“Seriously unpleasant…though I suppose I should be thankful I am not burning to death”.

Rikuo said that as he moved into another dark alley. Right now, he had three major issues. No supplies, no shoes or warm clothes, and nowhere to sleep.

And unfortunately, he was someone who loved sunlight and being in the sun, even if it was through a window, originally, so being a vampire was a major pain. He loved that warm feeling it gave him after all. That said, in the end, the sunlight was not burning him, but making him feel a bit weaker and irritated. He thought maybe if he got used to it, he could overcome it.

But for now, he had to make his way out of the city. He didn’t want to risk getting noticed and caught by that crazy lunatic of a vampire, the one that turned him. No one was even aware of what sort of person that woman was, hiding her nature in secret. The castle that overlooked the city on that cliff, she had somehow specifically managed to throw his body into that specific pile of rubbish.

I have to avoid direct line of sight. The top back alley it was in might have been visible, but I fell off a bit and landed lower, out of sight of the castle. What I need to do is avoid getting spotted by that woman, by Teleka. If I use the buildings as cover, I should be able to escape town without her noticing. I have to do it before sundown though, or else she might come out and look for my corpse. Once she sees it is not there, I need to be long gone.

Rikuo checked his status, and there was no trace spell or other such thing on him, so he shouldn’t be trackable by her. He was pretty sure she didn’t have magic to do that either. And when she killed him so brutally, his collar came off for real.

“Shadowshift”.

Using the Shadow Magic Spell he had learned, hoping to escape years ago, he moved from shadow to shadow, to avoid openings that might give visibility from the tower. It was still bright noon, the worst time for vampires and shadow magic, but he had no choice in the matter.

He could also feel himself using up magical energy by using Shadowshift so much, but he wanted to escape so much and avoid being spotted. He only just reincarnated, or just awoke his memories, and it was already a race for his life.

“Shadowshift”.

It was painful, even as a vampire. Every step he took was full of aches and pains, his body even though he had revived completely still felt the scars, the wear, and the torment it had endured. His bones and muscles ached, and his feet hurt as he ran barefoot across the ground. Despite what some novels and anime made it seem like, vampires did not have superhuman strength naturally. Their talent was in magic and mana, and in other things.

However, as he moved forward, he suddenly ran into someone who was also running through an alley. A girl by the looks of it, with red hair and red eyes. As such, they collided into each other, and Rikuo got knocked into a wall in such a way, there was no doubt in either of their minds that he was the weaker of the two.

However, out of fear and not wanting to get involved in whatever she was involved in, he used Shadowshift a few times to make a hasty getaway.

But that sight had drawn her interest for a moment, as she watched the boy that escaped, she was impressed by his use of magic.

That little boy…I want him for my team! And I think he could use my help! That is what my instincts say!

Deciding such a thing, she then remembered what she was doing in the first place, and quickly ran off. She had lost sight of the boy already, but given his expression and direction, she had a feeling she knew where he would go.

And that was a good idea, cause there was something she wanted to see anyways in that direction. And so she made her decision.

In a pure white room, many figures of many types were sitting around a white marble table. All of them were wrapped in white cloth, and their skin was energetic, glittering with divine radiant energy. And among them, there was one who oversaw the round table from a mighty throne, watching them all.

“It appears the pieces have finally begun to move…still though, what is with this strange roundabout way of reincarnating them, Ciel?”

The man on the throne looked over to a young boy with blonde hair and silver eyes.

“I figured you would want a bit of chaos added into the mix” Ciel said with an innocent smile, befitting his appearance of a young boy of ten.

He grumbled a bit, and glared at Ciel something fierce.

“You set it up so they would all have experienced ‘death’, is it?”

“I figured it might help explain away any major personality changes after all. Besides, as its for your own desires, I thought you might enjoy something atypical”.

Once again, Ciel was glared at, however the older god did nothing else.

That brat, being all mischievous. Is he toying with me again, or actually making his move? I seriously cant tell. I think he dislikes how I do things, but as the supreme god my will is all that matters in the end. He always does his jobs perfectly well though, and unlike some others, he has never shown disloyalty, but his way of doing things is odd…it irritates me.

The oldest god there, the Supreme God, Taktos. He ruled the heavens, and possessed the greatest power out of all the gods. It was his decision to reincarnate those people here to this world, for the agenda he had planned. But even as the Supreme God, its not like he could deal with handling everything at once. He figured it would be fine leaving it to the god who specialized in this, the god of Reincarnation and Status, Ciel, but some of the movements he made was just too odd.

But Ciel was not his biggest opposer. He had to watch the other gods carefully, for there were others he thought he should remove if necessary, those who sought his throne or had their own ires against him. Ciel seemed to be annoyingly playful like that, but he also showed a bit of disdain for some of the decisions he, Taktos, had made. Taktos just had no idea about him.

“So then, everyone was successfully reincarnated? Took them long enough” another god, the god of Culture and Literature, said. “Why did you choose such a long and roundabout method for real though? It had to be more than that”.

“If I had to put it simply…I thought it would trigger some good and interesting growth. I may have designed this system under the Supreme God’s orders, but I wanted to see if I could push my own creation to its limits. This seemed like the best way to do it”.

Well, there is another as well, but I wont be saying that here….

Ciel thought that to himself while giving a bit of detail.

Let the games begin…

“…I think I should be safe now…although, I wish this forest gave more cover from the sun. And I should still keep moving”.

Although he had none of the three things he wanted, he was a vampire so he figured he would survive. He could actually move faster at night. Still, so could she, and he was sure she was faster than him. But if he got enough distance, since she would not know which direction he ran in, it would be impossible to find him. At least, that was his hope.

Perhaps she would not go after him at all, thinking him honestly dead. That would be the most ideal situation.

But he was also getting parched, and he really needed some water. For some reason that was all he could think about, all of a sudden.

It took him awhile to realize he heard the sound of a stream or a river in the distance. He rushed over, hurrying as fast as his short legs could take him towards the goal. He ran and ran, and eventually made it there, only to see what appeared to be a river as wide as a lake possibly. He drank some of the water, and sure enough, it was fresh, so he kept drinking.

And yet, as he has finished quenching his thirst, the smell of well cooked meat entered his nostrils as a skewer appeared beside him. He couldn’t even remotely stop himself from grabbing and eating it, before finally looking at the one responsible.

That girl again?!

“Hey! Nice to see you again!”

“…how did you find me?”

“You looked like the desperate sort who would need some food and water. And also, perhaps these?”

As she said that, she held out a pair of boots.

That encounter, she had noticed despite me running away immediately?

“That said, I already gave you the boots for free, but I was wondering if you could do me two favors first. The first is that I would like to know more about you…and the second, you seem like a great magic user, so I want you to register with the adventurer’s guild and form a party with me!”

Saying something like that, she declared her intentions.

Rikuo was a bit skeptical, but he had nothing to lose from the second one. As for the first, he thought he would leave his previous life out of it at least. He wasn’t sure why, but she seemed like someone he could trust.

But still…

“Why do you care…” he muttered.

“Cause im a caring person”.

She said that in such an honest and earnest way. His two sides were conflicted. His previous life had no major ill will or unfortunate events happen to him, while his current life was a life that would result in not trusting anyone. The pain was there, and he couldn’t ignore it.

But the two selves were overlapping now, and the personalities were getting jumbled. It was all fusing together.

“…there is no reason for me to trust you”.

“Except that everyone needs to trust someone, so they don’t become the very thing they hate”.

She spoke right to him. She had to be using a skill or something, cause her words kept carrying such weight. To the soul whose very identity had not yet settled, this was throwing things into confusing.

“…why me?”

“Because I can't help but want to be there for a boy that is crying like you right now, and show you kindness”.

When did he start crying? No, why was he crying already? This was clearly too fast. He only just met her, so why was he crumbling?

“Everyone needs a bit of kindness”.

Rikuo’s first life was an open, sensitive, caring boy. His second life had become one full of darkness and despair. The first was opening up the way, so the second could properly communicate and connect and feel the warmth it so desperately needed.

And as such, it created such a situation right here as she hugged Rikuo.

“My name is Arila. So, what do you say?”

“My name is…Rikuo”.

And as such, Rikuo ended up telling her everything. About what happened to him, about the suffering, being a vampire, all of it.

And it felt like some of the weight was lifted off his shoulders.

“I see…well then, I think there is only one real cure. I wanted to see it anyways before I left, so want to come with me?”

“Wait…what?” Rikuo asked, when he saw her getting undressed right in front of him.

“Its underwater, so you should take your clothes off” she mentioned. Maybe it was that he already felt vulnerable, or that this world had a different common sense according to Rikuo’s memory, but he ended up following suit. She quickly took his hand, and led him into the water and eventually under it. It got deep rather quickly which was a surprise, and as the two kept swimming, he saw something amazing. For some reason, all of the underwater life was lightning up in a myriad of colors. Exotic colors that moved him to tears, not that it mattered much under water.

But then, as they got close to the coral reefs, a large school of fish swam around them in a spiral, all of them glowing different colors of the rainbow. Passionate reds, encouraging oranges, sunshine yellows, comforting greens, calming blues, and exotic purples. They all swam around them in a beautiful spiral, encompassing them with a feeling that had no words to describe it.

And not only did the flurry of colors spiral around them, but as they swam a beautiful music was heard from the fish, a proper harmonic chord that compelled the heart to beat and beat. The colors of the fish continued to change as they swam, but all they all changed in rhythm and accordance with each other, all of their emotions charging forth along the school of fish.

And as they watched the rainbow fish swim around them, for a moment, it felt as if this moment could go on forever.

Out of everything Rikuo had seen, the beauty he had just witnessed had no match yet.

Not even a stream of rainbows would be able to match what they just witnessed.

Once they had gotten out, dried a little, and got dressed, the two of them had made breakneck speed away from the city of Karken and through the forest. The sun was already nearing the end.

“If you can resist sunlight, why cant she? She is the one that turned you right?”

“Yeah, she is, but she hates feeling weak or sick. She doesn’t care if it happens to others though, and I doubt it would stop her in an emergency, but she pretty much killed me twice today so I think she doesn’t consider this an emergency”.

“…do we really need to run then?”

“I am not taking that chance!”

“Fair enough”.

“So, it seems this world has quite a few problems after all, even though it has magic, its in this reduced state” Raevin mentioned, as he finished his analysis of a recent book combined with his past memories.

From what he could tell, there had been almost no technological development on a serious enough scale, concerning non-magic or magic technology, in the last thousand years. There were a few exceptions here and there, but it seemed that it didn’t last long. One might think that magic was the cause, but no. If anything, magic should have made things go faster.

“It’s a contradiction. Or rather, is the world just too weak and chaotic? That might be the cause too”.

Ravin began to wonder what he could do about such an issue. He thought of various technological reforms, but among his research, he saw an issue.

He and his class were not the first Otherworlders to have come here. There were nations of this world who could perform Hero Summoning, and summon Heroes from Otherworlds. It was even mentioned that some of them attempted to bring change. Swimsuits, electricity, things like that. But for some reason, those changes are only mentioned in old texts, and its mentioned it never took hold. Every single time.

This was more then just ignorance. And there was no way the gods could have done something like this even he thought. Either, there was an Anti-Otherworlder conspiracy…or simply put, the leadership was incompetent.

“I will need to play my cards right. I wont let this stupidity continue”.

As he thought that, the door was knocked on, and a maid came in.

“I have the tea you requested” the maid said.

“…I didn’t ask for any tea tho…”

Before he could finish speaking, he deployed a magical barrier as the woman tried to stab him with a knife. He didn’t recognize this maid, but she was shocked by the barrier all the same.

Ever since the poisoning attempt earlier, he thought his life might get targeted again. So he deliberately isolated himself in this library, to catch the culprit while doing research. Some multi-tasking, if you will. He figured if they were so desperate enough to do the attempt inside the mansion, they would not wait too long.

Raevin hopped backwards while Shadow Magic to construct a blade made of shadows. He created another barrier to block the knife, but this time a second one appeared in her hand and came at a different angle. He quickly tilted the shadowblade and caught the knife, spinning the blade around to knock it out of her hand and disarm her while kicking her in the leg, and then creating a fireball in his free hand and throwing it right at her.

And yet, even that was not enough as she swerved around it.

She was going around the blade and would hit him.

However, the shadowblade then suddenly moved right into her path. As it was mage of shadows and magic, he could bend it as such, and it hit her cleanly, slashing her and knocking her back.

"Shadowbind!"

Quickly summoning shadows to bind her, she was thoroughly trapped.

"Now then, since I want to know more about the perilous situation I am trapped in, I will have you explain things to me. Its only fair, since you tried to kill me and all".

As expected, he would not let emotions get in the way to a threat to his life, and would do everything possible to eliminate the threat since he had that power in this world.

"Let us begin".