"Hello, would you like any help?"
"Ah! Oh, thank you but I can do it myself."
"Please, I insist. You have practically moved everything yourself, just let me keep the door open for you."
"O-oh, then... could you help me?"
"Gladly."
The girl got a bit scared when I first started talking, but thankfully she didn't run away. She had purplish blue eyes with light brown hair, and was a head shorter than me. What surprised me most is the lack of anyone to accompany her. Even if she was not a noble, her parents should have been there with her. I went and helped her move her stuff in while introducing myself.
"Since we are in the same building, I assume you are also part of the Class-S?"
"Y-yes, I am."
"Well, since we are going to be classmates, and even neighbors, let me introduce myself. I am Darcy. I am from this empire and ama magic user."
"You are a magic user too? Oh, sorry I should introduce myself too. I am Arianne, but you can just call me Aria. I come from the Holy Theocracy."
"Aria from Holy Theocracy, it's nice to meet you."
"Yes, it's nice to know there are nice people like you here too."
"Haha, your overpraise me. Since we are done moving the stuff, I'll head back to my room. You must be tired after coming all the way from the Theocracy too, right? Would you like to go eat dinner later?"
"Yes, thank you again for helping me. See you later today."
After I helped Aria move her stuff in, I headed to my room which was right next to her. The room wasn't as big as my room back in our territory, but seemed to be bigger than the rooms in regular houses. It was fairly empty, with a bed, wardrobe, a desk and a chair, but there wasn't a need to have anything else, at least for me. Unlike other kids, I didn't really play with toys, and would prefer to go read in a library instead of in my room, so there really wasn't a need to customize my room.
We wouldn't have any personal servants either, but there were some maids and butlers working here to help us get our clothes washed and clean the places in our room we can't reach. I was told this is to slowly develop skills for individual survival, so learned how to do some stuff on my own before leaving home. My sister complained in her letters too, which served as a reminder of how life would be here.
While thinking of that, I remove my clothes and put on lounge wear. Lying on my bed, I wonder about how life would be in the academy. Would it be completely different from how it was in my home, or the same? I guess I will find out when classes finally start next week...
So, I fell asleep.
...
I started to see a strange dream again. Unlike other dreams, I can feel truly conscious while having these.
I see a tall, purple haired man swinging his sword on a mountain. His sword didn't look agile, nor did it look strong. If I had to say, it looked... sophisticated. As if it wasn't a sword meant to attack or defend, but one for something completely different.
The man repeatedly swung his sword again, with him repeating the same nine motions in order. While I couldn't sense any power behind his sword, I felt like it contained the mysteries of something very important. Something that is core of this life, the very building block that is responsible for forming all matter.
Could this be... a mana cultivation method? But using a sword to cultivate mana... even magic swordsman wouldn't do such a thing. After all, close range weapons are what aura users use, and even if magic users use them, they mostly do it to strengthen their body.
But this man, who kept swinging his sword, had been moving the very mana of this world with just a few movements. Normally, one would need to meditate in position, and absorb mana that way. While I am only eight years old, I have already sensed mana and already started absorbing it. However, even the absorption method of my noble family isn't as effective at moving mana as the one this man was using.
This wasn't due to the man in my dream being strong either. Even my ancestor, who taught me the method three years ago wasn't moving mana at such an efficient pace. This is considering that my ancestor is at the Transcendent stage, which is the peak of this world. Can the man in my dream be so much stronger than my ancestor? Likely not.
"Life is ever so still... people, plants, the earth, nothing changes even after a #$%&# times... Yet... so what if it is still? The stillness of life... I have yet to reach that stage... but, when it comes water... I know how still water can be."
The man suddenly started to talk with a very hoarse voice, and pointed his sword at the sky.
"Without infusing my sword with an affinity, it is but a tool for cultivation. But if I were to infuse my water affinity into it... this still, unchanging water of mine... can even slice the skies."
Without even moving his sword, the clouds the man pointed at with his sword with split into two. I couldn't sense the specific mana movements for it, but it was as if he used magic without casting. Could he have used the mana cultivation method to directly redirect all that mana to a single spot? Such magic... it would be as if no mana would be required to use it.
"This is the first sword of the nine movements I showed earlier, I call it " Still water rends dragon"... Are you satisfied with this much, #$%# of Samsara?"
The man kept his back to me and the dream ended right after he finished speaking, but the nine sword movement mana cultivation method remained in my mind, as if I had knowm it for a long time. I woke up with sweat all over my face, and noticed that the sky was starting to get a little dark. Remember my promise to Aria to eat together, I hurriedly tool a shower and changed my clothes.