Despite the slight changes my body had undergone during my reincarnation, it seemed that she recognized me.
“Hi, master. It’s been five hundred years. I’ve missed you,” I said, feigning composure. But despite my best efforts, my voice still came out shaky.
I stepped forward and walked up to her. Finis stood from the sofa but remained rooted in place.
“So this is where you were all along,” I noted.
Ever since she’d left me in my past life, I’d always been yearning for her. Her sudden disappearance had left me so miserable, I hadn’t known how to deal with my feelings. I had just really wanted her to stay by my side.
“Aurora, didn’t you die?” Finis asked, staring at me with trembling green eyes. I could see that she was slightly shaken. “If you’re here, then there must have been magic at play. Did you use a hibernation spell? No, that’s not it. Reincarnation magic? Or a spell to extend your lifespan, perhaps...?”
She promptly walked up to me and began inspecting my body. Perhaps due to her nature as an elfin, she was quick to adapt to abnormal situations.
“Hmm... There are traces of the spell on your body. Let me take a better look.”
“Um, master?” I said, but she ignored me, patting me all over to try and understand how I was still alive.
It’s our first reunion in five hundred years, and that’s what she’s choosing to do? Is she that curious about the reincarnation spell?
That side of her hadn’t changed at all.
“It’s a reincarnation spell,” I told her, unable to suppress a smile. “Épée and Glacial worked together to make it happen.”
I gave her a quick summary of the events leading up to my death, including Epocha and his items.
“And so, my disciples triggered my reincarnation, and here I am,” I concluded.
“I see. The little bunny and the prince used a forbidden ritual to save you. Well, they were both very attached to you, so I can understand. Did they forfeit their own lives in exchange? From what I know, reincarnation magic doesn’t work unless one pays the price for them—and most still fail even with a proper sacrifice. The spell isn’t perfect, but it seems to have been a success for the most part.”
Finis nodded, a satisfied look on her face.
“Your disciples did a good job.”
“I never thought that they would sacrifice their own lives for me so easily. I don’t want them to do anything of the sort ever again. Lance even went as far as to extend his lifespan to look for me all this time.”
“I don’t think that the little bunny, the prince, and the attributeless one would agree to that. But, oh well. This type of incident shouldn’t happen again, so they likely won’t have to perform such a ritual a second time.”
Finis always referred to Épée as “the little bunny,” because I had named him after the pink rabbit I had as a child. Needless to say, my first disciple absolutely hated it. As for Glacial, she called him “the prince,” since he had been the second prince of the kingdom back then. She had simply taken to calling Lance “the attributeless one,” in reference to his mana. The poor thing. She could’ve made it a little less literal, at least. Then again, this was probably the extent of how elfins differentiated between humans. It was a miracle that she actually gave me a proper name.
“I’ve missed you so much, master. You gave me a big shock by disappearing all of a sudden.”
“You became independent as a mage when you were twelve. I believe that I taught you enough magic to live by yourself with no discomfort,” Finis said.
“You could have at least said goodbye, though,” I retorted.
She seemed to ponder my words for a moment before nodding.
“You’re right. I may have been a little hasty. What happened to you afterward was far beyond what I could have imagined.”
If she had remained in Ventre, perhaps Epocha wouldn’t have caused such tremendous trouble. And assuming that he’d tried, Finis likely would have managed to nip his schemes in the bud before they escalated too far. But I had been much too inexperienced to deal with him properly.
“When I learned that you took over the job of court mage from me and lost your life almost immediately, I regretted my decision. I’d wondered if things would have been different if I had stayed a little longer.”
“I didn’t intend to sacrifice myself for the kingdom, but in the end, that’s what happened.”
I regretted my decisions too. Perhaps I could have dealt with the situation in a better way.
However, while things hadn’t gone as planned, I did gain something valuable in return.
“Oh, right, master. There’s someone I want you to meet.” I walked up to Char, who stood next to Vesper, and turned back to look at Finis. “This is my husband in this lifetime. His name is Char.”
“Your husband?” she echoed.
“Yes. He’s been a huge help to me ever since I regained my memories. He even helped me defeat Epocha.”
It was Char’s first time seeing an elfin, and he was slightly flustered. As for Finis, she seemed shocked to hear that I was married.
“I never imagined that you would have a husband. And if you did, I would have expected it to be one of your disciples. Those boys worship the ground you walk on.”
“Worship...?”
Lance’s Aurora Faith flashed in the back of my mind.
No, no, no. These boys look up to me as their mother and their teacher. They just tend to go in strange directions with certain things.
A pensive, albeit hard to explain, expression had settled on Char’s face. He, too, must’ve been thinking about my third disciple’s new religion.
My master eventually turned to him. “Nice to meet you. I’m Finis. I’m Aurora’s foster parent and former teacher.”
Char briefly hesitated before replying, “I’m Char Mercure. I’m an earl in the Lèvres Kingdom.”
“A noble. I see.”
“Only on paper, really. Lam’s—I mean, Aurora’s second disciple is the ruler of the kingdom,” he said.
Finis asked, “Lam?”
Seeing how confused my master seemed, I hurriedly supplied, “It’s my name in this life. I was born as the daughter of Baron Ivoire in the Tête Kingdom, and Lam is the name my parents chose to give me.”
“I see. So you were born as a noble this time.”
“Yes. However, that house seems to have fallen by now...”
After our last debacle with my birth parents, the Ivoire House lost its status. Given how much they had struggled with finances, I wasn’t surprised to hear about their decline.
All it took was a single glance at my expression for Finis to understand the situation.
“I see you don’t have a relationship with your birth parents in this life either. And the prince has been born as royalty once again? Life truly is unpredictable. I would be interested in studying the factors that determine where one is reincarnated when they haven’t specified any conditions, as well as the likelihood of their new life mirroring the previous one. Unfortunately, with so few successful reincarnation cases, it would be nearly impossible to draw any definitive conclusions.”
“Though we didn’t get to decide the conditions of our reincarnations, all three of us are doing great in this life,” I assured her. “My disciples have matured so much compared to five hundred years ago. I’m glad they grew up so well.”
“To think that the disciples of my disciple are all still alive... I have lived for a long time, yet you keep entertaining me, Aurora.”
The faintest hint of a smile appeared on Finis’s lips. It was our first meeting in five hundred years, yet this was the extent of her reaction. It might have seemed cold, but then again, elfins weren’t big on showing their emotions. This was what had been written in my books from five hundred years ago and also what Finis herself had told me.
Epocha was quite vocal about his feelings, but I assume he must’ve been an exception. Was it a consequence of all the years he spent among humans, or did he just lose all his inhibitions when he saw that his plan was about to come to fruition? Or perhaps he messed something up when transferring his personality to his new body made of magic items...
I only knew two elfins, so I couldn’t be certain. All I could say for sure was that, at this moment, Finis was showing a wide range of emotions. I had almost never seen her smile before.
“I see you have met Vesper too,” Finis noted.
“Yes. He told me that he’s half elfin and that you took him as your disciple too.”
“Yes. He’s a hundred and twenty, if I remember correctly. That makes him my youngest disciple.”
“Your...youngest?”
Had she taken other disciples, then?
She seemed to feel my confusion and nodded. “Perhaps it’s a consequence of the years I have spent with you, but I have grown to find perfectly silent places to be dull and insipid. So I took two other disciples between you and Vesper. I have had enough of meddling in human affairs, so I picked up an abandoned child and spent my days traveling from one quiet place to another.”
“Were they human...?”
“The first one was. But he died of old age three hundred years ago. The second one was an elfin boy. He’s currently traveling around the world, and I haven’t seen him in around a hundred years.”
Only an elfin would be able to say something like that with a straight face.
“Oh, wow. It’s like I’m their big sister, then.”
It would be great if I could meet my elfin little brother one day.
“Oh, this reminds me, would you like to come visit us in Lèvres, master?” I asked.
“The world of humans doesn’t have anything of value to offer any longer.”
“Oh, but master, things of value are something one has to find for themselves. Our estate is located on an isolated island, so there are only members of the Mercure family living there. It’s much quieter than the royal capital. Well, save for the children, that is.”
“The children? Did you birth them yourself, Aurora?”
Everyone always came to that conclusion whenever I mentioned the kids.
“No, no, they’re not actually related to me by blood. I’m sure you know that mana wielders are being persecuted in this day and age. Well, all the children with mana in the Tête Kingdom were sent to the Mercure estate,” I explained.
“I see. So that is why you are staying with that family. You must have taken a liking to the children and chose to remain with them. You’ve always liked picking up strays, after all. I see that hasn’t changed.”
She wasn’t far off the mark.
“I did choose to stay for the children, yes.”
However, they were no longer my sole reason for remaining with the Mercures.
“In any case, what matters is that you’re doing well. I trust that you will have a long life this time around.”
With that, Finis offered me another smile.