The scene that Lorelai witnessed eventually faded into bleakness. With just a mere snap of the finger and a silent murmur, the entire room was reset to the state it was before Dignitas' outburst.
The same went for the two of them as well. Lorelai's memories were reverted to the time when she defeated Dignitas. The latter, on the other hand, had his own experienced changed.
Instead of remembering the pitiful way he lashed out at Lorelai, a new memory had been implanted in its place. In this memory, he merely took the loss with a smile on his face.
***
It was now two hours past the duel in which Lorelai managed to defeat Dignitas.
Neither of the two recalled the events that had unfolded after the duel, and had continued on as if it had practically never happened.
The swordsman in question, Dignitas, had just arrived home with a tired expression. He had lost himself in joy that his own body forgot how much tired it originally was before. It was only when he returned home that the fatigue he had been repressing had finally come crashing down on him.
"Hah… I should head to bed. Got school tomorrow, too."
After blazing through his nightly routine faster than he thought he could, Dignitas dived into bed, feeling as if his mind would give in to sleep the very next moment.
And yet, even after one whole hour, he still could not sleep. He merely kept tossing and turning impatiently, hoping for rest to come soon. But it never did.
"Screw it. If I can't sleep, then I should spend my time doing something productive."
This was the second time in half a day that Dignitas had chosen to get out of bed early. While his mind didn't understand what happened… perhaps his body still remembered.
"Welcome, Student IB-401," The A.I greeted as it began adjusting the lights in the training hall to fit Dignitas' liking.
"Hey. How about you make yourself useful and create a copy of John Ailey. Set the copy's strength to be twice what said student has displayed in battles."
"Keyword: John Ailey. Student A1-001 has been found in the Academy's database. Modifying parameters to exceed the displayed strength by twice."
In an instant, a copy of John had materialized in front of Dignitas. This one was also holding the same sword that he used during their first spar. The Light Affinity being expelled from it was naturally, twice as strong and overwhelming.
"I've been thinking," Dignitas muttered as he began engaging in combat with the John-doppelganger. "I might need a sword style of my own."
Seeing Lorelai create her own sword style, even if it wasn't properly named, had done wonders for Dignitas' self-esteem. The only noteworthy progress he had made in his own training was figuring out a small bit of The Penguin.
That same clue Warren had given him on the day they fought. His exact words still rang clear in his head.
"Bah, I'll think of it. Right now, I'm dying to go to bed. Here's a crumb of info that'll probably help you. If you can create a new style from it, I'll consider giving you the Ryushin scripture. Here's your clue. The Penguin."
That was his one and only hint as to forging his own sword style. And it was only recently that he realized that Warren was telling him to analyze the penguin as an animal.
No less than ten seconds later, the copy of John Ailey fell to the ground and disappeared. Even if the A.I was able to perfectly reproduce a carbon copy of John, it could never truly mimic his movements and thoughts. That was what separated the real John from his doppelganger.
Ringgg… someone was calling his phone. Not bothering to see who it was, Dignitas tapped on the 'answer' button and brought the phone to his ear.
"Hello,"
"Ah, Dignitas! Sorry to disturb. Is this a bad time?"
It was John. Based off his voice, he seemed to have just woken up recently.
"No, it's okay. I couldn't sleep, so I'm just training. What did you need?"
"I see. So, here it is. Lorelai had just returned to her dorm room a few minutes ago, and Curie told me she was muttering your name nonstop. Do you have any idea what happened?"
Something did happen, sure… but Dignitas wasn't quite into revealing the fact that she had called him into their classroom alone in the middle of the night and dueled him.
Other than that… there really wasn't anything that warranted her obsessively muttering his name like some kind of creepy stalker. At least, not anything he knew.
"I'm… not sure? Do you want me to come over and check?"
"If you have the time, please. Don't worry, I'll be on my way there too, so we can meet outside the restaurant we last ate at with Curie. Is that okay with you?"
"Yeah, sure. I'll be on my way in a few." He replied before hanging up.
"Now, Lorelai acting creepy. That's certainly new, and I'm not sure if that's in a good way or a bad way."
***
"Ah! Over here, Dignitas!" John exclaimed, waving his hands around in the air.
"Yo," He said, approaching the protagonist.
Before he knew it, John had taken to wearing the Ad Mortem guild jacket Curie had given him. Dignitas often spotted him wearing the thing with almost every outfit he wore.
"Are we waiting for anyone else?" He asked.
"Nope. We have to hurry, Curie just told me that Lorelai's getting increasingly frustrated, for some reason." John replied, sweat flowing down his cheeks.
It didn't take long for the two of them to reach the female dorms. Both Dignitas and John prided themselves on speed as their best attribute.
Fate seemed to be unkind to Lorelai today. As Dignitas and John made their way to her dorm room, they spotted Curie, who was right at the entrance. She looked fearful for her life, almost as if the person on the other side of the door was a demon and not a person.
The moment she saw John, she stood up and embraced him.
"She's saying that Lorelai has entered into a state of frenzy." John sighed.
Even from outside the dorm room, they could hear various sounds from inside, none of them good. Glass breaking, silverware hitting the ground, and arrows repeatedly being fired.
"Before we enter, Dignitas… Curie wants to ask you a question. I'll relay her words to you."
"Yeah?" He replied, preparing to unsheathe Dainsleif.
"Do you mind telling me what has been going on with the two of you? These past few days, she hasn't been herself. She rarely joins us when we go out for dinner, and when she does, she never talks. I noticed her gaze was always focused on the sword fastened to her hip."
Seeing no reason to hide it since they, too, were being affected, Dignitas decided to reveal the truth.
"I… I don't know myself, if I'm being honest. She's been giving me the cold shoulder, like you guys. It was only today that she called me over to our classroom. Once I reached there, she dueled me."
"And the result of the duel?"
"I lost, of course. She's improved a lot in a short amount of time."
"I see. It seems like you have no idea." John replied. "Then it's all the more reason for us to be extra careful."
"When you're ready, I'll blow the door open with Driver Thrust."