{Timeskip - One Week}
It's been a little over a week since I saved the young elf from slave traders and agreed to guide her back to her home, and if I had to describe the past week in one word I'd describe it as monotonous.
The elf, who I later learned was named Tessia, seemed to have some sort of strange fixation with trying to get closer to me, and while I had multiple guesses as to why she was doing it, that didn't mean I enjoyed it.
And while her unrelenting attempts to get closer to me were annoying, the most annoying part about her was the fact that she had almost no physical stamina, making it so that we had to spend almost half of the time we were awake, resting.
'Even if she's a child how can she be so weak?'
The bodies of people in this world were naturally stronger than the bodies of people in my old worlds, making it so that even the body of a 5 year old child could easily be as strong as the body of an early teen in my old world. So the fact that this girl couldn't even walk for more than a few hours at a time made me wonder what her parents were thinking to not only shelter her to such an extent, but to also allow her to run away without any bodyguard.
Sigh...*
'Whatever.'
As I finally broke out of my thoughts I noticed Sylvie dipping her face in front of my own with an expectant expression, as she gazed at a leather bag I was carrying with drool at the corner of her lips.
'Papa, more meat!'
Unlike myself who was just barely persevering through this trip with sheer will power, Sylvie was having the time of her life as she devoured the corpses and cores of almost all the mana beast we either encountered or had the time to hunt.
'Didn't you just eat like five minutes ago?'
Sylvie just stared at me with an expression that almost fooled me into thinking she couldn't understand me.
'Sigh... fine whatever-'
"Arthur! Arthur! We're here!"
Much to my lizard daughter's dismay as I was reaching for a small piece of uncooked meat, Tessia interrupted me with an ear piercing scream as she pointed at an interesting looking tree.
"Me and my grandfather used to come here when I was a kid!"
I just gave a hum of affirmation and stopped walking as I fed the piece of meat to Sylvie.
"Arthur? Aren't you coming?"
Seeing that I stopped Tessia turned back towards me with a questioning gaze.
"No. Since you're home now, I no longer have to guard you."
My words seemed to strangely catch her off guard as she looked at me with a panicked expression and asked.
"Wait— y-you're not coming with me?!"
I shook my head.
"No, I'm going to find my own way out of Elshire Forest."
As my words registered in her mind, tears started to gather in the corner of her eyes and she asked.
"W-why are you always t-trying t-to get r-rid of m-me?"
Although I wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about I didn't have the energy to try and find out, so I just shrugged in response while explaining
"You're deadweight, and I have nothing to gain from staying with you."
Hearing my words her eyes widened in shock before she finally broke down in tears as she looked up at me with a wronged expression.
"B-b-but what abou-"
I cut her off as I didn't feel like dealing with her anymore.
"I've already made up my mind, bye."
Then without looking back I started to walk in the opposite direction then the one we've been walking as felt a sense of accomplishment overcome me along with the feeling of relief that I was free again.
'If I follow the route back exactly then I'll probably be found and captured by elves, but if I go through the beast glades...'
I knew that after saving someone of such a high standing that her parents would send people after me to find me, so as soon as I was out of Tessia's line of sight I changed the direction I was heading and started to run east.
'I don't want to reunite with my family anytime soon because as soon as I do I'll likely have my freedom taken away from me, and until I can come up with a proper excuse for Sylvie I should stay away from society.'
As dozens of different thoughts circled through my head I felt Sylvie purposefully fall forward off my head into my arms as she looked at me with a tired expression causing me to smile at her and pat her head. And after making sure that Sylvie was fully asleep I swaddled her in a cloth she had taken from the slave traders and tied the swaddle around my chest.
'So I guess I'll spend a few years in the breast glades, maybe I could become an adventurer to earn some money as well.'
The beast glades were a place that was not only filled with opportunities to get stronger but it was also the only place that was almost completely free from the control of the races.
'I wonder how long I'll be gone this time?'
As I made up my mind and resigned myself to once again leave society, I heard a small yawn from Sylvie who was strapped to my chest and let out a small smile as I thought.
'But this time, I'm not alone.'
...
{Jasmine POV}
'I'm going insane.'
It was something that I realized just a few days ago as I continued to absorb the mana inside hundreds of beast cores.
Normally, if someone uses more than ten cores in the time span of a month they start to lose their mind as they're affected by the lingering bloodlust left inside cores, but even after absorbing hundreds of A and B rank cores I still felt the same.
As I slowly came to this realization I decided to completely cut off my relationship with the twins horns and the Leywin, while also deciding to limit my visits to the Adventures guild to once or twice every 6 months.
'It's probably for the best anyway...'
Despite the fact that I had cut off my connection with people who I thought I had cared about, I didn't feel a thing, no, rather I felt somewhat excited at the thought of being completely unbound by my emotions.
'Because the more my emotions are dulled, the more I forget about him.'
Crack!*
As my thoughts turned darker a mana core that I held in my hand started to crumble under the weight of my rapidly increasing strength, as the mana inside of it was depleted at an alarming rate.
Shatter!*
Finally as the last bits of mana left the AA-rank mana core it's glow dimmed and it crumbled into an ever increasing pile of dust that had formed underneath my feet.
'I need to get stronger.'
...
{Charlotte POV}
"What do you want?"
A few weeks ago I had finally achieved white core, and since then I had taken it as a chance to completely disassociate myself with the Wykes family, and as well to break away from the command of Blaine Glayder.
However, despite the fact that I had completely broken away from the human royalty, I was now sitting in front of the queen, Percillia Glayder, who had invited me to have tea.
"Why do you think my harmless invitation had ulterior motives?"
I scoffed at her playful reply.
"You have never once invited me to have any sort of conversation with you in private. So for both of our sakes please cut the BS and tell me what you want."
Despite my crass words Percillia's practiced smile remained as she set down her tea cup and locked eyes with me.
"While I'd also like to someday have a normal conversation with you, this time it seems that's impossible so I'll get to the point."
Unlike her husband who would have been easily provoked at my words, Percillia had an attitude far more befitting of Royalty as her smile faded into a serious look and she went right to the point.
"As you may know, my daughter, Kathyln, awoke just last year at the tender age of three."
I nodded.
"Ever since Kathyln's awakening, an intricate but faded mark appeared on her chest right over her mana core, and although as far as we're concerned this crest hasn't caused her any harm, I'd like to ask you, a white core mage as well as Dicathen's leading rune researcher, to please have a look at the crest to see if you can find anything out."
'A crest?'
As far as I was concerned the concept of crests shouldn't, or rather couldn't exist in this world, since in my old world crests only existed through being chosen by the hero as a companion.
The ability to bestow crests was one of the three abilities on the Holy Sword, and each hero could only give out five different crests to their five chosen companions.
'If she really does have a crest, then does that not confirm Alex's reincarnation?'
The only way that a crest could exist in this world is if the holy sword, which was soul bound to Alex, was in this world.
'Not to mention Alex is the first hero who actually died, unlike the past hero's who all sealed their mana in the sword and relinquished their rights over the blade before dying.'
As I continued to consider the possibility of Alex taking the sword with him into this world, I made sure to keep an apathetic exterior as I asked.
"This crest, do you have a picture of it I can see?"
Percillia nodded and pulled out a scroll that was sealed with the royal seal, and proceeded to cut the seal with a small knife.
"This is a drawing of the crest I did myself, and the crest's actual size is only about 18 cm in diameter."
As she rolled out the scroll on the coffee table I felt my eyes slightly widen at the small but detailed crest drawn out before me.
'This is... The Arctic Monarch.'
When Alex was selecting his companions, he only approved of three of the thousands of applicants and bestowed each of them with very personalized crests. Of these crests, The Arctic Monarch, while considered to be the weakest in actual fire power, was the most personalized towards the Hero's first companion.
'Does this mean that Kathyln Glayder, is actually the reincarnation of the 26th Empress, Sylvia Alta' Grace?'
The thought sent a chill down my spine as I remembered the look of despair on her face right before she died, prompting me to lift my eyes to Percillia.
"I'll have to see the original crest to be sure, but I don't think it'll cause any problems."
She gave a genuine smile and nodded.
"Feel free to visit our castle whenever you have free time"
I nodded and stood up.
"I'll come by sometime in the next week."
She stood up as well.
"Then I'll tell Kathyln the guards, so there's no hassle."
I nodded and turned my back to leave as dozens of thoughts clouded my mind.
'If she really is Sylvia... I hope we can find Alex soon. Otherwise I'll have to take more extreme measures...'
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A/N
!!Next chapter is going to have a large timeskip!!
How was the chapter?
Please point out any errors you find and feel free to comment any ideas you have for the future of this fic!
~1981 words