BXBX NOVEL Chapter 514 513: Preparing For The Excursion (2)
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This is going to be a few more chapters long, probably to 6 or 8 just to get a few things set / wrapped up.
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Clasping my hands in prayer, I knelt in front of the altar to Reincantra and bowed my head, clearing my mind of all thoughts as I closed my eyes.
\'Prayer huh... never really did pray back in my old life, but...\'
Holding back a wry chuckle, I centered myself for a moment before... well, praying.
\'I don\'t know if you can hear me, nor if you really... care to listen, but I guess I should take the time to say thank you. Thank you for giving me a second chance, thank you for placing me in such a perfect position, thank you for giving me... everything in this life. All the things I have, all the people I\'ve met, I\'ve been able to because of you. Without this opportunity, without your blessing, I would have just been some soul floating in that void for eternity, I guess.
It\'s easy to forget that I do owe this all to you; that without your pity, your blessing, your whim to see me begin an entirely new life, I wouldn\'t have met Jahi, Anput, or Leone; that I never would have gotten to feel what true love really feels like. Without this blessing of yours, I might not have been able to withstand the desires of those three, I might not have even been able to catch their eye past a fleeting fancy.
So I guess what I\'m trying to say is... thank you, Reincantra, for giving me this new lease on life, for letting me harbor even a modicum of your power in the form of the System and giving me the ability to go as far as I can through your Divine Grace. I don\'t know what exactly you expected or wanted from doing these things for me, but I do know that - unless given a reason not to - I plan on doing my best to serve you and do what I can for you, since you have given me this second chance.
I doubt I\'ll receive word from you, nor do I expect it, but I can only hope that you know just how grateful I am for this, and that I can do my best to please you as I go on to live this second life of mine to the fullest, doing all the things I could only dream of back in my first life. I want to carve my own story - no matter how grand or humble it may be - into this world and leave behind a legacy for my children to follow...\'
Muttering a few more words of thanks and reverence to the statue, I stood up and stared at it for a few moments, expectation creeping into my heart as I wondered if I would see a sign, but alas, I was left in the quiet of the chapel with nothing changing.
However, I found that there was a certain peace in the action of prayer, and I also guilty offered my sincerest apologies to Reincantra as the idea on how to offer Anput, Leone and Jahi their System Made Items popped into my mind.
It was a scummy idea, but not entirely false either; I just hoped that the Goddess would ignore this \'transgression\' as I used her name to explain their existence; again, it wasn\'t an entirely false story I was giving them either.
In the midst of my prayer, four items appeared to me, their powers known but unreadable; a gift from the Divines in answer of my prayers.
An item that would help me do more for her name, and a reward for what I had already done.
That was my story, and I was planning on sticking to it... unless there was some clear sign not to.
Standing in the chapel for a few minutes more, I pursed my lips as I looked around, before shrugging as I decided that Reincantra was either a ver hands off Goddess, of she was alright with what I was planning on doing.
Bowing my head to the statue one last time, I turned and exited the quiet, serene portion of the Palace and made my way around the halls, eventually returning to the Training Grounds and joining Jahi in her warmups, getting ready to spar.
The Demoness only glanced at me as I silently joined her, not asking me any questions as she returned to her pushups, her focus back on her training.
That evening, Anput returned to the Training Grounds with a dagger in her hands, which she offered to Jahi with a smile, making the Demoness chuckle as she accepted the heavy, long dagger made from the same alloy as Leone\'s Estoc and my rapier.
With Nirinia joining us again, we got to experience more with our new weapons and continue improving ourselves, honing our techniques and further adding to our strength.
During the spars though, I noticed that the Lioness - who had been missing for a bit - peeked into the Training Grounds and looked around for Nirinia, before pursing her lips and slinking away, confusing me.
Did she want to rekindle things, was she making sure Nirinia was still here, or what..?
Either way, it wasn\'t my problem, nor did I inform Nirinia of the Lioness, deciding that the Commander had been obvious enough to get caught by the Djinn.
When our session was over, we returned to our room and played around some more with the two babies before retiring once more for the night, this time making sure to end the night off with a session of Dual Cultivation to further our training even more.
Honing my mana further and understanding it more was my primary goal, as I believed - and had some evidence of - my physical prowess had reached a good enough level that it could be considered a sturdy foundation for everything, so I wanted to go seek out Lady Yusa and her twin daughters to ask if they\'d be willing to teach me more about my Ice Mana, or even just about my Water and Wind Mana\'s.