Why reincarnate as a useless skeleton?

[West Central Zone of the Central Continent. City of Sares (Solar Empire)- Imperial University. 13th day of the 2nd month. Year 20,125 of the 5th age. 09:30 PM]

Sares (the capital of the Solar Empire) also known as the City of the Sun, was a thriving, bustling, immense metropolis with a population of nearly 15 million.

The city had been erected in a large valley surrounded by high steep mountains to the north, east, and south, which facilitated its defense. With a huge diamond wall tens of kilometers long and more than 20 meters (65.61 ft) high, capable of resisting any kind of attack.

The city was both an architectural marvel and a work of art in itself.

Limestone buildings and tall white marble towers, some of which exceeded 300 meters (984.25 ft) in height. Great Roman-style coliseums, wide cobblestone streets lit by lanterns, spacious squares, and large tree-filled parks.

The water coming from the mountains ended up bifurcating at ground level, forming rivers and streams that then became canals that crossed the entire city.

Most impressive, however, and what no one could ignore were the three islands floating more than five thousand meters (16404.2 ft) above the city's ground, each anchored to the mountains by large crystal chains as wide as a house.

On the island on the north side of the city was The White Palace of the Imperial family, where the Empress of the Sun could see every corner of the valley.

On the eastern island stood the Golden Citadel, the main seat of the Church of Sunlight, one of the Seven Great Churches that worshiped the Gods of Creation. At dawn the sun would rise in the East, resting on the Citadel like a shining crown.

The last island was on the south side, far away from the rest of the city. On it stood a large silver tower and other buildings of lesser magnitude. Further down, at almost three thousand meters (9842.52 ft) on the top of the mountains was the Imperial University.

The University had large buildings, towers, and other structures, so it was like a small city built in the mountains.

The main library was a large six-story stone building, with four towers at each corner, located in the Northeast part of the University. With ample glass windows, large carpeted halls, with hundreds of shelves filled with books and scrolls.

As far as knowledge and information were concerned the main library had everything (or almost everything. Spell formulas and meditation techniques were kept elsewhere).

From books on common subjects such as history and geography, botany, economics, mathematics, and linguistics. To scrolls on the Magical Arts and Aura Arts, bestiaries, alchemy writings, and magical engineering studies. There was even recreational reading material such as books of poetry and other stories.

On the sixth floor of the library, in one of the towers in the right area, was a large circular room, its stone walls almost entirely covered by shelves filled with books that rose to the ceiling.

The room had many armchairs and individual tables to read comfortably. Although there were also a few group tables. In addition, the whole place was soundproofed so that the noises from outside did not disturb the reading of those students who came there.

It was already dark, the red velvet curtains covered the windows and the room was illuminated by multiple magical lamps of warm light. The room was empty and unoccupied, except for the five young students at the rectangular table in the center.

Each of them was of a different race.

A young human with brown hair and gray eyes. An Asrakian girl (although her height was half normal) with coppery skin, white hair, and completely blue eyes. A jet-haired Rassling. A burly Draun with red and golden scales. A young lady Alument with rainbow eyes and hair of many shades and colors.

The table was filled with books as well as scrolls and documents. But each of them was doing something different.

Zarich and Thalia were discussing magical engineering theory and runic patterns, looking for a way to improve the efficiency of magical automata for different tasks, whether it was for building construction, farming, or combat.

Enid was sitting at one end of the table. She had already finished with all her previous duties and was reading a book quietly. And Runan and Cassius (the young Draun) were struggling to finish their math and algebra homework.

Classes at the Imperial University had started a little over a month and a half ago.

There the six young heirs inevitably met and quickly struck up a great friendship and formed a bond of trust that they did not even have with their families.

This was not just because they were all the same age, because they came from similar backgrounds and had similar lifestyles, or because they were all great geniuses of their generation. But because they all shared the same quality that no other person in the world had.

"Aaaah! I can't take it anymore!"Runan exclaimed, almost throwing his calculus notebook off the table "I feel like if I do just one more equation my brain is going to explode!" he said as he dropped his head on the table.

"Same here. We need a break!" Cassius said, leaning back against the back of the chair.

"Hey, keep your voices down. We're in a library, remember?" Zarich said quietly, barely looking up from the documents he was reading. "Besides, you can't complain. You had almost two weeks to finish this but decided to leave it to the last minute."

"Well, it's just that this and that happened..." muttered Runan under his breath trying to justify his actions. "... It's just that this was very difficult. I'd honestly like to know who was the f**ker who thought adding letters and symbols to the math was a good idea. I'm not a f**king expert in thermonuclear physics! Besides, what the hell is the point of learning this anyway?"

"Actually, Runan, this is very useful. In magic, it may be that the formulas for spells of 3rd level and below are easy to learn. But from the 4th level on, the spells become more complex. With many more runes and symbols which requires doing many equations and mental calculations. These calculations are also necessary to learn how to forge magical artifacts and..."

Zarich suddenly began to explain and list every similarity and use that mathematics, physics, and algebra could have with the magical arts. The gray-eyed young man spoke on the subject with a great passion, diverting to other things from time to time, for over ten minutes.

When he finally finished, Runan had been so overwhelmed by all the information that it seemed as if smoke would come out of his ears at any moment.

"...Zarich... you're probably the only person in the whole world who can make studying magic sound boring and tedious. Anyway, from what you've said it seems that neither Cassius nor I have any need to learn all this stuff. Besides, I've had enough math in my past life and I don't want to continue." Runan said.

"I agree. Runan and I are Aura warriors, not wizards. All we have to do in combat is jump into the battlefield and slaughter the enemy." Cassius said. He and Runan then bumped fists in agreement.

Even though it had only been a little over a month since they had met, Runan and Cassius were practically like brothers. They both had the same personality and similar tastes. Neither seemed to have enough brains to understand things like politics or the sciences and were only interested in improving their cultivation and perfecting their combat techniques.

Strangely, they both also had younger sisters, for whom they showed a bit of an overprotective attitude.

"Well, that doesn't change the fact that you guys have to turn this in by tomorrow. Why don't you just use some of your stat points to increase your WIS and learn this instantly?" asked Enid disinterestedly as she turned to another page of the book she was reading.

"Ha! No way, that would be a waste. With my Divine Blessing, I can learn any combat art and Aura technique easily without the need to increase my WIS using the system. As for me, I'll focus on improving my cultivation and techniques." Cassius replied in a proud tone.

"Hmph. You do whatever you want. But you will have to face punishment for not fulfilling your duties." Enid said.

It looked like Cassius and the rainbow-eyed young lady were about to start a small discussion as was usual between them. But at that moment, Thalia, who had hardly said anything for the last hour, spoke up.

"This... I'm sorry to interrupt, but hadn't we been meeting for something important?" She asked somewhat sheepishly. She had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed what had happened in the last hour.

"That's right. Why did you want us to meet in the library, Zarich?" Enid asked as she marked the page where she had left off and rested the book on the table.

"Well, it's just that, the other day while doing a little research I discovered something I thought you all wanted to know. But I wanted to wait for Lieon to arrive." Zarich replied, gesturing with his hands to adjust his glasses.

Zarich had originally asked them all to meet in that part of the library (which was only for the Elite students) to talk about something that no one but them could know about.

However, Lieon had been summoned for a meeting concerning issues related to the Imperial family. So he had been delayed and everyone had been waiting for him for almost an hour and a half.

"Oh! Speaking of the king of Rome!" Cassius exclaimed as the doors opened and Lieon entered the room.

Unlike the others who were dressed in their casual clothes, Lieon was wearing a formal white suit, complete with shoulder pads, trim and gold edges. The young blond looked quite fatigued from the meeting and as soon as he approached the head of the table he dropped himself into the chair.

"Wow, you look like sh*t. What happened to you, Lieon?" Runan asked shamelessly.

"I don't want to talk about it." Lieon replied. His tone of voice denoted that he was quite exhausted. Not physically but mentally.

For a moment no one said anything. Everyone was curious about the meeting Lieon had with his family and what was the reason he was so tired. But at that very moment, Runan burst out laughing, breaking the silence of the library.

"Your family…Pfft… just got you engaged to…Hahaha… to your ten-year-old cousin?!" Runan exclaimed in between his laughter.

The next moment, everyone except for Lieon burst out laughing, to the point where their lungs were almost out of air.

"ZARICH!" Lieon exclaimed with some anger.

"What? They were going to find out anyway." Replied the gray-eyed young man.

As the person who had known Lieon the longest, Zarich had already found out a thing or two about his friend's future marriage. And since this would shortly be public knowledge he didn't mind using a telepathic message to tell the others present.

"Congratulations Lieon! Though I must admit I never thought you'd have that kind of taste." Cassius said in a mocking tone.

"You're wrong! She's just a very distant cousin, we're hardly related! It's all over a political issue and about the future lineage of the empire... Just leave me alone already!" Lieon said, his patience having almost reached its limit. His face was so red with embarrassment that he looked like a tomato.

In this world, (at least for royalty and nobles) arranged marriages for political purposes or other benefits were a very normal thing. Marriages between people who shared a certain blood relationship were also quite common.

However, since the six of them had memories of past lives and since they still retained the common sense of their previous lives, they found this situation quite strange and a bit comical.

"Well don't worry so much about it. Think of it as only 5 years difference. When you're 25, she'll be 20 and then it won't be so weird." Enid said, trying to comfort Lieon.

"Not so weird?! In case you've forgotten, even though my body is 15 years old, I've lived more than 25 in my past life. I'm already over 40! It looks like I'm a pedophile!" Lieon exclaimed.

They were all laughing and chatting about the engagement and other minor topics until Lieon finally got tired and interrupted them.

"Cough...Well, I think that's enough. Zarich, wasn't there something important you wanted to tell us?" Lieon asked.

"What? Oh, right! Give me a moment, I want you to see something..." Zarich said as he hurriedly opened his [Storage Ring] and from there pulled out a stack of documents which he distributed to everyone present.

"A couple of months ago, when I visited my hometown, I was researching about Variant Monsters and somehow I also ended up checking some old records about the 4th age and the decline of monsters and... I noticed something very strange." As Zarich spoke everyone began to read the documents he had given them.

The documents were mostly the records of several millennia in which they detailed different events such as the appearance of high-level monsters, attacks by the dark churches, and the heroic deeds of some of the most influential great figures of the time: Magic users, Aura Warriors or people with special skills.