A warm cup of tea in my hand, I sat on a school desk, Hannah eating the biscuits I made in front of me.
“Sometimes I wish I could be this naïve again.” Hannah answered after I told her everything what happened.
“Well, it shows that they believe me and I don’t think that trust will be eroded once they realise who I am. They hide far too much for me.” I answered and took a sip from my tasty peppermint tea. Looking out of the window, I could see the sun already setting behind the horizon, meaning it was my time to look onto the table.
On it, there was a magical circle, projecting one red dot into the air. It was connected to the place Albert worked in and showed every movement in a outside of the house. From time to time, Hannah also went out to look for anything suspicious, but we didn’t do that often. The chance of finding something was lower than that of being found after all.
And then as the sun had set completely, I nodded towards Hannah as all my strength was back and she stood up yawning. “Good night.”
With that she walked over towards the corner of the room, and crept into a whole lot of thin blankets. A mere minute later, she was already sleeping quietly, trained to use whatever little time I gave her to adapt to my horrible sleeping rhythm.
The first night, Albert didn’t even bother to come out and slept beside his creations. Only in the morning did he go out to get something to eat, trailed by Hannah of course. As the two came back, I looked at the sun and gauged the time.
“Oh! I’ll be back in an hour.” I said and smiled a bit as Hannah crunched on one of my cookies.
“Okay. Don’t get lost on the way.” Hannah said casually.
“As if I would ever get lost somewhere.” I said haughtily and turned around to leave.
… After getting lost two times thanks to being in an area I wasn’t in too often, I managed to get back into my underground lab.
Inside were the two twins I had sought after for quite some time already. Ape twins though. Tom probably got them from an auction or so, so I wasn’t too picky with the race.
As they were pretty small, I carefully took one of them out of the larger cage and caressed it’s back a little.
“There there. It’s all fine now.” And then, that bastard bit me. A bit of blood dripped down from my hand as I had finally gotten the small animal to leave me be. Angrily, I grabbed its head and yanked it to the side with all I had. It’s neck snapped instantly and the soul threatened to escape until I caught it with my magic.
Slamming the door of the cage shut so that the other one could escape, I held my still bleeding hand and cursed this animal. After bandaging myself with a cloth I had lying around, I went back towards the cage and glared at the other ape.
“This better result in something good.” I muttered and pushed the soul into its twin. At first, there wasn’t much I noticed except that it was considerably easier to do so and that the soul wasn’t expelled right away.
And then, nothing happened for a while. I kept observing the state of both their souls for several minutes but as I grew a bit bored of it, I decided to drag a chair towards the cage and sat down on it.
Only after half an hour did something happen. The soul I had put into its twin sprung back to life, which was completely unexpected for me. I had hoped for a bit more action though, but not much happened in actuality until I could see little microscopic scratches appearing on both souls half an hour later. At first, I didn’t think much about it until the scratches turned into open wounds three hours later and both souls began to bleed mana.
I shortly thought about notifying Hannah that I would need more time, but Chose against doing so as the decay of both souls accelerated. Even more wounds appeared on both souls and the ape started to bleed out of its nose and ears, which was probably a sign that the body was incapable of holding two souls.
In the end, one soul cracked completely and was thus unfit for life. I held it inside its body for a little while, looking at what it would do to the other, but this one didn’t seem to be hurt by the sheer presence of its twin anymore.
Then, I led the dead soul, flooding the room with mana, back into purgatory and noticed how the other soul dies As well, either because of its own wounds, or because the body was incapable of living on.
“So if two souls are similar, they can be put into one body … cool.” I had honestly hoped for a more interesting development, something I could use as a weapon for example. The mana density was probably higher than usual, but I highly doubted this could be used as a mana bomb. The output was too small and gradual for that.
Sighing quietly, I ran back upstairs and directly headed towards the classroom Hannah was staying in on the second floor.
“Hi! Took a bit longer.” I explained, slowly opening the door so that she didn’t attack me.
“And how can I make sure it’s you?” Hannah asked, looking suspicious towards the mud on my shoes.
“Banana bread.” I said a bit embarrassed.
“A convincing argument you made there …” She said and looked down towards the table once again. “Are we really sure about this?”
“Well … the other reincarnators at the school are either in the royal palace, or have banded together. Albert is the easiest target of all.” I concluded and sat down opposite of my bored friend.
“And now back to seeing time pass …” She muttered unhappily, but still continued to fulfil her duty over the day.
On my turn I was equally bored and just sat there with my chin on my hands, staring at the same red dot hovering in front of me all the time.
Well, at least until there was a second one appearing right at the edge of the field. Looking out of the window, I could see a hooded figure running across the meadow.
“Well, who do we have here. Hannah?” I asked, already stepping into the windowsill dressed in my school uniform. As soon as she opened her eyes a little, I jumped down and landed onto the grass below, my feet digging a bit into the earth. Not even caring to feather the fall my rolling, I quickly dashed after the person who was already inside the workshop. Halfway there, I went through the way I had to take in my head and dashed through the door soon afterwards. None of the alarm bells were ringing, probably because Albert slept in the Workshop and didn’t activate the magical circles.
Sliding into the big room where we assumed he would sleep, I was directly hit by the sweet scent of human blood. Looking around, I couldn’t see that person at all and thus let my gaze wander through the workshop.
Listening to the rough breathing behind a strange metal box, I went through the room warily making sure I wasn’t attacked from behind.
Wondering about where the fuck he put that thing I was searching, I looked around through the mess and finally found the white cloth Tom had given him for a sample of one of his creations.
Hopefully he already finished with that order, otherwise every one of my actions would mean nothing.
Slowly, I strolled over to the cloth and picked it up from the black underside carefully. Additionally, I picked up a screwdriver laying right next to the cloth and heard steps coming from the outside.
Smiling a little, I walked over towards Albert, still breathing roughly with an ugly black wound on his chest. Then, I bit on my tongue to get a bit of blood into my mouth. Letting the screwdriver fall onto the ground, I pulled his shirt up with my free hand and gasped theatrically. His Skin around the wound was turning darker and darker by the second and the infection seemed to spread beyond that through his blood flow making his veins visible. Slowly, I stood up, listened to Hannah’s footsteps behind me and looked down at the dying Albert.
“Hannah? That guy is already gone. We need a healing potion.” I said and noticed how Alberts eyes opened slowly, only to look at me in shock.
Well that was no wonder as I could feel a blade stabbing into me from behind right through my heart. Groaning in pain, even though it was highly pleasurable, I looked down onto the bloodied blade sticking out of my chest and began to tremble a little.
“And I even got the saint as well. What a pleasing development.” Hannah, or rather the voice of Hannah how I remembered it, said behind me. Sliding the blade out of me, she made a step backwards to see me turn around, my face contorted in pain.
“You will …” Giving my best to spew a bit of blood out of my mouth, I stumbled towards her, nearly falling on my knees in the process. She was already sure of her victory and thus let me get very close until my hand gripped onto her attire weakly. My hands went right through Hannah’s clothing until I touched something akin to a leather armour. And then, I slumped down towards the ground, both of my hands pressing against her weakly. But not only my hands did touch her this way. I rubbed the unsuspicious and hidden cloth in my palm all across her upper body and even a bit on her legs.
And then, I let myself fall down towards the ground, listening to the sounds of a breaking right above me with a smile on my face, hidden from the fake Hannah in front of me who sprang into action right away.
“That’s not an enemy I want to fight…” She said and vanished into a could of darkness right away. Just as we thought though she couldn’t trick all of our senses, especially Not Hannahs feeling of the airflow. Blasting her with wind bullets, that girl was quickly pushed into the defensive and dashed towards the door right away. Hannah still looked in the direction of the open door for a little while probably very tempted to follow the assassin right away.
A bit later though, she turned around and dashed towards me.
“You sure she is gone?” I asked, and she presented me a mini version of the magical circle on the table right away. There were only three red dots on it, and one of them was blinking a little.
Standing up quietly and dusting off my attire, I went over to the nearest paper plane, put it into a glass box and closed the lid.
“Hannah … show me if our plan was successful.” I whispered and she placed her hand on the glass and channeled her mana into the box which activated the paper plane right away.
Tock.
And it began anew…
“Well, that was pretty successful. What about Albert?” She whispered back.
“He is probably under the effect of some dark magic which will kill him in a few minutes … sadly there is nobody around who can dispel that with light magic.” I muttered quietly and strolled over to him, a concerned expression on my face. He did see me get stabbed by the same blade he was hurt with, so I couldn’t really let him live his normal live afterwards.
But he still had his uses, so it was a little sad to see him die in front of me. Just to check, Hannah placed a healing potion on his lips which already turned a lot darker and let him gulp down everything.
Not even the open wound healed with that, so he was already as good as dead if I didn’t have so safe him that was.
“Albert … can you hear me? Nod if you do.” I asked in a friendly tone and knelt by his side.
“You are the second one I want to make this offer, so think very carefully about it. I can save you from certain death, but it comes at a cost like everything does. You will not be able to live your normal life, and you will need to deal with completely fucked up people. But my offer is not all bad. I can grant you immortality. I will give you enough funds so that you can invent whatever you desire. You can follow your hobby all you want, but keep in mind that I will be the one who decides what happens to them. How does that sound?” I asked, listened to his ragged breath for a little while and opened my mouth so that he could see my sharp and longer canines. His eyes opened a bit wider, but he didn’t shook his head yet. He was thinking.
“I have no qualms with progress Albert … but we need to do it at a slow pace.” I said and smiled brilliantly. I had laid bare all I had to offer with the benefits and drawbacks clearly stated. He had the option to choose. To die or to become mine.
“I … want to … live.” Was death really that scary? Still, I smiled brightly anyway, picked up the screwdriver to my side and rammed it through my lower arm. A few bones broke in the process, but I could only feel pleasure emanating from my arm. Placing my arm so that the screwdriver was directly over his mouth, I forced his lips open with my other and let my blood drip into it.
The poison in his body didn’t disappear right away, but at least it also didn’t spread anymore. My blood was no magical healing potion that was for sure, but it would keep him alive until he turned into a ghoul and was capable of healing the poison himself.
I wasn’t entirely sure if he would even notice that though, because he fell unconscious right after gulping down the first bit of blood.
In that case, I just needed to force him to gulp down my blood …
A few minutes later, we were already out of the workshop once more.
Whistling quietly, I made my way back towards the teachers lounge, mostly hidden in the darkness thanks to the black robe I had. Hannah was right in front of me, carrying the still unconscious Albert on her back.
His wound still hasn’t closed, but at least there wasn’t any more blood seeping out of it.
He would survive, even though the week he remained human would hurt like crazy.
I on the other hand had an equally important thing to carry around. The paper plane still served as a perfect way to find that intruder, at least for a little while.
Opening the door for Hannah, she entered our apartment and shortly afterwards descended the stairs, still carrying Albert.
My laboratory still looked a bit wrecked, even though most damaged cages had already been carried away and the cracks in the wall mended by the person standing in the middle of the room.
He was the earth mage who build all of this and one of Tom’s most trusted subordinates, which was why I had no problem stepping in front of him without my mask on.
“Hey. There is a lot of inventions in the workshop which the state mustn’t possess. And please make sure the he gets to Tom safely. He’ll know what to do.” I explained and smiled brightly, which improved his mood considerably.
“As you wish.” He said, bowing deeply in the process. Carefully, Hanna let Albert onto the ground and made sure he was still breathing before nodding towards the mage.
“The magical protection of the building is fully deactivated.” I explained, turned around and headed right back towards the stairs, Hannah right behind me.
It didn’t take long for me to grab the glass cube with the paper plane on my bed once more and follow the line it always wanted to go.
“Hmm. I don’t think the girl’s dormitory of the first year is there. It’s either the boys of the third year or the girls? Say … did Sofie move back in?” Well, considering they were trying to catch that person as well, it could possibly be true. I didn’t have the chance to see what they wanted to do, even though I was very interested in what these young fledgelings had in mind.
“Let’s head there … but remain hidden.” I said, placed the loud glass cube back onto my bed and followed Hannah’s lead outside.
A warm cup of tea in my hand, I sat on a school desk, Hannah eating the biscuits I made in front of me.
“Sometimes I wish I could be this naïve again.” Hannah answered after I told her everything what happened.
“Well, it shows that they believe me and I don’t think that trust will be eroded once they realise who I am. They hide far too much for me.” I answered and took a sip from my tasty peppermint tea. Looking out of the window, I could see the sun already setting behind the horizon, meaning it was my time to look onto the table.
On it, there was a magical circle, projecting one red dot into the air. It was connected to the place Albert worked in and showed every movement in a outside of the house. From time to time, Hannah also went out to look for anything suspicious, but we didn’t do that often. The chance of finding something was lower than that of being found after all.
And then as the sun had set completely, I nodded towards Hannah as all my strength was back and she stood up yawning. “Good night.”
With that she walked over towards the corner of the room, and crept into a whole lot of thin blankets. A mere minute later, she was already sleeping quietly, trained to use whatever little time I gave her to adapt to my horrible sleeping rhythm.
The first night, Albert didn’t even bother to come out and slept beside his creations. Only in the morning did he go out to get something to eat, trailed by Hannah of course. As the two came back, I looked at the sun and gauged the time.
“Oh! I’ll be back in an hour.” I said and smiled a bit as Hannah crunched on one of my cookies.
“Okay. Don’t get lost on the way.” Hannah said casually.
“As if I would ever get lost somewhere.” I said haughtily and turned around to leave.
… After getting lost two times thanks to being in an area I wasn’t in too often, I managed to get back into my underground lab.
Inside were the two twins I had sought after for quite some time already. Ape twins though. Tom probably got them from an auction or so, so I wasn’t too picky with the race.
As they were pretty small, I carefully took one of them out of the larger cage and caressed it’s back a little.
“There there. It’s all fine now.” And then, that bastard bit me. A bit of blood dripped down from my hand as I had finally gotten the small animal to leave me be. Angrily, I grabbed its head and yanked it to the side with all I had. It’s neck snapped instantly and the soul threatened to escape until I caught it with my magic.
Slamming the door of the cage shut so that the other one could escape, I held my still bleeding hand and cursed this animal. After bandaging myself with a cloth I had lying around, I went back towards the cage and glared at the other ape.
“This better result in something good.” I muttered and pushed the soul into its twin. At first, there wasn’t much I noticed except that it was considerably easier to do so and that the soul wasn’t expelled right away.
And then, nothing happened for a while. I kept observing the state of both their souls for several minutes but as I grew a bit bored of it, I decided to drag a chair towards the cage and sat down on it.
Only after half an hour did something happen. The soul I had put into its twin sprung back to life, which was completely unexpected for me. I had hoped for a bit more action though, but not much happened in actuality until I could see little microscopic scratches appearing on both souls half an hour later. At first, I didn’t think much about it until the scratches turned into open wounds three hours later and both souls began to bleed mana.
I shortly thought about notifying Hannah that I would need more time, but Chose against doing so as the decay of both souls accelerated. Even more wounds appeared on both souls and the ape started to bleed out of its nose and ears, which was probably a sign that the body was incapable of holding two souls.
In the end, one soul cracked completely and was thus unfit for life. I held it inside its body for a little while, looking at what it would do to the other, but this one didn’t seem to be hurt by the sheer presence of its twin anymore.
Then, I led the dead soul, flooding the room with mana, back into purgatory and noticed how the other soul dies As well, either because of its own wounds, or because the body was incapable of living on.
“So if two souls are similar, they can be put into one body … cool.” I had honestly hoped for a more interesting development, something I could use as a weapon for example. The mana density was probably higher than usual, but I highly doubted this could be used as a mana bomb. The output was too small and gradual for that.
Sighing quietly, I ran back upstairs and directly headed towards the classroom Hannah was staying in on the second floor.
“Hi! Took a bit longer.” I explained, slowly opening the door so that she didn’t attack me.
“And how can I make sure it’s you?” Hannah asked, looking suspicious towards the mud on my shoes.
“Banana bread.” I said a bit embarrassed.
“A convincing argument you made there …” She said and looked down towards the table once again. “Are we really sure about this?”
“Well … the other reincarnators at the school are either in the royal palace, or have banded together. Albert is the easiest target of all.” I concluded and sat down opposite of my bored friend.
“And now back to seeing time pass …” She muttered unhappily, but still continued to fulfil her duty over the day.
On my turn I was equally bored and just sat there with my chin on my hands, staring at the same red dot hovering in front of me all the time.
Well, at least until there was a second one appearing right at the edge of the field. Looking out of the window, I could see a hooded figure running across the meadow.
“Well, who do we have here. Hannah?” I asked, already stepping into the windowsill dressed in my school uniform. As soon as she opened her eyes a little, I jumped down and landed onto the grass below, my feet digging a bit into the earth. Not even caring to feather the fall my rolling, I quickly dashed after the person who was already inside the workshop. Halfway there, I went through the way I had to take in my head and dashed through the door soon afterwards. None of the alarm bells were ringing, probably because Albert slept in the Workshop and didn’t activate the magical circles.
Sliding into the big room where we assumed he would sleep, I was directly hit by the sweet scent of human blood. Looking around, I couldn’t see that person at all and thus let my gaze wander through the workshop.
Listening to the rough breathing behind a strange metal box, I went through the room warily making sure I wasn’t attacked from behind.
Wondering about where the fuck he put that thing I was searching, I looked around through the mess and finally found the white cloth Tom had given him for a sample of one of his creations.
Hopefully he already finished with that order, otherwise every one of my actions would mean nothing.
Slowly, I strolled over to the cloth and picked it up from the black underside carefully. Additionally, I picked up a screwdriver laying right next to the cloth and heard steps coming from the outside.
Smiling a little, I walked over towards Albert, still breathing roughly with an ugly black wound on his chest. Then, I bit on my tongue to get a bit of blood into my mouth. Letting the screwdriver fall onto the ground, I pulled his shirt up with my free hand and gasped theatrically. His Skin around the wound was turning darker and darker by the second and the infection seemed to spread beyond that through his blood flow making his veins visible. Slowly, I stood up, listened to Hannah’s footsteps behind me and looked down at the dying Albert.
“Hannah? That guy is already gone. We need a healing potion.” I said and noticed how Alberts eyes opened slowly, only to look at me in shock.
Well that was no wonder as I could feel a blade stabbing into me from behind right through my heart. Groaning in pain, even though it was highly pleasurable, I looked down onto the bloodied blade sticking out of my chest and began to tremble a little.
“And I even got the saint as well. What a pleasing development.” Hannah, or rather the voice of Hannah how I remembered it, said behind me. Sliding the blade out of me, she made a step backwards to see me turn around, my face contorted in pain.
“You will …” Giving my best to spew a bit of blood out of my mouth, I stumbled towards her, nearly falling on my knees in the process. She was already sure of her victory and thus let me get very close until my hand gripped onto her attire weakly. My hands went right through Hannah’s clothing until I touched something akin to a leather armour. And then, I slumped down towards the ground, both of my hands pressing against her weakly. But not only my hands did touch her this way. I rubbed the unsuspicious and hidden cloth in my palm all across her upper body and even a bit on her legs.
And then, I let myself fall down towards the ground, listening to the sounds of a breaking right above me with a smile on my face, hidden from the fake Hannah in front of me who sprang into action right away.
“That’s not an enemy I want to fight…” She said and vanished into a could of darkness right away. Just as we thought though she couldn’t trick all of our senses, especially Not Hannahs feeling of the airflow. Blasting her with wind bullets, that girl was quickly pushed into the defensive and dashed towards the door right away. Hannah still looked in the direction of the open door for a little while probably very tempted to follow the assassin right away.
A bit later though, she turned around and dashed towards me.
“You sure she is gone?” I asked, and she presented me a mini version of the magical circle on the table right away. There were only three red dots on it, and one of them was blinking a little.
Standing up quietly and dusting off my attire, I went over to the nearest paper plane, put it into a glass box and closed the lid.
“Hannah … show me if our plan was successful.” I whispered and she placed her hand on the glass and channeled her mana into the box which activated the paper plane right away.
Tock.
And it began anew…
“Well, that was pretty successful. What about Albert?” She whispered back.
“He is probably under the effect of some dark magic which will kill him in a few minutes … sadly there is nobody around who can dispel that with light magic.” I muttered quietly and strolled over to him, a concerned expression on my face. He did see me get stabbed by the same blade he was hurt with, so I couldn’t really let him live his normal live afterwards.
But he still had his uses, so it was a little sad to see him die in front of me. Just to check, Hannah placed a healing potion on his lips which already turned a lot darker and let him gulp down everything.
Not even the open wound healed with that, so he was already as good as dead if I didn’t have so safe him that was.
“Albert … can you hear me? Nod if you do.” I asked in a friendly tone and knelt by his side.
“You are the second one I want to make this offer, so think very carefully about it. I can save you from certain death, but it comes at a cost like everything does. You will not be able to live your normal life, and you will need to deal with completely fucked up people. But my offer is not all bad. I can grant you immortality. I will give you enough funds so that you can invent whatever you desire. You can follow your hobby all you want, but keep in mind that I will be the one who decides what happens to them. How does that sound?” I asked, listened to his ragged breath for a little while and opened my mouth so that he could see my sharp and longer canines. His eyes opened a bit wider, but he didn’t shook his head yet. He was thinking.
“I have no qualms with progress Albert … but we need to do it at a slow pace.” I said and smiled brilliantly. I had laid bare all I had to offer with the benefits and drawbacks clearly stated. He had the option to choose. To die or to become mine.
“I … want to … live.” Was death really that scary? Still, I smiled brightly anyway, picked up the screwdriver to my side and rammed it through my lower arm. A few bones broke in the process, but I could only feel pleasure emanating from my arm. Placing my arm so that the screwdriver was directly over his mouth, I forced his lips open with my other and let my blood drip into it.
The poison in his body didn’t disappear right away, but at least it also didn’t spread anymore. My blood was no magical healing potion that was for sure, but it would keep him alive until he turned into a ghoul and was capable of healing the poison himself.
I wasn’t entirely sure if he would even notice that though, because he fell unconscious right after gulping down the first bit of blood.
In that case, I just needed to force him to gulp down my blood …
A few minutes later, we were already out of the workshop once more.
Whistling quietly, I made my way back towards the teachers lounge, mostly hidden in the darkness thanks to the black robe I had. Hannah was right in front of me, carrying the still unconscious Albert on her back.
His wound still hasn’t closed, but at least there wasn’t any more blood seeping out of it.
He would survive, even though the week he remained human would hurt like crazy.
I on the other hand had an equally important thing to carry around. The paper plane still served as a perfect way to find that intruder, at least for a little while.
Opening the door for Hannah, she entered our apartment and shortly afterwards descended the stairs, still carrying Albert.
My laboratory still looked a bit wrecked, even though most damaged cages had already been carried away and the cracks in the wall mended by the person standing in the middle of the room.
He was the earth mage who build all of this and one of Tom’s most trusted subordinates, which was why I had no problem stepping in front of him without my mask on.
“Hey. There is a lot of inventions in the workshop which the state mustn’t possess. And please make sure the he gets to Tom safely. He’ll know what to do.” I explained and smiled brightly, which improved his mood considerably.
“As you wish.” He said, bowing deeply in the process. Carefully, Hanna let Albert onto the ground and made sure he was still breathing before nodding towards the mage.
“The magical protection of the building is fully deactivated.” I explained, turned around and headed right back towards the stairs, Hannah right behind me.
It didn’t take long for me to grab the glass cube with the paper plane on my bed once more and follow the line it always wanted to go.
“Hmm. I don’t think the girl’s dormitory of the first year is there. It’s either the boys of the third year or the girls? Say … did Sofie move back in?” Well, considering they were trying to catch that person as well, it could possibly be true. I didn’t have the chance to see what they wanted to do, even though I was very interested in what these young fledgelings had in mind.
“Let’s head there … but remain hidden.” I said, placed the loud glass cube back onto my bed and followed Hannah’s lead outside.
