Chapter 80 Volume III – Chapter 1: The First Half of a Past

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It was my mother’s voice that woke me up, as usual.

“Adrian! Come on, get up, we’re going to start breakfast!”

The sunlight gently hit my face through the window of my room. It disturbed my opening eyes, so I reluctantly sat up slowly.

I must have kicked my duvet again while I was asleep, it was sticking out of the bed.

Luckily it wasn’t winter, if it had been then I would have been sick for sure.

“Coming!”

I jumped out of bed with a big smile on my face, went to the bathroom, washed my hands, and flew to the kitchen.

The scene that greeted me in the kitchen was the same as always. My father, with his silver hair and emerald green eyes, was calmly looking at the old-looking TV in front of him. He was expressionless as usual, but when he saw me walk in, he smiled ever so slightly.

It seemed contrived, actually. Like he was forcing himself, but I got used to that a long time ago.

“Good morning, Dad!”

“Good morning Adrian, help your mom. Don’t let her set the table by herself.”

“Okay!”

I quickly approached my mother who was at the stove and with a smile I took out plates and forks from the drawer. My mother, meanwhile, turned to me and smiled.

She had black hair that reached a little below her shoulders and pinkish eyes. She was not very tall, she looked quite young.

She was a very beautiful woman. When I was a kid I used to say I was going to marry her.

“Thank you, Adrian.”

I smiled again as the table slowly took shape, the different dishes side by side creating a delicious sight.

I was happy.

We lived in a wide clearing in a forest with very tall trees, almost in the middle of nowhere, with our own animals and a small field.

I had no friends, no relatives, I had never seen another human being apart from my parents, except the ones I saw on TV, but… I was happy.

My mom and dad loved me, they took care of me. When I was bored I would train with my dad, play games with my mom, or watch TV. Sometimes it was also fun to chase the chickens, spend time with the animals and play with them.

In short, what I want to say is that I was happy with my life as a nine-year-old child.

Of course, there were times when I questioned why we didn’t have a life like the people on TV, but I never brought it up to my mom or dad because I was already happy.

When we finally set the table and had breakfast, we resumed our usual routine, our daily lives.

I was playing games, having fun and running around my father and so on.

Today was no different from any other day.

At least it was until the clocks struck noon and the sun was at its peak.

I was spinning around the house when suddenly I heard a sound that made me pause. All my attention quickly turned in the direction of the sound.

Deep in the vast forest, in our house in the middle of nowhere, there was a knock on our door for the first time. So much so that even my parents stopped what they were doing and suddenly returned to the door of our house.

“Sophia, take Adrian and go inside.”

It was the first time I had ever seen both my mother and father so serious. I had no idea what had happened, I wondered who had come to our door.

My mother took me by the hand and led me toward my room, while I looked curiously at my father, who was heading toward the door.

It was the first time I had really seen this normally expressionless man, who even when he smiled seemed to be forcing it, look so earnest.

~bzzt! ~bzzt! ~bzzt!

The rhythmic sound I heard one after the other seemed to shake the world. Everything came together in an instant, my eyes flew open and I jumped out of my bed.

Despite my rapidly beating heart, I put my hand on my chest and looked around in vain as sweat poured down my cheek.

I was in my room, my room at the CDA.

‘Did you have a nightmare?’

My eyes widened at the voice echoing in my mind, then I took a deep breath, put my hand to my forehead, and bowed my head.

“No… I mean, yes, but no… Half of it, let’s say.”

With the uneasiness of seeing my past, I went to the bathroom and washed my face. I clicked my tongue as I looked at my reflection in the mirror, took a short shower, and put on my uniform as if nothing had happened.

As I passed by the kitchen, I glanced at my small table with countless scattered plates on it.

I squinted, felt a slight pain in my head, and finally turned my head away.

I went straight outside and headed to my classroom.

Still, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the dream out of my mind.

Now, nine whole years later, my past is starting to affect me again…

I don’t even need to think about why, I know the answer.

During the preliminary, when those twenty boys surrounded me, Aiden’s cold eyes, his calm, emotionless gaze… literally everything about him reminds me of that day, of that man.

Aiden is my friend, my first friend even, but his resemblance to that man… It scares me. Every time I look at him, I think of his face at the preliminary, and then I go back in time, and even if I try to stop it, I can’t.

I take a deep breath, turn my gaze to the sky and squint my eyes as I keep walking.

This… is slowly becoming a problem.

*******

~bzzt! ~bzzt! ~bzzt!

I opened my eyes to the sound of the alarm going off.

It didn’t take me long to wake up, I sat up straight from my bed.

I paused for a moment and took a quick look around my room.

Nothing seemed different, my view of the world hadn’t changed.

Still, I guess I could say I was happy.

Clara and I seem to have patched things up a bit, Celine and Lucia have joined the group of their own accord, I’ll get the sword style I want tonight, and the Justin thing hasn’t caused any problems so far.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t have any problems.

Sith is still absent, half of my soul is a lunatic, it’s not enough that I belong to the wiera race who are seen as the ‘villains’ of this world, the system sees me as a candidate for a representative, and I’m lacking a few emotions because I’m cleansed of everything that can stress me out.

When I remembered Sith, my mood dropped for a moment.

I had really gotten used to him in the month I spent with him, and now that he’s suddenly gone… it still feels more strange.

At least I know he’s alive, but…

It’s weird.

Whatever… I’d better not miss the lectures.

I shook my head from side to side and quickly cleared my mind.

Right, now is not the time to think about bad things. I just have to wait, and when the time comes, everything will be taken care of. I trust myself and Sith.

Thinking that this way nothing bad will happen, I quickly put on my uniform and threw myself outside.

As I made my way to my class, there was nothing different about the academy, except that some students, when they saw me, would turn to their friends and point their fingers at me. Of course, I didn’t care about any of them.

Then I noticed a figure walking a little ahead of me. I smiled slightly.

“Hey, Adrian!”

Adrian, being absent-minded, didn’t hear me and kept walking. So I frowned, but I quickened my pace a bit and approached him, and when he still didn’t notice me, I raised my hand and put it firmly on his shoulder.

“Ah!”

Adrian quickly turned around, his fist approaching me at a speed I could barely see, and I instinctively tilted my head to the right.

I looked at Adrian in surprise as the fist stopped a few millimeters from my left cheek.

He was breathing rapidly, looking at me with widened eyes.

“Aiden? Damn it, you scared me!”

He looked angry, but I didn’t care about that, what I cared about was that he insulted me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not angry with him.

On the contrary, I want to admire him, he has finally matured enough to insult me.

That’s a good sign.

Well… I suppose it is.

With a slight, wry smile on my face, I gently pushed Adrian’s fist, which was still in the air, away from me with my left hand.

“It’s your fault you didn’t hear me when I called you.”

“You called out to me?”

“Yes.”

His eyebrows raised in surprise, and he finally pulled back the fist I had pushed away, releasing his fingers.

“Oh… I’m sorry, I was thinking about something…”

Hmm? I wonder what he was thinking.

“Well, then, why don’t you walk instead of standing where you are? We’re getting a lot of attention.”

With that Adrian finally took his gaze off me and looked around curiously.

Just like I said, when he saw that almost everyone was watching us with interest, he let out a deep sigh and then continued walking slowly toward our classroom. I followed behind him.

“Still, you used a lot of power for a simple punch.”

I barely saw the punch, even with my E grade stats and my improved body from being a wiera…

No, I couldn’t even see it, I just acted on instinct. If someone else had been in my place, his fate would have been very different from mine.

Although… since when did I have such instincts? Is it something to do with me being a wiera again…? Maybe, considering that wieras are very pro-war.

I frowned involuntarily at these thoughts that reminded me again that I am not a human being, but then I was distracted from these thoughts by Adrian calling out to me.

“That’s because I was distracted… Besides, you got through it pretty well. You were more than calm.”

“It was all instinct, and my calmness was…”

At first, I couldn’t think of anything to say, I didn’t want to talk about the Absolute Mind to just anyone. I didn’t like that skill, and being a wiera was something else.

“I don’t know, I guess I thought you wouldn’t hit me because you were you.”

Adrian frowned and eyed me suspiciously, but when he saw that I didn’t say anything else, he sighed and refocused.

So we continued to move slowly but steadily toward the classroom and then we arrived at our destination, only to be greeted by Julian the moment we entered the classroom.

He was completely focused on me with a textbook in his hand and his eyes shining, it was clear what he wanted.

I turned to Adrian, put my hand to my mouth, and spoke in a whisper.

“Aren’t bullies supposed to hate studies?”

Julian frowned because he couldn’t hear what I was saying, and Adrian didn’t react to what I said.

He looks distracted again…

What is he thinking about so much?

“You said something bad about me, didn’t you?”

I put my hand on Adrian’s shoulder, ignoring Julian’s words.

“Adrian? Are you okay?”

After what I said, Julian slowly turned to Adrian so that he too realized that something was wrong.

“Adrian?”

“Ah… I thought of something, nothing important.”

Adrian put a slight smile on his face and refocused on us.

We kept talking like that but both Julian and I had noticed something.

We didn’t know what it was… but something was different about Adrian.

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