I was sitting in a chair that felt very familiar to me, holding a fork and a knife.

A very familiar dinner was placed in front of me.

The warmth, the burning smell of the fireplace, the so familiar ceiling, and the appearance of the room indicated that this place was the Rosetta manor.

I sat there, motionless, my gaze fixed on the meal.

“Is there a problem, Young Lord?” A voice asked from behind me.

Once again, something very familiar. Maa’s voice.

I knew nothing of this was real, that it was all in my head, but I nonetheless felt the need to ask, or rather just to talk to someone.

It had only been two days and I was already suffocating from being alone.

“No Maa, I have been I even …” when I spoke I stood up from the chair I was sitting upon, and turned back to face her, it’s then that I saw Syrus standing there, staring at me, just like that night, holes on his chest in which blood was profusely gushing out.

I rushed to where he was and knelt on its feet, I received absolutely no response. He just stood there motionless looking at me.

“Syrus…Sorry... I wasn’t… I was wounded by that monster and I fainted … I wasn’t trying to once again run away from reality.”

I noticed that after spending too much time inside the nofo, I not only lost my sight but also my ability to cry, but it didn't seem to apply here, since I felt hot tears streaming down my cheek.

“Please answer …answer me, I swear I will make them pay but for time being I’m too weak and powerless … ”

“But this is just temporary, I will get stronger… I will find a way to get stronger, and make them pay ... so please don’t ignore me.”

Just like earlier, I got absolutely no response nor reaction from him, instead, I saw the scenery was slowly crumbling away, I was surely waking up from this dream, that I would soon return to the bland darkness that has been my sight lately.

Trowing a last glance to Maa, then back at Syrus,

“I cannot repair what has been destroyed, but I swear I will become stronger, no one will ever have to sacrifice himself for me as you did for me Syrus, those who had hurt us will pay with their lives and anything that is dear to them.”

“I will not cry, I will not run away from anyone or anything, I will become someone you two will be proud of, I swear that on my life.” I declared as I saw their silhouette slowly disappearing and being replaced by complete darkness.

***

I awoke from my dream, fully remembering what it was about, and completely determined to honor the oaths I had made.

I was unconscious in a fetal position against the magical beast's corpse while dreaming. The wolf's warmth had faded, but its fur was still soft and fluffy to the touch, ideal for dealing with the cold winter.

It seems that what wake me up from my dream was my stomach screaming famine.

Having verified throughout my body, I noticed that though the ice explosion had hurt me, it didn’t cause anything beyond recovery, just some bruises, but no open wound, at least that was what I could tell from what I felt.

With all I had left with strength, I began to search up for the corpse of the three wolves I had managed to kill and the stake I dropped before launching that last suicidal charge.

Once found one of them and the stake I was looking for, I gouged out one of the wolf’s eyes, and ate it.

I felt like throwing up but I forced myself to swallow it, I repeated the process six times.

For the time being my most urgent problem was to fill my stomach, so I had to fix that in priority.

I chose the eyes for two reasons: first, I was once told that the eyes were the cleanest part of the anatomy, and second, I didn't want to shed too much blood while eviscerating it to retrieve an organ to eat inside it, and even if I did, I'd like to do it while in peak condition; I can't afford to get into another fight right now.

Once done, I went to rest for a little moment against a tree.

I won that battle but it was already a very desperate one. Though being a magical beast that wolf was particularly weak compared to that thing that attacked us that night.

Even between magical beast, there is a very huge gap between a weak magical beast, for that frost ashwolf to be awake in the middle of this winter it was clear that he wasn’t the strongest magical beast in the area, it wouldn’t even surprise me if it was the weakest.

This is merely a guess but the winter is closing its end, I need to get stronger if I want to survive in this forest, and hold my promise.

With the wolves' corpses, I have enough food to last for about a month, as long as I can find a way to cook or at least grill their meat and bury them in the snow. I might not have to go into hunting sessions like this one very often, at least for the time being.

I'm sure there are many more dynamic ways I can use the reality figer, and I have a feeling it will be more useful than I can imagine. Remembering what I did earlier, it was very cleverly pretty; I hadn't even considered that when I was trying to think of a clever way to use my reality figer other than a sort of téléchinesy-controlled weapon.

With the wolves’ bones, I can make weapons or projectiles out of them.

As for my aina, even though it isn’t as great as magic, today’s fight has at least proved that it was totally completely worthless against magical beasts.

I’ll have to work harder to improve my way of using aina, especially the sense enhancing such as smell and hearing.

I noticed it during the fight, but magical beasts, or at least the ashwolf, with its impressive size, are very loud while breathing, and while it was difficult to tell exactly how far away it was from me, it was fairly easy to tell which direction it came from.

For the time being, all I can do is pray that I don't come across a venom-user magical beast, a projectile-user magical beast, or any magical beast with a specialty in stealth or long-range attack, I have to be said absolutely no way to protect myself against these type of attack.

That being said, I believe I've discovered a new way to use aina aside from my usual application. I ignore if it will work against magical beasts, but if it does, it will be of great help to me especially with my current condition where close combat is pretty much my only option.