Reincarnated Hero System

“The First Division is the largest, and its members are all exceptional combatants, most suited for operating in groups. That, however, is also their weakness. They’re so accustomed to working in groups that removing a few squad leaders can disrupt their command structure, even if only temporarily.

The Second Division is smaller, roughly the size of the Seventh, but its members are all elites with a higher average individual power level. Most of its members are considered ‘Senior Members’ by the Demonic Hand’s rankings, many of whom are as powerful as the other Upper Division Executives.

Which brings us to their leader—Rosaline Keasatra.”

The hologram changed, projecting a 3D image of the woman Evan had spoken with the previous night.

She’s the last living member of the ‘Keasatra’ family by blood, which you all naturally don’t know was a family of beings on the level of the Demon King who rules the other world attempting to invade Aidos.”

Evan didn’t wait for them to digest that bombshell and continued speaking.

“I won’t go into all the details, but a war roughly 5000 years ago wiped out most of the family, leaving only a few survivors, the people who would eventually become Rosaline’s ancestors.”

Pointing at the hologram before them, Evan said, “Now, you might be inclined to think she’s a beastkin because of her appearance, but I assure you, she does not belong to any of the beastkin breeds.”

At this, Kolvar, who had been listening quietly from the start, spoke up. “Then what is she?”

The wolf ears on Rosaline’s head made everyone assume she was a wolf-beastkin, but Evan’s statement that she wasn’t of their race left them all puzzled.

“Rosaline is not a Wolf-Beastkin as you might assume from her appearance, but a ‘Werewolf’,” Evan explained, prompting faint surprise from Kolvar and Rizass.

“The same Werewolves said to have venomous bites, especially effective against Vampires?” Rizass asked, raising an eyebrow, and Evan nodded silently.

“And here I thought the Vampires had wiped them all out…” Kolvar muttered, explaining to those unaware of the reason why there were no Werewolves left on Aidos’s surface.

They had always been fewer in number than Vampires, and the Vampires had united centuries ago to eliminate them, as they posed the greatest threat to their race, long before almost anyone here had been born.

“Anyway, Rosaline is an Ancient-Breed Werewolf, an Irregular like myself, and quite literally a bundle of talent.”

Evan snapped his fingers after saying that, and two more holograms appeared, one showing a familiar dark-purple-haired woman with ‘X’ shaped pupils, and the other a small grey-furred wolf.

“She is contracted to, and has something like a mother-child relationship with two other existences you need to be wary of.

One is Vaeri Valren, the Peak-Rank Demon who appeared in Lacertilia two years ago. She’s not part of the Demonic Hand and has no obligation to obey the First Finger. She only sticks around because Rosaline herself is a member.

The second existence is one I can’t explain much about right now due to restrictions, but what I can say is that this wolf is one of the ‘Nature’s Delete Buttons.'”

“Delete button?” Lloris asked, his expression confused.

“Can you be any less cryptic?” Bianca added, narrowing her eyes.

“What? I’m not trying to be cryptic. I mean exactly what I said,” Evan replied, sighing as he continued, “Take a phone, for example. If you type something and then decide you don’t want it anymore, you press the delete button to remove it forever.

That wolf works the same way, but for nature itself. If nature doesn’t need something anymore, it sends beings like that wolf to erase it from existence.

Turned to dust. Removed from time itself.

A wolf with that kind of power answers to Rosaline because it imprinted on her, seeing her as its mother after waking from a near 5,000-year sleep and first laying eyes on the 10-year-old Rosaline.

Or at least, that’s what she said.”

Evan shrugged at the last part, and though others in the room had things to say, he raised a hand to stop questions and returned to his explanation.

“Now then, the truth is, Rosaline doesn’t care if Aidos burns to ashes. That might sound strange given that she’s the Demonic Hand’s strongest combatant, but it’s the truth. She just doesn’t exactly have a choice in the matter, you see.”

Evan leaned back in his seat, snapping his fingers as the holograms changed to front pages of newspapers from decades ago.

“Let’s turn the clock back a bit. About 40 years ago, there was a beautiful meteor shower, which I’m sure our Desert Emperor and his Empress here remember well, as your first child had been born that night, and everyone said the child had the blessing of the stars.”

The newspaper articles he projected all displayed images of the meteor shower taken by various people across the world, and after glancing at them once, Evan spoke bluntly.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but that was no blessing of the stars. What you saw as a meteor shower was actually the ruins of the Keasatra Family’s spaceship crashing back onto Aidos after being shot repeatedly by unknown assailants.”

A dead silence fell over the room after Evan revealed this, broken only when he continued.

“Rosaline’s parents had left this world shortly after the war a thousand years ago. They returned ahead of schedule for reasons I can’t know, though I suspect they were fleeing an altercation they were losing, and their ship was shot down by their opponent and crash-landed into the Dread Ocean.

The fragments of the crashing ship, burning up, appeared as a meteor shower to those below.

The Keasatras were dying, and the one who found them and saved them was the First Finger of the Demonic Hand.”

“It just had to be him…” Laurene muttered, clicking her tongue.

Evan smiled wryly at her reaction, though the smile didn’t last long as he quickly continued speaking.

“The First Finger is a survivor of the first Demon invasion a thousand years ago. He was born before the war, lived through it, and is still alive now because of his high Existence Level. He also knew the Keasatras back then, knew they were returning, and knew where they would be when they came back. How he knew this, well, I’ve said it many times; the First Finger has a Fate manipulation skill.”

“So you’re saying he saw their fates even though they weren’t in this world?”

To Kolvar’s question, Evan shook his head.

“Nah. It’s more accurate to say he saw that if he went to that location at a certain time, he could influence his own fate to go in a favourable direction. I’m just guessing, though.”

After answering Kolvar, Evan continued his narration.

“Anyway, the First Finger kept the dying Keasatras alive, for a price, of course. He wanted to use their power.”

Then, Evan suddenly smiled and clapped his hands, looking around as he spoke.

“Now then, can anyone tell me exactly who these Keasatras were and why the First Finger would covet their power?”

Right after he said that, he pointed at David, who was about to speak, and cut him off. “Heroes aren’t allowed to answer.”

He continued glancing around the room, his amused smile still on his face as he clapped lightly.

“Come on, guys, I’ve given you enough hints. No one? Bummer.”

Evan then turned to Eliza beside him and asked,

“Would you do the honours, my dear Liz?”

“Huh?”

Eliza blinked in shock, not expecting the question to come to her, but a few moments later her eyes widened as realisation dawned.

‘The First Finger knew them…? Then…!’

“Transcendents…from a thousand years ago?” she said, more asking than stating, and at this Evan’s smile brightened.

“Bingo!”

He turned to the others present and explained.

“Rosaline Keasatra’s parents were two of the Transcendents who fought against the demons a thousand years ago alongside big names like the ‘Barbarian King’ Morass and the former ‘Dragon Lord’ Gorm. That’s why they knew the First Finger. They had fought together in that war, after all.

But 40 years ago, as they were on the verge of death, the First Finger saved them, in return for them becoming his lapdogs.

He made them swear a blood oath, granting him a limited number of ‘Commands’ that he could use to order them to do things, orders they could not refuse.

He had them do his dirty work for quite a while, but alas, the Keasatras had suffered grievous soul wounds, so their power dwindled day by day, eventually leading to their deaths.”

Evan’s expression turned sombre at this point, and he sighed softly, shaking his head.

“But here’s the part the First Finger didn’t tell them. He never mentioned that if they died before the ‘Commands’ were exhausted, both husband and wife’s commands would merge and transfer to their daughter.

As a result, Rosaline is now bound by the Blood Oath, and the First Finger holds her leash in the form of those ‘Commands’.

However, as I said earlier, Rosaline doesn’t care about the fate of Aidos, which is why to make her act for the sake of the Demonic Hand, the First Finger has to use a Command, and those are far from unlimited.”

Evan then held up four fingers on his left hand and explained,

“As far as I know, he’s used four of them.

One to make her join the Demonic Hand, another to have her accept the position of ‘Second Finger’, a third to have her orchestrate one of their ‘Disasters’, and a fourth for an order I don’t know, since Rosaline didn’t say what it was.”

Due to the way Evan phrased his words and the context, it sounded like Rosaline had told him all of this during their chat last night, but the truth was that the ‘Rosaline’ who had said this was the Aidos Online game character.

“The limited number of Commands is why the First Finger can’t deploy her willy-nilly, because he has only a few chances to make her do his bidding and can’t afford to waste any.

He had planned to use one to have her kill Rizass, who’s here with us, but that failed, so he currently has one more Command than he normally would’ve had.”

Right after Evan said this, Rizass cast him a side glance and asked,

“How many Commands are there in total?”

Evan shook his head at this. “I don’t know. Rosaline wore gloves last night, so I couldn’t see the Command Marks on her hand to count how many were left.”

“Wait, they’re on her hand?” Laurene asked, just as surprised as everyone else, and Evan nodded.

“Yeah. I researched the Blood Oath and confirmed there should be a Blood Mark on the back of her palm.”

After answering Laurene, Evan clapped his hands and concluded,

“And that brings us to the end of our Crash Course on Rosaline Keasatra, the strongest combatant of the organisation trying to burn the world, who personally doesn’t give a fuck whether the world burns or not.

I’ll take your questions now.”