Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting



My eyes were closed and darkness was all that I could see, but despite that, I still had control over my senses. And that meant I could feel pain. 

In fact, the pain was the only thing I felt.

Slowly opening my eyes I took note of my surroundings and saw that right now I was inside a cave-like structure with my head resting in Req's lap. 

She was gently stroking my hair and touching my face. I didn't approve of this either but well, it was at least better than being kissed while unconscious.

I tried to get up and suddenly a wave of pain surged throughout my body and I was forced to lie back in her lap. 

"I don't think you should get up," she said, finally noticing that I was awake. 

"For how long was I out?" I questioned. "What happened?" 

"About three weeks I'd say," she replied. 

As soon as I heard that, I was this close to having a mental breakdown. However, despite being in the condition I was in, my mind didn't waver—this was one of those times when I was glad for all the mental training I put myself through.

Still though, three weeks. That was a really long time. I'd planned to get out of this hell and meet with Anya and my parents in about four days, however, that plan had completely gone into the gutter. 

"The last thing I remember is that a portal opened right above our heads and millions of demon beasts rained upon us. I was fighting them and…yeah that's about it. What happened after that?" I asked. 

"Nothing really. You kept fighting and fighting and fighting. After that you kept fighting the beasts for a whole week, then you collapsed," she said. 

"And it's safe to assume that once I collapsed, you took care of all the beasts afterward?" 

"Yeah," her voice was different from usual. There was no energy in her voice, no cheerfulness like there usually is. It was a low, and calm voice. 

I looked up to see her face and found that she wasn't smiling either. That usual childish smile she had on her face was gone, completely. In place of that, there was a bitter expression.

"A whole week huh," I mumbled to myself. 

Honestly, I was amazed at myself. Fighting for an entire week didn't just mean fighting for an entire week, it also meant that I went without food or water for a whole week and was still alive. 

If I had to guess, I'd say that the only reason I was alive was because of mana. Probably the energy needed to run by body was taken from the mana I had. 

However, that just makes the situation even worse because along with using my mana to perform an attack and fight against the beasts, I was also using it to keep myself alive. And for a whole week at that. 

That was something even I didn't know I was capable of doing. 

I went for a whole week without food or water, so I guessed that was the reason why I was feeling this intense pain near my stomach. 

I had no idea how much hunger a person felt after not eating for seven days, but what I was feeling still felt like overkill.

Therefore I decided to take a look. I bent my torso upward and Req helped me with that. Once I was sitting up straight the pain suddenly increased tenfold and I fell back in Req's arms. 

I was able to look only for a second, but that was more than enough. Combined with the fact that the pain increased when I tried to get up, it wasn't much trouble to figure out what was happening. 

There was a wound near my stomach and a deep one at that. There was a black cloth wrapped around it like a bandage, and looking at it closely it was my cloak. It was probably Req who did that to stop the bleeding. 

"It wasn't fatal, but caused a lot of bleeding.," she said. "Right when you were on the verge of collapsing, a beast managed to get you. It would have killed you but I meddled in and stopped it…but I was too late."

"What are you talking about? Even I could tell that I would've been stabbed right through my stomach and died. You managed to stop that from happening. How were you late?" I asked. 

"No, I WAS late. This was a complete failure. My primary job is to protect you, but I'm not even capable of doing that. This is the second time I have almost gotten you killed…" she said, her voice dull.

I couldn't really understand what she meant by "second time". As far as I could remember, this was the only time when something like this had happened. 

After thinking about it for a second, I understood what she meant. She had failed to save me in the previous timeline where my powers went out of control and I almost froze myself to death, perhaps that's what she was talking about. But I didn't get why she was acting as if that was her fault. 

My powers going out of control was my fault and it had happened because I went insane after seeing my family die. 

As I was thinking about all that I felt something moist falling on my face. Looking up I saw that tears were dripping down from her eyes. 

She was crying. Req was crying. This thousand-year-old warrior who had lived in war and gone through many traumatizing events was crying. 

Why? Because she failed to keep me unscathed. 

"A-All of this…every time…I fail to protect you. All because I am addicted to battle, and I forget what my main purpose is when I'm fighting," she said as tears began to fall down from her eyes. 

"The time I spent in the war…the years I spent fighting, fighting, and only fighting, it had made me into a battle addict. Every time I fight I enjoy it, and I enjoy it so much that I forget about everything else. And I forgot to protect you too!"

She cried and sobbed, her tears falling on my face. 

As she was going through all this, it took me a while but I soon understood the whole situation. I understood her mindset and her way of thinking. 

And when I understood it, all of a sudden it became really hard to stop myself from breaking out into a wide grin. 

'This is the best!' I thought to myself.