Reincarnated Hero System

Evan dispelled the sound isolation magic just as Rachel returned to find Arthur idly playing with a small whirlwind in his palm.

“I sensed wind magic and was curious but to think it was just you playing around…”

Rachel remarked, visibly amused. Her curiosity about the magic source she sensed earlier was easily deflected by Arthur’s innocent display, so she took a seat on the couch and shifted the conversation.

“Mind telling me why you came over now?”

Arthur glanced at her with a mockingly innocent expression.

“Huh? Couldn’t I have just come to hang out?”

“If that was your aim, then you wouldn’t have brought a stranger along with you.”

Rachel gestured to Evan as she replied, and hearing her, Arthur couldn’t help but agree.

“True. I wouldn’t have.”

“So out with your reason already.”

Arthur sighed and reached into a small pouch at his waist, pulling out several photographs. He laid them on the table, beginning with a formal tone.

“So, Ms Sergeant…”

“It’s Master Sergeant to you there.”

Hearing the change in her rank, Arthur raised a brow in light surprise as he questioned.

“You got a double promotion?”

“Yeah. The last raid went well and there was a mass promotion.

Though mine’s less because of what I did and more because the Generals are trying to fast-track me.”

The second half of her statement was a mutter under her breath, but Arthur’s superhuman ears heard it loud and clear.

“Fast track you? Why?”

“Probably because of my family. The Cassowar is a High Noble Family.”

Rachel said, giving a casual but evasive response, knowing fully well that Arthur wouldn’t care too much about it.

“That so? Anyway, back to why I came here.”

As she expected, Arthur smoothly redirected the conversation. He placed the photographs of a woman responsible for the deaths of 20 Demon Soldiers on the table.

Rachel eyed the pictures with curiosity and Arthur stated his desire.

“I need your help putting a name to this face.”

“Arthur, I’m a soldier, not a Private Investigator.”

Arthur chuckled softly at her reply and placed two more photos on the table. One showed a tattoo on the woman’s hand, the other was of a dog tag she wore.

“Huh? Why does she have that? Is she a soldier?”

Rachel asked, her eyes widening as she recognizedwt the dog tag’s insignia—a symbol she was familiar with since she had a similar one.

“I don’t know.

I was hired to help find her recently. I noticed the tattoo and remembered it was the same as the one on your Uniform so I came to ask if you could help.”

“…”

Rachel shifted her gaze between the insignia of the Aramisian Military base known as the ‘Starlight Fortress’ in the picture and Arthur, a thoughtful frown creasing her brow. After a moment, she sighed.

“Exactly what do you want me to do?”

“The number on the dog tag. Can you run it through your database so we can at least find out who owns it?”

The dog tag was partially obscured in the photo, its identifying name hidden from view.

Since it was hanging from her waist and halfway into her pocket, the portion where the name was written was obscured from view.

“What is she being looked for? Did she go missing or something?”

“Well…she killed someone.”

“What?”

“Yeah, and now that person’s boss wants me to find her.”

“…”

Rachel blinked in silence at Arthur’s overly summarised version of the story, and the boy then suggested.

“You wanna see the picture of the corpse? Was quite nasty.”

“Spare me the sight. I’m going to eat after this.”

Rachel said, waving him off. She pressed her fingers to her forehead, clearly exasperated.

“Fine. It’d take a while though. And I’m not sure I can help you fully.”

“Just let me know whatever you find.”

Rachel responded with a nod of her own, rising to clear the empty glasses from the table. As she headed to the kitchen, Arthur followed, leaving behind a time echo of his presence to mislead her senses.

Evan did a double-take, sensing Arthur’s presence beside him on the couch while watching him walk towards the kitchen.

‘That’s an intriguing ability. I want it.’

He didn’t sense a skill activation, so he knew it wasn’t a skill but a technique Arthur created with his time manipulation powers.

*SHATTER!

Just then, he heard a loud sound coming from the kitchen, followed by Rachel’s loud voice.

“Arthur, what the fuck?!”

“I just wanted to mess with you a bit, didn’t expect to almost get stabbed, though…”

After that, the sounds of their conversation quickly reduced and though Evan could still hear them, he didn’t pay too much attention to it and turned his gaze to study the living room he was in.

He saw pictures of Rachel and some other people on the walls. In one of those pictures, Arthur was present, laughing along with six others who wore jumpsuits that had numbers on them.

Arthur’s number was ‘659’ and Rachel’s was ‘559’, and from the background, they seemed to be in a training area of some sort.

‘That’s from Duskhand City, right?’

Thinking of the fact that Rachel was completely oblivious to the truth that Arthur was responsible for its destruction—and the deaths of her friends—Evan couldn’t help but sigh.

‘Would she ever find out?’

That was something he could only wait to see. Evan shifted his focus from Rachel’s plight to his own.

His Unique Skill was something he could not use if he wanted to prevent Artemisia and Beatrix from discovering his roots, but that conversely meant he would not have access to over 70% of his skills.

Aside from those with Passive Effects, using Mimicked skills made the symbol glow.

‘That’s unwise. I just decided to do virtually anything to survive, so limiting myself is NOT the kind of decision I should be making.’

He placed a hand on his chin as he contemplated this, but it didn’t take him too long to come to an obvious solution.

Just then, Arthur came out from the kitchen and packed up the photos, before telling him it was time to leave.

However, Arthur’s mood seemed noticeably gloomy, and he didn’t have his usual chipper attitude.

‘What happened when I wasn’t paying attention?’

Evan looked at Rachel who trailed in after Arthur in silence, and she didn’t say a word until Arthur reached the door and was about to open it.

“Arthur…”

“Yeah?”

Arthur turned to face Rachel as she slowly approached him.

“No scanning my body without permission again.”

“I wouldn’t do it if you stopped getting yourself into something dangerous that could potentially kill you.”

Arthur replied with unsettling calmness. He opened the door and took a step outside, adding one final comment over his shoulder.

“It’s not worth it for that extra power…”

He didn’t turn his back anymore, and that was why he missed the expression of surprise that appeared on Rachel’s face.

Evan noticed this, but since he had not been paying attention to their earlier conversation, he didn’t have any context to go off on, so he just thanked her for her help and followed Arthur out.

They headed downstairs and when they went out of the building, Evan sensed a gaze and looked up to see Rachel staring right at them—no, at Arthur.

Arthur noticed her as well, and he just turned to give her a light wave before stepping out of the compound.

◇　◇　◇

“Dude, what happened back there?”

Evan asked, his curiosity piqued by the sudden tension between Arthur and Rachel as they left her place.

‘What happened when he went into the kitchen?’

Arthur, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, only spoke up once they had checked into their rooms at a nearby hotel. After the attendant had left, Evan couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer.

“What happened, huh?”

Arthur muttered with a sigh, gazing out the window with a troubled look. He had the kind of look that Evan would expect from someone who had obtained knowledge they most definitely did not want.

Knowledge could sometimes be a curse, after all.

Arthur opened his subspace and tossed a folder from it towards Evan, before giving a short explanation.

“That’s something I got from Duskhand. From the Researcher leading the Fake Divine experiments…”

Evan flipped through the folder, his eyes catching on the bookmarked illustrations. It detailed the processes of creating a ‘Fake Divine’—the same thing that Arthur had joined up with the demons to destroy.

Although Evan wasn’t a biochemist or scientist, he was able to understand some of the explanations given there, especially the side effects of becoming a ‘Fake Divine’.

A Fake Divine Human, for example, indeed possessed the ‘Divine Factor’, but their racial factors as a whole were messed up.

They had more Racial factors than they needed.

An existence’s total Racial Factors amounted to 100%.

Over 90% constituted of factors of what race they actually were, and depending on one’s ancestry—if they had mixed-bloods amongst their ancestors—they usually had 1 or 2% of other racial factors within them.

For Example, the Leviathan Devils Evan had been confused about earlier. The reason for the ‘Leviathan’ in their name, was because each one of them possessed 15% Leviathan and 85% Devil racial factors.

‘Pureblood Devils’ on the other hand, had 100% Devil Race factors. ‘Pureblood gods’ also had 100% Divine Factors, and this was where Artemisia and Beatrix fell under.

In a case where someone was transformed from one race to another, like with Vampires, their original Racial Factors didn’t disappear into thin air.

They remained within them, just that they only amounted to 1% of their existence. So if they were originally human, they would now be 99% Vampire and 1% Human.

In the case of Fake Divines, they had more than necessary.

An existence’s Racial Factors should amount to 100%, but they had 120+%.

Having more Racial Factors than necessary was naturally detrimental to the existence. It was an excess burden on their soul, with a major drawback—A Reduction in Soul Lifespan.

It was kind of like a Phone battery.

If when purchased, the battery capacity is at 5000 mAh, then when charged up to 100%, it was 5000 mAh of charge.

After continuous usage over an extended period of time, the amount of charge the phone had when displaying 100% would not be 5000 mAh anymore.

It would reduce to 4900, 4800, 4500 and so on.

That was basically what happened with a Fake Divine’s Soul Lifespan every time they used their divinity.

When Evan read up to that point and understood it, Arthur broke the silence in the room with a sad smile on his face.

“Creating a ‘Fake Divine’ is a 3 stage Process.

And would you believe I just discovered, that Rachel’s done with Stage 1 already?”

“?!”

Now Evan understood the reason behind Arthur’s change in demeanour. It was clear that despite being on opposing sides, Arthur genuinely cared for Rachel. ‘

‘The heck is this? Some star-crossed lovers situation?’