Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

Perhaps I knew the reason, perhaps I didn't. Either way, I didn't care about it. But one thing was clear and it's that last night I had gotten the best sleep in a while. 

As the morning hit the mark and the sun rays entered my room through the big glass window, I slowly opened my eyes. 

Before me, I saw the figure of a beautiful girl. The sunlight was glistering through her ocean-blue hair, making her deep-red eyes shine like gems as she looked at me. 

"Were you staring at me the whole night?" I asked. 

"You bet I was! It was a one-in-a-million chance after all! There's no way I'd let it go," she said with a smile. It was that usual, cheerful childish smile that I was so used to seeing on her face. 

"You didn't sleep?" I asked.

"As a spiritual being I don't have the need to sleep," she replied. 

"I see. I'm not sure whether that's a sin or a con."

"Hmmm, I never thought about it actually. It can be helpful since you are saving up a lot of time but even though it doesn't affect me physically—since duh, I don't have a physical body—being constantly awake for such a long time is kind of mentally exhausting."

"What time it is by the way?" I asked.

"Huh? It's around eight in the morning."

"Fuck I'm late," I said calmly. The classes started at seven and I was already one hour in. 

"Wanna make a run for it?" Req questioned. 

"Nah, I'll skip the classes for today. After all, since you're back there's something I want you to do," I mentioned. 

"Hehe~" her face lit up brightly with a smile. "I'll do anything for you," she said. 

I looked at her for a moment, then I pulled myself close to her and hugged her. It was not a tight and deep hug like yesterday, rather it was light and gentle. 

"I missed you," I said. "And I'm faking it this time."

"Mhm. I know," she replied.

***

After that, I explained the current situation to Req. Everything regarding Havenreach, Silver Garden, the calamity, and about Akumi. I didn't tell her about him being a character from the novel since those details weren't important, but other than that now she was equipped with all the information she needed. 

Then I went to have breakfast and once I was done with that I came to my room and told Req to transform into the sword and took her to the personal training rooms. 

Normally students weren't allowed to carry weapons with them but bringing them for training was an exception. It was allowed to carry your own swords and weapons to the training rooms as well since most of the high-class noble families had some weapon that they passed on from generation to generation. 

Due to that, I was also able to take the Requiem sword with me. 

Once inside I locked the room from the inside and I had already scanned the room to check that there were no security cameras installed there so I could have Req go back to her human form. 

"This place is pretty well made," she said, looking around the entire area. "So, what is it that you want me to do?" she asked. 

"Teach me," I said. "I want to—no, I have to become stronger. You said that you have put limiters on the Requiem sword so I don't end up killing myself with an overload in power, therefore I want you to make me strong enough to use it without those limiters."

"Hmmm, I see," she said while walking around with her hands behind her back. "Well, sure. But you won't be able to do it soon. I mean, it even took me years to be able to completely master Requiem."

"That's quite alright. Right now I just want to be strong enough so that I can take care of Akumi without a problem. I have observed him for quite a long time and he is strong, I can tell that much," I said. 

Underestimating your enemies was one of the deadliest mistakes you could make and I knew better than to do that. It was not as if I couldn't take Akumi head-on in my current state, but it was not a guaranteed win. 

What I wanted was a hundred percent certainty that I don't lose to him. I didn't want to take any risks, after all. 

"Well, I might just have the thing for you," Req said, looking at me. 

"What is it?" I asked. 

"Hmmm…" she seemed a bit confused as if she was finding the right words to say but couldn't. "Agh, it's better to just show you," she said in the end. 

She raised her right hand and the Requiem sword materialized there. She then held the sword with both of her hands and looked at me. "Watch carefully," she said. 

"Eclipse," with those words she pulled the Requiem sword out of its sheath. 

Right after that, a black hue was released from the blade which in a matter covered the entire room. It was as if it was enveloping me within itself. 

Soon there was complete darkness. My sight was completely gone and I couldn't see anything at all, everywhere was black. Even Req was not visible to me anymore. 

"Is this a pocket dimension or something like that?" I asked out loud. 

"Yup, you guessed that right," Req said, appearing in front of me. 

"Just like Dark Edge, Eclipse is another one of Requiem's attacks. With this, you can capture your opponents in a pocket dimension. You have complete control over the space-time in this dimension so killing anyone is an easy task, it can be done just by thinking about it," she explained. 

"Isn't this too broken though? I mean, if I can trap people inside and am able to control everything in this dimension, I can basically one-shot-kill anyone no matter how strong they are?...is that what you wanted me to ask?" I said. 

"Ugh," there was a slight hint of dissatisfaction on her face. 

"There must be a drawback in this, right?" 

"Yeah," she admitted. "Try concentrating your mana around your body."

I went along with her words and began to concentrate my mana around my body. A second or two later I saw a bright crack on the completely dark roof, and then those cracks started to appear all around me. 

Those cracks rapidly increased in size and amount before completely breaking the black hue apart. My surroundings shattered like a mirror and I was back in the training room. 

"You can do anything you want with your opponent as long as they are inside but breaking out of the pocket dimension is easy, and once they figure out how to do it it's basically useless," she clarified. 

"I see," I said. "You are right, this might be the perfect thing for him."