He maintained a light smile as Helen chattered beside him, complaining about her endless lessons in noble etiquette, though her bright smile never faltered. Neo listened as they walked for another five minutes before asking, "So? You're handling the change well?"
"Are you kidding? I think I dreamt of something like this too many times to be anything but thrilled," she chirped, her tone turning wistful.
Stepping into the main building, Neo looked at the wistful redhead beside him. She looked exactly as she had on Earth, only younger.
Did that mean people from his old world were here, but without their memories, seamlessly woven into new lives with real histories and connections?
According to the family records Helen had shared about him, *he* had been in a coma for most of his life here in this world. He saw a pattern, though: while he was twenty on Earth, here he was fourteen. Helen was younger too, as was Curtis, and his mother—all carrying the same faces, just scaled back in years.
He hadn't found a reason for it, and among the many puzzles demanding his attention, he reluctantly filed it away with a sigh.
"What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?" Helen asked suddenly, noticing his stare.
"Nothing," Neo said, snapping out of it. He changed the topic quickly. "Oh, can you tell me what Rank you are?"
Her eyes lit up with competitive fire. "Oho! You think you can fight me now that you've formed your spirit core?"
Neo cringed internally, the memory of a beautiful, confident twenty-year-old redhead flashing in his mind. 'Definitely the Grim Reaper's child,' he thought with a silent sigh.
"That's not it. I'm just curious," he said weakly, thinking, 'It would just be bullying anyway, especially with my body feeling this way.'
"Alright... alright," Helen said, slipping back into a demure impression before declaring, "I'm a Peak Rank 2 Ascendant."
Neo, who had been expecting a more beginner-level answer, stared blankly. They both stopped walking.
"What's with that look?" she said, puffing up proudly. "You should be a little more respectful now that you know I can crush you without trying."
Neo responded with a smirk, aiming to rile her up. "On second thought, defeating you might not be as hard as I imagined."
"Alright then, let's add a bet to make it interesting," she said, leaning in. "If I win, you have to call me 'Big Sister Helen.'"
She'd been pushing this for a while, but Neo's twenty-year-old consciousness refused to budge. "I told you I won't do that."
"Aren't you ashamed, trying to spar a fourteen-year-old?"
"Who cares?" Helen said with a straight face. "I'm twenty, you're fourteen. I'm your big sister as long as I'm concerned."
Refusing to yield, Helen smirked down at him—she was a full two heads taller. "You think you'll lose?"
Neo pointed at himself. "Acolyte."
He pointed at her. "..... at the Peak of Rank 2."
"Who do 'you' think will lose?" His expression was one of genuine, amused confusion, with the sarcasm evident in his tone.
"That doesn't count! Grandpa said you're some kind of genius," she deflected, sidestepping the question of her own shamelessness.
"Really? The Reap—" He caught himself, but she was too focused on the competition to notice the slip where he almost called Richard the reaper.
"Yes, he said that! So, is the bet on? I just need to change out of this dress."
"Nope. Still not fighting."
They entered the large dining hall still in their argument, and Neo sank into a chair with his full weight, relieved. The burden of Transcendence seemed entirely internal; it didn't increase his actual mass, only the perceived effort of moving. Richard hadn't noticed a change in weight during their sparring, only his sluggishness.
'Ah, luxury,' Neo thought, surveying the lavishly prepared table. This had become one of his favorite times. With no culinary overlap between the two worlds, every dish was a new experience, and the Tasher family's status guaranteed a spectacular spread.
He began piling servings onto his plate as Helen reached for food as well.
"I thought you already had breakfast?"
"You... ungrateful little..." She huffed with a disappointed expression. "I came for breakfast, didn't see you, and went looking... for you!!."
"...."
"Hey, apologize," she scolded, trying to look stern.
"Pfft... you look so funny trying to be tough," Neo laughed. "Better start eating. I might finish everything before you're done talking."
Helen resumed filling her plate, her tone suddenly sweet and tempting. "And here I was thinking I'd take you shopping with me today in the family territory..."
Neo immediately turned shameless, taking her plate from her hands and beginning to serve her portions himself. "Meat?"
"A little. Some vegetables too," she replied, feeling pleased with herself.
He was surprisingly dexterous with a serious expression, selecting items from various dishes until she nodded in satisfaction. He placed the full plate before her, his face utterly serious, which made her laugh.
Neo, however, was thinking, 'The secret weapon strikes again.'
"Ahem," Neo fake-coughed. "But grandpa Richard definitely wouldn't want me leaving the estate." He adopted a convincingly sad look, laying the shameless act on thick.
"Who do you think I am?" Helen said between bites, chewing her food as Neo waited for her to continue. "Grandpa already agreed to let both of us go out. He even gave me ten thousand gold coins and a hundred spirit stones."
Neo smiled at that. He kept forgetting the Tasher family's standing—an Honorary Noble Family, owning an Ancestral Library Artifact so renowned that nobles across the Blackstone Empire paid to send their children here.
The tales of Tasher's family geniuses who had shaken the empire, earning their title and territory, all stemmed from that repository of tens of thousands of years of knowledge. Not every noble took it seriously, but enough arrived constantly, hoping to soak up enough wisdom to become the next generational prodigy.
"But Grandpa insisted we have guards escort us and that we wear cloaks to cover our faces while we're out in the territory."
"That's amazing, Helen," Neo beamed.
"Big Sister Helen!" she corrected in a loud whisper, which Neo ignored as he focused on his food.
"Thank you," Neo said suddenly, his tone genuine.
A soft smile touched Helen's lips as she recalled Curtis—Neo's younger brother with his pale white hair and blue eyes, so different from Neo's pitch-black hair and green gaze.
The only real similarity was the shape of their faces. After years of treating Neo and managing the inn after her mother death, she had often wondered what he would be like if he woke up. Having always wished for a sibling, she'd grown very close to Curtis, who would visit the inn regularly to remind her Neo needed a checkup.
"Alright, one last question," Neo said abruptly. "How much am I getting?"
"Hmm? What are you talking about?" Helen blinked.
"The money Grandpa Richard gave you. For both of us," Neo said with a straight face, picking up another piece of meat and chewing slowly, his eyes fixed on her.
Helen's expression shifted to one of mock offense. "You get nothing. The money is mine. Grandpa gave everything to me."
A smirk played on her lips as she made her move. "Of course, you could call me Big Sister Helen for ten percent."
Neo simply turned back to his food with a quiet "Hmph," ignoring the bait.
They finished quickly and returned to their rooms to change into more appropriate attire.
Neo didn't change much, opting for a simple black jacket with a hood, matching pants, and a pair of boots. With his green eyes mostly shadowed by his dark hair and the edge of his tattoo visible on his right arm, he stood waiting beside a carriage.
An actual carriage. Neo was surprised—in a world brimming with supernatural forces, he'd assumed such conveyances would be a little more creative. He examined it curiously while waiting for Helen.
"Hmm..." He activated his True Sight. Immediately, several glowing stones embedded along carved lines on the carriage's surface came into view. Pulses of concentrated spiritual energy flowed steadily through the intricate patterns.
True Sight was wonderful; it allowed him to perceive energy in its various forms, differentiating between elemental particles and ambient spiritual energy, even certain energy forms that were hard to recognize.
His favorite part, despite the mental strain, was the unique link between his sight and his physique.
During training, his body responded to his vision, correcting his form in real-time by observing muscle tension and joint alignment even before a strike landed. It was like seeing the blueprint of movement, and his fighting experience grew with each session.
"You're a weird little kid, you know that, right?" Helen said, having arrived silently behind him, watching him study the carriage with intense focus.
Neo shrugged as he turned toward her; he didn't see her arrive.
She wore a loose white and red floral dress that didn't reveal her figure, her red hair tied in a neat bun. With her freckles scattered across her face and her bright eyes, she carried an innocent, cheerful demeanor.
As she stepped toward the carriage door, Neo moved unconsciously, pulling it open for her before the guards could. She smiled at the gesture.
Neo climbed in after her. Three guards mounted on horses took positions around them, and a single driver guided the horses as they moved out of the estate and into Tasher territory.
Both Neo and Helen watched the peaceful district pass by with quiet smiles. Neo noticed something and asked, "Where's your cloak? To cover your face?"
Helen smiled and tapped a simple ring on her finger. "Storage ring. We can buy you one—they're incredibly handy but quite expensive." Seeing that Neo didn't have a space ring, she offered.
Neo nodded. "Expensive enough to burn through what we have?"
Helen shook her head. "Of course not."
Neo smiled at the response.