Chapter 5

Ludwig was one of those that just finished the last exam – he had received the memory of it and slowly flowed into the dead body of the young man. It seemed that the young man, who looked to be barely 14, had killed the demonic beast, a rank one giant rat, but died from the loss of blood and exhaustion. His soul instantly left his body afterwards.

The examiners at the Stardust family had seen him fight with wit and thought that the chance of his survival was there, so they let one of the healers use unique healing techniques on the small body, giving it a push. This was the pull that Ludwig felt – the soul of the child had already dissipated, but Ludwig was pulled into the body and felt it reviving.

He opened his eyes, and the healer that looked pale from the exhaustion of his qi instantly smiled. For the act of bringing a dead steward back to life, he would sure get some merit points. He was a servant of the Stardust family, not a steward, so he had to climb the ranks normally instead of instantly becoming an honorary elder upon finishing the journey.

Although it sounded tempting, just looking at the young man that nearly fully died at the hands of a rank one giant rat, something even he had difficulties fighting, he understood that the fast way of jumping ranks was also the most dangerous way.

Ludwig opened his eyes and looked outside – but he didn't see anything. He tried looking all around but saw nothing. The healer saw this and was shocked. Previously, the eyes were closed, so nothing could be seen. But as the eyes opened, he saw that they were empty. The eye sockets were empty, with no eyes in sight.

He hurriedly took a cloth sheet from the side and put them on the child eyes, he still turned away but said slowly "Oh child, it seems that you have lost your eyes in the fight. What a pity, I had healed you, but now we aren't even sure if you can join the ranks…"

An attendant was called and informed of the situation – soon a custodian that was in charge of the assessment came and saw the child. He took the cloth, then put it back on and sighed, still, since the child had passed the final exam, it was worthy of its place in the ranks, so he took out a silver plate and handed it to the child as he said, "Welcome to the ranks, trainee steward."

Ludwig was still confused at the beginning, but as he felt the cloth, he understood the situation, because a memory popped up at that situation. In the fight, the rat had jumped on him and the clawed out his eyes, he suffered great pain but pushed the rat off him, closed his eyes and fought with all he had, orienting the rat based on scent.

This seemed to be the flaw in his blessing. He had reincarnated into the body of this boy but would be suffering from blindness. Still, he tried once again to concentrate on his sight – he wasn't sure why, but something in him told him that he might see something.

And with that, he really saw something – it was the form of a soul. Previously, he had seen many souls and inspected their memories. He had gained insight into their lives, but the best benefit was that he was now able to repeat this ability, even after rebirth!

The soul-figure he saw was weak, he would probably need to train more in this field to see properly, but he could see some minor light inside of the body of the person in front of him, and he was instantly understanding what the other party felt 'disgust'.

He saw another light in his vision and turned, only to see that the other person felt 'disappointment', still the other person talked and gave him a silver plate, he couldn't see something like this, but he instinctively reacted and reached out his hand, then he recalled the memory he got from one of the many souls he looked through and felt the inscription.

He read aloud "Trainee… Steward… 342?" The custodian was surprised shortly, the child adapted very fast and instead of being hung on the loss of sight, he instantly used the other senses to read the plate. He looked at the child and smiled as he said, "The naming and joining ceremony will be held in three days, you may rest till then."

Ludwig's body was that of an orphan, like all the other children present, so he had no name at all. Some had names, but even then, they would not be given official names till the naming ceremony, where they were allowed to choose their own name, if they had succeeded the final exam, that is.

Even now, he has only joined the ranks of trainee stewards, to become a full steward, he had to study and learn various arts for the next six years. Only then would he become a full steward and be assigned a teenager, one 1-2 years younger than him, following that, they would stay and assist the teenager in their final year of staying at home and then go out with them.

With all this said, Ludwig was taken away from the large square to a hut. He was healed outside in thought that he might very well not live anymore, but now that he survived, he naturally had to rest in a proper bed. He stood up and went along with a servant that was assigned to lead the way by the custodian.

The hut wasn't large, only having enough space for a single bed and a table. But from Ludwigs memory, this was already better than the previous housing, adding to it that this was only his temporary residence, as all trainee stewards would be staying in the residencies of the steward training palace of the Stardust clan.

He rested in this place and adapted the memories he just got from the boy properly. He had already become proficient after reading so many of them, now it was a quick overview. Then, he looked at the knowledge of other people that died. After all, he had read the memories of quite a few people of this particular plane of existence.

What he learned from them were numerous, especially one of them. They were the memories of an assassin, a profession hidden in the dark. He was a very secretive one during his lifetime and died of old age, just like himself. From the memories, he learned a few important things. Most importantly, the memory had the art of stealth the assassin used, he cherished it very dearly but found no successor during his whole lifetime.

Now, Ludwig was planning to learn that technique. He already knew that with his hobby, he would be very satisfied in this world. But to prevent any consequences, or maybe to become an even greater steward, he had to learn to become even more secretive.

Unfortunately, because the stealth method took up a large memory and the smaller memory shards disappeared much faster, Ludwig only learned that from the person, the weapon mastery and all the other stuff would be something he had to find otherwise. In the first place, getting the memory was like downloading a movie: you could always watch it, but in essence, it wasn't your own memory but that of someone else.

Maybe Ludwig would find a method of integrating the memories of others later on, but the risk was so high, Ludwig wasn't sure if that would even be worth it.