Chapter 25
‘Virtue, are you able to take all of the information from the book I just received and transfer it into my brain?’ Vice asked. He was stood still in the middle of a sidewalk as he conversed with the multiple voices in his head.
[DING! Affirmative, this system can take the information from the book and directly transfer it to the host. All that the host has to do is feed the book into the bracelet you are wearing. The book will be destroyed in the process, however the information will be completely retained and the host will have a photographic memory of its contents.] Virtue buzzed.
‘You should use it, Vice. I’m just saying, it’ll take you ages to read the book, time which I don’t think you have right now,’ Favian said.
‘Fine,’ Vice thought and pulled out the book from his spatial pouch. The moment he put the book near the bracelet on his left wrist, it was sucked in by a powerful force.
[DING! Disassembling the book The Bringers of Sins. Computing the data. Success. Transferal of data commencing in 5 4 3 2 1.]
Vice preemptively held his head the moment he had heard the countdown because he expected his brain to flare up in pain. This was due to it having happened every time he’d been directly transferred information from Virtue. However, the painful sensation didn’t come, instead a slight tingling and itchy feeling wriggled around his brain for a couple of seconds.
‘Huh? Virtue, why didn’t that hurt like all the times you’ve given me the coordinates to a hostile force?’ Vice asked.
[DING! This is due to what the system altering the hosts memory, which only requires placing the new knowledge into the spaces of vacant neurons in the host’s brain once. These neurons which already have multiple connections therefore aren’t stressed too much by the process. The real-time coordinates that are transferred to the host require the creations of new neuronal connections, which is why the host has felt intense pain every time this has happened. The system calculates that after another fifty times the host should have enough neuronal connections for this process to be painless.]
Vice stood still with his mouth wide open. ‘Neurons? What does that even mean? What are these connections you speak of?’ he asked. Virtue then went on to explain what neurons were along with the most important details about the brain and how it worked. The system explained it succinctly which allowed Vice to understand most of the information easily.
‘Virtue, do you know how arcane cores work then? How does mana work?’ Vice asked despite having been taught this briefly by Favian.
[DING! The host’s arcane core lies behind his lungs. The arcane core constantly absorbs the arcana that is ever present in the surroundings. This energy is then converted into mana, which is the substance used by the host to cast spells. Mana itself isn’t a naturally occurring substance and requires a cultivator to convert their arcana storage into it. All people on this planet have an arcane core, however not all are able to refine its contents into mana.]
‘So it’s like that, the same thing Favian already taught me,’ Vice thought. With that he continued his walk to the villa. It was already deep into the night, past midnight, so Vice’s mother was sleeping. She’d usually sleep about twelve hours every day, so it was no surprise to Vice that she wasn’t awake.
“So, how was it?” Anne asked the moment Vice walked through the door. She was sat by a chair that looked directly at the door, her arms crossed. “Oh, what’s that? Perfume? Why do I smell perfume on you, Vice?”
“It was… weird. That woman is crazy scary though, it took everything I had to not succumb to her,” Vice replied as he rubbed his scalp with his fingers.
“So you didn’t do anything with her?” Anne implored.
“No… Why would I have? What are you talking about?” Vice responded.
“Nothing. Nothing at all. Anyways, it’s been a long day, I’m going to go and sleep now. You can sleep on the couch,” she said and promptly walked off into Vice’s bedroom.
“Wh-”
Vice stood with a blank expression as he stared at the back of Anne as she stormed off. Her hips swayed but there was a heaviness and anger to her steps, and Vice could feel an increase in arcana near her. ‘What did I do?’ he thought. ‘Anyways, time to scroll through this new information I’ve just received.’
Vice jumped onto the couch in the living room, which was almost as soft as the beds in the villa, but not quite. After getting into a comfortable position, with his legs crossed in a meditative stance, he allowed the arcana in the surroundings to flow into his body.
‘Okay, I should be able to meditate and scroll through these new memories of mine,’ Vice thought to himself. The moment he thought about its title, all of the information came flooding into his conscious.
The Bringers of Sins, or more aptly labeled as the Noroi, were a sentient race which populated the darkest depths of the world. Be it the Underdark, the depths of the seas or inside the mountain ranges, they could be found wherever there was darkness. The Noroi were commonly mistaken to be devils or demons, despite having no relationships with those foul creatures. Their appearances, however, had striking similarities to the demons, with their long horns, as well as their prowess in battle. A key way to distinguish Noroi from devil or demon is that the Noroi have no tails, ever.
The Noroi were named the Bringers of Sins due to their constant conquests during war to the lands of the Civil, an alliance of the powers of the humans, elves, giants and dwarves on the continent Tras. Hundreds of wars were fought between the Civil and the Noroi, yet the Noroi had always been unable to complete the wars they began. This wasn’t due to their lack of strength: they were indeed much more powerful than the combined forces of the Civil. Fighting always ensued between the different clans of the Noroi, who were made up of seven distinct clans which each wanted the greatest chunk of land from Tras.
In the past millennium, there have only been rare sightings of the Noroi. The reason? Unknown. What I can tell you though, reader, is that the Noroi always emerged again, and again. As of writing this, it is the year 5346, marking exactly a thousand years since the last war waged by the Noroi.
Vice continued to remember the contents of the book. He simply couldn’t believe what had been written in the book. ‘It not only says that it is impossible for a Noroi to breed with somebody not of their race, but that they are almost completely extinct. Then how am I alive?’ he wondered. ‘Is the content of the book just wrong, or are there things even the author didn’t know or understand?’
From the information he’d received, Vice realized that he fit into the Clan of Chaos, as all purple colored Noroi did. However, what Vice found interesting was that the children of the Noroi were as likely to inherit the appearance of their parents as they were that of a different clan. So, it was possible for a Noroi from the Clan of Peace, who were supposedly yellow in color, to have an offspring that was red and belonged to the Clan of War. This meant that many Noroi didn’t actually know their own parents, and instead were fostered by the different clans they belonged to.
‘So this book was written exactly 200 years ago… Still, I have never heard of the Noroi nor seen one. Well I guess I count as a half Noroi. But if what is written here is true, then what does any of this mean? Anne said she saw somebody who looked just like me when tracking the culprit of my home’s arson,’ Vice thought whilst rubbing his chin.
The boy sighed as despite being given some answers, he was left with many more questions than he’d previously had. He wanted to know where to find these Noroi people, how to contact them. He wanted to know why he had been left behind here in the human lands, but most of all he wanted to know why his father abandoned him.
‘Was I not part of his clan or what?’ he thought.
‘To be honest, that sounds like a pretty reasonable explanation. Just based on what the book has stated, I think it’s likely that your father was from a different clan to what you’ve grown up as. Who knows, I’d need to meet one of the Noroi before I could even begin to formulate a psychological profile for their race. You don’t count, obviously.’ Favian replied.
Vice sat in silence for the rest of the night, his thoughts becoming non-existent. He stared out of his living room window, observing the moon until finally he fell asleep, his heart heavy and confused.
