About three hours had passed since Francis had awakened from his sleep. At that moment, he was finishing his breakfast.
He had prepared a scrambled egg sandwich and a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, two relatively simple meals to prepare that, in addition to being delicious, fit perfectly into his diet by satisfying his protein, fat, and carbohydrate needs—the three main macronutrients—in the morning. After all, Francis had his own exercise routine, and without proper nutrition, his results would be compromised.
The slices of bread in the sandwich provided a good amount of carbohydrates, the scrambled eggs and milk in the porridge provided adequate protein, and the fats were well distributed among the ingredients. In addition, the oats in the porridge are themselves quite rich in fiber, which aids in digestion and nutrient absorption.
To be honest, when Francis first adopted this exact breakfast into his diet, he couldn't say he got along well with the "tasteless" flavor of traditional oatmeal, especially considering the fact that, somewhat reluctantly, he didn't allow himself to add sugar or sweeteners to the recipe to make the flavor more palatable to his spoiled taste buds. That's when the solution came from his best friend: adding a banana to the mix while preparing the porridge, not only enhancing the flavor in a healthy and nutritious way, but also adding a new source of carbohydrates to his breakfast.
Stopping to think about it now, it's surprising how natural it has become to prepare this same meal every morning, considering how difficult it was for me in the beginning. I think I owe that to Lucas, and also to Rose. He reflected.
But despite all this attention to detail when considering a mere breakfast, Francis did not consider himself an athlete, far from it. He was just someone who had learned to value healthy habits.
Finally, when he had completely finished his meal, he picked up the plates, bowls, and utensils he had used and took them to the sink, washing them right away. With that, he was able to leave the kitchen and walk to the living room. There, he threw himself comfortably on the sofa, lying down and relaxing his muscles.
He then began to stare at the ceiling, and in his mind, he considered a few possibilities.
I still have an hour until Lucas comes to get me for our workout. Should I play a game? Nah, I'm not really in the mood, and besides, it's not like there's anything interesting to play right now anyway. Also, I don't feel like reading, so...
Only one option remained, the simplest and most effective.
Francis grabbed his phone, turned it on, and after a few moments, he opened a popular social network.
With the relatively little time he had until Lucas arrived, scrolling through this social network, entertaining himself with whatever the algorithm recommended, seemed like the easiest and most appropriate distraction.
Deep down, he couldn't deny that something about it bothered him, but he chose not to think too much about it.
He then spent the next few moments scrolling through funny posts, entertaining videos, and informative posts on topics that interested him or were trending. However, at one point, Francis came across a rather curious post.
[Wanted vigilante attempts to assassinate judge]
That...
Upon reading the title of what was likely a news video, Francis immediately thought of something, but before jumping to conclusions, he started the video.
"During the night of yesterday, Sunday, August 31, a judge of the Royal Court of Millem, Jonathan Kolm, suffered an assassination attempt at his own residence, which was allegedly caused by a mysterious, yet well-known vigilante.
According to Jonathan's statement, that day, around early afternoon, he went to a birthday party at the home of a colleague from the Royal Court where he spent his afternoon, and around 6:00 p.m., he left the birthday party to return to his home, which is located in a condominium in the South Zone of Millem, arriving back around 7:00 p.m. All of these allegations were corroborated by surveillance cameras and the statements of party guests that investigators have been able to collect so far.
According to Jonathan's statement, as soon as he entered his home after his return, he did not notice anything strange or out of place on the first floor, so he went up to the second floor, heading to his room to change clothes. Then, according to him, when he left the room, he noticed something quite unusual. On the ceiling at the end of the second-floor hallway, there is a trapdoor that leads directly to the attic. According to Jonathan, the trapdoor is usually closed, and as expected, when he walked down the hallway before entering his room to change clothes, the trapdoor was closed as usual. However, when he left, the trapdoor, which had been closed, was now ajar.
This immediately set off alarm bells in the judge's head, as it was not as if the wind could open a ceiling trapdoor like that, and even if it could, there was no strong draft passing through that hallway at that moment, as it would have been noticeable. Therefore, the most plausible possibility he could imagine at that moment was that he was facing a home invasion in his own residence.
Quickly and discreetly, Jonathan would have returned to his room to retrieve a gun he kept hidden in a drawer with the intention of confronting the possible intruder. The weapon was later identified as a Rhinefeld M19 pistol model for home defense, which was within the legal requirements for carrying weapons.
When asked why he chose to confront the intruder directly instead of trying to leave the scene to call the police, Jonathan explained that the condominium had fairly decent security, and therefore, for an intruder to have been able to break into his home undetected, he must certainly be someone competent. For Jonathan, the fact that the trapdoor was ajar was a subtle way for the intruder to announce his presence.
In this case, if the intruder was confident enough to announce his presence in this way, it was a sign to be careful. Furthermore, he could not be sure if the intruder was acting alone or if there were other people working with him, possibly hiding elsewhere in his home, ready to catch him if he made a misstep. Considering all this, it was safe for the judge to conclude that until he had more information about what was happening, he was in the hands of the intruder and not the other way around, and unfortunately, the best way he had to get information at that moment was to confront the intruder.
Jonathan, as he himself admitted, had experience from his time in the military when he was younger, which gave him this instinct for caution and precaution when faced with situations like this. Finally, with the gun in his hands, he approached the half-open trapdoor and asked who was there. But according to him, initially, no one answered, and because of that, he had to get even closer.
Then, when he had finally gotten close enough to stand under the trapdoor, trying to see who might be hiding in that attic, that's when, according to Jonathan, the chaos began.
At that moment, through the crack in the half-open trapdoor, something fell, a small black object that immediately distracted his attention, but before he could even identify what it was, a figure, the intruder who was in the attic, opened the trapdoor and quickly descended, immobilizing the distracted judge.
At that moment, in the shock of the moment, he fired his gun, hitting the floor and the wall. According to Jonathan, the figure's strength was surprisingly high. With only one arm, the figure was applying enormous pressure to his neck, and with the other hand, the figure grabbed his hand that was holding the gun, preventing him from using it effectively.
If the situation continued that way, he would be suffocated until he lost consciousness, so, drawing on his military training, Jonathan was able to headbutt the figure behind him in the face, loosening its grip so he could grab its arm and throw it to the ground. Then, the judge wasted no time, aiming at the figure lying on the floor and firing the pistol directly at him.
However, as he described, the figure was able to dodge the shot with incredible agility, rolling across the floor and using the momentum to kick directly at the hand carrying the gun, throwing it toward the wall. With that, the figure quickly grabbed the gun that had fallen to the floor and skillfully moved away from the judge, positioning himself at a considerable distance.
Finally, when the figure stopped moving, Jonathan was able to glimpse his appearance in detail. It was an athletic female figure, dressed in a black tactical suit with gray details that covered her entire body. The suit appeared to be designed for combat, as parts of it seemed to be made of a resistant polymer, similar to armor plates.
At her waist, there appeared to be a utility belt carrying pockets and objects that the judge was unable to identify, however, he could see two holsters, both carrying blades of different sizes, totaling two blades.
The figure's hair was hidden by a hood, and their face was covered by a simple black mask, up to their nose. The only visible part of their face was their eyes, which revealed that the figure had almost pale white skin and striking blue eyes.
With this description given by Jonathan, it was entirely possible to infer that the figure who broke into his residence and attacked him was, in fact, the mysterious vigilante of Eadengard, popularly known in the media and on the internet as Raven..."