Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Questions

The wealthy man took a deep breath as he stood up and patted some dust off his clothes, he said. "Thank you for helping me, this group of thugs threatened me-." The man suddenly stopped as he was brought down to his knees with his hands on his stomach, on his shirt, there was a fresh red print of fists knuckles, he vomited his breakfast as bits of seafood were still undigested. The man had some drool on the side of his cheek that was dripping down his neck to his clothes, he was taking multiple deep breaths as he tried to stand up but fell back to his knees because his legs gave in. The man spoke through gritted teeth and said. "Do you know who I am!"

Arashi punched him twice, the man was about to let out a scream from the top of his lungs but felt something stinging his mouth and spat out a couple of teeth and a mouthful of blood. He moved his hands from his stomach to his mouth to stop more blood from coming out of his mouth, he took a deep breath using his nose and swallowed what was a mouthful of warm red liquid.

He turned his eyes to his fingers and saw some of them were almost smashed off and all of them were bent in the wrong direction, just when he was about to scream Arashi punched him in the stomach for the third time making him vomit the same blood he swallowed. The man was on all fours with a puddle of blood that was growing right under his nose, he tried to take a deep breath but winced when he felt something sharp pierce his lung.

He said. "Wait! I-I! We can talk about this!" He spat out one more tooth and bit of blood. Arashi just gave him a cold look and effortlessly lifted her left leg above her head and swung it down in one quick motion, a loud snapping sound was made as the man's spine was broken into two as his body fell to the ground.

A talisman flew out of her pocket and floated next to her and spoke in a woman's voice saying. "You're just like your mother." Arashi ripped the edge of the wealthy man's shirt and used it to wipe the blood off her left hand and said. "But madam, they started it." She threw the blood-soaked fabric at the floor and continued. "And you can't blame us for our… Choice, old men are full of lies and every teenager is a horndog. When mom told me how she met dad I first thought she was crazy for dating someone who's eight years younger than her…" She let out a sigh and looked around and continued. "The more I grew up the harder it is to find a guy my age who isn't one or the other."

As she crossed her arms and leaned on a wall, from the talisman Asami said. "I have some news on the kid." Arashi's eyes lightened up and quickly said. "What happened? Where is he? Is he fine? Who's trap did he fall for?" She blurted out a flurry of questions, Asami let out a sigh and said. "He's fine, as for where he is… I think you should find out for yourself when he returns."

Arashi grew a small frown and said. "What do you mean by that." Asami let out a giggle and said. "Nothing, I've already sent a cleaner towards your current location. Feel free to go about your day." The talisman flew back to her right pocket in her black pants, she let out a small sigh and shook her head sideways. She said. "Well, at least he's okay..."

She placed her hand at shoulder level as a talisman flew to the palm of her hand and started to burn, she walked towards the apartment complex where a staff member greeted her as she gave him a lazy nod. She whispered to herself. "I'm going to need more talismans if more assholes keep showing up..." She took the stairs and went up the third floor and went inside her apartment.

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Back At The Guest Room

Reiki finished explaining a few things to both Melanor and Moranor who were listening intently to him, Moranor sat down on the edge of the bed while Melanor took the chair from the workbench. He said. "Why are both of you looking at me like that?" Melanor placed a hand on her chin and said. "Reiki, be honest with me. When you took the exam for the scholarship at Ishin did you use the book or not?"

He let out a chuckle and said. "No, I thought about it and tried to pry it open when I first got it, but I couldn't even tear a piece off. I was only able to open it a week after the exam, and by then the pages were blank." He noticed both their pupils were faintly glowing a light blue as they looked at him from top to bottom, Melanor covered her mouth with the same hand she placed on her chin and said. "Interesting…" Moranor was softly tapping her foot on the wooden floor and turned her face sideways to face him. She said. "What's in it?" Melanor shouted. "Moranor!"

She raised both her hands above her head and said. "I can't help it, I'm curious to know." When she was about to reprimand her daughter, Reiki suddenly said. "A lot of things." Moranor made herself comfortable on the bed and positioned herself to face him, she said. "What kind?" 

Melanor kept her 'glare' on her daughter, but he noticed that her eyes didn't have any anger in them all the while her pointy ears twitched very slightly. Reiki placed a hand behind his head and said. "I can't tell you everything yet, since I can't even read past the first few pages, some of them would unscramble themselves as it turned into the Japanese language, but most of the time I can't even read a single sentence…"

He placed the hand behind his head to his chin and thought for a moment and continued. "Though I did notice it happening to me more recently when reading... Well, almost anything that I can get my hands on." He turned his head to look at the wall to his right and whispered. "And I noticed a few minor changes about me, now that it keeps happening more frequently…" Both the mother-daughter pair's pointy ears twitched, Moranor was playing around with the blanket as she kept her eyes on her hands and said. "What kind of changes?"

As Melanor was listening to him with interest, Reiki said. "Nothing major, just some memory improvement, I keep noticing small details here and there, and I can probably learn every language if I had some of the learning materials." Moranor's gaze was fixated on him and said. "Probably?" Reiki turned his head to face her and nodded, he said. "I say probably because I don't even have the resources to read anything that's in common or human writing, let alone a different language. So I am curious to test it, I probably won't be able to do it unless under special circumstances such as this one."

Melanor's eyes narrowed as she pondered to herself, Moranor stopped playing with the blanket and said. "Have you told anyone-." From the corner of her eye, her mother vanished from the chair she was sitting on, he said. "Your mother does that a lot, doesn't she?" Moranor let out a long sigh and said. "More than I care to admit." Melanor reappeared on the opposite side of the bed as she had a thin brown notebook in her hands as she passed it to Reiki with one hand. She said. "This one is written in beast language.

 He quickly took the book off her hands and randomly opened it up somewhere in the middle and started reading, a thin blue ring slowly appeared in his pupils as it was adjusting the width. Both of them turned their heads to face each other and simultaneously turned back to look at the thin blue ring that was constantly changing in thickness and was starting to slow down.

The writing on the notebook started to blur as it slowly turned into Japanese, he read. "Roasted meat on a stick, five large pieces of meat roughly a hundred pounds each, three large onions, vegetables of your choice, and three logs worth of firewood…" Reiki raised one eyebrow as he flipped to the next page and continued to read. "Pig knuckles stew, ten gallons of water or 'stock' as the humans say, fifty pieces of pig knuckles, roughly chopped vegetables of your choice, onions, and… Logs for the fire…"

He started flipping the pages as fast as he could read them and said. "Ribs over a fire, roasted head, dried meat, and pork shoulders…" He closed the book with one hand as he stared at its cover, he muttered. "What the hell is this…" Both the elves were observing him in silence. Reiki felt both the pages and the cover of the book and said. "What the hell is this?!" As he opened the notebook again and was skimming through the pages, Melanor's eyes slightly narrowed. She said. "What's the matter?"

Reiki closed the book just enough to make a small gust of wind that moved his hair, he pointed at the cover of the notebook and the pages, he said. "This! This! Why did they use high-quality materials for a cookbook… And it's not even an inch thick. Here I am not even a lizard's hide in my pouch while the beast folk made cookbooks with this kind of material…"

The corner of Melanor's eye twitched as Moranor placed her right hand on her mouth to keep herself from laughing, Morano's stomach was visibly convulsing as she was able to prevent herself from bursting out laughing. Melanor took a deep breath to calm herself down and said. "Is that… All?..." Reiki's eyes widened as he hastily said. "Thank you for allowing me to read a different language, Melanor-san." As he gave her a slight bow to show his appreciation, he continued. "I was just caught off guard by the material it was made for such a small… Cookbook."

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He used his left hand to pass the brown notebook back to her and said. "You might want to take this off my hands because if you don't I might open the window behind me and throw it like a frisbee." Moranor started laughing as she slapped the bed repeatedly, Moranor took the notebook off his hands and placed it in her pouch by her belt. He let out a sigh and said. "Sun-dried boar skin that changed color over time, the parchment itself looked like it was bought from a second… Possibly even a third party and was dipped in a large pot of boiling herbs with a shot of a potion. They even used freshly squeezed ink from a monster from the same lineage of a squid..."

Reiki used his hand to comb his hair back as it became even more unkempt afterward, Melanor kept a calm expression but her eyes were filled with interest and gave her away, Moranor stopped laughing as she was listening to what he was saying.

Sitting on the bed he crossed his legs and placed his elbow on his thigh as he placed his head on the palm of his hand. He said. "I did hear a rumor that beast folk were a bit on the uncultured side… But that notebook takes the cake in my opinion." As Reiki let out a self-mocking chuckle followed by a long sigh while lazily resting his head on his hand, Melanor let out a chuckle and said. "Don't worry about such trivial things for now, have you ever tried to read a part of a forgotten language?"

Reiki moved his head off from the palm of his hand as he crossed his arms and pondered for a moment, he said. "I once went to a museum to test that out, but I learned that I need to be a certain distance from the said object and it could potentially work with pictures too, as long as I could properly see the writing I could probably read it." Melanor placed a hand over her mouth and said. "What about your eyes? You didn't say anything about using one or both eyes for you to read. And what made you claim you can read writings from pictures? Have you already tried it yourself?"

Reiki turned his torso sideways as the sound of joints cracking was heard by the two of them, he said. "Excuse me, and I'm sorry about that. About me claiming I can read a different language from a picture, it's more theoretical than practical, since I never once tried it before."

Moranor's eyes were filled with worry as it was constantly changing from Reiki to her mother. Melanor eyes narrowed, she kept her hand over her mouth and said. "Theoretical?" While sitting on the bed he stretched his upper body towards the ceiling and said. "Yes, it should work since it is still writing that I can see. It all comes down to how I would 'see' the letters." Melanor stayed silent for a few seconds and asked. "What about your improvements to your memory? How bad did it affect you?" He thought for a moment and said. "Severely in a good way but also a bad way, I can recall anything that happened to me in that month and I've gained a photographic memory out of it." 

Moranor tapped his shoulder and said. "How is that a bad thing?" He turned his head to face her and said. "If I experience something traumatic or someone I care about dies I won't be able to rely on the fact I would be able to forget about it in the future." While they were talking, Melanor took the 'cookbook' and opened it and said. "Tell me all ten steps in making the pig knuckle stew."

Reiki turned his head to face her almost immediately and calmly said. "Trick question, it only has five steps. One. You cut off all the nails from the knuckles, further preparation is optional but it is recommended to not do anything after how many you cook is up to your preference. Two. Roughly chop up your choice of vegetables. Three. Brown all the vegetables using a large earthen pot. Four. Add your choice of water or stock. Five. Don't forget to make a fire with a lot of logs… Wait, what…"

He placed his right hand on his head and said. "What kind of cookbook is this?! Now that I'm rereading it in my mind it sounds like it was made by a ten-year-old. You might as well write fire, meat, and vegetables… Melanor-san, can I read that again? I want to know who wrote it." As he extended his hand towards Melanor, closing the cookbook with both her hands she handed it to him as he opened it and was searching through the pages to find the author.

Melanor was watching him read through all the pages like a flipbook, closing the cookbook again he placed a hand on his chin and said. "That's strange, there's nothing… No pen name, no date of release, not even an index…" He turned his head to face Melanor and handed her the cookbook back while saying. "Is this officially a published book over there? And they bought it?" Melanor took the cookbook off his hands as she stared at it for a split second and placed it back inside the pouch, she gave Reiki a strange look and just stared at him for an entire five seconds without saying anything. Her eyes slightly narrowed, she said. "It would seem so."

She stood up and made a gesture towards her daughter to get up from the bed and walk out of the room with her, as she was walking towards the door. Moranor quickly stood up and walked behind her mother while she kept looking at him from the corner of her eyes.

Melanor opened the door and walked out with Moranor behind as she closed the door, Melanor snapped her fingers as both of them were surrounded by a bubble of mana. Moranor's eyes were glued to the door while she said. "So how much did he memorize?" Melanor closed her eyes as she stayed silent for a moment, keeping her eyes closed she said. "Before I teleported back into the room, I tempered with the cookbook I gave him…"

Moranor turned her head away from the door and looked at her mother who was contemplating something and said. "So what he was reading was also tampered with?" Melanor quickly replied. "No, this is how it's always been…" She opened her eyes as her pupils were infused with mana as it started glowing a sky blue color. She continued. "I only changed some minor details, every page of it on the bottom right had the author's name and signature and I turned the first few pages invisible along with the index...Yet he was able to notice that the cookbook was tampered with by reading a couple of pages…"

Moranor leaned onto a wall and crossed her arms, she said. "Any chance he didn't notice it?" Melanor's eyes turned back to normal as she turned around to face her daughter and said. "No, he noticed it. From the moment he flipped through the pages I saw his pupils dilate but only subtle… What bothers me is…"

In her head, Melanor replayed the moment when Reiki was flipping through the entire cookbook in roughly ten seconds. She thought. Was that for show?... Or is that how he learned to speak elvish… Moranor walked next to her mother and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention, she said. "What is it?" Melanor faced her daughter and said. "That conversation we had in the guest room. Did not happen. Understood?" Melanor started walking towards the stairs on the left while walking, she said. "I need to drop by and make an urgent report and make sure to keep your ears open."

The front of Melanor's boots touched the bubble as it immediately burst into nothing, she lazily waved her hand goodbye as Melanor teleported again. Moranor let out a long sigh as she was still leaning onto a wall with her arms crossed, she closed her eyes and heard Reiki flipping through pages. She stopped leaning on the wall and reached for the handle for the guest room and opened the door, she said. "What else can you-..."

The first thing that got her attention was the 'literature' in his hands as he was still sitting on the bed with his feet crossed. Reiki flipped to the next page and continued reading, keeping his eyes on the page he said. "More questions? That's fine as long as the question isn't too personal I'll answer." His eyes were going from left to right as he continued to read the erotica wholeheartedly.

Moranor gritted her teeth as she clenched her hands into fists, bits of pure white lightning started to envelop both her fists, speaking through gritted teeth she screamed. "What the fuck do you think your reading! You! Mindless! Stick!" As she raised her hand above her head and swung it toward Reiki sitting on the bed. He quickly placed the 'literature' on the nightstand and moved his body to the floor and rolled himself upright and hastily stood up.

Her hands covered in lightning hit the bed as it touched the blanket, the lightning circled the bed, the wooden frame was making crackling noises as some black patterns were starting to show. Reiki watched the lightning touch the bed and thought. She's not playing around! He said. "What did I do?!" Moranor's eyes widened for a split second as it instantly turned back to anger, with one foot she repeatedly stomped the floorboards and pointed at the literature at the nightstand. She said. "Kids shouldn't be reading those kinds of things!"

He took a small step back and said. "But, I got permission from Melanor-san." He looked around the room trying to figure out a way to safely escape her clutches. Moranor slowly turned around to face him and said. "Stop trying to avoid the subject!" Reiki thought. I am not avoiding the subject, you're just being unreasonable… He looked at the door at his left and continued his thought process. Either that or the second-floor window… And I am not running through a forest barefoot again…

He took a deep breath as he focused and kept his eyes on Moranor. He thought. The moment she dashes towards me, I make a run towards the door… Moranor took a small step towards him and was suddenly enveloped by lightning as she appeared right in front of him in a split second, she grabbed him with her hand as flashes of light bright enough to be seen in daylight came out of all of the house's windows, followed by the sound of a male screaming.

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