34 Old Mind, Young Heart

"Merilin!"

"Don't talk to me!"

"At least let me apologise!"

"Go away! I don't want to see you anymore! Big brother is a bad person!"

"I'm not a bad person, I swear!" I lied through my teeth. Hmm? Even if I'm not a good person, I'm still someone who wants to act like one... so stop shouting I'm a bad guy already!

"What the hell are you two going on about!? And Simon, I'll kill ya if you don't stop right there!" The giant roared in anger. It looked like he was really taking what I did to heart. (I think...)

[Extreme Clad- Earth Gauntlet!]

An almost transparent but massive hand made of Earth Aura stretched out towards my back...

Ah...! I remember this Art from that time Mother was explaining about Aura Clads, but who was the guy using this again? I think I had dementia before I reincarnated because I'm seriously not joking~!

[Lightning Art- Azure Impulse]

I channeled the natural blue lightning within Mojinir Hand using my Lightning Affinity and dispelled the giant hand made of pure Earth Aura using the impactful force of this familiar palm strike.

I couldn't help but sigh in admiration towards my new abilities. If it weren't for the fact that my new Arts focused more on precision than solely on their destructive capabilities, then I wouldn't have been able to dispel his Extreme Clad so easily...

I really wanted to test my second Skill Root on someone, but it's too bad I can't show others that I was able to do something inhuman like creating two Skill Roots despite being an F Rank. The Duke might just get a heart attack just from learning about it...!

Now that I think about it carefully, I have another ability besides my the extra Skill Root and abnormally high Mana Perception, don't I? The ability to transform into a Beast with just a flip of a switch...! Not that I ever plan on using it though~

Even though I didn't have a Mana Flame anymore, I now had Sun Mana and Moon Mana residing in the Skill Roots within my heart. Even after all this time I still feel that changing the nature my Internal Energy could cause some kind of accident... Beasts and Humans were two polar opposite races after all.

Okay... Although Beasts has a trait similar to humanity in the fact that only a minority of their species having enough qualifications to produce Ability Cores (which were also similar to Skill Roots in their applications), and were also equally imparted with benefits by the Elemental Gods... That didn't mean Humans and Beasts could get along...!

Human flesh was the most delicious of delicacies for Beasts due to our innate Light Mana. On the other hand, Beasts were the most high quality of ingredients for smithing and alchemy due to their altered physiques which were extremely strong...

I don't know what would happen if I turned into a Beast, but I could safely say by relying on my intuition.... that I will definitely permanently mutate my bodily structure if I used that power.

How sad! If only Enigma gave me a bunch of cheats and high magic power instead of under-powering me... I may like working hard but not to the extent that I would ignore the easy paths in life.

In my past life, reality was just quite cruel, especially considering the fact that ones ideals meant nothing to those around them. Even though movies of that era would show Heroes beating the Villains with chivalry and karma working against the bad people who secretly did crimes, a realistic story would only show one goody-two-shoes getting beat by rotten criminals who don't play games they can't handle.

That's why I'd rather not be blinded by my own luck and think that everything would still be alright if I tried mutating my physique by switching what's in the foundation of my existence. Well... that should enough internal melodrama! I gotta stop thinking such unless thoughts and deal with that stubborn ox chasing me...! Doesn't he know when to give up?

"Who are you anyway?" I couldn't help but ask the giant who was grinding his teeth behind me.

Upon hearing my confused words, he looked stunned for a moment before flaring up in rage!

"I'm Jack, the one who challenged you to a duel... It wasn't even that long ago! Let me tell you this right now: I'm the REAL personal butler of the Young Miss. Not you. You don't deserve that. Only someone as loyal as myself is worthy!" This 'Jack' guy said narcissistically. It looks like he was an unimportant person I'd rather not waste time remembering. It's annoying that he thinks too highly of himself.

It was then that a silent whisper entered my ear. Not that I knew that someone was pointing a key point out from the depths of my subconsciousness. Sitting within the darkest part of my heart was an old man who smiled scarily without me knowing.

Hmm? Wait a sec! I increased my cognitive perception once more in order give myself time to reflect, a light of intelligence appeared in my eyes as I started to recollect my abnormalities.

There aren't many people who make me feel negative emotions this strong, so it's no wonder I wasn't able to sense my own abnormalities for so long.

From what I could tell: The old personality of my precious incarnation was a lot less affected by words than my current incarnation right now, which is quite strange considering Enigma's words.

Well... This is coming from a bias self-assessment so who knows if that's true.

I have been able to excuse my strange behaviour all this time by considering how I truly wished to change into a different person in my past life... I had believed that my 'regressed' mentality was a result of my desire to fit in as a child of my new parents.

However, I can't ignore the fact that my current maturity is different from how it was in my past life... or can this even be considered 'maturity' at all...? It's strange that I considered this easily moved and fickle personality of mine as 'mature'.

As I thought of this, many more questions flooded my mind like a dam, causing my head to be filled with confusion. Why is it that I wasn't aware of my abnormal behaviour after battling Jack? Was it the result of that shard of energy in my brain which had blocked my thought process or was it purely just me?

No, even more than that: How did the meticulous part of personality forget Jack's existence?

When did I become so arrogant that I'd forget even small potential dangers?

How strange... Why is it I had never thought about my own inconsistent actions before now?

There's definitely something different about me compared to my past self...

The answer is obvious now that I calmly though about it: The fragment of Mana that was planted deeply inside my head was eliminated, but it's existence had a deeper level of impact on my psyche.

The only way to truly free myself from its clutches is by thorough self evaluation towards my actions.

The more I cleansed myself of the subconscious thoughts that had been planted inside my head by that 'Mana Fragment', the more my head started to feel clearer... I felt like a chain that was restricting my thought process had been broken!

The power that remained of the 'curse' that affected my mind was now fully cleansed, yet one question remained in my head: Who placed this restriction on me and tried to control my mind?

I pondered on this question with all my heart, bringing up many scenes and images from my past. I looked at my sea of memories in order to properly investigate what I did for the last 10 years...

I have to thank my own ingenuity~ The Cognitive Drive Lightning Art is too much of a cheat! This is especially true for a veteran soldier like me who was always able to think fast without its power.

My memories were laid out in front of me like a cassette as I rewound everything backwards.

Only then did a scene from when I was five years old caught my attention. It was at the time when I first gained my resolve to live my life perfectly for own happiness even if I had to fight the world to do so.

I focused on anything that seemed out of place and noticed a particular hint in the corner of my eyes...

Putting what I saw to the side, I decided to look through everything else before making up my decision. It isn't right to jump to conclusion... but some things have to be verified no matter what.

After completely searching my memories, the only abnormal incident that happened when I first started to train swordsmanship under my father's instructions appeared before me once again. I remember... at that time, I was tired so I went back to my room to rest. I was so weak at that moment that the 'mastermind' in the shadows had acted...

The memory was quite normal until I walked into my room, where I met 'someone' who was already waiting for me to arrive. The memory was quite blurry... as if the memory of that certain incident had somehow been purposely tampered with, yet the outline I saw was all I needed to be sure about who in this household was scheming in the dark.

Analysing the memory once more, I found that I completely couldn't recover any information about the individual besides the fact that the person was female. All other things regarding what we talked about or when she influenced me was gone.

Judging from the information I already have... There are only two reasons why I was able to recover this much about that individual: The first reason that the individual who tampered with my mind didn't erase everything about herself was due to carelessness.

If it's the first reason, then I'd feel a lot more safer because somehow... having no Mana Flame makes it harder for her to control me. However, if it was due to the second reason, which is that she was merely starting to grasp her unique ability and had now fully grasped her skill, then I'm screwed big time!

A hypnotist, or should I say 'human puppeteer', like her is someone I had never want to face in this lifetime. Well, now that I've figured out this much, I better stay on my toes from now on.

"Simon, I challenge you to a duel once more! Do you dare to accept?!" After exiting that enlightening state I put myself in, I heard an obnoxious voice behind me. A blue vein popped on my forehead as I decided to end this farce by stopping them in their tracks.

Once again, my combat instinct kicked in and allowed me to improve my mastery over my Skill Root enough to find a new way to use my abilities. I used my intuition form a new Support Skill.

[Support Skill- Pyrokinetic Domain]

I felt my ability to control Fire Ether deepen after I conjured my 'Halo of the Sun God' Skill Root and merged it with the Fire Marble I had previously hidden underground until it was needed.

The feeling of being able to control Fire Ether returned to me as I opened my hand. All the surrounding Fire Ether around me focused into my palm and created a single spark, but that one spark was enough to grow into a compact sphere of fire.

I could just throw the Fireball to distract the attention of those chasing me, but doing something so inefficient isn't the reason I had been wasting my time controlling Fire Ether against the crowd of servants I angered. Throwing a mere 'Fireball' wouldn't be enough to slow these guys down, so I decided to turn the Spell I created a long time ago along with the Blue Flame Bullet Spell into my first Assault Skill. A magic attack I personally liked.

[Assault Skill- Concussion Grenade!]

Instead of focusing on 'heat' of the Fireball, I focused on increasing its 'explosiveness' in order to create a non-lethal Assault Skill that was good for crowd control. Then the 'Ruby-like energy' of what's called Firelight Mana I strongly compressed into my hand and was thrown towards Jack and his friends.

A boom resounded as a shockwave of air blasted everyone in random directions after my 'Concussion Grenade' hit the ground. As I had expected, the young servants weren't hurt since all of them were trained to the point of still being able to land on their feet, but most of them were still shocked...!

They no longer had the guts to continue furiously chasing me since they realised from that one move that my current strength was more powerful than what I had shown in my last duel.

I can tell from the expressions they made that all of them thought I would have a hard time running from them. I could only notice all those things happening with my accelerated cognitive perception just by glancing back to take a look at them.

Jack's expression was hilarious enough for me to giggle like the child I am~

Maybe I should thank him in some way. I mean, it was due to him that I realised that the only thing I inherited from my past self was a knowledgeable mind, and my heart on the other hand seems to be like any other child my age. A 'pure', selfish heart...!

I wonder if Merilin had been scared off by this contradiction? Well... I guess it's time to ask her.

A light appeared in my eyes as I reached my hand to grab her. Even with her speed, there was no way she'd be able to dodge the next Skill I was going to use to grab her despite the distance between us.

It was then that two young girls appeared in front of us: One short-haired maid that was expressionless like a doll and one noble girl who seemed to be narrowing her eyes at me with pure hostility...!

"Simon Rainglow, why are you bullying my dear friend?" She asked with a menacing glare. I stopped what I was doing not due to my fear and paranoia of her abilities, but because I had already decided to not force my opinions onto Merilin any longer.

I decided to gamble one more time. This time I'll play fair and square... Let's see how this turns out...!