A plain grassland lay nestled amidst towering mountains. Winds, originating from the west, carried tree leaves towards a village composed of dark wood and concrete houses. A wooden wall encircled the entire settlement, guarded by figures in leather armor wielding spears.
On the outskirts of the village, a single, family-sized stone house stood.
"Mother!" a boy with black hair and black eyes exclaimed, running towards her.
"Oh, what is it, Art?" his mother replied, a smile gracing her lips. She possessed beautiful features, black hair and black eyes, her long tresses tied in a ponytail. The wind playfully tousled her ponytail, enhancing her captivating smile.
The boy gazed in awe at the mesmerizing woman before him.
"Mom, you're so beautiful today," the boy beamed.
His mother, taken aback, immediately covered her face with both hands, embarrassed by her son's sudden compliment.
"Huh? Mom's embarrassed!" the boy giggled, amused by her reaction.
"It's not good teasing your own mother, you know," she chided gently, patting his head, her face still flushed with embarrassment.
"I'm telling the truth," the boy declared with unwavering confidence.
"It's windy outside. Let's go inside, Art," she said, taking his hand.
"Yup," he agreed with a smile, and they entered the stone house.
Minutes later, the scene outside the stone house dramatically shifted, The vibrant grassland was now scorched and scarred by sharp objects.
The family's stone house lay in ruins, large chunks scattered across the plain. Only a fraction of the structure remained, its surviving stones now covered in moss.
Bloodstains marred the remnants of the house and even some parts of the grass.
Shockingly, the village remained untouched, not a single structure damaged by the mysterious assault.
At that time, the villagers celebrated, feasting on animals and drinking alcohol late into the night until everyone fell asleep.
In the distance, a boy with white hair and white eyes glared menacingly at the village walls.
Soon, a massive white magic circle, twice the size of the village, materialized in the sky.
The residents, still oblivious, had no time to react before tens of thousands of swords, emitting a vibrant white aura, rained down upon the village.
The swords descended with lightning speed, in an instant, the peaceful celebration transformed into a massacre. The village suffered devastation beyond repair, covered in countless long white swords.
Then, the space around him collapsed, and everything went black.
"Ugh," he groaned, a slight headache throbbing in his head.
Art woke from a nightmare, a fragment of the previous Art Devion's childhood memories.
He knew nothing of Art Devion's early life.
Art was a unique character in Lunarian Projection, one of the few without a detailed background story provided by the developers. This might have been because he was an extra character in the game, dying early in the storyline.
He perished before reaching his full potential, a character with immense future promise that players never got to fully explore due to his untimely death.
One of his unique skills had piqued players' attention, though it was only displayed once during the Hells' invasion inside the academy library.
Dismissing his fuzzy memories, he glanced at the window beside the door, noticing it was already morning. Art had things to do today. He tried to stand from the sofa.
"?" Something was blocking his feet. He looked down to see a woman with a cute, delicate face, long blonde hair, and braided tresses, peacefully sleeping, her head resting on her arms on the sofa while her body lay on the floor.
He was so engrossed in his nightmare that he hadn't noticed her sleeping at his feet.
"Haah..." He sighed in disbelief and activated his Wisdom Eye.
Status: Projectix
[ Name: Cecilia Floral ]
[ Race: Floral beings (Female) ]
[ Overall stats is synchronized to 'Art Devion' ]
[ State: Sleeping, body status is normal. ]
[ Mana stable. ]
Her body seemed to have recovered from mana exhaustion. Although Art didn't know why the woman had depleted her mana to the point of unconsciousness, he would ask her when she woke up.
Art slowly removed his feet from the woman, careful not to disturb her sleep. Once on his feet, he carried her back to the bed in a princess carry, which made him feel awkward. He closed the door and left as soon as he laid her down, heading outside to prepare for the academy.
Now that he was a little stronger due to the skill points granted by the system, he headed to the plain area, not far from the cabin.
On his way, he grabbed the sword he used daily. It was his only sword, he had no money to buy a new one from the capital, nor could he afford transportation there. He was, simply put, poor.
The previous Art had always lived in harsh environments, born a commoner with both parents missing, likely deceased.
"Swing!" He swiftly swung his sword at a nearby small tree.
"Crack." The small tree was cleanly sliced by the sword's swift speed. It fell with a soft thud that Art barely noticed.
He looked at the sword, gripped tightly in his hand. Small cracks had begun to appear on its blade. It was a naive decision he made, the sword's durability could still withstand strong attacks. Art continued to swing until his body gave up, and he collapsed to the ground.
Strong winds blew from the mountains, and beautiful clouds formed on the horizon, partially obscuring the risen sun.
'How beautiful,' he thought, admiring the view. He imagined that once he entered the academy, there would be opportunities to freely visit any place on the continent. It seemed like a reason to enjoy life, but it was something he needed to do to save people.
He had to stop the dark mages in the future, and to achieve that, he had to locate their headquarters. Not even the royal magicians and army knew its whereabouts.
The leader of the dark mages was a Z-ranking threat to the continent, and there were four more unconfirmed beings who had reached the pinnacle of strength and magic.
After practicing, Art walked back to the cabin and began cooking the fish he had frozen using one of Art Devion's artifacts—a medium-sized cyan box that functioned like a modern refrigerator, its top opening to reveal a cold interior.
His water supply also came from an artifact that collected rainwater and purified it. It was something amazing, even for a modern person.
He arrived and opened the cabin door, placing his sword beside the wall. He walked towards the small kitchen.
As he approached, he noticed that the bedroom door was open, but the woman was nowhere to be seen.
He checked the bed, it seemed to have been made already, the pillow and blanket neatly folded. He searched almost everywhere in the cabin; the only room left was the kitchen.
Art quickly walked towards the kitchen, noticing that the only apron hanging on the wall was gone.
'Don't tell me...' he thought, rushing into the kitchen.
"Huh?" The woman looked at the door.
Art entered the kitchen and couldn't help but make a strange face, seeing the woman wearing an apron and a blue sweater.
"...." Speechless, he dismissed his thoughts and walked towards the woman, who was holding a kitchen knife.
"What are you doing?" he asked, confused by her actions.
"Cooking," she said nonchalantly, proceeding to cut the fish in half.
She precisely sliced the remaining fish without breaking a sweat, like a master chef, Art thought.
"Wait, shouldn't I be the one to cook?" he asked the woman, whose focus remained on the fish in front of her.
"You just finished your sword practice, right?" she countered, refusing to let him cook.
"This is my cabin," he stated, refusing to back down.
"Ours, you mean?" she said, glancing at Art.
"What do you mean by ours?" he asked, tilting his head. Technically, it was Art's cabin and items.
"...." She didn't reply, simply giving him a nonchalant look that made him feel even more awkward.
A few seconds passed, and Art allowed the woman to cook, but on one condition, he would help her, which she agreed to with a smile.
After a few minutes, the fish was finally cooked.
The two of them moved to the table. Sitting down, Art chose to sit on the opposite side, but Cecilia followed him.
"..." Noticing this, he simply brushed off the awkwardness and didn't bother to change seats. They began eating the cooked fish.
It was quite delicious to Art, and Cecilia seemed to be enjoying it too.
"This is delicious," Art complimented her.
"Thank you, I knew you'd like it," she said, smiling, which surprised Art.
"You knew?" he asked, questioning Cecilia.
"Yup," she affirmed, a rather short answer to his question.
Art didn't press for more answers and continued to eat. Cecilia looked at him and then quickly finished her own food.
Art finished first and took his plate, intending to wash the dishes himself. Before he could get away, Cecilia spoke.
"I'll help you," she said, preparing to stand and follow him to the kitchen.
"You just finished eating; just sit there," he replied, smiling with his eyes closed.
"..." Not understanding the situation, Cecilia tried to argue.
"But, you're the same too," she said, refusing to give up.
"I've had time to rest while waiting for you to finish, so it'll be more convenient if I wash the dishes," Art said, showing no sign of giving up.
"..." Cecilia just stared blankly at Art. She soon gave up and remained seated.
As their conversation ended, Art walked out of the room and cleaned the dishes himself. He planned to sort out his thoughts after cleaning the dishes to have a proper conversation with Cecilia.
Once he finished, he came out of the kitchen and saw Cecilia on the sofa, playing with the koalian's tail.
Noticing Art's presence, she looked at him. They glanced at each other, both with nonchalant expressions.
The koalian, just noticing the two, tilted its head in confusion, unable to read the mood in the room. Then it jumped onto Cecilia's thigh and lay down. Cecilia, noticing this, patted the koalian's head.
"There, there," she spoke, smiling.
"You seem rather composed," Art said with a sigh.
"Yup," she replied.
'This woman, no, Cecilia Floral, one of the world wonders,' he thought. It was because the woman in front of him was full of mystery.
"Hey, Art," she suddenly called his name.
"How did you know my name?" Art asked, confused and surprised.
"I just know," she said, her face not even flinching.
"Could you elaborate more accurately?" Art said, not understanding a thing from what Cecilia said.
"I just woke up yesterday, and when I saw you, I instantly knew who you were. Somehow, when I'm close to you, my body feels calmer, and some of my thoughts just go away," she explained.
Art looked at her, knowing what she said was true. It was probably because he was the one responsible for, or who found, the world wonder, but he couldn't be so sure.
Without thinking too much, he simply agreed with Cecilia, there was no point in lying anyway.
"I see." There was no point in delving deeper. Art simply agreed.
"Art," she said, calling for him.
"Yeah?" Art replied, seated beside her.
"My name is Cecilia Floral. Please just call me Cecilia," she said, smiling.
Although Art already knew her name, he pretended not to, simply going with the flow of the conversation.
"Okay, Cecilia," Art said, a bit embarrassed.
"Art is embarrassed?" she said, delighted by his reaction.
They continued their conversation until the afternoon. Art worked and practiced his sword while Cecilia stayed inside the cabin, secretly cleaning and playing with the koalian.
It was already evening, and they had finished eating fish. Art had gone out again that afternoon to the river to get more fish, this time, he was lucky and caught 12 fish, filling a wooden bucket with fresh catches.
Before bedtime, Art went to shower, using river water as a source. The bathroom was large enough for a comfortable shower. After getting out of the bathroom, he noticed Cecilia glaring at him from the sofa.
"Something wrong?" he asked Cecilia.
"..." No response.
"The bathroom is free to use, you know," Art said, trying to figure out the problem.
"But..." she said, her face worried. Art realized Cecilia didn't have any clothes.
"If you need any clothes, just use mine; it's fine," Art offered, trying to ease her worries.
"That's not it. I can use my mana to create clothing," she said before he could speak again.
"I don't know how to bathe." She glanced at the wall, avoiding eye contact with Art.
"..." Art just stared at her, speechless.
After a minute of silence, Art taught Cecilia how to properly bathe, of course, verbally, not physically, that would be detrimental to his sanity. After he finished explaining, he led Cecilia to the bath and showed her the items used for bathing. He then left, having explained everything.
Art planned to sleep on the sofa for a while, waiting for the academy's flying airship to arrive. It was an expensive, luxurious airship designed by the top magicians and engineers in this rapidly advancing magical world.
"Why are you sleeping on the sofa?" Cecilia asked after finishing her bath and changing into a white long-sleeve shirt.
"Go sleep on the bed," Art said with a confused tone.
"It seems likely that my introduction was lacking earlier," she said with a hint of disappointment.
"Yeah," Art straight-up agreed.
"I have a spirit body and have the ability to coalesce with the founders," she said, her face serious. That could only mean one thing: she could manifest inside Art's body and stay as a spirit.
"Is that so?" He stood up and headed to the bedroom. As he walked, Cecilia's body transformed into a small, translucent yellow butterfly and entered Art's body. At first, it was surprising, and he felt a strange, unexplainable sensation in his body.
'Good night, Art,' her voice happily said.
'Telepathy?' Art was even more surprised. He hadn't expected much, but it was understandable since Cecilia was inside his body.
'Good night,' Art replied as he got into bed. Immediately after getting into bed, Art fell asleep. The rollercoaster of surprises he experienced today might have been just a fraction of what was to come.