I Reincarnated as a Shinai

Reiji was told to stay within the old building for today as Ryu had to make arrangements for his invitation. 

The latter never bothered inviting other Sentient Arcana in the gathering as he didn't find it entertaining before… However, after meeting with Reiji, he somehow had an urge to befriend the newbie Arcana. 

Of course, the main reason was still due to Reiji's unique presence… 

Ryu had several skills that can gauge the strength of an Arcana and he realized that the wooden sword has an aura similar to the three blessed Arcana in their organization… 

He can't ignore this… If he's truly at the level of their leaders, then he must bring him to their gathering and let the leaders persuade him to join their cause…

In the meantime, he didn't ask whether he's truly a Blessed Arcana as that can be a sensitive topic… 

After all, if Reiji is a blessed of the Wood Deity, then this might get awkward as all of that particular Deity's blessed would always stay neutral… He wouldn't be able to convince Reiji to join them unless the leaders offered something valuable to this wooden sword.

On the other hand, if Reiji is a Blessed Arcana of the Shapeshifter Deity, then they would have to bring him to the Sacred Building to see what he truly looks like and confirm whether he was only acting like a newbie or not… 

That is also something that the leaders have to worry about…

Aside from the two Deities, Reiji can also be a blessed of the Avian Deity considering how proficient he was in flying… 

Even Ryu can only float a little but Reiji was different, he saw him soaring to the sky and fly like other blessed of the Avian Deity that he saw before…

There are two more deities that he could think of but the chances were extremely small…

As for being a Sword Deity? It never crossed his mind… 

After all, it was said that a Deity can only have 10 Blessed Arcana roaming in this world… As far as he knows, it remains true up to this date.

He knows all the names of those old Sword Arcana including Fern, so Reiji couldn't be one of Sword Deity's blessed…

"Ryu… Can you tell me more about the gathering? What's going to happen there? I don't want to be clueless…" Reiji inquired after Ryu gave him the invitation, he was still unaware of the latter's thoughts about him being blessed.

Nevertheless, the invitation was just a stamp mark that will vanish after the gathering ended. 

The mark was red with a design of a fancy crown…

"Right… Just consider it as a social gathering where you make connections with other Arcana... Those that wanted to maintain the balance in this world…"

"The balance in this world?" Reiji repeated as he couldn't understand what he meant.

"That's correct… I guess you haven't noticed yet… There's quite a lot of Arcanists being used by their Cursed Arcana and started destroying the true essence of Arcana… We need to stop it." Ryu's tone suddenly became serious as he started to explain the reason behind the creation of their organization.

"Mhmm?" Reiji didn't hide his confusion… He has no idea what this Arcana was saying so he wanted him to continue.

"In short, all Arcana are gradually losing their value… If you haven't heard about the many Cults in this kingdom, they are creating artificial Arcana by sacrificing a genuine Arcana, ownerless or not to make a new one that would suit them…"

"Eh? How are they doing that---Wait…"

Reiji suddenly remembered how the Three-Eyed Imp's Cultists have similar Staff Arcana…

He appraised them before and remembered that there is a "Modified" in their description. Does it mean that those staves were the Artificial Arcana that Ryu mentioned?

They are still Arcana, but perhaps, they weren't staves before but a different kind of Arcana… 

"Oh? Have you met an Artificial Arcana?"

Ryu asked after seeing his reaction. Reiji then explained about the modified Arcana that he found before and how they are all looking the same. 

The cloak Arcana understood what he was saying and confirmed that it is indeed the work of several Cursed Arcana working together and giving taboo skills to the humans.

Anyway, it now made sense why they could have similar kinds of Arcana! Reiji has been quite curious about this long ago and finally learned it today.

He was also quite sure that even the Hunter Association was not aware of this information. Or perhaps, this information was only for the ears of the higher officials…

He then calmed down a bit as he tried to absorb all the information he heard.

"Why are they doing this in the first place?" Reiji asked. If all they have to do is to get any Arcana and "convert" them as an artificial one, then Ryu was right by saying that the value of the Arcana is gradually losing…

"I may not be the best Arcana to explain this so you have to wait until our leaders talked to you… However, you already have an idea about the gathering so it wouldn't make you feel out of place, right?"

"T-that's true…"

"Just relax and listen to the others tomorrow. I'm sure that you'll meet several newbies there as well… Also, you've already encountered an Artificial Arcana, as long as you remember their status description, you can easily fit with any discussions… You can use it as a conversation starter… Hehe…"

Ryu kindly gave him tips for tomorrow's event… Reiji can only smile wryly at this as he made himself comfortable within the old building.

Time quickly passed by and it was time for the quarterly gathering… 

"Hey, I can float but I'm a little slow, so you have to match my pace…"

"I understand."

Reiji expected that they will use some kind of a secret passage to arrive at the gathering hall that Ryu has mentioned. 

However, to Reiji's surprise, it was something more magical than he expected.

The stamp of a crown, or the invitation to the gathering, glowed on his body…

The same thing happened to Ryu although he doesn't have the stamp on him.

"Just calm down… As an official member, I don't need the stamp to be transported outside the gathering hall."

"Mhmm…" Reiji did his best to appear unaffected as he observed what was happening.

Suddenly, his surroundings turned bright as he felt that he was sent somewhere else. As soon as he looked around, he found himself outside of a beautiful mansion.

He's together with 30 more weapons or equipment that he suspected as fellow Sentient Arcana.

They are currently at a rose garden in front of the mansion…

Reiji can see the gate behind them, the fountain in front of the mansion, and an old butler in front of the mansion's door…

He then heard the butler say something…

"Welcome, Esteemed Arcanas… Today's event will be held at Madame Sonia's Eastwood Mansion. Follow me…"

The old butler then opened the door as he led all the floating Arcana in…

'So it's a common ability for Sentient Arcana to have the ability to float?'  Reiji mused as he glanced around. 

He finds the sight of the 30 floating Arcana quite breathtaking…

Everyone emits a different aura… They all have varying colors that shine in their own way…

There are several swords, bows, helmets, armor, gauntlet, and others… However, what truly caught his attention was a couple of familiar swords in his past life… 

It is the Kris Sword and the Tai Chi Sword…

As a Kendo Practitioner, there was a time in his life where he became interested in various kinds of swords around the world. 

The Kris Sword is one that he was so intrigued about but never had the chance of wielding one. 

Reiji observed the sword near him and was quite impressed with its design. It has 8 waves on its blade and appears to be quite heavy. 

This wavy sword was believed to give the deepest thrust and could even go through a person's body without too much trouble…  Aside from that, anyone who was injured by this sword would easily bleed to death because of its unique design… 

He had never thought that he would see this kind of sword in this world.

"Wait… Perhaps, they're also similar to me?"

Reiji looked at the Taichi and Kris Sword near him… He wanted to have a conversation with them but Ryu urged him to move…

"Hey… I told you to match my pace… I'm not that slow."

"Oh…" Reiji followed Ryu as they went to the gathering hall within the mansion.

Anyway, he would have enough time to chat with those swords later on.

"By the way, what's with the butler? Is he… an Arcana?" Reiji asked after remembering the old butler. He appears to be accustomed to attending them…

"Ahh… Don't worry about him… He's marked as one of Fern's servants. It's one of his abilities…"

Ryu suddenly revealed one of Fern's abilities…

"Ohh… I see…" Reiji nodded as he continued following the crowd.

"You're not surprised, huh…"

"What? Of course, I am… I just thought that being a leader should be this impressive so I didn't react too much." Reiji explained.

However, the truth is that he suddenly recalled one of his current abilities which he hasn't used yet… 

The Sword Slave Marker.