I started to cut chapters in two because initialy i was to make 10 pages each chapter. However, it gradually increased and bigger chapters became the norm.

Please let me know if you fellows would rather have the chapters posted whole like this one or in parts and how much is a good amount per chapter.

Also, i would really appreciate comments and constructive feedback.

Thank you all for reading. Here's your chapter for this week.

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Volume 1

Chapter 8

The day began with a mixed odor of bacon, eggs and wet grass.

I guess it’s because of the breeze washing away all the bad odors, but rain in this world is really something delicious for me.

Sister is the one who dislikes it the most, of course, since she keeps training even when it rains in winter.

I wonder if she uses aura cushion not to be affected by the elements?

Well…

Oh… right…

I’m a superior being now.

…A lot of things happened yesterday. Maybe too many things. I feel a bit guilty about mother, and sincerely I would want to apologize.

Maybe I should do just that.

When I reached the kitchen everyone was there already.

Grandmother was talking happily with Mother and Ann as the three of them cooked. Jacen was drinking something from a tin cup, using both his hands. I guess it’s beer.

Since when we have tin cups? Shouldn’t we be using oriental tableware, made mostly of ceramic?

Father and grandfather where talking something amongst themselves.

Then, everyone froze as I came by.

All attention centered in me, I felt something would be said soon enough.

Still, if I let them brush this off as if it was nothing, I wouldn’t be able to convey my feelings.

So I went straight to mother and hugged the frills of her skirt.

“I’m sorry Ma.”

She patted my head gently.

“Sorry for what?”

… sorry for what, exactly?

For making her worry about my well-being? For making her cry?

“I’m sorry.”

She kneeled in front of me.

“All, what happened? Did you wet your bed? You can tell me.”

So, this time I hugged her shoulders.

“I… I… I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did, but you cried. I’m sorry.”

She hugged me while making a sound herself. A kind of.. “uuuuhhh”….

“Silly boy. Stop that. Common.”

She then raised herself and directed me to brother.

“Go drink something. Breakfast will be done in a minute, and then your grandmother will tell us a long story, okay?”

“Okay”

I went to Jacen’s side and took my own tin cup. Right after I walked to the beer barrel and submerged it there, taking some for me.

What an annoying sensation of being observed by every single living soul in the place.

Let’s ignore it. I said what I wanted to say and now I will wait until grandmother tell us this so called story of hers.

Ah, people are talking amongst themselves again.

This is better. Indeed, this is better.

Today is quiet day full of breezes, cold, dampness and melancholy.

It makes me think and appreciate just being around people without talking to day.

Let’s enjoy this and…

OUCH!

Jacen you little motherfu…

What?

This is the first time I see a mischievous smile on Jacen’s face as he pokes me.

And now he is running from me.

What should I…

Shoul I run after him?

Should I… what should I do, I…

Oh, fuck it.

I will grab you poop-brother! I will grab you and poke the hell out of you! Come here!

***

I started running around the house chasing Jacen.

He went to the side; I went after him.

He went to out parent’s room, I almost got him, but he jumped over the bed and landed on the other side.

Hey! Using aura is no fair!

If he can, then so can I, right?

I released some power and went after him. When I was almost catching him, he made a curve on the kitchen and I had to stop before hitting the wall.

But here he can’t scape and…

…

Seriously ?

Into the rain?

Oh, but you won’t scape!

You won’t!

“Jacen ! All! Don’t go into the rain! Hey!”

Sorry ma. Too late now. I will grab this buttered badger.

Just a little more…

Here!

I caught yah!

To the ground! To the ground!

Stop laughing, oh wait, this laugh is mine.

Hehe. Right. I got yah.

Stay down there. Right under my knees.

…

Jacen…

Jacen is kinda cute when he’s under me like that… with his breath making small white clouds and stuff… right in front of my pants….

OUCH!

He threw me!

How did he… his legs?!

He caught my neck with his legs?!

Damn it I will catch you now you little…

Ah.

Is it too late to say sorry again ma ?

***

Our bottoms are on fire again. This time mother made us expend most of our aura with aura cushion and then spanked us.

Well, we were running in the rain after she told us not to, so…

Ah, whatever.

Our clothes are drying above the fire and we are both under our blankets. This way we can remain warm.

Jacen seems more tired than me.

Well, let him sleep.

Still…

What just happened earlier?

Jacen under me… why did I stop like that?

…. Oh boy.

Please don’t tell me that.

Please don’t tell me I… yeah.

I’ve gotten an erection.

…

*sigh*

…

Life is what it is.

Let’s not feed this desire and I won’t feel any need to make it happen, right?

Right.

Madness time is over now. Jacen is taking a nap, I’m returning to my senses little by little, and breakfast will soon be served.

Ah… he is leaning on me. His skin is touching mine.

It’s fine, right?

Just.. just a hug...

Just hugging is fine.

I bet sister won’t mind.

Yeah, she won’t. Let’s touch him. Let’s touch Jacen, press him against me.

No, stop.

What… what am I doing, why….

***

No, nothing weird happened. I’m back on my clothes, Jacen is back on his, we are just eating breakfast normally.

But, still…

Why do I feel so weird?

Is as if something was wrong, as if something was out of pace and place. As if I was somewhat empty, or in a dream or something.

Is this real life? Or just fantasy?

…

“Grandma…”

“What sweetie?”

“I feel weird.”

“Weird how?”

“As if I was in a dream…”

“Oh stop it. You are medicated already. Why do you keep saying things like that? I miss your grandfather so much… why did he abandoned us? Did he leave? Or did he die? I can’t remember…”

Grandma, what are you…

“Isn’t it time for you to get a job? I don’t have any more money! The water bill is too expensive! Your computer is too expensive! Go live somewhere else! Go learn something in college! What have I done wrong with you ? Why are you like this?”

What…

What is happening… ma… don’t talk to me like this Ma…

Why I… why… what…

***

I woke in the middle of the night.

Grandma is sleeping next to us, on the other side of the fire. Grandpa is with her.

Everything is chilly. I can hear wind whispers and thunder.

The fire is almost out.

The darkness creeps around us. Around me.

Ah, what is happening… let’s… let’s put fuel in the fire…

And, as I grabbed the fuel… pain. A black snake slides on top of the wood.

No… this isn’t happening.

I’m on another dream.

This ominous feeling. This thing.

It’s just a dream. Just another dream. It’s a dream.

It hurts. My hand is getting bigger. There’s pus, and a smell. Am I going to lose my hand?

The snake.

Where’s the snake?

Ah… ahh… it’s right around me, right?

If I move it will bite me and kill me, right?

I can feel it. I can feel the danger. It’s everywhere.

But it’s fake.

… it’s a dream, it’s a dream…

It is just a dream. Wake up. Wake up!

***

I woke up again.

The fire is still going strong. Ann is by my side, Jacen too.

But there’s a black figure.

A scaled baby.

No, it’s the snake. Is it a snake?

It’s a snake. A short black snake with a lump in its body, as if it had swallowed a whole baby.

It’s right next to Jacen. There is me, Ann, he and the snake. It’s looking at me. I can’t move my body. I can’t get out of here.

It munches on my face. It eats my skin and melts my flesh.

I deserve this. Because of the earthworm, I deserve this.

I’m going to die, then the whole family as well. All is going to disappear.

Why…?

Why have I done so many stupid things…

From so long ago, from such a long time now… am I really reincarnated?

Have this really happened to me?

No… no way, right?

I’m just delusional. I’m just kidding myself. I will wake up and be a fat man rolling on his own disgrace.

I will be dead, because I need to kill myself.

I need to kill myself, because there is no future for me.

All is wrong. I will just die. Let me die, please. Let me die and forget this.

No eternal life. No nothing. Just make me disappear. Quit being. Quit existing.

I don’t want to play this game anymore… not anymore… I’m not made for this… I’m not here…

***

“All, son… All…”

“A… ah!”

Father’s face was close to mine.

It’s day. The sunlight hurt my eyes. The place reeks of human feces and dirt.

Everything hurts a bit.

It’s okay.

There’s no false happiness here. There’s no demons waiting on the corners.

It’s just my house. It’s just my new house.

“Come. Let’s eat breakfast. Then you can sleep a little more if you want to.”

The sound of sister’s swings was the same as ever.

I’m back from the nightmare.

***

“I had a nightmare”. I said when mother asked what had I dreamed of this night. That was after I apologized to her, of course.

I have to say, her answer in the dream was more touching. Here she just brushed my hear and said I should help peeling the egg’s shells.

Anyhow. Hearing about the nightmare mother got a bit of a worried face, but grandmother made a gesture with her hand.

“It’s nothing. He just had a small fever from the evolution process. It’s normal.”

“But, mother, can’t this be…”

Grandmother touched my face.

“Don’t worry. Dreamer’s truths don’t come like this. Besides his forehead’s still hot, so there’s no doubt. Here, touch it.”

Mother touched my forehead with an inquisitive face and gave a small, relieved, sigh.

“Okay then. Don’t worry son, it was just a bad dream, okay? Jacen, eat your vegetables! I can see you putting them on Ann’s bow!”

Everything is back to normal indeed.

But what is a dreamer?

***

“So, let’s begin”.

And again we are at the table, all together.

Hope this time something weird doesn’t happen to avoid us hearing grandmother.

I mean, what are the chances?

Oh, here it comes.

“[Four hundred] years ago there weren’t any kingdoms on our [continent]. There was only one big [empire], the [Empire] of the Greater Sun. This [empire] was based on a single belief. That the mighty beings, whose name has been prohibited, had given superior power to certain people, and that those people should rule above all. Did you understand this much?”

Uuuh… no.

What’s up with those words I don’t know?

“Grandma, I don’t understand some of the words.”

“Which where those?”

“What is [four hundred]? And [continent] and [empire]?”

“[Four hundred] is… a lot of time darling. It is a time older than your grandpa’s grandpa. You will understand better when you learn how to count.”

So, it’s a number. Something on the house of the hundreds.

“And [continent]?”

“[Continent] is the name we give to the land under our feet. There is a lot of it, but if you walk in a certain direction you will see the sea. The sea surrounds our land, and if it was just a little bit of land we would call it an [island], but since it is a big amount of land we call it a [continent].”

Oh, so it’s a continent.

“But [empire]?”

“You know how we live in a kingdom, right? The one who governs a kingdom is a King. A, [empire] is like a big kingdom, but with a person on top of it. And the person who governs the [empire] is the [emperor].”

Oh, an empire then.

Ok, I can get this much.

“You understand this much?”

“Yes.”

“And you Jacen?”

“I… don’t understand what is… [emperor]…”

Grandmother explained again. Well, he is just six, so of course he wouldn’t know.

“Going back. Four hundred years ago the emperor was a very bad man. He did a lot of bad things. So people decided to revolt against him.”

That much should be clear, since there is no empire anymore…

“Many people said to him that he should give up. That he should just leave the people be… but he was very stubborn and a fool.”

Grandmother’s voice is very bitter now. Wait… could she have lived on the time of this man? The look on her eyes is full of contempt.

No, no, she must just hate him because he was a bad person. There is no way grandma is old on the measurement of centuries, right?

“So… instead of releasing the [powerless] people and giving them a land where they could all live… that fool did a lot of bad things to them, to try and make them submit.”

“Grandma, what is [powerless]? And what did he do?”

“Oh dear. I’m sorry grandpa. Forget I ever said this word.”

“It’s okay. It was a slip of your tongue.”

Grandpa is accepting grandma’s apologies… I guess it’s a bad word.

“Listen Alvin. The people who don’t have any special talent are just called people, okay? Don’t give them names like [powerless] or [forgotten]. That is very bad.”

I nodded to father’s words.

“Go on Marie.”

Well, that is rare. Father talking to grandmother like this.

“Because he did a lot of bad things to people… the revolt grew bigger and bigger, and then he was forced to put a curse in the world.”

A curse… in the whole world?!

The fuck is this guy?!

“But that a big cost. He had to kill a lot of people, and expend his entire life savings of aggregate aura. So, when he was weak… he was killed.”

Oh, a typical idiot indeed.

To not lose the throne he lost his life.

“The empire didn’t crumble, but his daughter, who become the [empress] kept doing the things her father did. And now with the curse on her command, she was even worse than him. It was the beginning of a terrible time. All the people who didn’t had special talent from birth or enough power to resist were [enslaved] and given to the powerful people as [slaves].”

Shit…

That doesn’t seem nice.

“What is [slave]?”

I can imagine what it may be by the tone of the story, but Jacen is asking anyway… so…

“A [slave]… is someone who has been cursed with a very bad magic dear. It makes them do anything the person who cursed them order them to do.”

“Like playing [follow the master]?”

Mother has a sad smile in her face.

“No… [follow the master] is a game dear. You can stop playing when you want. But you can’t stop doing things if you are a [slave].”

“That is boring!”

“That’s right. That is very boring, and very bad.”

“And they made everyone be like this?”

“Yes. They made everyone be like this. It was very bad!”

“Uhm!”

“Then… for fifty years or something, things kept going on this way… but what the old [emperor] didn’t know at the time, was that the world was bigger than this continent only. His spell had reached many other peoples, and we were invaded by those who had resisted his curse. It was the beginning of a war of [a hundred years].”

“A war?”

“Yes dear. The worst of all we have ever seen. Almost half the people of this continent died in the war, and when the outsiders won the other half was divided amongst them and the ones they conquered as allies in this continent.”

Wait, shouldn’t these guys be the good guys?

“They didn’t release the slaves?”

“No dear. They didn’t. They just took the empress and made her divide the world amongst them. But the empress wouldn’t marry any of them, so… they made her pregnant by force.”

… well, that’s it. Poop world indeed.

“Pfff”

Father is looking to the side with anger.

“Pa?”

Shit, he is really angered.

“Look, All. Don’t be surprised by that, okay? They did a lot worse to us back in the day. My grandfather told me stories about the things they did to [slaves], and saying that [bitch] empress suffered enough for what she did is…. Is..”

“John… please….”

Mother is holding his arm gently. Ahh, the power of gentleness.

“Okay.”

“I will continue now.”

Let’s go back to the story of rape and genocide. Yey.

“The empress decided to take revenge, and gave an order… she… ordered all of the [slaves] to turn against their masters.”

“She sent them all to death!”

“John, please!”

“No, he is right.”

“Mother!”

“The ones who had been cursed couldn’t do anything about it. The only ones who survived where those who were too young or incapable of doing anything. Even children couldn’t do anything. As long as they could walk, they had to follow the order. It was terrible, and only ended when the last master died.”

“You… were you alive that time?”

“……”

“Forget I asked anything. I will go take some air.”

Father left the place, and mother went after him. Grandmother kept her composure.

“With the end of the masters, the curse remained but there wasn’t anyone else to give them orders, so the people were free for the first time in more than [two hundred years]. Can you guess what happened after, dear?”

It’s pretty obvious…

“They started to fight against each other?”

“They didn’t have such power darling. Most of those who remained where the ones who were too weak or too young. It took twenty years or something for them to grow up, and, in this time… the ones with power who weren’t [slave owners] tried to make a new empire.”

“Are [slave owners] the masters of slaves?”

“Yes.”

“And what happened?”

“The people on our continent hid themselves. But the people on the other continent didn’t. Because most of the owners where here, they didn’t lose so many people. So, they attacked us.”

Well, shit.

“It took them over a [hundred years], but on your grandfather’s father time they had already took most of our continent. They are the ones who became the current kings of the many kingdoms we have.”

Father is returning. He sat down.

“Still on this?”

“I’m almost finishing.”

“Now dear, after such a long time and so much suffering… people didn’t want to remember the past. And they were afraid. So… they created the book.”

Uuuhm? A book?

“It’s not a common book. It’s the Book…”

“The [Book on Abnormals].”

Mother complemented.

“It’s a very bad book son, which tells many lies. But we need to show it to you. Dad?”

Grandpa took a small book with leather cover from his front pocket.

It’s written on what seem to be words similar to the ones of my country of origin. Good. I will have ease learning this.

Grandmother is making a conflicted face and pressing her hands on her legs. Mother kept talking.

“This book… it says everyone who isn’t [normal]… is a monster with human form. It calls people like me and your grandmother [abnormals].”

Wait, wait.

When you say people who aren’t “normal” you don’t mean general warmongers? Like, people who get cheat powers from birth and become drunk on it?

You mean people like grandmother who just don’t age?

Aren’t I one of those people?!

“You can take it back now, grandpa.”

Granpa took the book back with him. Grandma begun talking again.

“Our clan had a word for our type of people, and it was [Genius]. This book your mother is showing you say it is a forbidden word, so you two should never let other people hear you using this word. Because they will think you are a monster in human form, and will be mad at you.”

Well, thank you for letting me now.

Of course I won’t use this words with others!

Shit man… why are you even teaching me this stuff if it can get me into serious trouble?!

I don’t want people with pitchforks and torches in front of my house!

“Now, the [genius] exist in three categories and on sixteen types. There are the [peasant geniuses], the [superior geniuses] and the [royal geniuses]. Ann is a [peasant genius], Jacen Is a [superior genius] and Alvin is a [royal genius].”

So, that’s why she said I would become a prince if was to be born four hundred years ago.

Hahah, no thank you.

No thank you!

“Those ranks were decided by the Emperor when he casted his curse. Those who had enough potential to break the curse by themselves in twenty years, even if they were still enslaved, where the [peasants]. They had special treatment as slaves. Those who could break it in ten years from their birth or had already broken it where the [superior]. They were treated as nobles. Those who would be capable of inherit the command of the curse where the [royals], and any who would ever be born should be adopted by the crown.”

“Wait, then Alvin…”

“Yes. There is a possibility… no, it’s certain that he is the first child in four hundred years… outside the old royal lineage, that is… who could inherit that.”

Father… could you please don’t look at me like this?

“Alvin.”

“Y.. yes Pa?”

“Y… you… ...”

“I won’t do it Pa! Even if I can, I will break it!”

Grandmother is a bit surprised.

“You will break it?”

“Yes! I won’t let people be controlled anymore! I will break it! The curse!”

Grandmother is smiling a bit.

“Don’t worry about that dear. Curses can’t last forever. There isn’t enough energy for that. It has become useless for controlling people since your father’s generation.”

“Wait, what?”

“It’s as you have heard. It’s mutilated on you. You can’t be controlled, not even by the emperor himself. Nor do anyone from your generation.”

“But the book said...”

“The book is a big pile of stupidity and a LIE!”

Did grandmother just…

Did she just scream?

“I’m sorry.”

Well, now it’s father time to apologize.

“Let’s go back. The reason [peasants] can break the curse is because the curse itself is what creates the first level of the Aura Aggregate Amount limit. Once it’s broken, the person can be released of the curse. It’s also the reason why so many people believe [genius] are secretly monsters… since those who are just normal have a hard time breaking it without mutating into monsters, those who have the potential to unlock it by themselves were seen as monsters.”

“So I don’t need to go to the city?”

Well, first father, now Ann is also making questions. Is this story really meant for me and Jacen?

Or is it meant for the whole family?

“It would be better if you went there dear. You will probably break the limit by yourself if you just start accumulating more than your limit, but then how will you explain becoming a Superior Being by yourself?”

“Uhm. I understand.”

So that means I’m fucked. Nice.

“And I grandma?”

“That is what I wanted to tell you Alvin. You are too powerful to do the same Ann is doing. Be it by [magic transmutation], [body refining] or [soul overload], any technique would make you breakthrough the second level too fast, even if you could explain the first one. So you need to learn to hide your aura.”

“Hide my aura? But I’m doing it!”

“No dear. You are just accumulating it. There is a small portion of it leaking from your body, as there is always leaking aura from every living thing. And people who know a technique called [Aura Analysis] can understood all about how you trained yours with just a simple look. That is why you need to learn how to change the appearance of your aura.”

Oh, I see.

“Is that how you knew… mother?”

Knew what ma? Oh, the pregnancy, right...

“Uhm. Your child will be a little bit more than Ann. A lower [Superior Genius].”

“I see…”

“Regardless, this ranking only talks about raw power. That isn’t important at all, because the real important thing is the type of powers a genius can have.”

Type of power?

I wonder…

“There are sixteen types of genius. They are the [Fast Learners], [Willpower Masters], [Metamorphs], [Long Lived Race], [Aura Control Geniuses], [Immortals], [Spirituals], [Soul Walking Prodigies], [Mind Walking Prodigies], [Reminders], [Dreamers], [Destined], [Heavens Defiers], [Unpoisonables], [World Treasures], [Born Warriors] and [Death Seers]. Each type means the person had that power and would be considered a member of that Clan when it manifested.”

I… couldn’t understand a single word of the genius types?

What the hell was that?

“Grandma, I couldn’t understand!”

“It’s okay darling. It’s because these names aren’t on the same [language] you speak. It’s another name for the things. It’s called [cryptic] and it used to be the language our Clan spoke.”

“Our Clan?”

“That is right… I just told you, right? When someone had one of those talents from birth, they were considered members of that Clan. You will understand better once I finish.”

“Okay.”

“The [Fast Learners] were those who could learn things fast, specially things from books and tales. This talent is enough to make someone be considered a [peasant genius] by birth.

The [Willpower Masters] are those who have superior willpower. They were a fierce clan, and they were considered geniuses because with enough willpower one can avoid becoming a monster when breaking through the curse. They were [peasant genius] by birth right.”

“But, mother, wait…”

“What is it?”

“Ann’s power… her willpower is exceptional… but isn’t she a member of our clan? The Long Lived Race?”

“The Clan a genius belonged to was something defined not by which talent the person had, but by which was the strongest clan amongst the ones it shared by talent. Since our Long Lived Race clan was the one who amassed the greater power besides the Destined, Ann is definitely a member of our clan.”

“I see.”

“So, the [Metamorphs] were a clan capable of changing their appearance. They could change their bodies to look like [demi-humans] or other people. They were considered [Superior Geniuses] because their bodies wouldn’t turn into monsters even if they just surpassed the aura limit.”

Ah… I should have this power, no?

“The Long Lived Race was our Clan. We were the second most powerful clan, even if most weren’t born as geniuses. That because our clan can live for a very long time, so we had influence with the emperor. We managed to keep almost all of our enslaved with us, little by little giving them the right techniques to overcome the curse and become [superior geniuses], like the [Body Refining] technique… at least until the war begun.”

Grandmother’s face has become very cramped. At the same time, a weird expression showed on everyone else’s faces.

The moment grandmother said our clan was one of the strongest I thought father would leave the room again.

But now there he was, showing that face.

“Marie.”

“Yes?”

“Did you… did your people opposed the curse?”

“Of course. Since the very beginning.”

“Still, you didn’t stop it.”

“We couldn’t. The emperor was a [Destined], and all we tried was useless. We could only protect our own.”

“….”

“I will continue now.”

“Uhm.”

“The [Aura Control Geniuses] were a small clan of people with great control of their aura. They could easily control the flux and reflux of aura in their bodies, so breaking the curse without becoming monsters was possible as long as they had some training. They were [Peasant Geniuses] by birth right.

The [Immortals] were considered a cursed clan. They were impossible to kill and wouldn’t die of old age, but if they weren’t [reminders] as well they were cursed to become completely forget who they were someday. They would also grow old and become frail. Our clan and the [immortals] had been supporting each other for a long time, so we shared the Body Refining technique with them.

The [Spirituals] were a people who didn’t needed to eat or even breath. They could connect to aura from a mysterious place and used that to live. Since they didn’t need to ingest aura from the world, most of the clan was born free from the curse. They were [Superior Geniuses].”

Then the curse is related to this world’s aura… I guess the emperor poisoned it or something?

“Grandma.”

“What is it?”

“Is the curse related to the world’s aura?”

Grandma stopped for a moment before answering.

“Yes. The curse spreads using the world’s aura.”

“Wait a moment Marie, what do this means?”

Father seems curious as well.

“Aura comes from many places, but it gathers in the earth. What the emperor cursed were the veins of aura in the earth. It made aura gush from the earth much stronger than it used to, but it also carried the curse with it.”

Well, that’s weird. Wasn’t this the cause of the increase in the number of monsters?

“Then, grandma, didn’t this made more monsters?”

“Yes darling. It created much more than used to be. It’s a terrible curse.”

Well, that’s just a problem for everyone.

“Anything else?”

“no”

“no”

“Then I will continue.

The [Soul Walking Prodigies] could use a technique called [Soul Walk] easier than most. This was a way of breaking the curse without the need to go beyond the aura limit. Because of that they never had to face it directly, and could just accumulate aura as much as they wanted. They were [Superior Geniuses].

The [Mind Walking Prodigies] were the same as the [Soul Walking Prodigies], but able to use another technique. They were also [Superior Geniuses].

The [Reminders] were the third most powerful clan. They were capable of remembering anything that ever happened to them. They had a perfect memory. The elders had so much knowledge and memory they rivaled our own clan in power, even if they lifespans were smaller. They usually weren’t geniuses by birth, but would break the curse after a few years.

The [Dreamers] had dreams were they saw things which were real. They could collect techniques like this, and eventually discovered how to break the limit.”

“Grandma, didn’t you told me I was a Dreamer? But am I not from the Long Lived Race?”

“Since you are my grandson you probably are from our race. But we can’t be sure. Right now you would be only a dreamer, since we can’t know until you get older.”

I see.

So that’s how it works.

Well, not that I care. I surely have talents from most of those clans, even if this “dreamer” one isn’t something I asked the goddess to give me.

I wonder if I have it?

None of my dreams have proven to be true so far, so I guess I’m not.

“Then, the [Destined]… they were also a cursed clan. They had a destiny from birth, and no matter what happened, they would achieve it. It was impossible to stop them. If you tried, something would happen to avoid interference. However, they themselves couldn’t avoid their destinies as well.”

“Did that had something to do with the enslavement curse?”

“No. The destiny of the imperial lineage was to rule a piece of land to the north. The Last Fortress.”

“So that’s why they never took it!”

Grandpa seems to like history, hum. Well, he certainly married to right woman. But shouldn’t he know this much already?

I mean… is grandmother telling this to him the first time as well?

“Yeah. They couldn’t take it, no matter what.”

…

Well, silence has come to us.

Weren’t there more clans to go by?

“Grandma?”

“Oh, right. The others.

The [Heavens Defiers] had bodies which recovered very fast, and could even regrow an arm or leg. They wouldn’t be affected by the curse for some reason, and were [Superior Geniuses] by birth.

The [Unpoisonables] could eat and drink poison without being affected. They were also immune to disease. So they used a potion made of deadly herbs and managed to break the curse this way. Since it took only a single use of the poison to break it, they were considered to be [Superior Geniuses] by birth.

The [World Treasures] had exceptional power and ability with crafting. They could make things like magical swords and alike with ease. They didn’t had techniques to break the curse, but many clans would give them patronage and shelter them from being subjected to the curse.

The [Born Warriors] had superior bodies from birth and wouldn’t be affected by the curse, so they were [Superior Geniuses].

And finally, the [Death Seers] could see the mark of death on anyone except the members of the [Immortals] clan. They were terrible assassins, and the Destined sheltered them from birth.”

“Those… weren’t those the shadow corps?”

“Yes. They were used by the empire to the bitter end.”

“… My grandfather used to say they were our greatest allies by being our greatest enemies.”

“I see what he meant. They surely killed most of the powerful Geniuses of the world at the time.”

Silence again.

“Well, that is it. As I said, those were the types of geniuses. That is, of people who could break the curse by themselves or at least dream of it for being part of a powerful clan. Of course, many had more than one talent… All, for example… your greater talent seems to be a Dreamer, but you surely have a superior willpower, as well as fast learning and aura control.”

“Uhm”

Actually it seems I have quite a few. Immortality, perfect memory, don’t need to eat or breath…

But I also don’t need to sleep, and my immunity to disease don’t make me immune to poison.

I didn’t have a superior body from birth, so…

Are those all kinds of talents and powers someone can have?

No, no, grandma said it in the beginning.

Those are kinds of [genius].

People who could break the curse on the time of the empire, and why can they do it.

Even if some seems more like they can break it because of the help of others.

Regardless…

It’s almost time for lunch already.

“Ma, I’m getting hungy.”

“Good heavens, it’s time for lunch already. Can we continue later Ma?”

“Sure darling. And All...”

“Yes grandma?”

“I know you understood my explanation, so I don’t need to tell you to keep this a secret, right?”

“Right.”

“Good. You and Jacen, come here.”

We stood in front of grandma.

“Now, put your hands with mine.”

Grandma kept both her hands in front of us, making a “stop” kinda pose with them.

We both put our hands with hers.

“You two will promise me you will never talk about this to anyone outside of our house. If you do I will know, so don’t try to trick me, okay?”

“Uhm.”

“Uhm.”

A small light started to envelop our hands and I could feel something weird in my head.

It was as if my thoughts were being enveloped by something.

“Let me do it All. Don’t remove those or I will be mad with you.”

“O – okay…”

So, she’s doing magic in my head. Manipulating my thoughts.

Damn.

“There. You two are done. All… you are also a reminder, aren’t you?”

“Uhm.”

“Well, you may not be a fast learner then. Let’s try and discover what are your talents, so I can help you, okay?”

“Okay grandma.”

“Good. Now go help your mother.”

And so I went.

***

Lunch, again, was simple.

Grandmother didn’t help us this time, and Ann took the opportunity to go back to training.

Jacen helped us, but father didn’t come.

Instead, he stood in the living room with grandpa and grandma.

I guess the three of them have a lot to talk to each other. Today’s lesson was hard.

Also… it’s time to explain my powers to the family.

They won’t believe I’m a reincarnated person, but I can always be considered a “dreamer” and say I learned stuff from a dream or something.

But to think I lived in a world were being a genius was a bad thing. Also… all this time here, and not once have the people talked about gods.

I wonder if the “superior being” grandma talked about when mentioning the emperor would be that. A god or something.

Well, maybe it isn’t. Since there’s so many kinds of “superiority” in this world it can just be someone who’s good at magic or something.

Is this a world without gods?

I mean, of course it has gods. The goddess was the one to reincarnate me here.

But maybe the people in this world doesn’t have the concept of what a god is?

It’s something to ask grandmother later.

Ah, the three in the living room started to talk. It sounds emotional, but I can’t hear it perfectly from here.

Unless I try and… here… let’s use just a little bit of aura, just on my head… enhance my hearing a little bit.

Ouch. It’s a hard topic indeed.

But it seems interesting. Grandfather and father are both born from ex-slaves after all. Hearing the details of what the old masters used to do may bring ease to the grudge they have.

Still, grandmother’s clan went so far as to help the empress in exchange of something so small as a promise she wouldn’t keep…

I said this was poop-world, but I can clearly picture this much happening back on earth as well.

Weren’t old chinese tales and modern wuxias full of this kind of things?

They didn’t make big in modern occidental literature with exception of a few books. But political intrigue is part of life anywhere there’s politics.

Well, my vegetables are cut. Now to put them to boil and… done.

I can just sit a bit and wait now.

Ha. Mother is pretending not to, but I can see her changing the pace of her actions with the talk in the other room.

I guess everyone is curious in the end. Except maybe Ann.

She wouldn’t expend aura on this much. She really has an iron will.

Still… isn’t it sad that she will have to submit herself to years of training in a dojo in order to do the test, when me or grandmother could easily teach her an easier way to get the power she needs to become a knight?

No… why would she want to become a knight in the first place, when that will put her in more danger than ever?

Is life on this little village really this bad?

I mean, of course it’s a bad life. There’s no sewage system, we have people taking craps on the streets, our village may be raided by bandits or destroyed by a rat infestation at any time.

But still... isn’t this the fate of this whole world?

Father’s stories about the towns didn’t mention sewage systems. They are medieval indeed. People have to crap in buckets and then have it throw in a dung pile at the end of the town.

And then there were plenty of jokes and funny stories about the people paid to do this for them.

The beggars, the poorest of the poor who didn’t wanted to become adventurers… they were the dung carriers, the infamous dunggers, all day long carrying other’s shit to the end of the town and returning to take another smelly bucket.

“So, one day this lad just quit being a dungger to try and be an adventurer, right? So, there were us, killing one of the worst monsters you can face, smell-ranked. An engorged green beetle. The thing’s smell is awful, and it skirts a smelly thing from its but. It was our third time trying to kill this thing, when the lad had an idea. He said ‘when it shows its but, I will go on the rear, so run to the front!’. People usually don’t do this kind of thing because most past out with the smell, but the lad could take it, so we went with that and killed the thing, but the lad got covered on the monster’s goo. We thanked him and started to pack things to go back home, but then the lad said ‘wait, aren’t we going to eat?’. We were without any provisions, so we asked him ‘eat what?’. He twitched his fingers and pointed to the thing. Then our leader, Brian, turned to him and said: ‘Well, why don’t you cook it? You have a lot of sauce all over you already!’.”

Then people would laugh at the joke, and dad would keep going:

“But you know what else? The lad just hung his head low, but we all could hear when he let something slip ‘at least it isn’t as smelly as your bucket’.”

This kind of thing.

Surely the sanitation conditions of the world aren’t much better. At least in the cities father has gone to.

But then again, sister has been born in this world. Sanitation wouldn’t be a reason for her to move to the city, unless she was very picky with the matter… and she isn’t.

Aaah…

Let’s go eat and wonder about life later.

Things have gotten really weird recently, haven’t them?

***

I finished eating the last of the risotto balls in my bow. It’s a recipe of sticky risotto from this world. It wasn’t bad. A little undercooked maybe. But the fried vegetable omelet was good and the pickled white cheese with dry fruits was a nice desert.

Regardless.

The table is lively again.

That’s all we needed. Some light talking with happy undertones.

Right, right, let’s forget all that sadness from earlier. Let’s eat and drink and make merry!

Right?

Oh, mother is taking the bows back to the kitchen and…

Everyone is serious again.

Common guys! I will make a false association between food and happiness like this!

You guys will make my infantile mind believe eating means forgiving and living happy with people you love but were sad!

Then I will get fat and unemployed and depend on mother for the rest of my life!

As if.

I lived this shit in my previous life, but I don’t intend to live it here.

Besides, I have been living a good number of happy things which aren’t related to food, like exercise and helping with the chores.

If I am to relate family with happiness things will go smoothly, right?

I think so.

“Then, let’s start.”

Mother finished taking the bows to the kitchen and returned. It’s time to start accessing our talents.

“It was tradition in the old days that, when someone was asked to state their talents, everyone else in the room should do it as well, so let’s start with myself.”

Uh? We will start with grandmother?

It seems I’m not the only one surprised.

“I’m a member of the long lived race clan. I also have the aura control genius, the born warrior talent and the soul walking talent as well.”

…

“It’s you now grandpa.”

“I’m just the son of a common man. I have no talents. I plow the land and that is it.”

“John.”

“I’m also just a common man. I have no talents.”

“I…”

“Wait a moment dear.”

Uh? Why did grandmother stop mother?

“John, you may have never noticed this yourself, but you have a minor talent for aura control. It isn’t much, but it’s there.”

“What?”

“Jacen probably inherited his control from you. Besides, you never broke your aura limit but you always brag about how you exceeded it countless times before going on quests, right? You would surely have turned into a monster if you hadn’t this much talent.”

“I… I am an abnormal… but then…”

“Most adventurers of this world are. At least the ones who survive to become ranked like you did. Most of the so called Superior Beings as well… but they will just trick themselves in believing they did it with their effort alone.”

“And the accomplished?”

“Those…. Let’s not talk about them. They aren’t human anymore.”

“Because they fused with a core?”

“Yes. They aren’t human at all. They just look like it. It’s very [ironic], don’t you think? That the true monsters in human form are treated as saviors of humanity, while us are condemned to hide.”

“I see.”

“Then, darling, if you may…”

“Uhm. I’m also from the long lived race clan. I have the learner talent, the willpower talent and the warrior talent.”

“Now, Ann.”

“I don’t know if I’m from the long lived race, but mother said I have the willpower talent.”

“Yes. Jacen now.”

“I… do I have something?”

“Yes dear. You have the willpower talent, and the aura control talent as well. Keep those a secret, okay?”

“Uhm! I will!”

“And then… Alvin.”

Well, it’s the time of truth. I don’t even care anymore. It’s not like our family can return to be like it was before all this. Before getting myself in this world’s bad side to my neck.

So let’s just spill the beans.

“In my dream, the woman said I would be young forever, and also immortal, and also wouldn’t need to eat or breath or sleep, and that I would remember everything I wanted, and that I would have a body which would heal fast, and that I would be able to change my body and that I would never get sick. But I drank ricin oil when I was young and it made me sick, and I ate things which made my tummy get bad, and I was never able to change my body.”

…

Yep, they are just staring blankly at me.

I should have known this would happen.

“Mo… mother?”

It’s okay Ma, I don’t bite… even if I’m a bit of a time-bomb on your lap and a treat to the whole family.

Maybe I should just go away?

I’m only four in this world, but I have all the knowledge from my previous life – so I shouldn’t be at too big of a trouble.

Besides, I have just become a Superior Being, which means I should have as much strength as a regular Knight, whatever that means. If I just accumulate a lot of aura, then I should be able to defend myself from nasty things, right?

I may not know any offensive spells, but as long as I can run fast enough I should be able to grant my own life.

“All, dear, have you ever tested these things?”

“Uhm. I can remember everything, and when I cut myself it healed fast, and I never got sick, and I need to sleep only two hours a night, and I can go without breathing…”

“[Gods help us].”

“Uh? Grandma, what does that mean?”

“Never mind dear. That’s…. it’s just that grandma is impressed, it’s all.”

Well, I may not have many of the powers the rest of the family have, like being a master of willpower or a dreamer… I mean, my willpower comes from the fact that I’m a reincarnated being in a world full of magic. I may have more than a child, but it’s just as much as a normal adult would have.

Plus, my “dreamer” powers are actually my memories of my past life.

So I don’t have a lot of what has been said.

Still, I do have a big collection of powers and stuff.

“Then, ma, how do we train them?”

Mother is worried as ever.

“It’s impossible to hide something like the [heaven’s defying] talent, the [spiritual] talent, the [metamorph] talent and the [immortal] talent, but we can try and do our best in teaching All how to deal with them. It will be very hard, so you will need follow everything grandmother tells you to do, okay All?”

“Okay”

Aaaah… I guess she will teach me how to pretend to be powerless and stuff.

I haven’t been trying too hard since I got into so much trouble when I did it myself, but since grandma is a person from this world I guess It won’t be as bad.

Or so I hope.

The rest of the day we spend with grandmother teaching us the meaning of the words we didn’t understood and, after a bit of joking around, training with Ann in the cold.

Grandmother said it would be more believable if the three of us where to train every winter day under father’s guidance, so it would look like he was the one making us train like that.

An iron-handed military father who wanted his children to be strong and disciplined in combat as the reason why Ann, Jacen and Me would be so comported and do things like training every day instead of trying to ditch it to play and have fun by ourselves.

It’s more common than having the willpower to stand hellish training just because you want to be a knight or to become stronger.

In the end it’s all about what it looks like instead of what it is.

***

Things got into a routine again after that.

At morning we would wake up and take breakfast. Then grandmother would have me and Jacen putting aura into Ann’s and father’s beer.

Since things have come out in the open she decided to get our training up a notch and help both of them at the same time.

Father because he would deplete his aura a lot and Ann because she wouldn’t train as she usually does.

Why didn’t the beer become beer slimes or something? Because grandmother can see aura and calculate how much we are putting into it. So she stops us before getting to this point.

And this is our first training for the day. Not only for me and Jacen, but for Ann as well.

The method to learn [Aura Analysis] is to pour aura on our eyes and then stare in an unfocused manner to each other until we get the gist of it.

Auras look very weird. Wooly and full of colors and things floating on them.

We put a couple of ours on that every day, since we need to get better at it so we can see details.

Then we start the part of our training which is meant to be something to keep up the appearances.

That is for me, Jacen and Ann to go together to take water on the river.

I shouldn’t be leaving the house before I’m five, but grandmother said I should do it regardless.

Also, since we must show Jacen and Ann as more trained and stronger than me, I’m made to use aura cushion before going – so I’m using only my physical force to lift the single bucket I’m made to carry.

It’s a small bucket, the smaller we have, but it’s still heavy as fuck!

I can lift my own weight, but carrying this bucket to the river and back is still difficult as hell.

Oh, right, I haven’t told about the river, right?

It isn’t anything much special.

There’s our village, with thirty and three buildings. They are thirty houses, the militia barracks, the hunter’s lodge and the farmer’s storage room. The blacksmith has his shop on his own house.

The houses are all made of wood, and organized on five-to-five or six-to-six, separated between each other by two or three meters and fenced with short fences, high enough just to roughly separate the chickens everyone breeds on their backyards.

Our house and grandmothers are the only houses fenced alone. Even the militia guard chief, which doubles as the town’s prefect, lives with other families.

I used to think that was because we were rich, but isn’t that because they are afraid of us? Or anger at us?

This world became a little sadder after thinking like this.

Regardless.

Between the groups of fenced houses there are small roads, large enough for four or five people to pass side by side. Just enough so a cart can pass.

Then, after the last group of houses, heading south for two minutes on foot, there’s the village’s main gate. The wall which protects us from the monsters around is big and sturdy, made of pilled rocks, pegs and mud which rise from the bottom for two meters and end with pointy, one-meter-high wood stakes on top. It’s may seem weak since it’s made with only rock, mud and wood, but it’s a five meters thick wall of rocks wood and mud which was built by the local lord’s engineers.

It gives a sense of safety.

Then, after going through the gate we find the river at the end of a slope. It’s just thirty meters or something from the gate, plus some three hundred meters from our house.

Still, this world’s rules of moral in regards to children say I shouldn’t be allowed out of the house until I’m five.

So of course as soon as people saw me in the streets some came to talk to us. It was mainly mother’s friends and some of their children, but one or two guards came by as well.

Ann explained that it was father’s orders, so they took her word for it and let us by.

In the end I saw one or two going to our house, probably to ask father what was going on, but this was part of the plan as well.

The story is that, since very young, I had been fascinated with aura. Then, I would have learned magic as he told me, but then went against his orders and started to feed aura to an earthworm I had taken as a pet.

Since everyone knew I was indeed training since young, this shouldn’t look like something too out of ordinary.

Of course, the story goes on with the earthworm becoming a monster and me hiding it from father.

It was thrown in the yard, a rat ate it and it became a hex rat, which ate our whole pantry and drove us through almost a year of poverty.

Father made me cast crop growth to make me amend for what I did. It was a gruesome punishment and I would be dead tired every day, but it was only fair.

Father will give false details on how he would make me work until I fainted almost every night, casting crop growth to exhausting.

Then, autumn came and I didn’t need to cast the spell anymore.

In reality father forgave me and I started having a nice time as always.

But what father will tell the villagers is that I have returned to be rebellious and that he found another pet earthworm under my bed. Not only that, but that Jacen knew and didn’t tell him about it.

So, he will punish us both by making us carry water with sister every single day of winter.

If people say I’m still too young he will brush it off saying I will be five in a few months and that I’m with sister and brother all the time, so it should be fine.

Anyhow, the real reason why I’m getting water with sister is because this is training.

Grandmother gave us instructions to keep using [Aura Analysis] while making heavy exercise and being around people – this way we can become used to using it without the need to stop and stare weirdly at people.

The three of us do that the whole morning, and use the water to fill our bathtub.

Yes. We are having hot baths every day.

I could swear sister’s eyes have been brighter than usual because of that. Mother, father and Jacen are happier as well.

This is a plus indeed.

If any other incident happened?

Hahah… no.

Since grandmother and grandfather are bathing with us we have been having men-only and woman-only baths.

Grandmother, mother and Ann take the bath first one day, me, father, Jacen and grandfather take it first the other day.

Anyhow.

At the afternoons, right after lunch, me and Jacen will train under father.

He will teach us some simple spells all adventurers know and will be useful for us to hide ourselves may the need arrive. Those are the [Aura Sensing] like the hunter used to sense the hex rat on our house and the [Cotton Steps] one, which clads a person’s body in a tight bubble of soft aura, making it so we don’t produce much sound while walking.

The plan is for us to learn both spells in one month, train them to perfection in one other, and then learn the [Light], [Flash], and [shadow] ones.

Those are spells not many adventurers know, but father learned them since he got rank, even if it was one of the lower ones. The first one, [Light], allows us to produce a little light with our aura, be in the tip of our fingers or in the whole body. The [Flash] one allows us to produce a flash of light like a flashbang grenade. The last one, [shadow], makes the outside of the aura appear pitch black like a shadow. Very useful, even if it isn’t [Aura Analysis] proof. Those we are supposed to learn in the remaining month of winter and carry on training for a few more months until we know them by heart.

Ann?

Grandmother will teach her a little bit of qigong, so she can do training without the need to do sword swings.

It was a little bit weird to think sister will stop doing sword swings, but father will say she has reached her limit on Aura Aggregation already.

Why?

Well, sister will make fifteen in only a few months, plus she was very close to hit her limit already.

So it’s believable that she would have reached her limit after so many years of training.

And then father, who would have made her do that gruesome training every day in order to allow her to leave the house… finally allowed for her to chill at home a bit before leaving.

That’s the story we will be telling people, even if it doesn’t have much to do with reality except for the fact that, indeed, Ann is leaving…

After training with father for a couple hours me and Jacen will join grandmother on other kind of training.

We will do it indoors, in the living room. Since its winter we can do the training with the windows closed, so that’s good.

This training has two sides. First grandmother will teach Jacen how to tune down his aura even more. Since I can already control it pretty well, she won’t bother teaching me this much.

Instead, she will teach me the second step, which Jacen will learn when he has enough control.

She will be teaching me how to clear the traces of abnormalities from my aura. Things like the remnants of my qigong training need to be perceived by me with [Aura Analysis] and then conscientiously erased by controlling the colors and forms in my aura.

This training seems to be related to the [light] and [shadow] spells father will teach us in the future, but grandmother said I shouldn’t worry about that for now – since I would need a whole other level of mastery to be able to get the same effects using this technique.

Regardless, since I can’t see the details in my aura very well, this has turned into a supplementary [Aura Analysis] training time.

After that we take our bath and go eat dinner.

Then, after dinner grandmother would teach us how to count and calculate.

Of course, I told her I had a “dream” and knew how to do it already… so more [Aura Analysis] training for me! Yey….

After that Jacen will be put to sleep, but Ann and me are to have classes with grandma on learning to write.

She won’t be teaching us the common language of this world, but the old language of the nobility of the empire, the [cryptic] language.

I didn’t understand how an Empire could use a language for nobility and another, totally different, for common folk – but grandma explained to me that the cryptic and the Etilian languages once, thousands of years ago, where the same – but the cryptic language remained the same with its stiff rules and burocratic use as the people gradually began talking and writing on a simpler and simpler language.

So it isn’t just the language of nobility… it’s also the language of old peoples. And a damn language with letters just like traditional Chinese.

How come the present language is like occidental languages and the old language is oriental?

…no, this world has a lot of mixed up stuff. Or maybe it’s our world that’s weird for having them so separated like that.

Oh, right.

Our continent’s name is “Etilian”. It seems to be named after the first Emperor, Irmus Etilian Rosenkrof the First.

Grandma will teach us for about two hours, and then she and Ann will go to sleep as well.

I’m to remain awaken, but not to go outside. Since I have told the family about me not needing to sleep grandma decided to make use of the nights to have me training qigong.

According to her I’m to keep training as long as I can, and only sleep if I really feel I need.

When I asked why she just said I may need it in the future, so I guess the idea here is to make me strong in case something happens.

Muscle training?

Well, it seems the [Body Refining] technique allows for someone to go much beyond the normal physical limits of the body, effectively working better than muscle training.

So if I had kept my qigong training I wouldn’t need to go through that tiring routine by morning, or do any of the things I did to get rid of aura…

Why this king knowledge only comes at times like this, when mistakes have been made already?!

Cut me some damn slack.

Anyhow, I spend my nights either training qigong like I used to do at the very beginning or trying to increase my connection to the void energy.

It has stopped burning my dantian after that one time, so I’m getting more and more.

I also discovered the time I need to sleep every night has been reduced to a single hour.

I guess the metamorphosis power the goddess promised me must start to show itself. Or at least I want for it to appear at once.

It would make it a lot easier for me to conceal my identity if this power appears.

*sigh* Let’s go on. Things could be a lot worse, so let’s be thankful that I’m not a tragic hero destined to kill the demon king or something.

***

Training is going well, and the family is recovering. I hadn’t noticed how difficult the last weeks had been on us, but I guess we were on the verging of breaking and disappearing as a family.

Mother’s eyes, sometimes worried, sometimes fearful… father and grandfather’s long and reflexive looks, full of self-reprehension.

I can understand what they must be thinking. I think the same about myself.

That I love them, but I’m also a treat to them. Maybe the bigger they could have inside their house.

A monster can be just killed.

A beast can be repelled.

Bandits can be submitted to justice.

Even a large group of soldiers can be tricked by running to the forest.

But I can make them wanted people on the whole continent, not to mention also hated by everyone they ever knew.

My simple existence is a menace.

Also, there’s the fear of me inheriting the curse.

Of me becoming a master like the awful monsters of the past.

Grandmother, father and grandfather didn’t talk much to us about the times of the empire, after that day. But I listened to some muffled talks between grandfather and father.

Before the times of the curse, exploitation and unfairness. A reign of terror and genocide.

After the curse…

Collective rape to increase the number of slaves.

Working them until they died of exhaustion.

Throwing the bodies on the forests so they would be eaten by hex rats and no graves would need to be dug.

Wars were thousands died because some upstart superior genius spilled wine on another noble’s clothing.

I would have revolted as well. I would have called the [geniuses] monsters in human form as well. The empire was inhuman, and the curse only made it worse.

The curse only made them to think regular humans were garbage even more.

Can I really blame father?

Can I really blame the people of this village for what they did?

Grandmother told us of the “monster concoction”.

It was a plain venom made of pure purplecup, a kind of sinister flower similar to a devil’s trumpet, except it’s black with clear purple veins in it. It was one of the dangerous dried herbs mother has on her stock.

It didn’t have the power to differentiate between geniuses and non-geniuses. The only reason grandmother and grandfather survived drinking it was because grandmother knew what it was made of and had both of them drinking beauty grass tea the whole night.

Beauty grass is one of the only antidotes to purplecup, and also the reason mother has a stock of it in her herbs storage. It seems mixing beauty grass and purplecup creates an antiseptic medicine useful for diseases that make the person swollen by accumulating water under the skin.

That’s unacceptable.

Still…

After going through such pain and suffering for over two hundred years… aren’t these people acting like that because of what their parents lived?

Well, grandmother is able to live normally with father and grandfather.

She also knows a lot about many things, and she is a [genius]… not to mention the one who taught Ann on the sword and knows techniques even father doesn’t know.

If she wanted vengeance, then she would have had it.

Still, all she seems to do is to drink wine whenever one of the elders dies. They were old men already when they did the pogrom 20 years ago, so she just enjoys drinking on top of their tombs. Of course, she doesn’t drink in public, but on her own house.

But grandfather also drinks with her, so I guess this much vengeance they can enjoy together.

Vengeance, vengeance…

I must avoid people’s vengeance for crimes not only I’m not the one who committed, but also that I absolutely can’t have anything to do with.

Even my soul and mind weren’t a part of this world when those things happened.

All of those things I have reflected upon, and the others in the family must have thought similar things as well.

So it was a weird time.

But we are recovering.

Bit by bit, day by day, we recover.

Even after so many reveals, even after so much danger was exposed… we can still sing songs after dinner and take one or other day out to tell nice stories of the past.

For a bit everyone seemed distant, and I didn’t dare to approach mother or sister for a while, but eventually someone patted my head, and then sister began hugging me while sleeping again.

Bit by bit, we are putting the family together again.

I’m glad even all the danger didn’t break us.

***

May I see daily bathing in hot water is turning me into a damn spoiled brat?

Since our progress has been steady and even a bit over grandmother’s prediction, she has given us the day out today.

Which meant me and Jacen didn’t went to the river with sister…

And that we didn’t bring back water to fill the tub.

And that today we will have to bathe with a cold cloth.

We could go without bathing, of course, but for some reason Jacen thought it would be just hilarious to start a snowball fight, and then for some reason the rest of the people of the house, with the exception of mother, just decided to join.

The hell was that… is this something he learned with his friends from the village?

Well, I obviously was the first target and… well, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed at the beginning.

So, for this reason now we are all covered on mud and need to clean ourselves with cloths.

Damn, this is cold.

***

I’m done mastering [Aura Analysis], [Aura Sensing] and [Cotton Steps]. It took me only a month, so I’m one month earlier than expected.

Jacen is halfway here, but Ann still has ways to go before getting the details in the [Aura Analysis].

Grandmother started to teach me the aura hiding technique, and it’s tough as nails. I must be constantly aware of my aura, so I need to constantly use [Aura Analysis]… and then, I also need to perceive the details and control the aura so they become blurry and disappear as if they were regular aura patterns.

But there’s a good side to that.

It’s just fun as hell to notice certain things on people’s auras.

I mean, just the other day I saw a weird turbulence on grandmother’s and grandfather’s aura… grandmother told me that was the sign of a man and woman doing what couples do, so that was weird as shit.

But at least they are silent, and now I can see all the incongruences on those damn hag’s tales.

I would say they didn’t get even half of it right!

Hohohoho, damn hags. I have gone beyond your hellish network of gossip! I can see things you don’t even imagine!

Anyhow, one interesting discovery I made was in regards to my intelligence, or, rather, my mental capabilities.

I should be able to have unlimited mental growth… but as I keep making efforts to multitask and do many things at the same time, even if my mental capabilities are growing this did nothing to my intelligence.

I mean, I can use [Aura Analysis] and control my aura at the same time, and this become easier to do by the minute.

But even if I’m clearly increasing my mental power, when I stop doing this I don’t suddenly become Einstein or anything.

I guess mental power isn’t the same as insight on the nature of the universe. There are other kinds of knowledge needed to be able to deal with physics and stuff.

Still, if I keep multitasking, won’t I become something akin to an omniscient overlord capable of processing a lot of information at all the time?

Heheheh, this will be good. Good stuff.

Oh, right.

Father has also started to teach me the ranked spells. They are even more difficult than crop growth, but use much less aura.

So I’m working hard on them.

Let’s try and finish this to the end of the month.

***

It took me one and a half month to master the [Light], [Flash] and [Shadow] spells.

They are really something else.

If I use [Shadow] and [Cotton Step] at the same time I’m able to look like a shadow moving in a totally silent manner.

If someone doesn’t have [Aura Sensing] active all times they wouldn’t be able to notice it.

Oh, right…. Grandmother was thrilled that I was able to finish my training on hiding my aura in just a month and a half. Jacen is just starting his.

But she didn’t liked it even a tiny bit when I asked if I should try keeping [Aura Sensing] up all the time.

“Alvin, can’t you sense when someone uses [Aura Sensing] next to you?”

Indeed, I could.

“Then what do you think people will think of you if you use it at all times? You Aura Recovery Speed may be high enough to compensate for it, but most peoples isn’t! It would make it clear that you are a Superior Being, at least. So don’t do it.”

I guess I should have expected this much. Father did pay a hunter to use [Aura Analysis] to find the hex rat, so it isn’t something common for the usual person to use.

Anyhow, now that I’m able to hide my aura in detail the next step is to create an image of a common aura and keep it up all the time, so I can stop using [Aura Analysis] and be constantly checking my aura.

Truth be said, it was indeed a bother to keep looking at myself each five minutes. I looked like a freak, always inspecting my own body.

So this next step is my objective.

Now, in terms of spells, father taught me the [Toxin] spell, but said I shouldn’t ever use it except when facing monsters which demand poison to kill, like creeping sponges – which are the monstrous version of sea sponges and which demand either poison or fire to be disposed of permanently. Truth be said they are just huge sponges which fixate themselves on fishing boats and rocks and stay there, but since they will regenerate even from the smallest piece left alive from time to time a bunch of adventurers will be paid to go to the beach and cast “toxin” on the water until it becomes poisonous and kill the sponges.

Of course, It also kills any maritime life in a certain radius from the beach, but it’s something needed each ten years or the like.

Then, after I mastered the [Toxin] spell in a couple hours or something, he said I already knew enough to get by and should ask grandma what to do.

And that’s when grandma decided to give me what I have wanted for such a long time – lessons on writing and reading the language of this world!

For now, she gave me an alphabet and some exercises to make letters by myself. But I must say, I didn’t expect to have trouble holding a piece of coal to write.

Yes, it’s retrograde and it isn’t anything like a pen or pencil, but I hold my Hashi without a problem – so why are my fingers refusing to write properly?

I guess I have to train them…

***

And winter is over.

I have been doing progress on the [Aura Hiding] technique and read a little bit on both cryptic and this world’s language.

How did I learn so fast?

Well my friend, I have perfect memory, remember?

Once I see a word I will always remember the sound related to it. I would probably be reading and writing in both languages already, had I just some books instead of having to rely on grandmother’s handwritten cards.

There’s the [Book on Abnormals] but I don’t intend on reading that for my first book in almost five years, thank you.

Then, as I said, my progress has been steady.

But the problem is… grandmother and grandfather… what will happen with them?

They won’t be returning to grandfather’s house so soon, since grandfather, grandmother and Jacen will have to go help with the spring planting.

But the house will be full with the hags again, and grandmother won’t be here to train me most of the day.

Mother thought of asking the hags not to come, but grandmother said she shouldn’t.

Not only because it would be suspicious, but also because mother’s belly is already starting to show.

According to grandmother, mother is already on her sixth month.

The baby will be born in the end of the year. She will be our little jesus.

Not that there is any jesus or christmas in this world.

Then it will be one whole year when outsiders shouldn’t visit the house. It would be the perfect time for me to train with grandma, except that… it would be too weird if she and grandpa weren’t trying to get the hell out of our house until there.

They aren’t the new child’s immediate family, so they shouldn’t be here as well.

Also, a few months after my little sister’s birth It will be Ann’s birthday. Since it’s her fifteenth birthday it is a very important occasion, so her party needs to be held on grandmother’s house.

It’s quite a pickle.

What should we do about it?