William continued to read through the notes:

“I am king now. Besides my strength, I have little to show to qualify for the position. The plan has not changed much. Our people will still die, but at least we can use those sacrifices to drive out our enemies. As a whole, the gevai will grow stronger… because of me.”

A later passage continued:

“Those I take as personal guards grow strong quickly. It is good to know that I will not be the only one who grows stronger. Even Alexander only grows a bit at a time. It is still better for the gevai as a whole. Even those who die will live again… even if they don’t remember. That must be how it works.”

“We finally succeeded at driving the elves and dwarves away. Well, we meant to kill them, but they proved tenacious. At least we control half of the continent now… the humans are proving difficult, though.”

“Alexander, as always, has come up with a solution for the humans. It’s a new way of using magic I hadn’t considered. I find myself rather suited for it. With it, I can destroy the soul of a human. Alexander told me that it is best to destroy their wizards. I do find that they are rather annoying… even if they aren’t innately so talented as us, those who learn can be quite difficult to deal with. Especially with the hordes of others that come with them to protect them.”

“For the first time I experienced what it is like to destroy a soul. It is actually rather exhilarating… and as a strange side benefit, I feel that I absorbed a bit of the magic of the wizards I killed. It was rather inconsequential, but perhaps if I do it on purpose I might grow stronger.”

“Each additional wizard brings me little benefit now. However, it still weakens the humans. Our wars go better every time. Even so, I can’t help but think there are more wizards… but then again, there are always more of those vermin. Alexander assures me there are less- at least in the ways that matter. As long as he thinks the plan is working…”

“Alexander has assured me that we will be able to destroy the humans in at most a few more incarnations. I am looking forward to it. At least those filthy humans have finished filling out their lands, and their numbers do not grow much larger. As long as none of the gevai lords waste our population, we are well on our way to victory. Many of them don’t like me… but they can’t go against my wishes. I am king… the Eternal King.”

-----

It didn’t even take a full day to read through all of the notes in the most hidden chambers. However, what they learned was much more than everything in the outer study.

Lorelei sighed, “I can’t believe I thought Alexander Goddard was a normal lord. Of course anyone who has been around as long as him had something up his sleeve. How could I not notice?”

William shrugged, “Isn’t he older than you? He had a head start practicing deception. Then, as you grew more talented, you also grew more used to him just filling a background role.”

Lorelei nodded slowly, “Now I have to reevaluate all of those I thought were safe to ignore. Any of the older lords… even if they weren’t in on this… scheme… have likely noticed the benefits by now. Though, they might just think of it as something that happens as long as they grow older like I did.” Lorelei frowned, “At least these notes make it seem like not too many people were actually part of this.”

“Unless the Demon King was being lied to.”

Lorelei sighed again, “Unless the Demon King was being lied to. That said, there are few lords as old as Alexander.”

William stroked his chin, “It’s interesting to have confirmation of my earlier theory. Those who are older can grow stronger, and training becomes easier. However, it also explains why not everyone notices- it’s only those older… or reincarnated, or around those who are reincarnated. Probably.”

“Hmm… what about your sister? You were only around her for a month, and she grew rather quickly.”

“Well… perhaps I left residual traces of… something… on my mother. Plus, we were both there when she was born, throwing around a lot of magic. That’s not insignificant. There’s also nothing that stops her from being naturally talented. Unfortunately, there aren’t detailed charts of how this works. All he really said was those around him grew stronger more quickly. The more interesting thing is I don’t think this just applies to gevai.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“When I first reincarnated here… It was just after a war with the Demon King. A large portion of the humans had died in the war, and there were quite a few talented people around me. I imagine Lila would have been exceptional anyway, but it’s hard to say exactly how much. Of course, those were all people around me- so it might have been the influence of reincarnation somehow. However, the second time, there were many talented people who had grown up without any influence from me. I can’t guarantee it was more than normal, but Knight-Commander Tyler Dragonfoe was quite exceptional, and there’s really only a tenuous connection of genetics over half a dozen generations. There was also Dong Xin, my grandfather, Han Xinya… and the archmage of Eclea and others there were no slouches either.”

Lorelei nodded, “Alright, but none of them were old when it happened, and most weren’t around… you, basically. It can’t be sure that any who reincarnate will have the same effect unless they are like your case, with full memories.”

“Well, it also makes sense that it works differently for humans. After all, for humans age makes it harder to grow stronger- whereas age for gevai is just a number unless they let themselves grow old. So, it might just cause a number of highly talented humans to show up… or it could be a coincidence.” William shrugged, “I mean, it’s hard to tell if I just happened to see more talented people because they had to show up, or if there really were more.”

“It is indeed hard to know.” Lorelei frowned, “I feel like our job is much harder than we thought it was… but at least now we can be somewhat prepared.”