"Ahh~" I awoke the following day with a tired yawn.
Crap was the one word that could describe how I felt. My head thrubbed with a dull headache and I felt emotionally and psychologically drained. My eyes were droopy and felt heavy, and I could feel a frown twist my lips.
A repressed groan bellowed from my throat.
'Puberty is seven years too early for this shit, ' that was the only justifiable reason I could come up for my terrible morning mood.
Suppressing the throbbing in my head, I looked around my room with listless indifference.
...i paused.
I rubbed my eyes.
I looked around one more time.
I paused again, slowly processing.
Feeling my headache persist, I held the bridge of my nose between my eyes and frowned deeply.
"Even my room looks like crap,"
I was not sure why, but for some reason the interior of my whole room was turned upside down, as if a storm had raged on.
Well... maybe I did have an idea what happened.
I vividly still remembered the strange dream I had last night. Or was it even a dream to begin with?
I awoke in a vast empty world of grey, as endless as still. There was a large sphere by my size holding what resembled a small pond of transperent liquid; the sphere was carved with various runes of power along its walls, I recognized this markings to be the accursed rune I had been staring at for the last couple of weeks.
For some reason X'xebecc's rune ignited in a rising glow drowning the world in a brightening hue...and then everything became bright and painful from there.
"Ow." Just trying to remember the details of the rest of what happened forced my head to bang.
I was sure I had seen the Laws, even though it were for a simple second, the vast amount of information was overwhelming enough to overload my soul. And like a dream, the details became vague and ambiguous.
I wasn't sure what I had experienced...I couldn't remember anything but a horrible pain akin to having my soul shredded and twisted.
And I was supposed to have no idea how that would feel.
Perhaps, that was the real reason for my current condition. But how it affected the situation of my room, I had no idea.
"I must have thrashed around that much in my sleep, huh."
Disregarding my aching head, I waved my wrist and conjured a small gale to sweep my room. The magic wind blew through and simultaneously brought order to my bedroom before anyone could come in and find out.
Then I sighed, restraining another urge to groan and the bone deep lethargy permeating my being before falling against my back on my bed again.
It...was going to be a long day.
*
*
*
"Begin." Mr. Ridge's steady voice transpired, and the blond boy before me charged fiercely.
Letting a cry, Leon sharply raised his wooden sword and covered the distance without providing me the slightest chance to react.
-CLAK!
I raised my sword to meet and defend against Leon's attacking blade, and drawing strength from my legs to my arms, I deflected his attack a little, and forced him back on one feet.
Taking half a step forward, and lowering just slightly my center of gravity, I held the grip of my wooden blade with both hands and raised it in a fluent follow up attack. My blade whistled sharply and the edge kissed Leon's unprotected neck by a few inches.
At the same time, Mr. Ridge declared the end of this short exchange.
"Enough."
I studied Leon's tensed expression before withdrawing my sword and giving a smile. My actions had forced complications into Leon's footing and used the short moment before he could recompose his form to place my blade at his neck.
Leon frowned then gave a helpless sigh. He said;
"I lose," then added; "again."
"Oraa!" At the same time grunts and cries resounded from our side, accompanied by the periodic clashing of wood.
"Hah!" Kyle and Don were were in what I could as well describe as a dance exchange of their swords.
Dance, was the keyword.
The both had childish grins as they pushed each other around and tried to perform flashy dance steps - cough- skills.
After having one of his blows blocked by Kyle, Don fell back one step and rubbed between his nose and lips with a smug smile, the said.
"You're strong, Kyle. Stand proud."
"Why are you talking like I lost. I landed the most hits."
" Yes, yes. That's enough out of the both of you, " Mr. Ridge interfered between the two, Don still self-absorbed.
"Umu. You three have developed nicely in that past months. There's still plenty to be desired, but the basic foundations are slowly being ground to your core. At this rate, if you keep the consistency to your dedication...who knows, maybe one dey you might get a good hit on me finally," he flashed an uncharacteristic taunting grin, and my face twitched.
We had only recently started one on one or group spars against each other, after having spent many weeks practicing our form and raising our resistance and stamina.
At first, we each had private exchanges against Mr. Ridge to judge out improved capabilities. Only then did he decide to riase out training a step further by having us fight against each other daily.
The goal from there is to raise our non-existent experience, while simultaneously putting into actions the forms and styles we've painstakingly practiced endlessly.
In this case, my private lessons with Cliff paid off over and over. I quickly adapted and have even made a win streak for myself. Other than Mr. Ridge, none of the boys have been able to clearly defeat me in a one in one.
"I swear to whatever is out there, Reo's rigged." Kyle groaned to the sky and dropped to the ground. Sympathizing, Don helplessly shook his head and shrugged.
"It can't be helped. This guy has been pushing himself far further than we've been doing."
" Sounds frustrating but it's true. " Leon interjected with a snort.
I chuckled awkwardly.
'If only they knew what had me pushing my limits each day. '
But at least, it seemed like all of my efforts were about to pay off.
The effects of X'xebecc's rune had begin to display themselves over the course of the single day. But I still had numerous doubts and skepticism about how to fully utilize my new and artificial Mental Core.
The moment the strange rune vanished before my eyes, I had various concerns and questions about what the unexpected phenomenon was. Never once in any of the Spell description or letters did it state something like that would happen.
At that point, I was mentally drained and physically at my limit to ponder the implications of that result, but even with the full headache plaguing my mind, I had a few possible theories, especially since the strange dream after the the previous night.
Perhaps I had fully absorbed the spell?
"That will be all for today. The guards gave a periodic appointment, and i'll be the one leading the raid on subjugating the monster for the rest of the day." Mr. Ridge suddenly added, and Leon and Don expressed their slight dissatisfaction.
"What? For real? But we've only just begun, it's not even noon yet." Don whined, and Kyle was the unexpected one to put reason into the matter.
"Can't be helped, can it? Mr. Ridge is still in the end a Guard. He has a job and a life outside of our training, that entails other responsibilities he has to prioritize over us first." Kyle atood up from the ground, and pat down his body and backside before heading to return his wooden blade at a small rack.
Ultimately, Don gave in, and Leon repressed his disatisfaction. They both understood the circumstances and acknowledged the inevitability of the situation.
Mr. Ridge watching their down crest expressions, said to us.
"If you three truly feel that way, then how about I give you a small assignment for while I'm gone. Practice amongst yourselves and show me what you've got tomorrow. One on three: me versus the three of you," he grinned once more and leaned forward —"exciting right?"
Needles to say, Don's and Leons gaze were set ablaze, from the burning light reflected in their eyes. Leon's was a contained and restrained excitement, while Don was a hot burning fury.
Even Kyle wasn't exempted from this.
I merely smiled while my mind was occupied with some other things.
Mr. Ridge turned to me.
"Young Reo, a word with you?" Saying so he gestured for me away from the group.
The befuddlement was shared between I and the boys, but I still restrained my thoughts and nodded.
Mr. Ridge's form stood tall and imposing before me, his short grey hair and neatly trimmed stubble added a strange stoic grace to his presence.
Mr. Ridge had always had a strange form of charisma since the first moment I met him. At that time, I had the inexplicable urge to salute for some bizzare reason.
"Is there something bothering you, lately?" When we had distanced ourselves away from Don, Leon and Kyle, Mr. Ridge began with a curious question.
"Bothering me? No, not at all?" Feeling puzzled by the strange inquiry I bobbed my head to the side, trying to discern the meaning.
Mr. Ridge didn't leave to me the discerning of his inquiry and quickly cut to the point.
"You have been acting detached and spacing out very recently. Your performance also dramatically dropped, and you've always seemed to be physically exhausted even before training begins. Is there something that has been taking up a large sum of ur attention?"
'Ah. ' so that's what this was about.
What was I expecting? Of course he would notice.
It was one thing when I spent countless nights practicing magic and expanding my control. Back then I could easily mask the mental exertion, or even last longer without a few days of sleep.
But the circumstances changed when I truly began studying X'xebecc's rune. The diagram simply puts insurmountable amount of pressure on the mind and this can indirectly have an influence over my physical constitution.
With each session, it became increasingly harder to hide the discomfort I was going through. The strain was simply too much to bear even for my body, already study for a five year old.
In any case, the worst of it should be over now. I had to assure Mr. Ridge there was nothing to worry about.
My thoughts instantly processed in less than two seconds, before I responded with a well practiced smile.
"No, no. It's nothing, not anymore at least, " then I dimmed my smile and intentionally lowered my gaze, " the truth is, I hadn't been getting much sleep. I kept having nightmares of that night. " I knew it was detestable of me to prey on Mr. Ridge's sympathy using the incident, but at the moment, it was necessary.
I couldn't just tell him it was nothing and expect him to leave it as that. If I let my guard down, he might look into it and get my parents involved.
I had to give him a reason, and 'confide' in him with my troubles.
"I haven't told my parents or anyone about this. Each night, the scenes would reoccur, " then I slowly transitioned into a beaming and resolved smile, " but I've been able to finally lay my feelings over what happened that night to rest. I didn't want to bother my parents or friends, so I've faced my emotions, and ever since the nightmares have stopped. "
By specially saying 'i haven't told my parents', i hope to suggest to Mr. Ridge that he was the only one who knew about this...the only one i 'want' to. I confided in him a deep matter, to buy his reassurance and then show to him I had overcome the problem with my own strength.
"From now, there's nothing else that can get me distracted."