Spirit Soul

Perceiving the outlines of a bird, he couldn't help but feel a little bit flabbergasted.

If his memory was not deceiving him, it looked eerily similar to the pictures of a mythical existence he had seen in a book Kyle read before his first life had ended.

In his past life, they had been extinct, but seeing the outlines that became more detailed and clearer, goosebumps sprang up all over his body.

"She is a demihuman of a Phoenix?" Kyle mumbled, but it didn't take long before another thought emerged in his mind.

'...Is she even a demihuman to begin with?!'

Confused about the mysterious identity of Yasmine, he could only follow her and Beatrice, who were already further ahead.

Trying to clear his mind of all the doubts was getting difficult.

For a confused minute, he wondered if asking Yasmine about her identity was rude.

Unfortunately, before he could muster courage and ask, she and Beatrice had entered a ginormous hall that was protected by another batch of powerful guards.

They were eyeing him, or rather his clothes with a frown before averting their gaze, focusing on the task they had been given.

Kyle ignored their gazes, knowing that his clothes were neither fancy nor formal.

On the contrary, Beatrice was wearing customized clothes that had been tailor-made for her. They were amongst the things Karnias had stored in her ring.

Owing to the dozens of runes that were woven into the fabric, they could easily be cleaned, didn't smell, and they would also never lose their luster. Thus, no matter how rough was the use, they would look like brand new clothes. The only requirement was to add tiny fractions of energy that were used to clean and maintain the clothes once in a while.

Thus, Kyle's shabby clothes and his disshelved look were a huge contrast to Beatrice's, which made most people believe that he was her slave, or something similar to that.

After all, Beatrice looked like a noble and calling him a servant would probably be considered a disgrace for most nobles.

As such, Kyle realized that he should start paying more attention to the clothes he wore and his overall appearance.

It was rather annoying because he had never bothered about what his appearance, let alone fashion.

Being comfortable while fighting was the best, but even for that, he was currently not suitably clothed.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be wearing the leather armor with a gaping hole in the back and several other small ones making it look like a ragsack.

At most places, threads had come out loose and somehow they were barely holding everything together.

Sighing deeply, Kyle decided that it would be best to stay lowkey in the huge house that had an interior similar to, if not better than the Razakadan castle.

Without making too many noises while walking, Kyle approached Beatrice and Yasmine, who had halted in their tracks, looking up at the young man and woman who were seated on two thrones.

This caused Kyle to look at the situation with confusion when he noticed that there were three thrones.

Fortunately, he quickly recalled the formalities to be used when in presence of someone royal.

Thus, he bowed his head before he bent his knee and properly greeted the powerful existences in front of him.

Meanwhile, Yasmine nodded her head faintly to greet her parents, while Beatrice used a rather ancient way of greeting.

It was the only formal greeting she knew of, and without giving it much thought, Beatrice had already executed it.

Seeing the way she greeted them, the young-looking couple looked at her for some time as traces of astonishment gleamed in their eyes.

Yet, instead of asking anything, the man's eyes began to glow, while the woman's immediate surroundings glimmered lightly.

This simply glimmering caused the hall's temperature to shoot up all of a sudden, and some of the closest wall hangings were charred in an instant.

In fact, the wall hangings were telling a story that Kyle had seen when he entered the room.

However, as he had not received sufficient time to observe the landscapes and scenarios depicted in the wall hangings, he was unable to tell what the story was about.

The only thing he had caught a glimpse of was a fiery red phoenix in the air, descending towards a man with brightly glowing eyes and a unique appearance.

It was not that of a normal human being, but somewhat different.

Having met Yasmine's parents just a while ago when he had entered the room, Kyle was able to comprehend that the wall hangings represented the story of their love.

Using wall hangings was an interesting way to tell a story, but considering that the woman seemed to be the phoenix in a human form, there seemed to be a few things that could be described as…unique.

His head was still bent low in a bow, and it was almost an entire minute later when they heard Yasmine's parents finally talk.

"What kind of trouble did you create again, Yasmine? Why did you come here with one of the old races and one of the Old Souls to us?"

It was a sentence the young-looking man threw nonchalantly towards the three of them, and as if on cue, both Kyle and Beatrice lifted their heads with a shocked expression.

While Kyle was shocked about the fact that his identity was once again exposed, both he and Beatrice couldn't help but feel flabbergasted about what they heard about her.

"Old race?" Yasmine asked in confusion, voicing out the question the others had in mind.

The three of them were so confused that they momentarily forgot all the formalities for a moment as they kept staring at the young man, whose eyes were still glowing faintly.

Oddly enough, it looked like the man's eye color was changing every single time he blinked.

However, that was not enough distraction to prevent Kyle from focusing on the man, who smiled subtly.

Their reaction clearly showed that they didn't know about him.

As such, it was not difficult for him to decipher everything else he wanted to know. It took him only a few moments, as he further added,

"Yasmine, don't bother about what I said. It's not important…for now. Everything will be unveiled when it is time."

Rolling her eyes, Yasmine frowned a little. She felt like her father was playing with her, while knowing that it was the wrong timing to do so.

Yet, instead of retorting, she decided to not argue with him as she felt like her father would say something once again.

Meanwhile, he turned towards Kyle with a glint of interest in his eyes.

This made her recall that her father had called Kyle an Old Soul which was another statement she didn't understand.

"I have never seen the blood of your race. You are not an Aldras…and neither are you alone. What race do you belong to?"

Seeing the blood of one's race indicated that Yasmin's father could clearly perceive the blood within his body.

This was probably not everything, but enough for Kyle to understand that it was useless to lie about Arashi's existence, and his race's name.

It was not unlikely for the name of his race to be unknown, to begin with.

With that in mind, Arashi emerged from his chest, before landing on the ground, as Kyle answered the question shortly.

"Honorable Sire, the race I belong to is called Yadras. We were a weak race and did not have many strong Cultivators, so I don't believe that many would have chosen to reincarnate as a Yadras.

That's why Sir might possibly not know much about my race."

Kyle attempted his best to explain the situation as well as possible to stay out of trouble, and it seemed to work perfectly fine because Yasmine's father was just nodding his head in response.

That was great, and he nearly sighed in relief, believing that everything had been solved.

Yet, just as Kyle thought that everything was over, Yasmine's father's expression turned serious.

He looked at him like someone who would soon be killed, which was certainly not great, and something Kyle wanted to avoid by all means.

"So, you want to tell me that someone from a weak race was able to form a blood pact with someone like her? I can see the remnants of her cultivation. She was very powerful, but now, there is nothing left behind. Do you want to tell me that you had nothing to do with this?!"

Caught off-guard, Kyle was unable to come up with a proper answer and thought hard for a few moments.

But, before he could say something, Beatrice had already intervened as she quickly explained the situation.

Pointing out that she was bound to something that prevented her from leaving the place, and how Kyle had helped her, Beatrice wanted to appease Yasmine's father.

Unfortunately, Beatrice's instinctive act to save him from possible harm caused her to expose the existence of the Undead heart, and the fact that he was in possession of the Orb of Life.

"...to conclude what I said, Kyle rescued me, and by no means, he could have injured me. Rather, he is holding me back from doing certain things."

Her last line made Kyle close his eyes as he held back from lecturing Beatrice because he was able to sense her piercing gaze once again.

Somehow, her body constitution was extremely weird. If he skipped feeding her for a few days, her desires would resurface, and Beatrice would then try to mate with him.

Kyle had no idea how the desire to procreate and the lack of blood had any connection to each other, but by looking away from her with a stoic face, he tried to prevent her from saying anything else.

The woman sitting on the throne saw this, including the gaze her daughter threw towards the two young adventurers.

She found the new entrants amusing as well as mysterious which caused her to tilt her head, trying to remember something.

'When was the last time she smiled as brightly as today?'

While thinking of the answer, she turned her head towards her husband as she mumbled.

"Let it be, honey, I don't think your daughter needs Lyon, the overprotective father, right now, but Lyon, the father who wants to figure out how his daughter is feeling today, and why she came to us today."

Hearing his wife, Lyon grew a bit reluctant, but instead of ignoring Yelene's comment, he nodded his head, knowing that she was much better at perceiving how Yasmine was feeling.

Against his wishes, he accepted the fact that he shouldn't ask anymore questions to the two suspicious adventurers.

Instead, he paid attention to his daughter as he asked.

"My little princess, why did you come today?"

It had been ages since she had been called 'little princess', but hearing this from her father made Yasmine smile faintly as she explained the given situation, and what was going on.

"The Lahin kingdom? Why would an Aldras…I mean Yaldra, and someone from the old race wants to enter the lands of the Lohar race? They won't accept you, and it's more likely that you two will be enslaved the moment you're exposed."

Lyon's words were logical which made Kyle nod his head before he revealed the simplest version of the truth.

"I promised someone that I would meet her in the Lahin Kingdom, so I'll have to go.

Otherwise, I will break my promise, which is not what I want to happen!

Somehow, Lyon had expected Beatrice to answer his question, but it was Kyle who answered, which confused him momentarily.

"You promised it? I thought…the old..I mean, Beatrice would be the dominant force in your blood pact."

After saying this, he couldn't help but mumble some incomprehensible words to himself before his eyes began to glow once again.

He gave a fleeting glance to Beatrice, before averting his attention to Kyle.

Yasmine's father pointed out something he had come up with after hearing Kyle mention another woman!

"You…what would you do, if I were to reject your request to take Horice with you, and if I forbid you to leave with Yasmine as well?"

Even though Yelene had told him to stop being overprotective, Lyon felt that Kyle might be able to manipulate the mind of his daughter.

This was just a simple thought he had in mind, but even if he had missed something important, he was a man too.

As such, while trying to blame someone else for his simple mistake, Lyon was subconsciously turning Kyle into a person he wasn't.

This astonished even Yelene, who was confused about her husband's sudden behavior only for Kyle to keep his calm as he spoke truthfully.

"I never asked Yasmine to join us…She wanted to accompany us, and we somehow accepted it by asking for help.

To be honest, even if you don't support us, I can still become a C rank adventurer and befriend some other shop owners who would rent me a flying mount.

And if that doesn't work, we can still go on foot, even if it would take much longer."

Unsure of what exactly Yasmine's father wanted to achieve, Kyle could only keep his calm, and wait for the truth to unfold.

However, even then, Lyon didn't seem to want to accept his answer. It was weird, even for Yelene as she thought of something.

"Honey, if you feel doubtful about Yasmine's safety, how about you let Kyle fight one of your newly trained disciples? Isn't Melin at the Low rank of the Vitae stage?"

Yelene tried to ease out the situation and help her daughter to make friends, which was something Yasmine had never actively done.

As such, she had to do something, and her simple plan to let Kyle fight someone would solve all the problems. Feeling reassured of her plan, she added,

"If Kyle can defeat Melin, you should give your permission to both Horice and Yasmine…it's not like you can force them to not do something they want to do, right?"

When she said so, she released her mana that cast faint images of brightly burning wings.

And, at this moment Kyle truly realised who was the stronger party between both of Yasmine's parents.

It was her mother, the phoenix!