I fell asleep on the ground…
It was dark for a long time. Why was it dark? I felt conscious, in fact I felt perfectly fine…
I tried to open my eyes but nothing, I couldn't even feel my own body anymore… what was happening.
- I can't do this anymore… I… I…
I turned around and the whole room lit up.
I was in a small wooden house; the interior was warm and had a nice cozy feel to it.
I turned and looked at the kid who was sitting at the chair with paperwork in front of him. The boy looked strikingly like myself, so it was safe to assume that these were memories of the original bodies owner. He looked to be around 12 at the time.
- Joel, you know you need to learn this, if you don't learn the very basics there is no way we can send you over to the capital…
It was the man sitting face to face with Joel who spoke. It was an old man, he seemed to be better off then Joel's family looking at his clothes. Jewels on his cane and he wore beautiful clothes that were clearly too dignified for a Baron, I wondered who he was.
- But I really can't!! Numbers just don't make sense at all and its just stupid!!
The boy threw the papers and ran off outside of the room crying. Seemed like I used to be quite childish, to not even want to do homework. Well, its not like I couldn't understand, he was meant to marry an duchess after all.
I chuckled looking at the discourage in the mans face as he left. I had heard I was quite the troublemaker before; this was probably one of the causes. Children that felt suffocated often threw tantrums to show how they really felt.
I came closer to see just what kind of equations he was working on.
The smile I had before quickly fell.
This kid had been struggling with single digit additions??
I sighed in discouragement. My face was probably similar to the man sitting at the table. Seemed like math wasn't Joel's thing, well I'm sure he had some other talents. But it was discouraging to think that my book with complex mathematical formulas was found and yet I was someone who used to be well… inapt in math.
The door creaked back open; this time it was a middle-aged man. His white hair told me that it was probably my father. He had a short and stuffy beard, his eyes were golden unlike mine though, I had probably taken more after my mother on that side of things. His clothes didn't look extravagant either. Seemed like the difference between the hierarchy of nobles was quite noticeable. His face told me that he was tired of things, it looks like the whole situation is stressing him out.
- Is it not going any better Mark?
- I'm sorry to say but he really has no talent, not in writing, mathematics, martial arts. I even tested his magic potential and its almost nil.
- *Sigh*… What are we going to do? If the next meeting with miss Adelaide goes the same as the last, he will lose all his chances. He already has enough people jealous about him… at least Marlene can protect for now, but if they don't end up together... will she?
- Now now, she's your good friend, you know that even if something happens to you and Beth, she will protect your son, no matter how much of a troublemaker he is.
- I know I know… I'm just worried about him, if at least he had potential in magic like her, he could go to the academy and make friends, but at this rate he will end up being alone pushed aside by everyone.
- Don't worry, everything will be fine, you just need to believe in him.
Both men stayed in the room, but they stopped talking, contemplating the situation…
Well now, at least it gives me an idea of who might of tried to kill me, twice now. If this Adelaide was truly as lovely as the rumors said, and that it didn't seem like she loved me, maybe someone tried to eliminate me to get with her.
There was a lot that I still didn't know though. It seemed like this Mark, was confident that even if my parents died, that Marlene would protect me. So the person who tried to kill me clearly was ready to defy her, and thus were from a powerful family themselves.
And then there was the fact that my bride didn't like me, or at least 4 years ago she didn't. That's changed the way I viewed her, the clothes she sent earlier I thought were a present, but maybe it meant something else? Well, I wasn't good in social environments, I couldn't decipher if there was an ulterior motive. Who knows, maybe she had a change of heart in the last 4 years.
My surrounding went dark again, it seemed like the memory was ending. I was probably going to wake up soon.
My mind felt heavy again, my eyelids felt like they were rocks… I fell asleep again
- Ughhh… what in the world.
I opened my eyes; my ears were ringing and my head still hurt like hell. Did the mages not heal me, why am I still in so much pain?
It was daytime now; my eyes were being blinded by the light so I didn't dare open them yet. I rolled to my side.
It was a bit less bright now so I opened my eyes.
- OH GOD!!!
I jumped back clumsily a few steps back.
It was certainly not the view I expected, opening my eyes face to face with a corpse.
It wasn't like it was my first time seeing one, but waking up to one in your face would scare the wits out of just about anyone.
I took in my surrounding for a few seconds, there wasn't any noise, around. It looked as if I was the only survivor. Maybe it was a bit greedy of me to assume that the mages would survive at a mans disadvantage.
I walked back to the carriage to confirm my suspicions.
Sadly, it was just as I had thought. Arriving at the site, I could see all the different corpses of the mages around me.
Well, it happens, there wasn't much I could do about it. I tried to look around for anything useful. Something that could at least indicate me in what direction to go in as well as some camping equipment.
After looking around I found a map on the coachman, apart from that I found food on our assailants, enough to last me 4-5 days. Sadly, there weren't any bandages or anything, I would need to do with my injuries for now.
It did bum me out quite a bit, because on the map it only indicated the location of the Academy. But the fact that we had no food out in the open meant that they stored it somewhere else. Sadly, I couldn't find anything indicating there was food there, and if it was magic, I couldn't open it myself since I didn't have any magic powers.
Although from the dream I had, it looked like I might even need to drop that dream.
So many bad news one after another. But I had the look at the bright side of things while I could. I finally had some free time while going to the Academy to think about what I wanted to do as well as how.
I packed my things in a traveller's backpack that one of the enemy mages had. I put in my book, some food as well as the spare clothes that were prepared for me. It wasn't hygienic to put the food with the clothes, but it didn't really seem like I had the option right now.
Looking at the map the closest town was a single days walk from here, the problem was that I would be following the road. I didn't doubt for a second that the assailant would check the road to see if it was a success or not.
So, I decided to go the second closest town, but I decide to travel threw the woods. According to the map, the forest should become quite dense, having a forest more akin to eastern Canada.
I was confident I could camp it out for the few days I would need to since I had gone camping quite often in these environments when I was a kid.
I looked around one last time to pick up anything I may have forgotten.
I decided to take the Adayus's family's badge from one of the mages. I needed it to at least prove my identity when entering the Academy, and it would be useful in case I can regain contact with them.
I looked around, I took a step east. This was going to be a nice camping trip.