Chapter 9: Promise

"You copied a what?!?" Yelled old man Voron with great surprise, grabbing onto Rein's shoulders.

"Huh? The opposite of Emria's Spring... You know about it, Sir?" Reacted Rein. Voron didn't respond. He started to rummage through his belongings, looking for something.

"The hell are you doing old man? Look, I'm gonna leave now. Take care of Alister and Greeny. You owe both our dads, right? Might as well pay it off now." Said Core, waving his hand as he left the house with D8. Voron put up a thumbs-up sign while still rummaging through his belongings, which Core caught a glimpse of before leaving. As he was heading to the carriage, he heard someone yell behind him.

"Wait!" It was Rein, running after him and D8.

"D8, go on before me and ready the carriage. I'll be there in a bit." Said Core, sending D8 away so he and Rein could talk alone.

"Sup Rein, you need anything else, or do you already miss me?" Core laughed.

"Like hell I'd miss you…" He looked up at him. "That's the first time you've called me Rein."

"Oh, my bad. You probably don't want me calling you by your first name huh?"

"I'm not sure… You did attack my village, and no matter your circumstance, I'll probably never forgive you for what you did to Leona…" Rein clenched his fists. "But, it sounds like you regret how this all turned out, and given the choice, I don't think you would have tried to kill us. So for now, I don't know whether I'm okay with you calling me by my first name."

"I see… Well if we meet again, make up your mind, alright?" Said Core, turning around.

"I have one more question for you… If you had won that cooking contest, what would you have made me promise you?" Rein's voice was followed by silence, then Core spoke.

"You ever thought of what would happen if you copied my Spring? I'm unable to end a life, but maybe if you copied my Spring, you could end any life, countering my immortality." Softy spoke Core, removing the playful tone of voice he always had when talking to Rein.

"I thought, maybe if I won that bet, I could have an escape for the future… Being eternally young, you tend to think about not being able to end it all. But who am I kidding? I can never escape," As he said that, he lost all life in his eyes, somehow exuding a torturous aura that was devoid of any feeling.

"You're right. If you ordered me to do that… I would have declined. You have no right to escape after what you've done." Announced Rein.

"Yeah, I expecー"

"However, if I eventually find a way to get rid of that pesky Spring of yours, you bet I'm using it. I wouldn't want to take the risk of copying your Spring myself, since I might die too," Declared Rein to Core, who was standing there dumbfounded.

"Heh, do you realize you're talking to the bastard that attacked your village? You seriously have a screw loose…" Core wearily smiled and looked Rein dead in the eyes. "I expect you to keep up on that promise."

"Usually I'd shake on it, but I only do that for people I like. Also, it's not a promise. Don't misunderstand, I'm doing this for my own benefit. Everything I do from now on will be that way," Said Rein, with a mocking tone in his voice.

"Haha, okay. Whatever you say. Still though, I'm definitely indebted to you," he spoke as he parted away, turning around back to the carriage, walking away as he waved with the back of his hand, Rein releasing his furrowed eyebrows and frown as he returned to the house.

As he entered, he noticed Emria sleeping on the couch, exhausted after the long day she had.

"You're back Rein. I Still haven't found it, so take the girl to my daughter's room and put her on the bottom bunk bed. It's the second room to the right upstairs. You can't miss it." Said Voron, still rummaging through his belongings loudly.

Rein was surprised that Emria could sleep through the noise, but considering how tired she seemed, it made sense. He picked her up and brought her upstairs into the sound isolated room. As he entered, it was almost as if he entered a separate dimension. No sound penetrated the walls of this room.

"Wow, this is amazing." He whispered. That small amount of noise was enough to wake up the little half-elf girl that was sleeping on the top bunk.

She sat up, revealing her long dark blue hair and red eyes, the same as her father. As she sprung up, the lights turned on, revealing the room that Rein had entered. It was full of gadgets, tools, and bits and bobs.

"Who are you. Why are you holding a girl. Why are you in my room." She posed, not sounding like she was asking for an answer, but rather just stating a question.

Her eyes didn't falter off of Rein, as they stayed fixated on him, expecting him to talk. Her voice was high pitched, yet monotone, like a flat note on an instrument, which Rein got an earful of in this quiet room.

"Ah sorry, we're gonna be living here for a while. This is Emria, she's about the same age as you. Do you think she can sleep here for now?" Rein spoke softly, not wanting to wake Emria.

"How old is Emria." She asked emotionlessly.

"About 6 years old."

"I'm 7. She goes in the bottom bunk. *yawn*. Good night." She went back to sleep, and so did the lights in the room.

Confused, Rein tucked Emria into the bottom bunk and left the room, making sure not to make a sound when the door closed.

"I found it!" Rein heard a loud yell come from down the stairs.

He ran downstairs, seeing Voron staring at a broken stone tablet. There seemed to be words carved into it, but Rein couldn't understand that language. Rein knew how to speak many languages, it was one of his hobbies when he was home alone. He knew Common, Elvish, Orc, Dwarvish, Goblin, and Draconic, but none of those seemed to be what was on the stone.

"What's it say? I have no clue what language that is." Rein said, scratching his head.

"This is a language called 'English'... It was in that book that was tabooed a while back. The one written by Albert E."

"Huh?! The tabooed book?! You read it?! If the church or government finds out, they'll kill you!"

"Yeah, I know." Uttered Voron.

"Didn't they do all those memory scans on everyone a couple of years ago? They killed everyone with knowledge about it and took all of the books for themselves. How'd you…" Rein stopped himself from prying any further, seeing Voron's expression worsening.

"Anyways, that's not important right now! The real deal is what it says on this tablet! A lot of it's blurred out, but it looks like you have some sort of ancient power," Voron excitedly exclaimed, Rein hoping that he could help him figure out his power, knowing that he couldn't tell Voron anything further.

"Half of it looks blurred out, are you sure you'll be able to read that?" Rein inquired.

"Yes, most of it is blurry to the point that I can't read it, but the parts that I can read can give us some valuable information. Firstly, the title is mostly blurred. It says "4 S...". I can only assume that it means Springs," Voron concluded, Rein getting a different vibe from the tablet, but keeping to himself.

"Down here, there are 4 different lines, three of them are blurred out. The only thing legible is the description of the bottom one, 'the power to copy the opposite of all Springs', it says," Voron spoke as he looked closer at the shabby rock.

As he took a closer look, he noticed a small inscription on the bottom of the tablet that he hadn't noticed before.

"Oh, what's this? Here it says '... command: Menu'. I bet that has something to do with your power, don't you think?" Voron gushed as if he just had a huge revelation.

"What does? That all sounded like nonsense to me." Rein thought that if Voron had said something that made sense, something would click in him again like that time with Core. But this time there was nothing, which lead Rein to believe that it was nothing of worth.

"Hey Rein, I want you to focus your mind, and say the word 'Menu'." Instructed Voron.

Confused, Rein adhered to Voron's instructions. He closed his eyes and relaxed his body. He took a deep breath in, and out.

"Menu"