I reincarnated as the Duke from the North.

Zhi’s store

The Duke.

It fucking hurt. Two flipping days. Lying down in pain, with these damn needles stuck in every goddamn pore. I puffed in and out after Kuwei wrecked my meridians and stretched my hands to Charles for help

“Come, man… Give me the pain relief!” I begged my butler.

Charles shook his head, grinding the ingredients for Zhenxing. “Can’t have that mix of potions. Could end very badly for you.”

“Better that than enduring this torture any longer.” Two days of constant pain and healing is enough to make anyone go crazy. But the pain was more than worth it. The little glimpses of power I felt in my healing process healed my broken body as if I had not gone to war two days prior. Qi is more than mana; it is life itself. The body welcomes it gladly, giving an adept practitioner of Qixing vitality beyond a person's imagination. Zhi, a woman resembling a healthy fifty-year-old, celebrated her hundred and two year birthday last winter.

With such power and knowledge at their disposal, you would wonder why Friedland was not under Liu rule. That came from the simple fact that using the Lower Dantian required talent—a talent I luckily have. Unlocking the lower Dantian is a rare aptitude sought after by the rich with medicine such as Zhenxing but only one out of a thousand will be gifted enough to use their Dantain. It's even rarer to be proficient at it and a master is as unique as a wyvern sighting. Less common than a circle user, Qi users make up for their lack of numbers with their absurd strength, which has allowed the Liu states to be unconquerable for generations.

Until the Cult struck.

As I learned more about Qi, Zhi would sprinkle stories heard from refugees about how the Cult started its assault on the farmland of north Liu. Bringing every town to the ground in a blaze of fire. leaving nothing unscathed. The Cult recruited and killed as they advanced down to where there is currently a standstill between the cult and government forces near the city of rivers, the Liu state’s capital. This chaotic world is so similar to my own. Where war ends, another begins. To think this could have been happening beyond the pages of a romance manhwa.

“Please??” I begged again. Charles ground away, only giving me a simple nod.

“Pansy.” The doctor arrived to sit beside me with her weathered hand holding a hot cup of brew. “You will be glad to know that you healed enough to start with the process of Lower Dantian activation.”

Is it finally time to get back what I lost?

Zhi’s left hand hovered over me and her right hand below my bell button, her Qi glowed like a white lantern in a dense fog. Watching her Qi slowly twitch the needles calmed me as her energy matched mine. “I will direct your ‘mana’ down to lower Dantian.” Zhi gave me a kind smile that didn't suit the rude doctor.

“We are almost there, thanks to your hard work.”

“I was getting used to the bad bedside manner. Your smile makes me miss the scowl..”

Zhi flicked a needle with Qi

“Hey!”

“Do not insult the doctor saving your life, boy-You Grace..”

“Doctor? Where is she? All I see is a torturer.”

The doctor shut her eyes and concentrated, her qi glowed with a small smile.

Two days had softened the old woman’s attitude towards me. Maybe it was bringing her a new student or perhaps helping her favourite customer. It sure wasn't the coin because, since her introduction, she hadn't mentioned a price even once.

“Still. Well done. Not many people would survive to this point.”

I reposition my head on my pillow. “All I did was lie down and suffer.”

A short chuckle from the doctor and she went to bring my head up by habit, although I have healed enough to do it myself. Cup to mouth, I drink the mint-tasting brew. A chill washed over my body.

“Now.”

Qi pushed from the palm of her right hand and rippled my flesh. My veins were on fire with potent energy. I felt the energy reach my stomach.

“Do you feel it? The vast reservoir. The untapped potential. Well… Wow…I thought Charles Dantain was large. This…”

“What-AAHRGH!”

My gut burned. I felt my Dantian bubble; its lining was inflamed and swollen.

“There you go, Your Grace! The Lower Dantian is yours to control. To grow. To cultivate. Now, control it as I do!” The doctor helped me divert the Qi to my organs. The ache gone, I eased the cleansing energy into every part of my body. My mana heart healed with this new power and beat proudly. Energy flowed in clean and mended Meridians without the pain I was so used to.

I smiled to myself, absorbing myself in Qi.

I tried something rash.

Pushing my Qi further into my middle Dantian, my heart beat with joy. In my mind's eye, I floated in the void. Finding a cloud of foamless Qi, I forged with all my might.

“Hey, hey HEY! What are you doing?!”

Pulling and pushing, I mould the cloud and hammer it into shape.

My body exploded brightly, with mana essence shimmering.

A ring of mana shone around the core of my Middle Dantian. My mana heart pulsed.

“That was… easy.”

This was how it was supposed to be. Memories floated in my mind of my father, meditating with me as I forged my first circle. He leaned over to ruffle my unruly hair with pride in his loving gaze.

I laughed aloud in disbelief and a tear fell.

Plonk

I had not ever been this glad to see a notification since my Justeats order came twenty minutes earlier than usual.

“Haha, let's try again!”

“Hold your horses, boy!”

I ignored Zhi's worrying, closed my teary eyes and I was rash again.

Needles were pulled off me with Zhi’s Qi as I forged a second circle smoother than polished steel. An eye in the storm, wind blew paper and pots to the ground around me. My heart pulsed twice.

“Umm…Making a circle is more violent than I thought.”

Charles put his bowl down. His tawny hair waved in the wind. “It's only the case for him.”

A door slammed against the wood wall and I recognised the smooth gait of Beatrice.

“Problem, Your Grace!“

Already at golden grade, I concentrated more as I forged a third circle. “Speak.”

“SOS.”

My eyes snapped open. I pushed off the mat in a rush with a single hand and stood.

I will forge on the way there.

“Where?”

The Duchess.

 

George's arm dangled from the door.

“Why? How?!” I asked.

Kurt inhaled. “It's you, back in Mouve... Why couldn’t I remember?”

“Just take my hand!”

“Peasant. Move out of the fucking way.” Joshua spat out and George moved from the door.

“Hey! Don't talk to him the waaaaaaaa-” Joshua swept me under my feet and carried me up with a giant leap through the door. Landing by the turned-over carriage, Joshua put my scared self down. My annoyance quickly turned to horror as the exploding bit of body smeared the road. Holes in the stone glowed hot red with spray marks that could have been a person. I kneeled closer to a piece of the attacker's clothing that was blown off. Animal hide, similar to what the bandits used in the blizzard.

A twip of an arrow and ting of Joshua's blade brought me back out of my thoughts. Quicker than my eyes could track, Joshua's rapier cut several arrows that were aiming straight at me. Blue lit his sword and my brother-in-law thrust to shoot mana at our attacker. Someone dropped down behind me, and all the training with my husband possessed me as it struck. I felt bound for a split moment before I saw my friend's face and I was free again.

“Wow… No hesitation. At least that bastard of a husband taught you some things.” I had never seen him this angry or this tense. His travels have changed this once affable boy.

“I told you the man’s no use and look where he is. Letting you out with only two weak men to guard you!?”

Let?

“The lack of guards was my preference.” I angrily defended my husband. “Which I now regret.” I looked down at Geoge’s hand and saw no sword. His stupid cap shimmered and I thought I could see a bit of his silver hair. “I will follow my Husband's advice next time, dear friend.” I turn away from the bastard and search for my friend.

Kurt held Jen’s hand as she trembled like a lost lamb. His sword glowed, shining on a face that had been waiting for this day for a long time.

“This way.” The captain pointed to the left at the alley with his sabre. “We can lose them in the maze of buildings.”

A smell more rotten than cat litter flowed in the breeze. Seven men trudged towards us from all sides. Black mist swirled around them and their swords.

George sighed. His hand, cold to the touch, stroked my face and I felt a tingle and my body cringed.

“What are you doing!?” I slapped his hand away.

“Vanessa. Find your dense husband.”

Before I could say anything back, he clicked his finger.

All four of us found ourselves enclosed by terraced houses on every side. Children stared as if they had seen ghosts in the grassy area in the middle. I looked around frantically, trying to find... who?

“How did we… Where is the carriage?”

“Sorry about this, ladies, but we must move fast.” The guards swept us off our feet again and carried me and Jen like sacks.

A bandit appeared from a corner. A sword from Joshua's left cut at him and his rapier diverted it down. The skinny sword jabbed into the tendon connecting the bicep and forearm and between the shoulder and collar bone. The lord deftly stepped back from a frantic horizontal slash and riposted at the bandit's head before the swing could be completed. Joshua charged his blade and the head exploded.

The Greystone stared at his blade with pride. “Uh.”

“First kill?” Kurt decapitated a crawling bandit with no legs. “Deal with it quickly, we have more to kill.” And he rushed off with Jen bopping on his shoulder.

“Not my first kill. The curse was. Just an interest feeling…” Joshua whipped his rapier to clean his blade and with a deep step, he ran again with a grin like his brothers. I watched the windows whizz by on Joshua's shoulder. An arrow was shot from a crossbow from behind Joshua and flew to his head. My spinning circle gave energy to my senses. My knife bounced the arrow away. Its force rattled my bone as I blocked against two more.

Joshua looked back. “Ha! You saved-”

“KEEP RUNNING.” I hit away an arrow coming for his back.

“Yes, your grace!” Joshua ran up a brick wall to evade a group of old peasants. “Kurt, how many do you figure.” Joshua jumped over a washing line.

“Hundreds.They surround us.” Kurt skipped through the alleys like a gazelle, scanning the environment with his eyes and ears. “I don't hear the mist.”

“Then we might survive.” Joshua cut the air and Mana sliced a first circle in front.

“We will see.” Kurt found a corner in the maze of buildings. “I think we have run far enough.” Sabre alighted with blue, Kurt fired mana in the sky three times, then thrice again.

“What the hell are you doing, you simpleton!?” Joshua screamed at Kurt. “They will be alerted to our exact location!”

“Exactly.”Kurt placed Jen down by the corner gently, his care for her obvious in his every movement and every touch.

Joshua's eyebrows pinched as he looked around and lifted with sudden awareness. “Ah, we are near Liutown. I took a date out here once. Nice Liuen food in these parts. Gorgeous date too but talk too much for my tastes.” Adrenaline sped his words out of his grinning mouth but his eyes narrowed with worry. “Hope the Ravens come soon. I would like to eat here again.”

Kurt studied the attackers, annoyance showing on his lips and his free hand to his back as he squared low in his fencing stance.

Liu Town? How did we get her from Desaw?

“To the corner, Your Grace, Jen...“ Kurt shot off more mana thrusts into the sky.

A crowd of footsteps headed for us. Bandits arrived with madness in their bloodshot eyes. My irritated brother-in-law threw me off his shoulder like a useless load and I ran to Jen.

“Are you alright?!” shaking in my embrace, she looked at me and calmed.

“Yes. Just shocked having gone through this twice…”

“The last stand, huh?” Rolling his shoulders, Joshua’s sword pointed to the roaring horde coming for them. “Whoever kills the most has to obey the other for the day.”

“Milord. Please just kill them.” Kurt responded coldly.

The horde, with their snarling, approached the brave warriors. With Jen in my arms, I wished more than anything to be able to fight among them. To feel less useless.

The 2nd Son of Greystone.

I wanted to bolt. Run with my tail tucked behind my legs. But three pairs of judging eyes watched me. What if they told my brother? I shook my head like a rabid dog. I watched in front and picked a man to kill. A second, scraggly beard, I could smell him here. A foot moved back.

“Officer. What is your duty?” I heard my fellow guard say on the right of me.

I kneeled. Sworn my name, honour, my sword. I couldn't let those words be lies.

“Protect Her Grace!”

I parried an axe coming from my left, a swipe to the right cut through a neck; and the smelly man died by my feet. I struck first at the head of a third circle who tried to dodge the faint and I moved my blade to the right to slash down at an attacker's shoulder. Circles spun. My mana blade grew and I cut down to the ground. A third circle struck with a sword from my three o’clock. My sword clashed, I tried to bring it up but the golden grade outpowered me and my rapier. The wild man attacked again from my eight and I leaned away. The attacker finished his swing and I saw an opportunity. I bobbed back in with speed and I extended my reach to thrust.

A shield bashed into me from my left. Bone on my arm crack and I nearly stumble to the floor. A sword burned blue it fell on me. My rapier ground on the weapon, my strength can barely keep the blade from grazing my cheek.

“Lands above! Take a bloody bath before you ambush us!”

I covered my left fist in mana. Mana imbued my muscles, quickly giving me the strength to push the enemy's blade back. Solar plexus open, my fist caved it in. Blood from the peasant's lungs spit into my face and I stabbed his neck for revenge. I felt warm blood on my back. I turned and an exhausted Kurt sliced into an attacker's bowels as an arm whirled in the air.

“Don't let a single man through!!” Kurt shouted while he ran back into the chaos.

My charges stood by the corner, huddled together with a body by them. Her Grace’s dagger dripped red.

Failure.

Coward.

Disappointment

Circles spun out of control. My chest hot with power, I pounced into the crowd. An arm, shoulder, and head were pierced, and a man flopped back with a bleeding hole in his forehead. I slashed two times and a cross of mana crashed into a second circle. I intercepted the sword of a skilled man. Our swords pushed and pulled as they scraped and sparked along each other. I flicked my wrist to the right. The attacker's sword bounced off as I went to lunge deep into the man’s right shoulder. I pulled up to cut through meat and slashed to my four o'clock at his head. The fourth circle guarded his neck with a shield of blue. He stepped in and I fled with only a cut to my chest. His brutal assault persisted and I put my sword up to receive his heavy strikes. An attack on my leading leg was a faint to my arm and another swift cut me again on my ribs.

I huffed, stepping back. My tired arms gripped harder on my rapier. Full of arrogance, the fourth smiled.

“Bastard!” I thrust mana and the fourth circle leaned away and blitzed at me in a moment. A guard with my rapier proved useless as I fell to the ground

Run away.

The peasant stood above, his sword colliding into mine. His attacks passed through my guard, cutting me bit by bit.

The ambusher hit my blade from my fingers. My mana formed a shield in my hand saving me from death.

“First you die, then the saintess too.” The ambusher pressed his sword deeper. His mana was a furnace on my skin as it seared my collarbone. A kick snapped my leg. And his sword went deeper.

"AaahRGh!” I screamed as my mana shield held the blade back from giving me my death.

A thud and blood sprayed on me and the ambusher's strength lessened.

“Bitch!!” A dagger stuck out of the pimpled man’s left breast. A kick to the chest broke bones. “If you are so impatient, I will kill you first!!”

The ambusher limped over me with his sword alight. His blood dripped as he slowly made his way to the duchess. I looked around and screamed for Kurt, who faced off against sixr men.

Chest crushed, I cried out with pain, “ANYONE HELP!!! Please…PLEASE!!!!”

Coward.

My hands grabbed the ground and I pulled myself forward. “Fight me, peasant!!” My fingers dug into the stone and I pulled myself forward again as the injured enemy got further away from me and closer to Her Grace.

“I’M HERE! FIGHT ME!”

Venessa pushed Jen behind her. Hands empty of weapons, her grace did not cower as she faced her death head-on. The attacker lifted his sword.

Failure.

Veins burst with energy as I pushed off my arm to grab the back of the attacker's leather garment. I pulled him to the ground, rolling in the dust and filth. I brought him below me and my fist became a blur. The air cracked as my fists beat into the ambusher's face and I let the madness, the anger, and my shame consume me. I slapped his hand and his sword bounced and clanged on the ground and started raining blows again. Desperate hands held my bloody fist back and a headbutt released me from the ambusher's grip.

Coward.

I pound and pound. The man's face softened like dough. His cheekbone cracked and shattered under my mana-imbued knuckles. His nose disappeared into the mush of blood, cartilage, and muscle. His eyes burst and I continued my barrage. Brain dirtied my broken hands and continued. The dead did not fight back and I continued.

A shadow cast over me. I looked up at an azure blue sky. A rusty sword pointed up to it, with a scruffy peasant holding it. The second’s mana merged with steel and I prepared myself for the end. Swords far to the side, I kneel over the dead with no hope but in my power.

Coward.

“COME ON THEN! STRIKE ME DOWN!” Circle forced mana on my hand and amour grew of red hands. “I AM NOT LEAVING THE MORTAL REALM WITHOUT A FRIEND!” My mana shone on my face as my hand went up to block and its blue light disappeared as soon as it came.

“Ah… Damn it all to hell.”

Sorry brother. I will get to join Father earlier than I thought.

The ambusher brought his weapon down for the kill.

 

Teeth flicked in my face. A sword too long split through the attacker's face, breaking through teeth and jaw to stop the ambusher’s weapon by the pommel. The sword pointed at my nose. I recognised the way the greatsword steel was folded. Nary a blemish on its double side edge. The ambusher’s eyes twist and cry as the sword slowly cut up like a butcher cleaving muscle from bone. A carcass slumped to the ground as the famed greatsword of legends floated back to its owner.

“Kurt, my wife.” A deep but warm voice boomed through the alleys of terraced houses. Every eye faced the new arrival above.

Kurt saluted with a smile. "YES, YOUR GRACE!” Kurt skipped back with lightning speed to closely protect the Duchess.

“Vermin.”

The air became heavy on my wrecked body. I looked across the battlefield as enemies cowered under the freighting glare of red eyes. A shirtless beast of a man scarred on his pale skin but his picturesque clean-shaven face, his hue beat proudly in twos. Standing barefoot on cold roof tiles, long hair waving on a windless day, shadows stepped beside the proud figure. A duke snatched his blade from the air.

“Ravens, evacuate everyone.” At his word, shadows split in every direction.

Between a blink, the pale man disappeared.

Mud, stone, and rock exploded as three heads spun, and blood rained in the cloud of dust.

The raven-haired man vanished in the cloud. Two more men's chests blossomed with ribs sticking outward as the duke's fist broke through them open with a punch.

A Raven kneeled by me. Her garments were dark, like her expression. “May I, milord?” Beatrice asked. I nodded and she picked me up by the shoulder with ease.

My brother wiped his hand off a body and looked back at me. His kind smile could heal all my wounds.

“Rest, dear little brother. I will take care of everything.” Tarion said, strolling towards the army of ambushers. His greatsword on his shoulder ignited, swallowed in an azure blue flame, and condensed to a soft haze of white. Two fingers teased the hundreds of wild-haired leather armoured men.

“To me, scum. Face your demise with whatever semblance of honour you have left.”