Chapter 223: A Name Worth Keeping

Ravian left the cave to wash in the river above the waterfall, just as he had done before. By the time he reached it, he was a considerable distance from the cave and farther still from the camp, which had stood deeper in the forest than either the cave or the waterfall.

Apparently, Void Traverse could cause problems if he recalled scattered images of a place instead of concentrating on a single point and directing the ability there. That might explain why Ravian had materialized in the middle of an orc camp.

Well, perhaps he would have ended up there anyway, considering how close it had been to the cave, the place he remembered most clearly in this forest.

That hardly made the experience any less annoying.

Next time, he would at least choose somewhere he could picture without a cooking pot in front of his face. He had no desire to discover how many more camps had appeared while he was away.

After washing in the river that plunged over the falls farther downstream, Ravian studied his reflection. His features were noticeably sharper than before, and his body had become more muscular without growing disproportionately bulky, though a glance was enough to suggest the strength concealed within it. He had also gained another two centimeters in height.

The original Ravian’s features had vanished completely. Barely anything had remained of them since the soul explosion, but now not a trace was left.

The System had explained this before: nothing of the former Ravian remained except his name. Once, Ryan’s soul had inhabited Ravian’s original body, but now this was a body Sovereign Pride had created from nothing, inhabited by Ryan’s soul from Earth, under the name Ravian.

’I’d rather go back to being Ryan, but there’s no telling what that damned Taboo of Fate might do to me if my spiritual Records somehow change when I acknowledge Ryan as my true name.’

A mere secondary fragment of the curse originally intended for him had nearly cost him his life several times. Ravian had no wish to imagine what would happen if it struck him directly.

He watched the water distort his reflection, then waited for it to settle again.

A name was not worth testing that possibility over. He could dislike the situation as much as he wanted, but he had already spent enough time dealing with things that wanted him dead, and he had no intention of inviting another one simply because he preferred how Ryan sounded.

Ravian finished studying his reflection and put on the clothes he had stored in his void space. It now contained only the belongings he had brought from House Viola and the female orc’s longsword, which he had kept in case he encountered trouble on his way back to camp. He had already discarded his two black daggers; the last usable one had been all but ruined in his fights with the Ninth-Rank orcs.

He was about to set off, but there was one last thing he needed to do before returning.

Ravian prepared to use Exalted Identity to restore the appearance he had gained after his first transformation in the forest cave. It was considerably different from how he had looked in camp a few weeks earlier, yet also far removed from his current appearance and even the one he had worn before this latest transformation.

It was the form his Basic-Grade Sovereign Pride Physique had taken when it reached fifty percent progress after absorbing the Ninth-Rank orc.

First, Ravian did not want to return looking utterly weak, which would interfere with several of his future plans. Second, he did not want to appear too strong, either, as that would only deepen the suspicions surrounding him, already sky-high because his disappearance had coincided with an intruder entering the camp.

And before all that, there had been the incident in the central building, in front of every platoon commander, when Ravian first heard about the Fourteen Taboos.

As far as Ravian was concerned, each of those was more than enough reason for Karius to kill him the moment he saw him again.

In truth, Ravian did not particularly want to return.

But he had already reached an agreement with Lysandra, and he needed someone experienced to teach him about aura and magic in depth and train him.

The border also offered a chance to grow without drawing attention every time he killed someone. Put simply, it was the most suitable environment for his development.

His new body did not change that. He could shatter stone by pressing too hard and still fail to understand what an experienced fighter was about to do with a sword. The orc commander had made that distinction painfully clear, and Ravian would have preferred to learn the rest without having his arms broken again.

He also kept his final escape in mind: even if things deteriorated beyond repair, he could regress and try another approach.

Despite all that, Ravian hoped, just hoped, that Karius would defy his expectations and accept him again.

"..."

’Tsk, what’s wrong with you, Ravian? Since when have you cared about anyone in this world besides yourself?’

He reminded himself who he was and what he wanted, but another memory soon surfaced, from a time that was not so distant, even if it felt that way to him.

’You’re just like my brother. Perhaps that’s why my father is so drawn to you.’

Those were Isabelle’s words, spoken when she mentioned Ariel, Karius’s deceased son. Of course, she had not meant that they looked alike; Ravian had been downright ugly at the time, whereas she had described Ariel as handsome. She had meant that their personalities bore some resemblance.

But did Ravian really resemble him?

No one in the human camp knew Ravian’s true character except Ravian himself.

They had seen whatever he had allowed them to see, along with a few things he would rather they had missed. That was hardly enough to decide he resembled someone’s dead son, though he had not forgotten Isabelle’s words as easily as he would have liked.

’Extremely proud, arrogant, impulsive, absurdly intelligent, devastatingly handsome—’

’Ahem. All right, that was a bit much, man.’

Sometimes, even Ravian felt embarrassed by how shameless his own thoughts could be.

[I agree with the Host completely.]

’Huh? With which of those two parts?’ Ravian asked.

[...]

He waited several seconds for an answer, but none came.

’This son of a bi—’

Ravian was about to unleash a truly foul string of curses when his appearance began to change as he activated Exalted Identity.