Chapter 37
When Ren awoke, he saw only what seemed to be a bedroom. A luscious one at that!
“Where the hell am I?” he spoke aloud, hearing his unusually rough and raspy voice. ‘And what am I doing here?’ he thought to himself, his throat hurting. Ren looked into a mirror, a large one, and saw to his surprise that he was now 13. He had green eyes, dark rings circling them, a lean frame, dark, messy hair. He looked sickly, almost bedridden. Then, the door opened suddenly, revealing a young girl, maybe a year older than Ren’s current body. She was in a maid suit, most probably a servant to a rich family. Was Ren a servant ,or a rich son?
“Good morning, master Arthur– I mean master Renolds…” she said, blushing furiously. A memory suddenly came to me of her name…
“Good morning, Lily…” Ren smiled, coughing slightly. She then blushed even harder, if possible, placed the tray of breakfast and my clothes at the end of his bed, bowed, and scurried out backwards. A few minutes later, something on Ren’s hand burned with heat. He looked down to see a red ring on his hand surrounded by three little kite shaped marks. His eyes gazed at it for around 10 seconds and suddenly, information filled Ren’s brain, filling him in on the power system of this new world and how to use it.
“Gah!” he gasped in pain as his nose bled. “What the-” he broke off, coughing like mad. Then, Lily came back in, saying something about forgetting to bring his hot ginger lemon, then she saw he was having an asthma attack and rushed to help him, lighting some sort of herb as she came running. She made Ren breathe in the fumes, Ren heavily leaning on her shoulder. He managed to squeeze out a “Thank you!” spitting blood as he said it. “Save your breath, master Arthur!” she exclaimed. She then called for help, many butlers and maids coming to her aid, bringing more of the strange herb that smelled like modern inhalers. After about five minutes, one of the maids (a tall bird-chimera woman) ran to get something. She came back with a tall, ginger woman with green eyes and a pale complexion like mine, a man with dark hair and blue eyes with a fairly tanned face, and a boy, around 16, with blonde hair, green eyes and the same tanned skin as the man.
[[SKILL activated: holder of knowledge]]
The same rush of information flooded his head, this time it was about the identities of these three people. The woman was his mother, a noble from another kingdom, and his father, the man, was the king of his country, the younger man was the crown prince, Ren’s older brother. They all had backgrounds that were complex and very interesting, but Ren was concentrating more on not dying to notice. The woman, Fleur Renolds, rushed in ,hugging him so tight he could’ve died for the second time in 20 minutes. The man, Arthur Renolds. Sr, looked relieved, clutching at his chest with joy. Ren’s new older brother however, still looked a little worried, his name was Reginald Renolds, he had always been cautious, using his skill [[observation]] to see the fates of people, forbidden by some rule in his skill to inform anyone of a person’s fate or see his own. Ren then got settled into bed by his new ‘parents’ and finally ate his breakfast. He fell asleep, dreaming of his old life. A few days later, Ren, or Arthur as he now thought of himself, was out and about, training with his father, meditating as the religious cultivators do, trying to gather mana and spiritrions. He got flashes of Arthur’s previous memories and about how cultivation worked, Mr Renolds would never suspect a thing. Then, a message rang out in his head.
Stolen story; please report.
(<> <>)
To Arthur, that did not look like a good thing, being called deceptive and all. That day, he also met a friend of Mr Renold’s. His name was Atlas, he was a giant. Giants were like humans only about twice as tall as the tallest man, making his six foot father look like a midget. He had long blonde hair, a very muscular and lean body, very dense. He also had dark skin and fierce amber eyes, like a cat’s. Like all giants, he had a little white nub in the middle of his forehead, a horn.
“Greetings, Arthur Renolds Jr!” he growled in his booming, jolly voice, making Arthur feel very nervous.
“Um, hi?” he said, uncertain what else to say. He boomed his booming laugh, hysterically, like he’d just heard the funniest joke of his life. Arthur blushed, it was embarrassing to be laughed at and not to be able to do anything about it. As Arthur sat there listening to Mr Renolds and Atlas chatting away, he thought about how this world worked, It was like an anime or a tabletop RPG.
“Dad…” he said, sounding innocent. “For the past 3 times I have had a nosebleed or a fit, I've always heard a voice in my head saying ‘skill activated’. What does it mean?” A worried look passed across his Father’s face, yet only fleeting.
“We’ll talk later, son. Right now I’m having a meaningful talk with Atlas, he might agree to become your bodyguard…”
Arthur didn't know how to feel about this but he nodded, smiling. Atlas then looked straight at him, meaningfully. Then, [[holder of knowledge]] activated. Instead of getting a nosebleed or a fit, Arthur’s head experienced a stabbing pain right at the top of his nosebridge… Everything went black. As he slept he dreamt of his old friend, Yuuno and how he must find him to help with something, in his dream, he had to find something… he knew not of what to come, it was just out of reach.