Reincarnated as a Phoenix

Chapter 28 – Petra

(Ikarus) “It’s starting to get late now”

“Agreed”

“You can land whenever you want Ikarus, we won’t complain”

Everyone’s currently flying on my back towards the east side of continent. Like usual with my travel arrangements, I’m currently soaring in the sky looking down at all the little ants on the ground following the road high up. It’s been a few days since leaving the capital and it’s starting to get dark now.

“I’ll stop at the nex- ah, I love it when coincidences happen. There’s an inn right over there”

Conveniently enough, there is an inn right near the junction in the road we’re approaching, brilliant.

_________

“All done Ikarus?”

“Yeah, all dressed now. Where’s priestess?”

We’ve landed a slight distance away from the inn, I have no idea where Charlotte’s gone.

“Lotte felt something odd so she went to investigate the inn, she did say she’ll come back straight away if there’s danger”

After he finishes speaking, me and the knight start heading towards the inn. A few minutes of walking occur and then we see the front of the inn alongside the road. Outside, I can see Charlotte speaking to someone.

‘I know I said I like coincidences earlier but this isn’t funny’

The person the priestess is speaking to is the disciple styled blind woman who we’ve already bumped into twice already.

“Ikarus-sama and Nat, look who I’ve found”

(Nathan) “Ah, it’s the warrior woman”

“Greetings knight… greetings as well Ikarus”

Before I even have the chance to respond, Aesa has to butt in.

[<-User- should take different approach>]

Aesa really can read my mind; she knows exactly what I’m about to do. I have to ignore her though. Without my bluntness, I wouldn’t be myself, she’s not stopping me responding.

“Oi blind woman! This is stupid now, one or two times stumbling into each other I could understand but this has happened on three separate occasions at three different places. Are you stalking me or something!?”

[<*Sigh*>]

That didn’t come out aggressive or anything, I’m just a little annoyed why I’ve bumped into her again and in another different part of the world. Most of what I just said is more in jest, I’m just curious on why we’re speaking again.

“Heh, you’re right”

“Don’t try and deny it! The chanc-… wait”

Error, brain cannot make sense of situation. Did she just admit it?

“I think stalking is a little harsh but I was hoping to run into you again, I had a feeling you might head in this direction so I’ve been waiting a little while, looks like I was right”

Is she being serious or mocking me? She seems serious so I’m getting serious to, the priestess will defend me if shit hits the fan.

“Why the hell were you waiting for me?”

“It would be easier to explain without your party members”

“Anything you can say to me, you can say to these two as well”

“Agreed Ikarus-sama”

“We won’t leave your side Ikarus”

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At least my party is willing to back me up on this, she did just admit to basically stalking me. She might be dangerous.

“Okay then, I wanted to speak with another person from Earth, just it might prove more difficult with people who don’t know what we’re on about”

…

“Nathan, Charlotte… leave us for a minute”

“Ikarus-sama?”

“What?”

I know what I just said about danger but I have the perfect opportunity here, I don’t care about the risk. It’s slightly funny how easily I can switch my mind, I might need to work on that.

“You two can watch us, just stay out of ear distance. This conversation is confidential, you cannot hear what’s about to be said…”

Both seem really unsure on my safety regarding this and are still sceptical, I can’t blame them but this isn’t something their ears should hear so I need to be a bit tough about it.

“…I don’t want to do this but listen to me, this isn’t me asking nicely. If you two don’t leave, I will. You know I’m very much able to. I’ll shout if I need some help”

I’m basically threatening to change form and fly away; it’ll destroy my clothes in the process but I want privacy here. I am massively bluffing though, I’m unsure if this woman knows about my bird form yet.

“*Sigh*… fine Ikarus-sama”

“Okay Ikarus”

Both my party members walk a short distance away and me and blind woman walk the other direction a short distance also. Once we’re far enough out of ear distance, I can’t help but get excitable really quickly.

“So… you’re from Earth as well!?!”

I’m right up close to her and have sparkles in my eyes right now, I’ve so wanted to find someone from Earth ever since I came here. This is like literally a moment I’ve been dreaming of.

“A very long time ago, yes. Most my memories are faded though”

“I don’t care if there faded, you must still remember some things. What country were you from? What was your favourite film? Favourite food? Book? Novel? Video game?”

I think my rapid fire of questions has made her a little uncomfortable, I can’t help but be extremely curious though.

“I’m sorry but most of them I’m unsure I can really remember the answers to. I’m slightly confused though; wouldn’t you rather know my name first or why I’ve been keeping a slight track on you?”

Okay, she’s not uncomfortable, she just finds me weird, got it. I can work with that.

“Fine thennn, what’s your name and why were you stalking me?”

I say this in a sarcastic way, I actually don’t care that much. I still refer to the knight and priestess without using their names sometimes, I can just call her blind woman. It’s rude but she did try and blind me so I’m allowed to be rude.

“My name is Petra and to put it simply, I just wanted to speak to you again”

There has to be more to it than just her wanting to speak to me, I’ll ask about that in a bit. I’m now thinking about when she decided to blind me again.

“Thinking back to when we last spoke though, why didn’t you let me check your status? You must have an idea what I’m talking about”

The system inside my head is an RP or reincarnated person system, she should definitely have the same, right? It’s should be fine to talk about, Aesa isn’t stopping me so even she’s curious.

“It causes pain, you can check it now if you want but you will regret it. Last time we spoke, I didn’t want the headache that comes with it”

‘Headache that comes with it? Ah forget it, I’m checking it anyway. Status’

[Name: *****   |   Species: ******   |   Level: ***]

[Health    *****/*****]

[Stamina *****/*****]

[Magicka *****/*****]

“ARGHHH!!”

“Urgh, I can never get used to that even now”

As soon as I activated the status, a headache stronger than anything I’ve ever experienced pierces my head. It’s so unbearable; I actually fall to my knees. The blind woman keeps standing but also holds her head, her eyes also have a slight glint of blue while the status screen remained open. It goes very quickly after though.

“Couldn’t you have told me it causes a headache?”

“I just did though”

Oh, she actually was being literal about the headache.

While I’m still on my knees, I take a quick glance towards my party members and see both of them have their weapons out. Thankfully, they could see that I wasn’t under attack so haven’t intervened but still look slightly concerned. I can look back to the blind woman now.

“Why the hell does it do that? I can’t even view your stats or anything”

“Systems react poorly to other systems; this happens with the others as well”

She reaches down and holds out an arm to help me back up, I take it and stand back up getting off my knees.

“Others? Am I supposed to know who they are?”

“Ah apologies, that’s something I’m not allowed to share right now”

I hate this type of development, don’t be giving me information and then restrict some of it. Confidential shit is annoying.

“What… about stuff like your stats then? Can you talk about that?”

We’re both from Earth, it should be fine to share some stuff, right? If she’s been watching me, then she probably already knows I’m a phoenix. It’s only fair to get some information on her as well.

“I can share those but it will be meaningless to you, our stats won’t be the same”

“Wait, why won’t they be the same?”

She gives off a little bit of an annoyed feeling here, it’s different from the priestess trying to explain her voice but for the blind woman, it seems less of an annoyance.

“The RP system works differently for each person, my system is based around cultivation, Qi and scaling the different types of realms. The only thing similar between us would be our visible level”

She has a cultivation system? I have this shitty basic bitch three stat system and she has a damn cultivation system? Oh come on…

“That’s so freaking bullshit! I bet you have the rank of the heavenly demon or something unfair and overpowered like that as well!”

“I said it’s a cultivation system Ikarus, I’m unsure what you’re getting at”

At least she’s not a member of the demonic cult then, don’t they like to sacrifice children and stuff like that? I’ve honestly forgotten most of the cultivation novel type stuff, they are so in depth and trying to remember all the heavenly realms and rankings makes my head spin. I’ll just let this go but I’m still slightly jealous of her.

“*Sigh*… can you at least tell me your level then?”

“Four hundred and twenty, yours?”

…

I can’t even make the obvious four twenty blaze it joke right now, that’s such bullshit, I can’t even compare to her. Once again, I’ve come across another high-level person, this world seems so imbalanced.

“Ahem… moving on”

“Heh, it can’t be that bad, right?”

She can’t help but smile at my reluctance to answer. Two of the reasons why is embarrassment, other is fear at showing how low levelled I really am. The priestess is still in sight though, it should be safe to disclose it, I think?

“It’s erm… twenty-four”

“Everyone’s got to start somewhere, you were only born recently so it’s expected”

She not actually mocking me? I don’t mind this woman; she can actually sense when I’m unhappy about something and reacts in a way normal human beings should react.

Wait, how does she know I’m newly born? I think she knows what I am.

“You know what I am, don’t you?”

“Yes Ikarus, I know you’re a phoenix”

Okay, she knows way too much, I’d have to considerer killing her if I could or cared all that much. I should be really suspicious of her but for some reason, I’m really not all that worried.

“Have you been spying on me since I hatched? How do you even know that?”

There should be no chance of her knowing about that, there was literally two monstrosities stopping anyone getting close to me. She might be associated with the empire but wouldn’t she have known Charlotte previously if that was the case?

“Nothing like that, I only knew of your existence when we first met in the capital. The reason why I know is down to experience, I’ve see- no, not seen. I’ve experienced a lot throughout my years travelling through the four continents. You’re not the first and only phoenix I’ve come across”

Ah, this is perfect time for reading Ikarus to pay a visit. The thing she just said about four continents is some of the basic stuff every person should know about but I’ve only just learnt about it yesterday from reading a few pages of a book I bought.

Four continents and each continent sits in a corner of the known land. Sierra which is basically the entire empire is in top right corner, erm… I’ve already forgotten the names of the others. Sierra is definitely top right and I know there’s a desert continent in the bottom right as well.

Back onto the conversation.

“You’ve met other phoenixes? It that why you were following me and wanted to speak with me?”

“Again, I’ve said something I shouldn’t have said. Apologies but I really can’t answer that right now. I’m not asking for trust but I really did just want to speak with you”

Blatantly keeping secrets is just irritating, I don’t think she means me any harm though, she could’ve just killed me where I stand right now if she did. Sure, she would have to deal with the priestess afterwards but it’s not exactly like she can’t hold her own, she is in the four hundreds after all, if she’s telling the truth.

“*Sigh*… fine then, will you answer some more stuff though?”

“If I’m able to, then of course”

I should probably start skipping this conversation forward. The thing is, we end up speaking for another ten minutes or so about quite a lot and most of it being pointless stuff really.

Main reason was that I wanted to figure out what she could actually remember, she was right though, her memory is faded. The way she remembers things is a little similar to déjà vu, she can’t remember where she heard of it but sometimes things do ring a bell. It’s a shame but what can I do about it? I’ve finally found someone from Earth, can’t have everything I want.

My guess is like with the dragons, she’s lived quite a while, hundreds of years judging from her level if she’s telling the truth at the very least. Her memory would obviously fade spending that many years alive.

Oh, her species as well, she says she’s a human but I think she’s lying. Humans don’t live for hundreds of years; I’m guessing she’s like the priestess and has a species that might be considered embarrassing so I won’t pressure her too much on it.

I would like to know why she can’t tell me about certain things but I guess it might be like a non-disclosure agreement, if she tells me she might get sued or her head might explode… What film or series was that from again? You reveal a secret and your head explodes… Ah, that’s going to annoy me now, forget it.

“Ikarus-sama, is everything fine?”

“You’ve been speaking with the warrior woman for quite some time now”

I am a little rude, I was talking with her for so long, I forgot about my party. They could have gone inside the inn but I guess they still worry for my safety.

“Yeah. sorry for leaving you two for so long, this woman is someone I met when I was little. It was a while ago though, that’s why I forgot”

“It was a complicated time”

Good, she’s going with my cover story I just made up on the spot. I’m only doing this to try and make the other two relax around her, this woman really isn’t a threat. She could have killed me at any moment there and yet, she didn’t. I know I’m being a little trustworthy to someone who is keeping secrets but I’m not exactly someone who hates taking a risk.

(Charlotte) “Okay then, should we all go in?”

(Nathan) “It’s already dark so I’ll see if I can get us some rooms”

We all had to share a room last time we stopped at an inn on the road so hopefully this isn’t the case again, my interference in their relationship will probably just stop those two getting closer. I really can’t help but tease them over their innocence.

“You two can get a room, I’m having a drink. Don’t even try preaching to me priestess”

Once again, I get a face of disappointment from her. Just get over my sinful nature already, it’s boring already.

“I could have a drink”

Wait, this blind woman drinks? Ah hell yeah! Didn’t expect that, I thought some worldly pleasures aren’t allowed with cultivation, her system is clearly different.

“*Sigh*… can you at least not overdo it tonight Ikarus-sama?”

“Lotte is only thinking out for your health Ikarus”

“I know Nathan, I’ll try but you know I struggle to get drunk or tipsy, there’s no point drinking until you can start feeling the slight dizziness”

Both Nathan and Charlotte give up and walk into the inn after my response leaving me and the blind chick alone.

“I guess we both struggle getting drunk then”

She can’t get drunk too? She really shouldn’t have said that, muhahaha… I’ve actually got a drinking partner tonight, this is gonna be some fun!

“Why did you have to say that? You’re bad encouragement ya know. I’m buying the first few rounds, try to keep up with me”

“Heh, fair enough”