The world was full of silence, only a faint ringing in my ears screamed at me. A blackened void filled the landscape that made my mind—I was only reassured of the fact that I still lived by the dull ache from each expansion of my chest, the soreness left my entire body feeling like there was an ever-present itch.

  But far more prevalent than that itch were the sounds that I could faintly hear: It was footsteps, thousands of them, tens of thousands even. The clanging of armor, the beating of shields, the cries of men and the howls of hunting dogs. It was a hellish cacophony that scraped its way into my ears, growing louder and louder.

  My heart pounded, I felt the feet of my memories running, slamming heel first into the muddy ground. My chest ached, every breath was half of what I needed. My eyes were blinded, thick walls of tears reflecting hostile torchlight around in my irises.

  “Catch her!” A horrible voice screamed with the metallic echo of his plate helm ringing my ears.

  The grinding of metal, the crashing of fallen leaves, torn branches, burning bushes—They all ran after me, they were all ceaseless hounds out for the hunt. I was their prey, I could do nothing but run.

  Just like every other time I’d had it, the nightmare dug its way into my mind, it became real. I slid to a stop at the edge of a cliff, so deep, so grand that I couldn’t see the bottom. But I could hear the rushing of water, the torrents tearing their way through the earth itself.

  I turned around, taking in the guards with tear filled eyes. Terror, dread, contempt, so many emotions filled my body… but I couldn’t do anything to act upon them. I could only back up a step when a guard approached, I could almost see the smirk on her face even through the steel mask.

  Another step back, and crack reached my ears. It was only for an instant, a heartbeat of weightlessness before my body jolted.

  I launched upright in an unfamiliar bed, a deep gasp surging freezing air into my lungs. My heart pounded with sweat beading across my brow, my head turned around frantically for a few moments—Confusion racing into my mind.

  “W-Where am I…” I asked breathlessly. I wasn’t in any room I recognized; pale white sheets covered my lower body while well kept tan walls set surrounding me. There was a nightstand beside the bed and nothing more than a curtain at the foot of the bed to block off the rest of the room. Thin blue robes sat loosely laying across the rest of my frame, barely covering me enough to be considered decent.

  “About time you woke up, sleepyhead.” I snapped my head to the side as soon as I heard the familiar voice—Carmine sat at the side of my bed, a hand raised up before she chopped it down on top of my head with a dull thump.

  “Oww!” I cried out, quickly raising my hands to cover my head before she could whack me again. “What was that for?!—And where are we?...”

  “It was for getting yourself hurt,” Carmine said sternly, but her stern words could only go so far when compared to her concerned eyes. “And you’re in the medical ward of SilverSky. Before you ask: Don’t worry, the others are all safe.”

  “We… We made it out?” I asked almost disbelievingly. “How did we survive?... that couldn’t have been all the Ghouls in that village…” I thought while awaiting Carmine’s answer.

  “Thanks to Tulip finding Sanders, yes. He was able to exfiltrate from the major horde of Ghouls and gather you all before retreating,” Carmine answered with a low tone, she left silence hanging in the air for several moments but continued before I could ask for more details. “A large deployment was quickly sent to purge the Ghouls, and begin a hunt for the Unspeakable that caused this.”

  My half opened mouth closed tightly shut—I was only really able to offer a shaking nod to answer Carmine as I looked at my hands. The shocked, scornful faces of the two older Ghouls… how they tried to run away from me, how they hated me after I killed the younger one, it was burnt into my mind.

  “I killed them…” I knew they were dead already, they had to be. They were rotting, yet they were hateful after I killed the ‘young’ Ghoul. “Did I kill them? Could they have been saved?…” I looked past my clenched fists, only now properly taking in the fact that most of my body didn’t actually hurt that much. “They must have healed me with magic…”

  “What's wrong?” Carmine’s words made me jump, a cold sweat quick to break out across my body.

  “I…” I paused before I could get out any words, squinting at my tightened fist before turning my gaze to Carmine intently. “Can… Can Ghouls be cured? I’ve never even heard about them before…”

  Carmine didn’t reply immediately, instead she leaned back in her wooden chair with a deep inhale—It left silence to ring in the air of the room, a continual dull tone that I couldn’t escape.

  “Kirin, Ghouls retain memories from their lives. But there’s no way to cure death,” She stated after several moments of well-thought silence. She extended a hand out, pushing my hand to the side, she began ruffling my hair again—Much to my own discontent. “You did them a mercy by putting them down, so just try to think about that fact. Dead or alive though, it’s never easy to kill something.” Carmine ended with a soft exhale and a reassuring smile that quickly turned stern.

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  “And, I hear you broke your blade?—” Carmine asked with a threatening cutoff to her words.

  “U-Uhm… y-yes?...” I stuttered out as I met her gaze, quickly feeling the panic raising in my body again.. “But it was after I killed multiple Ghouls with it!” I quickly added, fear clear in my tone—Carmine however just smirked, laughing a bit as her smile widened even further.

  “That’s impressive, honestly,” Carmine said with a grin firmly planted on her face. “Most of the time a blade outlives the soldier, not the other way around. I’ll get you another one in no time, don’t worry.” Carmine returned to her overtly jovial tone as she continued.

  “I… actually want to try another weapon,” I met Carmine’s gaze—Fully expecting the questioning look on her face. Before she could ask a question I elaborated further, justifying my reasoning. “I got hurt so much because I wasn’t stronger than the Ghouls physically. And I couldn’t keep them back far enough with the scimitar, I just wasn’t fast enough.”

  “So… realizing that when I was fighting the last two, and having seen Lucia do something similar with her ice—I tried making a weapon with my electricity,” I took in Carmine’s gaze for a few moments, noting how her eyes widened at my mention of making a weapon of magic. “When I made a weapon the first thing that came to mind was one of those halberds… but I don’t know if I’m even strong enough to actually swing one of those around.” I sighed out, deflating quite a bit as I looked back down to the bed sheets.

  I felt Carmine’s penetrating gaze burrowing into me, the sound of her shifting in her seat as she leaned forwards into a posture of thought. I only turned to look over in bewilderment when I felt Carmine’s hands running along the back of my shoulders.

  “Hey wha?!—” I let out a surprised yelp at being touched—Feeling very quickly that my back was rather barren of clothing, albeit my front was still covered by the thin medical gowns. Yet, despite my protesting Carmine continued to move her hands along my back, leaving an intense heat to rush to my face. My only solace was that I could very tightly grip the sheets over my legs.

  “You certainly have the muscle structure for a heavier weapon,” Carmine spoke after a few moments of feeling my back and shoulders. “Likely thanks to swinging that pickaxe around for so long, frankly if you developed your muscles in a practical way you wouldn’t have an issue with it.” Carmine nodded as she sat back, crossing her arms she spoke her approval. “I can change to training you on a polearm, Kirin. If it’s what you want to learn, I do want you to win that battle at the end of the year after all.”

  “That easily?” I was stunned for a moment that Carmine was so willing to change how she was teaching me.

  “That easily. No point in training you with something you don’t think you’ll use,” Carmine shrugged, pushing on her legs to stand up. “You should head back to your dorm soon, I know Tulip is worried about you after you’ve been asleep for two days.”

  “I’ve been out for two days?!” I exclaimed, quickly trying to bring myself to my feet.

  “Woah—Slow down Kirin,” Carmine insisted, placing her hands on my shoulders to steady me. “You drained almost your entire body of mana, it’s expected to have a short term coma from something like that. Just lay down and rest for a bit, alright?” Carmine further insisted with a firm nod.

  “Rest for an hour or two longer to get some actual sleep, then head back when you feel better.” She added as she stepped back with a firm stare.

  “I… didn’t you just?...” I stopped myself when Carmine’s gaze became even firmer. “Fine…” I relented rather quickly.

  “Good, your training continues tomorrow, so rest well.” Carmine raised a hand to wave behind her as she walked through the curtains, leaving me alone in the silence that ensued.

  “Two days?…” I thought again as I slowly let myself rest backwards. The thought of being stagnant for even just two days bothered me a lot, it bothered me even more knowing that I had to rest even more now. “At least I can get back to work tomorrow then…”

  —

  “She must have killed a dozen or more Ghouls on her own.” Lucia found herself recounting the story from a few days ago for what must have been the hundredth time in the days since they returned.

  “How did a commoner do that?” Lucia heard a voice ask, it was from a student she didn’t recognize—So she answered it the same way she had for most other people.

  “I honestly don’t know… maybe she’s just gifted with magic?” It pained Lucia to say it, but Kirin may very well be gifted far beyond anything Lucia could reach. “To think I respect the Vulender of all people…” Lucia mentally sighed before wincing when she heard a voice she did recognize.

  “Why do you blatantly lie about what happened?” Kendrick spoke with a chastising voice as he approached. His arms as thick around as Lucia’s legs crossed over one another, a heavy browed glare furrowing his face.

  “Kendrick, you weren’t even there. You’ve heard the same story from Tulip and Sanders, so why do you not believe it?” Lucia responded with a hiss in her voice. She felt Glacia shift a little on top of her head, bringing the surrounding students between her and Kendrick to back away.

  “Because I know a lie when I hear it, there is no plausible way a giftless nobody, a lowborn of the lowest degree, born of a criminal of the upmost degree could do anything astounding by anything short of dumb luck,” Kendrick replied with a sneer to his voice, pausing only long enough to take a threatening step forwards. “Unless, you’ve grown soft? Have you somehow forgotten the only reason you’re even in this school, Lucia.” Kendrick was careful with his words, the way they rolled off of his tongue stung Lucia deeply—But she couldn’t bite back, luckily she didn’t need to either. The bell rang out, calling the students to their next classes.

  “See you around, lowborn.” Kendrick spat out one last remark as he turned to walk away. Despite the ice that ran through her mana, she felt her blood boil from his words.

  “Asshole…” She spat out, turning to walk in a different direction.

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