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Book 2: Chapter 397

When the cold water met his face, his drowsiness was completely washed away.

Lukas stared down at the flowing water. This was what he looked like when he was 12 years old.

Although the face was the same, his expression did not have the cuteness of a child his age. Would it be better for him to act a bit like a child? No, there was no need to act since this was just a fake world, to begin with.

“…”

Not bothering to wipe the droplets of water off of his face, he looked around the forest. Towards the west was a city.

In the future, after leaving for the city, Lukas would encounter many large and small incidents. That was all that came to his mind.

He couldn’t remember exactly when he went to the city, or what the incidents he’d encountered were.

‘I should learn?’

That’s what ‘Lukas’ had said.

He needed to learn about ‘Lukas’ himself, and about his life.

But this current phenomenon was closer to an experience.

If he simply wanted to tell him about his life, there was no need to go through so much trouble. The same was true even if the information was given to him in the form of possession.

Lukas had to now move this body on his own. There also didn’t seem to be a limit to what he could say.

In that case, what did ‘Lukas’ want from him?

[You cannot leave this forest.]

His thoughts stopped.

A voice appeared directly in his mind. The image that was being reflected in the flowing stream also changed.

Before he knew it, a man was standing behind him. It was ‘Lukas’. However, his figure was faint, like a ghost, and his lower body simply didn’t exist. In other words, he was floating in the air.

‘Lukas’ spoke.

[The materialisation doesn’t stretch that far. The range of this Void Image is very small. There are only around 100 characters, and the field has a radius of about 5 kilometres centred around the orphanage. There is nothing past that.]

“…”

[Why do you think I’m showing you memories of this time?]

This point.

Lukas didn’t answer immediately, and instead slowly retraced his memories.

…The autumn when he was 12 years old.

Because of how long it had been, it wasn’t easy to remember.

The stream trickled, and he could easily see the fish swimming within it. By the time the water on his face had dried, Lukas opened his mouth.

“The disappearance incident that occurred at this time.”

[So you haven’t forgotten.]

‘Lukas’ nodded.

[If I had to choose one major turning point in my life, for me, it would be the disappearance incident that occurred at this time.]

“…”

[The choice I made after that incident… At that time, I didn’t think I had a choice. It was only till after that I realised that wasn’t the case. That’s why I’m curious. You are basically the same as me. Lukas… how did you act at this time?”

The voice gradually faded, and with it, the figure of ‘Lukas’ disappeared.

Lukas remained where he was standing. The words ‘Lukas’ left behind were stuck in his mind.

-You, how did you act at this time?

…The disappearance incident.

How did he act at that time? He couldn’t remember.

* * *

When he returned to the orphanage, he was greeted by bustling movements. The other children were slowly waking up. They all rubbed their eyes, stumbling around like zombies.

“Good morning, Lukas.”

A clear voice.

It was a girl with braided hair. She had orange hair and a cheerful face.

Lukas managed to recall her name relatively quickly.

“Ellie.”

“Wah, look at how your face is shining. Did you go on your own again?”

Ellie spoke reproachfully with a disapproving look on her face.

“Mhm.”

“You didn’t listen to me when I told you I wanted to go with you next time. Hmph.”

“I looked for you before I left, but I couldn’t find you.”

“I went to the bathroom.”

Ellie grumbled as she began to tidy up the beddings. Glancing at the side of her face, Lukas helped.

Ellie Trowman.

She was either 13 or 14 years old. Even though he couldn’t exactly remember, it was clear that she was older than Lukas. The image of her bossing him around and telling him to call her big sis appeared in his mind.

“What’s for breakfast today?”

Tuktuk, Ellie patted dust off of her pillow.

“Stew.”

“Really? Huu. I hate stew. I won’t feel full even if I eat a couple bowls.”

“That’s because there aren’t many solid ingredients.”

Then Ellie opened her mouth.

“Come to think of it, I saw something in a book before. It said that it’s common for normal stews to have meat in them. Can you believe it? With so much precious beef…”

As was common with orphanages, the Trowman Orphanage was not very well off. For breakfast, it was usually stew which consisted of root vegetables, stem vegetables, and offal boiled in plain water. For lunch, it was two or three dry loaves of bread, although dinner was a bit more luxurious.

That was why the children in the orphanage looked forward to dinner.

“…phew. All done.”

“Good job.”

“Ng. Should we close the window? I think that’s enough ventilation.”

“I’ll close it.”

“Thanks.”

As the window was closed, the door was opened and Sophia stepped in.

“Ellie, Lukas, come down for breakfast.”

“We’ll go now.”

“Did you two clean up everything again?”

“Ahaha. Well…”

Sophia frowned.

“Those rascals have no intention of helping their big brother and sister.”

“That’s okay. Let’s hurry, the food is getting cold.”

Ellie smiled warmly and gently pushed Sophia out of the room.

Lukas followed them.

The cafeteria was noisy. This was natural considering that there were dozens of children in one space. But despite being noisy, the children were not disorderly. More importantly, they were all waiting patiently without touching the food.

It was one of the orphanage’s strict rules that Sophia ensured was enforced. This showed that they were properly following the rule ‘everyone eats together, and starts at the same time’.

“Looks like everyone is here, Al, Liz.”

“Yes.”

The children, Al and Liz, went to and fro along the table distributing meals, and soon, the noisy breakfast began.

* * *

After breakfast, they had ‘work’. The Trowman Orphanage was basically self-sufficient. Of course, they received subsidies from the city but it was only a miniscule amount. It was impossible to feed dozens of children by relying on just subsidies.

It was for this reason that they produced most of their own food ingredients and daily necessities as well as clothing.

Children with good eyes were responsible for picking edible grasses or looking for fruits, while the brave children looked for firewood.

Some children did the laundry, or caught fish in the stream.

Lukas’ job was to take care of and monitor the children.

This might seem like an easy task at first glance, but it wasn’t. This was because the children were spread out across the forest. Lukas had to go around from time to time to check if anyone was injured or was caught in an unexpected situation.

“Luther, don’t touch that tree.”

Luther, who was just about to climb a tall tree to pick fruits, froze.

“What? Why?”

“It has a beehive.”

“Beehive?…Ah!”

It was only then that Luther noticed the hanging beehive. Of course, the activity level of bees had dropped significantly since it was the beginning of autumn, but the fact that they were dangerous didn’t change.

“How did you even see that?”

The location of the beehive was so excellent that it was almost invisible among the leaves. There was a high chance that he wouldn’t have noticed it even after climbing into the tree.

“I’m a lot bigger than you.”

“Tch. You’re such a show off… Anyways, thanks!”

He nodded to Luther before gesturing with his chin.

“Go back first. It’s almost time for lunch.”

“What about you, Lukas?”

“I’ll look around to see if there are any other kids around.”

“Okay! See you later!”

Luther ran off with a shout.

Lukas, who was left alone, looked up at the beehive and muttered.

“Magic Missile.”

He casted the most basic 1-star spell. He stared at the unstable sphere of flowing energy for a moment.

Lukas had sensed mana when he was younger. And after digging through a few magical tomes that were closer to general knowledge books, he learned how to use a few spells.

This would have been impossible without his natural talent, but the spells he could cast clearly displayed his lack of skill.

He closed his eyes and checked the mana room in his body.

…Small, and bare. His mana room was at most the size of his palm. The mana it contained was less than half a cup.

Nevertheless, with the knowledge Lukas now had, it was possible to use 3-star, or even 4-star spells with this much mana.

Stretching his hand towards the beehive, he spat out the activation phrase.

“Water Jet.”

An attack spell that sprayed a jet of compressed water. The range was short, but the power was high. The spell would cut through not only the beehive but also the beautiful tree behind it.

“…”

But the spell didn’t manifest. Lukas lowered his outstretched hand.

Something inside his body was wrapping around his mana and preventing his spell from manifesting.

Naturally, there was no problem with the formula. It was also not because he lacked mana either. In theory, everything was perfect.

That was what made the reason easy to guess.

The reason why he couldn’t use Water Jet was simple.

At this point in the past, Lukas could not use 4-star spells.

‘It won’t allow me to use enough power to change things.’

It would be correct to understand it like that.

In other words, the spells that Lukas could use at that moment were probably limited to what ‘12 year old Lukas’ could use.

1 star and 2-star spells.

…He recalled the words of ‘Lukas’. He’d called it a turning point. Lukas had an idea of what he wanted from him.

The upcoming disappearance incident.

He probably wanted to know what Lukas thought and how he acted in the face of that incident.

He would compare and analyse the differences in their actions, and then, he would probably tell Lukas what he’d done.

It would probably end there.

This Void Image world would disappear, and Lukas would return to the ‘dumpsite’ filled with corpses.

Then, he would obtain the possibility of another Lukas and get stronger.

“Ah, there you are, Lukas.”

It was Ellie’s voice. Panting heavily, she put her hand on the tree and tried to catch her breath.

It seemed that she’d gone around looking for Lukas.

“Sorry. Were you looking for me?”

“Mhm. But…”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

Then she spoke in a slightly accusatory tone.

“You, were you practising magic here again?”

“…well.”

Now that he thought about it, in the past, Lukas had used patrolling as an excuse to go deeper into the forest to practice magic. The only person who knew that was… probably Ellie.

“Aren’t you being too loose? You know how important our role is! If any of the other kids get hurt…”

“That won’t happen. There aren’t any more kids in the forest. Luther should have been the last one and he has already returned.”

Ellie flinched slightly then asked in a timid voice.

“…really?”

“What about you?”

Ellie had the same duties as Lukas, it was just that the area she was in charge of was different. Lukas managed the clearings and surrounding forest, while Ellie managed the streams around the orphanage.

“I’m almost done on my end.”

“So you came to pick me up on purpose. Thanks.”

“Because I’m the big sis.”

Ellie stuck her nose up as she said that.

“Anyways, Lukas, did you forget your promise again?”

“What promise?”

“You said you’d show your magic.”

“…”

Of course, Lukas wouldn’t remember such a small promise.

“Sorry.”

However, he was quick to apologise.

It was easy to see that Ellie wasn’t lying.

“Seeee, you’re so mean! You didn’t do it even though I haven’t told anyone for a month!”

Ellie stomped on the ground as if she was disappointed. That jogged his memory a bit.

At that time, Lukas had been hiding the fact that he could use magic. He hadn’t expected Ellie to find out. He’d been practising beside the stream at dawn and got caught.

“I’m sorry.”

Lukas apologised again.

Then he looked up at Ellie for a moment before saying.

“In return, I’ll teach you how to use magic next time.”

“…huh? Really?”

“Mhm. Really.”

Ellie’s face brightened.

“Really? Do you promise? If you break this one too…”

“I won’t break it. But you can’t get mad at me if you can’t do it.”

“Naturally! Does this big sis look that petty?”

Ellie smiled wickedly.

“Huhu! Good. When I learn to use magic… Um… I want to use water magic first.”

“From the start? Why?”

“Why else! Don’t you think it would help a lot with laundry and cleaning?”

“…if used well, it’s possible.”

Lukas hollowly agreed to her words.

Unfortunately, Ellie had no talent for magic. She was born with a constitution that could not sense mana. To tell her that he’d teach her despite knowing that was to deceive her.

Nevertheless, it was the right thing to say at this moment. For the time being, it would be better for him to stick with Ellie.

Because Ellie was the first victim of the upcoming disappearance incident.