—–

After deciding to cut ties with Chris and Eric, I’ve been ignoring them every time I see them around the plaza. I mostly go there with Erika, although the intense glares from people get very annoying, there’s nothing much I can do over it, so I’ve decided to just ignore them.

Mere glares don’t hurt anyone anyways, as long as they don’t dare come and insult us in the face, I will not chase down every person that comes across and looks at us strangely.

Erika is very strong, she had already learned how to ignore such glares, and has been ignoring them very well, as if they were not there anymore.

I had tried to sneak once into the forest with her so I could catch some small animal and extract its blood, but my parents are always everywhere I am, so they caught me and brought me back home.

Erika had even spent some nights in my room, sleeping on a second bed. Now that I am about to become five years of age, sleeping in the cradle won’t do, so I am sleeping in a small bed. There was another bed too, which used to belong to my mother, so that’s where Erika sleeps whenever she wants to stay here.

I’ve been growing more interested in her abilities, however. As I recall my fight with Chris, I remembered that he had used Mana even when his spirit had yet to be born.

So why couldn’t Erika do that too and practice to grow stronger? So over a year, I have been trying to teach her how to grow stronger using her Mana.

She had been doing it very clumsily. But she can do it, she’s certainly capable of sensing her own Mana, which is incidentally pink colored like her hair.

Over a year I’ve been trying to teach her, and well, she had actually managed to learn a few basic techniques in the usage of Mana such as Mana Control, Mana Sense, and Mana Reinforcement. It was arduous because she’s not really talented, but my teaching abilities are on point even now that I’ve been reincarnated.

She can now control mana better, enhance her senses using it, and also reinforce parts of her body at will too. However, that’s kind of all… I tried teaching her spells in secret, but she was too confused to use them, she might need a bit more time, and perhaps some written books to help her conjure spells.

But in this world people don’t use conventional spells though, but spirit techniques which uses their spirits… So maybe she’ll be able to learn that faster than spells.

I had once tried to sense her Pressure Points and her Qi, though.

“Now calm down, and rest on the bed, I will slowly sense your body’s Pressure Points, so relax.” I said.

“I-If I can unlock them, will I be able to move amazingly like you did back then?” she asked.

“I think so, but calm down for now and let me do my job, Erika.” I said.

“O-Okay…!”

Erika closed her eyes and rested on the bed as stiff as a log. I hadn’t told her to close her eyes but whatever.

I infused Qi into my hand and then inserted it into her body like a wave.

There’s a method to awaken Pressure Points through the usage of an external Qi user. It was hard to do it myself, but I can easily awaken another’s person’s Pressure Points if I do it myself.

I haven’t done it with my parents because they’ll make a fuss and question me how I even knew this stuff, but Erika is an intelligent girl that always keeps our secrets, so I trust her more.

I expanded the waves of Qi trying to find her Pressure Points but…

“Huh?”

There…. There were none?

How?

She had no Pressure Points.

Strange, I had never seen someone in my entire past life without some. Even the most bizarre aliens I’ve meet had Pressure Points and could cultivate Qi.

But she doesn’t have any? How is that even possible?

Is she… really not a human?

What is Erika then?

I stopped doing this a I looked down at her. I began to inspect her body some more using Qi Waves, and then I realized something bizarre.

She was hollow.

There were no organs inside of her.

There were no bones.

What…?!

This… Erika… W-What kind of entity is her?

I almost fell on my butt over the disbelief and the strange, bizarre feeling I felt all over my head. I looked at Erika not with fear, or something, but with concern.

She suddenly opened her eyes as she looked back at me.

“Hm? Blake?” she asked innocently.

“…Nothing, it seems that you’re more talented in Mana usage, Erika… So just stick with that for now.” I said.

“O-Oh… alright.” She said while nodding.

She seems to be unaware of her own body structure.

Who… can answer my questions now? I can’t just tell her what I saw.

She will most likely feel just as terrified.

Who wouldn’t feel terrified when they discover that they’re not even humans? That… your entire body is actually just hollow?

I can’t tell her this.

“Erika how about we go play for now? Wanna play ball?” I asked.

“Yeah!” she said happily.

For now, I decided to simply leave this thought aside… I will try to find answers soon.

…

After many days since then, I had managed to convince Erika to bring me to her home.

“B-But it’s a bit dark and cramped inside so… D-Don’t point it out… My bed is a mess too…” she said.

“Sigh… Instead of just talking about that why didn’t you just fixed it then?” I asked.

“Eeehehe… I would rather spend time with you than waste it making my bed…!” she said.

“Hm, you’re just lazy.” I said.

“Geh…”

As I reprimanded her, we reached Erika’s home, which was outside the wooden wall of the village. Rather far away from the rest of the entire village.

She slowly opened the door with a key, as the darkness of the inside greeted us.

“Daddy, I’m home!” she said, walking inside.

“Ahh… Dear, welcome back…” her father greeted us. He was sitting near a desk only with a few candles illuminating the darkness of the entire house.

He looked old. A man around his mid 50’s to almost 60’s… I can’t believe he’s the father of her.. Did he have her so old? She’s almost five years old like me.

When I entered the room, Erika presented me to her father.

“Papa! He’s Blake, my best friend! I’ve talked to you about him, right?” she said, as her father kissed her forehead and hugged her as a greeting.

“Ooooh! I see! So you’re Blake! Boy, thank you for being such a good friend with my little girl… She’s always so lonely, and I am not fun either, so she doesn’t want to stay with this old man all the time… I am deeply grateful for offering such a long friendship with her… Y-You… you mean a lot to her,” he said. The old man didn’t have pink hair, but gray hair and pale blue eyes. I couldn’t really find anything that made him look like Erika… Maybe she descended more from her mother?

“It is nice to meet you, sir…” I said.

“Name’s Gustav. Feel free to call me just with my name. Formalities are not my thing, haha.” Giggled the old man.

He seemed weak, his entire body… his Qi was slowly emptying, his vitality was running low, his body will soon perish out of old age and exhaustion.

But I also felt this glowing bright light of mana in his chest, his Spirit Orb was Rank 1 like my parents, but it was a few stages higher, so he was fairly strong, magically.

If I could relearn my Hands of Nirvana, I could… do some treatment to his old body and give him a few years of lifespan, but… without Mana, that’s impossible, and even if I had, I would need immense quantities of not only energy but divine power, something I cannot possibly fathom to get for years to come.

“Thank you Gustav, sir.” I said.

Erika quickly infused mana into a light bulb as the entire home was illuminated, and several things hiding in the dark were revealed to me.

“Hehe, look! My daddy is a talented carpenter!” she said.

The entire room was filled with many furniture pieces masterfully crafted by the old man. I felt amazed by his great crafting talent. However… there was something disturbing breaking the sense of beauty of this place.

Countless wooden dolls were hanging around the entire home. Many of them unfinished, sitting in the corners, above other furniture and more. So many I couldn’t count them all… there were threads, fabric, and cloths around, and even hair…

Was he a doll maker? Erika’s doll must have been made by him.

His desk was filled with things that he used to carve through wood as well, and there was actually a long leg-shaped wooden piece resting on the table, which he quickly covered with cloth, as if he didn’t wanted me to see it.

“D-Don’t let yourself feel intimidated! I sell furniture and dolls, the people love to buy them, that’s how we get through the year.” Said Gustav.

“I see… You’re very talented.” I said.

“Ooh, thank you! It is nice to be recognized from time to time, hahah…” laughed Gustav. He seemed honest, an honest and gentle-hearted man. I couldn’t discern any malice within him at all, even through constantly inspecting his Aura of Emotions which every person has through my enhanced eyes using Qi. He was a genuine person.

But he… held a dark secret. I don’t know what it is but it might be related to Erika.

Erika led me to her room upstairs, which was a mess with clothes of her spread all around the place, and dolls, countless dolls she used to play with to not feel so lonely. It was honestly rather sad.

“You really got a mess in here… Alright, we are going to clean all of this, Erika.” I said.

“Eeeh? But let’s play doll house!” she said.

“No buts! We are cleaning this.” I said.

“Geez… O-Okay… Don’t get angry…” she sighed.

We spent roughly two hours cleaning her entire room, it was really a big mess.

However, when things were tidied up, it really looked like a pretty girl’s room. It was a good job well done.

“Better…” I sighed in relief. I am rather obsessed with cleaning.

“Phew… Okay, now let’s play!” she said.

“Sure thing.” I said.

And like that, I meet all her doll friends. She had named all of them. She remembered each of her doll’s names as well… It was quite impressive she had such amazing memory.

After that, her father invited me to have dinner with them, and I accepted. In there I was able to see his Spirit… his Spirit was a Tool Spirit named Puppeteer Threads, which glowed with pink light.

He used them to not only control puppets and make them work as servants, but also, he used them to move around objects with ease. It was an incredible useful Tool Spirit.

“Hoho, amazed, Blake? You’ll get an amazing Spirit as well! I am sure of it, you’re a talented kid after all, very talented kid.” Said Gustav.

“Daddy will I get a Spirit too? I want a strong one!” said Erika.

“Hehe, of course you will, dear. You’re a strong girl.” Said Gustav with a smile. Although his smile carried a bit of melancholy.

“I can’t wait!” said Erika while smiling radiantly.

“Hm, now, time to eat!” said Gustav.

Gustav served us some nice pork stew with potatoes. It was rather generous in the amount of potatoes it had, alongside carrots, while it had little meat here and there, but it was still good and filled the belly.

“Phew, thanks for the dinner.” I said.

“It was yummy!” said Erika.

“Hehe, I am glad you liked it.” said Gustav.

After the dinner, I had told my parents I was staying with her beforehand, so Erika invited me to sleep in her room.

She didn’t have a second bed, but her bed was enormous, so both of us could sleep there rather comfortably.

—–