In a double penthouse in one of the city's tallest residential buildings, a young man sat at a desk drawing what appeared to be prototype plans for all sorts of different weapons.
In addition, the entire floor was littered with crumpled papers with ideas that Arlan had discarded. If someone were to open one of the crumpled balls of paper and look at its contents, they would find very random weapon drawings
"Hmmm, no. It wouldn't work"
Arlan tore the sheet from the notepad and crumpled it into a ball before tossing it backwards. The ball of paper flew until it hit the door and fell to the floor rolling before coming to rest in the pile.
Just then, the door opened, and a woman walked in. It was Arlan's personal assistant, who had been with him since the day he woke up, since a year ago she hadn't changed at all, her hair was still the same length and the inside just as dyed blue.
The woman was still wearing a bodyguard uniform and carried with her a silver tray with a plate covered with a cloche. Next to the plate a pair of cutlery, a napkin, and a syringe.
The woman frowned slightly when she saw the mess the room was in and couldn't help but sigh. Making her way through all the balls of paper on the floor, the woman reached the desk and placed the tray making room by throwing more balls of paper on the floor.
Arlan didn't stop drawing the new model he was creating and instead stretched out the neck exposing it to the woman.
The assistant felt Arlan's neck for the right spot and then inserted the two centimeters of needle.
Arlan groaned with discomfort but did not stop drawing.
"It's time to eat, rest for a moment"
Arlan paused and sighed before tearing off the sheet again and tossing it to the side of the table.
"I don't think I have a choice"
The woman put the notepad aside and instead arranged the tray before removing the cloche from the plate and revealing a large piece of meat with some salad and a moderate amount of white rice.
"What are you talking about?" the woman asked as she finished rearranging things.
Arlan saw the piece of meat and his mouth watered, he had been several hours since he woke up drawing and had ignored the hunger he felt. He took the cutlery and cut a piece of meat before putting it in his mouth and savoring it with pleasure.
Then he passed it around with some juice and spoke.
"The material"
The woman looked at him quizzically.
"The material?"
Arlan continued eating as he spoke without wanting to linger to devour the next piece of meat.
"Allete, I've been testing all kinds of materials on the weapons I design for months now, what has happened to each of them?"
Allete didn't have to think long to answer.
"They've all been destroyed after you used them..."
Arlan raised his fork and exclaimed:
"¡Exactly! I can't understand why..."
Although it seemed that Arlan had discarded many prototypes, in truth he had already had many others built, and each and every one of them had failed.
For the first few months after his awakening, he was in a state of constant confusion and was frequently examined by Dr. Westorn, and he was physically and mentally weak, so he was in bed for a good amount of time.
As time went by, he came to terms with things and even though everything was difficult to understand, he was forced to keep moving forward. Arlan had questions, and he needed the answers.
About 5 months ago, Leonard suggested (forced) Arlan to train. At first it was his body, he had to start strengthening his frail muscles. Then he made him train with a wooden sword.
Arlan questioned why Leonard had him train with a sword, but his answer was that it was for self-defense.
'Why would I use a sword for my defense?'
As the days passed, Arlan trained on a strict schedule supervised by the best trainers and fed the best food possible.
But one day, Arlan swung his sword as he normally did, but this time he did it with the thought in mind that he was attacking something.
And out of nowhere the sword exploded into a thousand pieces sending splinters of wood flying all over the place.
At first, he thought someone had played a joke on him, but when he tried again, the sword exploded again.
It was simply bizarre, there was nothing that could explain it. Even Leonard was puzzled.
With several experiments, Arlan realized that the practice swords he used only exploded when he 'had a target in mind'. If he planned to attack something, even if it was air, the sword would explode. If he was just using it for training, absolutely nothing happened.
Thinking it might be the wood, Arlan used a sword of another material, however, the same thing happened over and over again.
Because of that, Arlan got a strange hobby designing all kinds of weapons. Although they could be seen as strange, his imagination somehow managed to create truly exotic weapons.
Some of them didn't have much use, they just looked cool.
But Arlan didn't draw just for the fun of it, day after day he tried to find a suitable material so that his weapon wouldn't explode. He tried all kinds of metals, alloys, and even precious stones but nothing worked.
Swords, knives, hammers, axes, scythes, and gauntlets.
Arlan tried all kinds of weapons, but nothing worked. That was why his room was a mess with so many discarded ideas.
Not that his sketches were excellent either, Arlan was clearly a novice at designing weapons, yet he was learning at a good pace.
Arlan devoured the last piece of meat and leaned back against the back of the chair.
"That's why I have no choice...I have to use the scale"
Allete looked at him indifferently.
"Should I arrange an appointment with the president?"
Arlan shook his head.
"No, schedule with my sister. Don't forget to invite my father though, he'll be my scapegoat"