----- Rudeus Greyrat POV -----
Despite being almost 60 years old. I have become a very emotional driven person.
Just yesterday I wiped an entire village because they held a policy of no ale before sunset. Who in their right minds would not serve a customers that is willing to pay the village's yearly budget to have a drink?
The illogical thought stirred up something deep inside my core and all the pent up frustration that I had with my magic research has been released to the unfortunate.
Serves them right
I stopped. Looked up to the sky. Gray clouds were forming.
Ever since Eris's death, I've had a magic awakening: I am now able to control the ambient mana through my will. With such power, I don't need to draw mana through my hands and convert it into matter, rather I can skip that process entirely and simply cast spells anywhere out of thin air.
With such power, I was able to defeat North God Kalman II and his North Emperor Uncle within 30 seconds. Ranking 5th in the New World Powers, only truly Dragon God Orsted could prove my awakening fruitless. But even with all this power, I could not protect anyone.
Tou-san... Just look at your pathetic son I have become. I even failed your teachings in using my power to protect the weak.
Rain started to pour.
Water slides through my rigid face. Then the sadness warped into pure anger and confusion. That Dragon God bastard, why is it that no matter how much I search for him, I can't find him! Shit! Is he avoiding me on purpose? Or Hiding?...
"Ha.... HA HA"
Of all people, Orsted hiding? No. He is 100% avoiding me, I must track him down and ask him more about dragon's ancient magic.
Only if Nanahoshi was still alive... Should I ask Perugius for help? No, he already turned me down before. That reminds me that he also gave me Nanahoshi diary, telling me to 'complete her will'. Those words have filled me with so much rage at the time that I stormed out of the sky castle and said some awful things that I will never be able to take them back. I did skim through her diary at the time but there were no contents about Hitogami so I haven't look at it since.
And thinking back of the contents of the diary, jeez... That girl. Even in her diary she only wrote about her daily research, and sometimes... The times she spent eating lunch with everyone back in Ranoa.
"Maybe... I should take a look at it." - I started to walk towards the Dragon's lair cave.
----- Rudeus Greyrat POV -----
"THIS MIGHT WORK!" - I shouted with excitement for the first time in a while.
Nanahoshi's theory that was based on the Law of Conservation of Matter back on Earth, which hypothesize that: to summon a living being, the amount of mana needed to summon is the same as the amount of energy needed to move a person from one place to another: to put it simply, if it takes a person 500 joules to move 1 km, then it would require the same amount of mana to summon a person that is 1km away form me; therefore with this theory, and the dragon's tribe formula that converts distance to time, time travelling is possible!
But the biggest problem is the variables, there is no such guarantee that transporting people in different weight groups, sexes, or even mana reserves could prove the experiment successful.
"That reminds me..."
As I grabbed Nanahoshi's diary and flip through the early pages where she wrote her experience with teleportation on her travels, it mentions that her teleportation took mere moments, almost instantaneous, while Orsted's required hours... A similar case when I got summoned in the sky castle Chaos Breaker.
Possibly the difference in mana pools, so I have to seriously take the amount of mana that a living being has into my calculations, making people with little mana an ideal candidate for time travel.
But I want to be the one doing the time travel! This 34-neet otaku's heart would not let such exciting chance go by! I then jumped back at my research papers to find a way for me to go to the past!
...
If my calculations are correct, then it would take 20 times of the current mana that I have to travel 40 years in the past. And my formula is so crude that travelling anything less is too risky.
Gathering and storing 20 times of my current mana pool is simply... IMPOSSIBLE!
"SHIT!" - I shouted while the ground around me shook violently
Research papers and other items have been scattered around violently, furniture started to break apart and empty bottles of glass shattered across the ground. Then a pedal dropped on top of the table in front of me. The second I lock my eyes on the item, my eyes wined. And my surroundings came a still.
As I reach towards the item... My hands started to tremble... I carefully grabbed the pedal as if it was the most fragile relic in the entire world: the first gift that I've received from my late Shiso and the last strain of conscious that has kept me sane all this time. I placed the item close to my heart, and whispered.
"That's right Shiso, I must step forward."
----- Rudeus Greyrat POV -----
It has been a while since I've visited the slave market. Of course that's because I was blacklisted from ever entering one after blowing up their headquarters in Asura Kingdom. But money rules, even in this world, a few magical crystal that I've gathered in the Dragon's lair has granted me VIP access. Now I just need some shaded glasses and formal clothes so these grunts can start calling me 'Boss' or 'Anakin" just like how Geese did.
Talking about Geese, I miss that monkey face, hopefully he is still alive, I would love to catch up with him. He is the only person who I can share memories of Tou-san.
"Sir, here are the goods that you have requested"
I was brought into a large room lit up by torches, the smell of rot has filled my nose, and multiple caged children laid bare before my eyes. I then started to walk and analyze the mana waves of each child.
Having low mana pools were pretty common in this world, so I've always wandered how there were people whom had similar mana pools yet few could cast spells?
That's when I've came to realize that the mana conductivity is what makes or breaks a person in becoming a magician. Just like how both metal and plastic can contain electrical charge, not both of them could use that energy efficiently.
Same applies to people and mana. That's why I am looking for someone who has no mana reserves and conductivity. And a child if you so ask? That's because these people are quite rare and they often die before reaching their second birthday. A case like Nanohoshi who had no mana reserve and conductivity was bedridden after 7 years in this world, and almost passed away from the backed up mana reserves. So to find someone that is ALIVE and ideal for time travel, these children might be my only option.
I stopped on my tracks and looked at 'the boy who lived'. Laid bare in the ground, a metal chain around his neck and a piece of ragged cloth covering his lower half, skinny? No. More likely bedridden and malnourish, and a sight that I am very well familiar with. Despair of all hope and life. He must be 7 years old, knocking the doors of the afterlife. I could very well save him but I won't be placing my only chance of making things right with someone who desperately wants to die.
While I was thinking I am the biggest hypocrite in the whole world, I turned back to my path and started walking. Morals are way past me, there are thousands of people who could do my binding and...
"Tou-san..." - the boy meekly whispered
My body immediately froze. My insides warped deep inside me and an incredible source of rage filled up on my chest. I then turned around and reached for the boy's chains, raised him towards my eye level with great fury.
That word... NO ONE IN THIS WORLD HAS THE RIGHT TO SAY IT AROUND ME!
I gathered mana in my other hand and an electrical current started overflowing with one thought filled in my head.
"Die"
Just I was about to place my hand on the boy, I blew his bangs that was covering his face so I can see what kind of expression he will be making in his last moments. That's when I was able to look at the boy's eyes in the light, and my entire being was shocked from the core. Those deep navy blue eyes, they look just like Zenith's... My mother's eyes...
Then the rage that was overwhelming suddenly disappeared while only sandiness and guilt were left in my heart.
Zenith... How have you been mom? I am sorry I could not protect you, I hope you are in a better place with Tou-san, where you guys are laughing and living peacefully up there. My eyes started to heat up and my heart ached, so I dispelled the electrical current in my hand and griped my heart.
Then as if I was being possessed, words came out of my mouth.
"Do you want to die?"
The boy that was lifeless in the air, suddenly shook, then as if he was gathering all of his lifeforce, he whispered.
"I don't want to die"