章節 27: Forward [6]
A world of ice, where all the skyscrapers had become hills of snow. In this world, there was no life, a world where not even the animals with the thickest of furs could endure the soul-crushing cold that roamed the lands.
On top of one of those large hills of snow stood a woman, wearing a beautiful dress made up of the purest of white, embellished with large, blue crystals that mimicked the image of her inner attributes.
Astonishingly, her hair was even whiter than her dress, and her face looked like a perfect masterpiece sculpted by the joint efforts of all of the greatest craftsmen in Wurden. Her eyes, a light blue that shone in the darkness of the night.
There was, however, another entity who had also survived the endless cold and as I had already seen it once, there was no question about it: It was the same pitch-black, ghostly being that I had seen in another dream.
With the same sharp claws and with an aura of pure death, there was no mistaking it. However, if that thing was still alive, then what had happened to the swordsman with flaming red hair?
It was a question that I desperately wanted an answer to, but as gigantic spikes of ice began to appear all around the queen of ice, I sort of understood that I wouldn't get an answer.
Because a moment later, the icicles of impossible size were launched and in sync with that attack, the black figure also flew forward, eager to slit the throat of the woman I knew as...
"Gasp!"
Once more I had woken up in a cold sweat, with the bad dream still crystal clear in my head. I had ignored it the first time, but this time, I had a much more difficult time shaking it off. Because obviously, I understood who the people in my dreams were. But that didn't mean that I thought of the dreams as having actual value.
What was weird was that I couldn't figure out why I was having these bad dreams, as I had never dreamt anything like them before. Ultimately, I couldn't find a clear answer, only a couple of theories.
'Is it due to fatigue? I guess I have done a number on my body this last week...'
Of course, I found it a bit weird that I was dreaming about these specific people, but in the end, I had no choice but to assume that they were just that; dreams, and nothing but dreams.
Instead, I forced myself out of bed, feeling the body that had somehow gotten into even worse shape than yesterday. Even standing was now difficult as my quads quivered every time a muscle contracted.
'One step forward...'
****
[Cerus' POV]
'What is he doing...'
Yet again I was forced to watch the black-haired man pretend to be a weakling during training with Instructor Folm. At this point I wasn't even angry anymore that he acted like a clown, I was more intrigued as to why he went so far just to keep this act up.
It just didn't make any sense to me.
It wasn't that I didn't know that the training we were doing was pretty harsh, because honestly, it was tough. But was it tough enough to make someone of Ray's caliber tremble from exhaustion? No way. No matter what, I wouldn't believe that. Not after what he had shown us.
No one could exhibit such abilities and still have a body that could barely endure the training that was part of a freshman course.
'But I got to admit... he is a really good actor. But I am not gonna be fooled again.'
Ray's performance did look very realistic, as every muscle he activated quivered in response to the load of carrying his own body, yet as he was still somehow continuing on without falling, it was also obvious that he was pretending.
There was no way someone in that actual state would be able to keep training, after all.
****
[Zoe' POV]
*Tak*
Putting down my tray of food on the table, I didn't waste any time before taking a bite of the steak lying on my plate. Just like always it was bland to me, tasteless even. But despite of that, I kept eating like I had been taught to do.
This morning's lecture had been as plain as always, as there was nothing new for me to learn. Which was to be expected as it wasn't expected of me to learn anything at the academy, I was only here to excel. However, that didn't make things less boring. \
One thing that piqued my interest, though, was a certain man who didn't appear to have any sort of thoughts about social hierarchies as he always chose to sit with me during lunch, even though I was a Damaris.
'He's later than usual...'
These last two days, he had showed up a bit later than usual and from his worn-out appearance, I assumed that it was because he was going through a rough time, likely not used to training as hard as the academy expected of him.
That being said, he was still proud enough to not complain, no matter how obvious it was that he was completely exhausted. He just sat himself down and devoured his food like it was his last meal, as well as the most delicious thing he had ever eaten.
I found it refreshing, but also a bit off-putting. To me, food had never been something that I enjoyed. No, more accurately, I hadn't enjoyed food in a long time, as it had lost its taste at the same time when I lost my...
*Pak!*
Just as I was diving into some bad memories, Ray had finally arrived at the table, putting his tray down before sitting himself down with clearly trembling legs.
With dry skin and hollow eyes, as well as arms that shook every time he lifted his fork to stuff his mouth with meat, he looked even worse than yesterday. These last two days, I had told him explicitly that he didn't look well, but today... I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
'He looks so pained... but he is still smiling with every bite...'
Therefore, with a foreign emotion that made me feel slightly sick to my stomach, I ate in silence, trying my best not to stare at the man in front of me who appeared to be at death's door.
****
[Ray's POV]
With Friday already rolling around, it was finally time for my first exposure to one of the secondary courses that I had picked out. So now, with me and a lot of other students sitting cross-legged inside of an almost dojo-looking room, with the floor covered with tatami mats and the walls covered with all kinds of different calligraphy.
In front of us, a younger, female teacher was standing tall, wearing the iconic white uniform and her ginger hair put up in a ponytail. With some pretty exaggerated womanly assets, she was in many ways a complete knock-out. Yet, due to my foggy mind, I was currently numb to it.
'One more step...'
"Welcome, everyone. My name is Emi Lee, but you may call me Ms. Lee. This will be the first session of the Magical Skills Development course and to start us off, I want to begin by covering all the bases by doing an introductory presentation. I am aware that many of you are well beyond that level, but unfortunately, you will have to tolerate it."
With students like Zoe being part of the course, who was hailed as one of the two top students, it wasn't hard to guess which students she thought were beyond the level of the basics, but I was still thankful as I was likely the student who knew the least about the subject.
Now it was just a matter of forcing myself to soak up as much information as possible while bearing with the exhaustion that was threatening to devour me whole. Thankfully, Ms. Lee appeared to be pretty enthusiastic about teaching, which did help a bit.
"Let's begin by dispelling the somewhat common myth that magical skills are the only way to conjure magical phenomena."
With a smile, our teacher pointed her index finger upward, and a moment later...
*Fwosh!*
...a small fire was created from nothing from it, similar to the flame of a very strong lighter.
"This is not a skill. This is me utilizing the mana inside of my body to create magical phenomena, in this case creating a small flame. Now, I won't be going into the specifics of spell conjuring as it's called, but I just want to make it crystal clear that skills are not equal to using the mana more organically."
Extinguishing the flame, our teacher kept talking with a big smile on her face.
"Skills can be compared to lines of code that our bodies and souls have been imprinted with, either through strict training or through the blessing of Abassi, in other words through our classes. Our classes also act as both a catalyst for us to learn certain skills but also as a filter as to what 'codes' we can imprint."
And so, I kept trying my hardest to keep up with Ms. Lee's slow lecture while at the same time trying to ignore the muscles that kept pulsing with pain.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票