"So they found a bunch of dead bodies in the duke"s personal prison inside his mansion. One of the bodies looks like the duke"s, but it was mauled so badly that people are not sure if it is or not...""Grey came back with all that blood on him... Do you think it was him?"
"No way, they say that it looks like the men were clawed apart by an animal. Does Grey look like that to you!"
"Hmmm... it is too much of a coincidence, though. Maybe he wasn"t the one who injured them, but he was present when they were attacked and that was how he got blood all over him. Grey"s cat was the one who crushed the talisman, so we all thought it had been up to mischief, but then he actually came back looking like that."
"I wonder what happened..."
"It looks like our Grey was kicked around though after we washed off the blood."
"Hmph! I know! We"re his teachers and yet we have never even made a bruise on his body. When I find those people responsible, they"ll know they messed with the wrong kid!"
"Quiet! We only need to calmly wait until Greyson awakens. We will have all our questions answered then."
Greyson could hear and understand all the conversations around him, however, he couldn"t see the faces that matched the familiar voices. He kept willing himself to open his eyes and mouth to answer their questions, but no matter how hard he tried it was like he could no longer control his body. Finally, his consciousness sank back down into darkness and the voices faded away.
...
Grey, Grey, Grey, GREY!
Gasping and jumping up from the bed, Greyson realized he could move. Looking around, he locked eyes with Lucius who looked pleasantly surprised. The cat was laying on top of his chest, but Greyson bolted up so suddenly that he was sent falling backwards into Greyson"s lap.
"At last! I could feel you waking up more and more due to our connection so I tried calling out to you through our pact. You really can sleep! Making everyone worried about you, there"s been at least 50 doctors who have come in and out looking at you due to your anxious teachers. Only I was able to relax out of everyone since I have the contract with you so I knew you were fine, but I obviously couldn"t go out and tell everyone."
"How long was I asleep?" Greyson croaked back. Hearing his voice, his eyes widened a little with shock as even he couldn"t recognize that he was the one speaking. Spotting the water on the night stand, he poured himself a cup and gulped down the water. His dry and scratchy throat felt the heavenly relief of fresh water and his previous grogginess had started to float away.
"3 months!"
"Ah..." Greyson absentmindedly nodded before suddenly snapping his head up to stare at the cat.
"AH?! 3 months?! How is that even possible? Wouldn"t I die if I was sleeping this entire time without eating or drinking?" Greyson thought that Lucius was just being dramatic and exaggerating the time to make Greyson feel guilty for making everyone care for him. Lucius first looked at him in disbelief before rolling his eyes and sighing.
"I knew your basic knowledge was weak, but to think its this weak. You should really read more about the basics of the basics. You know how the anti-magic charm could potentially kill magicians?"
"Yeah..." Greyson answered in confusion.
"Why is that? It"s obviously because mana is like water, food, and blood to magicians. It is their sustenance. So if mana is the main sustenance of magicians, why can"t it be the thing that keeps them alive more than food and water. Although your physical body is still rather weak because humans aren"t born with the special physiques of the other races, magicians still live longer than normal humans. This is because of mana. So although you were sleeping, your body was absorbing mana just as usual only at a slower rate than if you were meditating. Enough to survive, but not enough to advance in level. Magicians can technically go completely without eating and drinking, but you all are in the habit of eating from young and some people just enjoy the taste." Lucius patiently explained to a surprised Greyson. At first, he was surprised, but after thinking about it he realized that whenever he meditated he would skip meals without ever realizing it and even after the meditation was over he didn"t feel hungry. He had stopped eating regularly since he started meditating, but he hadn"t lost any weight and was still growing fine.
"Now that I think about it... I guess I already subconsciously knew about it since I never felt the need to eat anymore. People must just go to the cafeteria to get the mana from the magic food not because they"re actually hungry."
"Well, of course! Eating the food here is like snacking on magic pills all day long to help boost your mana level."
Greyson nodded slowly, before his whole body jolted. His eyes widened with remembrance of three months ago.
"Aria? Lu, what happened to Aria? Where is she?" He looked over at Lucius while desperately hoping his memories are incorrect.
"Aria..." Lucius"s eyes showed obvious discomfort.
"Lucius!"
"Grey, they found her body... Inside that bas.e.m.e.nt cell with the rest of the bodies..."
"Rest of the bodies?"
"You don"t remember? The old man and his servants all died down there. Grey, what happened that night? It looked like they were all attacked by a beast of some sort."
"So Aria really... really..." Greyson shut his eyes as a single tear flowed down his face.
"I killed people, too. Lu, I killed one of the men during the attack and I think I killed the old man and his servants, too." Greyson"s whole body shook as his blood started to run cold. He could still remember seeing the life drain from that attacker"s eyes. He couldn"t completely recall that night in the jail cell, but he could faintly feel the blood flow through his fingers. Lucius could see the trauma that day had on Greyson, so he tried to snap him out of it.
"Grey, it"s not your fault. That man was twisted and caused a lot of other people a lifetime of hurt and devastation. You killing him is service to the rest of the world. Aria... Aria, she..." He stumbled to find the right words.
"Lu, I don"t need your comfort. I just have to settle my mind myself. Leave me alone for a little, okay?" Greyson"s words came out barely a whisper, but Lucius just nodded and quietly left the room while looking back at the depressed boy with concern. Secretly watching Greyson, Lucius observed as Greyson did not move an inch from the middle of the night when he woke up until midday the next day. He just blankly stared out into s.p.a.ce as silent tears dropped onto the blanket. Lucius could feel his own heart in despair from the link which he shared with Greyson.
...
Day turned to night and night to day. Because he hadn"t made any movements and Lucius didn"t notify anyone, n.o.body on the outside had even realized he woke up. The next morning, Greyson wiped his eyes and slowly got up from the bed. He stumbled and fell for a little while due to the weakness in his legs from laying for so long. His body soon adjusted, though, and he walked toward the wardrobe in his room. Absentmindedly dressing himself in new clothes, he opened the door to his room in the physician patient building. Confused as to the location of this building, he walked up to the map of the city and found where he wanted to go. At this point, the attendants and physicians knew who he was and all were shocked that Greyson had suddenly had gotten up. They all started to pull him back and claiming they need to look at his body to make sure he is alright. It was all useless, though, as Greyson ignored them and continued walking out. Lucius followed behind secretly as he wondered where Greyson suddenly decided to go. His guessing did not last long as Greyson was soon standing in front of the Lightning Department Hall. Understanding dawned in Lucius"s eyes and he felt another painful stab into his heart.
Greyson stared up at the hall and paused for a little before walking straight in and up to the top floor. Knocking on the large door, he waited for an answer.
"Enter." A strong female voice resounded. Greyson listened and quickly opened the door and walked into the room. Teacher Vivienne sat at a large desk in the middle of the room that was neat and empty. In other words, very soldier. She was working on some paperwork, so she did not immediately look up. Greyson waited patiently for her to finish, so the room remained silent for the next couple of minutes. Sighing, Vivienne finally placed down her pen while rubbing in between her brows in frustration. She looked up wearily, but her eyes soon lit up with surprise and joy.
"Greyson! You woke up?!" She gave a rare smile to show her happiness to see her disciple up and about again. Greyson nodded still looking serious.
"But, wait, you should still be back lying down. You probably only just woke up. Do your other teachers know? Are you visiting all of us like this? That won"t do. Even if you don"t need the food and drink, you still need to take it easy since you were laying down so long!" Soon after her happy smile formed a serious frown again as she lectured him. Although her words were reprimanding him, Greyson could still feel the warmth and concern inside her words.
"No, they don"t know. I came to see Teacher Vivienne first."
"Me? Why?" Teacher Vivienne cared for her disciple, but she knew that she and her disciple were both stoic people so they never got particularly close.
"I want to learn close combat. I want to learn how to fight properly. Please train me!" Greyson declared. Vivienne was surprised by his words, but she could see the severity and determination in her disciple"s eyes so she answered as such.
"Are you sure? It won"t be easy or fun like learning spells. You will probably be bitterly beaten and stuck in repet.i.tive practice for a while. It"s not interesting like magic, but hard and tiring work."
"Teacher, I am determined. I no longer wish to stay weak like I am. I continued giving myself leeway due to my age and talent, but after my most recent experiences I could tell I was sorely mistaken and arrogant. I"m still too weak. I became complacent." Pain sliced at his heart constantly. He knew that no matter what anyone comforted him with, he could never forgive himself if he just moved on without changing. Staying weak would only be insult and disrespect towards Aria who had protected him with all her strength even though she was only a year older than him. How could he face the parents who probably still don"t know of their daughter"s fate? Although she never directly mentioned it, he knew Aria had run away from home but not because they were terrible parents but because they tried to control her too much. Control only showed how much concern and love they had for their daughter...
Suffocated by his own inadequacies, Greyson decided that he needed to start right away. Next time, he would be protecting people not the other way around!