Grounded.

Honestly, Lucas had forgotten the term existed. But as Lucas quietly sat in his room after getting talked at by his mother, he couldn’t find another, less humiliating term to refer to it.

After reliving his life as Khumernai, he didn’t really know how to refer to his parents at all. He’d gotten too used to being their little baby boy and had forgotten, ignored, or conveniently suppressed the fact that he was a man.

However, he’d gained some clarity and could at least tell how he felt about them. While a large part of his feelings were influenced by his physical body, he did care about Emelie and Sebastian. He wouldn’t stop being their son just because he’d changed a little. He had to be, at least, a little grateful for what they’d done for him even if they limited his current growth.

No matter what he told them, they wouldn’t change their mind. In fact, if he’d told them that he killed a man, they’d probably keep him locked up in his room eternally. It wasn’t like he could blame them though. He was going way too fast and spiraling out of control. If they couldn’t predict his actions and take care of him out there, they might as well force him in here so they could do it, much more effectively.. or so they thought.

Lucas picked up a ball and threw it in the air before focusing on it as it fell down. It gave him a weird feeling as if he could feel the leather on the ball even though it was still in the air. Regardless, the ball stopped in midair.

He threw it around, experimenting with the ability. It was just like telekinesis. He could even shift the ball around though that was much more difficult than simply stopping it.

He glanced at the mirror before turning away from it. He’d already mustered up the courage to look at himself in the mirror and though it showed no effect, he still felt he would just accidentally freeze himself and that would be that. He wouldn’t be able to look away and he’d stay just like that until his parents went into his room.

Sure, he could control the ability much better and it wasn’t as much of an on-off ability anymore but caution wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Rather than an on-off switch where he had to widen his eyes to turn it off, and focus to turn it on, it now felt more like a hydroelectric dam. He could make it much narrower and increase the power and accuracy of his ability or widen it and decrease the power and accuracy but make it much easier to maintain.

It was a fun ability to use. He still had no idea how it worked since it didn’t seem to use mana. The only downside would be that when he’d tried it in the mirror, he could see his eyes through his eyelids whenever the ability was active.

Well, there was another downside.. Lucas could barely manage to get in bed before he fell asleep from pure exhaustion.

He suddenly found himself being gently shook awake. Lucas’ eyes opened to see a vague figure of a woman.

Assuming it was his mother, he closed his eyes again, just as some payback for grounding him.

“I’m glad to see that no matter how you feel about me, I’m still your mother, Joseph.”

Immediately, Lucas’ eyes shot open and he felt.. different. He was back in his old body. He couldn’t look down and check but he knew it without a doubt.

He couldn’t move his head so he was forced into a limited field of vision. Still, it was obvious where he was. He was sitting down on a hospital bed looking at his mother, his real mother.

Her dark brown, almost black, hair was clearly graying and wrinkles had begun to cut into her tanned skin. If it wasn’t for her vibrant green eyes, she’d be just another woman in her 50s. But there was an intensity in her gaze that didn’t make sense.

“Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

Joseph didn’t bother to respond, not that he even could, his eyes closing once more. He really wished he could see the state of his body.

“You lost your legs though it doesn’t matter. You’re paralyzed from the neck down..”

“It’s going to cost a lot to keep you alive..”

“You achieved your dream of being famous, at least. You were on the news.”

Joseph seemed unresponsive until the last comment, opening his eyes to reveal a blank stare. His head started spinning and shaking.

His mother seemed not to notice, now preoccupied by her phone. “I’m going to try to keep you alive, ok? God won’t tell me I didn’t try, at least.”

Joseph’s eyes moved over to her.

“It should’ve been pills. It would’ve been quieter, not as many ‘trauma victims.’ Not as much money spent.”

Joseph’s mother finally returned his gaze. Her gaze wasn’t angry but a sort of disappointment.

“Even lying there, you stare at me like some sort- some sort of taxidermy animal.” Her voice cracked at the end but her gaze never changed.

Joseph closed his eyes once again. Wouldn’t it be taxidermied animal and not- whatever, that was a pointless thought. Something much more pressing was if this was how he’d live his life from now on. Had all of his past lives been a dream? With his definitely permanent paralysis, it’d be maddening to think about so he just focused on thinking about his most recent life, his life as-

“Lucas?”

Joseph opened his eyes to find that he was once again in Lucas’ body looking up to see Emelie.

“By Empre, your face is burned!”

Lucas blinked slowly, only just getting adjusted to the sudden change in bodies, before touching his fingers up to his face, feeling the searing hot pain from burns tracing down his face.

Quickly, he heard a knock before his father entered, talking just a bit too quickly. “Emelie, is he up? They’re saying it’s- oh, is he ok?”

“He..he needs help.” There was no good way to quickly explain that their son had just started crying in his sleep, burning his own skin, so Emelie could only ask for help.

“Then, we’ll help him. You’re delaying the operation of this County. Count Regis has asked for him.”

A man with a particularly hawkish face walked in. Though he was short, much shorter than Emelie, he gave off a strangely intimidating aura.

Sebastian froze briefly before turning around to face the man.

“Sebastian.” The man’s tone was like he was warning a dog that was about to start barking.

Emelie rose up, also seemingly willing to argue back to the man.

However, the sound of a tiny whoosh and the patter of small footsteps held her back. Lucas had walked up to the man, before turning back to his parents. “I’m fine.” He then turned back to the man. “Let’s go.”

“Put on some clothes. Get prepared.” The man turned to leave the room.

“I have clothes on. I am prepared. Let’s go.”

He stopped, tilting his head and squinting a little. “I mean, actual clothes. Something presentable.”

“I am wearing actual clothes. Aren’t you wasting time? Let’s go.”

The room stood in silence for a few seconds before the man turned to look down at Lucas’ small reddened face. He went through a variety of expressions before deciding on a tiny smile and a “yeah” before leaving the room, expecting Lucas to follow.

“Bye, mom and dad”, he said before turning around and immediately following along, not bothering to try and linger.

Walking through the halls, he heard the man say something though he didn’t bother listening. His mind was stuck on his.. dream.

It clearly hadn’t been real but the burns on his face definitely were. What more occupied his mind, though, wasn’t the reality of his dreams but the content. It gave him a vaguely familiar sense of numbness. He almost felt-

He walked into something, rebounding before nearly falling over.

Looking up, he saw the man who was supposed to be leading him glaring down at him.

“What?” He asked in a level voice.

“‘What?’ So you haven’t been listening to me?”

Lucas narrowed his eyes. “Why would I?”

The man opened his mouth in rage before Lucas continued.

“Just take me to my grandfather. Why is it that you were sent to get a child but you think that you have some sort of.. leadership?” Lucas’ mind blanked out at the end as he struggled to find a word that meant authority.

Suddenly, he heard laughter. It started off as a chuckle before ascending into guffawing that surprised Lucas.

He turned, realizing they were just about to enter the throne room. His little outburst had likely been heard by Regis. He walked a few steps before turning to face the Count of Guilm, followed by the man who wore a nervous expression.

Regis continued laughing for a few seconds before setting a smile on his face.

“That is my grandson.”

Lucas turned his attention from Regis to the pair sitting on either side of him. The first thing he noticed was that both were wildly overweight. Maybe the woman weighed less but even she was clearly having trouble fitting in the fairly large chair she was provided.

She stared at him briefly before curling her lip into a grimace. “He’s clearly too young. On top of that, he shows no respect for his elders. It would be a disaster. His clothes are wrinkled, his hair is ruffled, and what on Empre are those horrible wounds on his face?”

“The wounds are likely from training I conducted with him last night. They’re nothing to worry about. His age is not a factor either. He’s mature beyond his years. The rest should be placed on Flandin’s head. I asked him to make sure Lucas was in peak condition. Since he has failed to do so, this is all on his head.”

The woman’s voice rose up an octave. “It still shows a lack of respect to appear before you in this manner. It would be disastrous for him to join our academy.”

Regis sighed. “Fiona, this is not the game you want to play.”

“What game-“

Suddenly, Lucas heard a clap, and he had to turn his head and close his eyes to avoid a blast of air. He looked back to see the woman now on the floor, splinters of wood all around her.

“Regis, why do you always seek violence at the first occasion?” The man on the other side of Regis finally spoke up.

“Lucas, come over here.” He completely ignored the man.

Lucas began walking to the throne, examining the woman with his mana sense.

He almost immediately understood what happened. The woman was covered in Regis’ mana. He didn’t really know what it was doing but it kept her belly up on the ground.

“Lucas, you will enter a private academy, the Beaudoin School. I’ve talked to your old tutor and she informed me that you’re more intelligent than most of the children there. You’ll be leaving in a week-“

“Regis!” Fiona suddenly rose up, in a fury, her voice rising to incredible volume.

This time, Lucas witnessed the whole thing.

First, Fiona’s scream tapered off, now silent though her mouth was still open. Then, she slammed face-first into the ground, with spurts of her blood flying out of her face. Lucas watched as the floor cracked and folded in under her weight.

Regis stared at her, his eyes glowing an indescribable color. “Remain grounded.”