– 8 days till the expedition –
Leo spent his morning cleaning the dorms and trimming the surrounding grass.
He didn't enter the girls' room because it felt weird to him.
He just chose to eat bread alone for that period, he unfortunately did not know how to cook.
He spent the first half of the afternoon staring at the scenery.
And the second half till nightfall training aether control.
–
He planted one foot in front of him and attempted a punch at the air, with aether coursing through his arm.
At the end of his strike he didn't attain the desired result, he shook his head.
"I'm still yet to recreate the punch from that day." He looked at his right fist.
That day it felt different somehow…" The memory from his futile attempt at saving Marcus ran through his mind.
"What was different…
Though I was weaker, I felt like my constraints were less before I chose a path." He muttered.
After a bit of stretching he went back to his training, doing so till midnight.
When he arrived at the camp, he laid like a corpse on his bed.
{It's hard to sleep when I'm the only one in this place, that's why I push my body to the limits, so I get tired enough to fall asleep.}
–
– 7 days left –
{I'm just waking up and I already feel like this will be the longest week of my life.
Time has a way of messing with a person when they're time conscious.}
Leo spent this morning the same way he spent the last, after washing up he cleaned the other dorms as well as his own.
Are some bread, then spent a little bit more half of his afternoon staring at the scenery.
For the rest of the day he trained till he broke, with recreating that punch as his main goal.
Then slept like an oaf.
–
– 6 days left –
{I'm alone, yet this is not the loneliest I've felt, that would be when I stood in a line with over six thousand people with no one to turn to.
But this time I was more of alone than lonely, yet the former did not stop the latter from becoming less dormant, even lesser as the days go by.}
Leo spent this morning the exact same way he did with the rest, though he cleaned a bit less thoroughly, and ate an extra loaf.
He spent three quarters of his afternoon staring at the scenery then went on with his training.
By early midnight he laid on his bed, after a little rolling and turning, he had slept off.
– 5 days left –
His eyes opened abruptly, he had slept a bit deep into the morning, yet he looked like he lacked rest.
His morning routine remained mostly the same.
Nearly his entire afternoon was spent on scenery watching, he was enamoured by it.
He trained till deep into the night and slept on the grass that night.
–
– 4 days left –
He slept till nearly noon, as he woke he stood up and walked to his abode.
Without a sense of urgency he dragged his feet.
"I can't do this anymore…
I'm really damn tired." His thoughts as he kept on dragging on.
–
He washed up, did his usual routine but with a little bit of haste, after being done he put on his clothes.
Once he left the building, he took the path on the right towards the gate.
"I'm fed up with this, I'll just take a little stroll outside the gate.
It should be fine right"
–
Now standing before the gate that was locked with the key lock, with the wood laying dormant on the ground.
"They gave each of us one of these" Leo took a key from his pocket and slotted it in, after a bit of fiddling it was open.
He took a look outside.
"What in the…" He was in amazement from what he saw.
As he opened the gate an exotic carriage stopped at the front of it, it had four horses and the man who controlled them was dressed elegantly.
The body of the carriage screamed luxurious, with a very black coating and a body lined in gold.
A person dropped from it with a large external frame backpack on his back.
"My lord, will you be alright?" The man seated at the front asked uneasily.
"Was there ever a time were I haven't been alright?
Today won't change that Jeffrey.
You can be on your way now, that's an order." The boy said to the man.
The man used a handkerchief to clean the sweat of his face.
"As you command my lord." The man had no choice but to agree.
Leo looked at the face for a long time, he could hardly believe his eyes.
It was Caesar, Leo couldn't hide the joy on his face.
–
He and Caesar walked together along the path to the camp, with Leo helping him with his bag.
"So let me get this straight…
You decided to come back early because you were bored of the palace." Leo asked.
"A little bit off, but that's basically it." Caesar responded.
"Seriously I also thought I was going to die of boredom.
This bag is pretty heavy, what's in it" Leo looked at the bag he was assisting Caesar to carry.
"Change of clothes." Caesar replied.
They were already on the verge of reaching the camp.
"I'll need to go buy some clothes one of these days." Leo said as he set his eyes upon their room.
"You'll have to postpone that for a while." Caesar smirked.
"What do you mean by that…
–
…Woaaahhh" Leo's jaw dropped, he looked at Caesar and looked at the bag multiple times.
"I figured I had a lot of clothes laying around, so why not bring some for you as well
We're of similar builds so it wouldn't be a that hard." Caesar stated, his words are as genuine as they could get.
"How am I even going to thank you for this." Leo looked looked at Caesar with a grateful look.
"You really don't have t-" Caesar
He stood up and bowed to Caesar.
"Thank you so much." His tone was very light, but his voice was coarse.
Caesar sighed then sat on his bed, then asked;
"Why don't you try them on".
Leo checked the outfits, each fitted him as if they were perfectly tailored for him.
"This…did he go out of his way to get these tailored, this isn't just 'what would fit you would fit me'.
It'll be better if I don't ask" He kept testing each out, but of the clothes he wore, one resonated with him the most.
A black jacket and black trousers, with a grey inner shirt.
{After this day, I'm sharing to think.
This week might not be so bad after all.}
That day Leo didn't gaze upon the sunset, he and Caesar just talked a lot, then they trained for a bit.
He slept easily that night, and woke up early the next day.
– 3 days left –
Leo woke up to see Caesar already awake cleaning, they split the work between them and were done pretty soon.
{In the afternoon, Caesar would ask me some questions, mostly about aether and jot down what I said on his book.
I think he might be making a journal of his own.
Another person returned early that day; it was Zefroth, Caesar looked very happy at her arrival.
I think something might be going on with them, but that's out of the question since Caesar has a betrothed.
I trained for a bit while they both cooked actual food, I had no problem with bread, but I'm not complaining either way.
While training I found that my zone had increased by nearly a metre, and my zone is like a circle, with me at its center.
With that I could shoot the ball of fire farther, but even if I later end up making multiple it's going to be a pain to throw one after the other.
I'll need to find a work around for this.}
– 2 days left –
{The morning was easier than the previous ones, I just left the work for the other two.
I read a bit of Caesar's journal and it's actually really solid, he documented similar events to Luka's but with explanations for things we found out ourselves.
Like aura and the zone I recently found out about, those with halos have a zone of about a quarter of a metre.
From what we theorised, it's not that they can't use aether, they are limited in he amount they can work it hence that is why Karius could after teaching him proper efficiency.
The afternoon was easier on me, and by evening both wagons passed the gate, with Ricia and Ren controlling each.
Everyone was back, everyone but Heimer and the Luka.}
The environment in the camp became lively, especially with people like the twins, Herra and Clarence's presence.
Now all they needed to do was wait for the fated day.