Author's Note: This fanfic has STRONG ADULT CONTENT, which goes from explicit language to extreme violence, not to mention other subjects that will appear in the next chapters. If you're not comfortable within any of there, and even so you insist to read, don't bring complainings to me later. xx
This fic was originally written in Portuguese, and I'll publish this version as soon as soon as I find a brazilian beta-reader. Yay D
Also, 10 meters equals to 32, 33 feet. Just a quick note xD
Prólogo
A monk frozen in time
A bell rang, making a few birds standing in the tower fly away in fear. The sound went through the whole city, reaching out for people's attention. Another common morning in Prontera.
Inch by inch, the Cathedral went on waking up the capital, always through the same noise. In its interior, priests went passing by through the corridors, knocking on the doors.
"Time to wake up! Everybody stand up at once!" they shouted, attracting the students' attention.
Gradually, in different floors, many students began standing up. Boys, girls, children, adults. Acolytes, priests and monks. Another school day was beginning, another training day for some. More prayers, more studying, nothing out of that old routine.
However, in a certain room in the fifth floor of the church, one of the boys didn't get up. He just kept on tossing and turning, facing the ceiling. He rubbed his hands on his face, exhausted, while watching his roommates taking their clothes from their drawers and leaving in orderly lines to the common bathroom.
Nobody really cared about the lazy boy; they carried on with their own business, while he stretched up slowly. After a few minutes, he jumped off the bed, kneeling on the floor and beginning a prayer.
When everyone was already finishing their showers, he took off his own clothing, throwing it over the bed. He took a clean towel near the drawer, along with his uniform. He brushed his teeth, took a quick shower and dried himself up, stopping for a while in front of the mirror.
He spent some time scanning each part of his body. Although he was a little careless, he was always well-presented. His body was not much different from anyone of his age: only a few scars on his chest, well defined from uncountable hours of expensive training. The only thing to worry about was a scratch near the left elbow, which he got in a fight a couple of days ago.
He ruffled his brown hair with the towel, drying it as much as he could. His hand was aching a little, probably thanks to a hard punch he threw at someone, nothing to lose sleep thinking about. His eyes were a deep green hue, and the skin around them was red from tiredness. Actually, he didn't seem to be nineteen years old; his careless way of holding himself and his demeanor gave him the air of being around sixteen. He was pretty good-looking, as much as he would deny it.
He went back to his bedside. He dressed in the monk uniform, giving a big grin while tying the black belt in his waist. His biggest pride in life was to wear that cloth. In the end, he still finished before everyone who had woken up earlier. He threw the dirty pajamas in the laundry and stretched up again, gazing at the sky through the window above his bed. The sun was rising unbidden; it was far too early.
In the end, he took his backpack from under the bed. He checked the books within it, opened the drawer, took two more ("Support Skills – Everything You Ever Wished to Know About" and "Basics of Ballistic") and, after another short prayer, he left the room.
Every morning this cycle repeated. From there, he would head to his classroom, where he would put his backpack in a locker. Then, he would go to the first floor, where he would have breakfast along with the others and watch the mass. After that, he would help in anything his supervisor would tell him until eleven-thirty, when he would go upstairs to attend to classes. He would stop to lunch two hours later, and would keep on watching classes until five o'clock, when he would watch the last mass, have dinner, take a shower, read a book and go to sleep.
That was Xavier Light's routine. He did it everyday, since he turned into a monk three years ago. And in all those years, nothing new happened at all, and he didn't expect anything to change. The only distinct thing he really noticed was what he ate at lunch, which books he read, what time he went to bed. And that's all.
However, as it had to happen someday, his destiny started to change…
