Keep my wits about me, my ass.
Lynel had told me that the evening before I started working and training.
Only two days have passed since then and I already feel like I'm about to collapse. Terrick's been beating me ruthlessly since I fought the chaotic daemon, too.
What makes it worse is the fact that I'm basically just an errand boy.
Outside of me doing the errand boy jobs, everyone kind of sticks to their own task. It's like I'm the only one in this huge castle and all the other servants appear to ask for something, then vanish.
Running back and forth, up and down the entire castle for a majority of the day, then go get my bones broken and healed by Terrick and the supervisor until late evening.
I guess he went as easy as he could on that first spar where I somewhat won, having him land on his back. After that it's just been loss after loss. Not that I mind, I'm still learning, but it hurts.
Even when I was able to go 'rest' back in my room during the night, I stayed up to study, sneaking a couple of books or so.
That aside, the books were what I looked forward to the most.
Books related to history and daemons were the ones I've been reading.
Turns out there's five known classification of species for daemons, sort of like the stray beast rankings.
Soul, Sinful, Chaotic, Devil, Dread.
The strength between each rank is basically a brand new dimension, especially when a devil changes to a dread.
But, that was all I could read out of the daemon book before Terrick found it in my room and confiscated it that same night.
He did let me keep the history one, though.
Not sure why.
The history one was also pretty interesting. The Slash that divided the daemon and human continents was explained a bit.
But I haven't read that far into it yet.
…
I sigh as I sit at my table in the dining hall, eating dinner for that night.
'The end of my second day.'
After two more days, I'll be sent to Aleon.
I was nervous, but also kind of excited.
I was somewhat settling into a routine, but good thing I'll be leaving Gate before I get too used to things here.
It's been a little under a week in total, I believe.
'Arriving here with Ayra, training with Terrick, my fight with the chaotic species. Then the past two days of working myself to the point where I was crawling.'
I finished eating and cleaned up my table.
After putting away my plate, I fixed up the uniform that was given to me.
They feel nice, and look nice too.
I had seen the other servants wearing them, but I didn't realize how comfortable the uniform was for how proper it looked.
The uniform was mostly black, the inner linings and a couple more stripes on the sleeves were white, in the middle was a little dark blue tie on my neck.
That was the only uncomfortable piece, but it's fine for the most part.
I head out of the dining hall and start walking to my room.
Another thing that's been nice is that I'm getting used to my eye.
Feeling the silk around the left side of my face.
'This is going to be detrimental at some point…'
I wonder if there's a medic in Ayen or anywhere in Aleon that could heal this.
If I had the eye that was ripped out, maybe. But they'd need to create an entirely new one for me.
"Ugh…"
I move my hand to rub the middle of my face.
"I don't know what to do…"
I feel like I want to continue reading.
Terrick did say we wouldn't spar today, so I could go by myself.
'Right…'
I stopped walking and changed directions toward the training grounds.
…
I did the same thing as the first time, but instead of a pile of wooden weapons, I set out the ones with the range I liked the most.
Medium length, I think?
Toward the shorter side, but not as small as a dagger.
I recalled how close I was to the chaotic.
Yeah, no. Not my style for sure.
I grab a couple of swords and test different ways of gripping their handles.
I want to learn more about combat. I truly do. It's my only way of defending myself in case another daemon or stray beast decides I look delicious.
Yet, my only way of actually learning is in between sessions of getting thrashed like a ragdoll.
I set out a dummy and tested different methods and angles of slashing.
Nothing felt right, or really clicked.
'Maybe I should have taken swordsmanship classes at school.'
I look down at the wooden blade in my hands, then glance around the perimeter of the training grounds.
My eyes fall on the steel made swords.
They're also practice blades, since most strong humans won't be too hurt by just steel.
Mithril is where damage starts being done to people.
I walk over and pick up a weapon, its light.
Seems easy to swing too.
I walk back to the dummy and slowly do some angled slashes, trying not to immediately destroy it.
"Mmm… eh."
I'm hitting a block, I could tell.
Terrick doesn't know how to actually teach me, and I doubt any of the servants have taken extensive sword training.
A thought strikes me.
'What if I find a teacher in Aleon? It's the capital so it should be easy, right?'
I smiled a bit at the thought.
I'm not sure how far away the entrance exam is, but I'm positive if I can just get some fair teaching, I might actually learn more than what I am now.
I put the steel sword back, then the wooden ones.
I pat the dummy for some reason and pick it up. I carry it over to the rest and set it down.
After cleaning up, I finally start walking to my room for the night.
Though, another idea hit me.
The memories.
My grey world. The weird thing that I still have no idea about.
I'd thought about it before, and that I would like to know what they are exactly, other than memories.
Like whose memories are there.
I saw Cronus's and even lived through a short and easy one.
But what about the others?
There were stars there even before whatever happened to Cronus.
Does that mean I have other memories to access than just Cronus's?
I… want to see.
I pick up my pace to my room and head downstairs.
Entering the hall, I dart to my door and close it gently behind me.
I take a deep breath and swallow my saliva, walking over to my bed.
'To enter the world, I'm not one hundred percent sure how, but it's sleeping, right?'
I glance around my room.
It's the same as normal. Stone bricks lining the walls, the same for the floor. My bed and its white sheets, the stand next to my bed, the door to the hallway outside and just to its right was the one to the bathroom.
I am kind of tired, so sleeping doesn't sound too bad, but what if I don't enter it?
"Whatever."
I change out of my uniform and into something looser, more comfortable. I take off the silk around my head and set the long scarf on the nightstand next to the bed.
I hop in and let my head hit the pillow, closing my eyes.
"Huu…"
…
Oh, how convenient it would be to fall asleep immediately.
I began to relax.
…
…
*****
Fault was sleeping peacefully on his decently-sized bed.
Terrick slowly entered the kid's room and took the history book he forgot to confiscate.
He wasn't sure why Fault took them, he was gonna learn about what he needed to anyway in Ayen Academy.
Terrick was pretty confident Fault would get in through the entrance exam. It made him happy that he was teaching such a prodigy.
'What an experience!'
He smiled to himself as he stepped out of Fault's room, carrying the history book. He walked down the hall and back upstairs, going back to his father's study.
Lynel was swamped with work and repairs, they were mostly done, but people wanted compensation.
He was nearing the end of deals and whatnot, so Terrick thought he would get a spar between his father and Fault too, at least once.
At least that's what he had wanted to do.
Fault didn't wake up for a day and a half after that night.