With the invading southern kingdoms now put in their places and blown away by Boreas, it was finally time for the gathering of those form another world to continue.
Though right before Boreas was about to whip up another whirlwind for their group to travel on, a number of figures began flying up towards them.
In the lead was a familiar figure to all of them, as Aria ascended upwards with great haste.
Following right behind her were Marek and Tesia who were coming to represent Tralenstein.
Once Aria arrived, she stopped in front of Boreas and had a conflicted smile on her face.
“It is good to see you again, Boreas, and I wish to thank you for your help here.” Aria said as she bowed her head a bit.
“Ah no need to be so tense, Aria, I am your great grandfather.” Boreas said as he gave her a hug.
As he hugged her for a moment Aria was taken back to when she was a little girl, and Boreas would hug her whenever he came back to the castle after his extended trips away.
“You have done a good job keeping things together here and holding down the kingdom. I will be sticking around for at least a little while this time so I can pick up some of the slack of protecting the kingdom.”.
After Aria and Boreas had a quick family reunion, they separated from each other, and Aria put on her professional expression as the grand archmage once again.
“Ahem, Lady Aria it appears that you know who this strange man is.” Marek said as he looked between the strange group that had suddenly appeared.
Naturally he recognized Marcus and Lyra, who he knew well. But both Boreas, and Jaela were people he had never seen and gave off intimidating auras that made even Tralenstein’s guardian beast look like a kitten.
“Ah yes, this here is Boreas, the founder of Borealia. I am sure that you have at least heard about him.” Aria said with a proud grin.
Hearing that this man here was Boreas, both Marek and Tesia went mouth agape in shock, as they looked at the man that their nation was raised to hate as a traitor.
Of course, at this point relations between the two kingdoms were mended and they were already scheduled to become one again, but it was still very surprising to see Boreas in the flesh.
He was famous around five hundred years ago, yet he still looked like a man in the prime of his life.
“I see, so you are the legendary Boreas. I suppose it would take a man of your reputation and power to slay a high-level mythic grade magical beast in one blow.” Marek said, trying to contain his astonishment.
Tesia on the other hand seemed quite guarded and shrunk away not wanting to get close, as she felt a sense of fear being around someone so strong.
“Oh, so you have heard of me. Though I suppose that is not a surprise if you are a warrior from Tralenstein. I am glad that our two kingdoms will be whole again, and in no small part to your efforts.” Boreas said.
He then quickly wrapped up the conversation by saying he had other places to be, and quickly wrapped up Marcus, Lyra, Jaela, and himself in a whirlwind and flew back towards Borealia.
When they arrived near the castle Boreas suddenly warped them all back into the hidden room they had been in before, and said, “Well now that we have our final member ready to join us, we can begin in earnest.”
Lyra at this point just slumped down on one of the couches, already having given up on trying to make sense of how her normal day had been completely turned upside down.
Now that the four people originally from Earth had gathered, it was time for them to truly begin their discussion.
“I suppose we should catch Lyra up on what we were talking about before we went to get her.” Marcus said.
Nodding their heads both Boreas and Jaela agreed. Except as Jaela took the lead, she latched onto the topic she had been so fervent about before, which was her favorite video game.
She began asking Lyra if she had played it and what other games in the series came after it.
Though Lyra was very taken aback by this and looked towards Marcus in confusion. Wondering why this was so important that she had to be basically abducted with no warning.
Luckily Boreas who was the one that felt the most left out in a conversation about things he did not understand, said, “No Jaela, we are not talking about you fixation with this thing you call a video game. I believe Marcus was talking about the differences in time between Earth and Mirrion.”
With the conversation being steered away from Jaela’s obsession with a certain video game, Lyra looked at Boreas with confusion and interest in what he meant.
Quickly it was explained to her that people from Earth were only brought to Mirrion every two hundred years and in twenty-year intervals based on certain times on Earth.
“I see so that is why it seemed that with just me and Marcus that Earth and Mirrion’s time were synced up, since we died in the same twenty-year span.” Lyra said once she came to an understanding.
After that the four of them began telling each other how they died, starting with Marcus since he was the most recent one to come from Earth.
Next came Lyra who told how she died in a tragic accident that garnered her both Jaela’s and Boreas’ sympathy.
“I suppose I should go next.” Jaela said with a frown on her face.
Even though she had lived in this world for two hundred years, it was still not easy for her to recall how she previously died.
“I just got unlucky, I guess. When I was nineteen, I got an especially bad case of the flu and it led to a lower respiratory tract infection that the hospital I was in just could not seem to treat. I pretty much slowly coughed myself to death, and after a few weeks of treatment, one day I simply did not wake up.” Jaela said with a sad expression.
While Marcus and Lyra had died fairly quickly, she had suffered for many weeks in a hospital as she slowly died.
Their group gave another round of condolences to Jaela, and she smiled brightly as she said she was happy to have some more people to share her experience with that would understand what she went through.
It was at this point that they noticed a trend that none of them had lived a full long life, with Marcus having been the oldest one when he died at twenty-eight.
They then looked toward Boreas who was the final one to tell his story and wondered if he managed to live out to an old age.
Unfortunately, the trend of dying fairly young did not stop with him, as he said, “I died when I was thirty-four while on an archaeological expedition in Greece.”
Boreas went on to explain that he was a historian and archaeologist focusing on ancient Greece and Rome.
“My team and I were investigating a recently discovered temple that was mostly buried underground due to the passage of time, and while we were excavating it, one of the tunnels collapsed and I got separated from everyone else. I spent days trying to find a way out but, in the end, no one found me, and I did not find an exit. So, I ended up dying of dehydration.” Boreas said with a shrug.
He had long come to accept his previous death that had happened many centuries ago for him now, and in all honesty was not even close to as scary as many of the things he had encountered on Mirrion.
“I see, so all of us died in some sort of unforeseeable way that we could not have been prepared for.” Marcus said.
He also knew that Miguel, the kid he had met during the kingdom’s tournament had died from bleeding to death after being stabbed, so no one that he knew about that came from Earth died after a long happy life.
“What about the two of you, have any of the other reincarnates or transmigrations you have met made it late into their lives before dying.” Marcus asked Jaela and Boreas who had met a few more people originally from Earth in their long time on Mirrion.
Unfortunately, none of the people they had already met lived very long lives either, and all died in some way before reaching their twilight years.
“I did meet a man a long time ago who said he died in a car accident when he was fifty-seven, but that has to be the oldest anyone I have met made it back on Earth.” Boreas said as he racked his brain.
Sadly, the man he had mention was had already died again during his time on Mirrion, as had many that both Jaela and Boreas had met up to this point.
“I have met plenty of cocky people that originally came from Earth that were believing their powers to be stronger than they really were and underestimating how dangerous this world is. Certainly, at level forty if you do not go looking for trouble, it is unlikely that you will die. But it only takes one mistake to anger someone or something that can tear even a normally high-level person apart.” Bores said with a downcast expression, no doubt having some personal experience in that regard.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶