Concerns for the Future

(Oscar's POV)

Hah... There are a lot of concerning things for the future. Mason just woke up and decide that he wants to join us. Charlotte also chose to join us with him. I wonder when they are going to confess to each other. It is clear that both of them have feelings for each other. Thanks to this I won't need to erase or alter Charlotte's memories. We are still a small team after all. Keeping everyone safe is my utmost priority.

After a little bit talk, I sent Mason to rest in the infirmary. It's best that he rest a bit more. Charlotte also went to look after him. It's really cute seeing them together. After they left the main hall, I chatted with Kairi and Izumi for a while. When it started to get late I went home.

"I'm home, mom."

"Welcome back, sweetheart. Dinner is almost ready."

"Oh, I'm coming just after changing my clothes."

I went up to my room and changed my clothes. Tomorrow there is school and I also have to plan the future of the team. I'm the leader of our team at this point. I should be careful with everything we are going to do from now on. I will think about these after having dinner. I'm really hungry now.

At night I start to think about the future. There are a lot of things to think about when I listed everything. It surprised me a bit. When did I have these many things to worry about.

First of all Nora. I wanted to bring her back to life but I can't. Her body is already buried underground for some time now and her soul should be already in the afterlife or whatever comes after death. The ritual and the formations I used on Mason won't work on her. So, I have to let her go or find another way to bring her back... I guess I will have to let her go, for now.

The second is the spirits. They are becoming more apparent in recent days. Their strength varies greatly. I didn't encounter any of them I couldn't beat yet but it's not a guarantee that someone far stronger than ı could beat will appear. I can't imagine facing high or great class spirits. There are also corrupted spirits with almost unlimited mana.

Right now I'm in the middle rank. It is really hard to reach the high class right now. So I'm trying to solidify my battle style and expand my arsenal. Having a wide arsenal might save my life someday. Also learning more elements really excites me.

The third is the government. We already discovered that they made a deal with Houll Family and give them many homeless people to experiment on. They also have some spirits to themselves according to some data we recovered from the mansion of the Houlls. I don't know what kind of stand they will take in this but them giving permission and even support to Houlls with their experiments prevents me to consider them as good guys.

I don't know if there are any good guys in this world but I don't think the government is anything close to good. I can understand keeping supernatural things a secret but starting making experiments on humans so soon after discovering the supernatural, that's really fishy. I feel like there are a lot of things wrong with what they are doing. How can they cover up supernatural this easily? Why are they in this much of a hurry to start making experiments? Is there something I don't know of going on in the background?

Fourth is the bounty hunters. They are even more dangerous than the government at this point. Because I already come across with a massacre they caused and not the mention the magi-tech they had. I still have the magi-tech I took from that gang. If someone made this, someone else can improve it or make a better version of it. This is what makes them more dangerous in my eyes.

Also the mana stones. I learned that they are mined in the Crueland. I may have to visit there in the future to learn more. If this magi-tech is distributed to the public, a small army can be easily formed. Unless you have a continent destroying power you can get overwhelmed by numbers. I don't want something like this to ever happen. It can easily cause a war on the level of the apocalypse.

The fifth is the clans of the Sanraisu. It might seem like I don't have a reason to worry about them for now but it is wrong. There are hundreds of thousands of people who can use aether to do supernatural things. And the clans Izumi told me about have some really scary abilities. If I compare them to spirits they are bigger threats. I don't know the numbers of the spirits but according to Kairi, spirits lost their ability to recover their mana a long time ago, a few centuries to be exact.

So this must be caused them to lose most of their power with time. Their numbers might be even more than the clans and their members but since they are constantly losing mana they are a bit less threatening. But they also can appear anywhere without prior notice so this made them a bigger threat. The clans are staying in the Sanraisu so I should be safe as long as I don't get involved with that country. I guess...

The sixth one is our team. Our current members are me, Kairi, Akane, Izumi, Mason, and Charlotte. Kairi is obviously the strongest but she has the same problem as every other spirit. She can recover her mana naturally. She uses the liquid mana in the lake and the mana coming from our bond. It still isn't enough to recover her whole power so she is trying to keep her mana as much as possible. I'm the second strongest. My power level and abilities are already known.

The third one is Izumi. She is strong but she can't control her power well. The Devil Shade she uses is her clan's inherited technique. It makes her enter a state similar to the berserk state that is found in fantasy novels or video games. She easily loses control. and because of this she only uses it partially. And using it partially lowers its power.

As for Akane, she has the power of several adult humans. She also has an aether organ but she can't use mana. She is indeed strong compared to ordinary humans but unfortunately, that's all. Maybe we should find a way to make her stronger.

Mason and Charlotte have just joined. They need time to develop abilities and get stronger. And there is also Lydia. I still feel guilty about what I have done but at that time it was necessary. That's what I believe. I could barely keep my life and was still injured greatly and she didn't have any power to protect herself. As much as I hate to admit I still don't have enough power to protect someone else in a time of crisis. I need to get stronger.

There is also the thing about the fairy. If she really is a fairy, that means there are fairies out there. This adds even more difficulties to our current situation. If they really exist, will they be our enemies? I can't consider every spirit I came across as an enemy but most of them are hostile. Since Kairi confirmed that the one we find has much more mana in her blood that might mean that other possible fairies might have more mana than spirits.

Also, the blood of that fairy was what created liquid mana. What gave me the aether organ was actually fairy blood. Well, we aren't sure of it at this point but it is possible. I should research it but I don't know how to. There are no records about fairies in the journals I have read from the Hex Clan Library. I can't possibly read all of them since it's only been two weeks since I discovered the pocket dimension.

And the last one, for now, is the extinction of the Hex Clan. Izumi said that Hex Clan was destroyed ten years ago. I couldn't find anything about it in the journals. Izumi said that she only heard that they were destroyed and nothing more.

If someone targeted Hex Clan they might, no they will come after me eventually. I don't know the cause of this but I should get stronger to avoid this or be strong enough to defeat whoever comes after me. Turns out I have a lot of reasons to get stronger.

There is also the stranger with one eye. Well, I don't know if he really has one eye but his right eye was covered with an eye patch. Anyway, I don't think he is a threat to me. He even warned me about the possible dangers. I'm not naive enough to consider him as someone who is good and helping or giving advice to anyone he met. He must have had ulterior motives when he gave me advice. I think he is more of a neutral party.

A lot of things to consider but very little time to make this real. I will be really busy in the coming weeks. There is also the school festival in two weeks. Give me a break.