. For me to properly compare it to something, I'd have to go into more depth.
I could control my eye in three different fashions. The first of them was something like opacity. Depending on how much mana I channeled into what I assumed to be the retinas of my eye—the layer of tissue in the back of your eye sockets—I could tone down the 'opacity' of the mana signatures and the streaks of mana traces. It was like toning down the HUD of an RPG so you could focus better on the game—in this case, reality. Specifically limiting the flow of my mana to my retinas was a lot easier said than done. It was fragile and especially delicate work, comparable to threading a needle while having shaky hands on a bus.
Okay, maybe I could've made a better analogy there. But that's my honest view of the thing, really!
Digressions aside, it was difficult. While the main point of adjusting the mana flow to my retinas was to give myself clear vision with the eye, I didn't neglect the exact opposite. While it was a lot easier to allow the mana to flow directly into my retinas, it still wasn't a walk in the park by any means. If I couldn't consistently keep the opacity level stable, the mana signatures would blur to unintelligible levels. While the ability worked more like a slider from completely transparent to completely opaque, I settled on somewhere near 70% and worked on keeping that stable. Having the 'slider' gave me more leeway, but in the end, I ended up hardly using it and working it as more of an OFF/ON switch for the eye's abilities. I worked with the 70% parameter for three days until I could maintain it like that without wavering.
That was one way of controlling my eye. The other was a bit more complicated. I coined the term 'Simplify' for it, the self-explanatory nature of the name alluding to the fact that my naming ability wasn't the greatest. This function served as a 'work mode' type thing that helped me use the darn thing much easier. It required me to siphon more mana into the main body of my eye. The excess mana, I assumed, interfered with the process of light being reflected into my iris and sent up to my brain as an image.
Having some knowledge of what the hell was going on inside of my eye from my past life was paying off significantly here. I silently thanked my past self for delving into this specific branch of my niche.
The effects of this Simplify were much more fixated on the eye's ability than opacity. As I mentioned beforehand, the 'mana signatures' in the surrounding areas read out the full name of the person the mana belonged to. However, as you can imagine, an astronomical amount of people had passed through this area before—and that's where this function comes in. With it activated, my previously cluttered vision cleared up to a much easier-on-the-eyes view.
The mana signatures became transparent aside from the one I was directly training my focus on–by the way, these signatures didn't have any overall shape, they took the form of lots of different things like footsteps, coalescents of mana, or sword afterthoughts (which I assumed to have been left behind by either Touki or mana homeostasis.) In summary, anything that left mana behind.
Back to the point. These mana traces and signatures practically disappeared from my vision, becoming so transparent that I'd have to look fervently in my peripheral vision to even notice them. This allowed me to keep some mana signatures completely opaque and others that weren't important transparent. Plus, the name attached to the signatures would simplify to only their first name—even if most people only had a first name to begin with. But again, it was a fickle ability. If I wasn't careful with it, my vision would be blinded by the sharp yellow or bright red twinges of mana.
At first, I had no idea what the difference between the two 'colors' of mana was. However, after doing some information gathering and experimenting, I came to a realization. The Red type of mana was "Released Mana" and the other, golden-yellow one was "Diffused Mana." (I coined both of those terms. Original, right?) That meant that if someone used any type of spell, offensive or recovery, it would generate a "Released Mana" signature corresponding with the general shape of the spell. Say, if I released a Sonic Boom spell, it would leave a sharp, crescent-shaped mana signature attributed to me.
The other type was Diffused Mana, which was a little more simple. This referred to mana that someone or something didn't consciously or was channeled through to release. So, internal mana ejection or magical implements naturally release a faint mana signature. Or at least, that's how it worked for me.
I wrote down a few interestingly shaped mana signatures that I had released to experiment.
An elementary-tier Healing spell released a blossom of golden colors that brought to mind the scattering of snowflakes over a small area. Definitely not what I was expecting… but hey! I didn't know what I was expecting anyway!
Gust left tiny particles of mana behind in a mist-like shape in the direction of the spell. They were so small that I had to squint to even notice them.
The intermediate-tier water spell Jet didn't release much mana at all, the only exception being right at my fingertips where the spell was formed. I tried this out with other water spells to the same conclusion. For whatever reason, water spells were special in that the water conjured by releasing the spell didn't actually contain much mana at all. Of course, I only experimented up until Advanced-tier, but it was an interesting revelation nonetheless.
Burn in Place's mana signature—the spell that covers you in a wreath of fire that engulfs others nearby in flame–created an eerily spectral copy of my features. It was like looking at a hastily scribbled in red crayon version of myself.
To wrap up my evaluation of the Demon Eye, there was one more way I could focus, and it was the one I had experimented with the least. The 'stopwatch' feature. With this, a 'stopwatch' timer was displayed with the mana signature dating back to the moment the mana was released/diffused. From what I could gather, it was a simple but extremely useful feature that was probably the most important—that I had discovered, of course. With it, I could accurately act as a literal detective and track down exactly who walked by where, at what time they did so, and if they were carrying anything with mana like a staff or wand. It was almost like this Eye was made for tracking people down, which made it perfect for this journey.
The only problem with this feature is that it required pouring mana directly into my irises, and a large amount at that. That meant that if I wasn't extremely careful with it, I would end up feeding the mana into the body of my eye and blinding myself. So, it was the hardest to learn by far.
In the end, this eye of mine was much more of an asset than I was originally thinking it was.
While I was busy practicing with my Eye, Ares was doing the same thing. Regrettably, though, since I had to deal with my Eye, Ares was left to fend for himself.
Well, that's not the whole truth. I did try to help him out with trying to control it, but my advice ultimately fell short when he tried to put it into practice. Don't get me wrong—Ares wasn't a bad listener. It's just that Ares had much less practice with incantationless magic. Rather, magic in general. Naturally, my advice that came from the perspective of someone who could manipulate their mana would be wasted on someone whose magic extended to a beginner version of Touki and nothing else.
Jeez, that sounded snarky. I'm not letting this get to my head. I'm not!
But on that topic, Alek seemed to be trying to guide him through the process. Alek wasn't the greatest teacher, but he was competent enough to take on a disciple. I mean, for a year, he taught Ares numerous intermediate and even advanced-level North God techniques, to the point that I could be taken by surprise by him in a sparring match.
But even though Alek couldn't use incantationless magic, he could use the King Dragon Sword Kajakuto. Activating and guiding its Gravity Magic had to have been the work of mana, meaning that Alek did have some experience with magic. I figured, with me out of the running, Alek was probably his best bet with trying to learn to use the thing.
About a week after I had received Ares and I had received our Eyes, I decided to join Ares and Alek and go to the beach. Notice how I said "Go to the beach" and not "swim at the beach." We'd be damned if we hadn't learned our lesson with that sea monster encounter. No, this was the place where they'd claimed their spot to spar.
At this point, Ares was able to take off his eyepatch and not start reeling in pain from the Eye overloading his brain. And just like me, he'd been working hard at trying to learn it over the past week. But he couldn't have made it as far as I could in the same amount of time.
What am I saying? It's impressive that he even got this far! Any lesser man would've given up by now and resigned themselves to keeping that eyepatch as a crutch to lean on for the rest of their life. Ares was admirable at the very least—especially since he wasn't blessed with the know-how I had from my previous life.
Digressions aside, this was the first time I had really sat down and watched a spar between the two swordsmen in a good while. A month, two maybe? Their erratic and ungraceful but fluid movement never failed to keep my attention during their fights. Plus, the two of them dished out feints and mixed exterior assets like brushing sand into the fight, always keeping the other on their toes.
So, as you can imagine, I was quite excited to see it in action again.
"Hope you don't mind me acting as a referee," I announced, standing at the side of their stances a good distance away from them.
"On your marks! Get ready… Go!" I belted, thrusting my open palm forward.
The moment I yelled that the two started into a sprint toward each other. Alek wasn't wielding Kajakuto for obvious reasons and was instead holding a steel sword in his hand. The two swordsmen clashed with a sharp scrape of metal against metal, with Alek redirecting the path of Ares's sword directly downward and clamped it down to the ground. Their fight paused for a moment as they exchanged a few words.
"Don't be brash. That movement was too direct for an opening move!" Alek advised.
"Got it!" Ares barked.
The two broke away from each other, the formalities drawing to a close as they readied their swords once more. Ares was the first to initiate the spar, driving his sword forward while raising both his elbows. Alek didn't even flinch, swiping it aside with his sword and creating an opening left by Ares's bold movement.
Ares's momentum was cut off as he repositioned himself, regaining his footing. Alek took advantage of this slight pause by striking at what would have been Ares's neck. Ares, catching wind of what he was trying, retreated a step backward to dodge it.
Alek, without missing a beat, rode off the inertia from his swing and closed the distance between the two.
"Hah!" a gasp was expelled from Ares's mouth as he was struck suddenly by Alek's swift, almost invisible movement that brought his sword forward and against Ares's chest. Alek didn't hesitate for a second and moved to strike again, without giving Ares a moment to recover from his attack.
"Eyes on my sword!" Alek said, striking Ares harshly on his side.
At this point, Ares's sword was in no position to make a counterattack. Ares had already strayed from his posture when he reeled from Alek's frontal attack—leaving him open. So, instead of facing more of Alek's assault, he pulled back and raised his sword with only one hand.
One hand? Isn't that just asking for your sword to be knocked out of your grasp?
Ares pulled a band of fabric from his metal headband that I had bought him a year ago, untying it in one fluid action, and launched it forth. While it was flying toward Alek, Ares dove forward with his sword aiming at Alek's midsection.
He used the headband? Just what I'd expect from that Sword Style.
In response, Alek promptly deflected the headband with his armored wrist guard and clapped his hand back onto his sword within a second. He parried Ares's prompt attack and drove his sword forward diagonally against the side of his blade, reaching past the tip—effectively breaking the exchange and letting him attack again.
Alek utilized this and brought his sword back up, drawing it back slightly to deal what would have otherwise been a decisive strike. Ares, however, wasn't keen on letting it happen, seeing as how he took a step back and moved his upper body out of the sword's range. While Alek was getting his sword back on course after missing such a heavy attack, Ares swung his sword at Alek with a similar weight to his assault.
Alek ducked to avoid the attack, Ares's blow missing his hair by several inches. Before Ares could try anything, Alek sprung up and shoulder-slammed Ares, breaking his footing and knocking him to the sandy and slightly moist ground.
"Hmph!" he exclaimed, landing on his back with an audible crunch of the sand below him.
And then, I noticed it. While he was left on the ground, he activated his eye. I was practicing using my Demon Eye for long durations and had it open to Simplify. Ares's Eye glowed a dull gold, likely only visible to me.
I noticed a wide grin forming on Ares's face as he pushed himself off the ground and gripped his sword. Alek readied his sword, poised for a strike.
"I've got this n–woaahhhhh!"
Comedically, the tension drained from his face as he lost his balance and stumbled backward. His Eye deactivated as he tumbled onto the sand for the second time.
Ares sat up and threw his head up in frustration, exclaiming, "This sucks!"
This proclamation abruptly ended the spar with no real winner. Well, other than Ares's Demon Eye.
"Whatever," Ares muttered, dropping his sword with a pssh! as it landed on the ground. Without giving us so much as a glance, he made for the direction of the inn.
Ah… what's up with him?
I scratched the back of my head and made out Alek approaching me in my peripheral vision. I peered up at him sheepishly.
"...Does this happen a lot?" I asked, hooking my thumb toward Ares's figure.
"No, this is the first time. I think he's just frustrated he can't use the Eye yet," Alek answered.
"But it's only been a week! No one would blame him if he couldn't get it down quickly. I know I wouldn't," I answered.
"It's not about other people, Lumina. I think it has something to do with his pride if that makes any sense. He sees you, someone two years younger than you with all kinds of potential, and then compares himself. He's a thirteen-year-old whose only accomplishments are getting to Intermediate rank in the North God style.
"Even though that's impressive for his age, I have a feeling he doesn't feel that he's strong compared to you. Take this with a grain of salt, though. This is all conjecture on my part, really," Alek spoke.
"Compared to… me?" I repeated softly, feeling how the words felt on my tongue.
I've never thought about it that way. Ares is an honest-to-god hardworking guy, his faults aside. Sure, maybe I know more magic than him and am more informed than him, but that's all because I'm not of this world. Ares has no other perspective so of course he wouldn't grasp concepts as fast as I can.
But no one knows that, and that's partly my fault for not telling anyone. And even then, I don't think it would do much good to try to cheer him up by telling him I have the memories of a 34-year-old shut-in bum from another world. That'd just be pushing my problems onto him and wouldn't get me anywhere.
Not to mention the fact that I'm a girl and he's a guy. With this world's mostly male-dominant mentality, it's no wonder that he would be caught up with that archetype as well. I can't imagine what that'd do to his pride. But what can I do for him? Hmm…
"I think I should go talk to him," I said, wrapping up my thoughts before I spiraled into another bout of overthinking.
"I agree. This isn't really my forte, so I'll let you two settle this one out," Alek said casually.
Wow. How nice of you, Alek. At least say something like, "You can do it!" I'd take that!
I entered the inn room to see him perched on the fur bed with his chin on his fist. After I set down his sword by the entrance, I pursed my lips in playful disapproval and sat down next to him.
"C'mon, don't get like that," I said, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "It's just a matter of how much you practice."
He brushed my hand off. "I should've picked something better. Even Identification would've been better at this point," he grumbled.
"For someone like you, I think Foresight is the best pick. Just imagine how–"
"Enough about that. I can bet you've already mastered your Eye, right?" Ares snapped.
My voice caught in my throat. "W-well, I…"
"You can do all sorts of things, Lumina. Things that even Alek would have a hard time trying to even attempt. You dazzle me sometimes, you know? But where does that leave me? In the dust, that's where," Ares said, avoiding eye contact but speaking with a coarse sharpness.
His words brought me down from my thoughts, grounding me and forcing me to acknowledge that Ares had his own thoughts and feelings to deal with. I knew this well, but this was the first time they had put us into a conflict.
"...You shouldn't compare yourself to me, Ares. I can't even wield a sword correctly, yet you can spar with the North God of all people! If that isn't worthy of praise, what is?" I reassured him.
"I can play around with a sword all I want, but the moment we spar together, it takes you less than a minute to take me down. There's a reason why I haven't progressed past Intermediate in four whole years. It's because I'm not strong enough," Ares spoke bitterly.
"That's not true at all!" I said, finally making eye contact with him. "You put in so much effort to improve since you were seven years old!"
"I was just a brat who didn't know what he was doing," Ares retorted.
"Brat or not, you still worked hard! You shouldn't let some stupid Demon Eye get you this down, Ares! You are someone who I can confidently stand beside and call my friend because of how much you do! You're not a pushover, or weak! You're you, Ares.
"Your actions speak louder than any sort of strength could. You keep me company when I'm sick. You protect me from bastards who don't know where they're touching. And most of all, you're a good person. Someone who I can count on," I said, squeezing his hand.
"I…" Ares trailed off sullenly.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Ares. Your strength does not make up your self-worth, so don't compare yourself to me or anyone else," I spoke.
"Guess so," Ares murmured.
"C'est la vie, right?" I said, trying to persuade him to not get so down about this.
A quiet, reluctant chuckle escaped from his lips. That chuckle transitioned into a snicker, prompting him to cover his mouth in amusement as the tension quickly drained from his face.
"Eh? What is it?" I asked, clueless.
"It's just, I've never heard that expression before," he said, smiling cheerfully at me and grasping my hand.
"Oh. Well…" I averted my eyes. Did I mess up? Why'd I have to go and say that at such a crucial moment?! Damn!
Ares pushed himself off the bed, the gloomy tone of his eyes that was there previously was nowhere to be found.
"Thank you, Lumina. I really do appreciate it," Ares said, walking over to the entrance and grasping the hilt of his sword.
He raised it and made eye contact with me. "But I want you to know that I'm going to work real hard to get to your level, alright?" Ares declared.
A smile crept onto my face. "I'll be looking forward to seeing it," I replied.
"Good! Now come on! If I'm going to ever learn how to use this Eye, I'm going to need your help," Ares grinned, beckoning me toward him.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, sliding off the side of the bed and following Ares out of the inn room.
Hm. All's well that ends well, I think.
The day before the ship that would make the voyage to the Milis Continent arrived at the harbor, I was sitting at the inn's desk flipping through my diary. As I was reading through the diary entry dated to when we arrived in Wind Port, a certain line caught my attention. It was something I had forgotten to do entirely.
Note to Self: Investigate the back alleyways for that Migurd!
I looked up from my diary and abruptly flipped it closed.
Ares and Alek are out buying the day's lunch. I don't think they'd appreciate me disappearing on them with no warning. Well, I don't have to leave right now, but the sooner I get this done the sooner I'll stop worrying about it.
The chances that the Migurd I had merely caught a glimpse of was someone I knew were slim to none, but I was still restless nonetheless.
I hastily jotted down a note detailing where I was going and grabbed my staff on my way out.
As it turned out, it was not easy finding where I had seen the Migurd. So much had happened over the past ten days that my mind was already cluttered with other, admittedly more important, things. But when I tried to retrace my steps, I found myself at the same food stand that I had visited the morning I met Kishirika.
As it turned out, there was no line of hungry customers this time around. As I passed the stands, I caught a glimpse of the same arch I had passed through beforehand.
I'm on the right track. If I'm right, this should be…
And here it was. The unassuming pathway with an empty pot, some crates over there, a decorated door here. This was undoubtedly the same place where I had seen the Migurd and then promptly saved Kishirika from a sketchy-looking guy. I turned around and lo-and-behold, there was that crossway, the one the Migurd had run through and startled me.
I made my way toward the crosswalk and knelt. I focused on activating my Demon Eye to the "Stopwatch" setting.
Like threading a needle. Don't mess this up…
The air lit up with dozens of brilliant, distinct mana shapes. Some of them, the Released Mana particles, reminded me of shining fireworks against the darkness of night. However, one caught my eye. It was undoubtedly left by an inert mana crystal, with the way the signature glowed a shimmering gold. It was shaped like a diamond, the two ends being stretched apart but retaining a gem-like surface.
But what intrigued me the most was the words written in glistening stencil-like typeface floating next to the crystal. They read:
Roxas Migurdia
09:03:23:30
The stopwatch displayed 9 days and 3 hours since the mana crystal emitted mana. That lined up perfectly, erasing any doubts in my mind that my old teacher, the man who had taught me most of everything I currently know about magic, was here in Wind Port.
I wanted to scream. There's no way I missed him by such a small distance away! Why's he even here!? The staff had left a trail of sorts in the direction of where it went, providing me with an easy way to trace the owner, Roxas.
I deactivated my Demon Eye and bolted in the direction of the signatures, desperately hoping that Roxas had not left the city since then.
My search ended up being extremely winded, sometimes leading me astray as the crystal's mana signature sometimes crossed paths with itself, likely thanks to Roxas crossing through the same places multiple times. I searched until the sun started slowly making itself across the sky as the evening set in.
The mana signature's stopwatch duration became shorter the longer I searched. The numbers ticked down like clockwork…
8 days, 7 days, 4 days, 2 days, 1 day, 18 hours, 12 hours, 4 hours…
Finally, at long last, the mana signatures led me to an inn called the Crackling Raven. The inn, like the one we were staying at, featured a tavern that drew in customers. I walked through the doors and was met with an extremely busy locale, with waiters and adventurers strewn all about the store. The hustle and bustle was generated by several burly men with strong voices combined with the humans and demon folk conversing over supper.
This was probably one of the most popular places to stay in the whole city.
I elbowed my way through the adventurers and made my way up the stairs to the lodgings. As I ascended the stairs, I noticed the loud voices and clinking of dishes and glasses fading to a muted commotion. It was like someone put down sound-proof brick.
That might be an actual thing, knowing this world…
And so, I kept my Demon Eye open as I made my way through the dense mana signatures that indicated that Roxas had left and entered this place several dozen times. I ended up on the third floor, where the hallway was strangely silent. The place was decorated quite lavishly compared to the drab interior of our inn, but I shooed away that thought when I spotted the inn room that, without a shadow of a doubt, belonged to Roxas.
I took in a deep breath as I walked up to it.
It had been six whole years since I had last seen him. The man I respected more than anyone else in this world. The man who had brought me out of my shell, who had brought me outside. Without him, god knows where I would've ended up. But one thing was for sure: I wouldn't be standing here today.
So, I gave the door three sharp knocks.
Rustling. Stirring, as if someone wasn't expecting the knocks. Advancing footsteps. The fiddling of the lock and finally, the creak of the door opening.
I laid eyes upon a young, short boy with deep blue hair. I was now nearly his height, still standing below his fanciful witch's hat. His hair–once loose, now tied into a ponytail of sorts–draped over his shoulders.
This was my teacher, Roxas Migurdia.
His eyes widened the moment he saw me, drawing in a breath as he struggled to say something. I did him the favor of speaking up first.
"Mister. It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Author's Notes:
Decided to release this chapter later (It's 22:44 as I write this, actually ;-;) than normal! This was one hell of a chapter to write, from rewriting the fight scene entirely and making a last-minute decision that would've changed the story completely had I not decided against it. Anyway, to keep this already cluttered chapter from suffering from all sorts of pacing issues, I decided to split this off into the next chapter. I know, I keep delaying the voyage to Milis, but there's a lot to be written! Sorry again, but next week's chapter will be the Roxas side-story chapter, so it'll be a good bit until I get back to Lumina's POV. I do hope you stayed tuned!
Volume 4 will be the longest volume by a few chapters. 12~ chapters should be the final count, with more if you count the one Side Story and the 2 Extra Chapters I'm writing for it. Stay tuned!
It's been done to death by now, but I'd like to advocate for the Ao3 (Archive of Our Own) version of Mushoku Tensei: Lumina Greyrat, as when the story eventually has mature content inside of the chapters, I will have to cut them out of this website due to the Terms of Service. You don't have to migrate now but do consider it.
The next chapter should be released by December 6th, titled... Side Story: His Journey's End and Beginning
I truly, truly appreciate everyone who leaves a comment/review, you make my day even if you leave a single sentence. Thank you.
