Past Lives: Memories

Chapter 8: The Preparations

“Let me get this straight, are you saying that these people will be under my protection and not yours?” I ask the owner and Sonya.

“That’s just temporary, for now, we don’t have the necessary power to protect them and not to mention that some of them don’t want to get involved at all. Meow” The owner replies, “And not to mention, you literally hold the power in this school”

“Ughh, what a pain but what else can I do but agree” I lean towards the wall, “I might have a way to fix the ‘power’ issue but it will have to involve Sonya”

Sonya looked at me curiously.

“As you can see, Sonya belongs to the bloodline of the royal family and all we need to do is to awaken that power inside her” I let out a sigh, “This definitely sounded like anime like”

“This is reality. Meow” The owner looks at Sonya, “No need to wake up at all. Meow”

There are many ways to become stronger and that is to train or gain. The most natural thing to do is to train ones magical power while the uncommon way is to gain magical power through various methods. One is through a contract with spirits and demons, two is through natural or innate talent through birth, three is through f*******n rituals, and lastly, by passing on magical powers. I did all of these back then because I was desperate for power, but everything has a price.

“Master, how can I be powerful as you?” Sonya asks me with sparkling eyes

“Through training, of course!” I give her a smile

“Teacher, why am I dragged into this?” The professor nervously asks.

“First, I want to see where you both left off” I begin to stretch my arms and legs, “Now, go at me without holding back”

They both looked at each other, “Yes! We’ll show you how much we have grown!”

After a few moments.

“Is that all? And here I thought you guys would improve at all” I nonchalantly said while sitting on the two of them.

“That’s not fair! Master, you can destroy a continent singlehandedly back then!” Sonya starts to protest

“I agree! How can we hold a candle to you!?” The professor agrees with her.

“You two… Seriously” I give them a glare, “You are a princess and the other is deemed a war god, are you two just for show?! Now get the hell up and the training will start!”

“NOOOOOOOO!!” The two of them shout.

I made them do basic training again and guess what, they literally have no grasp of it anymore.

“Oi, oi. Basic training is important, how many times should I remind you two!?” I can feel my veins popping out, “If this continues, I have no choice but to become merciless”

I began their Spartan training and it was so effective that they remastered the basics in one day. Night came and we were offered to stay the night, which we completely accepted

I sat on a chair outside of Sonya’s garden.

There’s nothing more relaxing to sit outside in the dark night. Then I suddenly felt a presence behind me.

“Do you mind if I join you?” It was Sonya’s father.

“No, not at all” I give him a smile, “Thank you for letting us stay the night”

“That’s no problem at all, please think of this as your second home” He responded, “By the way, I’m curious. In the past, what was Sonya’s name?”

I give him a surprised look, “She never told you?”

“She only told me what was she like back then, the kingdom she lived in, her parents and her teacher”

“That’s a surprise, well, her name back then is Lilaf Riquel”

“Her name sounds like a medieval princess but now she’s still a princess” He laughs

“That’s true, she’s pretty lucky” I laugh with him.

“What about you?” He suddenly becomes serious, “If you don’t mind”

“I don’t mind at all, since it’s already all in the past” I reply, “My name back then is Arya Sucaumus”

“Is it true that you were a girl back then? I thought your name was just girlish”

“If that were the case back then, I wouldn’t have met Lilaf in the past”

The silence between us began to envelop us until he started to ask again.

“Do you have kids back then?”

I stopped for a moment before answering.

“Yes, I do”

“Then…” He hesitates to ask.

“I see this is a talk between parents. I don’t mind, ask away”

“How is it to become a parent in that world?” He curiously looks at me, “Which world do you prefer?”

“Well, first of all, I prefer to live in this world since I have no worries at all. Back then in that world, all people lived in constant fear of the unknown and only those who are powerful can ignore what’s happening around them. If I wasn’t powerful back then, I wouldn’t plan to raise a child.”

“It’s that hard? I thought this world and that world are somewhat similar”

“It is similar but you know… This world was already heading to that direction. Even if this world doesn’t have magic, they will always find a way to be efficient in every way, be it for living or killing”

“That’s pretty deep, you sound like you have seen it all”

I laughed at his remark.

“Yeah, I did see it and in fact, I was one of those people who have influenced wars back in our world. It was too late when I realized that.”

“If you don’t mind if I ask, how old are you back then?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“That’s your question? I was kinda expecting a different one”

“You said it yourself, you realized it and that’s important. Besides, that’s all in the past"

“Heh, I’m 389 years old back then”

“WHAT!?”

“I don’t know how I could live up to that point but I wasn’t aging and I always stayed the same. I think it’s because of various contracts I made with demons”

“You mean… You sold your soul to demons?” He shockingly asks.

“No, no, it’s nothing like that. It’s more like I made them serve under me, although I don’t see the reason how I lived that long”

“I was thinking…” He looks up, “How can I help my daughter?”

I looked at him seriously.

“Is this the reason you wanted to know more about our past? If it is, I suggest that you just only support her”

“I know, but I can feel it. Something is gonna go wrong soon and I wanted to prevent that”

“I honestly don’t want to drag outsiders into this mess. Sir, this is something that we need to handle ourselves” I let out a sigh, “Don’t worry about it, I will take good care of Sonya. She’s my student after all”

After that, silence once again filled the space between us, and I can feel my eyes slowly getting heavier.

“Get out of there! You coward!”

People are yelling from the outside, looks like they found me again.

“Mom? I’m scared…” Ainna tugs my dress while sniffing.

“Mommy, those people made Ainna cry!” Livitta says while hugging Ainna

“Can I blow them up?” Marinna nonchalantly said.

I can’t help but smile at the three of them but I need to clean up the mess outside first.

“Don’t worry about them, okay? Close your eyes and count one to three” I give them a smile.

“Kaay” The three of them said at the same time.

They closed their eyes and began counting.

“One..”

I went out of the house and faced the foolish people that intend to invade my home.

“Two..”

In a snap of a finger, they began to fall, one by one.

“Three!”

I went back before they can open their eyes.

“There!” I surprise them the moment they open their eyes.

“Wow! Mommy is amazing!”

I gave them a warm smile and hugged them.

I never would have thought that having kids would be the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Although, we aren’t all blood related and yet these three became siblings through the bond.

Marinna, Livitta and Ainna Sucaumus. I found them as infants when I was wandering in a destroyed village brought by war. I first found Marinna being held by her dead mother and her cries reached my ears. Next was Livitta, I found her silently sleeping in an abandoned house not far from the destroyed village. Lastly, Ainna, was in a carriage and was in great danger, good thing I managed to save her.

I don’t know if it's fate that I found these children at the same day but it was no doubt that it was my fault that their supposedly peaceful lives were ruined by me. I wonder, will they hate me if they learned the truth?

Truthfully, I felt blessed when I started to raise them and I never had regret on my decisions ever since because if it were not for the war, I wouldn’t have met them at all.

It’s pretty selfish of me to think that way, but it’s the only way I can hold my sanity together. All these bloodsheds, betrayals, enemies, I’m tired of it. I always thought that maybe it would be a great idea to just destroy the world and its evil, but in the end, I couldn’t do it. If destroying the world would mean killing innocent children and people, I can’t do it.

I slowly opened my eyes and noticed the ceiling.

How did I get here?

The door opened and Sonya entered the room holding a tray with food.

“Good morning master!” She happily greets me.

“H-hey, you don’t need to do that” I get out of the bed, “You should have waked me up instead”

“Nuh-uh, I wanted to do this for you!” She gives me a big smile.

I stopped for a moment and looked at her.

“W-what is it master?” She curiously looks at me.

I pat give her a pat on her head, “You grew so much, Lilaf. I’m proud of you”

“Sonya, is the teacher---“ Alex opens the door, “I-I’m sorry to bother you two”

He was about to close the door but I called him.

“Alexander Messiana, come here”

He silently walked towards me.

“What is it?”

“How… have you been doing?” I ask him.

His eyes widened, he obviously didn’t expect what I said.

“Are you serious? You know I’m not good with these kinds of things” He looks away, “I have done many things”

“Then come, would you mind telling us?”

The two were shocked after hearing what I said.

“Are you sure, you’re master/teacher?” They both said simultaneously.

“Heh, of course, I am. It’s just that if you two met me after I raised my three daughters, you would have been more shocked”

“You have children?” Alex curiously asks me.

“Yeah, I don’t mind telling you about it but you need to tell me yours first” I reply

He and Sonya look at each other and laugh.

“Sure, sure, be ready to be amazed!” He brags.

We spent half a day in that room talking about each other and just like that, we all get to know each other more.

This is the one thing that I never shared with my students back then, a time knowing each other. In the past, I always keep things to myself and I never crossed the line between a teacher and student.

I swear that in this life, I would never ever make the same mistake again. I will protect everyone around me, even if it means killing me.

But now that I think about it, I never asked Van’s name. I forgot to ask him since he and Eve are fighting so much. I’d better ask him when I get the chance again, I know it will not be too soon anyway.