Reincarnated Hero System

“…I really thought you were gone for good when Arlan Maddox’s soul tried to take over your body.”

“Wait, WHAT?!”

Evansen couldn’t help but exclaim in shock at the words he had just heard, nearly dropping his handheld console.

Seeing his surprise, Evankhell picked up another of his fries and explained.

“Ah, right. You didn’t know, but the reason your soul got kicked out of your own body in the first place was that the previous Second of the Seven Heroes tried to take over, and goddess Artemisia put me in it before he could enter himself, so now I’m the one with the Hero title. Per the reincarnation spell Arlan used, you should have died alongside him, but for reasons I don’t know, you survived.”

Just as Evankhell finished speaking, Vincent added,

“It was EOTD.”

“Oh? I suppose that makes sense,” Evankhell said with a nod, accepting the simple explanation, while Evansen was still trying to understand why Arlan Maddox had attempted to take over his body in the first place.

“It’s because you were his successor,” Evankhell added, answering the unspoken question.

“…”

Evansen stayed silent, placing his handheld on the table as he processed the information he had just received.

“…this is…a lot to take in.”

“I would like to tell you I have all day and you should take your time, but unfortunately, I don’t,” Evankhell replied, then turned to Vincent and pointed at him with a fry.

“And you, foolish father of mine in this life, you knew full well I was trying to avoid you that day on Gozon, so why were you being so persistent?”

“What? I was curious. How do you think I felt seeing my son from 10,000 years in the future? If you hadn’t gone into a restricted area, I would have gone after you.”

Vincent’s words had Evankhell ready to explode, but just before he could, Gabrielle, who had at some point moved her chair right beside him and was holding his left arm firmly, spoke up.

“You went back in time?”

Evankhell swallowed the curses toward Vincent that were about to leave his mouth and nodded.

“Yes. A little mishap occurred, and goddess yeeted me through time and space, where I encountered this idiot of a father who was chasing me like a stalker.”

“Excuse me!? How dare you liken me to a stalker?” Vincent protested.

“Because you were acting like one,” Evankhell instantly shot back.

He then activated Blink, teleporting himself along with Gabrielle to her side of the table, before immediately teleporting only himself back to his own side.

Gabrielle silently narrowed her eyes at his actions, but before she could speak, a waiter arrived with Evankhell’s order, which she quickly realised was meant for two separate people, given that there were two of nearly everything.

Vincent noticed as well, raising an eyebrow as he asked, “Someone else coming over?”

“Yeah. Your future in-law.”

“”…eh?””

Both Vincent and Gabrielle let out sounds of shock, but Evankhell ignored their demands for an explanation and looked toward the door behind Gabrielle, waving.

“Over here, Liz.”

“I know,” came Eliza’s response as the sliding doors closed behind her and she removed her winter jacket, placing it on the coat hanger beside the door.

“I could see you all from outside.”

With those words, she walked toward their table but paused, blinking in surprise when she saw Evansen seated to Evankhell’s right.

“Oh, wow. The similarities are even more obvious up close,” she said, shifting her gaze to Evankhell before continuing, “but the demeanours are far too different to mistake them.”

She then moved around the table behind Vincent and Evansen, seating herself comfortably beside Evankhell.

“Here, I ordered for you,” Evankhell said as she sat down, gesturing to the food on the table.

Seeing it, her hand immediately reached for the milkshake, and after taking a sip, she nodded in satisfaction and remarked, “This one’s better than the last place.”

Evankhell just smiled wryly, while Eliza finally turned her gaze to the others at the table, beginning with Evansen.

“Hello, Evan Eris—Do you still go by that name here as well?”

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s Bennett now,” Evansen replied, still a little surprised by her presence, and Eliza nodded silently before extending her hand.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Eliza Laneford.”

“Nice to meet you too…and Laneford? You’re from Aidos?”

It was only natural that Evansen recognised the name, and Eliza nodded once to confirm his question, then shifted her gaze to Vincent and said,

“Nice to meet you too, Mr Vincent. Evan has spoken at length about you.”

“I have a feeling he didn’t say anything good,” Vincent commented with a sigh.

“Not a single word,” Eliza confirmed, prompting Vincent to glance at Evankhell, who ignored it in favour of his fries.

Shaking his head, Vincent reached out to accept Eliza’s handshake.

“Nice to meet you, too, young lady.”

Eliza offered a polite smile, but it vanished the instant her eyes met Gabrielle’s silent glare.

The moment the two women locked gazes, it felt as though the already cold winter temperature dropped even lower, and some nearby patrons began asking the waiters if the heaters were broken.

As the two women glared at each other in silence, invisible sparks seeming to pass between them, Evankhell turned his attention to one of the waiters who looked completely bewildered by the sudden chill in the air and asked casually,

“Hey, do you guys have any popcorn?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Eliza flicked his forehead, her expression deadpan as she said, “Evan, really?”

“Obviously, I was just kidding,” Evankhell replied, chuckling lightly. “I don’t actually want you guys to fight. Honestly, I would have preferred it if the two of you had never met at all.”

He paused briefly before continuing, his tone becoming more serious.

“Unfortunately, time is a very serious constraint for me right now. I have to be on another planet this evening and back on Aidos by midnight, and since I have no idea when this idiot father of mine and Evansen over here would next be in the same place at the same time, I decided to show up now.”

After saying that, he turned toward Vincent, gesturing toward Eliza as he added, “As I said earlier, she is your future daughter-in-law.”

He reached out and grabbed Eliza’s right hand, lifting it slightly to display the ring on her finger as he added, “My fiancée.”

Immediately afterwards, he shot a side glance at Gabrielle, who was shocked, to say the least, before continuing, “Seven years is a long time.”

He didn’t say anything further on that topic, returning his gaze to Vincent as he asked, “Where’s mum? I want to introduce Liz to her later.”

“She’s at work. They had a bit of an emergency, but she said she’ll get off in an hour.”

At Vincent’s reply, Evankhell nodded.

“Seems like we have an hour then. Very well. Let’s get as much done within that hour as possible.”

Just as Vincent was about to ask exactly what he meant, Evankhell turned toward Evansen and asked,

“Dude, are you okay? Like, do you feel off or anything? You don’t feel any weird sense of existential dread, right?”

The question left Evansen visibly confused.

“Existential dread? That’s a very specific kind of question to ask. No, I don’t feel any weird sense of existential dread. I feel completely fine.

Why are you asking this? Or rather, I should be asking if you’re fine.”

He glanced toward Gabrielle, then Vincent, before looking back at Evankhell as he continued,

“It’s been like two years, but you did have demons and gods after you. Did they attack you on Aidos or something?”

“Huh? Demons and gods? The heck?”

Evankhell blinked in confusion and looked toward Vincent for an explanation, and with a soft sigh, Vincent began to explain the attack that he, Gabrielle, and Evansen had faced shortly after stepping out of this same restaurant almost two years ago.

When he finished his explanation, Evankhell burst into laughter, shaking his head as he said,

“That’s such a horrible plan that would have ended catastrophically.”

He sounded completely confident as he said this, and hearing him, Vincent shrugged.

“I know, right? That’s part of the reason why I told Gabrielle, who was so worried about you, that you were going to be fine. Besides that, I knew that you would eventually show up in the past after that attack had happened, which means that you were going to be fine, but yeah.”

Evankhell chuckled again after Vincent’s words before saying,

“Beatrix clearly didn’t get the memo, huh?”

“Well, if she had seen Evansen herself, she may have understood, but she likely hasn’t seen Evansen herself,” Vincent responded.

Hearing this, Evansen narrowed his eyes and looked between Evankhell and Vincent before asking,

“Um, is there something about me that I’m not privy to? I would like to be informed of this thing that I’m clearly out of the loop on.”

After he asked that, Eliza chimed in.

“Yes, why are both of you so confident that their plan to force Evan out of Evansen’s body would have failed? I mean, it sounds like a clearly plausible plan that should have worked.”

Evankhell nodded after she spoke, picking up his milkshake as he replied,

“Yeah, it’s actually a good plan, considering the circumstances. If it were anybody else besides Evansen and me, it would have definitely worked, and, well, they would have been screwed.”

He took a sip of his drink before continuing.

“Unfortunately, if Beatrix had tried sending Evansen’s soul back in time so he could force my soul out of what was once his body, what would have happened wouldn’t have been my soul getting forced out.

What would have happened is my soul completely consuming Evansen’s.”