Chapter 15: Casual Reunions

How strange, he thought as he walked through the streets towards the Academy. The buildings of the Academy loomed over the rest of the city. Tall walls surrounded the Academy, protecting from any unwanted visitors.

It all looked so familiar. A mix of apprehension and excitement filled him. Cerien felt that he must have been here before. On the side of one of the buildings, there was a large insignia. One of a sword surrounded by a circle. The same symbol that was on his shirt. It seems that Slei was right. Cerien must have been a student of the Academy.

As he walked towards the main gates, a couple of guards stood blocking the entrance. As he neared them, they walked up to him and stopped him.

“Halt. If you wish to enter, remove that cloak, stranger.” One of the guards said.

Cerien was about to take off his cloak and show them the symbol on his shirt when he stopped himself. Under his cloak, he was wearing nothing but rags. His clothes had been reduced to tatters. Revealing himself would be almost like an act of nudity.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to reveal myself. Could I just come in and see if anyone knows me?”

The guard shook his head. “Sorry, but we can’t let you in if we don’t know who you are. Security’s been upped ever since the attack in Grimwoods.”

“Alright. I understand. I’ll come back.” Cerien nodded and left. He started walking along the walls. As he walked, he realized that the guards only seemed to watch the gates. The actual walls themselves weren’t guarded. It seemed that the Academy was confident in the walls’ ability to shut out any intruders.

Soon, Cerien entered a darker area of the city. The buildings were a little taller and blocked out the sunlight. He looked at the sky. It was tinged red. The sun would set in a little bit. Cerien decided to wait a bit. When darkness covered the city, then he would make his move.

* * *

Slei walked through the hallway. He was in the city hall, walking towards the mayor’s chamber. As he passed other people, they gave him a glance before quickly looking away with shocked recognition in their faces.

Slei reached the mayor’s room and knocked three times on the door.

“Come in.” A tired voice sounded from behind the door. Slei opened the door and entered.

A man was sitting in a chair at his desk. He was facing away from the door, looking at the window behind him.

“Who is it?” the man asked without looking at his new visitor.

“Good afternoon, Mayor Bimol. I’d like to ask a few questions, if you don’t mind.” Slei replied.

The mayor sighed. “Look. I just had a long ceremony. And now I have to take care of this goddamned paperwork. I would really like to answer any questions you have, just not right now. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to come another –” the mayor suddenly cut himself off as he turned to face Slei. He grinned as he realized who he was talking to.

“Slei! My dear old boy! I had no idea you were visiting. You rascal! You should’ve told me. Oh oops! I keep on forgetting my manners. You’re not a little boy anymore.” Bimol stood up and bowed. “I am at your services, Your Royal Highness.”

“Haha. There’s no need to worry about it, Bimol. I just want to ask something and I’ll be on my merry way.” Slei laughed as he tried to console the man.

“Yes? What would Your Highness ask of me?” Bimol asked.

“Hey. Enough with the Highness stuff. It’s just you and me right now, Bimol. Anyways, I wanted to ask you. The King. I heard he’s coming to Lombania. Is it true? And if so, when?” Slei asked.

“His Majesty the King is indeed paying our city a visit. He is coming tomorrow. We’ve been trying to keep this on the down low, but the town of Stekon was burned down. No survivors. When our soldiers investigated, we found the dead body of an elf left behind and the remains of demonic mana. That sleepy little town never stood a chance.” Bimol shook his head sadly. “His Majesty wishes to hold a ceremony to address Lombania over the issue of the elves and demons. He also is planning to personally congratulate our three heroes.”

Bimol looked at Slei. “Were you here earlier today? We had a fine celebration for three fine heroes.”

“Yes I saw. It was quite admirable. I remember seeing Monaco fight back when he was in the 13th Squad. Truly a master spellblade.” Slei remarked admiringly.

“Yes. A damn shame he retired so young. Anyways, now that you’re here, how about we go grab a drink?” Bimol grinned as he walked over and grabbed Slei’s soldiers.

Slei laughed. “Alright, Bimol. I know just the place. The inn I’m staying at has got some fine waitresses, which I know you like. Let’s go.”

“Which I like? Come on, Slei. You like ‘em just as much as I do!” Bimol laughed.

* * *

It was night in Lombania. The walls surrounding the Academy were dark. The walls formed a square around the Academy. Four main gates in the middle of each side. There were only torches by the main gates. There were towers at each corner. There should be guards watching in the towers, but vision would be reduced to nothing in this darkness.

A shadow emerged from the buildings surrounding the Academy. It quickly dashed towards the walls, picking up speed. As it neared, it suddenly leaped into the air. It was an amazing leap that seemed to defy human abilities. But it wasn’t enough. The shadow almost reached the top, but not quite. As it soared through the air towards the wall, it suddenly drew back its right arm and hit the stone wall, grabbing on with its claws.

The shadow stopped there. A black splotch on the gray stone walls. The shadow quickly climbed up the rest of the wall using its claws.

At the top, the shadow quickly climbed over and ducked down. Then it jumped down, entering a courtyard. As it landed, it got up and looked around. The courtyard was quite small. There was grass and plants scattered throughout. Stone benches seemed to be randomly placed. As the shadow walked through the courtyard, a quiet cough echoed though the empty courtyard. Well, not so empty anymore.

“I wasn’t aware that we were having a visitor, tonight. I’m afraid that visiting times are closed. You’ll have to leave school grounds now.” A man suddenly said from behind.

Cerien quickly turned. He didn’t think he would be caught so quickly.

The man smiled, coming closer. “It was quite impressive, climbing over the walls so easily. But I hope you realize that intruding into the Academy is not so easy. The second you climbed over, the school’s wards activated. You would have been electrocuted with a nasty shock if I hadn’t stopped it.”

Cerien thought that climbing the walls had been too easy. “Sorry for that. But I needed to enter the Academy. And the guards wouldn’t let me.”

The man turned his head. “Oh? And why is that?”

“I wanted to see if someone knew me here. You see, I have amnesia. I don’t know who I am. A few days ago, I woke up deep underground. When I came up, I found myself with some strangers who told me I was in Grimwoods. They recognized the insignia on my shirt and told me to come to the Combat Academy so that someone would recognize me.” Cerien explained as he opened up his cloak and pointed to the insignia on his tattered shirt.

“I see. Well, do you mind taking off that hood? I’ll probably be able to recognize you.”

Cerien nodded and removed his hood. His red eyes and jet-black hair were revealed in the moonlight. The man’s eyes widened and came in closer. He sighed.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could help you, but…there has never been a student in this school who looks remotely like you. Especially not with those red eyes.”

“I see. That…is a shame. Thank you for the help anyways. I’ll leave then. Sorry for the trouble.” Cerien began walking back towards the wall.

Before he could leave, the man said. “Wait. If you remember anything and need my help, just ask for Professor Monaco.”

Cerien turned. “Thank you. And my name is Cerien. It’s a name that I picked up from a stranger.”

Monaco nodded and waved him away.

Cerien then began running towards the wall and used [High Jump] to scale the wall once more.

* * *

Cerien returned to the inn. Loud yelling could be heard from outside. It seemed that nights for the inn were quite busy. When he entered, a familiar voice greeted him.

“Hey, Cerien! Where were you? I just told you to visit Kjorn! Not to go run away for the entire afternoon!” Slei asked, smiling at Cerien.

“Sorry, I just wanted to see if anyone recognized me. Oh and I visited the Academy. Turns out no student who looked like me ever went there.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Don’t worry. I’m sure if we keep on asking around, someone will recognize you.” Slei patted Cerien on the back. Cerien nodded.

“Here, come on. Kjorn and some friends of mine are waiting over there. Have you gotten some dinner yet?”

Cerien shook his head.

“Well, let’s get you some. I hope you like to drink.”

* * *

Monaco paced around in his room. The intruder he had met. Cerien. A boy with black hair and red eyes. Monaco had not lied when he said there had never been a student with the boy’s appearance. But something felt out of place. The boy’s story, first of all, was quite strange. Waking up deep underground? In Grimwoods? Was it a coincidence? It was quite similar to how Kuren disappeared. But Kuren had already come back.

Another thing. Even though Monaco was sure that he had never see Cerien before, something about him…felt familiar. Yet, the boy felt very peculiar too. It was an odd feeling. This feeling…was a paradox of some sort.

Monaco sighed. He pushed the matter out of his mind. He had more pressing issues at hand. The King himself was coming to Lombania tomorrow. The King was coming for to congratulate Kuren, Rai, and Monaco. However, Monaco knew his real purpose.

The elves and demons. They had burned down Stekon. The people of Lombania still had not heard about it. After all, Stekon and Lombania were separated by the Grimwoods. It had only been a few days since Stekon was attacked. It would take a little longer before people would begin to realize something had happened.

The King was coming to talk about Stekon. Monaco felt nervous. Neither the elves nor the demons have attacked us so brazenly in quite a while. It was a direct challenge to the humans themselves. Monaco could only hope that another war would not start.

He looked outside the window at the sky. When tomorrow came, it would only bring more worries.

* * *

Cerien walked up to his room. He had a long dinner with Slei and Kjorn. Some of their friends had come and joined their dinner. They asked many questions, but Cerien tried to avoid most of them. It was tiring, trying to keep up with their pace. He sighed as he opened up the door to his room.

He looked at his bed, and realized that a new set of clothes was folded on top of his bed. Slei must have went out and bought him that. Cerien reminded himself to thank Slei later. It was strange. The extent to which Slei was helping. Slei was such a selfless and kind person. Cerien felt…as if he could not be any more different than Slei.

The face of Senia popped up in his mind. He shook his head. He would rather forget about what had happened down there. His head hurt whenever he thought about Senia and the man who had tried to kill him. All of a sudden, Cerien realized something. He hadn’t thought about it before, but the man who had tried to avenge Senia used magic. But he hadn’t chanted at all. Kjorn’s words echoed in his head.

Chantless magic. And that meant raw magic. That meant that man wasn’t human. But…his appearance was completely human. Quite unlike the demon that Cerien had meet underground. Still, he had no idea that the man wasn’t human. A surprise, but Cerien didn’t really care about it right now.

He stripped down and put on his new clothes. Then he lay in bed and closed his eyes. The next time he met that man, Cerien would just have to run away. Anything that wasn’t human…was dangerous.

* * *

Savunt walked through the ruined city deep underground. He wasn’t sure how long had passed since he had killed that boy. He didn’t really care. The deed was done. Not that it made him feel any better.

He sighed. Humans. Demons. What difference did it make? In the end, all races were selfish and twisted. Savunt wanted nothing to do with them. Yet, in the end, they wanted everything to do with him.

He had carried Senia’s dead body and buried in the ground. He used a stone to mark her grave. But he hadn’t visited her grave ever since. It was depressing seeing the grave of such a young girl. Right now, he was following Garmr through the ruins of the Lagrim clan. Savunt didn’t know much about the Lagrim. They were a secretive bunch. All he knew was that the clan was an exiled group of Seekers. Unlike the normal Seekers, the Lagrim did not wish to record Stories. Rather, the Lagrim wished to seek ultimate power. They researched magic and perfected it, creating wonders. However, about a century ago, one of their experiments had gone terribly wrong. Something happened and the Lagrim clan disappeared, leaving behind nothing but their ruined city. Everything else, the notes that they had recorded, the spells they created, all of it had disappeared.

And now, Savunt was walking through this very city. Garmr was not far up ahead now. Savunt had to find out just what Garmr was planning. Why would he come to the ruins now? Especially when it was so close to the humans?

He didn’t know Garmr’s reasoning, but Savunt was going to find out. Was he going to stop Garmr? Maybe. The truth was, Savunt didn’t really care what the races did to each other. They could fight as much as they wanted to as long as they didn’t involve him. But when they killed innocent people, Savunt could not stand by.

If Garmr was planning to kill innocent people, Savunt would stop him.

Savunt stopped walking. In front of him was a large building in the middle of the city. It looked similar to a temple of some sort. As he walked up the steps, he felt a sense of dread and doom growing.

It grew stronger with each passing second. Savunt narrowed his eyes. Perhaps Garmr had already accomplished what he had sought out to do. Savunt stopped hesitating. He entered the temple. He needed to stop Garmr or else innocent lives might be lost.