Hello there. It certainly has been a while. Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I've been sort of stuck in this creative block. But I managed to push through and I'm here now. So, here we go again.

Chapter 8

Students and Masters

The sun peaked through the window. I threw the sheets over my head in an effort to shield myself from it.

Or…that's what I tried to do. I wasn't in bed. I was standing in a forest, the sun slowly moving across the canopy. The only sound I could hear was the wind lightly pushing the branches above me.

I clad in some kind of scale armour, dyed a royal purple, with a golden chestplate and spiked pauldrons protecting my upper chest and shoulders. A thick leather belt wrapped around my waist, held by what seemed to be gold claws. Dark gauntlets covered my hands. Faded blue trousers covered my legs and my feet donned golden greaves, the same as the chestplate.

Where am I? I checked my armour. It was surprisingly comfortable, and extremely light. It almost felt nostalgic. No, this used to be something that I wore constantly.

I felt something hit my forehead. I wiped it off and looked at it. The crimson red was dry and thick. I blinked several times before I realised it was blood.

More began falling, and despite the trees above, it seemed to cover me. I couldn't move from my spot, my legs frozen. My hands were shaking as my brown hair and white skin was stained red. I could feel my breathing becoming harder as it began to fill my throat. The forest was being filled with a shallow pool of blood.

Someone else was approaching me from the forest. The shadow was stained with blood, but they didn't seem bothered by it.

Don't you remember?

A female voice echoed in my head. I knew it belonged to the shadow. She stepped forwards into the light so I could see her face.

This is where you killed me.

"Crystal!"

I panted as I sat up in bed, grabbing my head. My body was drenched in sweat and my heart was racing.

"What the hell was that for?" One of my roommates didn't seem pleased with the sudden outburst. I waved it off and lay back down on my pillow.

What was that? And who is Crystal? Did I…did I really kill her?

I shook my head. If there's one thing I'm sure I'm not capable of, it's killing someone. I sighed, pushing myself into a sitting position and grabbing my jacket. However, I kept going over the dream in my head as I headed down towards Lord Grant's room. It had felt so real. I could still taste the blood in my mouth. It must've happened.

God I hated how these memories came back to me. They never seemed to be in full context…and all they caused was pain. Even after a year, I still had no idea who Leon was, and I had another mystery added to the list.

"If you keep that look on your face for much longer, then you're going to age a few years."

The voice brought me back to reality. I looked up to see Kimiko standing in front of me. I sighed, shaking my head. "Sorry, I'm just thinking."

"Oh? Care to share?" Kimiko shifted the books in her grip. I wanted to, but based on how people seemed to respond with confusion to hearing things that violated the Taboo Index, I decided against it. I shook my head before moving on. I could feel her gaze on the back of my head, but I continued on. I wanted to focus on the day ahead of me.

But that girl…

I leapt towards Lord Grant, my sword in a high guard position before swinging it around in a perfect arc, aiming for his left leg. He brought his sword down to block before doing a wild upwards swing at my chest. I blocked it, sliding back because of the sheer strength behind his strike. I dug my foot into the ground and threw myself back at him, taking advantage of his exposed waist. He smiled as my sword stopped short of touching his tunic.

"Marvellous my boy!" His hearty laughter echoed from the walls of the training hall. I bowed and sheathed the training sword on my waist. "I glad that yesterday was just a one off." Lord Grant walked over to the pile of towels and wiped the sweat off his face before taking a swig from a flask. "I think you'll be ready."

"For the Four Empire Tournament?" I frowned in confusion. I wasn't going to be participating for a while.

"Yeah. If you can beat me, you can beat him." Lord Grant took another swig. "I never told you about Golgorosso, have I?"

"No." I set the training sword in the sword rack at the side before retrieving my blade.

"He's my cousin. A smug son of a bitch who always is boasting about how much great his Baltio Style is. You'll likely be facing him next year." Lord Grant sighed as he replaced the cap on his flask and pocketed it. "'I'll be the best knight in the world!' he always claims. 'I'll beat anyone who tries to defeat me!'. Pisses me right off."

"Have you never had a duel with him? Maybe that'll shut him up."

He laughed, but instead of his usual cheery laughter, it was cold. "Even if the proud git accepted it, I would lose. Then I would never be able to prove anything. But you my boy, you have the most amount of natural talent at swordsmanship I've ever seen. So much so, I believe your memory isn't gone. Not entirely."

"Maybe." I looked down at the Night Shadow Blade. He was right. Every time I picked up a sword, it felt like I was scratching at the surface of my memory, which is why everything came so naturally to me.

"Either way, it would look dumb for an Elite Disciple of the Sword Mastery Academy to challenge a Page of the Swordscraft Academy." Lord Grant drank from his flask once more and smiled. "I'll see you this evening my boy."

"Training isn't over sir." I yelled after him.

"We'll call it reduced time due to overperformance." He laughed as he closed the door behind him.

I shook my head and slipped the two swords into my belt. I headed down the hall and passed by an occupied training room. Usually, I would just walk past, when I saw a flash of a weapon out of the corner of my eye. It was pure white, three strikes before there was a stab in the middle. It shattered the opponent's blade. It obviously wasn't the full skill, but was powerful.

I looked through the window to see Kimiko bowing to her Elite Disciple, Lilith, before heading towards the towels. I decided to move on before being spotted. That skill Kimiko used was new. Damn, it might be a difficult fight when we clash.

"You know you're not supposed to spy on other's training."

I froze when I heard the smooth voice of Lilith behind me. I turned around and bowed. "Apologies, I wasn't spying. I only saw the flash of a skill in the corner of my eye and that drew my attention."

Over the course of the year, I had only interacted with Lilith a few times, most of them were in passing. The only conversation only happened because Kimiko had tripped me straight into her and I happened to land with my face between her breasts. Normally, I wouldn't complain, but with an Elite Disciple, that should've been suicide. Luckily, she understood it wasn't my fault.

Her big round eyes were silver like the moon, and had long black hair that reached halfway down her back. She had an emerald green uniform, and uniquely, a red scarf wrapped around her shoulders, and thigh high brown boots. At her side was a curved two-handed sword; a katana.

"Training isn't supposed to end for another ten minutes. I suppose you have a good reason for leaving early?"

"Elite Disciple Grant dismissed me early due to overperformance." I made sure to use his exact words.

Lilith sighed. "Sounds like him alright. Seems like you take after him well. I suggest not peaking in on a training session. Some Disciples enjoy punishing wrongdoers."

"Yes ma'am!" I turned on my heel again and walked in the opposite direction quickly before Kimiko realised what was happening, otherwise I'd never hear the end of it.

Despite the fact that I was walking away at a brisk pace, I soon felt a finger tap on my shoulder. I rolled my eyes and turned around, seeing Kimiko stood there. "Wow, I didn't expect to hear you getting told off and just dealing with it."

"I've been told to listen to people higher in status than me. Or is that actually not part of the Taboo Index?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Well, which skill did you see?"

"I didn't a full skill, just the end of one that flashed white." I admitted. "It was great from what I saw."

Kimiko nodded. "Well, as long as you didn't see the entire thing. That's the skill I'm going to take you down with." A cocky smirk appeared on her face.

"How do you know it's not going to be a repeat of last time?" I shot back.

"Because I know every trick you know and more." She walked past me, waving her hand in the air. "I'll see you at dinner."

I crossed my arms and shook my head. "She's confident at least."

The dining hall was filled again. The Swordcraft Academy had the highest population out of any of the schools, and that came with a lot of full seats at dinner. Usually, a lot of these students would be training or outside, but the weather had taken a turn for the worst. Everyone was cramped together, fighting for the best seats. Sometimes I wondered if everyone was better at fighting for seats than they were at fighting in a duel.

I scanned the area for some sort of seating to claim when Kimiko tapped me on the shoulder. "You look like a lost puppy looking around here." She smiled. "Elite Disciple Lilith invited us to eat in her dorm. Considering the lunacy of this lot, I'm glad."

"She's invited me too?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about getting food, she'll have some upstairs. Come on, there's no chance of getting a seat in here today." I still hadn't identified an empty space, so I followed her towards the door.

Soon though came that snarky voice. "Oh my, those two are sneaking off together."

I sighed. "Please let it be today that I can punch him in the face."

Diaz Loaf was a fourth ranked noble, and had a lot less respect for common folk than someone like Lord Grant. He was in the same year as me and Kimiko and was slightly taller than me. His hair was a bright scarlet colour, pushed upwards into a spiky hairstyle. His eyes were pale green, and his face always seemed to be fixed in a self-indulgent grin.

Diaz stopped in front of the two of us, blocking the door. "I hear fighting words, but I see nothing to back them up Light." He smirked at me. "I heard you woke up screaming this morning. Do you still have nightmares?"

Keep talking and I'll be feeding you your tray…

Kimiko was also looking rather peeved. But before either of us could say anything…

"Is there a problem here?" Lord Grant appeared. Diaz turned to insult him, but was immediately halted when he noticed the fire in Lord Grant's eyes. There was very few things that could make him that furious, and it was kind of an honour that he would always get angry if someone would start messing with me, despite insisting that I can handle it.

"No sir." Diaz quickly walked away.

"Thanks sir, but-"

"But you could handle it." Lord Grant and Kimiko finished my sentence. I scratched the back of my head, laughing under my breath. "Well, off you go you two. Don't want to be hanging around this crowd too long."

"Thanks Lord Grant!" Kimiko yelled behind her as she walked through the door that I was now holding open.

I saw Diaz glaring at me from the other side of the room. I mentally sighed before following Kimiko out.

I've been waiting to adapt the moment into the story. This was a major turning point in the original series for Light, which I'm very much looking forward to getting to when I get round to finally writing that.

Speaking of, I've decided something in the last few weeks. This will probably disappoint a lot of people, but when I get to the end of the Human Empire arc, or at least where that takes place, I'll be putting this story on hiatus so I can focus on No Land Beyond. But once I publish at least the ones that are relevant to this story, I'll come back. Partly because I won't be doing these flashback moments anymore, and partly because I want people to check out No Land Beyond and don't want them to be able to just come here and get the full story.

But, I will be publishing the first part of No Land Beyond here for you to read and see if you enjoy it. I hope you all will. It's been several years in the making and I've poured every writing lesson I've learned into it. So stay tuned.

And until next time, Stay Cool.