Since the first wall had collapsed. Magnus gained a few flashbacks of his supposed 'second' life.
At first, the dreams about possessing a different body back in time were just that in his mind.
Dreams.
But when the detail increased to an irrefutable point. He realised the truth.
He is indeed living his second life, but the past of his second life held much more glory than he could ever imagine.
Throughout his second time in the trial, the questions lingered around his mind.
This time, he found himself in a weird world. The rules that governed the world had one common trait.
Emotions decide it all. Talent didn't lay in the body anymore, but in the mind.
So, childhood and parenting became the greatest indication of status.
The nobles of this world had perfected the way of nurturing children. To make them more empathetic and emotional.
In fact, Emotional Quotient decided the fate of a person. Alongside it, people measured a second trait.
How much can someone control their emotions? Can they use them as a weapon, a tool, or are they just slaves of their own whims?
Magnus himself had grown into a fairly established family. Their ancestors dated back hundreds of years, and he had hundreds of distant relatives.
In this life. Children are tested periodically. At ages 5, 7, 12, 15, 17 and finally 21.
Afterwards, it is on the subject if they wish to test it or not.
When Magnus became five years old, his first result came back.
EQ: 1533
Emotional control: 2
When his parents saw these results, their mood shot up through the roof.
EQ of a talentless person at age 5 hung around the 10-100 range. Talented youngsters occupied the 200-1000 range and prodigies 1000+.
If the EQ was meant to be celebrated, then his emotional control could be said to be trash.
Utter failiure.
Although people with less EQ usually had more emotional control, even the legendary prodigies that are born with ten thousand or more EQ points held at least 10 points on the emotional control test.
Each point represented the percentage of the EQ they could use. Every single exam afterwards crushed his parent's spirits more and more.
People cursed at them that they ruined a genius. It went to a point where they blamed themselves.
Age: 21 EQ: 192 114 Emotional Control: 3
They toiled and tried again and again, but the result remained the same.
Infinite talent in a cursed vessel.
This label stuck on Magnus' body throughout his life. He didn't blame his parents, nor did he blame others.
While he might have reincarnated, the truth remained. He didn't know what emotions were.
So how could he control them? At most, he learned how to not let the emotions control him.
But he couldn't control them either. Now, he had two paths before him.
To let emotions control him and to become a 'demon'.
From then on, he wouldn't be able to live in a normal society, but he would be able to wield power that could take him to the peak of this very world.
The other one was simple.
Become mediocre. To accept his shortcomings and to try to solve them without going crazy.
He chose the latter and became a librarian.
In this world, librarians were a normal occupation. They just needed to possess a certain amount of EQ to fuel the artifacts they had to wear.
Those artifacts would repair books and stop any thieves. While impossible to control EQ.
He used it as an infinite fuel source. Unlike others, he could wear the artifacts all day.
He lived quietly. His parents found a few blind dates, and he just followed the flow.
From time to time, he would hear about the demonized people battling against society.
He didn't quite understand why.
This society reached the perfection in terms of being a utopia. No one needed to be brainwashed, because of the incentive to raise EQ.
Higher ups still helped weak people. Poverty existed thousands of years ago and the crime rate didn't exist.
As long as it concerned humans. To harm them would mean to harm one's EQ and potential.
Unless driven by revenge, no one sane would do that.
And yet a couple of people became demonized every day. To let emotions control you would lead to the greatest growth of EQ.
In fact, technology existed for the most privileged.
Live a fake life where emotions are the master. Even depression due to death or being weak didn't exist for more than a month.
Because growing EQ and emotional control would eliminate it in due time.
He might never find out. After all, he had to live through his life and see what those walls hide.
Then she came into his life.
"Hello! My name is Airis. I hope to learn a lot!" she said and bowed.
A new intern intending to become a librarian.
Deep ocean eyes, and the long jade hair took his breath for a moment.
He had trained quite a few interns in the few years since he became a librarian.
And with the EQ growth being dominant in women. Only the most ambitious men took the world leading positions.
Women took upper to mid-level positions most of the time.
And those simple jobs were for the talentless men who gave up on themselves.
With a librarian being one of the weaker mid-level positions. The amount of women was quite low.
Despite meeting a few. And seeing celebrities from afar, none took his breath away.
From then on, they interacted quite the bit. Sometimes she invited him for lunch and other times she just pestered him.
Life was good.
His dreams had also revealed the end battle on Earth before they stopped.
Since then, he didn't know if he won or not.
Unknown to everyone around him. He never stopped searching for a way to gain control of his emotions.
Through many methods, he tried. But to his surprise, the most progress stemmed from Airis.
She became the miner that cracked the walls. And one day, he felt it.
No, rather than feel. He knew what it was.
The feeling of love, happiness. It finally became something distinguishable, and he grew intoxicated.
A few months later, he confessed, and Airis accepted with a smile.
Not long after, they moved in together and built a family. Thanks to the development and bending of laws, humans could now live up to 200 years with no problems.
People like Magnus might even live longer.
They became somewhat of a mascot in the library, and they did everything together.
After 50 years of laughing, they never weakened. Magnus himself had grown immensely.
Age: 80 EQ: 232 million Emotional control: 88
Many talented people reached this number at the end of their lifespan.
And with at least 120 years left, many organisations had contacted him many times to recruit him.
His wife also held quite the talent. Albeit enticing, both he and Airis never wavered.
Instead, Magnus spent some time gaining a lot of wealth before he settled down and lived quietly.
Their children grew up fast. By the time they attended the school, their talent already shone bright.
This time, Magnus let his children grow and let them decide if they wish to go see the wider world.
And they did.
Two brothers and one sister made a hole in the world. Their rise came out of nowhere to the public and it was unstoppable.
One day, when Magnus watered his plants. He felt a primal rage.
Rage that seemed to come from the east and it seemed to engulf the world.
He felt his emotional control slip by a couple of points. Airis had went outside to find Magnus as well.
The new couldn't be good..
Sure enough, the news came.
Ancient ruins in the far east had been found, and they had made a grim discovery.
There existed a civilization before them. They lived like slaves to their emotions and they thrived.
Death followed everyone, but talented people could dance with it and thrive.
These ancient humans weren't entirely dead. And the rage targeted at the unknown being soon affected modern humans.
A war broke out. They drafted Magnus alongside Airis.
The battlefield showed the past Magnus tried unconsciously to bury.
Ancient humans easily swayed the weaker willed people and transformed them into demons.
The demon association joined the ancient humans and worshiped them.
With these two factors. They grew at an unstoppable rate.
Magnus and Airis battled with vigor and made names for themselves.
However, they weren't invincible.
One day, Magnus and Airis received news he prayed every day wouldn't come true.
His child, Lucy, had died on the frontlines.
Surrounded and trapped. She fought to the last breath and took out a great enemy with her.
Magnus barely held it together. But the subsequent news broke him.
One of his sons seemingly defected. And his last son had died whilst trying to stop him.
At that point, Airis couldn't help him anymore.
He slaughtered the enemies and slept only when his body gave up. His EQ exploded, and he barely maintained his emotional control above 50%.
But he wasn't invincible. Far from it.
He just possessed the power to change the tides of the battle. Not the entire war.
A month later, his erected grave silently accompanied his wife and children.
...
Magnus woke up in the room with walls.
This time, however, the wall did not crumble, but cracked. He didn't care, though.
He wished to feel grief and pain. Nothing.
The memories spent with ...
He couldn't remember her name anymore. Those memories were blurry.
He wished to grieve, but how could he? Now, he didn't even know if he felt anger at the lack of understanding of his emotions or the love he experienced...