Reborn 8

Kyle and Beth came back to Thornberry with a few more things than they left with. Obviously they had the school robes, but Kyle had the two cloaks, the black cloak which was locked with earth magic, and a whole lot of other clothes. He had gone to the school with just one other set of clothes. Beth had a variety of jewelry that Kyle had gotten her, but they were mostly just cute little things, and they were inside a case of hers.

"Welcome home Kyle!" Elena and Fred said.

"Welcome home brother!" Said Dave who was besides them.

"Welcome home Beth!" Said Reginald and Sarah Valheart.

"Get away from our sister!" Yelled Berry and Cory Valheart. Berry and Cory then ran forward to Beth and pulled her away from Kyle as he and Beth got out of the carriage.

POV: The Mercers

"It's great to be home." Kyle smiled as he got out from the carriage with his cases. Elena and Fred looked at the cases with surprise.

"That's a few more cases then when you left." Said Elena, but Fred was thinking the same thing.

"Yeah, I had to get some more things while I was at the magic school." Kyle said as he propped the cases in front of him on the ground. "It's mostly just clothes though." Kyle added.

"You still have the wand right? Did you use it to fight anyone with?" Dave asked Kyle excitedly.

"I didn't fight with anyone, but when I cast spells with it, people were shocked at the power going through it." Kyle said to a beaming Dave.

"I knew it was powerful when I saw it." Dave said with clenched fist.

"I'll care your cases for you and we can go home. You are probably tired from the long trip." Fred said to Kyle as he picked up the cases Kyle had put on the ground.

"Thanks dad, I just need to say something to Beth before I go." Kyle said as he turned to face Beth who was using [Light] while staring at her brothers.

POV: The Valhearts

"Aren't you worried about something happening again?" Said Berry, who was holding onto the right arm of his younger sister.

"You shouldn't go near him." Said Cory, who was holding onto the left arm of his older sister. Berry was a full 4 years older than Cory, so Beth was pulled more on her right side and dropped the cases she had taken out of the carriage.

"Stop it! You made me drop my cases!" Beth said as she tried to fling her brothers off of her.

"We are glad to see you safely having returned Beth." Said Sarah who was standing next to Reginald. They were both behind Berry and Cory as the brothers tried to resist Beth shaking them off. They did nothing to help either side.

"Is that a new bracelet I see on your wrist? We didn't give you money to be spending on things like that." Reginald said to Beth when he saw the sparkling bracelet on Beth's wrist.

"It's new," Beth said as trying to shake off Cory and Berry, "but I didn't buy it. Kyle got it for me."

Beth was unsuccessful with shaking off Cory and Berry, and both Reginald and Sarah turned to look at Kyle and his family. They had never seen Kyle's family before but they introduced themselves when they met just a few hours ago. The Mercers were having a chat very different from the one the Valhearts were.

"Back off! [Light]" Beth said and called the spell, making a ball of light and both Cory and Berry backed away. Neither Cory or Berry were versed in lightning spells, Cory because he was 7 years old and still hadn't been tested for his aptitude, and Berry because like most people he was only good with fire.

"You sure have some protective brothers." Kyle said to Beth as he took a step towards them.

"Get away from us, or we are going to make you eat our boogers." Said Cory, sticking his finger into his nose.

"I heard you two made up a pretty big lie last year." Kyle said while getting closer. "You know what happens to lairs right?"

"W-we didn't make up any lie!" Berry said, studding a little bit.

"None!" Added Cory.

Beth then hit both of them on the head while they were distracted and ran over to Kyle who was getting closer.

"He didn't hate me at all!" Beth said as she put her arm around Kyle and looked at Berry and Cory. Beth's brothers were shocked.

"What have you two been doing while away?" Said Sarah as she laughed. Beth became a little red faced, but not as much as she would have two years ago.

'It's some kind of progress.' Kyle thought to himself as he looked at Beth who only turned a slight shade.

"Oh no, I don't think we should be asking questions like that Sarah." Said Reginald as he too laughed.

"I'm glad you two were able to make up." Said Elena who started to move closer with Fred and Dave towards the Valheart's position.

"It was just a misunderstanding, but it has been dealt with." Kyle said as he put his arm around Beth. "Can we get something to eat? I'm starved." Kyle said as he put his other hand on his stomach.

"There isn't anywhere to eat on this side of town other than inns, lets to the east side." Reginald said as he looked around. They were at the north gate which did mostly have inns around it. All the gates did, except the west gate that did not have businesses near it because it was in the 1st district.

The town of Thornberry had not changed very much in the last 10 months. The streets in the 2nd district had a few people on them, but it was not nearly as many as in Vegivile. The stores and inns had dirty signs and open doors that did not regulate the temperature. Vegivile had most shops with doors that closed to regulate the temperature, which let the customer shop easier. Thornberry citizens did not have this regard though, and where displays of products would normally be in Vegivile, there was wall. The inns doors did not close and had gaps at the top and bottom.

Thornberry was a town for people who knew what they wanted, and Vegivile was a city for finding something to want. Thornberry also had less of a presence of elites than Vegivile.

The restaurant that Reginald chose to eat at was an upscale one. If not for the 3 gold given to his family, Kyle did not think they would be able to afford it. The food was quality, but not as high as what Florianne got in Vegivile when they went out on Saturday. It was a simple meat dish with corn, two of the three basic ingredients to many meal in the Human Empire. Add potatoes and all three of the most common things to eat would be there.

After eating, The Mercers separated from the Valhearts and went to see the Droughts. The Droughts had things to do, and they did not make priority of meeting the son of a different family when he got back from mage school.

The roads from the restaurant were long, and from what Kyle could remember about Beth's house, it must have been much closer to her's. Fred was still carrying Kyle's cases, and Kathy and Paul's house would be on the way.

Kyle felt up at his neck and touched the red string with a few fingers. Truthfully, he had taken it off a few days after coming to the mage school, and before the first Saturday, but he put it back on after eating and leaving the restaurant.

"You still have that?" Elena asked Kyle as they went down the road to the Droughts. Everyone who was currently there had seen Claire give Kyle the basic red string for his 8th birthday, almost a year ago.

"I don't want to think about what Claire would do to me if I didn't." Kyle said as he looked up and put his hand on the string again.

Once they got to the Drought residence, it was determined that Kyle should go to the door first. Kyle walked up to the door and knocked on it 2 times before hearing a very familiar thing inside.

"Is it Kyle!?" Yelled the child and Kyle could hear running inside the house. The door was quickly thrown open and Claire stopped for a split second before yelling "Kyle!" and jumping onto Kyle, knocking him onto the stone paved path and knocking him out.

POV: Inside the Drought's home.

"I didn't think it would be this bad." Said Elena as Fred and Paul carried Kyle inside.

"I'm so sorry, I let it slip that he was coming back a few days ago and she has been running to the door every time someone comes by now." Kathy apologized while holding Claire back.

Claire was moving at 50mph and explode if contact with Kyle was postponed for any longer.

"I just need to make sure he is fine. This is my fault, so I should help him wake up." Claire said, not being able to escape from Kathy by physical means and now resorting to words.

"Don't you think you have done enough?" Said Dave who sitting in a chair while looking angrily at Claire. "Brother wasn't even back a full day and you are attacking him."

Claire knew who Dave was, and his status as Kyle's brother. Claire was a year older than Dave, so they did not have the same classes at school, but Claire was able to stop him as he either came or left and would ask when Kyle was going to get home. After the first week of this, Dave got very annoyed with Claire. After the next month, he was beyond annoyed. Claire stopped asking Dave every day when Kyle would return only 3 months after he left. Something was probably wrong with her, but nobody could think of a reason.

"Hey, Kyle is waking up." Elena said as Kyle started to move a little.

'What just happened?' Kyle though as he looked around. He was staring at the ceiling and thought for a moment that he was reborn again, but then he moved his hand in front of his face and dispelled that thought.

"Kyle i'm so sorry!" Claire said as she climbed on top of Kyle. Kyle did not even have the strength to sit up with her on him like that.

"What happened?" Kyle asked the other people in the room.

"That happened." Kathy said, pointing at Claire, halfway between looking upset and smiling, but it was not a normal face. Kyle then felt the back of his head as he noticed it hurting.

"And this?" Kyle asked, rubbing his head.

"Claire jumped you at the door and you hit the ground pretty hard. You were out for only a few minutes though." Said Fred. He had set the cases by the door and now everyone was inside Paul and Kathy's bedroom while Kyle was on the bed.

"Oh, you kept the string!" Claire said as she pulled the string around Kyle's neck.

"Don't pull it so much or it will break." Kyle said. He was more worried about his neck being hurt from Claire pulling the string into him or what Claire would do when the string broke than the string actually breaking.

"Okay then i'll let go, I see how important it is to you." Claire said as she let go of the string and was now sitting normally on top of Kyle.

"Hey Claire, um... could you?" Kyle said to Claire as he looked at her sitting on him. It wasn't anything dirty, but Kyle was starting to have a hard time breathing with her on top of him. Nothing dirty.

"Oh, I'm sorry, i'm doing it again aren't I?" Claire said as she got off of Kyle and stood on the floor.

"Hurting brother? Yes you are." Dave said to Claire.

"Kyle is fine, he can just use healing magic right?" Claire asked as she looked at Kyle with sparkling eyes.

"That's right, I can. [Heal]." Kyle used the call because people were nearby and he healed his body. It was a wide range various injury healing Heal spell, so it took quite a lot more than normal mana. Just a drop in the lake of his mana pool though.

"Wow, that is really cool." Said Paul who standing to the side. Kyle got up from the bed and they all moved into the living room. Kyle knew where he was because he went to Claire's home frequently in the past.

"We could use a strong healer at the barracks." Said Fred. "We have some people with chronic injuries and some general pain that could be relieved."

"I can heal them, but I would need some compensation." Kyle said, rubbing his fingers together as if two coins were between them.

"I think I can ask the captain for something." Fred said. Claire sat next to Kyle and held his hand.

"You are going to stay here for a long time right?" Claire asked.

"I guess I could stay the rest of the day." Kyle said, looking at his cases and then at Claire. Claire was not happy with that reply and pouted.

"No longer!" Claire said, stomping her feet.

"I think he means to say that he will be here for a long time." Kathy said.

"Can't Kyle just stay here all the time?" Claire asked Kathy. Kathy looked at Elena briefly and then looked at Kyle.

"Would you be fine with staying here for the night?" Kathy asked Kyle, taking the nod Elena gave her as permission to ask.

'Don't you think that would put myself and Claire in a rather dangerous position?' Kyle thought to himself, but did not say to Kathy. "If Claire really wants me to I guess I could." Kyle said while looking down and away from the adults in the room.

"Really?! No take backs!" Claire said as she swung her hand while still holding Kyle's.

"You can leave your cases here and take them back in the morning if you want." Kathy said to Kyle who was now looking at Claire swinging her arms in her seat.

"If you are going to stay the night here, we will go back home and we'll talk when you get back tomorrow." Fred said as he, Elena, and Dave got up and left.

Kyle and Claire became joined at the arm for the rest of the day and then again for the night when Claire refused to sleep anywhere other than next to him.

The next day, Kyle was able to leave the Droughts after they ate breakfast, but he promised Claire to come back every day. Kyle was starting to feel a little overwhelmed with all the promises he was making to girls. Visit Beth every weekday after class, go out with Florianne every Saturday, and now see Claire at least once a day. It was too much and he needed a break. A long stretch of time where he did not have any underage girls he needed to attend with.

To have something to do, Kyle wore the brown cloak and went into the 1st district and helped people by healing them. They could not afford to pay Kyle, so it was mostly for free. The people were very grateful for his help, and they showed it with asking for more help. It was a good thing he used a disguise.

About 2 weeks into helping out in the 1st district, Kyle was at a home of a man and woman who were about to have a baby. The woman was the one actually having the baby, the man was just the father.

"I can heal you, but I don't know much about giving birth!" Kyle said to the parents who wanted him to do something about the birth being exceptionally painful. Kyle really cold only heal her because in class they had not taught about giving birth, and Kyle was not much of a healer in his fast life, only using his magic to heal injuries from the battlefield. Soldiers did not give birth on the battlefield, or elsewhere for that matter.

"Just push!" The man said. He was holding his wife's hand while Kyle performed the magic on her 'down there'. It was nothing he hadn't seen before, plus he might have to do this kind of thing in the future. As the baby came out though, it was a little different than Kyle thought it would be. The baby was born very much like a normal human baby, but on the head there were horns, and it had a tail.

'Is this beast-kin?' Kyle asked himself as he looked at the baby with horns and a tail. The baby looked normal, considering his experience with babies being born being a grand total of 1, Claire. Everything was in the right place, but a litte higher on the head and a litte forward were two horns. They were a little sharp, which could explain the pain the mother felt while giving birth. The tail was just a few inches long, and it did not have any hair on it.

The man was looking at his newborn child with wide eyes, and the mother was just happy to have sucessfully gotten it out of her. The baby was crying, which was all the reassurance the mother needed to know it came out fine. Kyle was holding the baby and went to give it to the father.

"I'm not really sure what to do now, so i'm just going to leave." Said Kyle as he held out the baby.

"Sir mage, you ain't gonna do nuthin?" The man asked in his broken human language. The people of the 1st district were fine with short sentences, but when it got beyond three words it became error prone.

"Well, this is really the first time i have done this kind of thing, so I don't want to mess anything up." Kyle said. He had already lived for almost 40 years total with his past life included, but this was the first time he helped deliver a baby. Kyle hoped he could just had over the baby and be done with it.

"Then, I gotta go do it." The father said as he held out the baby to his wife. "It done born beast-kin."

"Beast-Kin!" The woman screeched. "I went so hard!" She said. The women cried and the man tried to hold tears back as he walked away. Kyle was just about to leave when he could hear metal clinking in the other room.

'I don't know much about babies, but their inst supposed to be metal involved with wrapping a newborn.' Kyle thought and he went to check on the man. 'These people just be completely hopeless.'

When Kyle got into the kitchen though, he was shocked to see the father holding the baby dangerously in one hand, and a large knife in the other, aiming at the neck of the baby.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Kyle said as he ran forward to stop the man.

"It be beast-kin, we must, sir mage." The man said as he was not able to hold back tears.

"You're going to kil your own child because it has horns and a tail?" Kyle said as he stopped becuase the man hesitated. Kyle could probably make him give up if he reasoned with him.

"Saint Ajoras tells us ta not let none of dem non-humans inta our homes, and da beast-kin must be killed." The man said.

Kyle did not know much about this Saint Ajoras character, other than shortly after the demon king was defeated he helped the humans annihilate the rest of the demon race, and preached human superiority on the continent.

"I can't just let you kill some baby because of what that lunatic said!" Kyle said to the man as the went forward to get the baby.

"No, it for da safety of da humanity." Said the man as he brought down the knife. Kyle used earth magic to hit the man's arm to move the knife away from the baby, and then used another earth spell to hit his fingers and make him drop knife. The attack worked and the man now just held onto the baby and had bloody finger.

"I have to!" The man yelled. Kyle quickly went forward and grabbed the baby from his hand and then retreated to the other side of the room.

"If you just want to kill your own child, i'll take it." Kyle said, holding the baby now with both arms.

"Kill da beast-kin." Said a faint voice in the other room.

'Was that the mother?' Kyle thought to himself. He really could not believe it, that a mother and father wanted to kill their own child. Kyle might have been a normal person for almost 9 years in this life, but in the last one he was a hero. Being a hero means having to go out of your way to help someone, no matter what kind of person they are. Shop keeper, inn worker, adventurers, even criminals and bandits deserved hero intervention. A child abandoned by society and even their parents, condemned to death immediately after birth, was the same.

"You can't kill it just because it was born different." Kyle said as he left the house. Kyle got a few feet from the door when the man came out and was in the doorway.

"He got a beast-kin, Sir mage is taken it for his own!" The man yelled into the streets. Everyone in the 1st district lived close together, and many people lived on the street, so when he yelled this, at least a dozen people looked over. When the people in the street heard this, they looked at Kyle with strange faces. Most people know who sir mage was, the masked man who went into the 1st district every day and healed people for free. He healed their injuries and diseases, even healed pains they didn't know they had. It was a shock that he would do something like take a cursed child to help it live.

"We not let da beast-kin live!" Yelled someone in the street, and suddenly a few people started to move on Kyle's location.

'oh shit!' Kyle thought as he tried to become invisible, but it was not able to make the baby turn invisible too. 'Damn, what a time to find a limitation of this spell.' Kyle said to himself as he canceled the invisibility which left some confused looked in the people around him as they saw him disappear for a second and then come back.

Kyle used this confusion to run past a few people, and a mob slowly started to form behind him. 'You really want to kill this baby...' Kyle thought as he ran past several streets and into a back ally. At least in the back ally, not as many people would be able to follow him.

Kyle was just able to run away from the people following him, but he could not lose them. Kyle was technically 8 years old, and thus took much shorter steps than the adults chasing him. He did not know the paths too well, unlike the homeless who followed him, and he had to keep the baby stabilized in his arms. Kyle was an expert at sword fighting on many terrains in his past life, so he did not lose balance when he stepped on particularly degraded footing, but he had to think about what direction to go in.

Kyle chose to not go into the 2nd district while being followed by a group of crazed homeless, because if having a beast-kin child was so back, it would probably get the guards on his too. Kyle ran in the 1st district for a long while before having to make a choice. He could use fly magic and leave the town completely, or he could attack the people following him.

"Hey, come here." A voice said to Kyle as he slowed down in an allyway. People were still following him, but he managed to make some distance between himself and them.

"What?" Kyle said to the voice, breathing heavily because of how tired he was.

"You want to save the child right? Come with me." The voice told him, opening a cellar window by sliding it to the left. Kyle looked at it for a second and got down on the ground and went inside. It was dark and he could not see, but if worst came to worst, he could cast status magic on everyone inside and wait out the night.

The cellar window was closed and a board placed over it. Kyle cast a light spell to look around.

"Put that out!" A feminine voice said to him, as a hand covered his. Kyle expected a soft and gentle hand to match the feminine voice, but the hand that did was hard, and rough. "We are trying to stay hidden, idiot."

"I'm sorry, but why are you helping me?" Kyle asked. The first thing he was wary of was someone trying to gain his trust and then kill the baby, so he moved his arm into a defensive position over the baby.

"Wait a second... did you cast that without calling?" The feminine voice asked Kyle as they stood in the dark. Kyle was only able to cast the light spell for a second, and it did not help him see anything.

"Don't ask me questions, answer mine. Why did you call me down here?" Kyle refused to answer the question asked to him and demanded from the feminine voice.

"You want to save the baby right? We can do that. Just follow me." The feminine voice said and reached out to grab on to something of Kyle's. "Just follow me, I know where we are going." The feminine voice said as it took Kyle a few steps forward. The hand let go of Kyle's arm and he could hear something wooden being moved. "Come down here."

One the wooden thing was moved, Kyle was able to see with a very small amount of light, enough to see a hole in the ground, but not enough to see the face of the woman who opened it, or anything in the room.

"You just want me to go down there?" Kyle asked the woman. He was cautious about going into dungeons the woman told him to go into.

"This leads to the sewers, it should be safe to travel down there." The woman said as she pointed to it. "Now go, I have to close the top off before I go down too."

Kyle looked at the hole for a few seconds and then walked forward and started to go down it. With the baby in one hand, the other hand held onto the ladder and helped him descend. Kyle did not slip up, even though the ladder bars were a little moist from the air in the sewer. Upon entering the sewer, Kyle was reminded of the smell he smelt over a year ago.

'Not this shit again.' Kyle said to himself in his head, making a stinky pun. The woman closed the wooden door at the top of the ladder and went down after Kyle. The sewer had openings at the top to the sides so that things could come into it, and it was one of the reasons the 1st district smelt so bad.

When the woman came down and into the lighter area, Kyle was able to see her face. She had dirty facial features, but if cleaned up she would be very cute. The woman had dark hair about half way down her back, and blue eyes. She had a hat on, so it was not possible to tell if she had horns too, but she did not have a tail. Her skin was dark and covered with a layer of dirt, which if washed off might give her some softness to the hands.

"Now follow me." The woman said as she took Kyle further into the sewers. The sewers twisted very often, and the only light came from above. While moving towards their destination, the woman and Kyle had the chance to talk.

"Why did you help that baby?" The woman asked Kyle.

"I couldn't just let those people kill an innocent child." Kyle said to her.

"Don't they teach you at those mage school to kill beast-kin?"

"I slept in class a lot." Kyle said to her second question, and she giggled a little bit.

"Do you know what the Tsars are?" The woman asked Kyle.

"Um..." Kyle said, not being able to form the information.

"You really are an idiot." The woman shook her head as she prepared to explain. "The Tsars are an organization that have been working to help the beast-kin inside of the human empire for over 2,000 years. Did you really help with baby without knowing even that?"

"I just saw someone that needed help, so I helped them."

"But you should know that beast-kin are ordered to be killed at birth. Your mage school lessons should have taught you that in the later years."

"Silly me, I must have forgotten." Kyle said. He was shorter than the woman, and it was amazing that she did not think he was a child. 'She must be some kind of idiot or something.' He thought as he followed her.

"Well, we will be able to take the baby from here, but I think you are stuck with us now. There is no way the empire will let you live now that you are a beast-kin supporter."

"I wear a mask for a reason." Kyle said. He always had the mask on him, and used invisibility to travel from his home into the 1st district.

"But you had to get the mask somewhere right?" The woman asked him. "And that cloak too. Whomever sold that to you would be obligated to come forward and tell the empire who bought it.

"I... I don't think that is a problem." Kyle thought. He was given it from Florianne in Vegivile almost 10 months ago. It would be very strange if the shop keeper could make the connection, and he did not have to worry about Florianne because she would not throw away his trust for something like this.

"It will be a problem. You might think these humans are your friends, but if you do anything to go against the status-qua, you are immediately labeled the black sheep and kicked out. That's just how things work when dealing with beat-kin." The woman said. "We should be here now, come in." The woman then opened a door and walked in first.

"Who's there? Oh, it's you Eva." Said a man in the room. It was dark, but not dark enough that he couldn't be seen. He was much taller than the woman called Eva, and had light hair.

"I have someone with me Lorenz, they helped a beast-kin without knowing the consequences." Eva said as she presented Kyle entering the room.

"He some kind of mage?" Lorenz asked Eva, as he drew a sword.

"Yeah, but he slept through class and doesn't know about why they have to kill beast-kin." Eva said.

"He is kinda short though." Lorenz said, not lowering his blade.

Kyle was not happy with the turn of events and cast light without the call. "I don't like standing in the dark while being threatened." Kyle said.

"Shit, he is a mage!" Lorenz said as he got something from his pocket and threw it at Kyle.

'Pocket sand?' Kyle thought as the grains hit is cloak and the ground between Kyle and the man named Lorenz.

"No, he's help..." Eva started to say, but then she saw that Kyle fell to the floor. Kyle started to lose balance just a moment after being hit by the sand, and felt something being cut off. It was like the sand that hit him was being absorbed into his body, and causing him to lose consciousness. Kyle held the baby out and fell on the floor unable to stand anymore.

"What is happening to him?" Eva asked as she bent down and looked at Kyle, who was unable to move. This was not a common occurrence.

POV: Lorenz

"It was just the disruption beads, nothing poisonous." Lorenz said to Eva as he picked up the baby that Kyle had dropped on the floor.

"But he has already lot consciousness!" Eva said, shaking Kyle who was on the floor, unconscious.

"Don't blame me, he must be a super human or something." Lorenz said, knowing that the disruption beads only worked on humans. For such a profound effect, the masked mage must have been double human, whatever that meant.

"Let's take off this mask and look underneath." Eva said as she flipped Kyle over. She put her hands on the mask and pulled it off of Kyle's face, and what was under it shocked both her and Lorenz.

"He was short, but to be this young..." Lorenz said while holding the baby.

"He's just a kid, no older than 10." Eva said, touching Kyle's face. "What should we do?" Eva asked, turning to Lorenz.

"We should take him back to the capital. We don't know anything about what is happening to him right now, and if we stay here much longer we might be found out." Lorenz said, picking up a case and heading to the door to leave. "You carry the baby and I will carry this kid." Lorenz then held the baby to Eva.

"Alright, but do you think he will make it?" Eva asked, looking worriedly at Kyle.

"Sure he will. It only cut off his mana, so if he is dependent on it more than normal, it should return to him in a few days." Lorenz said and then he and Eva left the room. Lorenz was carrying Kyle over his shoulder and Eva had the baby in her arms as they walked through the sewers.