Chapter 86: The Three Questions

The room had become quiet.

Reinhard sat alone in his chair, his half-finished smoothie resting on the table as he stared at the three questions displayed before him. There were plenty of things he wanted to know.

The strange world he had been thrown into, the Akasha Investment System itself, Eclipse, the Black Moon, and the changes surrounding Emily’s Gnosis were all mysteries worth asking about.

Yet one question had always remained somewhere in the back of his mind.

Why had he reincarnated?

Reinhard looked at the first question.

"I’ll start with something simple."

The blue interface remained motionless as he took a slow breath.

"Why did I reincarnate?"

For several seconds, nothing happened before the System responded.

[Question One Accepted.]

[Why did you reincarnate?]

Reinhard watched the words appear before another notification followed.

[Do you recall your previous life?]

He raised an eyebrow and leaned farther into his chair. "Of course. I used to be... I think a model?"

The answer came with surprising uncertainty.

He remembered cameras, contracts, long days, flashes of light, and people constantly watching him. He remembered being admired, smiling for crowds, and enjoying parts of that life, but those memories felt strangely distant now.

"At least, that’s what I remember."

The blue screen remained in front of him.

[Yes and no.]

Reinhard frowned.

"That sounds reassuring."

[The memories you recall are incomplete.]

[They are not the entirety of your previous existence.]

His expression slowly changed. "What are you talking about?" He sat upright. "Didn’t I die from getting shot?"

[Yes.]

[You died from a gunshot.]

Reinhard stared at the screen before another line appeared.

[However, that life was not your first incarnation.]

His expression froze.

[This is your third life.]

For several seconds, Reinhard didn’t move. His fingers slowly tightened around the armrest as he tried to process the answer.

"Third?"

There should have been another life between the one he remembered and this one. Another existence, another family, another place, and another version of himself.

Yet there was nothing.

Not even a dream or a vague sense that something had been forgotten.

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed. "Then why don’t I remember it?"

The System responded immediately. [Insufficient Authority.]

Reinhard’s expression became serious.

"Insufficient authority? You mean that Authority going up to level 2 thing?"

[Yes. Your low level authority means you cannot access this information.]

He furrowed his brows and asked. "If these don’t count as an additional question, then how many levels are there and what authority will I need for my answer?"

[The first one doesn’t but the second one does.]

"Fine, then just tell me how many levels there are?"

[Twelve.]

"Twelve... And it gets upgraded every time I fulfill the main mission for Emily, like fixing her Gnosis..." Reinhard muttered while Akasha remained silent.

"Why did you pick me as the host? Is it because of my multiple life?"

The blue interface remained silent for several seconds before a single sentence appeared. [I was drawn to you.]

"Why?"

[Across your previous lives, you have spent much of your existence searching for something.]

Reinhard’s eyebrows rose. "What?"

[You were searching for a place where you belonged.]

His smile slowly disappeared. "A place where I belonged?"

[Yes.]

Reinhard leaned back, unable to immediately find a response.

His thoughts drifted downstairs toward Emily, Maki, Yuna, and Lily. He thought about the Ashcroft home, the noisy mornings, Lily throwing slippers, Maki pretending not to be amused, Yuna analyzing everything, and Emily sitting beside him.

His wife.

His family.

The people who had somehow become important to him in such a short time.

Reinhard lowered his gaze. "That’s why you chose me?"

[For your current authority, yes. Your will was so strong that it commanded even me to fuse with you.]

He remained silent, feeling strangely uncomfortable with the answer. He had always thought he wanted power, money, freedom, and a better life, but perhaps those things had never been the real goal.

Maybe he had simply wanted somewhere he could stop looking.

Somewhere he could belong.

Reinhard smiled faintly. "That’s a little unfair."

[Explain.]

"You give me a question about myself and then make me think about my family."

The blue screen remained silent.

Reinhard chuckled. "Fine."

He looked at the final question. There was one thing he couldn’t stop thinking about. If he had lived three lives, then who had he been in the forgotten one?

Reinhard took a breath. "Who was I in my last life?"

The System went completely still.

The blue interface remained in front of him for several seconds before finally changing.

[Question Three Accepted.]

[Processing...]

The word remained there before another notification appeared.

[Question exceeds permitted knowledge. Need a higher Authority]

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed. "Of course, so then do I ask a different question—"

He was interrupted by the interface flickering, and for the briefest moment, the room disappeared. Reinhard found himself standing somewhere he couldn’t understand. There was no sky, ground, or horizon, only endless darkness filled with faint points of light.

A woman stood within that darkness.

Reinhard couldn’t see her face clearly, yet the moment he looked at her, his entire body became still.

She was surrounded by an indescribable presence that wasn’t simply powerful. It was something far beyond what Reinhard understood as power, and the space around her seemed to bend beneath her existence as the darkness itself appeared to retreat.

Countless fragments of light surrounded her like stars orbiting something that did not belong among them.

She stood silently, and Reinhard felt as though he were looking at an existence that had already stepped beyond the limits of the world, beyond Rank, Mana, and the laws that governed ordinary life.

For some reason, his heart tightened.

A strange feeling spread through him.

It wasn’t fear or awe.

It was nostalgia.

Reinhard’s eyes widened. Why?

He didn’t know her, he was certain of that. Yet looking at her created the sensation of seeing something he had once known and lost. His chest tightened as the woman slowly raised her eyes. For a single moment, Reinhard felt as though she were looking directly at him.

Then the image disappeared.

The room returned, leaving Reinhard frozen in his chair with slightly heavier breathing. He stared at the empty space where the woman had been.

"Who was she?"

There was no answer. And the interface simply vanished, leaving him by himself.

Reinhard didn’t move for several seconds as he tried to make sense of what he had seen. The Akasha had just told him that across his previous lives, he had spent much of his existence searching for somewhere to belong, yet seeing that woman had felt strangely familiar.

He rubbed his forehead.

I don’t even know her.

He had seen countless powerful people since arriving in this world, from B-Ranks and Awakeners to relic wielders and beings connected to mysteries far beyond ordinary humans.

None of them had made him feel anything like this.

That woman had.

And he didn’t know why.

Reinhard leaned back in his chair. "Great. Now I have even more questions."

A small notification appeared in front of him.

[Three Questions: Completed.]

Another notification followed.

[Investment Progress Updated.]

Reinhard’s eyes moved toward it.

[Target: Emily Ashcroft.]

[Current Rank: D-Rank.]

[Current Target Value: E.]

[Objective:]

[Difficulty Grade:]

[Success Probability:]

Reinhard blinked. "Rank?"

That was new.

The old investment panel had never shown Emily’s Awakener Rank. He studied the notification for a few seconds before the answer slowly clicked.

"Because her rank can change now."

Before, Emily’s condition had been simple. Her Gnosis was shattered, her legs were crippled, and her career was over. The first investment had been about one thing: recovery.

Reinhard had invested in Emily when there was almost nothing left to invest in, and somehow, that investment had brought her all the way back. Her Gnosis had been restored, her legs had been healed, her mana had returned, and she could fight again.

She was an Awakener again.

But that wasn’t the end.

Another notification appeared.

[Help Emily regain her fame back. Her previous fame was one million people could recognize her from a glance and knew about her. Now her current fame is—]

[3,423 /1,000,000]

"That low? So many people forgot about her and moved on?" He muttered but then when he thought about it.

It has been over two years. Expecting most people to remember a person who had lost everything was absurd. It didn’t help Emily stayed away from the world and kept to herself.

Reinhard’s eyes returned to the panel, and his smile widened. "Alright, the next mission is fame? No problem, we will get it all back then."

He can deal with that later though, there were far more important things waiting for him downstairs.

His family.

His wife.

The people who had somehow become closer to him in less than a year than most people had across his previous lives.

Maybe Akasha wasn’t wrong. Reinhard smiled. Maybe I already found the place I was looking for.

He picked up his smoothie and took the final sip before walking toward the door. Then he paused and looked at the empty cup. "...I need another one."

With that, Reinhard walked downstairs.

By the time he reached the living room, the atmosphere had become even livelier. Emily was standing in the middle of the room while Lily circled around her, repeatedly asking her to demonstrate another ability.

Maki was trying to stop Lily from turning the celebration into another research experiment, while Yuna calmly explained why Lily’s requests were actually reasonable from an observational standpoint.

Reinhard walked into the room, and Emily immediately noticed him.

"There you are."

"I told you I’d come back."

"You were gone for a while."

Reinhard smiled. "I was making sure I had enough energy to survive this celebration."

Emily narrowed her eyes. "You went upstairs to finish your smoothie."

"Exactly."

She shook her head, but the smile on her face remained.

Reinhard stepped beside her and simply looked at his wife for a moment. She was standing, smiling, surrounded by her family, and alive in a way that she hadn’t been for years.

The strange image from earlier briefly returned to his mind.

That woman.

That inexplicable feeling of nostalgia.

Reinhard pushed the thought aside. Whatever connection existed between that woman and his forgotten life could wait. Right now, he was exactly where he wanted to be.

Emily glanced at him. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Reinhard smiled. "Nothing."

"You’re definitely thinking about something."

"Maybe."

Emily narrowed her eyes. "Is it something bad?"

"No."

He slipped an arm around her waist. "I’m just happy."

Emily’s expression softened. "About what?"

Reinhard looked around the room at Maki, Yuna, Lily, and Lucien before looking back at Emily. "About being here."

Emily stared at him for a moment before leaning slightly against him. "Me too."

Lily suddenly turned toward them. "Are you two going to start being romantic again?"

Reinhard looked at her. "Of course."

Lily groaned while Maki laughed, and Yuna calmly nodded. "Statistically, this was inevitable."

Reinhard smiled. "See? Even Yuna understands."

"I didn’t say I approved."

"Close enough."

Emily laughed, and the room filled with the sound. For the first time since learning that he had lived three lives, the mystery didn’t bother Reinhard as much.

He still wanted answers. He wanted to know who that woman was, what had happened during his forgotten life, and why the Akasha had chosen him.

But those questions could wait.

He had something now that he had apparently spent multiple lives searching for.

A place to belong.