Knowledge Obtained and Adoption

It's been a few months since I broke my legs. My legs have made a full recovery. I've spent these past few months reading the books Fay brought me a while back. I'm down to two stacks left and I've learned a lot about how this world works.

Mana exists to an extent, but it's not the same way as it was in my previous world. In this world, there are six elements. These five elements are known as, fire, water, earth, air, darkness, and light. These elements exist everywhere, like air particles.

The difference from my previous world is that you need a link in order to use magic here. A link, as they call it, is a connection between the essence of one of the six elements. The essence of an element is what allows for the element to be used in various ways.

Other than the fact that we live in a town outside of the empire's walls, that's about all I learned from the books.

Not much has really happened, but, I did get moved out of Alice's room and put back into my room. I managed to learn more about the orphanage and Grim's relations with these people before I took over. While I don't have any of Grim's memories, from looking at photo albums, and hearing stories, I have managed to piece the fragments together.

Having fully taken over Grim's place, I will be able to use this body as I wish. Where to go from here is still a mystery to me. Do I gain strength equivalent to that of my previous self and fight in the war? Or should I gain strength and try to find the other person that had reincarnated with me?

Regardless of what I choose to do in this life, one thing is for certain. It starts with me leaving this orphanage. The orphanage isn't that bad, but I'd rather be in a more luxurious environment where I have more access to things.

Creak!

The door in my room opened and Alice stumbled into the room before stopping to try and catch her breath. She looked at me and said in between breaths, "People...a-...are here... to adopt."

My mood swung from calm to excited. I hopped off my window liege and said, "Lead the way, Alice."

She nodded and then proceeded to leave while gesturing for me to come. I followed her and she led me downstairs. She took a right turn on the first floor and then followed a hallway until we reached a door. She brought her finger to her lips, signaling for me to be quiet.

She brought her ear to the door to listen inside and I did the same.

Though I couldn't see, I heard a man who sounded very educated speak, "Ms. Shiva, I know you have heard of the political conflicts arising in Aloa and Vazien. Apparently, the word around the nobles is that the empire is preparing for war. Massive funds are going into the military and-"

Ms. Shiva cut the man off to say, "Just cut to the point, please."

The man sounded a bit irritated with his next words but said, "We would like to adopt a child, particularly, Devin."

As soon as me and Alice heard the name, the curious atmosphere around us shifted into an atmosphere full of sorrow. Particularly, the sorrow could be felt in Alice without looking at her. I turned towards her to see her bearing a grim expression, heh, grim.

No, no, now's not the time to be funny, I told myself. I looked at Alice and spoke in a hushed whisper, "Hey listen, don't worry about it. Trust me, our time will come soon, I promise."

I gave Alice a slight smile, but she didn't find comfort in my words. She coldly asked me, "And if it doesn't?"

I rolled my eyes at Alice's question and flicked her forehead.

"Ow! Why did you do that?" Alice asked me while looking at me with annoyance.

I pointed my finger at her and said quietly, "You lady, need to be more optimistic, overcome the obstacles that are thrown you at."

"Lady?" A voice responded from the hallway. Me and Alice looked toward the source of the sound to see Fay standing a few feet from us. Looking particularly at me with a raised eyebrow.

Me and Alice both rushed to her brother. Alice quickly put her hands over Fay's mouth. Fay struggled while trying to get Alice's hands off until she said quietly, "People are here."

Fay stopped struggling and looked at Alice and nodded. Making me realize this isn't the first time they've done this. She removed her hands from his mouth, and finally free, he went to Ms. Shiva's office door to listen to the conversation inside.

Before Fay could even put his ear on the door, the door opened to show Ms. Shiva looking down on all of us with a disappointed gaze. Though I couldn't tell clearly from the back of Fay's head, I'm pretty sure his face turned red.

Ms. Shiva's next words confirmed my thought as she looked down at him and said, "Hello, Mr. Tomato."

As Fay was stumbling upon words he was trying to say, I looked behind Ms. Shiva to see the family that was trying to adopt.

The man that I had assumed to be educated had black hair with light brown eyes. His outfit consisted of fancy-looking attire. With a small white cape that covered just about half his arm's length. The woman around his height, who I assumed to be his wife, had a bit less luxurious attire. Regardless, her clothes did not hinder her beauty in any way.

She had blue hair that contrasted with her green eyes yet made her look elegant at the same time. Her green eyes were a trait that was visible in her daughter's and son's eyes as well. The daughter had the same hair color but more of her father's facial features. She looked like a mini version of her mother.

Their son had the husband's black hair with his mother's green eyes. His sister was wearing the same uniform that he was wearing. The uniform was fully white with light blue strips that went down the arms. With a symbol at the end of the sleeves that seemed to represent something.

The son of the noblemen saw me taking a look at the uniform, and pointed at me. His father and mother looked at him and then at me. The boy opened his mouth and said, "Father, I think, that boy would make a good choice, he looks interested and unlike the Devin boy, he's like us."

My jaw was hanging from my mouth, not from the fact that he picked me, but rather, he was flat-out discriminating based on race right in front of everyone else to see. Not only that, but everyone in this orphanage apart from me does not have Geno blood like me and they do.

There are five known races in this world from what I read in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘖𝘧 𝘌𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. These five races are the Yavisks, Etherals, Davfens, Drevers, and Genos. The Genos are basically just humans with fancy labels.

The other four races are different; they have different physical characteristics that are noticeable, unlike the Genos. An example of this would be the horns on Alice's head. She belongs to the Drever race. The Drever race are basically dragons; halflings like Alice can't transform into dragons. They may have physical capabilities and advanced essence abilities, but that's it.

All of the children within this orphanage have the blood of one or half of the blood of some of the races, besides the Geno. Then there's little old me here.

The continent we are currently on, Aloa, has only recently opened up to other races. There was a war between the continents a while back which caused a huge rift between co-existing.

To discriminate publicly, after these recent years of fixing the mistakes of the past is still a huge offense.

The father of the boy immediately slapped him across the face. I turned to see Alice's reaction, which filled me with hate.

Alice gave me a slight smile, telling me she was alright; a smile that showed sadness underneath but was hidden by a raise of the lips.

Kill...

A thought filled with an act so common to me passed through my mind. What was that? An intrusive thought?

What bugged me wasn't the message conveyed from the thought, but the voice that spoke it wasn't mine.

"Hey... what did you just say!?" Fay spoke, I turned to Fay to see him bear an expression that bore disdain and anger towards the noble's son.

The daughter looked at Fay and said, "Who do you think you are speaking to? You're just an orphan."

Fay angrily responded to her question saying, "I'm speaking to a noble's whose only life purpose is to continue a bloodline."

Ms. Shiva had a expression that showed excitement and shock at Fay's insult.

The daughter gasped, and her mother yelled, "How dare you! Michael! Do something about this brat!"

Damn, even though she's beautiful, her personality isn't. That's for sure.

Her husband sighed and said, "Now, now, Elaine, Eren is the one who made a discriminating suggestion so I don't thi-"

Another uproar occurred from the mother before her husband could even finish his sentence.

"Are you serious right now, Michael!? the mothers face contorted into a scowl.

They continued yelling back and forth while I noticed Alice was no longer next to me. As I decided to leave and go look for Alice, the mother must have seen me trying to leave.

She yelled, saying, "Where do you think you're going!?" she huffed and said, "It's you and your friends fault this has went on longer than needed."

I couldn't hold back anymore, their voices and their swabbling was getting on my nerves and I had to go find Alice. I looked back at her and looked at her in her eyes. I told her coldly, "Do you think I have time to give to insignifcant people?"

I tapped my shoe onto the ground and looked back at her shocked expression to say, "This floor, has more value than your existence alone means to me, get lost you insect."

The atmosphere had become silent, gazes from both Ms. Shiva and Fay, including the family, all pierced into me. Only then had I realized the impact my words had.