Rio groaned as he rubbed his eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness of the room. He had barely slept last night, plagued by the nightmares. Before he could fully wake up, he felt a sudden splash of water hit his face. Rio's eyes shot open and he sat up with a start, staring at Amelia who stood next to his bed with her usual evil but cute grin.
"You've turned lazy, brother. You're always sleeping now." She said, her voice was sweet and playful.
Rio stood up and ruffled her hair as he went towards his bathroom. He turned around to see her trying to fix his messy bed, and said - "Wait a little, I will be back soon."
While Rio took a shower, he couldn't believe everything that happened with him. It all felt so unreal to him.
***** Rio's POV
It's almost been more than 3 weeks since I woke up in Arcadia. A lot has happened since then, After taking the pura corpus potion, I have also taken some other potions which strengthened my body, I've also started some light training to get better control over Rio's body. My classes for all the useless stuff started a week ago, and now my whole day is busy as hell.
From morning exercises with some rankers and if possible with Agnus, then after breakfast a class with Artemis on learning about our territory and normal stuff a heir should know about. After that there are classes of nobles etiquette, a class for history, one for alchemy and one for monster anatomy.
In my whole day aside from time for eating and sleeping, I have 2 hours of time for myself, which mostly gets taken over by Amelia's playing & games.
The more time I spend with her, the more confused I get. She's scary for me now. I have started to avoid her a little bit now, cause her every habit and action is making me doubt if she's Ria, and I'm scared of what will happen to me if it turns out to be just a coincidence.
_
Aside from Amelia, I think I've gotten a little bit attached with Artemis too, though I can now see that she's doubting me, and because of that her habit of teasing me had gotten worse. Sometimes she would act just like a teenage bully who would team up with me to tease Amelia and with her to bully me. It's _ I don't know, nice I guess.
I haven't spent much time with Agnus, since he came back only last week. But whatever little it was, it felt nice. He's a silent type guy, so all our conversations were always on point, exactly opposite of how Artemis & Amelia behave.
_
Besides Rio's family, after a week or so of continuously playing & losing, I can now defeat Rebecca in her games. She also started learning a little bit more about chess.
'Though I don't like to admit it, but she is different from what I read about her in the novel. Though that may be because she's still a kid and would show her real personality after growing up.'
'Her birthday is coming up soon, and that's when our families will first start the talks about our engagement. I have avoided this topic whenever Artemis started teasing about it, but I don't know what to do next.'
'At one point I want to ruin her cause of what she will do in the future according to the plot. But if possible, I also want to keep her with me, cause she's one of the main heroines and will be a big help for me.'
'If I leave her alone and ignore her completely and she joins the protagonist somehow, I feel like one way or another she would stand against me, and I would have to deal with her and the royal family both, which will all be a drag.'
So she's in the observation category just as Baron Misha. Potential danger is what I call them. For now I haven't decided what to do with either of them.
I have even talked with Rio's aunt, the queen Athena. She's just like Artemis but more subtle in her tricks. She even tried to cheat in our games when she saw Rebecca losing everytime. It was funny seeing Artemis's reaction when she found out.
_
In the past weeks, Asher has finished collecting all the items that I have given him the names of, and since the people I named were all criminals they were silenced too.
The nightmares I had on my first day are still the same, so I'm avoiding sleeping every other day with the help of some pills Asher brought back. They're acting as refreshment pills or in earth's terms more like red bull or coffee.
I've even looked for cigarettes by asking some guards, but to my bad luck they aren't made here. And somehow some idiot fucker told Artemis about it. Next thing I know I'm having classes all day and Myra is following me the whole day.
'I doubt whose shadow she is.'
_
I haven't heard anything about Esme. I have asked Artemis about it, but she just avoids the question, or starts questioning me about why she's roaming all around the city.
Myra had brought Erza some days ago. There were some issues when getting her out undetected but she did it just fine. Ezra's sickness was in the starting phase and with Artemis's approval she's getting treatment.
I had to talk with Agnus explaining all about vampire spy thing and what I plan to do with Erza. She's still getting treated but once it's done, I think I'll keep her with me for a while.
'Erza's talents might be worse than her sister, but she could act as a nice binding for me to keep Esme chained & loyal.'
She's also someone who needs observation, since she was dead before the novel plot started, I have no idea what she's like or what she'll do.
_
Talking about the novel, it started when the protagonist joined the Zenith Academy at the age of 18. So I have around 8 years till the plot starts .
But if I want to ignore the plot - I can just join a different academy from the one our protagonist joins - though the benefits of attending no. 1 academy in the world are great but my life is more important.
Or I could simply join the academy before the plot even begins and get all the stuff I would need to survive.
In Zenith Academy you can start your admissions from the age of 15-18 .
_
*** The academy doesn't care about anyone's age as it focuses on their awakening. And that's why , after 18 years no admissions are allowed in any of the big academies .
As 18 years is the limit till someone can awaken their powers. If they don't - then they just have to live their life as a non-awakened person. They won't have the support of mana and if they want to get stronger they have to train their body the crude way.
_
So if I want I can join at age 15 and when the protagonist Leon joins the academy at the age of 18 , I would have already stolen all chances and would be much stronger than him. Plus by then I'd be a last year student so I can probably avoid almost every academy scenario plotline.
'This is a much better idea than me leaving those chances for Leon & joining some other academy which I have little knowledge about.
'But there are also some risks involved too. I should think about it more.'
_
People who could trouble me or Amelia in the short term have all been dealt with. Now if I want my answers as soon as possible then I should try to get a chance to meet him - the narrator.
'If I could convince him to help me somehow, I will have all my answers and maybe then it'll all be over.'
But for that I need strength, much more and much sooner. From the novel I know which Goddess would choose Rio during his awakening, and if it's the same, and I utilize all her powers, it would be enough for me to get stronger faster.
It's been a long time since I've been preparing for it, now when it is here, I'm getting excited over it. Finally it is time for me to get - my awakening, my system and that Goddess.
_
Rio who was excited over his awakening didn't know that far away from the realm of all existence, there were many who were eagerly waiting for this day too.
In the place where Shiva slept for who knows how long after his death, a sweet cheery voice sounded - "Finally, It's been so long. I thought he'd take even longer. Well now we can meet again. So I'll forgive you."
If Shiva heard this voice he'd be shocked to his core for hearing a voice he's been missing so long in Arcadia.
_
In the realm of dreams & darkness, the images of Rio's daily life were playing nonstop and a beautiful Goddess, covered in a dark gown watched it with relish, as she awaited his rise.
The chosen son of darkness, as he was called, had arrived once again to fulfill his destiny. She knew that his presence would bring chaos and destruction to the world, and she relished in the anticipation of what was to come.
Unknown to the Goddess who was lost in her thoughts, the void behind her grew ever more darker, and a melodic laugh echoed in the darkness, the Goddess watched dumbfounded as all her mirrors shattered into pieces. She clenched her fists as she saw the darkness getting sucked into a giant hole. In anger she stomped her foot and the space around the whole realm started to crack & collapse onto itself.
_
In a ruined world filled with darkness, where there was no room for light, which felt void of everything no sound, no color, no nothing - in that godforsaken desolate place, today the clanking of chains could be heard. The sound grew louder and louder as it echoed in the emptiness.
As the chains continued to move, some sparks flew out of them, illuminating the surroundings for a brief moment. A man, no more like a demon was bound in that place, his features were twisted into an expression of rage and frustration, his eyes blazing with a fierce intensity.
The sparks that had first appeared little began to grow brighter and more intense, as if feeding off the darkness around them.
A deafening roar soon echoed throughout the realm, and the darkness around him seemed to shudder in response.
He lifted his hands, revealing sharp claws, and tugged at the chains that bound him, testing their strength.
The man closed his eyes, focusing on his breathing. As he breathed in, he felt the chains around him loosen slightly, and as he breathed out, he felt them tighten again.
But something was different , the void around him was painted in a bloody hue of red now. The three dark moons in the sky seemed to glow with an ominous red light. The chains that bound him rattled with an unsettling energy, as if they too were affected by the sudden change in the environment.
The man looked down at his hands and saw that they too were covered in the same red hue. He clenched his fists and felt a surge of power coursing through his veins. The redness seemed to seep into his very being, filling him with a dark energy that he had not felt in a long time.
With a sinister look on his face, he started roaring, as he announced his arrival to everything, to every being - "And so it begins"
"Hahaha hehahaa hahaaha"
The man's laugh echoed in the darkness, and when the sound of the laughter died down, the silence was almost as oppressive as the laugh itself. There was a feeling of expectation in the air, as if something was about to happen, but nobody knew what.
The man glared at the red sky & floating moons, as he said to the heavens - "Save him, if you can. For no light of luck shall stop my darkness."
##
A/N - Any guess who are all these unknown people getting hyped up for our mc.