Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Delaying death is one of my favourite hobbies.

I like to think that living in a magic world after reincarnating from another has given me a tolerance for the abnormal. Magicians? Okay. Boxes that are bigger on the inside? Absolutely fine. Doors that teleport you to another land? I dig it. There’s a lot I can accept.

Paranormal ghost kids? That’s different.

Full disclosure, ghosts make me uncomfortable. They always have. The idea of an invisible creature that can possess something at any moment should freak anyone out.

That’s why I kept one eye scanning the space around me as I looked through symbols. I was ready to grab my father’s leg at the first sign of a ghost kid.

Femew and my father had already moved further down the bookshelves. Both of them were frowning now, unable to find the symbol that they were looking for. Femew occasionally raised the shank of meat to double check the symbol. It still looked fresh.

I wonder if they’d done something to preserve it.

“What are you doing?” A voice whispered next to my ear.

“Gah!” I squeaked.

My father looked up from his book and saw me pointing at the kid.

“Good work champ, move to the next book I left for you.” He’d misunderstood me.

How did he not see what I was pointing at?

“Relax, it’s just me. Gerial.” The kid knelt next to my book. “They can’t see me. Not if I don’t want them to.”

“Because you ghost?” I asked.

Being unable to say long sentences was failing me again. I got a good look at his face, and I frowned when I saw his eyes. Purple irises and black pupils.

Oh no. He was going to possess me.

“What? I’m not a ghost.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Because they’re not real. Phew.”

“Of course ghosts are real.” He ignored the horror in my expression. “You really are a strange kid.”

“Not kid. Baby.” I huffed.

He nodded. “Oh, that makes sense. You’re so small.”

“It does?” I asked.

I recalled my conversation with Indra. He’d told me it was fine to talk, but I didn’t think it would be so common to have intelligent children walking around. My father and Femew had their eyes on me at all times, even now I could see my father peeking at me.

You know, this might be a bad idea. Talking to the kid, I mean. A magical land and an invisible person nobody else could see.

It screams stranger danger.

“The Mark makes us more intelligent. You must have used it a lot already. You’re braver than I am. I can’t deal with the pain, even if they say it’s important for ascension.” The boy winced as he spoke.

Yeah. I’ve been there, buddy. Running out of mana sucks.

Wait. No.

I can’t get sucked up in his pace.

What did he mean when he said that the Marks make us more intelligent? And what’s ascension?

The kid didn’t notice that I’d stopped talking to him. Instead, he flipped through one of the books my father had put there for me to go through.

“How much mana do you have?” He frowned at the book’s content. “I stopped at ten thousand.”

“Ten thousand!” I shouted into the air, earning a frown from my father.

I looked at the kid and felt a wave of pity in my heart. How many times had he gone through the pain of activating his ability?

Even if intelligence and mana increased over time, that was still a lot of pain. And pain couldn’t be measured in numbers.

“I know, it’s not enough, is it?” The kid’s posture dropped. “But I don’t want to go through the pain again. You don’t know…” He looked at me. “I guess you’re the only one who does know. That’s why I can talk to you. But they don’t know. The adults don’t feel what we do.”

His words struck a chord in me. The pain was enough to make my body shiver at the thought of it. Indra had said that the pain was normal, but pain could change from person to person.

Could I be feeling more than the others?

It had occurred to me before. The pain was just too intense.

“Are your parents preparing you for ascension like my dad?” Gerial asked.

Again, what’s ascension?

I wanted to ignore him, but he was raising a lot of questions, and I wanted to know the answers. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to a lonely kid.

“Hey, champ.”

My father made the decision for me. I looked up to see him smiling gently at me. He started packing up the books and picked me up

“You’ve probably been pretty bored around here. We’re gonna go up to the dome now, it’s a lot funner, I promise.” He patted my back.

I looked down. The kid was gone.

How was he doing that?

“Okay.” I could see Femew had already gone up.

We made our way to the stairway. I did a quick double check of the area to see if the kid was nearby. It was useless if I couldn’t see him, but it made me feel safer.

“Dad. A kid.” I spoke.

I wasn’t going to keep this a secret. I was one step away from freaking out. There was a kid appearing randomly around me and then disappearing.

It was freaky.

“I know.” His arms tightened their hold on me. “I saw the book move.”

“Oh.” I realised why we were leaving now.

The library had books on symbols that they could have gone through.

“Don’t worry. I told you, didn’t I, nobody gets hurt at the observatory.” My father squeezed my hand. “That’s what the company pays for.”

I was conscious of every step we took up the stairs. The way down hadn’t seemed so long. The artificial lights soon gave way to natural lighting, and my father and I found ourselves in the dome. Natural scenery of all elements greeted us.

Femew and two people in grey suits were also there. I could tell they were waiting for us from their positions. The moment we left the stairs I felt a brush of air against my cheeks, and I looked to my side to see two other people in grey suits moving by me and disappearing down the stairs.

“Hey there.” Femew moved up to me. “Ready to see the marvels of nature?”

The magic of exploring was dampened by the presence of the security team. At least, that’s what I assumed they were.

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There’s something that never bothered me as a kid, but it grated on my mind now. In a bad situation everyone tried their hardest to avoid telling the baby what was wrong. The security guards smiled and made baby noises, trying to get me to smile. Femew was being overly nice. Which I already knew wasn’t normal.

Only my dad was acting worried. He knew that I was too smart to be fooled.

That meant that all I could do was wait in silence. Eventually, I tried to get into the rhythm of it.

There were people on the job. I would have to let them handle it. Father had already told me that this was a place that corporations had to pay large amounts of money to access. Even the way to reach the location was guarded from those below bronze rank in Zodiac.

That meant these weren’t ordinary security guards. They were private sector security with a lot of money on the line.

Corporate espionage was no joke.

My father was going through the motions of examining the symbols around him. I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. We were just waiting for news on the situation.

That didn’t stop me from taking an interest in the world around me.

I hadn’t realised it when we first entered, but there were symbols everywhere in the dome. Every tree was carved with a variation of the nature symbol. Every rock and stone had a different symbol representing a different concept about earth. I got a peek at the river and swimming in its currents were symbols of all kinds. There were even fish and other animals.

It was beautiful.

A small commotion stole my attention. The grey suits had returned, and they flanked an old man between them. The man didn’t look like a criminal, in fact, he looked like he would be in charge of this place. He had a robe, and a very long cane in his hands.

“Femew.” The elderly man’s eyes lit up. “This is an unexpected joy this evening.”

“H-headmaster.” Femew said from my side.

Headmaster?

Like a schoolteacher?

“It has been a long time, Femew. Zodiac? You truly are doing well.” The old man gave him a friendly smile. “I always knew you would make something of yourself. Your diligent practice has paid off.”

“Thank you, sir.” Femew twitched happily.

“I came in person when I heard it was you that had been bothered. I’m afraid I must apologise for this whole affair.” The headmaster raised his cane towards Femew. “It appears that my son has been bothering you. He still hasn’t kicked that nasty habit of turning invisible with his spells when around people.”

An invisibility spell? I frowned.

That explained it.

“I beg your pardon for my question, but how was he using magic?” Femew frowned. “It’s not allowed here.”

“We gave him permission.” The grey suit responded. “Under the guarantee that our guests would not be disturbed.”

Femew stepped forward. “But you never-”

He was stopped by a hand. My father stepped in front of him and looked at the grey suit, and then the headmaster.

“We understand.” My father spoke.

I could see what he was seeing. The grey suits weren’t happy. And I don’t think it was because we’d been bothered by a kid. It seemed more like they’d been strong armed.

If someone could influence the security in this place, then who knows what they could do to us.

The headmaster saw my father for the first time. His eyebrows rose and he gave my father a nod.

“Young master Jâl. It has been a long time.”

I looked up at him. He knew my father. That was the first time I had heard my surname. Or at least my father’s surname.

I wasn’t sure if I was meant to play dumb, or wave and say hi. The man stared down at me, a smile touching his lips.

“I see. A tiger will always give birth to a tiger cub no matter the circumstances.” He tapped his cane on the ground. Three small earthquakes reverberated across the dome. “Gerial. Is this the boy you took a liking to?”

A small figure appeared next to the headmaster. His hands were holding tightly onto the man’s robes.

“Yes.” His voice was shy.

“Then I will chat with my student and the young master. You two should play. It is not often that you find someone you like.”

My father looked at me and I waved my hand at him.

“It’s okay.”

Gerial had been a kid the whole time. The worry I’d felt almost made me laugh. My father let me down on the grass, and He and the headmaster went to the side to talk with each other, leaving us two kids alone.

“Your niece turned two this month, did she not? This is looking to be a grand age for your family’s main line.”

Niece? I looked up at my father.

I didn’t know I had a cousin.

Their voices died down as they walked further away.

“Hey.” Gerial held his hands in front of himself apologetically. “I got caught. Sorry.”

I stared at him. Now that I knew he was a little boy, his entire demeanour transformed before my eyes. He really did have the best intentions in talking to me. He had the Mark. I had the Mark.

He just wanted someone to talk to about it.

“Why do you not want the adults to see us?” I said the words as clearly as I could.

It worked.

Something caught my eye. A slight movement at the edge of my vision. My question had triggered something. He was trying to hide his hands behind his back, and his fingers were trembling.

“Because they don’t understand us. They just want to push us to get stronger. To power through the pain.” He spoke. “I know it’s to get us ready for ascension, but it still hurts.”

I couldn’t hold back my curiosity. “What is ascension?”

“When the time comes that we reach the age of twenty-five our blessing will take its due on our mortal bodies, and we will discharge all of the mana we haven’t absorbed.” Gerial recited the words like a textbook.

He was clearly repeating what his father had told him.

“My father told me that if we aren’t strong enough, we’ll be forcefully ascended into the world beyond. It has always been that way for Marked ones.”

That didn’t sound good.

No…

That sounded like how you’d describe dying to a seven-year-old.

Oh no.

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