Arthur woke up and, after getting changed, went downstairs for breakfast. His mother and Ellie were at the table; his father had already left early for work.
While they were eating, his mother glanced at him from the corner of her eye a couple of times until she finally spoke.
"How are you feeling?"
"Good," Arthur replied. "Adjusting."
She didn't seem entirely convinced. She held his gaze for a few more seconds and then asked, in a calm tone:
"You know you can tell me if there's something weighing on your mind, right? Even if you have different hair and eye colors now, you'll always be my son…"
Arthur looked at her and smiled.
"I really am fine. I'm just a little anxious about starting the academy."
She nodded, still a bit doubtful, but decided not to press the issue any further.
Ellie took advantage of the silence.
"I hope with that change in appearance you get a girlfriend at the academy," she said sarcastically. "That way you can move in with her, because I can't stand you."
"Not happening," Arthur replied. "We're going to live together forever, and I'm going to scare off every classmate you bring home."
"It was only once!" she protested. "Are you never going to let me forget it?"
"It's my mission as your older brother!"
From the kitchen, their mother watched the scene with a smile. A few seconds later, she asked:
"Do you want me to drive you to the academy?"
"No need. I'll take the train," Arthur said. "That way I can listen to music on the way."
After breakfast and saying goodbye, Arthur headed toward the station.
He went by skate. The asphalt slid beneath the board as he moved smoothly, black flat-soled sneakers planted firmly on the deck. Light blue pants, slightly loose, shifted with each push. An oversized black hoodie covered his torso, and he wore a wool beanie of the same color, from which strands of his blond hair escaped, parted in the middle and falling to the sides. White headphones isolated him from the noise, and a backpack swayed on his back as he kept moving.
When Arthur arrived at the station, he stared at his communicator while waiting for the train. As he waited, he couldn't help but notice that several people were watching him. Extending his perception slightly with his aether sense, he confirmed that many of those looks were coming from women.
It didn't take him long to understand why.
After what Gray had done, Arthur now had the appearance of someone high-ranked. His perfectly smooth, flawless skin had become his. That made his golden eyes stand out even more, and the contrast with his pale blond hair didn't exactly help him go unnoticed. Added to his height and a naturally straight posture, it wasn't strange that he drew more attention than usual.
Arthur looked back at his communicator while waiting for the train.
During the train ride, the stares didn't lessen; if anything, they increased, but he didn't pay them any attention. Moments like these weren't for romance. What mattered was making sure he came back from the Winter Solstice, and to do that he would need, first, luck, and second, allies. The only thing he hoped was not to end up in an unexplored area of the Dream Realm.
Fortunately, the trip continued quietly and Arthur arrived at the station where he had to get off. It wasn't very far from the academy, just a couple of minutes away. If he'd had to walk, maybe a bit longer, but since he came on his skate, he got there faster.
Once Arthur was standing in front of the academy gates, he realized just how massive it was. He had come here a few times before, accompanying his mother for work-related reasons, but now, standing in front of the gates, his perspective changed.
The academy was, in fact, a city within a city. It was built like a fortress, with a tall wall made of a resistant alloy, a deep moat, and numerous high-caliber turrets placed in specific positions to create a lethal aerial suppression dome.
Snow fell slowly to the ground. It was cold and silent in front of the academy gates, and Arthur was completely alone. Before arriving, he had notified his mother through his communicator that he was getting close, and she informed the academy. He didn't have to wait long before the gates finally began to open. The gigantic and absurdly thick reinforced metal plate descended slowly, forming a long bridge.
The end of the metal bridge locked into special grooves in the ground and stopped after a series of loud clicks. After that, Arthur crossed the bridge and began walking through the corridors until he found himself in a massive hall where around sixty or more sleepers were waiting for the introductory ceremony to begin. Some looked cheerful, even excited to be in this place, but others, and he'd say most of them, wore expressions of concern.
Arthur didn't know exactly why, but the moment he entered the hall, all eyes turned toward the door. Noticing this, he stopped abruptly, thinking there was someone important behind him. He turned his head and there was nothing. He looked forward again and now there were fewer stares, but all of the remaining ones were from women. There were even a couple of academy staff members staring at him.
Arthur felt a bit threatened, honestly. The looks they were giving him weren't exactly friendly; they were the looks of someone observing prey. After thinking about it for a bit, he came to the conclusion that it was probably his outfit. All the other sleepers were wearing the clothes provided by the academy, so him showing up in a more casual outfit likely drew attention.
Either way, Arthur switched to another one of his favorite songs and looked for a place to sit while waiting for the ceremony to start.
A few moments later, he found an empty bench and sat down. During the time he waited for the ceremony to begin, through his sense of aether, he could feel several times that someone tried to approach his bench, but they always stopped a few meters away and turned around. He didn't really understand it. He wasn't doing anything strange, just staring forward with his headphones still on.
Minutes later, the ceremony began. It was being presented by Awakened Rock, whom Arthur actually knew, though saying he knew him was a very loose way of putting it. He had only seen him two or three times, and those times had been during this same ceremony, so he didn't pay him much attention.
What Arthur did do was look over all the other sleepers at the ceremony to see if he recognized any faces, but his search came up empty. He didn't know anyone. There was only one sleeper he knew inside the academy, and that was Cassie, but he still couldn't go greet her: first because of the ceremony, and second because afterward he had to attend an interview.
The ceremony ended with Awakened Rock saying that those who hadn't yet been interviewed should head to the interview area, while the rest could go to the cafeteria to prepare for the day's classes. Arthur's case was the former, so he moved through the academy corridors until he reached a hallway with a line of about ten people. It was the interview line, so he got in and waited for his turn.
For the moment, Arthur kept listening to music and used that time to think about what he was going to answer. On one hand, he wanted to lie and say his aspect wasn't very strong so he'd be underestimated. Mainly because in the Dream World, it's not just nightmare creatures that can attack you; there's a good chance another human might as well. And if it happened to be someone from his same generation of sleepers and they saw him at the bottom of the rankings, they'd think they could kill him easily, which was the opposite of the truth.
On the other hand, Arthur also wanted to tell the truth, though not all of it, obviously, and try to rank high. That could help him gain more allies and generate some respect and, more importantly, fear. If there's a big difference in strength, someone might think twice before attacking you, or simply not do it at all. But he wasn't completely sure.
Before Arthur could reach a conclusion, it was already his turn. When he entered the room, there was a very friendly administrator, and the interview began quickly. First, they offered him psychological counseling, which he declined. Then came the questions about his aspect, such as:
"Would you mind telling me what type of Aspect ability you received? Combat, sorcery, utility?"
'In reality, it wasn't any of those, but oh well.'
"My aspect enhances my perception of the things around me."
Another important question was about rank.
"Would you mind telling me what rank your aspect is?"
'The truth was, yes, he would mind.'
"It's above Ascended rank."
As she wrote in her notebook, she added:
"Congratulations, that's a high rank."
Another thing Arthur wasn't sure whether to reveal was his True Name, but at the end of the day, doing so had more advantages than disadvantages. Besides, making sure he ranked first in the interviews didn't sound bad at all. Who else was going to have a True Name? There were very few cases of someone obtaining one in their first nightmare.
Finishing her notes, the interviewer said:
"Perfect, that's all for now, Arthur. Thank you very much for answering."
"Actually, there's something else I'd like to share," Arthur said.
She looked up.
"Yes, of course, go ahead."
"I also received a True Name in my first nightmare."
The poor woman's eyes widened so much that Arthur almost thought they were going to pop out.
"My True Name is Paragon of Purity," he continued.
Taking the glass of water on her desk, the woman glanced at a tablet functioning as a lie detector and, after confirming Arthur was telling the truth, wrote something down in her notebook and looked at him with a smile.
"Excellent. Congratulations, and thank you very much for sharing that information, Arthur. If there's nothing else, we can conclude the interview."
"No, that would be all," Arthur said as he stood up. "Thank you for your time."
And he left the room.
Arthur went straight to the cafeteria after the interview, intending to find Cassie there. Her parents had told him she wasn't attending any classes, so she should be spending most of her time between the cafeteria and her room. If it was the former, he'd find her quickly; if it was the latter, he'd have to wait until dinner.
Still, he kept walking through the corridors at an unhurried pace. In the end, during those two weeks, he was going to run into her anyway. When Arthur reached the cafeteria a few minutes later, he found a couple of sleepers who were… playing cards? Strange. Either way, his search came up empty because Cassie wasn't there. He grabbed some food that had been left over from lunch and ate that.
Once again, Arthur couldn't help but notice the stares coming from everywhere. It was completely unbearable, and that was with not that many people in the cafeteria. He didn't even want to imagine what it would be like when it was full.
Nothing happened while he ate, and even if something had, he wouldn't have heard it, because after failing to find his objective, he put his headphones back on and ignored the outside world. Once he finished eating, Arthur took his tray to the kitchen and went to his room to change.
Now the fun part began. In a few minutes, he was going to have his first class, and obviously, he chose Introduction to Combat.
His goal was to see more sleepers using their aspects to understand them and, hopefully, apply that knowledge to his own. He didn't know how lucky he'd be with that, but it was better than doing nothing.
From what he understood, the "easiest" way to obtain other attributes was through relics, which were found in certain places supposedly marked on his soul.
'For the moment, I didn't feel anything strange. Were they places in the Dream World only?'
When Arthur arrived at the class, it was already full and about to start. Awakened Rock was already giving instructions, but he stopped when Arthur entered. He was already aware of his situation, so everything was much simpler. Luckily, in this class everyone was busy with their own thing, and not many people noticed his arrival.
At the moment, the sleepers who had arrived today or who hadn't yet had class were taking turns delivering their strongest blows to a wide plate connected to a special measuring machine. After each strike, the machine displayed a number corresponding to the sleeper's physical strength.
Technique and prior training played a vital role in the number that appeared on the machine. Arthur knew the average was between ten and fourteen. Any value above that meant you were doing very well. Most of those who exceeded that range either had a lot of training and refined technique, or aspects that enhanced their physique.
When it was his turn, Arthur walked slowly toward the machine. On the way, he greeted the professor. He didn't know if Rock remembered him, but with his stoic face, devoid of expression, he gave Arthur a slight nod, and he chose to take that as a yes.
Arthur stood in front of the machine and, without much preparation, threw a sudden, decisive punch. To an untrained eye, it might have seemed like he didn't put much importance into it, but he was sure a trained eye noticed the efficiency and speed of the execution.
After a brief pause, the machine displayed the result: sixteen.
'Enough.'
As Arthur stepped away from the machine, he noticed the professor's gaze, obviously, and through his sense of aether he perceived a couple of other looks, but there were three that caught his attention the most.
The first was, surely, from a legacy. From his posture and all the people surrounding him, it was easy to assume. His green eyes practically burned into Arthur's back.
The second was a fairly tall girl, about his height. She stood with her arms crossed, leaning against a wall not far from the machine. Arthur felt how her gray eyes followed all his movements from before he struck the machine until that moment. Strangely enough, she also had gray hair, a rather unusual color, he'd say, but he didn't give it much thought.
The gaze that caught Arthur's attention the most, curiously, didn't belong to a person at all. It was a shadow hidden in a corner of the dojo. Honestly, he didn't know what was stranger: the fact that there was a shadow watching him, or that he had noticed it.
His theory was that shadows, since they also occupy space in reality, generate a slight pressure in the surrounding aether when they move, and that's why he could sense them. As for it watching him, he couldn't be sure, because a shadow doesn't have eyes… but if there's a loose shadow with no one casting it, that would be something worse, wouldn't it?
Driven by curiosity, Arthur shot the shadow a glance and a smile. Immediately, he noticed it move in panic and retreat to a place beyond the reach of his aether sense.
During his time in the first nightmare, and especially after it, Arthur learned that his sense of aether could be both a blessing and a curse. When he kept it expanded for too long and over a large distance, his head would start to hurt and it would force him to deactivate it. If he didn't expand it too much, nothing happened; he could maintain it at around five meters constantly without issues.
Thanks to that, Arthur understood that this ability wasn't as overpowered as it seemed and that it also came with disadvantages. If he kept it expanded and encountered a creature within that range, there was a high chance it would feel his gaze and attack him, even if it hadn't intended to.
For that reason, he had to be careful and only expand it in an area where, if something tried to attack him, he'd have enough time to react.
From the reaction of the group of legacies and the comments they made afterward, Arthur could deduce that the green-eyed legacy had obtained a higher score than his.
That legacy was named Caster, and from the way the others were sucking up to him with their comments, he also assumed Caster was the leader of that group, a group Arthur had no intention of joining.
Arthur stayed focused on his thoughts, trying to figure out how the hierarchy among sleepers worked, until the professor's voice pulled him out of them.
"Not bad. Now we'll move on to sparring and evaluate your overall level of training. I need two volunteers to begin."
The gray-haired, gray-eyed girl was the first to volunteer, but Professor Rock told her no, since she had already participated in these sparrings. Instead, he looked straight at Arthur. He let out a sigh and had to approach the circle, waiting for Rock to call another newcomer.
Arthur was lucky Rock didn't speak to him by giving him an order, because that would have been awkward with his Flaw. He didn't fully understand it yet, but he suspected that since Rock was a professor and his position within the academy was higher than his, if he ordered him to do something, his Flaw would activate, and he wasn't interested in finding out what would happen if that occurred.
After Arthur reached the circle, another new sleeper approached. He was about his height but much more muscular. If Arthur remembered correctly, he had scored 17 on the machine, but his technique was poor. With better technique, he would have achieved a much higher score. What Arthur could deduce was that his aspect enhanced his physical capabilities and that he hadn't had much prior training.
"The rules are simple. Make your opponent's back touch the ground or force them out of the ring. Use whatever abilities and techniques you consider appropriate," the professor added.
Before it began, Arthur thought about not using his aspect to put himself at a disadvantage and test how his new attribute [Former King] worked, but he quickly discarded the idea. The power it granted him wasn't exactly his, and he didn't want to rely on it. His intention was to become strong enough not to need to lean on an external power.
Taking his stance, the professor signaled the start of the fight.
The other sleeper attacked. Arthur saw his muscles tense beneath the dobok. His first attack was a straight punch to his face. Having anticipated it seconds earlier, his intention was to act out of time.
When the fist was about to hit him, Arthur shifted his center of gravity to his left leg, lowering himself slightly. The punch passed centimeters from his face, but he never closed his eyes. Taking advantage of having moved in a different timing, he drove his right fist into the lower part of the other sleeper's sternum. Combining his speed with Arthur's strength, the impact was far more powerful than normal.
Arthur didn't give him time to react. He was already pivoting to his left, and at the same time he raised that hand. After taking the blow to the sternum, the other sleeper's spine bent as he struggled to recover his breath. That left his neck at the perfect height to receive a strike that would undoubtedly have knocked him unconscious, but before Arthur could deliver it…
He felt a hand gripping his left wrist.
During the fight, Arthur had reduced his sense of aether to about two meters, and unconsciously, when the other sleeper got close to him, he suppressed it even further. That's why he didn't realize someone else had entered the ring. That person was, obviously, the professor.
Before Arthur could ask him why he had intervened, Rock released his wrist and said in a deep voice, putting weight into every word:
"Enough. If you don't know how to measure your strength, you're out of the class."
When Arthur looked at the other sleeper, he realized he was already unconscious, even without him having delivered the final blow. He was about to apologize, but those last words triggered his Flaw.
Arthur didn't quite understand what happened in his body, but it was as if he lost control for a few seconds, and that was enough for him to stare at Rock coldly and say:
"No, I don't think I will."
The moment those words left his mouth, Arthur realized he had screwed up. All the students in the dojo stared at him wide-eyed. Some wore expressions of fear, others of absolute shock at seeing a student speak to a professor like that.
Long seconds of uncomfortable silence passed, but finally Awakened Rock, keeping his gaze fixed on Arthur, let out an overly long sigh, turned around, and ordered a couple of students to take the unconscious sleeper to the infirmary.
After that, the class continued with other sparrings. Arthur went to a corner without anyone ordering him to do so and started practicing a fighting style he had learned recently. He obviously noticed the constant stares from the other sleepers, but he ignored them and focused on his own training.
Eventually, the class ended and the students began to leave. Intentionally, Arthur waited until everyone was gone and then walked toward the professor, who was also watching him.
When Arthur stopped in front of him, he straightened up and apologized.
"I wanted to apologize for my reaction during class, as well as my behavior during the sparring."
Rock studied him for a few seconds, as if verifying whether Arthur was telling the truth, and then replied:
"You have nothing to apologize for. All the academy's professors know that there are students with complicated Flaws, and we try to be as neutral as possible."
He took a few seconds and added:
"If that's all, you may leave or stay a bit longer in the dojo, but don't forget to turn everything off when you go."
Smiling, Arthur replied:
"Thank you very much. I'll be leaving. I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again in the future."
Rock nodded, turned around, and continued packing his things. Arthur took the opportunity to head back to his room. On the way, he couldn't help but hear people talking about what had happened in class. Some called him crazy, others disrespectful, but he didn't pay any attention to them.
When Arthur reached his room, he took a calm shower and lay down for a while to wait for dinner time. He watched videos on his communicator to kill time, and when the moment came, he headed to the cafeteria.
He had chosen white sneakers, loose black pants, and a white sweater with the design of one of his favorite bands. He put his headphones on to isolate himself from the rumors he knew would spread quickly, as well as from the unpleasant comments of certain groups of women.
When Arthur arrived at the cafeteria, he served himself a plate full of food and started looking for a table to sit at.
The place was clearly divided into groups. There was the legacy group, led by Caster; another group of sleepers who didn't seem related to each other at first glance; and finally, the area of those he assumed had the lowest chances of surviving in the Dream Realm, whom he mentally called the group of the living dead.
Looking at that last group, which wasn't really a group at all but rather isolated individuals, Arthur saw a boy devouring a plate even larger than his. He had black hair, deep dark circles as if he hadn't slept in weeks, and completely black eyes. His physique looked like that of a thirteen-year-old child.
At another table, farther away, was the gray-eyed girl from combat class. She had headphones on, just like him, and ignored everyone.
But going back to the first table, it wasn't just that boy. There was also someone Arthur knew very well. Blond hair falling down her back like a waterfall, a small physique not very different from the boy's, though surely for very different reasons. If she were facing him, he'd see a delicate face and a pair of blue eyes… blind.
It was Cassie.
After analyzing the situation, Arthur took off his headphones and let them hang around his neck. As soon as he did, he heard a commotion of voices coming from a screen showing something, but he ignored it completely.
As he approached the table, a pair of black eyes fixed on him. The boy's expression reflected something like fear and distrust. It struck Arthur as strange; he had never seen him before. Why would he be afraid of him?
Arthur set down his tray, sat in front of Cassie, and, gathering his courage, spoke:
"Hi, Cassie."