Chapter 20: Headache
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of her footsteps resounded clearly within the halls. Her arms waved quickly in sync with her opposite legs. Dashing through the space designated for walking where running was prohibited. This was the same girl that worried deeply about violating a non-fruit picking regulation.
"Please still be there." Eve said as she continued her sprint towards the garden.
She missed her chance to ask for the boy's name, she did not care for him either. She was also annoyed by the boy due to being ridiculed, but in reality, it was only her that thought of ridicule. The boy just lightly chuckled at her actions and it did not weigh heavily on his mind.
"Damn it. Why didn't he say his name was Adam?!" She now began to put blame on Adam instead.
With heavy-breathing and tired legs, she finally arrived at her destination, the garden within The Vault. Nevertheless, she did not stop her eyes from shaking left and right to look for the familiar figure of the boy she just had an interaction with.
'Blue eyes, brown hair. Wearing a uniform.' She recalled everything she knew about his outer features.
The characteristics she just enumerated were accurate. However, those same characteristics are very common apart from the blue eyes, and if you had the time to look at every one's eyes you would already have the time to check on their faces.
'Is that him?' She found someone that fit at least two of the categories. Brown hair and wearing a uniform. She tried to ask the person in question but she stopped her mouth from speaking.
'Too tall.' She was able to tell the difference once she was close enough.
He would be easy to find if not for the fact that the garden was large. Not wasting any time, Eve rushed towards the tree they met under in. It was the best place to begin her search seeing as the places she passed by did not have anyone that held her interest.
"Alright. Hoooo. Where is he?" She said as she stood with her hands on her knees.
With her eyes constantly moving, she breathed heavily and stood in place. And sadly, she could not find him here. She still hasn't checked through the entire garden but she was already having trouble breathing and could not continue her parade through the garden.
What caught her eye was the man-in-uniform from earlier. He was the other person she saw that was within the vicinity when their conversation ended, in fact, their conversation ended due to this man. She approached him, with fatigue, and began her inquiry.
"Sir. Do you know where the boy I was talking with earlier went?" She asked with a crooked smile. She had a hard time trying to keep it up due to being out of breath.
The man-in-uniform stopped what he was doing and looked at Eve. He remembered this gal, a gal who recently started hanging out in the garden, and was somehow acquainted with Sir Adam. He did not ask about Adam and Eve's relationship from Adam, he only worked professionally.
"You mean Sir Adam? Yes. I do know where he went." The man-in-uniform informed her and then looked at her dead in the eye.
He was expecting her to back off and not ask for anything from him that could violate Adam's privacy. He was employed as a worker for The Vault after all, which was owned by the Director, Johnny Soileward.
"Sir Adam? You call him sir?" Eve was surprised upon the formality the man-in-uniform addressed Adam with.
"Yes. You do not know? He is the grandchild of The Vault's Director." The man-in-uniform said proudly. He did not have any problem saying this as almost everyone in The Vault knew about it. Except for a certain loner of course.
"You mean he owns this place?" She really should stop being surprised.
"Technically, yes. Anyways, if you have been listening to the announcements, you would have caught wind of the cadet summoning. All cadets are to report to Commanding Officer Soileward, Sir Adam's father, in the stadium." He explained to her.
"Thank you sir. I must be going now!" She replied. Energy filled her body as she began sprinting again.
"Ah, young girl, stop where you are. The stadium is off limits to normal citizens." The man caught her.
Eve was restrained. There were a lot of things hindering her advance towards Adam but she was hopeful.
On the contrary, Adam did not think of their meeting as something to be worth of note. He was walking towards the stadium and had things on his mind other than the recent occurrence.
'Andrea will probably tell her all about it.' That was the only thought Adam had as he walked away from the garden.
It isn't a strange thing why Adam was not excited upon hearing the name Eve. In his mind, Eve was still within the captivity of another world. For how long they were separated, he constantly hoped for Eve to return but after waiting for lives on end, his hope turned to despair. That is why he no longer cares, because it hurt him deeply.
While walking towards the stadium, he fortunately found his best friend, Brian. Brian was in front of him who was also heading to the stadium. Adam raised his hand and tried to call out to Brian, but he dismissed this thought and instead -
"Sup Brian!" Adam called out to Brian as he put his right arm over Brian's shoulder.
Brian looked at Adam in alarm but soon relaxed his face. And after relaxing his face, he frowned at the sight of Adam's smug look. Adam was rubbing his win at Brian's face with a wide smile with mocking eyes.
"Asshole." Brian just scoffed instead of replying Adam's greeting, but he did not shove Adam away.
They were silent while walking for quite some time. Adam didn't really have anything good to say and whatever would come from him would sound condescending to Brian. Brian on the other hand was still devastated due to his loss.
Brian lost due to Adam's independent unit that could eliminate their agents in a quick and clean manner. Nevertheless, the exercise was a good experience for Brian even though he lost. And it was already impressive enough that he stopped himself from joining the fray.
"Tell me, Adam. Why restrict your usage of magic?" Brian finally asked the question that has plagued his mind since a long time ago.
Adam held his chin and looked up. He was thinking. This action made Brian think that Adam was going to tell him the actual reason, but that was only wishful thinking.
"Because I like to?" Adam said as he looked towards the side.
Adam obviously did not want to tell Brian the real reason as to why he doesn't ever use his magic publicly. And this fact frustrated Brian so much. The crux of the problem was that Brian had an inferiority complex with how Adam learns a spell very easily when it took the original Brian years to study.
In Tepatria, his original world, he was heralded as a genius due to becoming an High Mage despite being an adventurer and he achieved that at only 30 years of age. He mastered each school of magic in theory and he had learned a lot of spells that were never written due to a certain incident when he was only an apprentice. How he managed to do that is a mystery for now.
"How about you just use it? I don't like how everyone thinks of me as a very talented person when a person with much more talent than me is not even recognized." Brain explained his reasons for asking.
Just like in his previous life, Brian was also regarded as the most talented guy in their age classification. This much was obvious since being able to control one element was already a decent ability, how much more if they knew Brian could use all of the elements and he had some unique powers as well.
Everyone in The Vault thought that all of those were what Brian received as God's Gift, but it was not. Brian's gift was something else altogether and it was the best of the Gifts. And due to it being one of the best, it was also the one that carried the most weight.
"It has been 10 years but I still don't know how to use my ability." Brian said to Adam in a low voice.
Adam and his family knew of Brian's ability as he told them. Brain trusted Adam and his family because he observed how they carried themselves in a crisis and how they treated other people. They didn't unnecessarily drag themselves into trouble and they minded their own business.
"Hey. It's alright. Even I don't know how to use my Gift, my ability. And plus, you have magic!" Adam comforted Brian as Adam's arm on Brian's shoulder rubbed Brian's back.
"Come on, Number 1 student. You can do it!" He continued cheering Brian on.
"But you're better than me." Brian replied.
At his statement, Adam was baffled. But he sort of understood why.
'He's insecure because of me. Ah, how sweet to be young.' Adam thought to himself.
"Don't worry about me, Brian. You are a person with a great ability. Even the Gift you received screams of that. Don't devalue yourself just because someone is better, what you need to think of is how to improve and not to fall in despair."
Brian looked at Adam with eyes that screamed loneliness. Brian was lonely, he wanted Adam to enjoy the limelight with him. But with that statement, he soon realized.
'Oh. What am I thinking? He's right.' Brian thought to himself. He clenched his fist and firmed his will.
'Why not just enjoy the limelight?' His body's age affected his mental state.
Brian finally held his head up high as he cheerfully walked with Adam towards the stadium. Once they reached the entrance, there was security manned by the door. It may be deemed useless to have guards watch this door but these guards are meant to keep citizens from snooping in.
They easily made it inside since the both of them were recognized within the ranks. One was a person with a peerless ability and the other had the same status as a prince within The Vault. However, this prince never displayed great ability so he isn't as famous.
Minutes later, a person walked towards the podium. He was wearing a military outfit and had the poise of a war veteran but he was quite young, but with the awakening of abilities of everyone in the world, it was no longer such a weird case.
The person tapped the microphone on the podium with his finger. There was no sound.
'Ugh. What?' The person on the podium thought. He did not expect a blunder at all.
He looked back and the people in the back signaled for him to just wing it. The people in the backstage were panicking and left everything to the man on the podium.
"Cough." The person on the podium faked a cough. It caught everyone's attention and due to that-
"Salute!"
Everyone stood from their seats and saluted. That is because the man on the podium was the administrator for The Vault's military activities. The man returned everyone's salute and then everyone took a seat.
"Good noon everyone!" He was practically screaming but oddly enough it didn't sound like screaming. His voice was spread throughout the entire stadium and everyone heard his words.
"We are gathered here today to celebrate the result of the exercises. So instead of me speaking up here. Everyone, please welcome Lilith McGrath. Green Team's commander."
Brian whispered to Adam's ears.
"Dude, your dad is such a lazy ass. He hasn't even said 30 words.." Brian said as he looked at Tim who walked away while yawning.
A girl with silky black hair walked up to the platform. She had a cold glare and was the type that could scare boys away. She was a beauty and she was one of the most talented within their age group.
"Hello everyone. I would like to say that the exercise went great. And that is because everyone did their best and we all learned great things from it."
She did not need to state her name, everyone already knows her and her peculiarities.
"And I would like to give my salutations to Brian Wordsworth, the other team's commander for lasting longer than a few days."
She was a high-profile lady due to her aggressiveness, and that should be enough for boys to try and woo her. However -
"And I thank my hubby for infiltrating the enemy base and single-handedly making way for our eventual triumph."
She already had someone in her heart and she was not very private about it.
"Ugh." Adam experienced a headache.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
stone