A girl who appears older than me floats with her legs crossed in a black space, the void that is space around her surrounding her like a sea. As she opens her eyes I hear her say to me "Open your eyes, you have more to do." And just like that everything turns white and she disappears.
I open my eyes to see more bright lights except for this time there are people around me, people I know. I realize that what I saw before was a dream and that I've woken up in an unfamiliar room. My eyes start to sore as I open them as if they've become sensitive to light. Someone hands me a wet towel who I recognize as Lin, my childhood friend and now a knight. I thank her and place the towel over my eyes.
With a worried face, Lin asks me, "Helio-san, how are you feeling?"
I lay back down on the medical bed and sigh after a deep breath, "I hurt all over, even small actions hurt."
"Are you alright to be talking then?" Lin asked with concern.
I smile, glad that Lin is so worried about me, "As long as I don't overdo myself, have you tried healing magic?"
"The doctor said not to use any until you were conscious since we're not clear on how'd it react with your dark magic."
That made sense as dark magic is widely regarded as a counter against healing-type magic, light magic too as like how water and fire magic have no use besides creating steam to hide. The anti-healing aspect is the least of your worries as dark magic users are usually able to finish enemies off in record timing as history shows, and since dark magic is so rare it's not a big deal.
My thoughts end abruptly when I hear a laugh, I take the towel off my head to see Jin walk through the door with two trays of food. It seems that I've woken up right before lunch started, the smell immediately hits my nose as he sits down and puts the tray on the bar over my waist. A fragrant beef smell combined with the smell of spices and mashed potatoes covered in a gravy made from the beef. Jin hands me a cup of water too.
Jin puts down his cup of juice and smiles at me. "This must be the third time I've seen you on a bed after passing out, pretty funny if you ask me." He goes for another sip.
Just as he's about to drink it he spits it back in as Lin slaps him on the back.
"Don't blame him, it's not like you couldn't have stayed behind and helped him," Lin says with sass.
Jin turns around and points at her. "Hey, that goes for all of us, not just me."
I cut off Lin before she continues this topic. "On the topic of you guys, are they at the base right now?"
Jin stands up and tells me as he throws his cup. "Taos and Shion are guarding the medical bay entrance as we speak, the others are at the base preparing clothes for the conference held tomorrow."
I get up, almost knocking down my tray. "How long was I out for?"
Lin finishes for Jin as he walks back. "You were out for three days, we did try to wake you up but it was as if you were dead."
My expression turns blank as I soak up the information. "T-Three days?"
"Yes."
I sigh and lay back down. "I should be able to somewhat walk on my own in a few hours. Can you come and train with me Jin? I'm not too confident."
Jin smiles. "Happy to help."
Lin shakes her head in disagreement but gives up quickly.
They leave shortly and I eat my lunch, the nurse helps me out of my bed and hands me a cane just in case. With some practice, I'm able to walk at a steady pace. Running is out of reach, for now, but some more practice should help. I greet Taos and Shion as I leave the medical bay with my stuff to return the tray, along the way I see many soldiers and guards discussing miscellaneous things like drinking later on break or what's the hottest news.
When they see me they go into attention and greet me with a simple "Hello Sir!" And salute, I salute back and tell them to be at ease. The cafeteria is hard to miss with the smell of food and how open it is, it's more like a bar with how easily food is served. When I enter I can sense the gaze of many recruits, considering the past events I don't blame them, I'd also be pretty curious if a noble was found passed out after knocking out their parents. Jin walks up from behind and puts his hand on my shoulder, tapping it.
"You look like you just saw your parents, go show them a 'bit of your strength'." He laughs and walks out of the cafeteria towards the training barracks.
After thinking I decide why not, I turn back and see a few tables of recruits doing exactly what I thought, one of them says "He's looking at us." To which another replied, "So what?"
I walk up to their table and say "This is what." I unleash a bit of my dark energy and my presence inside the cafeteria is alerted to everyone, even people walking by.
The very tips of my toes and fingers are exerting a pressure that makes everyone at the table open their mouths in shock and disbelief. I stop the pressure and smile towards them and walk away towards one of the servers for a glass of water, after drinking it I put the empty cup in the dirty dishes bin and walk to the training barracks.
Jin is waiting by the entrance to the training area, leaning on the wall with his sword by his side. He waves at me when he sees me. "Are you good for a few rounds?"
"Definitely," I say back to him with a smirk.
We walk over to the changing rooms to get changed into our sparring uniforms, one-piece black body suits fitted with aluminum plates for protection and boots with extra padding. The training room itself is quite big, decked out with racks of weapons and shields.
We find a spot and begin, first doing quick-paced parrying and simple roll dodging, then we start on the harder sword techniques and styles. Jin uses a run-and-gun style that matches almost perfectly with his wind and ice attribute magic, he's fast and can hit hard with the amount of muscle he's built in his torso and waist. I on the other hand have a more balanced style that focuses on doing multi-hit strikes and parrying. Training with each other increases both of our prowess and before we know it dinner passes.
Jin gasps. "Y-You wanna g-go." he pauses, "eat dinner?"
I drop on the ground and answer after dropping my sword. "Sure."
Cleanup and dinner come by quickly and I tell one of the butlers that I'll be taking my things l and leaving for the Leios familia mansion. I see Jin off and walk back to get my stuff in the storage room, the room is parallel to the cafeteria. Inside is enough space to hold enough supplies for months, I quickly get my things and go back to the medical bay to get Shion and Taos who seem to be in an argument with some of the soldiers.
Though when I wave at them the soldiers run away like they've seen the grim reaper, when I walk up towards Shion and Taos I understand why.
Shion has a mix of an impressed and annoyed face, she greets me with a headshake. "I can't believe there's rumors about you already this quickly."
Taos smirks, "That's our Helio." he says with a sigh.
I'm completely puzzled, "What rumors? About what?"
They begin walking with me, "Rumors about how a 'reaper' appeared in the court and apparently knocked out a group of recruits for the elite guard."
I'm speechless.
Shion laughs, "I think Helio knows a thing or two."
"A thing or two? I am that reaper!" I exclaim, "I just unleashed my dark magic in a pressure wave and they got scared."
Taos laughs it off as a small matter as he's seen me do even wilder acts.
We quicken our pace and see carriages with the Leios Familia crest lined up at the front entrance next to carriages belonging to the other familias of the empire. Many of the nobles leaving look at my direction, their faces vary from fear, disgust, and entitlement. I ignore them as it's quite often that I'm looked at differently from my other family members.
We get into the carriages as we ride to the Mansion, the roads lit with lanterns and sidewalks occasionally having the odd drunk man. When we arrive I tell Taos and Shion to use the guest bedrooms as the others are doing and walk off towards my sleeping quarters.
I put down my stuff beside my bed and quickly change out of my clothing, laying it on my desk if I need to wear it tomorrow. I hop into bed and fall asleep fast.
In my dreams I see the same girl as I did when I woke up, this time she's playing around with magic. Black puffs appearing in flashes and disappearing just as fast. She turns her head up and smiles when our eyes meet. "Oh my, what do we have here?" She says while putting her hand to her cheek. She continues playing with her magic except it's more potent than before, "Do you perhaps want to control dark magic as fluently as you do breathing?" I try to nod but I realize in my dream I have no body, the girl smirks and giggles, "Even if you cannot see your physical form, I understand your meaning." She gets up and pokes me on where my nose should be, "Sweet dreams young reaper, you have one helluva day tomorrow." And like that everything turns black and I completely fall asleep,