Days have gone by in a blur. Secluded in his room, Noah stare blankly outside a window. The pitch darkness looming around the city, the clouds cover the illuminating stars.
There were multiple cogwheels spinning with each representing everyone. He was no different, a cog spinning in a synchronous, patternised matter with others.
"What is strength?" He murmured, a question Noah had yet to consider.
'Strength is held by the strong. The strong are the ones who reign over the weak. But is that what strength is?'
Abruptly, a muscular figure appeared before him, closing the door behind him.
"What did you mean about dying if you weren't strong enough?" Victor bluntly asked, pulling a stool next to Noah's.
Noah's face flickers with surprise, but had anticipated that Victor would come by to his room.
"People kill others for the sake of their goals, I am a targeted person, a goal for someone else to kill."
"That's really bleak. But you know Noah, if you keep thinking about such gloomy thoughts, you wouldn't be able to enjoy life." Victor chuckled, lowering the tensed mood between the two.
"I can tell you had it good Victor. You look strong, easily dependable. But, that is a weakness for someone like me."
"…That is not true." The cloud slowly scurry away, unravelling the many glittering stars above. Gazing upon them, Victor then continued, "Strength is born from conviction, when you put your mind to a goal, it overflows naturally."
"I see… So this is your philosophy."
"So you know the core fundamentals of strength?"
"My guild master said it on a whim."
"There must be a reason why your guild master said such a thing at that point in time. Possibly, to help you understand a new scope of strength."
Victor laments on his thoughts, reveling in the dark nature of his past.
"Mindset is the ability to actualise your ideals into powers."
"My wind abilities came from my Mindset, the philosophy is just the power source which maintains it."
Noah perked up his ears with meticulous attention, his eyes glisten with excitement.
"Interesting…" Multiple puzzle pieces left untouched, soon come together as if a new guiding hint was written in the rule book.
"Noah… I trust you that you wouldn't utilise this power to do harm to those you love and care about." Victor teared, grasping Noah's hand gently but yet with firmness.
Noah gazes back to his gentle demeanour as compared to the uncomfortable week long work where his demeanour was that of a bear out of hibernation, grumpy and disturbed.
"I can't promise anything. I can only do my best." Noah replied, his black pupils radiates colour.
Breathing out a long and thought filling sigh, Victor began explaining further.
"The church of cardinals, the prestigious academies, and there is one more that I know of."
"It's awakening Mindset naturally through a set of hidden quests."
"Hidden quests? Can you tell me more Victor?"
"These quests are given when you reach the limit of your philosophy. It's subtle, but it's a voice at which echoes in your mind endlessly, trying to form a foundation."
"What if I had a Mindset scroll. What can I do with it?"
Victor calmly addresses, hiding a surging river against his cracked dam, "Mindset scroll is an institutional scroll in which disrupts a human's capability to think logically and form a fundamental basis for their own path of understanding." As he continues his explanation, Victor eyes drew darker, "The scroll which I thought would benefit my friend who was the top graduate. Who would of thought that very curse caused her to fall into mind manipulations." Gritting his teeth in a fit of hatred, Victor eyes blazed with a palpable fiery.
"Power?! What is it worth when you were manipulated with an integrated philosophy?"
'So then why did guild master leave me with a Mindset scroll? Didn't he want someone with potential to fight against him?!'
There were many oddities regarding with the scroll. Was there more than what met the eye? If people had money and were rich enough to obtain one for themselves, why would they spend their hard earn money for a shortcut to strength?
In contrast to such an intense and heated exchange of information. Celia, held her mouth shut with her hands, multiple droplets of sweat trickle like scattering roots. Eavesdropping onto their conversation, she began to mutter indecipherable words. However, a word leaked from her mouth causing her hand skin to peel a little.
"Celia? Are you on the other side of that door?" Noah questioned, her usual outgoing attitude was contrasted to a quiet version.
Opening the door, Celia barges in with a slight bow, an unusual thing she would show.
'I've never seen her bow before? Could she have some sort of connections to this conversation?' Noah thought, albeit, a bit too far fetch considering her usual temperament.
"Darling, is there something that needs me to attend to?" Victor voiced out, concern laced with his slightly disturbed expression.
'So it wasn't me… Celia, I've never asked about your identity before. Are you— Forget it.'
As both Victor and Noah were in silent agreement looking at each other. Noah was the first to see a peeled skin, revealing the flesh beneath it. But what made it so much more odd was that she wasn't bleeding.
"Your hand—" But before Noah could say anything further, Victor butted in, asking with deepened concern, "Darling, we need to check up on that hand." With hurried, off tempo footsteps, he moved towards Celia caressing her hands asking, "Does it hurt?"
Celia smiled, "It's fine father. It's nothing too much for me to handle."
'That's a lie.' The one thing Noah was extremely proficient in was understanding if someone was lying or not.
"It's way too unnatural. Your hand literally defies logic and reasoning!" Noah shouted.
'Do I probe further?!' With a heavy, drawn-out grunt, Noah gnaws his teeth picking his next point of decision.
Waving his hand off, Victor physically tells Noah to let him handle it.