Reincarnated Hero System

‘But I didn’t overlook creation out of ignorance, but because there are no known sources of Creation laws on future Aidos, and there won’t be for the foreseeable future… unless I bring one back from the past.’

Now, here was a small snippet of information that Evan himself did not know. The Prophetess’s power was not nearly strong enough to peer into Evan’s mind or see thousands of years ahead to glimpse his intentions or plans.

No, that line which she had instructed Caeril to tell Evan was actually a line that Evan himself would utter at some point in the future.

After furthering his plans, when Evan, several weeks from now, realized how creation could be used in it, he would mutter those exact words to himself.

And when he did, the Prophetess, whose powers allowed her to divine across time, caught Evan’s self-spoken words. As such, she had instructed the spirits to inform Evan of it now, in the present, even though Evan would have eventually come to that realization on his own.

Evan did not know that it was his own future realization, that was now being used as leverage against him.

‘It clearly bait, but…’

Evan heaved a sigh.

‘Guess I’ll fall for it.’

Then he spoke aloud, “Fine. I’ll follow you to Tír—whatever.”

At this, Caeril’s expression visibly brightened with relief, and he immediately responded.

“Yes! Then, please—”

“Hold on for a sec.”

Evan cut him, then extended his palm and asked, “What’s my payment gonna be?”

The Elder blinked in confusion. “What?” he asked, unsure of what Evan meant.

“I mean, come on,” Evan said. “You’re essentially planning to use me as a mercenary in your war.

There’s no way you’re about to tell me that just keeping me in Tír—whatever, away from the Infernal Devil, is all you’re going to do for me, right?

If you want me to fight in your war, you gotta cough up some cash.”

At that, Beatrix burst into laughter and said, “Seriously, Evan? You’re really asking for money right now?”

Evan responded with a shrug.

“Well, not exactly money, since it’s going to be useless to me when I get back to the future. Not only is it the currency of another planet, it’s the currency of another fucking dimension. It’s going to have zero value to me when I get back.

What I want are other things. Artifacts. Treasures. Uh… law crystals, if you’ve got any.”

Hearing this, Artemisia tilted her head and asked, “I noticed you had one in your inventory before, but why do you have law crystals for laws you can’t even comprehend?”

“I plan to give them to other people and make those other people owe me, so… I’m gathering law crystals from various laws.”

After replying to Artemisia, Evan turned back to the Elder Spirit and said, “Anyway, you heard what I said. Artifacts. Law crystals. Special potions. Special treasures. Just things with high value that are worth my time.”

He made a lot of demands, but Caeril didn’t seem to mind.

“That’s not going to be a problem. We’re already prepared to properly compensate you.”

“Ah, I see,” Evan said, nodding. “Very well then. We’ll put that in writing.”

“In writing?” the Elder repeated, puzzled.

“Don’t worry. You’ll understand when I get to your place.”

The Elder Spirit was still confused at Evan’s words, but sensing that Evan wasn’t going to explain any further, he simply replied, “O…kay?”

Not understanding what Evan meant didn’t matter right now. What mattered was that Evan had agreed to come with them.

“Now then, you and your companions—” Caeril began, but before he could finish, Evan tilted his head and interrupted him, asking, “Huh? What did you just say?”

“I said, ‘you and your companions,'” the spirit repeated.

Evan blinked, glanced toward Artemisia, then turned his gaze to Beatrix who was beside him, and finally looked back at the spirit.

Then he gestured between himself and the girls and asked, “Do we look like we’re all the same person?”

Caeril was confused by the question, but he still replied, “You’re obviously three different people.”

“Exactly,” Evan said. “You’ve only succeeded in convincing me to go with you guys. You haven’t convinced them. So, good luck convincing them.”

Beatrix immediately jumped on Evan’s train of thought and said, “Yeah, you haven’t convinced me to go along with you.”

At that, Evan rose from his seat and gestured toward it with exaggerated theatrics.

“Here, my fair lady.”

“Why, thank you, my good gentleman.”

Beatrix slipped into the seat he had vacated, faced the Elder Spirit, and with a bright grin, declared, “Now then, let’s talk.”

The sight made Artemisia sigh and facepalm. Then, giving them deadpan gazes, she asked, “Can the both of you be serious for once?”

In unison, Evan and Beatrix turned to face her and replied, “”We are serious, Artemisia/Arty.””

Artemisia rolled her eyes at the impish grins they both wore, grins that clearly showed they were anything but serious.

Sighing again, she said, “Regardless of whether Evan was going to go with them or not, splitting up is honestly the worst decision we could possibly make right now. So let’s just go along with Evan to the spirit’s abode.”

At this, Beatrix frowned and whined. “Come on, Arty. This is not the time for cold, hard logic.”

“When your life is at risk, cold, hard logic is exactly the best option.”

After shutting Beatrix down, she turned to Caeril and stated, “We’re coming with him. And if we do interfere in your battles and make great contributions, we’d expect proper compensation as well.”

Artemisia definitely wasn’t going to miss out on that part, and Evan chuckled at how she made sure to include the clause about getting paid.

“That won’t be a problem either,” the Elder Spirit finally said, and with those words, Evan’s eyes lit up.

Rubbing his palms together with a wide grin, he said, “Woo-hoo, someone sounds like they’re rich. Guess I’m gonna milk you guys for all you’re worth.”

Classic Evan, casually and shamelessly declaring his intent to drain them dry, right in front of them, without the slightest hint of hesitation.

While Beatrix chuckled at his audacity, Artemisia raised her palm to her forehead again, sighing for what felt like the hundredth time today.

Caeril, however, simply stared at Evan with a strange, unreadable expression. He wasn’t used to dealing with people who, quite literally, spoke whatever was on their minds without a shred of hesitation, filter, or tact.

Still, setting aside Evan’s personality for the moment, the Elder Spirit turned his attention to the more immediate concern.

He raised his hand slightly and gestured toward the other spirits who had remained restrained all this time, then asked, “Would you please release my soldiers?”

At this, Evan tilted his head, turned around to look at the spirits in question, and said, “Oh yeah, these guys.”

Naturally, throughout the entire conversation, the other spirits had remained pinned in various unfortunate states.

Artemisia still had her Tempest Avatar active, which was holding and squeezing two of them. One of them remained frozen in place, and another was bound in Everlasting Chains with one of Evan’s Hydras clamped down on his neck. Another spirit was lying helplessly on the floor, wrist-less, while yet another still couldn’t move at all due to a crushed knee.

Evan observed the miserable state they were all in and said, “Well, I’d like to say I’m sorry about all this, but I’m really not.”

“Come on, Evan. You could at least act like you are.”

Upon hearing Beatrix’s words, Evan gave her a puzzled look and responded shot back.

“Why bother acting when my actions are gonna make it obvious that I’m not?

What do you want me to do? Say, ‘Sorry I cut off your wrist and shattered your knee because you were stalking me for two days straight like some fucking creep’? Oh please. They brought this on themselves.”

When Evan said this without the slightest trace of remorse in his voice, he sensed a few hostile stares and immediately snapped his gaze toward the restrained spirits now glaring daggers at him.

Gesturing to Artemisia and Beatrix beside him, he said, “You’re lucky these two were with me.

Because if I’d been alone, I would have killed at least three of you first before asking a single question. You should be grateful that all you’re walking away with is a crushed knee and a severed wrist.”

He said it with unnerving calm, not even the slightest emotional fluctuation in his voice.

It immediately reminded them how he had unhesitatingly dismembered one of them and crushed another’s leg. They also remembered his casual remark about turning one of their spines into a memory.

Clearly, had Evan been alone, their numbers would have already been thinned out before he even bothered listening to anything they had to say.

Hearing him speak like that reminded Beatrix of the time they had gone to Iklaque, the dimensional realm on Aramis, and how Evan and Arthur had interrogated their attackers back then.

She remembered Evan saying something about knowing certain techniques to make people spill information fast.

And with that memory playing in her mind, she couldn’t help but think to herself, ‘Evan is really pretty adept at torture, isn’t he?’

Beatrix wondered what could have led Evan to learn such skills in the first place. But contrary to what she imagined, Evan hadn’t gone out of his way to study the art of torture.

He had simply inherited the memories of someone who already knew how to do it, effectively becoming highly proficient at it through memory inheritance alone.

While she was thinking about that, Evan had already moved on to make another demand from Caeril.

“Now then, I’ll have you give us a map of the continent,” Evan said. “Mark your stronghold on it, as well as our current location, so we can navigate to it ourselves.”

Caeril blinked, visibly confused. “A map? Wait—you’re not coming with us?!”

Evan replied, “I’m going to come to you, but not right now. Sometime in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

“Wh—why?” the spirit questioned.

“I have a few other things I need to handle first before I make my way to you. Just give me a map.”

Evan didn’t give any details and just extended his palm, and at this, Ceril hesitated for a moment, before finally nodding. “Okay. We’ll provide you with a map.”

“Good,” Evan said. “Also, gather the rest of you Elders. I want us to have a proper conversation and lay out all the terms of this alliance.

My first condition for going along with this alliance is to have every Elder of your stronghold present when we discuss the rest of the terms.”

After saying that, Evan deactivated all his skills, then pulled out a juice pack and started sipping from it.

At the same time, Beatrix released the time stop she had placed on the two spirits she had frozen. Then, with a snap of her fingers, she reversed the wound she had inflicted on the one Caeril was possessing.

Because she had been the one who dealt the damage and had frozen it immediately after, she was still within the window to fully reverse it, and so, in an instant, the injury disappeared.

As for the other two, the one missing a wrist and the one with a shattered knee, she glanced in their direction, considering reversing the damage. However, before she could do anything, Artemisia reached out, grabbed her hand, and spoke firmly with narrowed eyes.

“Don’t. You. Dare.”

Beatrix chuckled and raised her hands in surrender. “Sorry, guys. Arty said no.”

Meanwhile, Evan received the map he requested from the now-released spirits. He skimmed through it quickly, checked and confirmed the markings, and had them identify both their current position and the location of their stronghold.

Satisfied, he nodded, tossed the map into his inventory, and turned around.

“See you in 24 to 48 hours.”

Caeril didn’t even get a chance to reply. Evan grabbed Artemisia and Beatrix, activated Farsight, then Blink, and vanished.