Zinless
patreon
Chapter 8: Talents
🕑 Added 2024-07-25 06:38:42 +0000 UTCAfter the etiquette lesson, I flopped into my bed and stared at the ceiling.
What in the world was that?
What I did during the lesson, the tea-pouring—when had I learned that? I did it perfectly. Too perfect.
The previous tasks were done through muscle memory, or at least I thought so. But the tea-pouring…
I ran through the lesson again in my mind. Every detail, every motion. The graceful way the teapot tipped, the steady stream of liquid. It was flawless. I still couldn’t believe it was me.
It was as if someone else had taken over my body, or like a recorder playing back a tape.
A stream of memories flowed into me, mainly those of my first few lessons on etiquette as Carine. The first time learning how to walk, the first time learning how to eat, et cetera.
While sifting through my memories as Carine, something peculiar caught my attention. Everything that Carine has done perfectly, was only done so after a demonstration.
Was I… mimicking?
To test this theory out, I looked out my balcony door. I observed the maids tending to the flowers in the garden, specifically, their movements.
The way they cut the overgrown stems and how they properly pour water without getting water on their dress, I observed everything. After only watching them for about two minutes, that weird sense of confidence arrived again.
I imagined holding the tools the maids were holding and my body began to mimic their movements perfectly. The way my arms moved was way too natural, even more natural than my attempts at walking!
I stopped my mime act and sighed, my suspicions were true. I could somehow mimic others’ movements perfectly.
Is this normal? There’s no way, right?
I looked out at the expansive garden below me again. The vibrant colors of the flowers were in full bloom; it was a scene worth paying to see, yet I could stare at them for free every morning.
The maids were still tending to the garden diligently, but one of them began to shiver in fear as a swarm of bees approached the garden, flying from flower to flower.
Wait, I was on the third floor, pretty high up from the garden. How did I spot those tiny bees?
Squinting, I focused more intently. Even from this distance, I could see every individual bee clearly. I could even tell the difference between each pattern of their wings!
I blinked and rubbed my eyes, thinking I must be imagining things. But when I looked again, the details were still there, sharp and vivid.
I stepped back from the window perplexed. This was getting weird. Real weird.
I flopped back onto my bed, staring at the ceiling once again. This time, I couldn’t help but notice all the details. The curves of the corners, the small bumps on the paint, the small scratch near the chandelier’s base, I could go on and on.
“My eyes aren’t normal, aren’t they?”
Was it something normal for people of this world? To have eyes sharper than a needle? Well, I tested that theory out with Feyt.
I stared at my room’s wooden ceiling as Feyt and… no dice. I could see the gaps between the planks, but that’s nowhere near the amount of detail I could see as Carine. Feyt’s eyes are pretty much normal.
Then what’s up with Carine’s eyes?
““Hah…””
Pondering things on my beds was the only thing I could do to pass the time, though it would be more relaxing if I didn’t keep hearing creaking around Feyt’s house.
Every creak had a distinct sound to it. I could tell who was where just by listening in closely.
They should really replace those floorboards.
As I was thinking that, I could hear one set of footsteps approaching my room. The weight of the sound and the pace felt familiar—I immediately knew who it was.
“What is it, Mom?” I asked the figure at the other side of the door.
She hadn’t called for me nor knocked, but I had a weird sense of confidence that it was Mom.
There it is again, the weird sense of confidence. I experienced it with Carine during the tea-pouring, and now with guessing my guest?
The door creaked open and a head popped in, proving my assumptions correct. “Sorry dear, just want to check in on you.”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“Are you sure? Don’t want honey milk?”
“Honey milk?”
Based on Feyt’s memories, honey milk was just milk stirred with honey, and I could recall it tasting pretty sweet.
“That… would be great, actually.”
Mom’s face beamed bright. “Right away!”
Mom practically stormed off, her footsteps gradually fading but still audible even when she was in the kitchen.
Mom was a bubbly person. Not that I was complaining, but she was the complete opposite of Mother—Carine’s mother, I mean.
Just to clarify, for the sake of my sanity, I decided to call Feyt’s mom “Mom” and Carine’s mother “Mother.” The same goes for both our father figures—“Dad” and “Father.”
Besides, that was what I—we—used to call our parents before gaining memories of our past life, would feel weird to change things up in an instant.
As the doors naturally closed, I couldn’t help but turn my attention to the noise outside.
I could hear birds chirping, rustlings of tree branches, the bustle of the crowd walking by, the moos of the cows as they were being brushed, the breakfast festivities of my neighbors as they celebrated their kid's birthday, the sound of a dried leaf being crushed in the distance underneath a leather shoe, the sound of someone struggling for their life in the toilet as they—Wait, what was I hearing?!
Okay, okay, I wasn't an idiot. I already knew what was going on.
Not only did I have super vision with Carine, but I have super hearing as Feyt as well.
As I lay there, snippets of conversations from both of my pasts drifted through my mind. Talks of old family legends and mysterious powers everyone was supposedly born with… “Talents.”
Just as I was wrapping my mind around these strange new abilities, I heard Mom’s footsteps again, now accompanied by the soft clinks of wood.
She gently pushed the door open with her foot, balancing a tray with a wooden cup filled with honey milk and some cookies.
“I brought you some cookies too!” She said with a smile, setting the tray by the bedside table.
“Cookies? I thought those are expensive?” To Feyt’s family, anyway.
“Oh, you worry too much. Fray got some home as a souvenir from her errand,” Mom said, taking one of the cookies from the table and taking a bite herself. “Mmm!~ This one’s quite good!”
I took one piece from the place and took a bite. It was, indeed, quite good. The honey milk made it all the better.
…
After stuffing my face down with cookies and honey milk, I never felt so relaxed. Mom took a few pieces of the cookies for her own, actually almost half of them, but I didn’t mind… Okay, I minded it slightly.
Seeing as she was sitting with me at the moment, I decided it would be the best time to ask.
“Mom?”
“Hmm?” She turned her head towards me, her mouth stuffed with cookies. “Whuff ish it??”
Aren’t moms supposed to teach kids not to eat with their mouths full?
“I’m curious but, what are my Talents?”
Mom looked at me silently for a few seconds, her expressions unclear. Then, she swiped a napkin from the tray and cleaned her mouth.
“Ehem~” she cleared her throat. “Feyt, we don’t have money to buy a scroll yet to check, so I don’t know. Don’t worry, me and your dad are saving up quite a lot already! And Fray’s helping out too!”
“...I see.”
“I do wonder what Talents you have though,” Mom pondered. "If you were to have a Talent, especially one related to magic, oh, the adventures you could have! Can you imagine? You'd be recruited to the kingdom's elite knight mages, a grand hero in the making!”
Mom's enthusiasm bubbled over as she continued “And yes, it would certainly help us lead a more comfortable life, the pay’s pretty great, after all, but that’s not the point. The important thing is,” Mom gently grabbed a hold of my hand, rubbing her fingers over my palm, feeling its roughness. “I don’t want you to work at a farm your entire life. I want you to have fun, have adventures with friends, or even find girls you could marry!”
Mom let go of my hand, stood up from my bed, and then grabbed the wooden tray. "Of course, even if you don't have a magical Talent, that doesn’t mean you’re destined to be a farmer forever. You’ll just have to work slightly harder than expected, is all." She giggled. "Either way, you'll always be my shining sun, Feyt, and I’ll always love you, no matter what. So be patient, alright? We’ll get the scroll someday!"
After hearing her speech, I didn’t know what to say besides, “Thanks… Mom.”
“Kay’! Call me when you need anything, alright? Mommy’s going to be right outside.”
I nodded as Mom left the room with a tray in hand.
For some reason, her speech about always loving me made my eyes slightly watery… Just slightly though, slightly.
Talents. huh?
I could only garner the basic ideas of them based on Feyt and Carine’s memories, they’re practically common sense in this world.
If I had to explain it in layman’s terms: Talents are passive buffs.
What? Too short?
Alright, alright. I’ll explain it.
Talents are basically passive buffs. They’re not active skills you can use at any time, they are always active in the background. Most people often have three to five Talents, but exceptions exist.
From what I could gather from my memories, the most common Talents often involve enhancing the body.
For example, Dad had his Talent checked out a few years back and he has [Enhanced Stamina], which allowed him to work all day long without needing a rest. That was probably why he could stomach a week of intense training for his muscles.
Talents could also be random things, like [Fire Bloom], where fire burns stronger whenever you are near them. Mom has that, and it helped with cooking quite a bit, but I didn’t know any other uses for that kind of Talent.
Anyway, next, Magical Talents. It’s a list of talents that allows the bearers to learn magic.
Yep, there was magic in this world, but unfortunately, most humans couldn’t cast magic, even though most monsters could. The most accessible way a human could cast a spell was to use a magic item or a spell scroll. But with a Magical Talent, the bearer could cast magic without any tools at all.
Magical Talents were rare, and those who were found bearing them were automatically given a seat at the elite knight mages of the kingdom. It was an easy ticket to a luxurious life. If you did well as a knight mage, you could even be promoted to an aristocrat after retirement, no matter your original status.
So yeah, with Talents, you either get to find out you’re potentially a hero. Or maybe just really good at folding laundry. It’s a mixed bag, really.
Me personally? I hoped that I had one of those magical Talents, be it either as Carine or Feyt. It’d be a shame to be reincarnated into a fantasy world with magic and not be able to cast them.
Anyway, I returned to relaxing on my beds. Alone with my thoughts, I pondered, what Talents could I have?
I could see really, really well as Carine. In contrast, I could hear really, really well as Feyt.
Maybe it’s [Enhanced Sight] and [Enhanced Hearing]?
Those are two of the most common Talents you could find, based on Carine’s knowledge of the subject at least. But if these literal superpowers are so common, wouldn’t it be hard to have privacy in this world?
I mean, anyone could see or hear anything from anywhere, voyeurs and stalkers would have a field day here.
Or does society just not care about privacy? No, judging from my memories, that was certainly not the case.
I needed to know more. Feyt and Carine’s knowledge of Talents was mostly common knowledge stuff, I needed the deets! And thankfully, I knew exactly where to look.
The Sareid family’s personal library.
