“Has he always been like this?” I asked Laven.

  He nodded.

  “Free at last!” Eleven flew out of my soul space directly towards the sky.

  “Don’t go too far out, and be careful” I transmitted my voice to Eleven who was rising higher and higher in the sky.

  “Got it” He replied without turning back.

  “So… what are we doing now?” Delsa asked, the situation was sort of awkward to be honest.

  “All of you learned the quicken spell right?”

  “Yeah”

  “yes”

  “Yup”

  I just nodded

  We replied at the same time.

  “Then let’s go, use the Quicken spell on yourself and follow me while walking. Match the Mana with your mana recovery rate, because we will be walking for the next 2 months and you don’t want to run out of mana too often.”

  “Also, match their speed Theo, you are a Quasi-mage”

  He was about to speak something to me, Perhaps wanting to say the same thing, but he looked at my arm and just shook his head.

  “Why are you still wearing those, You took mine back saying that I should rest due to the mission!” Theo also saw the mana shackle I was wearing, the full power one, meant for Tier-1 mages, and started complaining.

  “You don’t want to listen to me?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Don’t come to me with any questions or to talk then”

  “Th-That’s not-” He started stuttering.

  “So, will you listen to me?”

  He didn’t say anything for a solid minute.

  “Yes” Finally he said the magical word, although gloomily.

  But he still looked at the single mana shackle I was wearing. Sometimes I wonder if he was a masochist, this was the original version I was made to wear by that teacher, and while I could only do so at the level of a mage apprentice I could use mana wearing these.

  “You sure you didn’t have kids back on earth? You are too good at handling Theo for this to be the first time” Delsa asked.

  “I do have some experience with kids…

  …

  “Why are you giving this to me sir?” she asked me with a confused look on her face, I had after all just given her a laptop and 36 dairies, all filled to the brim.

  “How many times have I told you to just call me by my name, sir just feels awkward kiddo”

  “You are respectable, Perhaps one of the best writers on the planet right now, you deserve the respect”

  A sigh escaped my mouth.

  “Sit down kiddo, I want to talk to you”

  She sat down in front of me.

  “I am retiring”

  Her eyes widened in disbelief

  “But why! Don’t you love writing more than anything else!”

  “I do, but there is something I desire more than even writing books.”

  “Is this about the floating man?”

  “Yes it is”

  This time the girl, 12 or 13 years old with glasses on her face sighed.

  I looked at her, within my heart a pride for having taught her literature, grammar and the importance of human connections, and an even greater pride for what she had become and what she could become.

  “Jasmine, before I leave the writing world, I wanted to leave a legacy behind, a legacy not of money but of something greater”

  She sait up a little straighter.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You have a passion for stories I have rarely seen in people, and for the past 3 years you have learned many a things from me”

  I pointed at the laptop and the diaries.

  “In that laptop are 2 unpublished novels I wrote while teaching you, and in the diaries are all the observations I made about writing good stories throughout my life.

  While you don’t have parents you have something much greater kiddo”

  I patted her head.

  “You have a thoughtful mind, a passionate mind, a creative mind. And I know from experience that creativity never disappoints. So write as much as your heart desires…

  ...

  “Eric!”

  Huh?

  “Are you even listening?” Theo looked at me with a angry look on his face.

  “Sorry I lost focus for a second”

  “So that’s how he ended up knowing that we are people who were reincarnated” Delsa was talking to Laven.

  They were talking about that day it seems, Adiel’s diary was laying on the sofa and when Theo came he couldn’t control his curiosity and decided to read it.

  My mind is really that of a old man huh? Didn’t think I would have a daydream about that day.

  I wonder how many kids she has by now, she did sell one of her novels for more then 5 hundred thousand pounds so she has enough money to have a few more kids, though her twin daughters were really cute.

  ..

  And now I am sad thinking about basically my granddaughters.

  “Lets start our journey now.” Laven said after listening to the complete story, including the part where Adiel tried to beat Theo with a stick for reading his diary.

  We all supplied mana activated the quicken spell and started following Laven, going towards the north.

  I guess we will be going north for a long while now.

  Because we were descending the mountain from the least steep side it was a breeze and progression was really fast.

  “This is so amazing! I have flew through these mountains many times, but the sense of freedom I get today is such a great feeling that I don’t know how to describe it.”

  “Then don’t, just enjoy the flight, I will fly with you too when I become a Tier-1 mage”

  With the conversation with Eleven going on in my head we continued to walk, which was almost as fast as a horse, for the rest of the day while continuing on with small talk.

  “We should rest now” Laven said while looking at the setting sun.

  He waved his hand and a metal box about 5X5 meters in size appeared on the snow.

  “It took a lot of time to make, but I am glad I did”

  “Laven?” Theo tugged at Laven’s shirt with a weird look on his face.

  “Yes?”

  “Why are you carrying THAT in your Soul space”

  “If you have space the size of a house to put anything carrying a small house is pretty much a necessity”

  While Theo was not convinced he entered the small room. I waited for Eleven to come back and after he entered my soulspace I entered the room too

  There were 4 beds in a row and a 5th one in a different corner.

  “From tomorrow onwards we might encounter monsters of all kinds, so be prepared for fights, F-rank monsters will be handled by Adiel and Delsa, Theo and Eric will handle the E ranks and I will handle the rest.

  Eat these before sleeping.”

  Saying this he took out a bunch of mountain berries, the same ones I was fed when I was a child.

  They were sweet and filled the stomach after eating barely 3 or 4 for adults.

  We ate the berries, and then laid down on the beds to sleep, though Laven went outside for a walk.

  That one bed in the corner was used by Delsa, while the rest of us laid down right next to each other.

  A minute passed, then 2 and soon enough time passed that everyone was sleeping, But I couldn’t sleep today.

  Familiar faces came to mind, and with the faces an urge to somehow meet them again.

  Jasmine, her 2 kids, her husband was really nice as well, I did play the matchmaker though, I also missed my parents a little, I has been over a year since I met them after all.

  I think I will bring them with me after the war, the moment I become a tier-1 mage.

  I did make sure to write a letter every month, and also received atleast one letter from home each day.

  He’s still not back huh?

  I stood up and went outside to see what Laven was doing.

  He was not that far, looking at something on the ground. I neared him, and saw a dead rabbit frozen under the snow with only the head not buried under the snow.

  “What happened Laven?” I went next to him and asked.

  “You lived a really long life on earth right?”

  I nodded, I saw in his eyes that he wanted to talk, and I was ready to do so as well.

  “Then can I ask you something if it doesn’t bother you?”

  I nodded again.

  “When you were about to die, what were your thoughts about life?”

  So he was thinking about this..

  “The moments I wanted to live the most, to experience the most were the last few moments of my life perhaps.”

  “I see..”

  “What about death then, why do things have to die? Why is the world cruel enough to give some creatures the ability to think just to take it away with time?”

  I fell silent for a moment.

  “I don’t know”

  “Sometimes I wonder why things are even born, just to suffer a little and then die in an uncaring universe? Is it all for the sake of those dirty beings entertainment?”

  He had a lost look in his eyes. Those eyes reminded me of Martha the moment I met her, lost in thoughts too deep for someone her age.

  “I don’t know why things die, But I do believe I know why things are born.”

  “Why are they born then?”

  I paused for a few moments once again.

  “In order to leave behind something for the rest of the insignificant creatures.”

  “Something like?”

  “Anything to be honest, An ant leaves behind safety for its queen when it dies defending its colony, A flower might leave behind a beautiful memory, or a painful one.

  A person leaves behind relationships, memories and so much more while a tree leaves behind wood.”

  He turned his gaze towards the sky, perhaps to take it all in.

  “Then should we just accept death as a fact?”

  “I never said that did I?

  I remember a poem by a guy named Dylan Thomas, Let me tell you the first few verses of it.

  Do not go gentle into that good night,

  Old age should burn and rave at close of daylight;

  Rage, rage against the dying of life.

  I follow this philosophy very closely. Don’t accept death, in fact shine as bright as you can. But because death will approach you regardless try to live the best life you can.

  Because you can’t live without regrets, but you can live the best.”

  Silence grew for a few minutes.

  “What did you leave behind in your past life?”

  “Me? I left behind a legacy for a lost girl I suppose” I smiled remembering Jasmine.

  That girl published the 2 novels I wrote, but under my name. And she also encouraged me to write some novels and get them published every few years.

  “Was it meaningful?”

  I remembered the smiling face of the 2 twins, and the face of Martha writing a story filled with the satisfaction of creation.

  “Yes it was”

  He fell silent once more, I looked at the moon, present today in the shape of a crescent.

  I turned around and started walking back to the room to sleep.

  “Thank you” Laven’s silent voice came from behind.

  I didn’t say anything and laid back down on the bed after entering.

  I slept peacefully till the morning.