Kian scratched his head dramatically as he stared at his sister. The gesture was between frustration and the urge to shout, though he restrained himself. There was nothing he could do now that the information had already been spoken out loud.
Tobi, the intended recipient of that information, simply smiled and nodded his head slightly toward Kiki. "Thank you for letting me know… perhaps I have one more piece of information for you." His voice trailed off as the proposition hung in the air. Even as he spoke, he weighed the consequences of the offer. Every small piece of information was currency now.
Kiki neither pressed nor dismissed the offer. She only waited. Her posture didn't change, her expression remained calm, but the stillness itself was a kind of invitation.
"The system has to observe us," Tobi said finally. "It doesn't fully understand us yet. There's even something in my status that's still undetermined."
His gaze lingered on hers longer than he intended. It was his Authority of Exception. He never said the words out loud, but the thought hung in the back of his mind. And for a moment, his curiosity tempted him...
'I wonder if she could figure it out.' She had helped Michael with his life sense ability. Maybe the same thing applies to his skill. If anyone had a deeper grasp of the system, it was her.
The idea died as soon as it formed. Even the system didn't know what it was. How could she?
Her eyes widened by the smallest opening before she nodded once, "Hm."
No questions, no visible interest, no search for clarification. Just that small acknowledgment. The quiet that followed stretched longer than Tobi expected, and for some reason he couldn't explain, the silence made his heart beat faster.
At the same increased rate of his heartbeat, a single sentence came to mind, 'Did I make the wrong choice?'
He replayed the chess match in his mind. The careful way she had maneuvered him. The subtle traps that had closed one by one until he realized the game had already been decided.
But that had been the point. He had never intended to win.
If he had won, it would have demonstrated his pattern recognition. If he lost, it proved that the information he possessed was genuine and valuable enough to gamble with.
Either outcome benefited him and created a relationship with another transmigrator. He hadn't spent much time conversing with the other transmigrators. He barely did with the villagers.
'Maybe she noticed my plan…' He studied her watching gaze, 'No, that's a good thing.' He stood up, breaking the growing discomfort of eye contact.
His chair scraped against the floor as he pushed it in. "Thanks for telling me about the party system." The words were casual but sincere. The information they exchanged felt more like small offers of goodwill. Caution still whispered to him not to equate goodwill with trust.
Behind him, Kian leaned back in his chair, rubbing his face with both hands, "Great..." He muttered. "Now I have no chance of becoming a party leader."
Tobi didn't respond to that but gave a final glance towards the two before turning and walking towards the library doors.
...
The air outside was cooler than expected. As usual, Windhollow was already fully awakened. The quiet calm of early morning had already been displaced by the steady rhythm of the day's work.
A pair of older women walked past him into the library, discussing something about harvest timing while carrying woven baskets filled with vegetables. Further down the path, a group of men hauled timber towards the perimeter of the village.
Nothing had changed, no one paid him any extra attention. Some villagers he talked to yesterday nodded to him.
As he followed the main path deeper into the village, a strange gathering of people beneath a large tree caught his eye. It looked like a meditation circle. The people sat with crossed legs in a vague ring shape, their backs mostly straight and hands resting loosely on their knees.
Then the instructor came into view. A teenager who couldn't have been older than fifteen stood in the center of the group with the presence of a true leader.
Around her sat several children and three transmigrators. Carlos, Vita, and Kostas. The three of them looked deeply uncomfortable.
"No, no," the girl said patiently as she walked behind Kostas and gently pushed his shoulders back. "Your spine has to stay straight, like this."
Kostas stiffened awkwardly as his posture was corrected, his expression like that of someone forced into a yoga class they never signed up for.
Curiosity overcame Tobi as he stepped closer. He had no other plans anyways. "What's going on?" He asked quiety.
Vita opened one eye, her face remaining mostly still despite the obvious focus she was putting into keeping her back straight. "We're training..."
"And what are you training?" He questioned again.
She exhaled slowly through her nose, "Ask the teen over there, apparently we are training everything."
Tobi shrugged and waved to the girl, getting her attention.
As she walked over to him she gave another instruction to another transmigrator, "Wake up! You'll never develop focus if you doze off like that." Her hand smacked Carlos in the back of his head who immediately woke up and returned to position as if this had happened before.
Tobi grimaced. The whole scene reminded him uncomfortably of school.
"Hey," the girl said brightly when she reached him. "Are you joining us?"
Tobi nodded, "I think so, yeah. Can I just sit down over here?"
Returning to the center of the circle towards a younger boy, probably around eight, she replied to Tobi and addressed the boy in one breath. "Yeah! That's grea- Don't you get up, you should be visualizing at this point."
Quietly sitting down, folding his legs beneath him, Tobi straighted his back and placed his hands on his knees.
"Focus on your breathing! In!" The teen called out causing Tobi, and the group, to reflexively breathe in.
"Hold it!"
A few seconds passed.
"Out!"
The air left their lungs in a slow, unnaturally extended exhale.
"Again!"
The exercise confused Tobi on how it could be actually training, it was as simple as breathing... considering that what it was. But after a dozen minutes he noticed small discomforts forming in his body. His back slowly curved forward without notice until a dull ache formed in his lower spine.
When he corrected his posture the ache only became more apparent.
It only took a few more minutes for his legs to tingle. Like tiny needles pricked into his feet, drawing numbness through his lower body.
Everytime the girl corrected someone else it served as a reminder to him to fix his posture. Even still, he eventually began to shift.
"Don't move so much."
A childish voice sounded beside him.
Tobi opened an eye and glanced over to find a young boy staring at him with clear dissappointment. The kid could not have been older than nine.
"Your back is also wrong," the boy corrected.
Before Tobi could respond, the child reached over and pressed lightly between his shoulders, naturally making him move into the correct position.
"Like that." The boy nodded approvingly at the new posture, closing his eyes again.
Silence returned and so did the growing numbness. He shifted again instinctively, trying to restore feeling to his feet.
The boy sighed dramatically, not even looking over.
It was quite the feeling to be corrected by someone less than half your age and still fail. "What are we training exactly?"
The thought of losing feeling in his feet as he sat on the dirt breathing didn't exactly fulfill his idea of training.
One small eye opened.
"Vessel, duh."
Tobi blinked slowly, resisting the urge to respond childishly. "What is vessel?"
The boy stared at him as if the question itself was of deep concern.
"Your body... duh." He paused and closed his eyes, "And stop distracting me."
Tobi shut his mouth immediately, being corrected a fourth time would be even more embarrassing. He had no desire to repeat the experience.
Instead he focused on breathing again. In. Out. In. Out.
His body still wanted to curve and his legs were slowly losing feeling, but if the hyperactive children around could remain perfectly still, so could he.
He wanted to ask more questions, like about Focus or Intent, but knowing Vessel is the body was good enough for now.
Beside... if he asked one of these kids they would stare at him like he asked what breathing was.
For now he closed his eyes and tried to breathe like the rest of them.