Destiny's Reshaping: A Danmachi Reincarnation Tale

(Author: The chapter has less than 3000 words, but since I'm leaving these days, I can't guarantee the release of chapters next week.)

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"Let me get this straight, you had a dream?" - Astrea asked, surprised.

"I think so!" - Zoe said excitedly.

When she woke up, she rushed to her mother to tell her about the event and couldn't stop moving excitedly.

"That's fantastic!" - Astrea said happily. - "Do you think it has any connection to one of your memories?"

"No." -Zoe's response was firm as she tried to avoid Astrea's gaze.

Seeing Zoe's sudden change in attitude, Astrea grew curious.

"That's a very curt answer, are you sure?" - She asked, raising an eyebrow in doubt.

"Sure, it was just a dream!" - Zoe quickly replied, as if she wanted to close the subject immediately, still avoiding Astrea's piercing gaze.

At that point, Astrea grew even more suspicious.

"You still haven't told me exactly what you dreamed about."

"Nothing much, just something strange." - Zoe said ambiguously.

"You know the more you act like this, the more curious I get." - Astrea said teasingly, poking her playfully.

"... I was" incomprehensible mumble.

"I didn't catch that, what were you doing?"

"I was..." incomprehensible mumble.

"Just say it, what could you have possibly dreamed?" - Astrea said supportively.

"I was getting married."

"..."

There was a long, awkward silence where Astrea tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind. She had various ideas, but a marriage hadn't even crossed her mind.

"Well... as I said, I doubt it's a memory." - Zoe said, embarrassed.

Considering that Astrea had found her when she was thirteen, it was impossible that she had experienced a marriage.

"Cough, right." - Astrea said, recovering herself, but she had another hypothesis in mind. - "Maybe that marriage could be related to some memory, and you unconsciously associated it with yourself."

"I don't know..." - Zoe said with an uncertain sigh.

That dream had felt so real, yet so distant at the same time. It was a new experience for her, not knowing what it meant to dream, as she had never experienced anything like it before. Yet, an inner voice told her that the dream was not just a product of her imagination, but at the same time, the dream didn't match her age.

'None of this makes sense.' - Zoe thought, running a hand through her hair in frustration.

"But there's one thing I don't understand, why now?" - Astrea thought out loud.

They had tried for years to solve Zoe's problem without success, but now she had magically dreamed, it was normal for Astrea to find the situation strange.

"Did you do anything in particular?" - Astrea asked.

"I don't think so." - Zoe said after a moment of reflection.

"Didn't you spend the whole night in Mark's tent?" - Astrea said, looking at her daughter suspiciously.

"Nothing happened!" - Zoe said, blushing in embarrassment.

"I know, it's just fun to see you blush." - Astrea said, laughing softly, causing Zoe to pout.

"Kidding aside, the only unknown would be him, but-"

"But even that wouldn't make sense, considering we've already spent time together, and nothing happened, right?"

"Exactly." - Astrea nodded weakly.

She was starting to feel troubled. She wanted to help Zoe from the bottom of her heart, but every time they seemed to get close to a solution, they ended up at a dead end. She couldn't stand the thought of seeing her daughter sad because of this.

"You know, I think maybe we're overthinking this." - Zoe said, leaning on Astrea.

"What do you mean?" - Astrea asked as she gently stroked Zoe's back.

"We don't know if I'm really cured, and we don't know if Mark is really the key, so let's just let things go as they should." - She said, smiling.

Even though Zoe wanted to discover her past, she didn't want to give up what she had in the present. That void in her memory had become a kind of obsession that prevented her from living fully. That's why she wanted to solve the issue as soon as possible, to finally live freely, but she wouldn't lose sight of what was truly important to her.

"You know what, you're right." - Astrea smiled.

The two of them stayed watching the fire burn for a while before deciding to go to sleep.

****

The next morning, Zoe woke up quite early, considering she had slept a lot the day before, and the first thing she did was take a deep sigh.

"I can't deny I had some expectations." - She said to herself, feeling down.

She had gone to bed hoping there would be some change, that maybe the dream from the previous night was a sign of something bigger. But as usual, she found herself wandering in the endless darkness, the same void she had known for years.

Rubbing her cheeks to shake off the drowsiness and disappointment, she decided to focus on the new day. She stepped out of the tent, welcoming the fresh morning breeze that caressed her face. She expected that at that hour, aside from those on guard duty, no one else would be awake. To her great surprise, however, she found Mark busy doing pull-ups on a branch of a nearby tree.

'Does he never get tired?' - Zoe wondered, observing him with a mix of admiration and curiosity.

Every time she saw him, he was always busy with something. She decided to approach him, both to check on how he was physically and to observe him more closely, to test her hypothesis about him.

Zoe approached slowly, trying not to make noise so as not to disturb him. Mark was so focused on his exercises that he didn't seem to notice her presence. His arms moved fluidly, muscles tensing under his skin, and each pull-up was executed with almost obsessive precision. Zoe watched him in silence for a moment, fascinated by his dedication.

As soon as he finished the last rep, Mark dropped down from the branch with agility, landing lightly on his feet. When he turned around, he finally noticed Zoe's presence.

"Good morning." - Mark said, with a smile that didn't hide a slight surprise. - "You're an early riser today. Still scared from the nightmare?"

Mark had misunderstood Zoe's reaction as fear, not knowing the truth. The fact was that Zoe found his irony very annoying, but she was mature enough to let it go... for now.

"I thought it would take you longer to recover." - Zoe said honestly.

"As I told you, the effects don't last long, and thanks to you, I recovered much faster."

Seeing the honesty in Mark's eyes, Zoe scratched her cheek, feeling embarrassed.

"Then can you train with me?" - Zoe asked.

"Certainly." - Mark nodded, but he needed to make sure of one thing first. - "Let's try not to overdo it, though."

They both laughed, knowing that if they overdid it, they wouldn't escape Astrea's scolding, so they moved further than usual into the wooded area and got ready.

"Ready?" - Mark asked, his eyes fixed on Zoe, trying to predict her first move.

"Ready." - Zoe replied, with a smile that didn't hide her determination.

She had already lost twice to him; it was time for a little revenge. For Mark, it was different. He had realized his problem of not knowing how to handle the pace of an even battle, so he decided he would focus on that.

Zoe decided to take the initiative. With a fluid movement, she pointed the spear at the ground and murmured "Stone Bind!". The rocks and roots of the ground began to snake toward Mark, trying to immobilize him.

Mark noticed the movement of the stones and with a quick backward jump managed to avoid being completely trapped and then charged forward.

Seeing the danger, Zoe cast a new spell, "Wind Push!". A powerful gust of wind hit Mark, making him stagger backward and forcing him to regain his balance.

'How annoying.' - Mark thought.

Fighting against mages was proving more problematic than expected due to their unpredictability, but Mark's strength was not to be underestimated.

"HAH!"

With a loud shout, he swung the blade with such force that it swept away the current of air.

"What the..."

Zoe watched the scene speechlessly, and Mark took perfect advantage of the moment to get close to her.

"Wind Blast!"

A compressed air mass shot from the tip of Zoe's spear, quickly heading towards Mark, who prepared for that spell, deflected it with his blade, slowing down only for a moment, which Zoe used to jump back.

'Got you!' - Mark thought when he saw her smile.

"Stone Piston!"

"What the-Ghua!"

A stone pillar suddenly emerged from the ground, hitting him in the chest just as he had let his guard down to attack, knocking him to the ground.

"This time the victory is mine, it seems." - Zoe said with a satisfied smile.

Mark got up shortly after, looking at her speechless. - "How many damn spells do you know?"

"Who knows." - Zoe said, even more amused.

Seeing her satisfied expression, Mark started to get irritated, and they immediately began to fight again.

They went on for hours before collapsing to the ground exhausted, but even so, they didn't stop bickering.

"You said you wouldn't use that devilish spell anymore!" - Mark shouted, exhausted.

Their fights went on until they both reached five wins each, but only because Zoe kept spamming a spell that pushed Mark into the air and prevented him from reacting to her attacks.

"You started it when you threw dirt in my eyes!" - Zoe protested.

"Hoh? And who was it that started aiming below the belt?!"

"I told you it was an accident!"

"Three times in a row?!"

"Ptfff..."

"Did you just laugh? So, you admit it." -Mark said, lifting himself slightly.

"No... ptff, hahahaha!"

Zoe finally couldn't hold it in any longer. Despite being exhausted, she started laughing uncontrollably. When she was with Mark, she sometimes got irritated, but she couldn't deny that she was having fun.

"Look at her, laughing without a care in the world..." -Mark said, shaking his head, though he was smiling too.

Lying back down on the ground, he enjoyed the gentle breeze while Zoe's laughter added a carefree touch to the moment.