A white world with no ends. A limbo without redemption.
Noah looks down on his feet. Something he might be familiar with.
A dark abyss. Where reaching the bottom would mean death.
He stands near the abyss. One step off would be as much as signing his death certificate.
He looks around, nothing else but the endless lann awaits. White, plain white and nothing else could be seen.
A box, a white world where everything but Noah is white.
Everything else seems blurry. Similar to a foggy dream…
A Foggy Dream?
.
.
.
Eyes snap open. The cold sweat on Noah's neck continues to flow. It slightly soaked the bed sheet.
Noah looks around the room, feeling suspicious and paranoid that the void followed him to reality.
The dim sun light enters from the window. Washing away part of the horror.
Noah made sure the place he is was reality.
At least it felt like reality.
6:34 a.m.
(That hole… when…where have I seen it?)
His looks into the sink. The reflecting water seems to be making fun of him, showing Noah an ugly reflection of himself.
The twisted face vanished when Noah sunk his hand in the sink.
(The time…6:34…)
The registration starts at ten.
Waking up at dawn is probably the worst idea.
Stamina loss. Mental fatigue. Dealing with arrogant noble son's daily dose of bullying other people. The list goes on and on.
Side note, nobles in this country are mostly money loving, arrogant and always looking down on normal civilians.
Their sons are no different.
Also, it seems that citizens in this city don't wake up that early. So is Noah, he is well known for being a horrible sleeper. Often waking up at past noon if no one is there to wake him up.
This is a rare timing. Also the perfect time.
Well, this is the perfect time. For experiments, that is.
.
6:45a.m.
"Heh, hehe... how rare…"
Footsteps could be heard.
The alley way is surprisingly full of stuff. Multiple boxes, an abandoned mirror, a bucket and some wooden sticks.
Sitting on top of a wooden box, back in an alley way. A middle aged man sits there menacingly. Unlike adventurers, his looks reminds people of a wicked monster.
Evil, ugly, dangerous, crazy, the list goes on.
And he doesn't let that name down. He is a monster. The only crime he hasn't committed is kidnapping.
His name is Lasg Geamannan.
A shadow walked towards the alley way. Lasg had chosen his next victim.
One thing to suspect is that not many people would come here. Let alone during the early morning.
drip*
A small drop of globular protein and also made up of by the mixture of water, amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, hormones, vitamins, electrolytes, dissolved gasses, and cellular wastes.
Shortly speaking, a drop of blood.
A drop of blood dropped into the puddle of raindrops in a pit.
Like a raindrop, it makes a very cute and satisfying sound when it makes contact with the puddle.
Since the city is so empty and silent, the only things you can hear, is the sound of blood wasting away with the water, also, the heavy breathing of a middle aged man
The man's breathing is……. unstable, but anyone could tell what he is trying to tell. Through the small gaps between each breath, the answer is fear.
"Oi, oi. …If your voice gets any louder, you… won't be seeing the sun anytime soon."
The man is literally cowering in fear. He can't feel his legs, his voice rejected his eager to scream.
The man looked into the mirror in front of him. Lasg Geamannan. That's him. The reflection doesn't lie.
He looked at his legs. An iron saw blade splits both his knees in half. The other parts of his legs are thrown into the bucket.
He couldn't do anything. The blade just appeared there before he even noticed.
It just, appeared, from the inside. Interior damage first, then exterior.
He looked at the young man that is observing the puddle of water. The puddle of blood in front of him.
The young man had grey silver hair. His sank his left hand into the blood puddle, assuming it was purified magic, the puddle became crystal clear.
A flower appeared in his right hand.
"Yeah… that's about enough, you can die now."
"Wa-Wait! Please don't ki–"
The young man gently touched Lasg's bleeding leg. His other hand starts to create a golden ingot. Purity, 99.9%.
About 3 minutes later, the young man walked away with three golden bars in his bag. Leaving a dried middle aged man in the alley way, dead.
8:30a.m.
Gluck Yunle. This hyperactive child also grew up as a healthy young man. Aged 17 and also came to Hoburns to become a paladin.
He rented a room just yesterday. It was nearby the academy. Just in case he overslept, so he can get there with no time wasted.
But it seems all that worries are just worries.
The morning sun shines on his face the moment he walked out of the inn. The service in the inn was great, everything was great.
The registration section starts at 10:00 sharp. And already people who are too exited. About 10 people are already there waiting.
Just nearby the gate.
The academy is huge. It kinda looks like a castle but it's just the exterior design.
Just while Gluck is wondering why they wanted to wait for one and a half hours, something entered his rear field vision.
It was not clear as he could only see it barely. When he turned towards the direction, it's gone like a ghost.
Exactly, not a single human being was there.
A cold chill ran up his spine. Two, both in a different sense.
The first one, that feeling came from the mysterious sense of death crawling up from his back. An electric shock running through his body.
The other one, is just……an ice cold feeling up his back.
Gluck turned around. He wasn't expecting to see a human. And his institution is wrong.
The hand on his shoulder belongs to a human. Looking back to its owner, two faces that he recognized entered his line of sight.
To him, there is no one he could trust more than these two person.
Noah Baraja. And a girl he knew from his childhood, Saniel Gardener.
"Don't scare me like that, you two are jerks."
"Oi, calling a girl a jerk is considered an insult you know. Well, that explains why you got dumped by Selinna though."
Selinna is Gluck's ex-girlfriend. His latest one, and the third one, to be exact.
"That's…your problem… for being scared… way too easy,…stupid…"
The conversation ended with Noah insulting Gluck, which is already a rare thing to happen.
Gluck took a deep look at Saniel. She grew up, so much that Gluck couldn't recognize her immediately.
The blonde long hair that reaches the neck, the blue crystal eyes full of light and the flat chest that is similar to an anvil.
Gluck himself didn't change a lot. His face looked more mature that's for sure, but not much have changed about him for the past few years.
The three eventually took their time at the tavern, which is just the opposite side of the road.
They had some chat. Including the fact that Saniel and Noah moved from their hometown sometime ago.
Which explains why they didn't come here together.
Well, Noah and Saniel coincidentally met somewhere in the market area in the city, so the two decided to walk down the road to paladin together.
Then they met Gluck, who is literally daydreaming.
It's a happy little chat, it brings back the memories of the old. It didn't last long however.
9.50a.m.
The moment they walked out from the tavern, they witnessed 3 paladins in full gear, clearly being on guard.
It's normal when the guards are doing their job seriously. But this is just too much tension. The atmosphere feels like, when a serial killer is on the loose and anyone can be in danger situation.
"What's wrong? Why are they acting so… feared?"
Saniel pointed the obvious. Well, in a manner of fact, the guards seem to be checking on people's skin and teeth.
They also checked the freshmen that would be a student of the school later. And it would be their turn next.
"May I ask what happened?"
Gluck kinda asked a question that won't be answered, but the guards are kind enough to answer them anyways.
"We found a dead body somewhere in an alley, part of the victim's body is severed and sucked dry, the blood that is. We suspect a vampire hiding in this city."
"I see, thank you sir."
While saying so, Noah seems to understand what he had gotten himself into.
(Oh sh*t, I regret killing him. Well the gold was worth it but not this!)
They continued to do whatever they should be doing later on.