School ended for the first day, and I returned homesafely, no interesting events happening on the way. As soon as I entered through the doorway, I was immediately grabbed and lifted off the ground. It was my mother picking me up and carrying me in her arms.
"Aria! How was your first day of school? You had fun, right? No one tried to bully you, right? If anyone does such a thing, be sure to tell me, okay?" She asked me several things at once, but my father, who was behind her, immediately calmed her down
"So, Aria, how was it? Did you make any friends today?" I shook my head as a response to my father's question, and his expression became saddened for a bit, before being replaced by a smile. "No worries, you'll be able to get some soon. It's only the first day after all, right?" I nod in agreement to this, and his mood went up a bit.
"Kieran, we should get ready now, shouldn't we? Our guests will arrive soon."
"Ah, that's right. Aria, go change your clothes and head to the living room. We've got someone coming over today, and they have a child your age as well. Be sure to try and talk to them, okay?" I nod to my father's instructions and went immediately. After quickly switching to a different, random t-shirt and a different pair of shorts, I go to the living room and sit on one of the couches, while my dad prepared snacks on the table for the guests. I grab one of the cookies he made and nibbled on it as I waited. Eventually, the door bell was rung, and my parents head over to the door to greet them. I stayed in the living room, and waited for my parents to bring the guests in. I could hear their voices from here
"Lisa~ it's so nice to see you again!" I hear my mother's cheerful voice and a short shriek right after.
"Captain, please, stop hugging me! It's embarassing!" A loud, shy voice cries out, and I hear someone burst into laughter.
"C'mon Lisa, let captain have her fun. Weren't you her cuddling toy in the past as well?" So there were other victims too, huh...
"Trax, you're not helping! At all!" Based on what I've heard so far, these people used to be under the party that my mother led in the past.
"Mom, I smell cookies! Can I have some!? Can I have some!?" A new, energetic voice chimed in.
"Go ahead, Thoth." I shoved the rest of the cookie into my mouth and nearly choked on it. I hear an excited 'Yeah!' from the hallway, then my father's voice telling him the way to the living room. A few seconds later, a boy enters the room and immediately noticed me sitting on the couch. We stared at the each other, no one making a single move. I completely recognized this boy's appearance though.
This is the craziest thing I've even seen. This boy in front of me, not only did he have my name, but he literally had the exact same appearance as I did when I was a child in my previous life. Short black hair, dark brown eyes, he even had a mole on his left cheek, exactly like mine. His personality was completely different though, and probably his upbringing as well. I also doubt that he has the same abilities I did in my previous life, because he'd be able to release an intimidating pressure just by staring at someone. Based on what I see though, his strength and magic is better than the average child's, so he was a prodigy in his own way.
"Heya!" The boy broke the silence first with a cheerful greeting. I respond to it by waving my hand at him. Probably confused about why I didn't speak, he tilted his head and straight up asked, "You can't talk?" I shook my head side to side, still not using my voice to communicate with him. He shrugs his shoulder in response, and walked up to the table and grabbed a cookie, took a huge bite out of it before sitting on the couch as well. Right next to me. He then began staring at me again
"My parents said that you're supposed to be a girl, but you're way too tall to be one! Why did you cover yourself anyway? Are you scared to show your face? Hey, show me your face. I wanna see! Please, please, please?"
"..." I have absolutely no idea how to react to this. His face was right in front of mine, eyes full of curiousity. Desperately I began shaking my head to refuse him, but it seems like he won't give up
"Then how about you show me your [Status Plate]? I want to compare your stats to mine! C'mon let me see, let me!" He persists trying to learn anything he can about me. He's too curious for his own good, but I was unable to refuse this time. For some reason, I just couldn't say no to my own face. No, I'm not a narcissist. I stick out my hand with my palm open, signalling him to let me see his [Status] before he saw mine. It was a weird sequence of signals, but he somehow understood and complied, and happily handed me his plate. When I read what was on his [Status] though, I did a double take. A triple take. A fourth one right after.
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Name Thoth Farlite
Age 8 Years Old
Gender Female
Titles None
Classes None
Level 14
Health 1,330
Mana 855
Strength 44
Agility 58
Intelligence 37
_____
I'm not reading this wrong, right? No, not the stats, I don't care about those. I already knew that he was stronger than the average kid. I'm talking about that word filled in for [Gender]. Yeah, that's right. This person, with a very boyish appearance and a masculine name, is in fact, a female. Fate, what the hell are you trying to say to me?
First, I myself have been reincarnated as a female. Next, someone else was born in the same year me, with the same name and appearance. As if gender flipping me wasn't enough, you also had to flip the gender of my previous alias, didn't you? What's next, you're going to reincarnate and gender flip the demon lord next? Is that it?
"Hey, are you okay? Is there something wrong with my [Status]? Oh I get it, you're amazed about my level and stats, are you!? I know, I know, I'm amazing, right? Everyone said so at my school, you know!" My anger subsided upon hearing his cheerful voice, and I look up to see him grinning happily at me. I guess I should be referring to 'him' as a 'her' now, shouldn't I? After handing her back his [Status Plate], I held up a finger to tell her to wait a minute, and went to my room. I pulled out the [Status Plate] that was in my pockets, and looked it over to make sure that seemed out of place. Just as it should be, the stats are extremely high, the level is 10, no titles or classes. I return to the room shortly after and hand her the card, wondering what his reaction will be.
Suddenly, her expression froze. The atmosphere became colder, and the cheerful aura that was emitted from her completely disappeared. The smile became even wider, but somehow seemed far more sadistic than before. She looks up at me and her eyes looked ice cold and dangerous. Those eyes were extremely similar to the ones I saw when I had my final battle. Although I didn't want to believe it, her next words confirmed her identity.
"Fate's played with you too, huh, Thoth? Or maybe I should refer to you as your new name, Aria?"
______
There was six people total sitting in the living room right now. Half of those people were guests. Two of them were people who used to be my mother's subordinate and the third was their child, Thoth Farlite. At least, that's who she was on the outside. Her true identity was the one I killed in my final moments of my previous lifetime. The Demon Lord.
...what was his name though? I can't even remember. Now that I think about it, I don't remember anyone ever calling him by his true name. I've only heard people say 'Demon Lord this,' and 'Demon Lord that.' Now I kinda feel bad for the guy. Anyway, he was currently in the living, sitting RIGHT next to me, close enough so our shoulders touch.
"Mommy, Daddy, can I go play with Aria in her room?" Whilst our parents were discussing past memories and events, Thoth suddenly chimed that in. My parents had a look of glee and excitement, and both our parents gave consent for us to leave. Dragging me by my arm, Thoth forcefully separates us from the others and brings me into my room.
Honestly, I was scared, because I didn't know what she wanted from me, and I can't tell how much of her actual power was sealed. She was extremely strong in the past, to the point where I was forced to martyr myself in order to kill her. As soon as both of us went through that doorway, she slammed it shut and locked it. Right after that, she spun around and dived right by me into my bed, and the atmosphere became light. She flipped over and sat up, facing me who was just staring at her.
"What? Did you expect a fight or something? Relax I won't do anything to you."
"...okay." This wasn't the first time that we've conversed. In fact, if anything, she was probably the person I talked to most in my previous life. Strange, right? The [Hero] and the [Demon Lord] getting along. I don't want to get into a historic back story so I'll summarize it in a short flashback.
______
"Welcome, [Hero], to my throne room. You did well in making it this far." A deep, commanding voice resounds through the entire room, and the [Demon Lord] was there, sitting on the throne. Contrary to belief, he wasn't a gigantic, horrific, monstrous being. He had a humanoid body that was slightly taller than me, two large wings that were similar to a dragon's, and long silver hair ran down his back. He wore blood red armor, wielded a black spear longer than his body.
"...Demon Lord?" I ask to confirm.
"That's right. And I assume you are the hero?" I nod in reply, and he smiles in response. I raise my fists, and put up my guard, prepared to start the fight any time. That is, until I heard;
"You want to eat some cake? It's my wife's birthday today, and she made a cake half the size of the castle. Let's leave the fight until tomorrow, yeah?"
And for the next 18 hours, I was taken care of like a guest at a noble's birthday party. His wife was quite the beauty, you wouldn't believe she was 232 years if you were told that. The cake was very delicious as well.
______
Now we return to the present, and just like in the past, she casually tried to make conversation with me as I listen and give short replies. She learnt how to understand me and communicate with me, which no one else had ever done before.
"I thought it was quite unfortunate that we were enemies back then. After spending an hour trying to talk to you, I found it quite fun to see what actions you took to signal certain things, before having to resort to words. Somehow you always found a way to summarize what you want to say in less than four words." She begins chuckling to herself, probably recalling our previous conversations. I was a bit surprised about her behavior towards me though.
"...not...mad...dying?" I took her life, but she was still treating me as a friend.
"Hey, you died too, so we're pretty much even. Anyway, it was expected to happen every since you appeared. Everyone on the demon side was prepared for this you know? I started that war knowing that one race would completely wiped out. This world isn't big enough to fit both the Demon and Human races, so I had to resort to that." So she did have a proper reason.
I still felt extremely guilty though, knowing the cause of the war. She even wanted to befriend me before the final battle, but couldn't due to our races. I decided I'll accept her offer, and raise my hand to her. She just looked at it though, trying to understand what this gesture meant.
"...friend." Although she couldn't see, I smiled underneath the layer of bandages covering my face. She does the same, grabbing my hand and shaking it. She abruptly stopped though, and looked at my hand. Her eyes began to glow emit a yellow light, which disappeared afterwards. I guess she was still able to use her abilites like I can, because I recognized that from the battle we had together.
"You, how heavy is the curse on you?" So she was able to detect it. I let go of her hand, and went to my desk where my school bag was. I pulled out a sheet from one of my school notebooks, and grabbed a pencil from my pencil case. I drew a quick pie chart, that displayed the amount of power I had sealed. I wrote three other things under the pie chart, which were the percentage values of the pie chart. It was approximately about:
99% Seal (Bandages)
0.7% Seal(Neck Ribbon)
0.3% Unsealed Power
Upon looking at it, her eyes went widened with surprise. I wrote another note onto the paper, which removed the surprise on her face, but instead, she pouted and looked at me. Out of nowhere, she randomly started throwing a childish tantrum. Seems like she returned to her previous attitude that she displayed when she arrived.
"You!" She yelled. "Your existence is a living cheat! I thought I was special when I was able to keep all of my skills, but even I have to build up my stats from scratch! But you! YOU!" She began pounding on me, and I curled up into a ball to protect myself. Hey, it didn't damage me that much, but it still hurts to get hit you know.
"Unfair! Unfair! Where did you even get these stats!? Wait, don't tell me..." She stopped pounding on me for a second, and I turned to see why. As soon as I did, I recieve a slap to the face, and she starts hitting me again. "You god damn beast! You killed me and kept the experience from your previous life, didn't you!? You got this strong by killing me! Monster! Demon! Devil!" Pretty ironic considering who she was in her previous.
After about 10 minutes of continuing to complain and beating me, she finally stopped. Honestly, even though it hurt, it was still a bit adorable to see her act this way. Despite adopting my boyish appearance, it was still pretty cute to see this kind of behaviour. Again, I'm not be narcisstic. After catching her breath from this, she sighs to herself.
"...sorry." I apologize to her, even though I know there wasn't much I could do about this.
"Doesn't really matter. We're both just exceptions created by the [System], I guess. Whatever, you did beat me fair and square in the last battle, so you deserve it, I guess. No worries though, we're still friends." She turns around and faces me with a wide smile, reassuring me that there was no ill will.
"But if you ever betray our friendship, I'll find you and torture you even if you're more powerful than a god. I still remember some tricks back during my days as [Demon Lord], so be warned." Immediately, that smile turned into a threatening and sadistic grin. I felt a heavy chill on my spine and froze on the spot. Well, I didn't have much to worry about anyway. Even though my first friend was the previous [Demon Lord], I'll still treasure our relation.
Soon enough, her parents began calling for her, signalling that it was time for them to leave. We walk together to the front gate, and she waves at me as she walks away. As she walked away, I did something I've never done even in my previous life.
"See you later!" I spoke out loud. It wasn't loud enough to be called a yell, but she definitely heard me because she yelled back, "I will!"
You can probably imagine how happy my parents were, hearing me speak out like for the first time ever, and making my first friend. I was pretty happy myself, smiling as I walked back into the house.