Glimpse of Eternity [A Reincarnation Isekai Fantasy]

"Well, that's not how I wanted him to kill that man..." Rodin muttered. His eyes widened as he gaped at the giant serpent that floated in the air while letting his son pet its nose.

"Is that the snake he told us about all those years ago?" Vianna tapped her chin as she thoughtfully tilted her head. "But he said it was only the size of a few rulers. That means it got so big in just a few years!"

As the elder couple marveled at their son's deeds, the younger couple conversed in hushed tones.

"Eh? Rein already has a spirit bond...?" Stella pulled on her husband's sleeve, her voice carrying a trace of alarm. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Don't worry." Roland smiled as he gently patted her hand. "It's not an artificial bond. He just suddenly told us about the thing, and that it was going to sleep for a long time."

"So it's a natural bond!" the young woman exclaimed in relief. "I thought it'd be similar to those attack mages from the spirit tower."

"We'd never let him do something so dangerous." the eldest prince shook his head, exasperated that his wife even thought that it was a possibility. He then turned to look at the spot where the criminal once was. "That was pretty brutal."

"True." Stella crossed her arms and nodded in agreement. "It's almost as horrifying as that time we ran into that mantis-type nightmare spawn. Or that time with the ants. Or that time with the worm—"

"Stop," Roland interjected, his hand held up. "Don't remind me about those..."

The criminal's death was quite gruesome, but they'd seen much worse. As for his father and mother? He didn't even want to think about what those two have seen.

Stella stifled a giggle before nudging her husband and whispering, "I'm not familiar with how the royals do things... but I'm assuming Rein passes?"

"Mm." he nodded. "If he'd just followed Father's orders from the start, he would've failed. But he asked questions. Then wanted to base his decision on the answers."

A royal couldn't just follow orders blindly, after all. Even if those orders came from another royal.

They were leaders.

Their actions must be born of their own decisions.

"Furthermore, he only went with it after he knew the atrocious things the man did... though let's set aside how it got a bit personal."

Life must never be taken lightly...

This was a lesson that was drilled into every combatant in Aizen, which included the royals, the knights, and the peacekeepers that maintained order in their cities.

Reivan had moved to take the criminal's life because he found out that a citizen of Aizen or a precious person was placed in peril.

... but If you must stain your hands, then let it be for the sake of another.

The little prince had passed the final trial with flying colors.

'Though I don't know how to feel about his methods...' Roland thought, massaging his temples.

"So?" Stella broke him out of his thoughts. "What was your trial like?"

Roland's shoulders twitched, before a strained smile crossed his face. "It was so-so."

"Oh?"

Stella's widened eyes bored into her husband.

"We haven't even been married for a day, and yet you're already lying to me...?"

"I'm not lying, though..."

"What if I ask Rein to see? I'm sure he'd cooperate. After all, a story about his dear brother's childhood would be quite interesting."

"...Oh, shut up..." Roland muttered as he turned his face away.

 

---

 

Reivan snapped out of his enraged state when he felt Zoro-chan nudge him on the shoulder.

Its large head was hung low in apparent gloom. From their special connection, Reivan could sense it apologizing to him for sleeping so much.

'Oh...'

The massive snake's actions made him realize, that in his anger, he'd spoken a bit too... roughly.

"I'm sorry for shouting and cussing. I'm not mad at you, I was mad at that guy." Reivan spoke in a gentle voice as he reached out to stroke Zoro-chan's snout.

The giant serpent hissed in delight, its eyes narrowed into slits. A tail as thick as a house wagged left and right every time Reivan caressed its obsidian scales.

'By the way...' his eyes traced the long line that comprised entirely of Zoro-chan's flesh. 'You got big. Like, really big...'

Curious, Reivan used [Supreme Insight] on his bond.

 

 

'Five hundred!?' the young prince's eyes were as round as saucers while he gawked at Zoro-chan's Might. 'Also, your Qi is unleashed!'

He felt like cursing at how unfair it was that this damned danger noodle only needed to sleep to get this strong. However, that only lasted for a moment.

Quickly, he got over his envy.

'Well... whatever, I guess.' Reivan shrugged. 'Zoro-chan is family, so it's fine.'

Now, there was only one last problem.

'You're too big, dude.'

Zoro-chan seemed to have sensed his thoughts as well, it nodded before its entire body vaporized, becoming a thick cloud of black smoke. The smoke then began to rapidly gather in one place, forming the silhouette of a normal-sized python. After a moment, it solidified, and Zoro-chan made its appearance (again).

With a hiss, it zoomed across the air to drape itself over Reivan's shoulders. The added weight made him buckle for a second, but he was quickly able to steady himself.

He wondered whether Zoro-chan could get even smaller, but this thought was quickly followed by the serpent's frantic head-shaking.

Reivan shrugged. This size would do. For now.

As long as it didn't get any bigger.

 

---

 

"Whoah!" Reivan suddenly found his feet parted from the floor.

"Congratulations!" Vianna exclaimed as she scooped up her son, hugging him to her chest. She kissed him on the cheek as she chirped, "You did great!"

The young prince scratched his head and chuckled, mildly embarrassed. "Thanks, Mom."

"And you were so cool when you were fighting that thing earlier!"

"Ahaha."

"So handsome!"

"Haha..."

"The best!"

"Please stop..."

Reivan tried to cover his mother's mouth to stop her from attacking him with smooches and praise, but how could his slow arms catch her?

"Fufu. Your face is all red!" Vianna teased, her canines peeking out from her smirk. Her lips puckered as she smothered his cheeks with kisses once again. "You're so cute!"

"Ugh..." Reivan groaned as he fell limp in surrender, letting her do as she pleased.

Even though he was okay with getting doted on when he was small, that was mainly because the feeling of a mother's love was new to him. But after a while, his sensibilities as an adult finally kicked in. His mother's clingy affection was very mortifying. Especially under the watchful gazes of others.

He could still somewhat put up with it if they were alone, but his mother didn't give a single hoot about time and place.

Roland — who would've otherwise snickered at his predicament — seemed to be too busy getting interrogated by his wife to notice, which gave Reivan some relief. But there were still two knights in the room.

Luckily, it seemed they'd caught the hint and turned their heads away, but Reivan knew how terrifying their senses were, so it didn't do much to curb his embarrassment.

Under the storm of attacks from his mother's lips, Reivan's eyes met with his father's.

"..."

"..."

The two shared no words, but the sympathy in their gazes was conveyed. But this only lasted for a moment before Reivan mouthed a call for help.

'Please, Father! I'll forgive you for throwing me at that thing earlier! Just save me!'

Rodin, the king of Aizen, nodded with the resolve of a soldier marching off to war, as he reached out to grasp Vianna's shoulder.

"Dear, I think that's enoug—"

"Hm?" Vianna turned her head and snarled with the face of a demon. Her eyes glowed ominously as she raised an eyebrow, daring her husband to continue.

"Nothing. It was nothing." Rodin wisely chose to give up and abandon his son.

'Fatheeeer!'

Ignoring Reivan — who looked like an abandoned puppy — Rodin cleared his throat and sat back down on his throne. He gestured for the two knights to leave, then waited for the massive door to close behind them before speaking.

"Well done, Reivan Aizenwald." Rodin's voice, filled with the gravitas of a ruler, echoed throughout the throne room. "You have surpassed all expectations with your actions. As such, I look forward to your future accomplishments."

"..." Reivan looked on blankly as his father spoke, letting what he said go in one ear and out the other. Perhaps if it were any other time, his father's poise and elegance would impress him.

"Mm♥!"

"..."

But under his mother's affectionate barrage, and after just suffering a ruthless betrayal, Reivan was numb to any awe he felt toward the head of the royal family.

Rodin cleared his throat again, sensing his son's disdain. "Well, there's supposed to be all sorts of other things I have to say to you now that you're a true royal, but those can wait till tomorrow. I'm sure you're tired, so why don't you go up and rest."

"Yes!" Reivan exclaimed in a serious voice as he nodded. He understood what his father meant by his words. Hence, he faced his mother with an earnest expression "Mother, I must go rest now."

"Aww..." Vianna pouted but still let him down. But only then did she come to a realization. "Hm? Don't you have the Beast King's Ich—"

"Farewell, Mother!"

Wasting no time, Reivan ordered Zoro-chan to get a bit bigger, jumped on, then rode the serpent across the room. The enormous door opened automatically, as if sensing his desire to escape.

Zoro-chan adjusted its size as they soared down the hallways, scaring the living daylights out of any maids or manservants they encountered.

'Hm? Did Father already inform them...?'

Reivan raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the knights, seemingly not alarmed in any way that a demonic-looking snake was carrying off their second prince to who-knew-where.

In any case, it didn't take very long to reach their destination. Reivan preemptively opened the door to his room using [Formless Will], then closed it shut once they were inside.

"Hup!" Reivan deftly jumped off from Zoro-chan's back, smoothing out his clothes as the archon fragment returned to its smallest size.

With a single gesture, Reivan's clothes were replaced with ones for sleeping. He then took the clothes he'd just been wearing out of Zoro-chan's stomach and sent them flying to a nearby laundry basket. Afterward, Reivan jumped into bed and a poof sound followed, as his head sunk into his soft pillow. The fragrant smell of flowers from the freshly washed sheets wafted into his sensitive nose, causing him to heave a sigh, as the tension in his body was released.

As his face was buried in the mushy embrace of his bed, Reivan's thoughts drifted to the events that had just transpired.

A great many things happened today. Even if you ignored Roland and his combined birthday-slash-wedding party, just the affairs that happened after would take a while to fully recount.

For the first time, he killed someone. He'd forged a contract with an Armenian, thereby gaining a royal armament. Before that, he had a hard-fought battle against a nightmare spawn. Also, he got acknowledged as a true royal, basking in the cheers of hundreds of ascendants.

And the biggest one, he'd discovered the Outlands.

'That place is bad news...'

It was a tale as old as time itself. Worlds should never be connected. Every apocalypse novel he's ever read served as proof!

'We're definitely gonna lose control of that place, and then those monsters are definitely gonna flood into our world.'

That's how the story usually went.

Of course, he was now aware of just how scary his nation actually was. Reivan wasn't sure exactly how much better they were than everybody else, but it was apparent that they were the best choice to manage the portal. But that also meant that they would be the first to come to harm if the worst ever happened.

Naturally, this was not an ideal outcome for Reivan.

'Is there something I can do...?'

Perhaps everyone thought it best that he just leave the big issues to the adults; that he should just worry about matters that were within his weight class.

But Reivan had done quite enough of nothing. His entire life as Ken Kagami was basically just him waiting to die after all. Now that he could actually move around and potentially do something significant, he wanted to take action. To contribute.

These past few years, he had the excuse that he was too young and ignorant. But now? He was just young. No longer ignorant.

Or at least not as ignorant as he was a couple of days ago.

'But still...'

Even if he wanted to help, pretty much all he could do at the moment was to act as Aizen's spotter in the Outlands. Since his eyes weren't hindered in the slightest, he'd make for a great scout.

The problem was... he was too weak.

Most of the creatures of Outland could probably kill him if they breathed hard enough. If the super-strong old guy that lived in the back mountain guarded him, he would probably be okay...

But if he needed the strongest force in the kingdom to guard him all the damn time, what was the point? They could just have that guy scout out the place instead of him!

Reivan's other abilities wouldn't really be much help in the outlands, except for the power to manufacture medicine. But he was already doing that. Right now, he was looking for new ways he could help out.

"Hmm..."

His thoughtful humming — muffled by the pillow smothering him — reverberated across his bedchamber.

Zoro-chan — who was about to fall asleep — peeked out from under his sheets and hissed, expressing its confusion. The purple eyes, continuously exhaling tiny puffs of similar-colored smoke, bored holes into the young prince's face.

"It's nothing..." Reivan smiled as he sensed its concern. He reached out and stroked its scales, causing the not-so-little tube dude to wrap its body around his arm as it hissed for more. Happy to oblige, he sat up and placed his snake-wrapped arm on his lap as he sunk back into his thoughts.

'If the reason I can't help is that I'm too weak, then I just need to get stronger.'

It was a very simple conclusion. But most of the time, simple is best.

Starting tomorrow, he would probably get combat training of some kind. Anything he planned to do to get stronger likely couldn't match up to Aizen's methods, especially when they seemed to produce so many strong people.

As such, it was better to just leave it to whoever was going to train him. After all, doing Earth's exercises wasn't going to help him raise his realm so he could fly around in the sky.

Now that he was in another world, he would have to train the way an otherworlder would.

'Oh wait. They aren't otherworlders. I am. Guess I should call them natives...?'

In any case, there wasn't much he could do at the moment. And he lacked information to be able to form any sort of hypothesis or plan.

'But...'

However, even though he should logically just go to sleep and work hard tomorrow, Reivan's impatience was roaring at him to do something.

There were far too many things he wanted to do in this life. He had to find a way to revive his family, he had to prevent his brother from getting taken over, and then there were matters with Hector and Helen.

Now, he even had concerns about Outland to worry about.

What if he sat on his ass for one day, and then ended up missing an opportunity to bring back Hanzo or Kyouka?

What if taking a break for a single day caused him to be too late to save his brother from his alter ego? Or if he couldn't make it in time to prevent Hector's despair?

What if neglecting his training for a night results in him being too weak to contribute to Outland's denizens flooding their world?

Reivan knew what having regrets felt like. They were all he had in the moments of his death.

Now, he never wanted to have a single one.

But that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Thoughts of terrible futures and bad ends plagued his mind. Of being unable to help his loved ones, or being absent when they needed him the most.

His regrets of the past were now being accompanied by an overwhelming anxiety for the future.

"Oh..." Reivan gasped as he was snapped out of his thoughts. Zoro-chan, sensing his roiling emotions, nibbled on his hand — which had stopped stroking the little danger noodle.

'This won't do. I can't lose my cool...'

All those protagonists he'd read about ended up making huge messes whenever they went into panic mode. He didn't want to end up like those guys.

'Let's see...'

He took stock of everything he had access to.

The first thing that popped into his mind was the little nope rope he was stroking. Zoro-chan was an archon-fragment that came from Zell, the massive serpent that could devour galaxies.

However, he shook his head in frustration. This was irrelevant to his current situation. Even if Zoro-chan eventually became an archon, that would still be quite far into the future. He didn't even know how many decades, centuries, or even millennia it would take to reach that point.

The next thing he thought about was his knowledge of modern Earth. But then he realized there wouldn't be any point. He didn't have access to Google, so his understanding of things pretty much amounted to what a layman would know.

In his life as Ken, he'd read a few novels where the protagonist advanced civilization using stuff they coincidentally knew of. But Ken didn't go around memorizing random pages from Wikipedia in preparation for his reincarnation to another world.

There was also the fact that Aizen was already quite technologically advanced. Even surpassing Earth in certain aspects.

With all that said, Reivan temporarily threw aside any notions of channeling his inner Nikola Tesla.

Now, the third and pretty much the only other thing he had that nobody else did, was his special abilities. But he'd already written them off earlier.

[Supreme Insight] was really useful, but he was a bit too weak to go around looking at things in the outlands with it.

[Drug Memorization] was already being put to tremendous use in providing medicine for the valiant forces of Aizen.

[Essence of Falsehood] didn't have any particular uses in combat at the moment.

And although [Indomitable Willpower] was proving to be of incredible utility, he didn't think it would be much help at his level of strength. There was also the general unreliability of one of its sub-skills, whose activation depended on his emotional state.

After listing off his available abilities in his head, Reivan couldn't help but heave a sigh.

He had five special abilities, but why was it that none of them felt particularly useful at the moment?

'Huh?' Reivan's eyes suddenly widened in realization. 'Five...?'

That was right. He'd almost forgotten that he had five special abilities. Unconsciously, he'd left the last one out, since he didn't use it at all.

 

 

Despite the fact that it was still "in the process of manifestation", Reivan roughly knew what it did.

He'd spent countless years reliving countless lives while using this ability's effect. Even though he'd never consciously used it, he unconsciously knew how to do so.

If he wanted to, he could even activate it right now.

'Should I...?'

He hesitated. Even though his mind somehow remembered how to trigger the ability, he didn't know how to stop it.

After all, he'd never done it before.

The only time it was cut off, was when Zell woke him up.

'Zell...'

Thinking of the insanely sexy archon, Reivan couldn't help but fix his gaze on the creature snoozing on his lap.

'Maybe...?'

If he couldn't stop the ability himself, then perhaps he could have someone else do it for him?

Although he felt a bit bad about it, Reivan gave the serpent a nudge, rousing it from slumber. Zoro-chan groggily raised its head, its mouth hanging open in its stupor.

"Sorry about this, but can you help me out?"

No words needed to be spoken between them, but he just felt better when he said things out loud. Still a bit drowsy, the adorable danger noodle bobbed its head.

"Thanks, lil' guy." Reivan couldn't help but smile and pat its snout as he took out an ordinary leather ball from Zoro-chan's stomach. He threw it up, then stopped it in place with [Formless Will] when it reached its highest point. "All you need to do is wake me up when that ball hits the floor, okay? You can be as rough as you want."

Zoro-chan let out a surprised hiss when it heard his words. It then shook its head in defiance.

"I'm not asking you to hit me as hard as you can... I'd die from that y'know?" he chuckled wryly. "I still wanna live, so I'd like it if you only use enough force to get the job done."

Still seeming a bit hesitant, Zoro-chan wrapped itself around Reivan's right arm. It intended to give it a bit of a squeeze when the time came. Even if it accidentally used too much strength, the worst possible result was a broken limb.

"That'll do."

After giving his trusty pet a nod, he sat crosslegged atop his bed. He took a deep breath before releasing [Formless Will].

As the ball began to fall to the ground, Reivan's consciousness dimmed, eventually sinking into nothingness.

 

Chapter Word Count: 3744
Last Edited: July 04, 2023uthor]

Thanks for reading!

Lately, I've come to realize how lacking my tables are.

Well, it's not like tables and LitRPG was the main thing of this novel, so I suppose that's fine...

But still! I made new ones. I like these ones better but they're harder to make.

I know some of you'll suggest making them a bit smaller, but if I do, it looks really shitty when reading from mobile.

It's too big when reading from a PC, but it's just right on mobile, which I'm pretty sure is where most people read from.

Now, as for replacing the past tables... I dunno... meh. Maybe I will. Who knows?

Well anyway, see you next chapter!

Watch out for the specials that'll come out at some point!

[/author]