Chapter 10  

Kai lazily hid his head under the pillow, the light of day was filtering through the window, but he wasn’t ready to get up yet. A slight headache wasn’t helping, but for a moment everything was fine. Then the events of the previous night rushed back to him all at once.

His eyes shot open, his heart thumping in his chest. Taking stock of his surroundings, he slipped out of bed, careful not to wake his sisters.

Feeling a bit itchy, his gaze stopped on the small patches of dried blood on his clothes and skin. Someone had tried to clean the worst of it, but part of it remained.

He stopped his thoughts from going any further.

I need to get cleaned.

Kai walked to the small living room, the floor had been scrubbed, but a darker spot still stained the wooden floor, a subtle smell of iron in the air.

Don’tthinkdon’tthinkdon’tthinkdon’tthinkdon’tthinkdon’tthink. Don’t think, not yet.

Alana was sleeping on the floor shivering, beside her bucket with pink-tinted water. Kai took another blanket from his parents’ bedroom to cover his mom. It would be better if she rested on the bed, but he was too scared of the words that would be said if he woke her up.

Don’t think. Not yet.

Kai put the blanket around her shoulders as best as he could with his gaze straight ahead, not looking at the corner of the room where a white sheet cove—

No thoughts. I need to get clean.

Their door had been pushed close, but it wasn’t perfectly realigned, letting the weak light of morning seep through. Kai walked outside for the first time in weeks, taking the time to savor the fresh air. His body shivered when the breeze hit him through his thin clothes, but he didn’t feel the cold. The sun was shining on the horizon with a few clouds covering it.

He knew he shouldn’t, but he started walking. People around the streets were always rare, especially in the early hours of the day. It was a little after dawn, the fishermen must have already gone out and few people were going to be around for a while longer.

Kai didn’t look where he was going, he put one foot in front of the other. Before realizing it, he could hear the roar of the waves, the shore in front of him. It wasn’t the beautiful wide sweep of thin white sand he fell in love with. A short stretch with way more pebbles than sand was all he got.

The sea looked calm enough, but he knew these waters were deeper and dangerous if you weren’t careful. If you swam too far, the strong currents would exhaust you and push you offshore.

Without thinking twice, Kai took off his clothes and jumped into the sea. The impact of the icy water stole his breath, but he dove and kept swimming till his lungs burned for oxygen. He took a breath and repeated the process, diving and swimming as far as he could go.

One time, two times, three times. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, he wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe he just wanted to feel something, but not that.

After the fifth time, he needed more than a mouthful of air, so he stopped. Floating amidst the waves.

All the thoughts he had pushed away flooded back to him. He couldn’t ignore what had happened any longer.

He screamed all his sorrow and rage till his throat started to hurt.

His small body had not brought him far from shore, but if someone heard him, no one said anything or came to check on a naked child screaming in the sea. Weird and tragic occurrences were the new norm in Greenside.

Kai took a deep breath and swam back to shore. He could feel the currents pushing him off course, a hint of panic flashing through him. He suppressed it and kept pushing, thankfully he hadn't gone too far. Just a little further could have led to a tragic situation.

Dragging his body ashore he laid heaving.

There was no denying it. His father was dead, and he was never going to see him again. He was never getting the chance to talk to him, enjoy his calming presence or hear him mumbling to himself while reading two different books and taking notes on a third, continuing his research unyielding.

I wasted so much time.

Guilt racked his insides. Kai had kept him at arm's length when they could have spent more time together. Rellan was never going to spend afternoons teaching him or talking to him about long-lost civilizations for hours on end.

He would have continued reminiscing if not for the cold becoming too noticeable to ignore.

What the fuck am I doing?

He had already done multiple incredibly stupid things this morning. It was time to get his shit together, his family needed him.

After the shock of getting reincarnated, step by step he had grown closer to this world and his new family. Only now he did understand how much.

He wasn’t an Earth teenager anymore and he wasn’t an adventurer exploring another world. This was his life, the only one that mattered.

He was Kai Tylenn of the Baquaire Archipelago. With a mother and two sisters who now needed him.

* * *

The next days passed in a blur.

They carried Rellan’s body to the cemetery to be buried. Kai wondered if someone was watching their slow procession like he used to do. But his father had not died from hunger or sickness.

Voices of the ‘accident’—as people called it, even if it had been plain murder—had spread around. Things had gotten bad, but not so dire that their father’s murder would not shock the community.

Yet, things were bad enough that they had no hope for justice. In more ‘normal’ circumstances it was the purview of the elder to judge all crimes. For the rare grave crimes, a temporary council could be named from the most respected members of the town to investigate the matter.

These were not normal times, there was no elder or justice in Greenside. The Republic had dismantled everything to put their mayor in charge, but he had run away. Kai never thought he would want the man back.

The town was too divided, people’s only interest was surviving the winter. A few townspeople told them a couple nice words or lamented the situation, but Kai was under no illusion anything would be done.

He could only once more curse his powerlessness.

They had no clue about the culprits either, it had been dark and they had their faces covered. The only thing Alana was sure of was that she didn’t recognize any of the voices.

A couple days later things proceeded as predicted. Some came to give them their condolences, especially the families from Whiteshore. Some even offered a little food to help them get through the rest of winter. They probably felt guilty.

* * *

With the cyclone season receding, relief and elation swept the town putting an end to the gloomy atmosphere. They had survived.

From the almost two thousand people, a little more than seventeen hundred remained. Three hundred people had been lost, more than 90% of them from the new migrant population. One of them being his dad.

The number shocked Kai. He had a hard time just imagining that many people. It was more than the original population of Whiteshore.

The surprises were not over yet. With the winds of early spring the ships waving the soaring hawk finally made an appearance. Months too late.

They all knew it was only a question of time, but it was still baffling to see them come back like nothing happened. Almost as frustrating as the fact they could do nothing about it.

The ships had a cargo full of supplies, which weren’t a question of life and death, but still needed.

The lives of three hundred people forgotten in exchange for a little food and cheap goods. After the first desperate person accepted the bribe, everyone else hurried to follow suit.

The only good news was that the old mayor wouldn’t be coming back. It wasn’t out of shame or to please the population. The Merian Republic had not appreciated him leaving his post without permission. The same went for the captain of the garrison, who had been replaced.

It was a meager consolation, but at least they wouldn’t have to tolerate them walking around like it was nothing.

A temporary clerk from the Republic was put in charge before elections could be called. To Kai’s surprise, that happened in less than a month. After a two-week period of fierce campaigning, elder Soluli was elected from the old part of Greenside.

Even after winter ended, the line between the two sides of town had not disappeared. The migrants were more numerous, but divided. They had too many disagreements to support a single candidate.

With that settled down, Greenside began a phase of frenzied activity. They would never allow another crisis like that to happen again.

Alana was always busy working, she had to keep the family afloat by herself, while Eleni followed her around to learn new skills and decide what future job she wanted to pursue. She still had a couple years before her fourteenth birthday, but it was better to get started early to get the right skills for the profession she wanted.

Kai only had a vague idea of how professions worked yet, but he didn't care. He was happy that his family was doing okay, he would get his answers in time.

It was clear skills and race grade were important, he was confident he would get a better than average profession. It would give him the opportunity to help his family and lead a comfortable life.

His dreams of becoming a world-renowned adventurer exploring ancient ruins or a powerful mage were just that: a dream.

On the mainland, some people were born at Orange ★, and from what he knew, humanity was not the only race on Elydes, nor was it the most powerful. He could take the risk and bet his life on the Talthen continent, but chances were he would die for some trivial reason he couldn’t predict. He might be able to do it, but was it worth betting his life on it?

He still planned on traveling the world, but there was no hurry. He would gather information and prepare his journey. Slow and steady wins the race.

It had been a while since he last consulted his status, so he brought it up to check.

Name: Kai Tylenn

Race: Human

Profession: None

Body stats

Strength: 3>4

Dexterity: 4>5

Constitution: 6>8

Mind: 8>9

Spirit: 9>11

Perception: 6>8

Skills (7/7):

Meditation (lv38>45)

Acting (lv18>24)

Swimming (lv29>34)

Running (lv11>36)

Teaching (lv6>7)

Awareness (lv1>9)

Mana Sense (lv10>21)

Race: Human

Grade: Red ★★★

Next advancement ➔ 13,187/40,000 XP

He had gained a few attributes across the board. His physical stats increased mainly from growing up, while Spirit and Perception increased with his race enhancement to Red ★★★. Hopefully, he would see more benefits as he grew up, the advancement to Orange was far.

As for his skills, the gains in the year he had spent at Greenside weren’t as good as he would have liked.

Having to stay out of sight or close to his house for long stretches of time, he wasted a lot of time commiserating with depressing thoughts.

Kai sighed, no need to have ridiculous standards.

I’m sure it is still great for my age. I may not be the prophesied genius that will save the world, but it’s fine as long as I make progress.

He wasn’t the chosen one, but maybe he could still be well above average.

Running had progressed discreetly since he often used it in his daily life. The only good thing the bands of child bullies did was force him to train the skill. Things had calmed down after the famine ended, the future started to look rosier for the town. He still ran semi-regularly, using Awareness to avoid taking risks.

One level of Teaching was like a bad joke, it felt worse than none. The skill reminded him of the long afternoons spent teaching his four little ducklings. He had been so exasperated when he taught the twins, but now he would give anything to get that back.

Who knows what they are doing right now…

He knew he would miss them, but he had no idea how much.

Without me to guide their young minds they must be completely lost.

Turning back to his status he looked at the final skill on the list: Mana Sense. It was the one he should be most proud of, but it gave him mixed feelings. It was a constant reminder of the accident, when he gained 5 levels in one night, but it also carried the fond memories of many afternoons he spent training it with his father.

Rellan wasn’t here to compliment his progress anymore, but he had put in more effort than before.

I could have done better, but it’s fine.

He had gained a lot of XP, but with a whopping 40,000 price tag, the race advancement was far away. No wonder people were considered hard-working if they reached Orange before fourteen.

If the cost kept increasing so steeply, he wondered how much more would be the next. Red was only the first color after all.

Musing a little longer, Kai closed his status window, he had chores to do. With their mother and older sister busy, he and Keandra did their best to help around the house.

The rest were problems for another time.