Thanks to Mother, now I have a little sister… Her name? Evalyn Notros-Farion.
From looking at her birth, something clicked inside me, an urge to protect this little cutie… This protective instinct, would it be because I'm her older brother? I would save her whatever the cost if it came to it, I would even give up my life.
It was as though something turned the switch, I felt a sudden change in my normal behaviour, it felt natural, I had to become more mature, I'm an older brother now… It wasn't like before where I never had a sibling let alone a younger one… I wanted to be seen as a figure that she'll grow up looking up to.
Since that was my mindset going in this whole thing, my body automatically for me that I was going to be an overprotective, mature and almost heroic like brother, at least that was what I thought my body was trying to do, it was probably until I heard through the doorway Eva crying in her crib.
I wanted to check in on the situation, I noticed that Mother was looking a little overworked and a little less energetic for the past few weeks… Eva was really that much of a hassle, huh?
I was certain that I would act all high and almighty, all nonchalant or sorts in front of Eva, once again my mind and body flipped the switch. I was all serious at the start looking stern, a lot like my first impression of father, with his expression…
Then—
I made a silly face, sticking out my tongue while grinning awkwardly, my hands lifted next to my ears where I aggressively flapped the around like wings, I was reminded of a disney character when I did this face, was it Dumba or whatever it's name was, that elephant with the big ears it uses to fly with.
//
Some more time has passed, about two months or so, nothing has really happened, the house has gotten less rousey with Iris gone and everyone settling down as the newborn baby grows up a little…
Much to my surprise I have grown quite attached to my new younger sibling, she was a lot like mother, the same blonde hair along with beautiful jewel like eyes, they were big and round one difference was the colour, her's were green instead of blue. It is quite easy to distinguish her from the rest of the women in the house, not talking about her age and body, just in terms of looks she and I were the outliers.
Now that Evalyn was a little older, she got herself a little room on the second floor, the one next to mine.
Inside the room there wasn't much, it was mostly still empty except for a small wooden desk and chair set along with Eva's crib…
Man, this brings back memories, I thought as I saw Evalyn stuck in her crib, as she desperately tried to climb out of her little prison cell, I was reminded of my own struggles of getting out when I first got reincarnated into this world… That was already eight years ago, huh?
Time really goes by quickly…
Thump—
"Waaahh! Bwahhh!"
I saw it happen in real time, Evalyn dropping to the floor after climbing her way over the fence of the baby's bed, she's quite the athlete, I was impressed. Another loud cry from her brought me back to my senses, my body trembled, I can't have my mind wandering about when I'm in these types of situations. I rushed over to where Evalyn laid, her tiny limbs sprawled out like a cartoon, her face flat on the floor.
I lifted her up, I saw two small wet spots on the floor, one where her face was and one near where her crotch area was. I put the still crying Eva on top of the chair, sitting her up.
I take one step back, holding my hand out, "Don't worry now, it'll be fine, your big brother will make the pain go away."
Hopefully she didn't take it the wrong way like how I did in the past, hopefully she doesn't think I'm trying to put her down.
Taking a deep breath in I began chanting the incantation to the elementary healing spell 'Painkiller', I guess I am killing something.
Slam—
The door flies open as a breathless Ava stands at the doorway, huffing and puffing, her face filled with worry, as she scans the room and finally meets my surprised gaze her face's expression relaxes, filled with relief she smiles softly, chuckling a little bit.
"Waaahhh!" Eva continued her loud cries.
"You are such an attention seeker," I hear mother murmur to my side as she approaches me slowly.
"... Healing—Painkiller."
As I finished the incantation a warm yellow light emits from the palm of my hand as a warm gush of warmth rush over me as the mana continue to flow through my body.
After a while the yellow light fades, Eva stopped crying realising the pain was gone, she looked down at herself confused, then she gazed up at me innocently.
I just replied with a warm smile, honestly I couldn't think of any other way to answer her 'question'.
Unable to find her answer, she then looks to Mother who was standing next to me, still huffing and puffing, gasping for air.
I guess she was just acting strong… In reality her body still wasn't what it was before the pregnancy and the birth, she was hiding it pretty well but with how she's breathing now there's no more lies… Fatigue was building up for her.
I put my hands on Eva's back, lifting her up and placing her back into her crib before grabbing a change for her already wet diapers. As I started changing Eva's diapers, I turned to mother.
"Mother, sit down on the chair, you are breathing quite heavily, you should let your body rest."
As I finished up the final wraps of the fresh pair of diapers in Eva, I folded up the used diaper before walking back next to my mother.
"Mother, are you okay?"
I was a little concerned not going to lie, her aura was seemingly weakening a little.
Mother get her breath back, letting out a long sigh—
"I'm fine Gryne, it's just that because I'm an elf…"
"...?"
I was confused by what she was saying. What does her body becoming weaker have in relation to her being an elf? I couldn't wrap my mind around it, in fact, it should be the opposite, elves are supposed to have basically eternal youth…
It was not only just from my otaku knowledge, but this was confirmed a fact by Rena, in her words, "Elves are human like beings with a long history, many think that elves actually came before humans and had existed since the prehistoric era of the world, not much is really known about their race other than their almost always perfect faces and long lifespan, a scholar who lived in the Central Continent once wrote in a report [Elves are perfect beings, ones blessed with near eternal youth and potency in high level magic.]"
"Uh—"
Before I could ask my question, Mother already began explaining.
"I'm an elf, although we do have longer lives, having babies takes a lot of effort, especially for us… We aren't really suited to have a lot of children you see… Normally humans take about a month or two to recover back to full functioning health, but we elves don't… The recovery takes quite a long time, sometimes two to three years, sometimes more than that… I guess everything gets dragged out for us." Ava said jokingly.
She continued, "Anyways you shouldn't be worrying about this, you should be fine, you are a male after all, they don't have the same problems that us females do… But if in the future you do find yourself an elven wife, you should remember this conversation we are having…" There was a hint of sadness in her voice, if I had to guess it was because I was adopted and she didn't want me to know.
"I'll make you a warm cup of water then," I said as a held up a palm, shaping a cup out of clay with earth magic, then heating it up to solidify it with fire magic, after that I used water magic plus a little more fire magic to create a warm cup of water. The cup dropped into my hands after I stopped pushing out waves of mana.
"Here you go, Mother."
"Thank you."
//
A few more days passed, Father had left for work on emergency business again, I guess I won't be seeing him in a while.
My time schedule began to turn normal again. In the morning was trainings with Iris, the afternoons were either more training with Von or playing with Rias, alternating, and in the evening I would do magic research and practices myself… It seems that my schedule has gotten even more packed…
Sigh— I might have to start taking a break… Too much work might over exhaust me at this point.
Huff— Puff—
"Okay let's end it here for today, that was some good work Gryne, you have been improving… Although if I do state that sometimes you do show quite a few weak spots to slash at, but overall it's been solid work."
Huff— I gasped for air after the rugged training session with Iris.
Taking a deep breath in I regained my ability to breath smoothly, with my back still arched, my hands on my knees to hold myself decently upright, I said, "Iris, do you think I can get a few weeks off, I haven't been feeling the best recently, to be completely blunt, all this training is really tiring…"
"Sure." Iris agreed without a second thought, she was always one to make quick decisions but I'd never have thought she would let me off this easily.
She continued, "But still remember to practice once in a while, swordplay is something that takes lots of consistent practice to get good at."
Sigh— Iris sighed, "I have been putting quite the amount of work on you, huh?"
And that was that, I had paused on the morning sword practices.
//
A lot happened throughout the past two weeks, lemme simplify it down, first things first, about a week ago there was some sort of emergency in the City with Father had to tend to, he left soon after he heard the news, I'm expecting it to be pretty big new seeing him rush over there.
Second thing was that father had given Von the job as knight of the area, meaning he has to work now. According to what he said, the job wasn't hard at all as there basically weren't any monsters around here.
Last thing is that I have began reading more now that I have the time to do so, I always loved reading, I mean I was a sort of light novel nerd and a top tier otaku, so it kinda explains my obsession with reading, back then in that world I had about two thousand light novels, all that I have already read… I would say that my ability to read isn't bad, at least I don't hope it is… Recently I have started a new book, one that talks on the history of the world. It's pretty interesting, this world's history goes way further back than I would have ever thought…
Rena had given me some basics into this world's map and history, I know the basics like the races that exist and how the world is structured like today.
This book goes more in depth with the history, educating me on things Rena had never told me about:
1,000,000 years ago, the era of creation…
Nothing existed, all was blank, all was dark…
A singular flicker of a light seed bloomed into a large flame, a flower that wrapped around the universe providing the first source of light and energy.
The world blossomed into existence. For the first time the universe has something in it—
200,000 years ago, the era of giants… Solar year
The era of giants was the start of many stories, including ones talking about the ice and fire giants, not much written history was recorded from the time for the fact that humans have yet to exist, only recorded history was ones recorded by the elves but that itself was rare to find in this world.
It was said that in the period of time, the seven continents were one, during a clash between the fire and ice giants the world was split into half, then one day after the destructive clash, about 300 years after a meteor crashed into the top half of the map where the ice giants lived. It was the end of an era, the wiping of ice giants once again shifted the scopes of the land.
160,000 years ago, the era of ancient dragons… Solar year
The wiping out of the ice giants was an event which created a new race. From the ashes of the frozen continent, a new species arose from the gravel and bones, Ancient Dragons…
From elven literature, Ancient Dragons were said to be magnificent creatures of immense power, cladded with stone or gravel scales. Their depiction was one that rivalled the Gods, in fact they were immortal, their height which was closer to the skies then land, and power equal or maybe even surpass the abilities of its predecessors, the Ice Giants… Even till this day some still worship the ancient dragons.
Even still their reign as supreme rulers of the land was short lived in the Conquest of the Deserts, the dragons got greedy after years had passed, following their emperor at the time, Peligoric, they raided the domain of the fire giants. Throughout all these events the elves watched from the sides.
The raid lasted over centuries, in the end both were at a loss, the fire giants were completely wiped from the face of the earth, and the ancient dragon's numbers were few, by the time the raid finished only about 0.2 percent of the original population remained.
Soon after these historic events, the Ancient Dragons built an empire out of the ruins of war, the place known as Drake in the map of today.
After the creation of the empire, the Ancients died out one by one, killed by their own kin, their numbers decreasing as centuries upon centuries passed by, that was the point where the dragons evolved, into a being much weaker but more suitable for the continuation of the race… Common Dragons are born.
100,000 years ago, the era of ever winter… Solar year
Many thought this was the curse from the Ice giants of the age of giants, a blizzard lasting 10,000 years.
After the Dragons evolved, there was a period of peace in the world… Once again this 'peace' was short lived, the worst natural disaster known to history books rained down upon the unexpecting dragons and elves.
Many died.
From the icy fields, Earth had become a vessel for snow, never ending snow that covered the entire face in white, a soft but solid form of water.
90,000 years ago, the great flood… Lunar year
Not much is known about the great flood, only that it was a second era of destruction in a row, the snow melted, causing an overwhelming amount of water to flood the lands, or rather the sea…
The first oceans were created.
10,000 years ago, era of life… Lunar year
The lands re emerged from the deep seas, life began to prosper once again, the first humans, demons, beastmen and other species of animals came to life.
The elven empire is still unaffected, due to this they had the most developed society at the time. During both catastrophes the elves had prepared, they prepared shelter, land, and safety places to avoid the damage to their population
During this period of peace, the elves had established themselves as basically the supreme beings of this land, there weren't really any contests, the technology they had and the culture they had was way above any of the others.
4,000 years ago, era of building… Stellar year
The people of humankind and demon-kind took notes from the elves, throughout the 6,000 year gap period, they developed themselves a powerful society, one that's relative to the might of the elves.
The first kingdoms were born at this time, revolutions started… The era of building marked the creations of countless things, one that affected the world the most? Magic… Magic was born within the elven empire as a myth, the first great mage— Mage of Dawn… Evan El-Gratios.
1,500 years ago, The Great War… Stellar year
A purist cult of elven race, set out on a journey in order to punish those who are impure, the main subjects to this… The Demon race.
Much was lost to this war that lasted a whole century, Demon kin lost their fight against the purists which caused a mass genocide in the Demon Continent, the population of Demon kin were cut almost by a half.
After the complete destruction of the Demon Continent, the group of purist elves launched another campaign, this time calling humans and beastmen alike, impure.
Much was the same except this time the victor was different, the humans won… But their victory wasn't their own, instead it was who was backing them up… Six people, of wildly different backgrounds and races, two of the names were lost from time, the other four had little to no history to them…
Felix Del-Velfold the Lingering… The very first blessed by the world, the Monarch of Eternity.
Asta the Calamity Witch… First calamity class human mage, the Monarch of Magic.
Regern the Fierce… King of the Dragons, the Monarch of the Cold Sky.
Leon the Lord… Leader of the Silver Mane Tribe, the Monarch of Beasts.
A pact was formed between the Elven Empire and the Human Kingdoms for peace, one that forbids discriminatory activities towards Humans within the Elven Empire, the treaty had to be renewed every one hundred years… The Elven Empire also took the blame and had to pay reparations for the war.
The remaining elves' purists were exiled and casted away into the icy mountains of Jothengard never to be heard ever again.
After the treaty was formed, all the monarchs returned back to their respective places, Felix Del-Velfold founded the first guilds and became the guildmaster of the largest one, the Adventurer's guild… He disappeared two hundred years later, many theories were formed, but they all revolved around one thing, he died while adventuring.
Asta the Calamity Witch founded the first ever magic academy, using her name Asta as the name for the school, a tall castle built upon a lake in the East of the Magic Continent, North Ether… Asta Academy was the first of many schools of magic in the continent.
Regern the fierce had just disappeared from the world, no person ever dared to walk into the Drake kingdom in the far West of the Demon Continent… There's a huge possibility that he still roams around the kingdom as liege or king of the land since dragons are said to have incredibly long lives.
Leon the Lord returned to his tribe and acted as leader for the rest of his life, dying at the age of seventy one.
1,200 years ago, the War of Demons and Men… Stellar year
The Demon King rose from the ashes of the previous war, gaining power and establishing a monarchy, rallying all the demons and conquering the whole of the continent other than the Drake Kingdom.
The Demon King only now known as Oroboros was one who shaped the world's structure as we know it.
He went on a military campaign, taking the seas and invaded the Central Continent, until once again a monarch stepped into the picture, the Demon King himself wasn't a weakling either, he himself was recognised as a monarch, the Monarch of Rage.
The war was settled by a one on one fight, the armies of the respective forces stood on each side of the battlefield, two men stood in the center of the battle, two men whose power rivalled entire nations…
The Monarch of Sword Saint verses The Monarch of Rage… Both were on horseback, the Demon King, the Monarch of Rage, sat on his tall horse, even still his body shadow the size of the horse, his two greatswords in each hand… The first and only divine Demon style user.
The Hero, the Monarch of Sword Saint, sat upon his horse, shadowed by the darkness which was the Demon King's shadow, his sword set in a sleeve, gleaming with golden light… He was the sword saint himself, the creator and divine class sword saint style swordsman.
After days of endless fighting, swords clashing, the Demon King was felled, his corpse on the battlefield, rotting in place, as it slowly but surely turned to a grimy dust which fluttered back towards the Demon Continent… No matter the wind or how strong the people pushing it, the corpse wouldn't budge, the dust would never get blown away either, away heading in a straight line toward the deserts.
1000 years ago, the era of saints/ the era of magic… Stellar year
The Holy Luminius Church is founded within the Central Continent, racism against the Demon kin arose once again in this world, this time it's never stopped till this day.
The new form of racism wasn't as brutal as the purist elves cult, there weren't genocide, but discriminatory actions were still supported in large scale, which in terms drove away lots of the Demons back to where they came from… The Demon Continent, where grass did not grow and where the sandy plains of the desert would kill many.
These so-called Saints intelligently killed many of the Demons without moving an arm or a leg.
After Asta Magic Academy was formed in the Magic Continent, many followed suit, first came Ronolia Manor Academy of Magic, located in the west, built upon the land owned by the noble of the area, Asur Ronolia, Asur was one to remember, he was one of the strongest mages in human history, one who built a legacy upon the work of his spirits… His ability to tame spirits in his later years earned him the title of Monarch of the Twin Spirits.
Lugecia Ars Academy was then built, one man Ronald Lugecia single handedly built the whole system from scratch, he was mixed, born in the Central Continent he spent his whole life facing discrimination, one day he couldn't take it anymore, he created the spell [blurred spot], then after killing hundreds with the spell he created, he fled to the Magic Continent where he found followers who admired his magic and learned from him, founding the Lugecia Ars Academy of Magic.
***
There were pages ripped out? I thought, looking at the butts of the paper remaining stuck to the edge of the history textbook, Hmm? That's interesting… Who really cares, let's keep reading.
***
300 years ago, the slave revolution… Stellar year
Humans were powerful, their kingdoms thriving with all sorts of high end technology, their works of magic improved, they were now pretty much the leaders of the world, two kingdoms in particular were the most powerful, one was the Midgard Kingdom and second was the Holy Kingdom.
People go crazy when they get drunken by powerful as once said by a wise man, Humans are no different than the people mentioned, there ego putting over their minds, flooding them with pride the first slave raid began… Slavery wasn't a new thing for humans, it existed for a long time, but never at this scale to so many different races…
Businessmen were mental, their thirst for money clouding their thinking, they hired a group of mercenaries raiding villages all over the world taking the men as workers and the women as sex slaves.
The Elven Empire was affected because the prices for an elf were sky high due to their magnificent looks and long lives.
Present day… Stellar year
Much was the same, the deep rooted hate towards demons wasn't going to change any time soon, and the slavery problem in the world was still standing strong… But other than these things it was mostly peaceful, more than it ever has been.
As time progressed many new races were formed in this period of peace, dwarves and halflings were some just to list some examples…
//
By reading this new history textbook I found, I learned a lot. There were a lot of things that I have never heard of, ancient dragons and such. It was surprising to see that there are so many races in this world, the world is really bigger than I think, ain't it?
I also turned onto a page which gave subtle information that other languages exist here also, it was just like Earth, there are a few to list:
Midna Tongue: used by Humans all over the world, it's an international language, to put in other words, it's like the English of this world.
Leno Tongue: also a Human language, used mainly in the Central Continent, it isn't much different to the Midna Tongue, there are minor changes here and there but overall it has the same letters… There aren't any written differences, it's similar to Chinese and Cantonese, same same but different.
Demon Tongue: the main language used in the Demon Continent.
Elvish: the language used in the Elven Empire within the Zevol Continent.
Beast Tongue: used amongst all beastmen races, although there are small differences between how each tribe speaks.
Elvish was the only language without the word tongue behind it, being a rather ancient language, the name was always just Elvish since the beginning over 300,000 years ago.
I was taught the Midna Tongue, as I live in the Eastern side of the Midgard Kingdom. It seems that I'm able to communicate with people which can speak either the Midna Tongue or the Leno Tongue, Rena was one who spoke the Leno Tongue, I was able to understand about 90% of what she's saying even though the grammar from the languages are a little different from each other.
Then there's mother, she was speaking the Midna Tongue, but it just seems slightly unnatural, there was an accent on her which made her speech unnative, it was clear that she had some other language which she was more fluent in… My first guess is Elvish.
//
A few days passed since I finished the book about history, and I realised how Important language is. I never got to learn many foreign languages back in Japan, all I knew was a bit of English and my native Japanese… This would be a good change of pace from the Magic and Swordplay training I have been doing all my life here.
This was how I decided on learning another language. My first thought was to learn the Demon Tongue, but it doesn't seem realistic, noting down the fact that there was no one here to teach me, if Rena was still here… Let me send her a letter, she might be able to give me some insight.
"Mother?" I knocked on her bedroom door.
"Gryne, is it? Come on in." she replied from inside the room.
I opened the door then sat beside her bed, it was rather early in the morning, about seven I would be guessing.
"What is it?" she asked, her voice droopy with laziness.
"Can I learn Elvish?"
"Hm?" she uttered surprised, "You really never cease to entertain, don't you? And yes, if you want me to teach you I can… But might I warn you, Elvish is harder to learn than it seems, are you sure you are up for that task?"
A few days passed, Mother had told me to give her some time to prepare materials for me to learn the language, I didn't really get what she was talking about at the time, but now I understand…
"Here you go," She said, handing me a thick file, inside were a bunch of hand written notes on yellowish paper, on every line there are translations to the Midna Tongue writing. I guess that's what she meant by prepare.
Wait— Doesn't this language look a little too familiar, I swear I have seen this all throughout my past life, Elvish was Japanese? No, it's not… There were differences, the way it's spoken is different also, but it was surprisingly similar.
//
A month passed by, I studied hard, with mother by my side answering all my uncertainties I was able to learn quickly. That said there were still difficulties remembering all the brand new characters which didn't have relation to the Midna Tongue or Japanese.
Now that I have a reasonable understanding of the language let me explain a little. Elvish was really like Japanese, the grammatical pattern was similar also, to be honest, it was way easier than I would have ever thought it would be. I was never good at learning other languages, in fact, I was horrible at English when I used to go to school.
I got the basics of writing and speech down, I wasn't fluent be any mean, mother was still catching me with pronunciation errors here and there, but she said people should be able to communicate with me in Elvish.
During the time I also browzed the library for a book written in Demon Tongue, I wanted to learn it, it was Rena's language after all, although she did say that she was more fluent in the Leno Tongue than it.
I found one, but I couldn't figure out any single word's meaning, there was a load of guesses but I wasn't able to figure anything out… The writing looked like Arabic for my old world, I didn't know a wince bit of that language either.
I dug deeper into the library to hopefully find a translated dictionary but to no luck…
I haven't got a response from Rena yet either, I guess I'll just hold off on learning this language for now… I wonder how she's doing now…