“Would you… smile for me… just once…” Alnea Oathkeeper, the abandoned son of the Oathkeeper clan, said to his salvation. His voice was coming out in a hoarse, and crooked manner, making it a little difficult to understand, even for himself. Being forced to break his sentences into smaller segments by the blood glugging from his mouth did not help either. But it was fine. At least he could speak. For the moment.
With his strength leaking from him faster than his blood, he was losing his senses one by one. Soon, he knew, that he would not be able to speak at all. So, he did not mind his broken words. At least he was able to voice out his last request. That in itself was a much better condition than most people had when facing their death. Still, he wished to be selfish once again. He wished to see her smile. Before his eyes gave out on him, he…
Alnea wished that his tears would stop streaking down his face. They had been falling for a while, from even before he had woken up. Rather, his tears were one of the reasons he had woken up so early. There was his dream as well, but the damp feeling against his cheek, as his tears seeped into his mattress was not pleasant either. They were not even his own tears, but of the memory he had seen in his dream last night. And though the dream was broken when he woke up, the memory itself did not fade away. It lingered in his mind, infecting it with its melancholy, and taking a strange on hold in his chest, inducing his tears to keep rolling down his face.
Fortunately, Alnea was not as ignorant as he once used to be. He knew that Wanderers should never let their emotions cloud their judgement. Especially within the Origin Sea. And though he was not Wandering at the moment, he still could not let his emotions get the upper hand over him. So, as the sadness lingered in his chest, he kept staring at the ceiling above him, trying to empty his mind. He never really succeeded, but after a while, his racing heart finally calmed down, as he wiped the remnants of his tears from his face.
“What was that?” Alnea said, more as an exclamation, rather than as a question. As such, he did not expect any answer. He himself was not capable of understanding what had happened. As for asking about it from someone else, that would require him to divulge his most closely guarded secret, even more so than his Roots. At least there were three people, other than himself, who knew a little about his Roots. His dreams though, and the memories that came in them, no one knew about them. Not even his master.
It was not that Alnea had wished to keep them as his secret from the beginning. On the contrary, he had tried telling his parents about them just a few days after he started experiencing his special dreams, but they had laughed it off as just his fantasies. They—His mother probably did not even remember it anymore. Would anything change if tried telling her about it again?
Probably not. She had laughed at even the name he had taken for himself, let alone such an incomprehensible secret. His master would probably laugh at him as well. Or maybe not. Should he tell her?
After some thought, Alnea shook his head, and decided against it. He would probably tell her about the memories in his dreams, but not at the moment. It would be fine she just laughed it off, but what if she took them seriously? What if decided to stay away from him because of it? It had taken him months of hard work to develop a sense of closeness with her. He did not wish to ruin that for just some self satisfaction.
Besides, it was not as if he had not told her anything at all. His Roots, in essence, were inspired from the memories, as was the name he had taken. Alnea Oathkeeper. The man who always kept his Oaths, no matter what. In a sense, he had already told her all his secrets. She just did not know about it. In time, he would tear away that last layer of veil as well. But not at the moment.
Taking deep breath to find his bearings, and suppress the overwhelming emotions of despair and regret spilling over from his dream, Alnea pushed himself off his mattress, before rolling the cotton stuffed mattress over to the cupboard in the corner of his room. Recently, his mother had been given a raise in the eatery. She had saved enough money in the days that followed to replace some of the makeshift furniture in their house. He had insisted that things were fine the way they were, but she had bought them anyway.
“She needs to be a little more frugal,” Alnea mumbled to himself, as he walked out of his room. With the Lotus clan staring at him, saving a few more Orus coins was the obvious choice. His mother never listened to him though. But it was fine. At least, he could see a little hint of smile on her face these days. Her true smile, not the fake smile she had been wearing for his sake.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Walking into the bathroom, Alnea found a bucket that his mother had filled with water the previous night itself. He had been restricted from using his Spirit after all. He could only rely on his mother for things that relied on Glyphs. Thankfully, she had not delved too much into reason behind the arrangements of the Academy. She had not asked even a single question about it, accepting everything with a smile.
Maybe it was her guilt, or maybe she just did not wish to delve into anything regarding the Lotus clan. It could also have been that she was just happy about getting the chance to help him, just like in the days before his Spirit Awakening Ritual. In any case, as long as she did not force another Oath upon him, he was fine with anything. Except, of course, waking her up before Enn had even risen in the sky, just so that he could have a fresh bucket of water. It was not as if he was going to drink it. For just his daily chores, a bucket of stale water was enough.
As for the restrictions on his Spirit itself, it had come from the Spirit Inhibition Ring that the Lotus clan had force him to wear. In name, it was so that he could focus on building his foundation. In essence, it was an inescapable trap that the Lotus clan had laid for him. Or so they thought. In effect, all that the ring did was to make him rely on his mother for his daily chores. An inconvenience which he gladly accepted.
After all, by wearing the ring, not only had he proved himself as a true friend to Cecilia, but he had also gotten rid of incessant bugging of the Lotus clan, while gaining access to the foundational knowledge of Wanderers. Not to mention the fact that it was also because he wore the ring that he got to meet his master. All that, without sacrificing the growth of his Spirit Power, which the ring was originally intended for. If only the Lotus clan knew…
Imagining the faces of those insufferable people contorting in regret, Alnea giggled to himself, as he went about with his daily chores. Thankfully, he did not have to activate Glyphs, so it went by quickly enough, allowing him to regain the time he had lost trying to get rid of the depressing feeling of his dream. Back in his room, he wore his usual white shirt, and a pair of brown trousers, before walking out into the hall, and picking up the two lunch boxes, from the table.
Just like the bucket of water, his mother had prepared the lunch boxes a night in advance. She had initially planned to wake up even earlier than him, just to make him fresh lunches every day, but she had sacrificed enough for him already, he could not possibly let her sacrifice anything more for him. Besides, he was going to be the greatest Wanderer. How could he let his mother suffer any grievances?
Humming to himself, Alnea stuffed the lunch boxes into his bag. Those alone took more than half of its space. Thankfully, he did not have to carry the scrolls, or the bound stacks of notes that he kept in his room back to the Academy, or he might have had to carry more than one, or even three bags. Chuckling at that thought, he covered the bag’s mouth using pins, and slung it by his left shoulder, before walking out of his home.
Once out of his home, he shifted the strap of his bag to his right shoulder, so that it was crossing his upper body, making it harder for the bag to slip out. Still, he gripped its strap, just in case, as he looked up at the dark sky, where Enn had yet to rise, and Orn was just sinking into the horizon.
Unlike Enn, Orn’s lights were too soft to breach the defences of the horizon. Furthermore, Orn was inherently a little lazy, not putting in her best efforts to illuminate the world. As such, the world was enshrouded in complete darkness. And enjoying that darkness, Alnea closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, letting his bare skin be kissed by the cold winds of autumn.
Inkah’s month had arrived, and along with it would come the influence of the God of Death, making the days a little darker, and the nights a little chillier. Even the stars in the sky would dim down under Inkah’s influence. Alnea, however, would remain unaffected. His days and nights would go on as they had been going on ever since he had met his master, and became her disciple, building his foundations.
Sometimes, he wondered if his master was a little too strict with him. Nearly half of Enn’s month, and the entirety of Tion’s, Optah’s, and Orn’s months had gone by since he had first met her. More than a hundred days. And in all that time, Alnea had kept on building his foundations all day, every day; waking up earlier than his mother, and then returning back home in the evening almost the same time as his mother did, only to review everything that he had learned during the day.
Furthermore, all the things that he had to learn were so confusing, and mind boggling, that he sometimes had to review them three or four times to truly understand what they meant, not to mention that he also had to revise everything that he had already learned. But it was precisely because of those things, that Alnea felt that even if his master was a little strict, it was all worth it.