Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

As his loud shout echoed through the surroundings, briefly drowning the buzz of the crowd, everyone suddenly turned silent, and the surroundings quieted down. The next moment, all heads collectively turned in his direction.

Suddenly feeling the weight of their collective gaze, Ravian’s forehead grew sweaty, but he tried his best to act natural while unconsciously tightening his grip on the folded paper in his hands.

Moments later, the buzz of the crowd returned. But the topic of their murmurs had shifted.

"Whose kid is that? Does anybody know?"

"It’s an adult matter; kids shouldn’t butt in."

"Are we bullying? Hah! This little shit needs to know who the real victim is."

’So far, it’s going as he had said.’

As planned, he had gathered everyone’s attention. Now he needed to ’sharpen the atmosphere’ according to Adrian’s words.

"It is bullying! What wrong has the owner of this shop done to you people?! If he committed a crime, then why not report him to the enforcers?!"

The people’s expressions slowly changed. Now they were looking at him with irritation and anger, and the gazes became more intense and piercing.

The subject of their anger had now shifted to him instead, just as Adrian had told him. As he had said, when the sheep suddenly change their course, the shepherd will act. And just as expected...

"Boy, you are spouting some fine nonsense without understanding anything."

The one who spoke was one of the five people leading the crowd. A man with his beard tied into a braid and a piece of white cloth over his forehead. He wore a sleeveless tunic that exposed his thick, muscular arms glistening in the sunlight.

Ravian focused all his attention on the man as the two of them locked eyes. Moments later, he became certain that this person was the leader. He clearly remembered what Adrian had told him.

’If the focus of the crowd shifts, the leader will respond and try to steer the conversation. If someone other than the leader speaks, they will instinctively look at the leader after they finish speaking.’

The man before him stood confidently; he hadn’t turned to anyone after he finished speaking, which meant that he was the leader.

Now that he had spotted the leader, there was no room for error. Gathering his focus, Ravian divided his consciousness into two and let one part dive inside his own mind while the other remained conscious and controlled his body.

It was an action he had become quite familiar with.

Soon, the other part of his consciousness–the part that dove into his mind–opened his eyes into a new reality. He was standing in the centre of a massive cylindrical hall with bookshelves filled with books as the curved walls.

The ceiling above him stretched so high that he simply couldn’t see it. Or maybe there was no ceiling at all, and the library stretched above indefinitely.

Even though he had seen this place so many times, he still felt overwhelmed at the sheer scale of it all. He called it the Library of Mnemosyne.

This library existed inside his own mind, and it was something that was created by his Origin ability. All his memories were stored in this place in the form of books, and he needed to come here to remember them.

Not wasting any time, Ravian mentally commanded his body to float upward and reached the area where the most recent books were. He gave another mental command, and a white book with red laced borders suddenly flew toward him.

This was the book that contained his memory of those pages written by Adrian, which he was asked to remember.

He grabbed the book and opened it.

In the real world, Ravian opened his mouth and spoke in a slightly angry yet childish tone.

"Am I wrong? Did he rob you? Did he steal from you? Or did he hurt someone precious to you? Why are you all gathering in front of his shop like this? Why are you all trying to drive him away?!!"

As he raised his voice by the end, the atmosphere became somewhat tense. Instead of murmuring, people looked at the man with the braided beard, as if expecting him to reply.

And the man replied soon after, speaking in a heated tone.

"This area, this part of the district, is a place of craft, a place of steel! Those accursed Magitool weapons are never welcome here. I do not want them here! And the people standing behind me feel the same way!‌!"

The crowd began nodding.

"That’s right!"

"We don’t want it here!"

"Velmar, that clown, is unwelcome here!"

With all those angry shouts directed toward him, Ravian struggled to keep himself composed. It felt as though the world itself was denying him.

But Adrian had trusted him with this; he couldn’t ruin things just because of this reason, so he shouted back with an even greater intensity.

"He bought the land here legally; he has the right to do whatever he wants on that land. The fact that you all damaged his property is a crime! You all are the criminals here! Besides, did House Ravenshade acknowledge this place as a place of craft, or did you all decide that on your own?!"

For a brief moment, the surroundings turned completely silent. A silence that felt like the calm before the storm. And the next moment, the leader’s face turned bright red with anger as he roared like a beast.

"You little SHIT!! How DARE you say that to us all! A little bastard like you cannot judge us! Speak one more word, and I will personally drag you down from those crates!!!"

The crowd roared behind him.

"He must be that clown’s slave!"

"Someone needs to teach this kid some manners!"

"A little cretin dares to accuse us adults of being criminals?!"

He could clearly feel the seething intensity of their gaze, the emotions embedded in those shouts. Having become the focal point of the crowd’s collective hatred, his knees became wobbly, and his body trembled intensely.

It was too overwhelming, making him question what he was even doing here. But...

’It’s going just like he planned.’

From the start, the goal of the plan given to him by Adrian had only a single objective. Draw the crowd’s attention toward himself and make them angry enough that they couldn’t think rationally.

And then there was the final step of the plan, which was—

’Huh?’

He suddenly caught sight of something flying in his direction. It was a small, brown pebble. The kind that can be seen lying at the corner of the road.

His body was about to instinctively react and dodge that pebble, but something Adrian had said suddenly flashed through his mind.

’If you see a stone or a pebble flying in your direction, don’t dodge it and let it hit you. It would be even better if it hits you on a part that people can see.’

Ravian paused.

He wouldn’t sustain much of an injury even if that pebble did hit him, since his body had been reinforced after he ascended to the Origin Phase. So following Adrian’s words, he shifted his head slightly just as the pebble was about to hit him.

This caused the pebble to hit him right on his forehead, creating a loud sound on impact that drew everyone’s attention and quieted them all down briefly as they all stared at him.

Ravian instantly pressed both his hands to his forehead and let out a painful cry, even though he didn’t hurt all that much.

"AghhhhhhHHHHHH!!!"

’Now’s the time to execute the final phase of the plan!’

Everything had worked out perfectly, almost too perfectly, and it was now time for the finale.

He remembered the last thing Adrian had told him.

’Ravian, you have to remember. Emotions are inherently unreasonable; you can’t fight them using reason. There is no point arguing with an angry crowd. The only way to fight them is by using an even greater and more intense emotion.’

As the other part of his consciousness floated in the air within the Library of Mnemosyne with the white book in his hands, Ravian knew what he was supposed to do.

He landed back on the ground and walked to a corner of the library. There was a half-torn book at the very bottom of the bookshelf. The book had a completely black cover.

It was one of his first memories recorded in this library since the time he awakened Mnemosyne.

In truth, he hated the very sight of this book and never wanted to touch it, and those feelings had still not changed.

But this book was the key he needed to execute the final step perfectly. It was the only thing that could evoke strong enough emotions within him.

Adrian had trusted him to accomplish everything perfectly, and Ravian didn’t want to break that trust due to his own cowardice.

’Having all the pieces at hand and still failing in the end simply because my past shackled me would be... too pathetic.’

Taking a deep breath, Ravian gathered his resolve and reached for the black book.