Sleep did little to resolve Louis’ exhaustion. His four limbs went on a vacation, dumping a sensory mass of pain that threatened to send him back to sleep. Trying to lift his limbs failed him as well, as they somehow doubled or tripled in weight overnight. A lovely combination, if Louis had to admit.

Louis groaned, the most he could really do in his situation. His body falling into such disarray reminded Louis once again to strength his body. But that felt so slow, like regain lost ground – a lot of work just to return the original spot. Same thing could be said about his magical abilities, but redoing those could incorporate enough edits that could be considered an upgrade rather than restoration. While Louis did learn some fighter techniques, he needed a thorough refresher, since those were definitely gone by now. Of all the things that made Louis happy about his rebirth, his body was not one of them.

“Cal Movita,” Louis said. A warmth permeated throughout his body, removing the pain and lightening his body as it passed.

Now that the pain no longer vied for his attention, Louis looked around. The door to his closet was wide open, letting blindingly bright light shine upon his feet. A small mercy that the sunlight missed his head. Forced awakening due to the sun’s bombardment into a world of pain would have been a terrible way to start the day.

His sisters were gone as well. A bit saddening that they did not bother to wake him up before they left. Then again, Louis might have slept through it, so accusing them might be an overreach. Plus, he needed the sleep.

With nothing else vying for his attention, save for hunger, Louis closed his eyes and began analyzing his body. Within moments, the cause of all his pain and suffering was revealed: broken meridians. All those tiny meridians, that Louis had avoided opening due to a lack of time, had bursted open through a reckless use of magic.

So when he slept last night, allowing his body to recover mana freely, only about half of the mana entered his mana core for safekeeping. The rest of it poured straight out of this broken meridians into his extremities. A similar situation played out within his torso, but his mana core greedily absorbed most of the mana and prevented a harmful level of mana from leaking.

This outcome operated on a similar principle of amputating then regrowing his limbs: his meridians were now clear, ready to be used once healed. Except, Louis was now beginning to realize just how hasty that plan was. Merely repairing his smaller, bursted meridians now seemed like a momentous undertaking, let alone regrowing his limbs from scratch. Not only did he have a much smaller mana capacity, but also no alchemy, no life core and an out-of-use mastery of ‘Zet Imaru.

But having only one tool available, Louis resorted to make the best of it. “Zet Imaru,” Louis said. The results were underwhelming. He had hoped to heal his meridians while addressing his mana poisoning as well. Instead, only a bit of the mana was siphoned from his limbs to heal his meridians. Most of the price came directly from his mana core. A pity.

The Venti people, even before they could learn their Manifestations, could regrow their body. Not with alchemy. Not with some fancy healing spell. Not even with ‘En Movita’. Purely from using the mana poisoning their very bodies.

Louis hoped to emulate that concept, but failed. Wishful thinking really. Too many differences between his current situation and the Venti people existed. Failure was expected, but Louis sighed nonetheless. A cheap fix would have been really convenient. This was bound to be a large project.

His meditation was disrupted before Louis could refill his mana core. Of course it would be. The rest of his day refused to go his way, why should this?

Mother stood over him, staring so intensely yet so quietly that Louis tried to remember whether she had ever done so before his rebirth. Not that he could remember. That did not really mean much considering he only bothered to retain a few memories of her – mostly when she begrudgingly accepted his existence or wanted to live through him, admittedly too negative or small of a sample size to care for.

“How can I help you, mother?” Louis asked, wondering if he said that last part to remind himself of that fact.

“Where do I even start?” mother asked. “I would like to ask just how you were mana poisoned, but we got no time for that now.” She disappeared, returning to throw Amelia’s long white gloves at him. “We have a meeting to go to. Wear the gloves and long pants to hide your injuries.”

“She knows about mana poisoning, Louis thought, archiving that thought for later. “What meeting?” He asked instead as he changed into something clean.

“A way for you to become a good supporter, if you play your cards right.” Mother said. “The liaison provides lunch, but remember to mind your manners and, please, try not to embarrass yourself.”

“Got it.” Louis said, uncommitted. If this was the person that mother and Amelia had visited the other day, then Louis doubted the worth of this person. They did not show up in his last lifetime and probably would not stay around much longer this time around.

҉҉҉

The meeting was scheduled at twelve. When they left the house, the sun had already passed its zenith. Even more, the meeting place, a restaurant that Amelia supposedly frequented with mother, was located in the northern district, quite a walk away.

That detail alone was fine with Louis. It provided him time to question his mother for more details, but mother stopped him at every turn, instead asking a plethora of questions of her own. Louis felt it was mostly to stall and avoid his questioning, so he eventually stopped. His time was much better spent meditating as well as he could while walking.

When they reached the restaurant, Louis ducked into the bathroom. While ‘Cal Movita’ numbed his pain, it also allowed him to abuse his body past mortal limits. Especially when he continued the Divine Magic for prolonged periods of time. The walk definitely shredded his feet. His socks, dampened with his blood, were a wonder to see. And his feet was even more so.

A few ‘Zet Imaru’ repaired some of the damages, but Louis sincerely wished his life core were open. Lifeblood and healing went hand-in-hand. So much so that ‘Zet Imaru’ felt useless without an ‘En Movita’ to accompany it.

After salvaging the most of the situation, Louis was escorted by a waiter to the private meeting room on the third floor of the restaurant. The third floor did not have many rooms, but this one was the biggest. Not that it needed to be. A circular table filled half of the room, but only had three seats, with enough empty space to put six more. The rest of the room just had a small table for people to sir around, trade drinks and seal deals.

His mother had taken one seat, but, unwilling to wait, had began talking with the mage taking another seat: a noblewoman wearing black mage robes. The robe color itself did not mean much, just a standard used when people did feel like sharing their rank. While theoretically the wearer could be of any rank, even the first, few apprentices could afford a normal black robe, let alone one made of Irrot silk like this woman’s. Silk of that quality could be, and in this case was, enchanted to act as genuine gear.

The noblewoman had dark blue hair, tied into an elaborate bun at the top of her head, leaving just enough hair for a braided crown. Her brown eyes focused onto Louis in displeasure, perhaps hoping to end him right then and there. But her most notable feature was the sigil over her left breast – a meteor wrapped by rings of fire and water. A representative from the Feldmar family. One of the main branch given that she was a mage. Water and earth affinities judging by her hair and eye color.

Admittedly, Louis had no bad blood with them directly, that he knew of anyway. Given that the family was subservient only to the royal family, and in name only, it would not be surprising if they had some role in his death. Politics made strange bedfellows. If he spent any time researching just how he got exiled, he could have found their hand in it. Probably.

More importantly, why was someone of her caliber in Riveta? Abandoning the western battlefield was impossible. The fighting was only just beginning to escalate. Or perhaps the Feldmar family wanted to use this lull in the fighting to diversify their investments? Not totally impossible. It was surprising enough to find them leave the east alone for so long anyways.

Anyways, the woman had his attention. Louis stepped up to the third and last seat, bowing as he waited for permission to be seated.

“Feel free to take a seat, Louis.” The woman said. “It’s already so late. Let’s not delay any further.”

Louis reminded himself once more that this was for Amelia and Hefra, before taking a seat. Appetizers had already been served – a few golden dumplings were already served. It smelled great, and tasted even better. Meat came from magical beasts, more filling than normal animal meat and provided some mana as well.

“As Sandra may have already told you, I hail from the main branch of the Feldmar family.” The noblewoman said. “Your sister has accepted forming a Feldmar branch here once she finishes school. I offer you an unique opportunity to be her main butler."

“If I heard you correctly, you offer outsiders an opportunity to establish her own branch in the Feldmar family.” Louis asked. A generous offer. Too generous, in fact. Its costs have been left unsaid.

“You didn’t tell him?” the noblewoman asked, turning to mother.

Mother simply shrugged.

Turning to Louis, the noblewoman said, "I’m your aunt, Elena. Your mother abandoned the family, then lost her magical abilities. Since you, the eldest son, lack the proper affinities, your sister, Amelia, inherits the mantle. If you support her,join her as well, you two together can redeem the honor your mother lost. Plus, we can help awaken your elemental affinities if you so choose. This opportunity does not come lightly.”

Louis tuned the woman out once he learned that she was his aunt. If Elena hoped those were the words to convince Louis, she hoped wrong. In his past life, after his sisters died, his mother followed soon after, leaving him alone. Nana would die sometime this year - that would need to be addressed soon - while Hefra's parents simply disappeared soon after the accident. However, Elena definitely knew of his existence then. Yet, she did not so much appear before him or even during any of the family’s funerals. Or in the centuries afterwards.

Once again, Louis reminded himself that he did not come to this meeting for himself, but for Amelia and Hefra. So he took a deep breath before speaking, “that’s a lot to spring on someone.”

“Indeed.” Elena said. “However, I offer you an opportunity as grand as the responsibilities.”

A few servants entered the room, pushing a cart. The three of them each got a bowl of stew, and not just with any old meat, but with some pseudo-dragon magical beast. Even a single bite was expensive, let alone a generous portion cooked in a fashion that touched upon alchemy. Perhaps Elena planned to entice him with a meal, but Elena strangely stared at him until he ate. So Louis did. Mana began flowing into his body. Gentle, but plentiful.

Perhaps, it may have been some final ditch effort to squeeze some magical potential from him. The only other method was to rip his mana core open. All this excess mana did, besides flowing into his mana core, was disrupt the 'Cal Movita' spell boundary. Beads of sweat ran down his face as Louis excused himself to the bathroom. Not a moment too soon, as the weight of his limbs returned with a vengeance. Louis used ‘Cal Movita’ to remove the pain and heaviness, then used the remaining mana for ‘Zet Imaru’. The meal had yet to finish and, from the looks of it, there was a lot of mana to be gathered.

Elena and mother were almost disappointed by how Louis looked when he returned.

“Sorry about that.” Louis said. “Didn’t expect to react so negatively to the food. Delicious stuff though.” He took a couple more bites.

“Food will no longer be an issue, if you decide to join our cause.” Elena said.

The rest of the meal, which didn’t last more than a few minutes, passed in silence. As Elena got up to leave, Louis asked, “what will happen to Hefra, if I chose to join you?”

“If she continues to show potential, then she can join Amelia’s branch.” Elena said. “If not…well, there are other people that befitting Amelia’s social class.”

Callous, and not ideal against Hefra. At the same time, with his support, Hefra would excel just fine. Failure wasn’t a worry.

Once Elena left the room, Louis turned to mother,. “Why did I not learn about our family heritage before today?”

Mother did not look any happier than he did, perhaps even worse off. Louis at least maintained a face of neutrality, while letting a bit of foolishness seep through. The façade mother maintained tittered on the brink of shattering, leaving Louis in a bit of bind. Not sure whether to press on for answers or hold back to give her space.

“I…had a fight with my siblings. Marrying a man of ill-repute and coming all the way out to Riveta was against their wishes. I was young and foolish, clinging to words of a man who wanted more than the world could give. Our life in Riveta wasn’t a bad one, by any means. He was a decent adventurer, but his death…brought about certain hardships.” Mother said. “If you are done eating, let us go. Elena has already paid for the meal.”

The walk home was a silent one.