Chapter 136 – Legacy (Part 1)

“Well, I won’t talk about my situation because I can’t. All I can say is I’ll likely be with you all for a while. I hope we all get along well, and does anyone know how to go through the gates?” Daichi said with an even tone as if he wasn’t asking for help.

Haeru looked at each of the gates with a hand under his chin as he concentrated on trying to figure out how to get past them. “Perhaps… This is a test?”

“A test to get into our own residences? None of the other students had to do something like that though?” Leo asked in confusion.

“Why is there nothing but dirt past the dates? The plots of land look even more barren than what the normal students had for their sleeping quarters. This a joke right?” Damien muttered. He felt indignation but didn’t want to show it. Even if he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs. His family had drilled the importance of being on the good-side of all the professors before he’d left for the exam.

“No one has any ideas?” Daichi said while looking at the gate assigned to himself ‘There’s no way there’s nothing behind the gates. Not if it’s Lydia…’

After the earlier meeting Daichi had quite a few things running through his mind, he’d been wanting to find some time to himself and he’d finally been given an opportunity. ‘If no one has ideas, then best to act than think’ Without waiting any longer he strode forward to the jade gate that corresponded to him based on what Lydia said and placed his palm on the gate.

Nothing happened but he could sense something strange. A surprised look briefly appeared on his face as he realized the gate was both corporeal but if he applied any pressure on the gate it would change. After a brief moment of hesitation he pressed his hand on the gate testing his theory as he watched his entire arm disappear through the gate itself.

‘This entire place… Who the hell created this place?’ Daichi thought as he lost the last shred of weariness he was holding onto as he walked through the gate entirely leaving the other three behind him completely confused and surprised.

Daichi realized the moment he went through that it wasn’t a portal. It was exactly what it was… It was just a gate. Except the gate also served as a mirage to disguise what was on the other side.

‘From the outside it looked barren, just a large plot of land. Haha… There’s no way that would’ve been it. Not a professor’s courtyard. Especially not Lydia.’ he thought to himself.

Daichi had already found out that Lydia was Stanislas’s daughter – The Vice-Headmaster. He’d already figured when Lydia took them to her residence that she probably had better accommodations than the other professors in the academy.

The moment Daichi entered the courtyard he could feel the difference. The mana in the air was near tangible. It felt condensed and he could feel that it was far thicker than it was outside. The courtyard itself was around 300 feet long and 50 feet wide. It was a small field with a small bamboo hut in the corner. Except it felt… Perfect.

Note: Similar in size to a football field.

Standing there in the field with the gate to his back and sun shining on his face Daichi closed his eyes and stopped thinking. He felt like he was perfectly attuned to nature… More so than he’d ever felt in his life

Daichi didn’t know how long he stood there. He only enjoyed that moment of serenity for a few seconds before his previous thoughts resurfaced. Even the wonderful atmosphere that he was surrounded by couldn’t push down what he’d been wanting to do any longer. Opening his eyes, he began walking to the small bamboo hut as he sat down by the open door frame that lacked a door. He sat down with his back against the frame and a book appeared in his hand.

Daichi let out a breath he’d been holding in for who knows how long. Staring at the book in his hands he felt conflicted about what to do. ‘Should I read it…?’

There was a stinging sensation in his chest that he hadn’t felt since he was a child. As much as he wanted to read the book, a small part of him was afraid that what he read might reaffirm what he already thought. ‘I’m not afraid. I’m my own person, and the things from the past are already behind me. There’s no reason not to read this book. Whatever he thought about me, he was a genius in his own right. If this can help…’

The hand reaching for the book stopped at the cover but he couldn’t stop it from slightly trembling.

He stayed in that position for a few minutes telling himself he should open the book. It was only as he noticed that it was shaking. Something he’d completely ignored while lost in his thoughts

“Ridiculous!” realizing how much importance he was placing on the words of someone who he’d never meant anything too, Daichi clenched his jaw as he opened the book and started reading.

“My blood, my time, my life.

This is my final inheritance for those of my bloodline.

I am nearing my end. Near death I find myself with two regrets.

Others don’t acknowledge or recognize what I have done, but I know I have reached the pinnacle of success for my era in documenting the human way. Our beliefs, fears, desires and more importantly mistakes. We have made many along the way as a species, the most heinous of which is the constant repetition throughout the ages of the same mistakes. We seemed doomed to repeat our errors, documenting these errors for our future generations only to have them fail much as we did.

We make these mistakes, claim to have learned from them but fail to notice ourselves

I never knew my father. I knew only the love of my mother before even that was lost to me. I grew up with an interest in wanting to understand the people around me. Why I was viewed with scorn from strangers I never met. Why my mother was viewed with disdain by those beneath her in every way. How could she could love me, yet somehow keep me at arms distance. Pushing me away just a bit more every day.

Years later after her passing, only then could I begin to comprehend the possibility of this being a failure on her part as an individual and not a mother. She was a flawed woman. She was flawed as a person as we all are. She feared the impact of her loss would hurt me, and perhaps hurt her in a way she didn’t want to bear herself. She knew what was coming, to this day I do not know how, but she knew. I understand, and I forgive her. I regret being unable to let her know how much she meant to me. How much her love for me –however flawed- meant to me. That I forgive her for her flaws and appreciate what she did for me.

I buried myself in studying the past. The history of our world and the theories of philosophy and creation. I began wanting to understand people, but the more I learned of the past the more my view of the world changed. I began to understand that people are less complicated than I once believed. People are think and act based on a variety of factors that inevitably shape their views of the world and impact their actions. They see the world black or white and act and think based on that. The vast majority of people fall may think in black or white, but inevitably due to social restraints they act in shades of grey. The more I learned the less I concerned myself with people and the more I began to think of us as a species instead of a society. I wanted to understand life.

It was only when I met the love of my life that I understood love in a way I never had before. I loved her with a purity I’d never felt. She became my everything and she did nothing but show me a love and affection with no harm I’d never known. She was mine and I was hers. When I lost her to childbirth I came to know a grief so profound a piece of me died. That piece of me that knew how to love was dead, but I was left with a child. A legacy of the one I loved the most in the world. I raised that child the best way I knew how. My second regret in this life is that I failed him.

I never showed him the love and affection a father should show or have for a son. I pushed him away I kept him at arms distance. I treated him as a student and not my own child. Instead of treasuring him as the legacy of my beloved, the product of our love. I feared him. I feared him because I believed I would gradually grow to hate him, hate him the way my mother hated me in the deepest recesses of her heart due to her resentment.

I didn’t love him the way a father should. When the world I knew ended, I was here in Lumea city while he likely perished in our home. I thought about searching for him, traversing the distance in search for him… But I was never allowed to take action. The city went into a state of emergency and no one without access was allowed to leave. I let myself go along with that, but the reality is… I didn’t try. I failed him.

Moreover… I moved on. I had a second family. I even tried to remedy my past mistakes by showing that child the affection I’d never shown my first.

This book may only be read by my descendants… But…

I don’t know whether Daichi survived in the world that came after, but even if he did he is likely long dead now. I write this in the hope that he did not perish, that he survived. That you Daichi, have survived and made it here to Lumea. I failed you as a father and so I leave this, the culmination of my life’s work for you and only you. If you survived, and made it here to Lumea and have somehow found this book that has its way to your hands…

I’m sorry.

After the world changed, I changed. Living within the walls of city, my cognitive abilities multiplied ten fold. It was as if a limiter I’d never known I had, suddenly came apart.

At first I didn’t understand what had happened, but I couldn’t let it go. I couldn’t stop my mind from wondering what could have led to such a change. Inside this book written in blood, is my final theory.

This is all I can do for you.”

A drop fell on top of the book as Daichi’s eyes blurred. He reached towards his left eye as he felt a tear running down his cheek with a confused expression. His chest felt heavier than it ever had and his breathing became labored as he re-read those same words over and over again.

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