Chapter 13: Reverse Veins (3)

It may be belated, but Reca Chronicles is a novel overflowing with extreme settings.

And the setting book attached to this novel is filled with countless biographies and anecdotes of all sorts of characters.

The spectrum of events handled separately through such a setting book is broad, to the point of being maddeningly so, including not only the figures from the era that serves as the story’s background but also the secret histories of historical figures like the founders of certain factions, the creators of certain schools, and the great kings of certain nations.

The Isidorus Alsigima I am about to talk about is one such character from the settings.

This man was active in the Dragon God Year 500s, meaning more than 400 years before the main story’s timeframe.

He was born as the son of a renowned martial family, but because he possessed an abnormal constitution where the energy veins in his entire body changed moment by moment, he was completely unable to learn the family’s secret heart method.

Yet, he had remarkably outstanding insight and enlightenment, so much so that even the Alsigima family, famous for simply cutting off any substandard child, held off on severing ties with him.

While enduring difficult years under the cold stares of his family, Isidorus one day seized an opportunity to demonstrate his talent, and that opportunity was one he created with his own hands.

After lengthy research, he proclaimed a breathing theory that could inversely utilize the uniqueness of what was no different from a cursed peculiar constitution, Reverse Veins.

The secret arts born this way are the Alsigima-style heart method and the fraud-level meridian that transcends grades, the Resonance Shatter Art.

Isidorus instantly became an unparalleled powerhouse with the power of the secret arts he himself devised.

Instead of staying with the family that had treated him lukewarmly until then, he wandered the continent searching for others with Reverse Veins.

Having taken in a total of four disciples in his lifetime and taught them his secret arts, Isidorus left this dying wish.

“If you find someone born with these cursed energy veins like me and you, make them realize that it can be turned into a blessing.”

…This is the anecdote tied to the founding of the martial school, Alsigima Style, which only those with Reverse Veins can enter.

The four disciples faithfully followed Isidorus’s will.

The policy of passing on the secret arts without question to anyone with Reverse Veins was established as the school’s most important rule and has been passed down to this day.

In short, since Estriel has discovered me, he has the duty to pass on the Alsigima secret arts.

I turned my gaze from him and said to Linia.

“We can’t leave food behind. Let’s continue the meal.”

A powerhouse beyond the Continent’s Twelve Heroes is right nearby.

That fact tensed me more than usual, but I continued eating while feigning calm as much as possible.

As I predicted, Estriel would approach us first anyway.

The reason is simple.

The energy created through Reverse Veins has strong vibrational properties, and unless the user takes separate measures, the peculiar waves originating from that vibration are constantly emitted outside the body.

Ordinary humans cannot even feel these faint waves, but it is different for fellow Reverse Veins possessors.

The moment two strongly vibrating peculiar waves touch, strong resonance occurs.

In short, Reverse Veins possessors can recognize each other.

That old man in the guise of a teenage boy will surely notice my peculiarity right away.

“……”

As expected, Estriel’s pupils shake minutely.

For him, a top-tier assassin of the Circulation Church skilled at hiding emotions, to show that much agitation means he is surprised to the point of jaw-dropping.

Finding a talent worthy of passing on the secret arts in an unexpected place would naturally heat up his body.

Estriel showed a brief sign of panic, but he skillfully hid his emotions.

And with a beaming smile on his face, he heads to the counter.

“Ma’am, today I’m in the mood to go to table 14. The meal the same as what I’ve had the past few days.”

“Do as you like, kid. Traveling alone at such a young age, how admirable. If my son were even half like you, I’d have no wishes left.”

“I’m not a kid.”

“Sorry, little old man.”

Estriel, letting out a psh of empty laughter at the innkeeper’s witty reply, soon sat at table 14 next to me and Linia.

He must be thinking of getting close first and observing what kind of guy I am.

“Your ordered soup and butter bread~”

The server brought the food to table 14.

…And in 10 minutes, Estriel, having emptied the plate clean, went up to his room without giving me a single glance.

“……What?”

I looked back and forth between table 14 where he sat and the stairs to the second floor with a dumbfounded expression.

No, a talent ready to accept the school’s teachings is sitting right next to him, and he makes no contact at all?

Is that really Estriel?

“…No, stay calm. There must be some reason.”

I sank into a swamp of thoughts.

Could he have noticed that Linia next to me has been investigating his background over the past few weeks?

I looked at Linia with that doubt, and she waved her hands.

“Uh, that’s unfair! As the young master ordered, I only monitored from places over 100m away. And as soon as we left the bustling area and entered a sparse street, I stopped tracking immediately.”

Linia, who possesses Espionage (B), affirmed.

If that’s true, there’s no worry of being caught tailing by Estriel.

Come to think of it, he didn’t particularly seem wary of us.

“Then… does that mean he has business more important than teaching the school’s secret arts to a Reverse Veins possessor?”

Thinking of Estriel’s actions in the main story of Reca Chronicles, it’s hard to imagine.

He is a character so full of affection for the Alsigima school that he prioritizes teaching the secret arts to a Reverse Veins possessor over an imperial royal assassination mission with enormous compensation.

There was even an incident where readers watching the assassination episode with tension lost their minds over Estriel’s sudden departure and flooded comments saying they couldn’t understand.

If at this point he has something so important that he skips me, a Reverse Veins possessor, and immerses himself in it, there’s only one thing that comes to mind.

“…Firebird’s Heart?”

Certainly, the purpose of him coming to the duchy is to obtain this legendary elixir… but prioritizing acquiring the elixir over a Reverse Veins possessor?

It means there’s some deep circumstance.

Perhaps it’s not a request but for Estriel’s personal need that he’s trying to get the Firebird’s Heart.

Of course, he wouldn’t just leave a Reverse Veins possessor like this, and it’s highly likely he’ll attempt contact with me soon.

The problem is that I don’t have the leisure to leisurely wait for Estriel’s approach.

Because there are less than 3 weeks left until the duel with Julio.

“No choice. The regretting side has to approach first.”

After finishing the meal, I had Linia book two rooms.

They were the guest rooms directly across from the one Estriel is staying in.

The next morning, I ran into Estriel at the door.

Since I had roughly grasped his schedule, this was a deliberately intended encounter.

Following the script I had thought of in advance, I hardened my expression and spoke to him.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“Hm?”

“You, by any chance, aren’t we acquaintances? I saw you for the first time in the dining hall yesterday, but both then and now, I feel a strange sense of déjà vu.”

“………”

Estriel’s deep eyes pierced through me.

Just meeting his gaze gave a distant sensation as if being swallowed by an abyss.

He chuckled.

“Haha. I never thought you’d be the one to feel the waves first and approach. Is this some kind of fate?”

“Waves? Fate? What do you mean?”

To avoid unnecessary suspicion, I tilted my head as if I knew nothing.

Seeing that, Estriel muttered with a bitter expression.

“I was planning to continue scouting until today… but maybe I should give up now.”

That murmur surely means he’ll stop searching for the Firebird’s Heart and focus on teaching me.

And that was also a remark that stimulated the curiosity of me, a avid reader of Reca Chronicles.

Just what reason made Estriel so desperately seek the Firebird’s Heart?

“First, shall we introduce ourselves. I’m called Spiro. You?”

He always uses an alias when active outside.

Spiro is an alias that appeared once in the original novel, so it feels somewhat welcoming.

“Aiden.”

“Right, Aiden, huh.”

After exchanging introductions, he and I shared some miscellaneous small talk for a while.

Then at some point, Estriel brings up the main topic.

“You have some flesh but a well-trained body, so you seem born from a knight family. By any chance, have you had problems learning a heart method so far?”

“No, how did you…?”

I widened my eyes in surprise.

Precisely, I pretended to.

Estriel smiled at my reaction.

“I’m the same as you.”

“What does that mean?”

As I looked confused, Estriel explained the correlation between the abnormality of energy veins and the constitution called Reverse Veins.

It was content I already knew, but I deliberately showed big reactions and acted surprised.

“Our school searches for people born with Reverse Veins like you and teaches the Alsigima secret arts. If you’re interested, want to learn once?”

Despite proposing it on first meeting, he doesn’t seem to think I’ll refuse at all.

Because for a martial artist who suffered due to the abnormal constitution of Reverse Veins, it’s an opportunity they absolutely wouldn’t want to miss.

In fact, I, who only acquired the trait yesterday, haven’t particularly suffered headaches because of Reverse Veins, but I had no intention of refusing Estriel’s proposal.

I quietly nodded, and he smiled.

“Good that we communicate. If you’re okay, I can teach you right now, how about it?”

“Anytime.”

“It’s a school secret art after all, a bit burdensome to teach in a place with many eyes, leak hmm… there’s a decent training ground in the forest outside Rykrol. Let’s go there.”

“Wait. There’s one companion, is it okay if she comes along?”

After pondering my question for a moment, he answered.

“Well, one person is fine.”

With permission, I called Linia, who was staying in the other room, and followed behind Estriel.

***

What is he trying to do?

Volker, the intelligence agent of the Stroke Family, followed behind Aiden with a puzzled look.

The actions shown by the surveillance target, the second prince, over the past few days were truly bizarre.

He’d hole up in his room all day, then finally come out, eat shabby meals at a small inn or book rooms and such eccentricities, meet a boy of similar age and have some conversation, then suddenly head somewhere with that boy.

“Lord Volker, what should we do? If we follow to a sparse area, there’s a risk of being discovered.”

“………”

At one subordinate’s question, Volker heightened his senses.

However, the energy felt from the blond boy accompanying the second prince wasn’t particularly impressive.

He was not an opponent to be greatly wary of.

“Continue surveillance as is.”

“Loyalty.”

In that instant Volker communicated with his subordinates, Estriel glared in the direction where the intelligence agents were.

However, no one noticed it.