Chapter 170 Why We Fight 4
Geo remembered Aspida's words when the old Fulgeo tried to gain her favor. "You are not your brothers, stop trying to be. No matter how hard you work you will never be them."
It was this sentence that broke the original Fulgeo's heart which prompted him to kill himself. Kohei on the other hand understood what Aspida was trying to say. "I can never be them because I am myself. Copying them will never work as I am not them."
Unlike his brothers Geo had Mana. In general, Valorious did not look favorably at people with multiple Calibers. This mainly stemmed from the fact that it takes an insane amount of training and patience to even get good at using one of them.
The number of people who could do that for two completely different branches of combat was incredibly small. Like being armed with an axe and a dagger. The two are both melee weapons but each had its preferred distance.
Being in dagger range makes the axe useless while being at axe range renders the dagger pointless. You could switch due using both. But that would mean you need to learn both axe and dagger techniques.
If compared to a warrior who learned only one set of techniques. It is practically a given that the hybrid would lose to the assassins for dagger skills and lose to warriors for axe skills. Instead of being proficient in one, the attention is split making you mediocre in both.
Multi-Caliber professions are thus normally considered foolish. The only exceptions are transmigrators. They had cheat skills that made leveling easier, allowing them to push forward all three calibers at the same time.
This gave them an extremely diverse set of combat styles and skills. Fulgeo got bullied for this as he was not a transmigrator. Despite having Mana, it was extremely poor compared to his Aura. No matter how hard the original Geo tried, his efforts got split between his two calibers.
Thus in both combat and general aptitude, he got mocked for being the trash of the Renacida. Add to that the humble origins of his mother and you have a recipe for disaster.
Originally Fulgeo tried to defend his mother's honor but every time he did, Aspida would be the one called to apologize for the people Geo beat the living shit out of. While the woman never rebuked him or anything, her eyes would show disappointment at times.
Sanita on the other hand, the one he defended; Would be the one to vehemently denounce him. "Baby, you know I love you very much, but you don't need to fight for my honor. Your priority should be to not trouble the Renacida family. Next time please just turn a blind ear."
After that, the original Geo did as Sanita requested and the distance between them grew. Kohei who understood the thoughts and feelings of the kid felt sad at the turn of events. "They all loved one another but none of that translated because of invisible barriers of miscommunication."
Kohei felt the same barrier with his rich parents back on earth. They owned a multi-million dollar company called Atsukiko Mining Inc. They made a fortune from mining materials used for electronics like silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide.
The three were used in semiconductors which allowed Kohei's family to monopolize the trade. Unfortunately, the strain from maintaining the monopoly took a lot of time as well as effort. This lead to both the father and mother being swamped in meetings leaving Kohei to grow up alone.
He didn't have siblings as his parents rarely even got to spend time together much less make babies. They normally always rushed flying to and from meetings with investors and the like. Thus the young heir normally spent his days with maids and servants.
None of them tried to understand him due to being scared of getting fired over it. Kohei got kidnapped when he was extremely young, and because of that event, his parents opted to give him a very luxurious cage.
Luckily for the young master, he had cash to spend. He got into manga, anime, and gatcha games. However, no matter how much he got good at any of them, he found it all meaningless. Years passed and on one Christmas eve when Kohei was alone, he got summoned to Valorious.
While that life didn't go as planned, his new one with the Renacida was magnitudes better. Unlike the original Geo, just having people around him made the reincarnator feel like he belonged to a family. Though they may not be rich, they were content.
Kohei spent years just basking in the warmth and care of Sanita. It didn't matter if everyone treated him like shit, so long as he had her attention. Unfortunately, the older he got, the worse his situation as a bastard got exacerbated.
None of his family forced him to do anything he didn't want. Each of his siblings just lead their own lives and checked up on him once in a while. The father and mother similarly had enormous responsibilities on them.
The only saving grace in all this was, Kohei and Sanita were treated like family. Sanita while serving as Aspida's hand maiden learned the ins and outs of their trade. The mother of the Renacida never mistreated her but they also hardly spoke.
Little by little Sanita integrated herself into their lives becoming the voice of home for the fatigued warriors of the family. Her relationship despite beginning as a mistake further flourished as Fortis gave her affection and care.
At Aspida's acceptance, Fortis eventually married Sanita elevating her from concubine to wife. None of the sons objected. The problem was the nobility. Sanita became the object of ridicule and got bullied at every event she attended.
Of course, this all happened behind the backs of Fortis, Aspida, and the sons. The only one that saw was Fulgeo, but no one cared even if he did. At night he would hear his mother cry in sorrow at their harsh words.
It then dawned on him. Until Sanita gains the power to elevate her status, her life would remain like this. Thus Geo set out, if he cannot become the heir of the Renacida, he will become someone so great people will never disregard him or his mother ever again.
In this life, he felt affection from a loving mother. For her, he will destroy everything that made her sad. Sanita barely kept her tears in when her baby needed to leave the nest. But the woman knew mighty trees never grew in the shade.
Her mother's last words forever branded themselves into Geo's heart like a spell.
(My son, you are my pride and joy. If there is one thing I know I existed to do, it is to give birth to you, my beloved child. In the future, you will shine blaze brighter than even the stars. This is why your father and I named you Fulgeo, which means "blaze")
(No matter where you go, know that I will always love you and will always be proud of you. When you grow weary come back to this place. In these four walls, I will always wait for you to return. My wonderful son.)
'Right I am not my brothers, for I am borne of Sanita, not Aspida. And allowing myself to say that I am less than them is the same as saying my mom is trash.' If in the beginning saying mom was a high mental hurdle for Kohei, now the word belonged exclusively to Sanita in both his lives.