Cassie was staring at her empty plate, her expression one of complete defeat. Somehow, Arthur knew it wasn't because her plate was empty.
Sitting down and placing his tray on the table, Arthur gathered his courage and spoke.
"Hi, Cassie."
At the sound of his voice, she lifted her head. It took her a few seconds to respond, but eventually she said:
"Arthur? Is that you?"
"Yep, it's me."
A smile formed on both their faces, followed by a silence, one of those silences they had shared countless times in the past. Eventually, though, Cassie asked the question that must have been eating at her ever since her Nightmare ended.
"Where were you? Why did you take so long?"
Arthur brought a hand to the back of his neck in embarrassment. It wasn't a gesture Cassie could perceive, but it still helped him ease the discomfort.
"Well… where else, in the Nightmare. And as for why, I can't say it here. Too many curious ears in the cafeteria."
Using his aether sense, Arthur immediately noticed that almost everyone in the cafeteria was looking in his direction. At first, he didn't understand why, but then he noticed what was being shown on one of the screens. He assumed it was the interview results, but it wasn't a priority right now.
After saying that, Arthur glanced to the side and noticed that the other Sleeper sitting at the same table was also staring at him. Wanting to defuse the tension quickly, he added:
"Sorry, that last part wasn't directed at you."
Sunless stared at him for a moment longer without changing his expression, then finally said:
"No problem."
Arthur kept looking at him for a few seconds, studying him more closely, and noticed something that should have been obvious from the start. This Sleeper wasn't small because of genetics, his Flaw, or anything like that. His appearance was the result of long-term malnutrition.
With that in mind, Arthur connected him to something his father had told him on the way home, about Master Jet. This boy was the one she—
"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there a problem?"
Sunless's voice snapped Arthur out of his thoughts. He was right. He had been staring at him for too long. Before sitting down, Sunless had already been giving him an unfriendly look, and now Arthur was giving him a reason.
"No, no, sorry. I was just thinking about something. One question, if you don't mind. You're from the Outskirts, right?"
Sunless fell silent for a long moment. Then his expression began to change, as if he were in pain.
"Yes," he said simply.
Arthur put on a smile to ease the awkwardness.
"Ah, then you must be the Sleeper Master Jet supervised, right?"
At the mention of Master Jet's name, Sunless's eyebrows shot up.
"Yes. How do you know that?"
His tone was neutral, but it didn't escape Arthur that it sounded more like a threat than a question.
"Relax. Master Jet is a friend of my parents. Recently, they were talking about how she seemed happier than usual. They thought it was because she'd gotten a boyfriend or something, but when they asked, she said it was because she had supervised another Sleeper from the Outskirts like her."
Arthur made a casual gesture with his hand to ease the tension.
After that, Sunless remained silent for a few seconds, clearly thinking. It looked like he was about to say something else, but at that moment they both turned their heads in the same direction.
Sunless wore an expression of pure distrust. Arthur's was more along the lines of 'what is going on?'
From that direction, voices began to rise, almost shouting. Even Cassie turned her head in surprise at the reactions.
The noise was clearly coming from the screens. Arthur managed to catch a few fragments.
"…Two with True Names?"
"…In the same generation…"
"…Isn't that the one who talked back to the professor?"
'Another Sleeper with a True Name? Who could it be…'
Turning back to the table, Arthur cleared his throat, trying to continue the previous conversation.
"Well, it was nice meeti—"
He didn't get to finish. He felt someone approaching. When he turned around, a pair of green eyes met his.
Caster. The Legacy.
Arthur stared at him as he came closer.
"Arthur Leywin, I suppose? I am Caster from the Han Li clan. I see your trial went well."
'This bastard is only talking to me because I have a True Name.'
"It would seem so, right? What do you think?"
Caster smiled politely.
"Yes, I'd say so. My group of Legacies noticed that it might be interesting to share stories about our Nightmares, and we decided—" He paused for a moment, glancing at Cassie and Sunless. "—to extend an invitation. What do you say?"
Arthur answered immediately, his tone neutral.
"Thanks for the invitation, but I'd rather stay with my friends. We were discussing something important, so if you don't mind…"
Caster immediately understood the conversation was over.
"I see. In any case, the invitation stands. Have a good rest of your day."
He turned and walked back to his group of Legacies.
Returning his attention to the table, Arthur saw Sunless staring at him with one eyebrow raised, while Cassie looked completely lost.
"Uh… just ignore that. I don't know what that Legacy was trying to do, but it's not important."
Cassie spoke first.
"I heard something about another Sleeper with a True Name. Who is it?"
At her question, Sunless stood up, picked up his empty tray, and left. Apparently, he had kept eating while all of this happened.
Watching him go, Arthur couldn't help but think:
'That guy is strange. And it's obvious he didn't believe most of what I said. Still… that's mostly my fault for acting like this.'
Turning back to Cassie, Arthur said:
"Yeah. The other one is me."
She gasped.
"You have a True Name, Arthur?"
"Yep. But that's not important right now."
"And what is important, then?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You. I wanted to ask how you were doing."
She replied with a quiet, almost whispered, "Oh."
She lowered her head, and Arthur noticed her fists clench so tightly he thought she might hurt herself.
Seeing that, a pressure formed in his throat. He didn't like seeing her like this—so fragile. As if the slightest touch could break her.
Memories flooded back. Their first sparrings, when she always kept up with him. Her talent, which often surprised him. The countless times he thought her smile could light up the world.
And now… seeing her like this. Fragile. Weak.
And what hurt the most—knowing she had already accepted her death.
Arthur stood up from his side of the table and sat next to her. He wrapped his left arm around her left shoulder, pulling her gently toward him. Her head rested against his collarbone, and a few seconds later he felt small tremors run through her body.
You didn't need to be a genius to realize she was crying.
Seeing her like that destroyed him, but Arthur understood this wasn't the moment to interrupt her. She needed to let it out, whether through words or like this.
They stayed like that for a long time. The cafeteria slowly emptied, but neither of them wanted to move. Eventually, they were the only ones left.
Cassie's assigned assistant came to help take her back to her room, but Arthur gestured for her not to worry. He would take her himself.
They walked through the halls in silence. She held onto his arm, still having some trouble walking. When they reached her room, Arthur had to stop at the door. It was forbidden to enter rooms that weren't your own.
Before leaving, Arthur considered suggesting training, helping her learn to navigate better using her other senses. But seeing her state, he knew it wasn't the right time.
First, she needed to accept reality.
Then, she could train and overcome it.
After that, the walk back to his room was calm. Most Sleepers had already returned to their rooms, and the halls were nearly empty.
Before reaching his room, Arthur took a small detour to look at the interview result screens. He was curious about who the other Sleeper with a True Name was. His first theory was Caster, judging by how much the Legacies fawned over him.
He couldn't have been more wrong.
Caster was third.
In the first place, the portrait of a silver-haired girl could be clearly seen.
Name: Nephis
True Name: Changing Star
Name: Arthur Leywin
True Name: Paragon of Purity
Name: Caster Han Li clan
'Nephis… so that's her name. And she has a True Name too.'
Furrowing his brows, Arthur thought:
'I wonder how much she said during her interview. I claimed my Aspect was above Ascended rank and still placed second. What made the difference? The nature of our Aspects? Or did she claim a higher rank?'
Either way, Arthur knew he'd need to be careful around her from now on. Knowing a bit about rune linguistics, it was clear her name meant more than just the translation the Spell provided.
After that small detour, Arthur went back to his room to end the day and prepare for tomorrow. His first day at the academy had been interesting—but it lacked something.
He hadn't trained enough.
And he still hadn't uncovered his Aspect's full potential, something he needed to do before the Winter Solstice.
***
Arthur woke up quite early. He considered sleeping a bit more, but went against the impulse. He showered, and while getting ready for breakfast, he noticed something strange.
He wasn't hungry.
Thinking back, throughout the entire previous day he had only felt hunger in the morning. After that, nothing. He had eaten out of habit, not need.
In his first Nightmare, he hadn't eaten or drunk water at all. It had all been sustained by the aether he absorbed from the creatures he killed.
But here… he hadn't killed any.
'Wait—that's it!'
His innate ability literally says: "You are integrated with reality through aether."
How hadn't he realized sooner?
His attribute [Being of Aether and Flesh] made it even clearer.
'So if I'm integrated with the surrounding aether… does that mean as long as there's aether, I'm immortal? Not immortal exactly but when I consumed aether from creatures, my wounds healed. So if I cut myself now, would it heal instantly?'
Since he wasn't hungry, Arthur decided to stay in his room and meditate. There was still something that didn't fully make sense to him.
'If I'm integrated with reality through aether… could I strengthen my body with it?'
The idea was solid. Awakened circulated essence through their bodies—if he used the same method, he could circulate aether through the channels formed during his first Nightmare.
With the plan in mind, Arthur sat in the center of the bed, crossing his legs until he found a stable position. He straightened his back carefully, relaxed his shoulders, rested his hands on his knees, slightly lowered his chin, and closed his eyes.
He used a technique he had read about in a book, but instead of focusing on essence, he searched for the aether channels extending from his core like veins. He guided the aether entering through his pores toward the muscles and tendons he wanted to strengthen.
Progress was slow, until he activated [Realmheart].
Immediately, Arthur felt runes activating across his body. When he opened his eyes, he saw that they were purple. He also saw aether particles filling the environment.
The sight was breathtaking.
He could see the particles vibrating freely, some drawn toward his body. Then he felt another set of runes activate beneath his eyes.
With that, Arthur noticed something else: another type of particle. Not purple. Red, green, blue… and brown.
He didn't know what they were, but he noticed they interacted strangely with aether—not antagonistically, just independently.
Arthur continued meditating as his body grew stronger, fueled by ambient aether. At what felt like his current limit, he deactivated [Realmheart] and tried to maintain the state on his own.
At first, his body weakened quickly—but with repetition, he began to understand the process. Each cycle took less time to gather aether and more time to lose it.
He didn't know how long he stayed like that.
When Arthur finally opened his eyes and looked out the window, it was dark.
Checking his communicator, he realized he had been meditating for over sixteen hours.
'WHAT THE HELL?!'
He changed clothes to go to the cafeteria, at least to have dinner. Even though he wasn't hungry due to all the aether he had absorbed, he still needed to meet Cassie and talk to her about training.
He put on a light blue outfit paired with white shoes and headed out.
No matter how rushed he was, Arthur would never, ever run through the academy halls.
When he arrived at the cafeteria, he noticed there were fewer Sleepers than the previous day. That was normal—it was quite late. Fortunately, his objective was still there, sitting at the same table as yesterday.
The other boy, Sunless, wasn't present today, but the girl who had ranked first in the interviews—Nephis—was seated at one of the tables closest to Cassie's.
As Arthur walked toward Cassie's table, he wasn't sure if she felt his gaze or something else, but Nephis stopped looking at her food and her gray eyes met his. Neither of them looked away, but after a moment Arthur lost interest and shifted his attention back to Cassie.
She was sitting still, doing nothing. Her plate was already empty, and it looked like she was waiting for her assigned assistant to come pick her up.
Arthur made some noise by moving the chair before sitting down in front of her.
"Hi Cass, it's me again." he said.
"Art? You disappeared all day…"
Arthur let out a small snort, more surprised than anything.
"Huh? How did you know? You don't attend my classes."
She coughed lightly before speaking, lowering her voice a bit.
"Um… I asked the other boy who sits here if he had seen you."
Arthur let a second of silence pass.
"Mmm… are you sure? What, did you miss me already?" he said in a clearly sarcastic tone.
"NO!" she replied immediately, far too fast.
Arthur let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Ouch, you're breaking my heart, Cassie."
"Idiot," she muttered, turning her head slightly to the side.
Arthur let out a short laugh before continuing.
"Anyway, the reason I came here now, I wanted to propose something to you."
She looked at him again (or at least tried to) and with a mischievous smile said:
"No, Arthur, I'm not going out with you."
Arthur froze completely. He felt his mouth fall slightly open.
"WHAT?"
He quickly recovered, bringing a hand to his face as he let out a long sigh.
"What did they do to my innocent Cassie?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Arthur heard a muffled sound, like someone trying to hold back laughter. When he lowered his hand, he saw her covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking as small tears formed in her eyes.
He couldn't help but smile at the sight.
Yesterday, seeing her like this would have been unthinkable.
Her laughter, brief as it was, eased him more than he expected—but he knew what came next would break the moment.
Arthur adopted a more relaxed, almost playful tone.
"Alright, very funny, Cass. But seriously, I wanted to talk to you about something important."
She slowly composed herself, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand, then oriented her face toward him.
"You want to train me, don't you?"
"Yes," Arthur replied immediately. "Was it that obvious?"
"To someone who knows you? Yes. Very," she said without hesitation. Then, before he could add anything else, she continued, "I accept—but on one condition."
Arthur rested his elbows on the table.
"Let's hear it."
"That it's like the old days," she said firmly. "Don't treat me like I'm broken. Or like I'm something fragile that'll shatter if you touch it."
Arthur looked at her for a few seconds before nodding.
"Alright. Deal. How about after class?"
"Any time works for me."
A couple of seconds passed before Arthur realized something:
"Oh, right… you don't attend any classes."
"Why don't you attend Wilderness Survival?" he added.
She stayed silent for a moment.
"Um… I didn't know that class existed."
Arthur stared at her seriously, incredulous.
"Well, it does. And it could be really useful for you. I know the instructor, and he can teach you a lot about orienting yourself using your other senses. He can even teach you Braille."
"Well… if you say so, Art. I'll sign up tomorrow."
After a brief pause, she added:
"Can you walk me back to my room? I'm sleepy."
Arthur stood up and moved to her side.
"Yeah, of course. Let's go."
They walked to her room talking about more trivial things. Nothing important, but enough to make the atmosphere feel lighter.
At the door, they agreed that the next day Arthur would accompany her to her first Wilderness Survival class.
After that, Arthur returned to his room and went to bed.
Even though he hadn't done any physical activity, his head hurt from concentrating so much on circulating aether.
Tomorrow looked like it was going to be a good day.
***
Arthur woke up like on the previous days, but this time he learned from his mistakes and set an alarm so he wouldn't miss the time he had to help Cassie.
While waiting, he meditated, following the same procedure as yesterday, focusing on absorbing aether faster and retaining it for as long as possible.
Eventually, the alarm rang and Arthur went to Cassie's room. He still wasn't fully used to the looks people gave him, but they seemed to have calmed down a bit. Spending time with Cassie probably sparked a few rumors about some kind of relationship between them.
As long as they didn't think he was taking advantage of her, he couldn't care less.
When Arthur reached her room, he knocked on the door using a sequence only the two of them knew, so she'd know it was him. A few seconds later, the door opened.
Cassie was wearing the academy-issued outfit, but there was something new.
A blue blindfold.
"Hi, Cass," Arthur said.
With a smile, she replied, "Hi, Art."
Raising an eyebrow, Arthur said, "I see you added a new accessory. It suits you."
"Yes. I thought it was appropriate. Thanks," she replied.
"Why did you think that?"
With determination in her voice, she said:
"Because I didn't want to stay tied to who I was. The blindfold is my way of acknowledging the person I am now… and moving forward with her."
Arthur smiled.
"I think that's perfect. Come on, I'll take you to class."
The walk to her class was calm. They talked about rumors they had heard around the academy and other unimportant things. Eventually, they arrived at the Wilderness Survival classroom.
Arthur wasn't sure what to do, whether to walk her inside or leave her at the door—but the decision was made for him when he sensed a new presence behind them.
When he turned around, he saw Sunless.
It made sense that he would choose Wilderness Survival if he came from the Outskirts. Arthur let him pass first, then entered with Cassie.
Professor Julius, as always, was buried in his academic books, but when he heard the door open, he lit up like a lantern.
"Come in, Sunless!"
"Oh! It seems we have more students today!" he added.
Rubbing the back of his neck, Arthur said, "Good morning, Professor Julius. Actually, only my companion Cassie will be attending your class. I just walked her here."
Somehow, Julius's smile grew even wider.
"Oh, that's perfectly fine! Come along, young lady!"
Arthur gave a small bow and left the classroom after guiding Cassie to one of the seats. Just before he could fully leave, he heard:
"Ahh, young love."
Arthur's cheeks warmed immediately. Lowering his head to hide it, he hurried off to his own class.
This time, he arrived early. Seeing that there weren't many people yet, he sat in a corner and meditated for a while.
A few minutes later, Professor Awakened Rock entered the room. When he noticed Arthur sitting there, he approached.
Before Rock could speak, Arthur opened his eyes and waited.
"Sleeper Arthur, since you didn't attend yesterday's class, today you'll be the first in the sparrings, if you don't mind."
'If I don't mind? Academy professors really are quick at understanding their students.'
"That's fine," Arthur replied.
"Perfect," Rock said, returning to his desk as the rest of the students arrived.
It didn't take long for the classroom to fill up, as usual. After all, this was the course with the highest enrollment.
Standing up and walking toward the ring, Arthur exchanged a glance with the professor.
With a nod, Rock began to speak.