Lucas blinked once again, the sight of someone disappearing right in front of his eyes, stopping him. His heart sped up, as he looked around.

However, seeing that he couldn't sense a single mana signature nearby, it slowed back to its usual pace, in disappointment, and Lucas walked tentatively towards the library.

Ever since his Awakening, besides the general increase to his vitality, Lucas felt he had morphed a little. It was the feeling he'd felt even farther back, an itch for combat, a bloodlust. It was like every time he felt he was in danger, his body would immediately prepare to fight, regardless of the situation.

It still felt as if he was missing something, as if he was incomplete, but who knew what that thing was.

"I think I know." Nerine tapped the boy she'd just met on the shoulder, now fully sure about him. It had been a pain getting here but with Filou's magic, she'd managed to do it, looking around for the source of the pillar of light they'd seen.

Filou had told her who to look for. The golden soul should be a child and, at best, 13. Any older and they probably wouldn't be useful anyways.

So she'd gotten to searching throughout the mansion, relying on Filou's magic to protect her. Luckily, it had only taken a week before she found her quarry, Lucas Cazenarch, the son of the youngest son of the count.

"Shit." There were a lot more words on Lucas' mind but it just defaulted to that one. He turned around, his body speeding up once more, but once again, it would be disappointed. It was the girl from before.

Lucas had seen the girl before, assuming she was a cousin of his, or maybe a daughter of one of the servants, though that was weird for Lucas to accept considering everyone he'd seen, had brown or blonde hair. No one else really had a problem with her though, not minding her presence, so Lucas wasn't going to complain. Sometimes, she gave him strange looks but that was all.

He'd never seen her fucking vanish into thin air and pop up behind him like a magic trick. He doubted even Batain could escape his notice like that.

Looking up at the girl, he frowned, before regaining his composure. Attacking random people because they surprised you, was stupid. Remembering the few seconds of the few lessons on etiquette he'd actually paid attention for, he bowed.

'She could also be related to one of the people at the party. Maybe they got a temporary room here?' Lucas mentally shrugged, before remembering he had no idea how to proceed from here. Supposing a 'hello' would suffice, he was about to greet her when he heard her voice again.

"Ah, where are my manners? My name is Nerine Guysiel. It is a pleasure to meet you, Lu-I mean it's really nice to meet you." Her voice was scratchy as if she had a sore throat.

Lucas inwardly frowned. "Hello, Nerine. My name is Lucas. It is a pleasure to meet you as well", Lucas said, his voice as robotic as possible. "What did you mean when you said you know?'"

Nerine gestured towards a nearby room but Lucas merely narrowed his eyes. Realizing he wasn't going to follow her, she cleared her throat, though it did nothing for her voice, and hoped Filou's magic would continue to hold up.

"You have a golden soul, don't you?" She asked the question with a bit of meaning to it, looking at Lucas' face, expecting to see interest, suspicion, or maybe even anger.

The boy's face turned completely deadpan. A slight smile appeared on her face as she was about to start reassuring Lucas who was surely guarded against her about such a secret.

"Pardon me, what's a golden soul?"

Her smile briefly froze but then her eyes lit up in understanding. He was just pretending not to know, to get her off his back. However, when she looked closer at his face, she saw genuine confusion.

'Ah right, he's probably never been exposed to other people's soul signatures.' Nerine's mind briefly scrambled before she decided to ask him a different question. "You're a Paragon though, right?"

Lucas shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't know what that is." Inwardly, he patted himself on the back. His mother would be proud her son had become a true gentleman.

"Where'd you live on Nunaryuami?" Nerine blurted out the question only to receive the same deadpan look.

"Could you perform some magic for me?" She tried to infuse as much of Filou's magic into the question, as possible.

"Sorry, why should I? Where is your family, miss Guysiel?" Lucas's suspicion began rising. He had no idea where this "Nunaryuami" place was so it couldn't be anywhere regional though that was already clear from the name.

Hearing those words, Nerine instantly knew she had somehow made a mistake. 'Shit, is Filou's Trickery Magic not working at all?' She quickly came to a conclusion though. She'd just ask him a simple yes-or-no question. If he said yes, then they'd found another companion. If not, then she'd just knock him out, leave, and tell Filou that if there was a golden soul, they'd left.

"You come from somewhere else, right?" Immediately after asking the question, she needed just a look at Lucas to tell the answer to her question was a yes. Lucas kept his deadpan expression but a certain intensity appeared behind his eyes. There had been a certain inflection in her voice when asking the question.

"You wanna go back there?" Nerine discreetly gestured towards a window. Lucas nodded, his eyes still on this little girl who somehow knew about his reincarnation.

Nerine sighed a little bit in relief. She was quite a bit nervous about staying here especially considering that Filou's magic wasn't working. Or maybe, that was only against Lucas. Well, it didn't really matter. It was better to play it safe.

Lucas' mind was in turmoil as he blindly followed Nerine. Considering she knew that bit of info about him and hadn't killed him or kidnapped him(unless this was her kidnap attempt but that was unlikely), suggested that she didn't care, or worse, was just like him. His thoughts were brought to a halt when he realized she'd stopped at the window she'd been gesturing towards.

Briefly, his eyes wandered, surveying the dark sky covering everywhere he could see. It was quickly covered up by Nerine's own black hair. The girl had stepped towards the window, obscuring his vision, before breaking the glass window with a concentrated blast of air.

Lucas had assumed that she meant they'd sneak out which is why she gestured to the window which led outside. Literally sneaking out through the window was insane.

Of course, he'd forgotten about all the uses of elemental magic.. Like jumping out of a mansion window and using air magic to avoid accidentally offing yourself.

Nerine looked back up at Lucas who stared back at her. It didn't take her too long to remember that even they had to start somewhere. Even she had only learned the trick with a bit of training from Filou. Otherwise, she would've gotten sidetracked hundreds of times.

Of course, she wasn't dumb enough to shout that out to him. It was a bit risky as well but she sent a string of mana that connected with his own.

Lucas frowned, flinching away from it. Carelessly infusing your own mana with someone else's mana could seriously mess you up. However, when the string of mana got close enough for him to better evaluate, he noticed it was actually mana quite similar to the type that he'd seen in the mana amplifier in that it seemed to be.. neutral? He couldn't really be sure. It was definitely much more complex than the one in the lightcube though.

Letting it reach him, he suddenly felt a stray thought in his head. Except the stray thought multiplied and formed a larger collective that Lucas understood was Nerine talking directly to him.

'Jump down. I'll catch you.'

'There's no way this girl wants me to jump ALL the way down there. That's like 10 meters-'

'I'll catch you. Don't worry.'

Lucas looked suspiciously down at Nerine. This thing linking them was definitely more complex than he thought. He'd thought it was a simple way to convey information one way but it seemed to be a true link between their minds using conduit mana as a.. well as a conduit.

Still, he decided to trust her. It was like the sunk cost fallacy. He'd already trusted her to this extent. If she meant him harm, she would've done it by now instead of this roundabout flawed plan.

Jumping off, he immediately regretted it. He didn't have a fear of heights, just a fear of falling from said heights. He'd tried getting rid of it a while ago but emotions like fear were more linked to his body than his soul, and considering his age, mind didn't overcome matter in this instance.

However, just as Nerine had said and done for herself, Lucas floated down. Well, at first, she'd launched him even higher into the sky, overestimating his weight and nearly making him discard some of it through his rear.

Luckily, she got it under control and Lucas floated down to the ground.

Having listened to Lucas' wild uncontrollable thoughts in the face of fear, she frowned. 'So you call it reincarnation?'

'Why'd you bring me out here if you were just going to use this.. thing? I have a room, you know.'

'Sorry, but I have no intention of being forcibly married at this young an age. My family would surely use such a stupid reason to get someone into your family.'

Lucas narrowed his eyes. Hiding in a bush, which was Nerine's brilliant idea, would probably raise more eyebrows but it was a bit late at this point. He just waited for her to explain.

'I'll start from the beginning. My name is Nerine. I originally come from Nunaryuami, though I've lived on quite a few worlds. Too many to count. I came to this world when...'

Lucas had a visceral reaction to his words, unwittingly sending a surge of mana towards the link, screwing up the mind transmission. Nerine looked down from her recollecting to notice the boy she'd just met had an oddly conflicted expression, a bit like he was constipated.

Nerine, understanding or at least getting the general hint that she should get to why he was relevant to all this, became more serious. Reforming the conduit mana, she began to transmit her thoughts again. 'You're incomplete. We're the same, so I can help you complete yourself and your power. I won't take you from your family but given that you're one of us, I can't just ignore you.'

Lucas' expression worsened, as he barely controlled his thoughts. He noticed that while this link would automatically transmit what thoughts he released so he buried them under a wave of indifference.

'Could you at least tell me where you're from?' The little girl asked.

Lucas hesitated for a second. 'A place called Earth.'

'Earth? Could you- never mind.' A brief thought had slipped Lucas' mind that made Nerine stop asking the question.

'Anyways, we both have a golden soul. Filou told me that it signifies that we truly came from somewhere else. A couple of months ago, you created a giant golden pillar, right? That was your awakening, the awakening of your soul. And you may be a Paragon, a blessed one-'

'And you and this Filou guy want to take advantage of that to try to control me.'

'What-'

'You barge into my house, tell me all about things that you, yourself, barely even understand but talk about how we're the same. Do you think I'm stupid?'

Nerine frowned, blushing a little. He'd phrased it much harsher than it needed to but it was true that Filou had asked her to infiltrate the Cazenarch Household using some of his magic, and bring the golden soul onto their side. It'd taken a while to even find an opportunity to get to them and now that she was here, he was suspicious of her.

The thought of forcing him to come had never crossed her mind. She'd truly been looking for another friend, preferentially a sane one.

'Don't worry, I don't plan on staying in this house forever, but for now, I don't plan on leaving. Ask me sometime in a couple of years.' He, then, cut off the mind link and walked back to the mansion door.

Nerine frowned in disapproval but ultimately let Lucas walk away. This was a more likely outcome then him simply accepting their partnership. Some, like her, responded positively to learning there existed others like her. Others had just had their entire worldview destroyed.

Also, there was a good chance his parents were probably looking for him anyways.

They weren't but Lucas still went to his room anyways, reflecting on the new information he'd learned, like he did, nearly every night. His mind still spun, thinking about what everything Nerine said had meant. However, he extricated his soul and in that, got tired enough to rest.