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!" The giant roared in anger. It looked like he was really taking what I did to heart.

[Earth Art- Astral Gauntlet!]

A giant hand made of Earth Aura stretched out towards my back...

Ah...! I remember this Skill, but who was the guy using this again? I think I had dementia before I reincarnated because I'm seriously not joking~!

[Lightning Art- Storm Impulse]

I channeled the natural blue lightning within Thor's Hand using my Lightning Attribute and dispelled the giant hand made of pure Earth Aura using force.

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 that destructive capabilities, then I would've have been able to dispel his Earth Art 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. The Duke might just get a heart attack 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 change my Skill Roots into Ability Cores 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 and only had Light Mana and Dark Mana residing in the Skill Roots within my heart, I couldn't still feel that changing the nature my Mana could cause some kind of accident... Beasts and Humans were two polar opposite races after all.

Okay... Although Beasts have a similar nature of only a minority of their species having enough qualifications to produce Ability Cores (which were also similar to Skill Roots in nature), and were 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...

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'd 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 do crimes, a realistic story would only show one narcissistic guy 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 Mana. Well... that should enough internal melodrama! I gotta stop thinking such unless thoughts and deal with that stubborn ox chasing me...!

"Who are you anyway?" I couldn't help but ask the giant who was grinding his teeth behind me. Upon hearing my words, he looked stunned for a moment before flaring up in rage!

"I'm Jack, the one who challenged you to a duel... The REAL personal butler of the Young Miss." 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.

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 can tell: The 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...

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...?

As I thought of this, many more questions flooded my mind like a dam and filled my head with confusion, why is it that I wasn't aware of my abnormal behaviour after battling Jack? Was it that worm in my brain blocking my thought process or was it just me?

No, more than that: How did my meticulous personality forget Jack?

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

How strange...

I should have been angered in a similar manner when I first fought Jack, so why is it I 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 firmly inside my head was eliminated, but it's existence had a deeper level of effect on my psyche. The only way to truly free myself from its clutches is by thorough self evaluation towards my personality.

The more I cleansed myself of the 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 10 years...

I have to thank my own ingenuity~ The Cognitive Drive Universal Art is too much of a cheat! Especially 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 back.

A scene from when I was five years old caught my attention, it was at the time when I first gained my resolve to fight the world for my happiness if I had to.

I focused on anything that seemed out of place and noticed a particular hint...

Putting what I saw to the side, I decided to look through everything else before I came to a decision. It isn't right to jump to conclusions after all...

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.

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 it had been purposely tampered with, yet that outline 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, then I'm screwed big time!

A hypnotist like her is someone I 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 into, I heard an obnoxious voice behind me. A blue vein popped on my forehead as I decided to end this farce.

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 abilitiesz

[Support Skill- Pyrokinetic Domain]

I felt my ability to control Fire Ether deepen after I conjured my 'Atomic Halo' Skill Root and merged it wiry the Fire Marble I had hidden underground.

The feeling of being able to control Fire Ether returned to me as I opened my palm. The Fire Ether around me focused into the palm and created a single spark, but that one spark was enough to grow into a ball 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'm wasting my time controlling Fire against the crowd of servants I angered. Throwing a mere 'Fireball' wouldn't be enough to slow these guys down so I decided to use the Spell I created a long time ago along with the Blue Flame Bullet Spell.

[Fire Art- Concussion Grenade!]

Instead of focusing on 'heat', I focused on increasing its 'explosiveness' in order to create a non-lethal Spell that was good for crowd control. Then the 'Ruby' of imitated Fire Mana I strongly compressed into my hand 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 of them were trained to the point of 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're making that they thought I would've had a hard enough time running from them. I could notice all this 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.

I wonder if Merilin was scared 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.

It was then that two people 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, playing fair and square... Let's see how this turns out...!