I woke up early in the morning and again, there was this cloying smell lingers in the air. This was the second time. I’m not sure where the source of this smell is. After I smelt it at that time and now, I can give my thoughts on the smell. It’s not that annoying of smell though because it was a sickly sweet but with a hint of spiciness.
The smell was probably from outside because even it roughly feels like there is no ventilation but I think up in the Fhagec, there is a ventilation system… hopefully.
“Open window.”
The window on my left side opened and the moons were still shining up above. It’s still early but I don’t mind. I want to try jogging.
--
I was standing outside of the Fhagec near the entrance after I woke up. Thankfully upon arriving to our Fhagec after the meeting last night, there’s was a wooden box in front of our Fhagec. There was my name on it so I opened it and found several of clothes of different style.
Also, after that meeting had ended, I realized we didn't ask for Ghrukka special ability but no biggies, we can always ask for it anytime when we meet them again.
Back to the box of clothes, it must have been from the Inheritors as I heard something about compensating me that night. The reason it came late was probably because they didn’t know my name and had the guards to check.
How nifty and I am very grateful even though that the very thought of that night still haunts my amnesiac mind.
What I was wearing right now is something similar to that of a green Chinese monk’s robe.
Back when I was fourteen, I remembered my doctor’s advice, which is to always jog and don’t eat anything off the floor. I think he had mistaken me for his other less developed patient because our name was almost the same.
.…
Oh snap! What was that patient’s name? Was it Reuben, Jonathan or Howard?
Never mind, I think Ruigne is much better than those three.
Anyway, let’s get running and produce those lactic acids!
Before I do that, let’s exercise the muscles so I don’t develop a cramp although, the first day of combat training had already cause my entire body became lead. I got better though.
As I did a stretch, I saw a figure running from the corner of my right eye. It was August in the same tracksuit..
"… Don’t you ever wash those?”
“… If there’s no smell, there’s no need to wash it.”
Is this like the ‘if the ball ain’t touching, it’s not gay’ sort of philosophy? That’s quite questionably but I guess everyone has their flaw.
“You’re going jogging too, Ruigne? Come on, join me then. We’ll go around all the Fhagec lanes in ten rounds!”
"What? We have combat training after breakfast; I can’t afford to do that.”
“Jeez, if you could do this, you can increase your stamina and endurance and maybe, just maybe, at least you could last ten seconds against Vefal in a match.”
Well give me a break, there’s a difference between a trained and seasoned fighter and a man in his early something who exercise as much as he gets laid that is, if he ever did, I can’t remember… Yes it is one of those lost memories for some reason.
“I’ll join you but only for five rounds.”
“Eh, good enough, you ready?”
I finished stretching and nodded to him.
--
As we jog, we synchronized with our gait and breathing. From what I can roughly see, August is an athlete from the way he ran and the fact he’s still not out of breath after five rounds.
Both of us didn’t spoke the entire time because we were focusing on running alone. I miss this feeling of monotonous serenity.
But I finally had an urge to talk because a long silence is pretty boring after a while but mainly because as a fellow earthling in the same predicament, I wanted to ask him how feels.
"Do you feel sad or regret that we were summoned here?”
We both slowed our pace of jog and August had a mixed expression on his face.
“… You know before I was summoned, I was actually running, just like right now. It was on a circular running track. I didn’t know how long I had ran but at that time, I closed my eyes and next thing I know, I was forcibly stopped and then, I was there, standing in that place surrounded by creatures. It took a while after it had registered on me but you know, I don’t read fantasy but that was wack. It’s crazy, so I dismissed it that it was just a dream. I felt that all the way into the Fhagec. I played along with the dream but after I slept and wake up, I was still here.”
He chuckled and smiled forlornly. I remembered about my countermeasure of dismissing it as a VR experience. I mean, what modern apes in their right, educated mind would just accept the notion of being summoned into another world right?
“But the question was how I felt right? Well, there were a lot of things that I felt but I actually felt relief the most… It’s not that I hated my life back on earth, but… I had a major crisis happened recently so I wanted to escape that reality and I did. And here I am…”
We stopped completely. I understand his point. If I have to say, the percentages of earthlings lathering themselves in escapism is pretty high, so if they were to be given this sort of choice, there’s no need to guess which choice they would choose. I mean, other than being summoned which is quite abysmally low for anyone if I had to guess, the other option are one of the oldest way to escape the reality of life which is suicide. Grim.
“God, man, sorry for bringing the mood down!”
“Naw, I was the one who ask but I’m glad that someone else also feels the same.”
“About escaping reality?”
“No, about this being unreal and whatnot.”
“Well, does it matter now? We just move on with our life right?”
He smiled and then jogs back. I guess that’s the only way huh.
--
“That’s the long and short of it, everyone makes their own meal now. Well I meant, make them as not to cook them, you’ll see.”
The lazy looking official came to us just to say that and left promptly afterward. It seems that they are slowly making us more independent by slowly shifting the work.
After combat training and haven’t found a clue on what I can do, we were waiting in the field near the portal. I decided to wear the monk robe for the entire day.
Still an hour for a break and we have to cook ourselves now? Oh well, it’s just more challenging.
Turns out, we didn’t have to cook anything because most of the foods were cooked. I think what that official meant was that we prepared and served the cooked food ourselves.
It seems there are kitchen staffs manning the kitchen. So only the dinner is the time for self-cooking.
After breakfast and three hour of GE where Keh Tauzad told me that they had already informed the inheritors and they should get back to me today, we were standing in a library for the Eomancy class after we had our lunch.
I don’t know if this was a library but since there were rows of bookshelves filled with books, I can safely assume this a library.
Standing in front of us was Dekhine.
“Welcome to my private library! See how lucky you guys are being my apprentices?! This vault of knowledges was accumulated by the Folcruza House by decades!”
Dekhine, with a bright disposition, grinned as she open her arms.
The adorable level had significantly risen! The need to head pets her increases!
Before I could, the other two obvious repeated offenders, Vefal and August, had already cornered her but she seems to be calm about it.
It was a trap!
As they put their hands on her head, they were repulsed by an invisible barrier.
“Yes, now you two can never harass me anymore! Ahahahahahaha!”
She laughed out triumphantly as everything went as planned. Vefal and August had a despairing expression on their face with their hands hovering lifelessly above her.
Wait, it’s only with those two, right? Then… pre-emptive surprise head pat attack!
“With this, I can be a proper- eh!!?”
It’s true, the hair felt so soft and fluffy like I’m caressing a Siberian husky fur or a really clean furred rabbit.
“I-I forget the third would-be offender!”
Dekhine, getting teary, wailed as she flailed her arms around to get away from me. Ever since I saw it on that day, I had harboured a desire to pat this green hair. You can say it’s one of my motivations to live and fight on!
--
“You lost your memories and you don’t know your ability huh? Must be suck being you.”
Dekhine, with a sullen tone, said that to me. She was sitting beside me but she kept a lot of caution, watching my every movement. Even though she was mad at what I did earlier, she personally lectured me because of my loss of memories and not knowing my ability.
I really admired how professional she is despite her age and what I did.
Right now, she was checking books about memory losses and I was checking books on special abilities. As I scoured the books, I noticed a particular book with an intriguing title.
‘A collection of Sealed Written Words.'
I took it and flipped a page. There were Eomancy circles with words written on it. It seems different.
“Hey what’s this book about?”
“You remembered we can enchant Eomancy into objects right? If you tried to enchant them on a Kahsra paper, it will seal the Words into the paper but in order to cast the spell, you need to unseal them but it usually takes minutes via Eomancy but the good thing is that you won’t suffer from Overuse… Eh?!!”
What? Why are you looking at my face with such a shocked look? Did something died on it?
“Y-your left eye!”
Huh?
I looked at the other and they were also staring at me with shocked expressions. Guys, if there is something that died on my face, just tell me what it is.