The sun was finally rising from the east. The sunshine it cast was entering through the windows, illuminating the dimly lit room, the faint rustling of leaves and the gentle chirping of birds could be heard. The room that was lit by the sun was rather simple, as if the owner did not have any will to decorate it. Despite the fact, the room still managed to look organized and easy to the eye.
The room had an average size with a rectangle formation, the floor was made of wooden, and it was adorned with a plain brown colored carpet. The windows were rather large, the curtains were open, letting the sunlight in. To the wide of the window, there was a wooden desk with a mirror on top of it. The desk had several books on it, it was rather unkept in contrast to the whole room. The shelf that was to the left of the desk was rather plain too, it only had 3 doors and a mirror that had several fingerprint stains on it.
There was a clock on the desk, ticking silently. It was the only source of sound inside the room.
On the other side of the room, there laid a bed, which has its side pressed against the wall. There laid a rather young man. His face was sculpted with striking sharpness—high cheekbones, a straight, narrow nose, and a fine jawline that exuded cold grace even when asleep. His lips were pale and thin.
The young man was only wearing dark pants, that resembled the lower part of some robes. His upper body was laid bare. His body is long-limbed and sinewy, wrapped in a lean but toned frame. Broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist, a body that most young men would kill to have. His skin is pale and unmarred, like ivory stretched over steel. His long, raven black hair was scattered across the blankets and to his chest.
The boy stirred from his sleep, creaking the bed softly as light from the windows shined to his face, it seemed that he was finally waking up. Slowly opening his eyes, he sat up and ruffled his hair. His eyes were narrow and elegant, with grey irises that gleam with a distant gaze, framed by long dark lashes.
He let out a loud yawn as he stretched his arms. "Good morning to me.."
***
He got up from his bed, walking to the desk he picked the top of his robes and put it around his shoulders, not bothering to cover his front. Walking to the door, he slowly exited the his room. His room was on the second floor, and was the only room on the second room as well.
The wooden stairs creaked under his weight, it would seem they were rather old. As he descended down to the first floor, he immediately used the bathroom to wash his face and then brush his teeth.
The ground floor of the house consisted of 2 rooms. A kitchen that was combined with a living room and the hall, and a bedroom. However the bedroom was not in use, there were some sheets on the blankets of the queen sized bed, so that the blankets would not catch any dust. The only thing illuminating the house was the sun that sneaked through the windows.
In the living room the couches also had some sheets on them for the same purpose, only one of the armchairs was free to sit on. There was a clock on the wall, ticking slowly. It seemed that the boy was the only person who was living in this house.
Currently in the kitchen, the young boy named Shi Egeria was having a breakfast. His breakfast consisted of a few slices of breads with some cheese on them, and a cup of tea. He had a calm expression on his face as he ate.
After finally finishing his breakfast, Egeria walked to the side of the hall which was separate from the combined rooms. There was a memorial of sorts, on it there was a photo of a rather average looking man and a beautiful woman, they sat in each others arms.
Egeria did not bow, nor show any glimpse of sadness.
"My respects, I guess." He said in a sarcastic tone as he leaned forward to grab an axe that rested against the wall near the memorial.
The couple in the photo was Egeria's parents when they were young. His mother had died during childbirth and his father had died due to experiencing a lot of sadness after his mother's death. So Egeria had never really meet any of them.
Casting a one last glance, he put on some sandals and walked out the door. Immediately sun shined to his face, causing him to lift a hand to block it off. When his eyes finally adjusted to the light he finally let go.
***
Egeria lived in an isolated town. The town was in the middle of a huge forest, it was said that if you went too far away from the village, you would never be able to come back.
But of course, that was just a children's bed time story. The real reason was that the forest was actually infested with echoborns, so no one really tried to run away. Additionally they did not allow the people to go outside this town, only some hunt teams could go out from time to time.
Surprisingly, Echoborns or other humans never approached this town either. This made people believe that this place was sacred, as the first dwellers of this town discovered signs of Freedom Goddess's presence in here.
The forest itself was located in Caucasia, during the first overclock everywhere around the area was transformed into a jungle. Unlike the other strongholds they did not have electricity here, so they had no way of communicating with other human civilizations. But at least they had some information about them.
In this town everyone above twenty years old was actually a Harmonic. People were required to become one between the ages of fifteen and twenty. Egeria did not know how they infected people with dissonance purposefully, however he knew that they did not care if you actually failed the test. They simply wanted you to become a Harmonic, or just turn into an Echoborn and be killed.
He did not understand the purpose of this, but he had no ways of going against it anyways. Egeria himself was seventeen, and he was going to take the harmonic test this year. Most of the Harmonics in this town were around "Re" rank. The most powerful one was a "Fa". Which was the mayor and his wife.
***
He was going outside with his chest bare, but he was not shy about since no one was around.
Additionally not many people passed by this area..
Well other than his old neighbor who was outside watching her trees all day.
'What a bother..' He thought as the old lady turned her gaze towards Egeria when he stepped out from his house.
"Good morning young man. Don't you think it is bad manners to leave yourself bare outside?"
"Yeah.. Good morning miss Alaric.." Egeria ignored her and walked towards the back of his house. The back of his house was infested with trees, and he had took it on himself to cut them all down starting this year, and he was gaining some money from selling the logs after.
He had bought the axe in his hand by helping around the garden of his neighbor. She had paid him handsomely, so he had bought this axe to cut down trees and sell them afterwards.
As Egeria approached the trees, he immediately got to inspecting them. Since he was feeling rather lazy today he was looking for a rather thin one.
After finding his target for the day, leave removed his top, then walked towards the thin tree and walked around it. It was not tall either and had a rather thin trunk.
'Judging its leaning angle it would fall to the left — away from the house, hopefully.'
He brushed away some stubborn brambles hugging the roots by using his axe so his job would get easier.
Egeria took his stance and chose where he was going to strike down the tree. He raised the axe and swung in a steady arc, sinking it into the trunk with a loud sound of metal hitting wood. Chips of wood scattered as he carved downward, then again upward — forming a deep, ragged wedge. He continued his process of cutting down a tree, sweat rolled down his forehead as he worked under the sun. And then, with a long, splintering sound, the trunk gave in. Egeria stepped away just as the tree tilted forward and fell, crashing down with a thunderous snap and a quake beneath his feet.
Unlike the rest of his life, the tree didn't argue. It simply leaned, groaned, and fell.
He swung down his axe and plunged it onto the trunk of the tree. He observed it as he massaged his own arms.
'Should make my next week's meal..'
When Egeria was going to start cutting down the branches, he saw someone familiar approaching.
"Need a hand?" her voice sounded flat.
***
The woman was Nymphia, Nymphia Virellis. She was a childhood friend of Egeria, as she mostly hang around him since she was more of an outcast and was considered weird. Egeria did not have the best reputation either, so they hung around sometimes.
Her face was soft and rounded, yet held in a stillness that felt unnatural. Her skin looked smooth, cold to the eye. Her gaze was half-lidded, lashes low and heavy, as if she hadn't slept in the night. Her eyes had no warmth to them, like they saw everything but never let anything show. Her lips were small, slightly parted, and a single fang peeked through.
Her hair spilled down her back in thick waves of ink-black, tied off in messy clusters with crimson ribbons. Her frame was slight, willowy, however slightly toned. A loose white kimono top clung to her toned shoulders, light and layered, sleeves drifting with movement. At her waist, a single crimson flower rested. One leg was wrapped in white cloth; the other left bare under a high slit. Her boots didn't match—one plain, the other marked with a red leaf stitched into black.
"How are you going to be of help? You don't even have an axe." After a slight pause, he continued. "Didn't your parents tell you to not hang around with me? You are even more rebellious than I thought." he said sarcastically.
At first, she didn't react to him and simply tilting her head while reaching out to sleeve of her kimono. She pulled out a sharp looking dagger and smiled at him eerily as if she was going to drill holes into him with that dagger.
"Who cares about them? Anyway.. I have this, will it suffice?"
"I suppose it will, cut off the branches and collect them into a corner. I will slice up the trunk."
With a nod, Nymphia got to work and so did Egeria.
***
After some while during the afternoon, Egeria and Nymphia had gathered the tree's leftovers around the house. Nymphia had tied the branches of the tree like a bag so that they could be carried, and Egeria had cut the trunk into several pieces and placed them right next to his house. He would be giving them to the horsemen that collect wood when they passed by this part of the town.
Egeria sat on one of the chopped trunks, finally wearing his robes properly. Nymphia stood before him, her arms crossed loosely.
"Thanks.. it turned out to be faster since you helped."
Nymphia simply gave Egeria a 'mhm.'
"There is going to be a meeting held between high families of the village about the next harmonic test. Mayor and his family will be there too."
"I see. Is your family going?"
Nymphia nodded. "You said you were going to join the tournament, right?"
"Yes. I have nothing to lose anyways.. So I am not scared of the consequences if I fail to survive dissonance."
Well he would be technically surviving, however in the form of an echoborn if he failed to endure it. But that life wouldn't last long either because he would be immediately dealt with by the other harmonics.
"Right, of course you aren't." She spoke up after a second of a pause. "I will join too."
Egeria raised a brow. Nymphia was rather skilled when it came to fighting and all, however he was not expecting her to join the tournament until she was twenty. Currently she was eighteen.
"That is a surprise. Are your parents forcing you?"
"Nah, I just want to join, since your joining too. I don't want to fall behind you." Her tone was even. however Egeria could tell she was rather skeptical of her idea. However he didn't know if she doubted his survival, or hers.
Egeria scoffed. "Sure, make sure not to die then."
"As if.." Nymphia rolled her eyes. "I heard there will be quite a competition during the tournament, mayors daughter is going to join too, and many other ones."
The tournament while important, was simply a tradition. Before turning contestants into Harmonics, first they make them fight in rounds. The higher position you get, the better equipment you would be given, and perhaps some money.
"You are worried of some rich snobby kids?" He said, sarcasm evident in his tone. "Those people have never seen a hardships in their lives, it will be easy."
"You shouldn't undermine the training they go through, even if they don't see hardships they still can train well."
Egeria did not seem convinced about this, however he did not want to argue either.
"I should be leaving for dinner now, my family should be expecting me." Nymphia said, then immediately turned to walk away.
"Gee.. at least say goodbye.." Egeria mumbled under his breath. He picked up the bag of branches Nymphia had collected and started walking towards the center of the town where he could sell them. Perhaps when he became a harmonic, he could flee from this place.
***
Nymphia was walking through the streets of the town. The town was easy to navigate, and since she had lived in this town for eighteen years, she almost knew every corner of it by heart. Roads were made of slabs, most of the houses were made out of wood and most of them were only two-floored. Only some rich families got to have big houses or even estates. Greenery surrounded the roads, bushes, trees, tall grass. It even felt peaceful to breath here.
Nymphia's family themselves owned a three-story house, which was mainly made out of wood like the rest of the town. This was due to her parents being "Mi" ranked harmonics, they were regarded as a high-class family amongst the town.
Unlike her parents Nymphia was not really memorable. She had lived her life mostly as an outcast, and this was why she could get to hang out with Egeria. She never flaunted her high status and stayed silent, which Egeria never gets along with rich people that talk about their status too much. She did not understand why he was so judgmental, but sometimes she could see that he was mostly right about the people he shit talked about.
Her parents did not want her to hang out with someone like Egeria, in the eyes of the higher class families the boy not hold a great reputation as when they were kids he used to beat up rich kids. Of course he never did it for fun, the kids always picked on him. But instead of solving things calmly Egeria used to immediately throw the first punch. Now that he is older, he is a lot calmer now.
That is if you don't count the sarcasm he always uses to disrespect people when he is pissed.
***
Towards the evening Nymphia was out in the garden of their house. She was simply swinging a chain around in practiced motions. Usually she used her kusarigama to train, but it had been taken from her a week ago due to injuring herself clumsily with it. Speaking of the injury, it was a simple scratch and had healed in just two days.
Today she had talked to her parents about the harmonic tournament, and that she wanted to attend it. Her parents did not display any emotions about it, if they were surprised she did not see it. Additionally they mentioned that they would be leaving to a meeting about the tournament tomorrow.
Most importantly she did not even see a hint of worry in their eyes. She did not see any hints of worry in their eyes as if they were not sending her to her possible death. They actually welcomed the idea and even said that they were planning to send her there next year because people would start asking why Nymphia had waited until her twenties to attend the tournament.
Nymphia was not angry, nor sad. She was disappointed that her parents had not showed a single ounce of worry about her life. She did not know why she was disappointed either. It was not the first time something like this had happened, her parents were always distant from her. It was as if they never really cared about her.
The chain hit the ground with a thud, jarring her thoughts, it seems she had been swinging it a bit too fast without noticing..
Nymphia sighed. 'Oh how I wish to leave this place..'
***