Chapter Twenty-Five

The best thing about being reincarnated as many times as I have is experience, I was experienced, older than the gods that existed here.

The downsides were the similarities you would see in many people over your past lives.

So many campers reminded me of the people dear to me, Some children of my own, daughters, and sons, mothers and fathers, and wives. Some of my best friends, people I've bled with, shared my joy, my highs and lows.

And then there were the ones that reminded me of the people I loathed.

It was wrong, that much I understood, people in this world were not the same ones from the worlds I experienced, they were their own person, their own individuals.

Yet, sometimes, the images would overlap, rarely, but it happened.

As the sun set over the horizon, I walked up to the beachside cliff, where Thalia was sitting, her legs drawn up, and arms wrapped around them as she looked at the sea.

I didn't know what she was thinking. She was a child, she could be thinking about anything.

"You wanted to talk?"

I asked, not beating around the bush, The day was coming to an end, I had already taken my request to the forge, the sword spear was being made, and I was ready to eat the final meal of the day and go to sleep... Before I had to wake up for patrol, of course.

"I wanted to say sorry..."

She muttered, getting me to look at her curiously. Yet, despite my confusion, she continued, not even looking back at me.

"I... had a talk with Luke..."

I see, that made sense. I crossed my hands, waiting for her to continue, yet she didn't. My confusion only grew. She was done? I was willing to let her talk and pour her heart out before patting her head like I usually do to the others.

"What did he have to say?"

I inquired, raising an eyebrow at her even if she couldn't see it, wondering what the two talked about.

I wondered if he told her what happened on his quest, or more importantly, how it ended. The reality of the situation was that there wasn't a lot that I could do.

I couldn't control her reactions or her feelings.

"He told me exactly what happened..."

She muttered, causing me to hum thoughtfully.

"And what was that?"

She looked away from the view, looking down on the ground and curling in on herself slightly. So, she didn't want to talk about it, apparently.

"He told me he would be dead if it wasn't for you..."

She whispered, her voice almost lost in the wind. I took a deep breath, not because of her words, but because this reminded me of the few, over-the-top, romantic movies I had the displeasure of watching before this whole reincarnation business started.

I just looked back to the horizon again, watching as the sun slowly but surely set.

Well, this ended up being dramatic as all hell...

"let's go back to Camp, Thalia, I'm hungry."

She snorted, looking at me over her shoulder with an amused look.

"I apologized and that's all you have to say?"

I smiled at her.

"You have to go with the patrol team tonight."

She groaned exaggeratedly, and I chuckled. All was good.

"Oh, and the training will get more intense starting from tomorrow."

She groaned, without exaggeration this time. Ah~ I loved my job.

___

"What do you see, Annabeth?"

I asked, sitting next to her as we watched the team fight going on in front of us. She didn't take her eyes off the fight while having a notebook in her hand. It looked adorable, in all honesty.

It seemed that she didn't even hear me as she looked down at her notebook and wrote something down, her eyes glancing back up at the fight frequently so as to not miss anything.

Teach her multi-tasking, got to add that to the list too.

My divinity flared as the outline of hers became clearer. It wasn't anything impressive, but the children of Athena, due to their unique birth, never really had a connection to their mother that was large enough to delve deeper into the domain.

The subconscious concentration on the brain, though, was good. Very good. We would have to work on that too.

I chuckled, leaning back and observing the sparring session, which was getting quite intense, indicated by the multiple craters in the ground.

Maybe I should stop this sometime soon...

My hair was ruffled as a wave of heat washed over me, thanks to the son of Apollo who just shot an arrow of fire at one of my older brothers who managed to dodge, only to send the spear in his hand back in response at almost the same speed, barely missing thanks to his opponent's quick response, embedding the weapon into a wall.

Nah, they would be fine.

They have dealt with worse than that from me, after all...

"Freeze!"

I smirked slightly as I saw Annabeth stiffen, her pen stopping its movement on the paper, along with a few other campers that still hadn't gotten down the filter to Charm speak down.

I took the chance to look at what Annabeth had written down in the notebook, it wasn't anything detailed, or in-depth, but that was to be expected, she didn't know much about fighting yet.

Sighing, I got to my feet, patting her head and ruffling up her curly blonde hair which I knew she would be annoyed by, but she was currently unable to move, so I took the chance.

I grinned as I walked out of the Arena to leave her to her devices for a moment. I needed to visit the forge to infuse the metal with my divinity while it was being melted and forged for the next few days.

Otherwise, infusing it after it was done would take significantly longer and the enchantments I was planning to put on it would be slightly less efficient.

Had to optimise somehow.

////

Sorry for the day people, the last week has been hectic and I have been looking for a job to get a new laptop, but so far, the ones that have night shifts, start in the middle of my seminars.

Sorry for the inconvineance.