Reincarnated Hero System

Beatrix woke up with a start.

Her breaths came in quick, shallow bursts.

Sweat rolled down the sides of her face, dampening her pillow. She took a deep breath, trying to calm the rapid beating of her heart, and grabbed a towel from the bedside table, wiping the sweat from her brow.

Her eyes flicked to the clock on the wall, avoiding the temptation to use her time powers, which would instantly tell her the hour.

“2:47 AM…”

For a moment, she just sat there, staring at the clock.

Then she got to her feet and moved towards the door, but before she opened it, she remembered—

‘Oh right, I’m in a hotel. Can’t exactly walk out like this.’

Sighing, she reached for a nearby bathrobe, tossing it over her nightgown before slipping out the door and into the hallway.

She could have teleported, but the thought of using any of her powers right now made her feel even more drained.

It was, after all, her affinity with time that had caused her to wake up in the first place.

Beatrix had an extraordinarily high affinity for the time attribute. While this made her incredibly powerful, it also came with a heavy price.

Time—ever intrusive—often revealed things to her that she’d rather not see.

Possible futures, fragments of what could be, all shoved into her mind without warning or mercy. She could filter most of it out during the day, but at night, in the quiet moments between sleep and wakefulness, those visions crept in.

Her dream—a glimpse of a potential future—had been terrible, one of those nightmare timelines that left her shaken to the core.

It was the kind of dream that ensured she wouldn’t be going back to sleep anytime soon. And though Beatrix looked calm on the outside, her mind was a storm of rattling thoughts.

The worst part was, that there wasn’t anyone she could really talk to about this. Not even her mother could relate, and her mother was the goddess of space and time.

Beatrix’s affinity for time far surpassed even hers, which was both impressive and terrifying.

“Well, there’s Arthur…”

She muttered to herself as she walked down the hallway.

Arthur understood. He was the only person she knew who could relate to her situation, and perhaps even more so.

The law of time loved him, in that inconvenient, suffocating way that time sometimes “helped” those who were too attuned to it. It showed him things, flashes of futures he didn’t want to see, just like it did to her.

It was one of the reasons Arthur had insisted that she and Artemisia stay behind on Aramis—because of something time had shown him, some future he had seen.

Beatrix quickly pushed the thought aside as she approached the door to her destination.

Just before she raised her hand to knock, she heard a soft clicking sound. The door opened on its own. She pushed it the rest of the way open and stepped inside.

Seated at a desk, her face illuminated by the glow of a tablet, was Artemisia, scribbling notes with a faintly glowing stylus.

“Arty, you’re still awake?”

Beatrix asked, her voice soft but laced with exhaustion, and without looking up from her work, Artemisia replied.

“Of course, I am. How do you think the door opened by itself?”

Beatrix closed the door behind her, tossing her bathrobe onto the coat hanger before dragging a chair over to sit beside her friend.

She plopped down, leaning her head against Artemisia’s shoulder.

For a moment, they sat in silence, Artemisia continuing her note-taking while Beatrix let herself relax in the comforting presence of the other girl.

The weight of the dream, the fragments of the future she’d glimpsed, were still heavy on her mind, but here, in this quiet moment with Artemisia, they didn’t feel quite so overwhelming.

After a while, Artemisia broke the silence, her voice quiet and steady.

“You had another one, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. A bad one this time.”

Beatrix nodded, not lifting her head from her friend’s shoulder while Artemisia continued to focus on her tablet.

“Can’t sleep?”

Artemisia asked, her eyes still scanning the screen and Beatrix silently nodded.

“Mhmm, can’t.”

Artemisia, sensing Beatrix’s restlessness, let her focus slip from the task at hand. With an internal sigh, she put it away and she shifted to something less important that didn’t require too much focus.

Beatrix, noticing the small shift in Artemisia’s focus, smiled lightly and at that moment, Artemisia glanced her way.

“You seem awfully smiley for someone who said they can’t sleep.”

“That’s because you’re here, Arty. That’s why I can smile.”

The line was dropped so casually, but Artemisia remained her usual self, unmoved by the sentiment.

“Is that so?”

She replied, turning her gaze back to her tablet and after this, a quiet stretch of time passed, the only sounds between them the soft taps on the screen and Beatrix’s steady breathing.

After a moment, Beatrix spoke again, her voice thoughtful.

“Hey, so, about today…”

“What about today?”

Artemisia raised a brow, curious about which part of their day Beatrix was referring to and the other girl continued.

“It’s about Evan’s Mystic Eyes.”

Recognition flickered in Artemisia’s eyes. She paused for a moment before replying.

“Yeah, what about them?”

Beatrix hesitated, then sighed.

“Wait, scratch that. I don’t really care about Evan’s Mystic Eyes. What I care about is something else.”

Artemisia turned fully toward Beatrix now, noting the change in her tone. There was something heavier in her words, something that hinted at an unspoken worry.

“You know…”

Beatrix paused for a second, then continued, her voice quieter.

“Evan said that, despite knowing you in the future, he has no idea who I am.”

True, Evan had mentioned that the first time he’d ever heard of someone named ‘Beatrix Xagna’ was the day he arrived on Aramis.

Before that, even though he was quite familiar with future Artemisia, he had no knowledge of Beatrix’s existence.

“Who knows, I could have met him while you weren’t around.”

Artemisia responded, offering a logical explanation but Beatrix remained silent, her thoughts drifting back to a strange dream she’d had recently.

She stared at the ceiling for a moment before voicing her concern.

“But what if that’s not the reason?”

“What do you mean, ‘what if that’s not the reason?'”

Artemisia turned to her, curious again and Beatrix took a deep breath, as if trying to steady her thoughts.

“I mean… I can’t imagine myself without you, Arty. I would be wherever you are.

But if Evan knew you without knowing me, it doesn’t add up. Knowing my own personality, there’s no way I wouldn’t have tagged along at least once.”

She knew how clingy she could be when it came to Artemisia. It was a truth she didn’t shy away from.

Hearing her words, Artemisia, as usual, was calm and rational in her response.

“Who knows? Maybe you were busy with something else at the time.”

Despite Artemisia’s logical reasoning, Beatrix couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling. She sighed, then muttered softly.

“What if he’s hiding the fact that he knows me for whatever reason?”

“And what reasons would he have for doing that?”

Artemisia raised an eyebrow in question and Beatrix shrugged, feeling stumped.

“I dunno… He did say he prided himself in his ability to keep secrets…”

A brief silence followed as she struggled to find an answer, but none came. She sighed again, then asked the question that had been weighing on her heart all night.

“Hey Arty, we’ll always be together, right?”

Without hesitation, Artemisia replied, her voice calm and steady.

“Yeah. I know you’re going to be a nuisance to me for the rest of my life.”

Beatrix smiled, the tension easing from her body as she let out a soft chuckle. Moving closer, she wrapped her arms around Artemisia’s waist and breathed in deeply, grounding herself in the familiar scent.

“I was so rattled earlier, but just being here near you for a few moments… I’m already perfectly calm. Your presence calms me. A lot.”

Artemisia glanced at her briefly before returning her gaze to the tablet.

“Is that so?

Well, this won’t be the first time you’ve said that.”

Beatrix chuckled again, her hold on Artemisia tightening slightly.

“Yeah, it won’t be the first time I’ve said that.”

There was silence for a moment, and then, Beatrix let out a low murmur.

“Hey, Arty.”

“Yeah?”

Artemisia replied, not looking up from her tablet but the words Beatrix spoke next made her turn towards the white-haired girl, eyes widening in mild incredulity.

“You know I love you, right?”

The black-haired goddess blinked, her eyelids repeatedly closing and opening over her golden eyes before she spoke.

“Save heartfelt confessions like that for the guy you like.”

Beatrix gave a soft chuckle, but her voice remained sincere.

“Even if I told him, he probably wouldn’t think much of it. Right now, he’d probably see it as more of a nuisance than anything.”

“Oh, so you’re self-aware.”

Beatrix let out a playful laugh in response to Artemisia’s words, tightening her embrace around her best friend.

“That hurts, you know?”

She sighed contentedly, leaning her head against her Artemisia.

“But still… very calming.”

They settled into a quiet, shared comfort, the soft rhythm of their breathing filling the room. After a moment, Artemisia, sensing Beatrix’s stillness, was about to speak when she noticed the steady rise and fall of her chest.

Beatrix had fallen asleep.

Artemisia sighed softly, the weight of her earlier annoyance lifting, replaced by something gentler. Unbeknownst to her, a small smile curled at the edges of her lips as she glanced at the sleeping goddess.

Carefully, she lifted Beatrix in her arms and walked her over to the bed, laying her down gently. In her half-asleep state, Beatrix reached out, her hand grasping onto Artemisia’s sleeve for a moment, but soon her grip loosened, and her arm fell softly onto the bed as she drifted deeper into slumber.

Artemisia quietly stood and made her way toward the door, opening it without a sound.

Just as she stepped into the hallway, she ran into Evan, who was casually holding a portable console in one hand, his other stuffed in his pocket.

“Huh? It’s like 2 a.m. You’re still awake?”

Evan said, blinking at her and Artemisia raised a brow in response.

“I should ask the same. Why are you still awake?”

“Oh, I was drinking with the guys downstairs. So, you know.”

Evan gave a lazy shrug as he replied and Artemisia’s expression didn’t change as she asked back.

“You were drinking?”

“Uh-huh, they had this really cool strawberry wine.”

At the mention of strawberries, Artemisia’s gaze shifted ever so slightly, a knowing look in her eyes. She quickly understood why Evan had gone drinking.

“Might I ask, are you addicted?”

Evan blinked, then gave another casual shrug.

“Probably. I mean, it’s pretty obvious.”

He was clearly unconcerned by this, and very quickly shifted the topic to something more important.

“But anyway, you know we gotta go somewhere tomorrow, right? So… I dunno, get some sleep?”

“I should say the same to you.”

Artemisia crossed her arms as she responded and Evan chuckled, glancing down at his game.

“Yeah, yeah. Get some sleep.”

He repeated the words, already halfway down the hallway, still playing with one hand as he headed back to his room.

Artemisia watched him disappear into his room, her thoughts drifting back to Beatrix’s words from earlier.

She stood there in silence for a moment before turning and continuing down the hallway, going to take care of what she had originally left the room to do.